Rhubarb & Vanilla Yogurt Scones with Rhubarb Curd

It's a rhubarb frenzy around our house while the prices are still low and so far I've made jam, pie, shrub, and tea bread. I thought, why not make some scones and curd too! I'm pretty happy with the base scone recipe I've been using for other versions like the Meyer Lemon Curd and Whole Grain Blueberry - this is just a slight adaptation to use vanilla sheep milk yogurt and added rhubarb pieces.

For the curd, I used my Meyer Lemon Curd recipe as a base but pumped up the amount of juice to up the rhubarb flavor. I also added more sugar since I was looking for a sweeter curd rather than a tarter version. For the rhubarb juice, I opted to boil down about 5 stalks of rhubarb since my research on the interwebs informed this would probably give me a sweeter and less tart version than simply running the stalks through my juicer. 

Speaking of rhubarb, while I was searching for more ideas on what to make with rhubarb I came across this nerdy Star Trek recipe for Aaktay, or Klingon Steamed Bread. So I'll have to try adapting it to be gluten free sometime while rhubarb is still in season. Anyone have a suggestion on what I could substitute for "all-bran cereal"? I was thinking brown rice flakes perhaps. 

Alright that's enough nerdy recipe talk, on to the scones and curd!

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Things You Should Do in Washington: Hike To Lake Serene

One of the reasons I was so keen on the move to Washington State was living in close proximity to the mountains and especially the snow. So it's a little sad that over the course of this past winter my first visit to the snow came just a little over a week ago in May. Our mountains were all quite snowy still, so I spent a while looking at trip reports on Washington Trails Association for hikes that would at least be considered passable without any special equipment. Last time this year we attempted a hike up Kachess Ridge and ended up turning around due to loosing the trail in all the snow. It sounded like the Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls hike would be an okay choice, although it was noted that there was some snow on the trail - we figured we'd just enjoy as much of the hike as we could.

Overall, I put this hike in my totally worth it basket - in spite of the amount of stairs (those are my hiking kryptonite). If you include the out and back to the falls, the hike clocks in at around 9 miles round trip with about 2,000 feet of elevation gain. However since there are two gorgeous water features to see along the way, the climb is totally worth it.

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Scenes from U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas

I've been craving a tropical getaway recently - so that's had me thinking back to trips I took more than a decade ago to warmer destinations like the U.S. Virgin Islands. Just like the photos I shared from Greece, these were taken with a standard SLR film camera (which I'm realizing just how much I loved after looking back at more of these images). I only spent a few hours on St. Thomas and my strongest takeaway was the memories of the vibrant colored flora found around every corner.

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Split Pea Soup with Bacon

This past winter I really haven't been into soup but now that we're deep in spring, all I seem to want is comforting soups. We've had two different soups on repeat in our food rotation; a dairy free tomato bisque and split pea soup. Up until recently, my attempts at split pea always turned out rather bland - but I've finally worked away at the recipe to get what I want. My theory is that I was missing a very key ingredient: bacon. And not just added bacon to the final soup, but cooking it in the same pot that you're soup will spend two hours simmering away in.

For a vegan version of this soup, you could easily skip the bacon all together and just cook the vegetables in 2 tablespoons of your favorite cooking oil. Adding some slices of cooked shiitake mushrooms would help pump up the flavor in somewhat similar way to the bacon.

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Walking Northwest Seattle

Have you noticed that Monday's travel posts have become a bit scarce around here lately? Well, about a month ago I took a step towards crossing off an item on my life list and signed up for Matador U's travel writing course. This means I'm edging the throttle back on my travel posts here so I can focus on learning more about travel writing. I'll still be sharing wanderlust inspiring photos on Fridays, other travel related posts will just become a bit more infrequent but hopefully the writing will be of a higher quality. 

I'd like to share my first assignment with you - a short piece about walking in my adopted hometown of Seattle.

Of all the places I’ve lived, I’ve never explored any of them by foot the way I have in my adopted hometown of Seattle, Washington. Perhaps it’s something about the unique personality of the Ballard and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods or perhaps it has more to due with the lack of West-East/East-West public transit. Over the course of a typical weekend, I find myself taking a number of walks to explore the neighborhood along with my husband and our pup. 

The weekend starts on Friday night, with a walk up the cherry blossom lined hill to Phinney Ridge. Along the way we pass mini neighborhoods that house small businesses ranging from the Barking Dog, often open late into the night for local customers to walk in to Makeda Coffee, where the laid back baristas makes a killer hemp milk latte. Other local curiosities include a giving tree, Little Free Libraries, and friendly folks saying hi to our dog. On the ridge, with a bit of light still in the sky, we see the outline of the Cascade Mountain Range – including one mountain that always reminds me of a brain.

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