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Peanut Butter Noodles

It’s been a while since we’ve had a “Cooking with Tyla and Ben” post. This one is mostly Tyla’s brainchild. She had a hankerin’ for some peanut butter noodles. The only change we made from the allrecipes.com script was the addition of a chicken breast because who eats food without meat? That’s crazy talk.

Ingredients

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons peanut butter

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons hot chile paste (optional)

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 ounces Udon noodles

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

1 chicken breast

Cook the chicken breast in a pan. Optionally, add spices.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until tender according to package directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, combine chicken broth, ginger, soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, chili paste, and garlic in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until peanut butter melts and is heated through. Add noodles and chicken and toss to coat. Garnish with green onions and peanuts.

Check the timing on the noodles. It took us a while to boil water and then another 12-14 minutes for the noodles so the chicken was done way too early. However, since everything is combined and heated together at the end, it’s not a big deal.

benmartens October 6, 2009 Food

Olympic Peninsula

Mom and Dad came out for Labor Day and we took a trip with Tyla around the Olympic Peninsula. On Day 1, we started with the Edmunds-Kingston ferry. We weren’t actually sure if we should even begin the trip due to the wet weather and the even wetter forecast. The ferry crossing was dry but incredibly windy. We made our way up to the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. It wasn’t raining there either and the clouds were loose enough to give us some good views. Not knowing much other than the fact that it was a little dirt road, I decided to drive the family out to Obstruction Point. What a drive it turned out to be! Do NOT drive this road if you have an RV or even a large truck. There are many points where it is really a one lane road with hill on the left and cliff on the right. The road was in pretty good shape and we made the 9 mile drive in about 20-30 minutes. Once at the end, we did a little hiking and then made the trek back. The highlight for Tyla was definitely the marmots. We drove back to Port Angeles and spent the night there (after I dropped my camera in the sand and broke it.)

On Sunday we drove from Port Angeles to the Hoh Rain Forrest on the west side of the park. It was raining. Shocker. They get 140” of rain a year with another 30” of mist. We took the ranger led hike, learned a bit, and got soaked despite our ponchos. We continued on to Ocean Shores where, once again, it was not raining and we enjoyed the beach for a while. The beach there is an official state highway so I took the Subie out there for a while.

Sunday morning we headed to the jetty on the south end of the island and then made the long drive home.

I think we made a great move going in spite of the rain. It sounded like it poured all weekend in Seattle and, although it was cloudy, we didn’t get much rain on our trip. There are a lot more things I want to see over there, but this definitely crossed a few items off my list!

Photos are in the photo gallery under Olympic Peninsula.

benmartens September 15, 2009 Outdoors, Travel

Garage Shelves: Part Deux

Ever since I did the first set of garage shelves, I’ve wanted to extend them. Tim came over and we were able to do just that.

We tripled the previous surface area and even added a ladder to make it a bit easier to get up there. The end result is enormous, but it really provides a lot of storage area for my little condo. I had a couple neighbors jealously look on and ask if I’d come do the same in their garage.

Thanks for the help Tim! I’d probably still be making trips to Home Depot for replacement pieces of wood if you weren’t there to help.

It’s a bit difficult to photograph the shelves, but this should give you an idea. There is about 90 square feet of space on top. I had to put a lot of stuff on the floor while I was building the new shelves and I clearly have cleanup work remaining.

benmartens September 14, 2009 Projects, Woodworking

Wellington

If you’ve read The White Cascade, you probably recognize Wellington as the sight of one of the greatest train disasters in history. In 1910, a couple train got stuck on the tracks by a huge snowstorm and was eventually taken out by an avalanche killing 96 people. It’s located in Stevens Pass and on Thursday, Mom, Dad and I headed there to check it out.

I tried to hike to Wellington on Father’s Day last year but got turned around by snow. This year we didn’t have any problems like that. We drove to the top of Stevens Pass, caught the north end of Old Cascade Highway south down the valley to the Wellington trailhead.

Unfortunately it was raining just hard enough to thwart our attempts at a good hike, but we hiked about a mile underneath a concrete snowshed and saw the entrance to the old Cascade train tunnel.

Since our train adventure ended a bit early, we headed on to Leavenworth. After a quick stop to walk through the shops and get some fudge, we drove south and did the three pass blast in the Subie (Stevens, Blewett, Snoqualmie.)

benmartens September 9, 2009 Outdoors, Travel

Moran State Park Camping Trip

Every year around December, we check out the Washington State Parks website and see which campgrounds are filling up. There are usually some good campsites left at those parks and we snag one for the following year. Previous trips have been to Deception Pass and Fort Flagler. This year it was Moran State Park on Orcas Island.

The first challenge was getting everyone to the campsite. Tim, Andy and I headed up on Thursday afternoon after leaving work a little early. It’s a 70 minute ferry ride and there are not a lot of ferries each day. We eventually made it to Orcas a little after dark, found dinner at a bar in Eastsound and then made our way to the campground.

Our campsite was perched up on a cliff overlooking Cascade Lake. The site had a nice view but there weren’t any level spots to set the tents which made sleeping interesting.

On Friday, Tim, Andy and I hiked with Tucker around Cascade Lake and Mountain Lake, drank some beverages and played cards. Matt and Laura arrived just after dark, and Tyla and Chelsea arrived after 11. Tim and I were getting a bit nervous that they may have gotten lost, and with no cell reception at the camp site, we headed out to track them down. Thankfully we spotted them on their way to the site so we flipped a u-turn and led them to the campsite.

Saturday was a full day of hiking to the top of Mt. Constitution (the highest point in the San Juans), bumbling about in rented row boats, and playing cornhole.

Sunday morning came too soon and we had to pack up to leave. Thankfully we got on an even earlier ferry than we had planned (it was late because of fog) and we made good time coming home.

It would have been nice if the whole group could have been there longer, but I’m really happy that we got to go. I wouldn’t stay in that same site again. There are a ton of good ones to choose from though and the park is gorgeous. Thanks to everyone who came!

Photos are in the photo gallery.

benmartens August 31, 2009 Outdoors, Travel

A River Runs Through Me

Sunday was another hot day, so Tyla and I decided to take a little adventure. Three Forks Park (just north of North Bend) was one of the first places I discovered on my motorcycles rides. It’s not much of a park, but it is a good place to access the Snoqualmie River about a mile upstream from the falls. Normally I just relax on the bank but on Sunday, we decided to try to swim for a bit too.

We walked along the bank until we found a quiet spot away from the few people who were there. The smart people brought some shade with them, but we weren’t that smart this time. After swimming around for a while, I found a place to cross the river and ferried our stuff (and Tyla) across the river. We chatted, read books, and had a great afternoon.

I hesitated to write about this place at first because I don’t want it to become overrun. Then I realized that the three people who read this probably aren’t going to go anyway.

benmartens August 6, 2009 Outdoors

Mowich Lake

Saturday was our one year anniversary. 365 days ago, Tyla and I had our first date, and for some reason, she has put up with me for a whole year. To celebrate, we drove down to Mowich Lake.

Mowich Lake is located in the northwest corner of the park, a part I have never been to. It is the deepest and largest lake in the park. You access the lake via a 17 mile long dirt road. Before you go, make sure you check the website to see if the road is open. It just opened last Thursday so it takes them a while to get it ready for traffic. I think the next time we go back, we’ll take an SUV or a truck. The Subie survived, but I felt a bit bad about bouncing it along those washboard roads. Thankfully, the dirt road keeps a lot of people away and there were not a ton of people around. Don’t worry about trying to find a spot in the tiny lot, just park along the road and make your way down to the trail that circles the lake.

We found a very secluded spot right at the water’s edge to have a private picnic lunch. I was tempted to go back to the car for my swimsuit, but after wading in up to my knees, I realized that swimming in a glacier fed lake wouldn’t last too long. It was frigid! By the way, this was the second weekend in a row that I have played in the snow on dormant volcanoes. Have I mentioned I love the Pacific Northwest?

After lunch, we hiked to the south end of the lake where most of the crowd was. There are about 30 camping sites, but it’s really just a big rock field where you can pitch a tent. If you were doing a lot of hiking in the area, it might be worth it, but otherwise I think we’ll skip that campground.

Normally you’d see majestic Mt. Rainier just over the hills but there were too many clouds to give us a good view. You can check out the photos in the photo gallery or view the panoramic shot by clicking the image below (~17MB.)

We finished the day with dinner at Matts’ Rotisserie and Oyster Lounge in Redmond Town Center. (Minus eleventy billion points for auto playing background music when you open their site.)

Thanks to Tyla for yet another wonderful adventure. The last year has been full of them and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead!

benmartens July 27, 2009 Outdoors, Panorama

Artists Point Panorama

It’s been a while since I’ve done a panoramic stitch, but Saturday’s ride to the top of Artists Point was the perfect opportunity. There are a couple ways to view it. First, you can open the JPG directly but be warned that it’s about 9MB.

I also made an HDView page for this. (HDView is the Microsoft research project for viewing large images. You can read more about it on their site.) You’ll need to download the latest version of the plug-in if you haven’t used it lately, but once you do, it provides a very nice browsing experience. You can zoom and pan your way around the image.

benmartens July 21, 2009 Motorcycle, Panorama

Artists Point

I’ve driven the road from Bellingham to Mt. Baker a few times, but it has always been in the winter with skis on top of my car. On Saturday, I did it on the motorcycle.

BenH and I met up at Denny’s for breakfast. Tyla joined us too since it was right by her apartment and then headed off for a day of shopping. Ben and I pounded the pavement all the way up I-5 and then headed east on 542. It’s a fantastic drive and a great motorcycle road. Once you get up to the Heather Meadows base area, you can continue past up to Artists Point. Skiing there in the winter, I had no idea there was a road there. A mile or two through some incredibly tight switchbacks (don’t take your RV) take you up to the top of Artists Point where you are greeted with a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains.

This is the earliest that the road has opened in a while. It usually takes them until later in the year to clear out all the snow, but due to the low snowfall last winter and the hot weather this year, it went faster than normal. You could still see spots where the plows had carved through drifts 6-7 feet high.

We hung around for a while at the top, took some pictures, watched kids sledding, and wished we had brought skis. You could get in a football field or two with about 100-200 foot drop. Nothing serious but not bad for July and August.

On the way back, we made a minor deviation and cut down US 9 to US 20 and then back down I5. It’s about 10 miles shorter than going through Bellingham and I think it’s a little quicker.

At a gas station in Burlington, we met a couple guys who were traveling the country on their bikes. They have been gone for a couple months and one of them was from Kokomo, IN (the Indiana license plate sparked the conversation.)

All in all, it was another great ride. I love the feeling you get after a long ride when you feel completely in tune with the bike. It really makes me want to take a long multi-day trip.

I was also reminded how much safer it is to ride with another biker beside you. We rode almost 250 miles together and then split up for the last 10 miles. In that 10 miles, I was almost hit three times. Two people on the highway merged halfway into my lane before they saw me and then somebody tried to make a left turn into me coming off a side street. I know we’re small and hard to see, but it’s summer. Please double check those blind spots. And if you see a motorcycle approaching in your rear view mirror, make sure you know where they are before you change lanes. If you don’t see them, don’t assume they turned off.

Photos are available in the photo gallery.

benmartens July 20, 2009 Motorcycle

Mt. Rainier Ride

On Sunday, I hopped back on the bike for another ride. I recovered surprisingly quickly from the 440 miles on Friday. This ride took Tyla and I down to Mt. Rainier. It’s a very nice ride covering mostly two lane roads and then a very nice windy road up to Sunrise lookout. There was heavy traffic, but not as much as I was expecting considering the holiday. Plus, traffic always seems lighter on the motorcycle since it is much easier to pass.

The view from the top was outstanding. We took our time at the top having lunch, a snowball fight, and a walk through the nature center.

It was a great day for the ride, and I hope that it’s just the start of our Mt. Rainier adventures for the year. I want to take the car back next time and do some hiking either from Sunrise or one of the other entrances.

That wrapped up a 600 mile weekend on the motorcycle for me. On those two rides, I went from sea level to above 5000 feet twice, saw three different active volcanoes and numerous alpine lakes, watched roaring rapids with rafters and a 100+ ft waterfall, had a snowball fight and sweated in near-100 degree weather. Seattle positively rocks. The more time I spend here, the more confused I am about why the entire country doesn’t live here.