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Delivered lunch makes it easy

/ Roadtirementvintage / 16 Comments

Greek Fries and Avgolemono soup

Use their flatware

Sometimes it is easier to take care of lunch with a phone app to order your lunch delivered. We did that yesterday by way of the Kafé Neo Greek Restaurant  in Mill Creek. (Yes, we’re still in Seattle area.)

 

Roasted lamb gyro

Vegetarian gyro

This fine Greek restaurant has a great lunch menu with plenty of variety for any tastes. Ordering for delivery has several benefits. Sounds funny, but you can use the flatware from the restaurant. That’s several pieces of your silverware that you won’t need to wash! Plus you don’t have to get out of the house, and can continue whatever you are doing. Sher and I realize that it seems like we’re becoming a travel and food blog. So be it, you have to eat, and we are enjoying new culinary experiences.

We were very satisfied with our selections from the Kafé Neo. The gyros were quite large, and ingredients delicious. The Greek Fries were topped with Feta and came with a unique dipping sauce. I particularly enjoyed the chicken with rice Avgolemono soup. If you’re looking for either inside dining, carryout or delivery the Kafé Neo will be a good choice. Here is their website.

Our first hard cider tasting

/ Roadtirementvintage / 16 Comments

We have been exploring craft beer breweries, wineries and distilleries for quite a while. These adventures have expanded our horizons covering alcoholic drinks well beyond the local supermarket. We had the opportunity to take a new expedition into the world of Hard Ciders. We really did not know what hard cider was until we met Hammered Dwarf Cider.

Flight of four hard ciders

We found out that yes, hard cider is true cider, made with apples, but with an alcoholic kick similar to beers. The Hammered Dwarf Cider company offered several different versions. Sher and I both had a flight of ciders, four different ones.

The menu board

All of the ciders had a similar feel, ice cold, refreshing and with that little alcoholic kick. Of the four samples we liked #5, Wizard’s Elixer as one of the best. Made with different cider apples, it delivers 6.9% ABV (alcohol by volume). We also enjoyed #7 , a 7% ABV tart cherry known as Purple Hill. In addition to the ones in our flights,  we also sampled #1, the rose colored 6.6% ABV Princess Pie. This delightful hard cider that was fermented with whiskey, peach and Marion berries in a whiskey barrel.

 

This experience was very interesting and informative. We’ll now be looking for other hard cider producers and put them on our future lists of places to visit along with wineries, breweries and distilleries.

Hammered Dwarf Cider

/ Roadtirementvintage / 11 Comments

Yes, a rather bizarre name, but for a great variety of products. This afternoon we all went to a place that sells locally produced hard cider, beer and mead. The Snohomish facility is interesting, as the tasting room is small, consisting of the counter and tap wall, and menu boards. There are a couple of two person high tables inside.


Outside is a fenced in seating area. A series of pop up canopies provide shelter from the sun. Picnic tables offer seating along with those large wood wire spools that make good tables. It is interesting that the site of this cidery is at the back of a concrete plant.

Information board

More information

The Hammered Dwarf Cider is the result of 20 years of development and trails, starting in an apartment in California. Let the Hammered Dwarf website explain: “Our ciders are made with more traditional cider apples as opposed to the usual dessert and culinary apples that most cideries use, creating a unique flavor profile. Barrel aging is another way that we can distinguish ourselves from the rest.”

Sher and our grandson sitting outdoors

Two of our four flights

We ordered pizza delivered to our table

We got a couple of growlers to take home

 

 

 

 

 

Each of us (except of course our grandson who got root beer) got one of the flights of four to sample. We have never tried Hard Cider and it was fun to have our first time tasting true local craft ciders. They were very good, all having  very interesting and differing tastes. Most of the ciders were made on location, or provided by other local establishments. We found this to be a very unique local business. Pizza, craft hard cider and sharing time with family made for a delightful afternoon.

 

A real craving for fish & chips

/ Roadtirementvintage / 21 Comments

One of my absolute favorite restaurants anywhere is an opened in 1900 and verified haunted saloon in Snohomish, Washington. Sher and I first found the Oxford Saloon back in 2014 while searching for antiques.

The Oxford storefront with COVID prompted outdoor street seating

In planning for our trip to Seattle and seeing our daughter, son-in-law and grandson I knew that we’d be able to visit the Oxford Saloon, and that I’d get the chance to once again enjoy the three piece fish and chips with homemade coleslaw and fries. Well, that happened today! We decided to go to Snohomish for lunch.

My fish and chips meal

Sher’s loaded potato skins

 

 

 

 

 

The Oxford interior is filled with old framed photos, a huge suit of armor hanging from the ceiling and a mannequin of a dance hall girl standing on a ceiling mounted swing. That’s the tip of the iceberg too. Oh, by the way, The Oxford Saloon is haunted. Yes, haunted with many eyewitness accounts. Sher and I had a private tour in January 2020  right before COVID hit, and were told the stories including all about the scary cursed doll. Read about our tour here.

Behind the bar, complete with Moose

Swinging dance hall girl

BIG Knight watching you eat

The haunted doll, safe now on top of the bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really had a good time. I especially relished having my fish and chips again at my favorite place. It is fun having a favorite place so far away from our home base in Indiana. As usual, finding a parking spot was a real challenge. But patience prevailed, and after about ten minutes of driving around a spot reasonably close to the Oxford. We also learned that there will be fun Haunted Rock band every Thursday this month. Bet we’ll be back for that. This is the Oxford Saloon website.

 

 

Christa’s Sandwichboard and Wine Bar

/ Roadtirementvintage / 23 Comments

It didn’t take us long to get out and enjoy local restaurants once we got to our family’s place. Snohomish is a fun and historic small town northeast of Seattle. The main street is filled with eclectic stores, antique shops and a wide variety of eateries. Many of the restaurants put up tents on the street to accommodate COVID restrictions. Many of these remain.

Sher with our grandson across from our daughter and son-in-law. Note to tent out side in the street.

Christa’s Sandwichboard and Wine Bar has become one of our family’s favorite. Sher and I soon discovered why it’s a favorite. The sandwich menu is one of the most expansive I’ve seen. Assortments of flat breads and small plates are ready, as are cheese and meat platters.  We opted for the hot sandwich specialties.

Basil, Mozzarella & Tomato – “BMT”

The classic Reuben ala Sandwichboard

Humbolt Fog cheese, thin sliced ham w/fixin’s

Kid’s toasted cheese w/fruit & cookies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tag “Wine Bar” is included in the name of this fun facility. There was a 1/2 price sale ongoing, so you know us, we had to partake. We got a nice California red, part of the 2017 Joel Gott Wines Artist Series. Good wine!

Comfortable dining with fun decor

This was a delightful place to eat, the service was great and the food delicious. It was so nice to have supper with our Washington family again. It doesn’t get any better than being with family, does it?

 

Tulip tree mysterious growth

/ Roadtirementvintage / 19 Comments

Last spring  (2020) the state DNR offered free tree saplings. We got some, including Tulip poplars.  The Tulip tree is the State tree of Indiana. We planted three, and they have done very well, and have grown from sapling size to about 4 feet tall.

May 28, 2020

September 6, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve noticed some interesting growth on the trees. On the trunks are single individual leaflets. They are close together, one on top of the other and on opposite sides of the trunk. I have never seen anything like this. Any foresters out there that can explain if this growth is normal in Tulip tree growth?

Never seen growth like this…

Tulip trees were plentiful in the hardwood forests of the Midwest prior to European settlement. The trees were harvested for railroad ties and fenceposts, so state some historical records. George Washington planted Tulip trees on his Mt. Vernon estate. Growing to 90 feet in height with large diameter trunks, the poplar trees provided excellent quality lumber. They do flower when mature, but the flowers are in the tops of the trees so are hard to see.

Cheesy bean enchiladas

/ Roadtirementvintage / 21 Comments

Tonight we had something we hadn’t made before. We love eating at the Mexican Restaurant, but wanted to try fixing something ourselves. Besides, it’s a lot cheaper making our own. It is surprisingly easy and delicious.

One bag of tortillas, we had the 10 pack, but only used 8. We used a 9×12 baking dish sprayed with pam. Mixed 1 can of refried beans and 1/2 jar of cheeze whiz ( I know, but it is good). We used 2 cans of enchilada red sauce, putting a little in bottom of baking dish and a little in the bean and cheese mixture. Then spooned the mixture onto the tortillas and wrapped them, so 8 fit in the dish. Then covered them with the rest of the enchilada sauce. Sprinkled on some Mexican shredded cheese. Baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Next time we will make some Mexican rice to go with it. All in all, we were pleased and added some wine (Alley Cat from a local winery) to our dinner and we had a nice dinner.

Our backyard bird feeders are back in service

/ Roadtirementvintage / 32 Comments

Hummingbirds are so amazing!

In May 2021 some species of songbirds began to be afflicted with a deadly disease of some kind. This started in Virginia and moved west. Indiana birds began to die in late May and by early June the Indiana Department of Natural Resources put out the warning to stop all bird feeding in private yards. We posted about that. We both really missed our almost daily birdwatching time our back.

By the first week in August the DNR published the news that 76 out of Indiana’s 92 counties were bird disease free, and could resume the use of bird feeders.

Our cute little Nuthatch is back

We soon refilled our two seed feeders, and also refilled our hummingbird feeder. (DNR also had said to stop using hummingbird feeders as well.) It has been a couple of weeks since we started feeding our avian friends again, and slowly lots of the birds are coming back to our yard. We haven’t seen all of the species we had seen before the “lockdown”, but perhaps that is to be expected. We are grateful that we can again enjoy birding from our backyard swing!