Egg plant spread (Salata de Vinete)

I had a craving for this eggplant salad spread for a while now so with four little eggplants I bought at Costco it was time to get to work. I roast the eggplant right on top of the fire but you can broil them on a cookie sheet as well. ( keep turning every 5 minutes or so until it's all charred)

I turn it until it all looks like this: 

It's very easy to peel the burned up stuff. Keep all the yellow goodness with seeds and all and lay it on a cutting board to drain of the juices a little. 

After it's drained chop it all  and put in the prettiest melamine bowl that your husband may have given you for Mother's day :) OK, totally optional but I had to show you all how pretty my bowls are and to praise them and tell you how much I like them. I can even use them as a double boiler (putting the bowl on top of a pan with water in it) 

Now pour about a cup and 1/4 of vegetable oil in there and a half of white onion chopped finely plus salt to taste. At the end add a little mayo as that will lighten up the color a bit but you can leave that out and it will still be good. 

Voila! The end result is so good. You can eat it with tomatoes on a slice of French bread. I even add feta on top. Very Mediterranean dish and VERY good. I loved the smell of my house while they were roasting however Shane will disagree wholeheartedly. Anyway, we all know how smells bring us back to a certain place sometimes and that was Romania for me. I miss it a lot and since I haven't been there for 6 years and since my parents just went there this summer I was a little homesick.

 Enjoy!

P.S Hubby almost ate the whole thing at once. I will have to buy more eggplants for next time. It's a yummy appetizer.

Blue Angels

Last weekend we saw angels. The rain stopped just in time for the show and started back as soon as the show was over. As a tradition Seafair weekend we go to see the Blue Angles. We hear their loud engines starting with Thursday, their practice day and then Dacian can't stop talking about them and about when the day comes to go see them. This Saturday we went earlier than usual to hopefully get a good spot on the bridge (I-90 that goes right over Lake Washington connecting Seattle to the East Side.)  We totally came unprepared, no umbrellas, no rain coat, just sweaters since it was chillier and overcast when we left home. Well as soon as we got to the bridge it starting pouring. At this point I am thinking well are they even going to fly? What a waist of time I'm thinking and found myself grumbling and cursing this area of the world for all its d*** rain. Seriously I will never get used to it. Even summers are not that hot and you still get plenty of rainy weekends. But better get back to my story before I plop a few more curse words on my blog. Ha!

Fortunately the rain gods listened to our prayers and stopped the rain for the show only. Fine by me. I guess the Angels flew lower that day since it was so overcast. It was super awesome of course. I wish it lasted longer. I really, really wished to be in their cabins along with the pilots. The adrenalin, the feelings you must get when flying those things, probably nothing else like it.

 We had a very pleased 4 year old that day and to be honest so were we.

Big Four Ice Caves

A few weekends ago we went to this place. I had hiked here before with my parents when Dacian was little and for some reason Shane couldn't come. I loved it so much that I had to show Shane as well. We also invited Kim, Shane's cousin to come with us. The hike was very easy and beautiful and we went on such a hot day that when we got close to these caves it was pure bliss to have the cool breeze coming from the caves blow on us. It was hard to leave that place and want to hike back in that heat actually. 

Well, not days go by after we return from our trip only to hear on the news that a little 10 year old girl got killed there from the ice collapsing on her. There were signs everywhere saying not to go in the caves but apparently the girl wasn't inside but near the caves. Well, we too were near it and of course most people were too. Actually Shane said that a big chunk almost fell on his head but he took a step and the thing fell right by his feet. I am sure he wouldn't have been killed from that but he would've been hurt. Something prompted him to move seconds before this chunk of ice fell on him. So now as I would recommend this hike to anyone I also have to warn them to be extra careful. I guess you can't mess around with nature and also when one's time is to go there is nothing anyone can do about it. I pray for this little girl's family. The mother was also hurt but ended up with minor injuries. Anyway, now go on and enjoy my pictures. : ) 

View of the caves from our trail. 

Well, of course the snow/ice will melt away and pieces of this cave keep on falling away. 

So I guess I could've totally been killed where I was standing. I was not inside the cave even though the picture makes it look like I was. Promise to tell the truth. 

Family shot. I like it. 

And I love this one my son. 

Kim, our fun cousin. 

The Lake

I love sunsets (or around that time of day) and I love that I live so close to the lake. Today was joy to my soul to go cool off in this lake around dusk and play with the kids and capture some of the magic of this evening on camera. I prefer this time of day for one I can find parking and secondly there are not so many people there and it's cooler and the water feels warmer. It' relaxing. Can you tell I am soaking up all my summer? 

Science experiment!

For fun this summer we are doing science experiments, most especially when one little girl is taking a nap. This one was so easy and fun. Dacian did it over and over again. Try it, I think your kids will love it. 

Oh no!

So here I am making dinner when I look over at Lavinia and what do I see?  A BLACK eye. She had just woken up when I asked Dacian to go get her. " What was I thinking?" is exactly what I was saying in my head. Did he drop her? Why did I let him take her from her bed? He does it all the time, how could this be? It's REALLY black but no screaming.

Then I see my sweet son proceed to give her a silver eye as well. Well, if you haven't guessed it it was my makeup. She was sitting there so silently loving being prettied up by none other than her BROTHER. Whew! Just makeup!

Here's a close-up shot. Pardon the messy face but this is what Lavinia sports most of the day. 

Our summer vacation

Lately I've been slacking off for no good reason really other than I've been enjoying my summer. But I don't want to fall too far behind in my little blog.
We spent 3 days in Walla Walla with Shane's brother and his family and like always we had a blast. They have a little boy Dacian's age so my son was so excited to be there. We went to a water park, played on their slip and slide right in their front yard and went to a show of Footloose where their daughter played in. It was so much fun and I enjoyed being in an outdoor theater on a hot summer evening. Thankfully there were no mosquitoes.

From there we went to McCall, ID where Shane found a really cool, affordable cabin in the mountains of this resort which is I guess out of business now. It was just the right thing for us to do. We only stayed three nights though. We explored the area which is perfect for those who have boats but we had fun of many of their sandy beaches just swimming around. It was a relaxing vacation for once. We decided that with little kids we needed to gear our vacation more for a spot that is family oriented and not go on a big tour like last summer.  Who wouldn't have fun in a pretty place, with lots of little hikes, swimming, great food and my favorite almost, the jacuzzi. I was so excited to go in it really late when the kids were sleeping. There were not many people there and so not too many lights on and that way we were able to see that perfectly painted starry sky. I loved it! We saw lots of shooting stars and the Milky Way.


View of Payette Lake from downtown McCall. 

Dacian and Lavinia on a nearby beach. The water was really warm much to our pleasure. 

We called this car Mater. This place was fantastic and I think next time we come here we want to stay here.

There's a hot spring right there that is remote more or less and they have cabins for cheap that I guess are pretty nice ( no electricity though) and also the whole place is also a ghost town. Pretty amazing. 

There are these really old shacks dating from the 1800s and of course no one still lives in them. There is also another ghost gold mining town nearby that we didn't get to see but next time I am sure we'll head down there as well.

On the way back we stopped in these fields of wheat. Dacian made that pose and I was so confused as to why he was sitting like that: "Mom, I'm a scarecrow, can't you see?" Oh, silly me, but of course.  I immediately got my camera out and took a picture.                  

This was an quite interesting Bed and Breakfast. I saw it out the window when we were driving and just had to stop. You don't see this type of stuff every day. There was another little house/workshop in the vicinity where this old man was carving dogs of all breeds out of wood. They were really cute and the man was so nice and kind. I love it when I meet sweet people who are open and friendly to strangers.

So I guess this more or less sums up our little vacation. We had other fun and will still have fun for the next three weeks of vacations that I have left. Look out for more posts to follow.
I hope you all had a great summer as well.