Cookbook Wednesdays and it's all about Washington (state)

It's Cookbook Wednesday!

And this is  #79 for me!

As  I said the last time I posted a cookbook for the countdown,  

this isn't even making a dent in my collection.

And it's #79!

This will keep me busy until I die. (posting from each cookbook)

I'm so glad I have a purpose in life!  A goal!  I can never give up!

Check them all out here!

Then swing on over to Marjie  host of Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet to see other Cookbook enthusiasts. 

She's hosting for now, while Louise is on a break. (Hey Louise!)

This week's cookbook--- #79 ---  I ordered on-line last year.

I grew up in Washington State -- it ties for my 2nd favorite state--with Oregon.

But that is actually too much information, I know (like you care what my favorites states are?)

Anyway, I wanted something to show the Pacific Northwest  Regional Cooking.

Regional cooking is funny, because when you live in a region,  you see nothing special about it.  It's just what you cook.

This is what Goodreads says about this cookbook:

Cookbook lovers will discover Washington like they've never tasted it before with the latest edition in the EAT & EXPLORE STATE COOKBOOK SERIES. Eat & Explore Washington is much more than your average cookbook. It is an outstanding cookbook featuring traditional recipes from the people who know them best Washington cooks. With easy to follow recipes for favorite Washington dishes like Fried Razor Clams, Spicy Lentil Crackle and Grandma Ester's Lemon Pie, this outstanding new cookbook preserves Washington's most treasured dishes. But that's not all. Eat & Explore Washington is a tourist's guide to everything that makes Washington special. From Glacier Peak Winery to the Chehalis Garlic Festival, travelers and armchair travelers alike will enjoy reading about the festivals, events and unique destinations that are hallmarks of the state's traditions.

There are lots of good recipes in here --- from the Pacific Northwest.  Lots of salmon, lots of apples, lots of--- coffee?  Did I  hear coffee?

Why YES, coffee is the perfect regional recipe.

Seattle! 

The birthplace of Starbucks!

It seemed appropriate. 

(that and the fact that it's already Wednesday and I hadn't made anything yet.  It seemed quick and easy, but as we find out--- oh, So, GOOD!!)

I guess you have to love coffee, and I do, to totally 'get' the Pacific Northwest coffee scene.

There are coffee shops and stops on every street corner.

And I mean EVERY street corner.

It's quick, it's good... but kind of expensive.

You CAN make good coffee at home.

Especially Iced Coffee.

And then take a silly photo of it in a windowsill, while meaning to crop all that crap out before you uploaded the photo to your blog.

(it was early, I was trying to get light, but NOT trying to show my whole windowsill etc.  Oh well, that's what I get for being a procrastinator)

This iced coffee is GOOD!!!

For the record, The Handyman and I argue over coffee all the time.

I buy Starbucks Breakfast Blend

or

Dunkin' Donuts original.

He buys Folgers.

Today I used Starbucks.  So, I am sure--SURE---ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE --that's why this tasted so good.

Kahlua Iced Coffee

1 cup brewed coffee--cooled

1 1/2 oz Kahlua

1 oz half and half

Sugar to taste

whipped cream

cinnamon

Mix coffee, Kahlua,  half and half, and sugar in a tall glass.  Add ice cubes.  Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.

 Off the record?

I had a little help this morning.

I left the bowl of whipped cream on the table, while I was setting the iced coffee on the windowsill (don't laugh---I'm an artist)

(okay laugh!)

and I turned around and someone, who shall remain nameless, thought she could help herself to some whipped cream.

Apparently she loved it!

She's licking her chops!

And then!  

she kept sticking her nose in my photo shoot!!

A River Lost

From Goodreads:

After two decades, Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden returned to his small-town

birthplace in the Pacific Northwest to follow the rise and fall of the West’s
most thoroughly conquered river. To explore the Columbia River and befriend
those who collaborated in its destruction, he traveled on a monstrous freight
barge sailing west from Idaho to the Grand Coulee Dam, the site of the river’s
harnessing for the sake of jobs, electricity, and irrigation. A River Lost is a searing personal narrative of rediscovery joined
with a narrative of exploitation: of Native Americans, of endangered salmon, of
nuclear waste, and of a once-wild river. Updated throughout, this edition
features a new foreword and afterword.

From Me:

First of all I am giving this book  4-stars.

Not because I LOVED it -- (well, maybe I did) but because it's so very interesting -- to ME-- and I thought it very well researched and written.

I grew up next to the Columbia River in Washington State and I love this river, but... if you are from anywhere but Oregon, Washington, Idaho..  I don't think this would have any interest for you.

Unless you are weird like me! 

( I do like regional history.  and culture! and Food!  and people!  and stories!)

The Columbia River and its history are really complicated.  It's the only river in the United States that is completely controlled by computers.

There are 14 dams on the river -- 3 of which are in Canada, 4 border WA/Oregon, so there is an international as well as bi-state cooperation/agreement on how to manage the river nowadays.  It's huge! 

The agreement AND the complications of the river.

There are the dwindling salmon, Native American fishing rights, irrigation, hydro-electric power, atomic/plutonium dumping ground, timber industry,   the river as a super highway (barges/transportation), etc to deal with.

Federal, State, County, City laws to figure out!

The book talks about all of that--good and bad.  It pulls no punches-- 

and while I found that interesting--and read aloud to the Handyman on the 8 hour trip up to Washington last weekend-- I also found it bittersweet.

We grew up on the river. Or rivers.   

We grew up where the Snake River flows into the Columbia.

We picnicked in the park where Lewis and Clark camped, when they too first saw the Columbia.  

The smaller Yakima River, another tributary, also meets the Columbia there.

We grew up in the middle of the desert, surrounded by water, water everywhere.

It's hard to explain, unless you've been there.  OR read the book.

There is a geological reason for the dry desert with rivers running thru it.

Geology AND Franklin D. Roosevelt (who endorsed the building of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1934)

All that aside---

Home is where the heart is!

I love the Columbia River.

Everything that happened to the Columbia River was a product of it's time...  so let's not waste time thinking about 'what might have been'..

even if that's what the book did.

There's no going back now.

*****************************

On another note --

When we are up in the Tri-Cities, WA,  we try to do morning walks along the river.

This past weekend was a short walk-- only a couple of miles, but each time we go, we do a part of the Sacajawea Heritage Trail.

The Sacagawea Heritage Trail is a scenic river trek along the Columbia River through the Tri-Cities of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco in southeastern Washington. The trail is a 23-mile blacktop loop trail with portions on both sides of the Columbia River.

Most people will do a hike like this all at once. But not us!  We like to take it in increments! 

These are just some  (not so great) photos taken on my phone, without my glasses, in the wee early morning, as we walked from the BLUE BRIDGE to the CABLE BRIDGE.

Friday Friend Recipe #45: Mexican Rice

Friday Friend Recipe #45:  Mexican Rice

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook:   I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county).  At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 15 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions,  exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts,  had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND,  we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

Which brings me to this... recipe #45

Cherrie Lou Who's

Mexican Rice

It was a good rice. (IF you take off the cilantro says the Handyman)
I made it as a  side to some Chili Verde.
Cherrie and her husband host  a  Cynco de Mayo party every year and she makes a big feast -- this rice is always included.

Mexican Rice

Cherrie Lou Who

Auburn, WA

2 cups long grain rice
3 & 3/4 cup water  
2 T. olive oil
1 8oz can corn
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chunky salsa
dash hot pepper sauce

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Put rice in to brown, stirring often. Go for the light, golden look (darker makes it bitter).
Put rice, water, salsa and hot sauce into large saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover tightly and reduce heat to low.
Simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
Quickly add drained corn and chopped pepper (just on top of rice), cover and simmer for 5 minutes more. 
Remove from heat and stir together. 
Put in casserole dish and keep warm in oven until ready to eat.

And now, I will introduce you to Cherrie Lou Who!
She's making her debut appearance on the blog, as I am cooking up her first recipe from the book.
Cherrie is my sister-in-law.
One of my favorite ones!
I have 7.
Her real name is not  Cherrie Lou Who, it is Cheryl Louise.  I just call her Cherrie Lou Who or Loohoo.
I'm not sure why.
It just fits.

I do not have any sisters, but I am very lucky to have some sisters-in-law who are like sisters to me.
I love them a lot!
And, it has occurred to me  that some of the funnest things I've ever done have been with Cherrie Lou Who.  We walked in the Breast Cancer 3day/60mile walk, we've been to Vegas, tons of family stuff AND  I floated down the Yakima River with her.
( The Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River in south central and eastern Washington state, named for the indigenous Yakama people. The length of the river from headwaters to mouth is 214 miles (344 km), with an average drop of 9.85 feet per   mile )

Floating is so much fun!
Even tho we grew up in the dry, arid southeast part of  Washington State, there is a LOT of water.
It's a mystery as to why
(actually, there is a scientific reason, something with words like basalt anticlines and glacial floods, blah blah blah) 

The Handyman and his siblings grew up floating the river.
They spent many a lazy weekend afternoon on innertubes, homemade rafts, and small boats just soaking in the sun and water.

Cherrie Lou Who is in this picture below!

 

Somewhere.

Here is a better photo of her (she's in the middle), with her older brother, Rich aka The Handyman, her sister Eva, and then her sister LeAnne and me on the end.

She has a sign STONE so that people can see where her camp site is. People that are meeting up to join in a river float.

Cherrie Lou Who and her husband Mike are famous for their river float camping weekends.

And by famous, I mean that all their family and friends love to come join them on one of the few weekends they float the river over each summer.

 

The floats are about  5 or so hours long, and then a quick 30 minute ride back to camp, where we have bbq steak and baked potatoes (over a camp fire)

All the rafts are tied together and people bring squirt guns and beach balls and things to pass the time on the float.
If you come upon another group of floaters it is customary to have a squirt gun fight with the.
You might think we are too old for this sort of fun?
How old is too old?
(but this was 10 years ago)

I don't know that the Handyman would do 'this' today:
(here he is contemplating his move)

JUMPING OFF THE STUPID CLIFF!!

They stop and get out and jump off this stupid cliff!! 

 CRAZY!!!

Here was my moral dilemma:
If a train comes while you are floating --- and it is on the bridge, you have to 'flash' it. 
I couldn't decide if I was a traditionalist or a scaredy cat/prim/ proper person.
Lucky for me, there was no train!

This was supposed to be about Cherrie Lou Who and I have no good rafting/float pictures of her, so here is she and I at a nieces graduation about 10 years ago.
I haven't aged a bit!!
Neither has she.

 I am going to link up with Weekend Cooking at
Beth Fish Reads.

This weekend she reviews a cookbook that I covet! 
Darn it!  I don't need another cookbook.
Why oh why does she do this to me?
~grins~

I am also linking up with 
Cook it Up!  A Cookbook Challenge
I am sad to hear this is her last Cookbook Challenge.
But she says she is coming up with another linky.  I'm looking forward to seeing what that might be!

It's Outdoor Wednesday!

I've told you before, and I'll tell you again, there are three states I love with all my heart,  Oregon, Washington and Nevada.
I love Washington because I grew up there---I am sentimental about it and nothing can compete with sentiment.

My favorite river is there  (my middle son laughed at this--he doesn't think people really have favorite rivers.  I do tho), The  Columbia.   
My 2nd favorite river is the Snake River and my 3rd favorite is the Yakima River.  (yes, I am being kinda silly and ornery about having favorite rivers---can one really?)

Anyway, I grew up where all 3 of those rivers converged.  There was water, water everywhere!  (and yet is some weird paradox, the land is arid and dry, we use irrigation to grow all those apples and peaches and wheat )

Sometimes it looks like this:

Sometimes it looks like this:

But they are always doing this:

To get this:

There is an island in the Columbia River, in my hometown, called Bateman Island.

I will be honest here and tell you that when I was a teenager, we had parties out there---at that time you could drive out there, so we did, and then we partied down!  It's a wonder someone didn't get in a accident driving back and forth on this little one car lane.

Bateman Island is an island located on the Columbia River between the cities of Richland and Kennewick, Washington. It is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide (160 acres (65 ha)) and is part of the city of Richland

Lewis and Clark mentioned Bateman Island in their journals in 1805. William Clark and two other men made their way towards the mouth of the Yakima River, but due to the time the farthest they got was Bateman Island.

In 2002 thanks to support by Bechtel Hanford and with help from many volunteers, about 27 tons worth of beer cans, and other debris left there over the last 60 years was removed.

Geez!  We drank a lot of beer!!  (27 tons?)

It's nice to have it all cleaned up now.  You can't drive out onto it anymore, but you can walk.  In May, the Handyman and I took our morning walk out there to do some bird-watching.

I had to get a list of the birds to remember what I saw, as I had forgotten a notebook.

(of course I didn't see all of these--just a few as a matter of fact)

Here are some photos of what we saw on Bateman Island on our  6am walk.

(it looks completely different than I remember from my high school nighttime keggar days.)

Now it's beautiful

I am linking up with Outdoor Wednesday hosted by A Southern Daydreamer.

Check it out for some beautiful outdoor photos from all over!