hello mt. rainier!

one of my favorite sights has got to be mt. rainier on a clear day. more often than not, it's hidden away, behind the pacific northwest weather- clouds, fog, rain, mist, or the like. so when mt. rainier says hello, it does so on days when the skies are clear, the sun is shining, and the city sparkles. i love those days.

the geek and i enjoyed one of those days as we drove down i-5 towards the airport. for a moment,  we got to fully appreciate the day with an unhindered view of the mountain.

unfortunately, by the time i got my camera out, our view was interrupted by semis and freeway ramps, so i never got a clear shot.

i had a window seat on my flight from seattle to dallas, so i made sure my camera was close at hand. the flight path took us past mt. rainier and i was able to get my picture after all. yay!

snow days

the forecast predicted a weekend of snow...a few inches, a white weekend, yay!

the white weekend, turned into a white week as the snow kept coming.

we haven't been able to leave the neighborhood for a little over a week. we're not complaining though. except for briefly losing power twice and a day or so of no directv, we're doing just fine.

hooray for a stocked freezer and pantry!

shoyu chicken

shoyu is japanese for soy sauce.

growing up in hawaii, shoyu was right up there with ketchup when it came to our tabletop condiments. it was also a common cooking ingredient and my family had both a tabletop bottle and a gallon size bottle to serve each purpose.

i love shoyu. it's salty, it's tasty, it's probably the only reason i liked eating tofu as a child. (tofu, the perfect vehicle for shoyu!)

sadly, the geek does not love shoyu. in fact, he does not like it. he'll go for the miso ramen over the shoyu ramen because he 'really doesn't like that flavor.' when eating a piece sushi off my plate, he won't dip it in shoyu voluntarily.

so imagine my surprise when he hesitantly tried shoyu chicken for the first time and realized he really, really liked it. when shoyu is combined with mirin, brown sugar, garlic and ginger alchemy occurs and the result is a delicious flavor the geek loves.

it's now become one of his favorite meals!