Culinary Communion: Persian Cuisine

For our first anniversary, my gift to Aaron was to take him to a class on cooking Persian food last night. The class was offered by Culinary Communion, and took place in the home of Chef Gabriel Claycamp. There were 7 students and the chef so it was a very nice intimate group. The class was fun, and we both learned alot, not just about Persian food, but cooking in general.

What did we learn?
– Saffron is water soluble, not oil soluble. Thats why you really need to dissolve it in hot water before you add it to the dish. If you just toss it in with what ever you are sauteing, it will give it a beautiful color but it just wont give up the love. Also, if you think you don’t like saffron because it tastes metalic, try Persion saffron rather than Spanish, its a whole lot cheaper and the flavor is much less tinny.
– Eggplant is like a sponge and soaks up a lot of oil. If you brush the eggplant with eggwhite before adding it to the pan the eggplant will soak up a significantly smaller amount of oil.

– Juicing citrus – roll or knead the lime to break it down inside and then zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds to increase viscosity before slicing and juicing the fruit – you’ll get out a whole lot more juice with a whole lot less effort.

– When cooking basmati rice – the old saying about washing the rice 5 times is there for a reason. I was the one that washed the rice, and it was amazing by the time I got the the third or fouth washing the aroma was really starting to come out. The five washings really help to release the aroma and flavor of the rice.

On the menu we had:

  • pistachio soup
  • feta and walnut spread with lavash bread
  • stuffed peppers
  • Eggplant Koresh
  • Dill and Fava Polow
  • Lamb Kababs
  • Saffron Brownie (halveh)

The food was great, but maybe not to the level of Alborz or Caspian Sea. I loved the pistachio soup, the cheese/nut spread was good be we found we needed to add a whole extra lime and a lot of extra plack pepper and mint to hit the right note. Bell peppers are never my thing, so as a whole the dish meant nothing to me, but the filling was quite succulent before in went into the pepper (after of course it was completely infused with the pepper flavor which I just don’t like). I may have to think of something else to stuff – because the filling was really quite tasty. The dill and fava palow was good, and we even made it with the tadiq which was especially cool as most restaurants don’t even serve that. The lamb kebabs were amazing and I seriously recommend you try the recipe when I get it posted. The saffron brownies were a variation on halveh which is common throughout the middle east, I dodn’t think much of this particular recipe but I’ll post it anyways.

Romance on Rails

Romance on Rails

For our first wedding anniversary celebration, Aaron took me out on the Spirit of Washington dinner train.

train

He thought of everything. Before we boarded the train, he helped me complete my look with a Holly Yashi necklace and earring set. Then there were roses waiting for me when we got to our table on the train.

The food was excellent. I had prime rib, and he had the salmon. The wines were exquisite – I particularly enjoyed the whidbey port.

our first anniversary

Aaron, my dear husband, I don’t have enough words to tell you how much I love you. You made me very, very happy tonight.

Judy Schwartz Haley
I love you more every day, and I’m so thankful that I get to spend my life with you.

Wedding Ceremony: September 5, 2004

VOWS OF MATRIMONY

I, Aaron,

accept you, Judy,

to be my wife.
I promise to live with you,
to trust and to cherish you,
to be your constant friend,
and faithful partner in life.
I promise to love, honor,
and respect you always,
as long as we both shall live.

I, Judy,

accept you, Aaron,
to be my husband.
I promise to live with you,
to trust and to cherish you,
to be your constant friend,
and faithful partner in life.
I promise to love, honor,
and respect you always,
as long as we both shall live.

RING CEREMONY

I, Aaron,

accept you Judy
to be my wife
and in doing so
I commit my life to you.
I embrace the sorrows and the joys
the hardships and the triumphs
in the experiences of our lives together.
As we grow in our roles
as life long partners,
so will we always remain best friends.
With this ring,
I make this commitment
in love forever.

I, Judy,

accept you Aaron
to be my husband
and in doing so
I commit my life to you.
I embrace the sorrows and the joys
the hardships and the triumphs
in the experiences of our lives together.
As we grow in our roles
as life long partners,
so will we always remain best friends.
With this ring,
I make this commitment
in love forever.

Better Off Dead


This past weekend I discovered that Mr. H had never seen the movie “Better off Dead.” This cult classic that most people of my generation (sub generation – should probably narrow it down to an ~8 year time span) can quote along with each line.

Suddenly I’m questioning all those times he nodded along with me as I spouted off some quote from the movie that had relevance to our life – an education was in order if he was to really get what I was getting at.

I went to my film archives (what a geek) to dig out the VHS tape, but didn’t find it until after we broke down and rented a copy.

How did he like it? Hmmm, he laughed at the appropriate places but I don’t think it will ever hold the same significance for him as it did for me.

A couple of months before the wedding my youngest brother, Steve, and my Dad had to sit him down and introduce him to The Blues Brothers.

his education continues…

NorthWest Trek


On a lark yesterday, Mr. H and I decided to hit the road and check out Northwest Trek. It was kind of a long trip for a lark, because it’s a wildlife park near the foot of Mt. Rainier, but then we’ve missed the house on our way home and ended up going to dinner in Port Townsend before too. We do odd things when we’re feeling spontaneous.

NW Trek is kind of a cool concept in wildlife parks/zoos, the prey animals live in a 500 acre area that ranges from steep hills, forests, pastures and wetlands. The animals roam freely, the people are caged in trams that are driven about the park by naturalists.

We got some great viewing opportunities, and up quite close to everything from bison, to moose to black tail deer, elk and caribou.

The predators are kept in a much more zoo-like setting – smaller habitats surrounded by fencing and moats. We enjoyed the black bear bathing himself and rolling around in the water, the cats, however seemed to think it was much too hot to come out of their little dens.

We missed the snakes and bugs this time. I think I’ll get over it.

We’ll definitely be back soon.
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