Southwest Adventure Part 1: Whitewater Rafting on the Arkansas River!

Dalmau and I planned a great summer Southwestern Adventure: first, spending time in Denver for July 4 and to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday party, next followed by a visit to the Grand Canyon, and finally a couple of days in Santa Fe for some rest and relaxation.

The first order of business was a whitewater rafting trip with Jasmine and John on the Arkansas River! It was too bad that Heather and Postie didn't arrive in time to join us. It would have been great to have them in our boat (especially as you will see later on). We had to leave home at 6:30am in order to make it to the river; not a problem for Jasmine and John since they get up at the crack of dawn with Ella and Tyler the human alarm clocks, but Dalmau and I were very sleepy. Ella and Tyler stayed at home with their Poo Poo and Gung Gung.

We weren't sure if wetsuits were going to be necessary, but boy were we glad we had them on once we got on the river. The water was still quite chilly and we would have been freezing without them.



We were paired with another family in our boat. Unfortunately, that family wasn't so athletically inclined. The whole idea is that the two people in the front are supposed to row together and set the pace for everyone else to row. Do you see the two people in front? One of these is not like the other. John, on the right side of the boat, is reaching out, digging his oar in the water and taking broad strokes in order to move the boat forward. His partner on the left side of the boat is catching a bunch of air. In both of these pictures.



His wife was equally as bad. She was in front of me and decided *not* to follow John. Or to even put her oar in the water. Not one bit. Not even a teensy bit. Which, unfortunately for her, meant that sometimes, wholly accidentally, she got an oar in her back because everyone else behind her (me) was following John. Ooops.

Here we are going over the rapids:



Here's Dalmau concentrating very hard on his rowing. You can see Jasmine behind him in the "ejector seat", who is following Dalmau's lead. Who is not following? Yup, you guessed it, the daughter of the other family! Why is her oar in the water and everyone else is out?!



It was a really thrilling experience. Thanks to John for organizing the trip!

Salted Caramel Whoopie Pies and Homemade Indian Food

Heather, Jasmine and I like to read all of the same cooking/food blogs-- Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com), The Pioneer Woman Cooks (www.thepioneerwomancooks.com) and The Girl Who Ate Everything (www.thegirlwhoateeverything). We like to alert each other whenever we see good recipes and fun projects on these blogs, so when Jasmine and I saw a recipe for salted caramel whoopie pies on Serious Eats (http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/02/blogwatch-whoopie-pies-with-salted-caramel-bu.html) we knew it was going to be our next project when I was in San Francisco. Soft chocolate cookies + salted caramel buttercream = heavenly bliss!

The recipe wasn't hard-- make the soft cake-like cookies, then fill with buttercream. Ella was very excited to help us out. When she saw us getting everything ready, the first words out of her mouth here "I want to help"! Ella is already a very adventurous eater, so maybe these projects will spark a lifetime interest in cooking as well.

As you can see, Ella was a very good helper. She carefully helped Jasmine stir the cookie batter and helped me beat the caramel into the buttercream. Ella was always very careful to do exactly what Jasmine and I asked her to do, and followed directions very well. Hmmm... maybe I see an EZ-Bake oven in someone's future?! She loved tasting the buttercream after we were done making it.



Below is a picture of our finished product. We learned a very important lesson-- make sure the cookies are FULLY cooled before filling with buttercream! Otherwise, the butter will melt all over and make a mess, and you will be sad.


And here's Ella enjoying the fruits of her labor-- she looks like a satisfied cook:


Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines. However, my attempts to make it haven't been very successful. It always tastes not quite right, like something is missing. Jasmine also loves Indian food and has been raving about these spice mixes from Sukhi's (www.sukhis.com) that she buys at their farmers market. I was extremely skeptical because I am skeptical about all mixes in general. How can they be any good? They're prepackaged and often cheaply made.

Sukhi's blew away all of my skepticism. We went to the farmer's market and picked up a couple of different packets and made them for dinner my last night in San Francisco. We made a vegetable curry and two types of chicken curry. Wow! It tasted exactly like it came from one of my local Indian restaurants and were extremely easy to make. I liked how I was able to use fresh vegetables and meat to make a fast and healthy dinner.

Jasmine and John brought a bunch of these mixes when they were visiting me in New York. Thanks Jaz and John! Dalmau and I will now be enjoying delicious Indian dinners all Fall and Winter long.

A San Francisco Wing Ding

I loooove buffalo wings! Ever since Amy, my freshman year roomate at the University of Rochester (which is very close to Buffalo), first introduced me to the wonders of these savory, tangy and spicy morsels, they've been one of my favorite foods. In Rochester, a side of wings is always ordered with pizza, and a frequent weekend indulgence. Buffalo wings (and another favorite food, salt & vinegar potato chips, which Amy also introduced me to) were directly responsible for me gaining the freshman 15 lbs! However, that still hasn't stopped me from indulging from time to time.

After reading about a Super Bowl wing wrap up on Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com), John, Jasmine and I held our own taste test during my visit. We put 3 brands to the test: KFC (buffalo and plain crispy); Extreme Pizza; and Original Buffalo Wings. Extreme Pizza and Original Buffalo Wings are local neighborhood spots. The local KFC was very sketchy. Each place we ordered 3 types of wings: plain, buffalo and barbeque.

The KFC barbeque didn't disappoint. It was crispy, sweet and smoky, just like we had remembered it. I also liked the slightly thicker breading (which is a no-no for buffalo wings, but perfectly acceptable for barbeque wings!). At the end of the night it placed second overall.

The plain category had a very weak showing. We didn't particularly care for any of the plain wings-- they were either too plain, or flabby and wimpy, or just too "blah".

The overall winner was the Original Buffalo Wings. Their buffalo wings were just right-- the correct balance of vinegar, spice and butter, on a crispy wing with very light breading. A special bonus are the homemade potato chips which are categorically delicious! The second place buffalo wing winner was KFC, and the loser was Extreme Pizza-- just not good at all.

The Winner Takes It All (The Loser Standing Small)

Belated congratulations to my brother-in-law John, who was this year's grand champion of the Annual Koyama Family Poker tournament. This year's competition was fierce with a strong showing from the Anzais and Teradas, but John outmaneuvered them all. This year's tournament including trash talking, high stakes, and even a bloodied toe (which we won't go into too many details here). Here's John in the final showdown with Marti:

We hear that the Kentucky Posthauers have issued a Throwdown, and claim that this year's tournament didn't have quite the same luster as it has had in past years due to their absence. Hmmm... we'll see next year when we will introduce the winner's trophy!

p.s.-- note the traditional Koyama poker playing libations (well for those over 21 years old, anyways)-- nothing says "serious poker player" like tiny glasses of Bailey's!

Seattle Visit and Chambers 520 Reunion

After visiting Jasmine and John in San Francisco, I had the chance to make a quick trip to Seattle to visit my Uncle Tony, Aunt Joni, and cousins Alyssa and Jared, as well as to catch up with my girlfriends (and roommates) from college.

It was a very quick visit. Aunt Joni and my cousins Alyssa and Jared met me at the airport, and then we went to visit Uncle Tony's offices at Microsoft, where he works in the XBox division. It was a special treat-- not only did we get a hands-on demo of the latest Microsoft product, which is a large table with interactive software for editing and collaboration, but we saw the offices decorated for Halloween. These weren't your average decorations. Instead, it was another world! Uncle Tony said that each group/division competes to have the best decorations, and that in the past some groups have even hired professional movie set decorators for assistance! Uncle Tony's hallway with a moving ghost was definitely making a strong showing.

I had a great time with Alyssa and Jared. They showed me their Wii program, and we did some ski jumping. The part of the program where you can make your own character was really fun. We saw the Uncle David guy, which looked just like Uncle David! We worked on making a character for me, which wears all black (naturally) and has short spiky hair and glasses. Now I will be another face in the crowd when Alyssa and Jared play their games. I loved seeing how much both of them have changed, and I hope I get to host Alyssa next summer in New York City when "Cousin Kelly Camp" opens its doors for its first visitor.

At the top is a picture of my roommates and me. We all lived together our senior year in college. We were quite a large entourage-- 5 adults (actually, six-- Megan's mom was visiting from Kentucky and took the picture) and 3 kids-- ages 3, 2 and 1. Coincidentally, the weekend we all decided to meet in Seattle, which is where Megan and Claire live, was the weekend of our 10th college reunion. Time really flies by. I love that although we have very different lives, different interests and are scattered across the country, we still have a connection that keeps us close.