Namaste

How was your weekend?  I felt like I was bouncing around each day, but it was all fun stuff so no complaints here.  Saturday morning I woke up and the sun was shining through my window, so I decided to head down to the Olympic Sculpture Park for the Summer at SAM free outdoor yoga series.  I've been a few times this year and every time I finish class I wonder to myself why I'm not doing yoga every single day.  It makes me feel so rejuvenated and refreshed yet strong and balanced, and my mind is always clear and calm after an hour long practice.  I think it's about time to start incorporating some more classes into my daily routine - feeling that good and centered is definitely not a bad thing :)

Hope you had a fun and relaxing weekend!

xoxo,
stephanie marie

Blue Friday!

It's football time!!!  To me, there's nothing better than wearing my jersey on Friday and watching the boys play on Sunday - it makes me insanely happy :)  I'm incredibly pumped for this season, and I'm so excited that I once again get to accompany Leslie to opening day at the CLink!  I'll be cheering as loud as I can from the stands - I think it's going to be a great season and I can't wait for it to get started!  Hopefully you're wearing your blue today and are just as excited as I am.  In the words of a very wise man...... GO HAWKS!!!

xoxo,
stephanie marie

Corn Chowder

Every winter I look at one of my favorite cookbooks, My Father's Daughter, to look for soup recipes and every year I see Gwyneth's Corn Chowder and think that I need to remember to make it in the summer when the corn is fresh.  Since Labor Day was a bit cloudy and rainy this year, I decided a summer soup would be perfect, and since I've really been wanting to get back into cooking, a lazy long weekend was the perfect opportunity.  This soup was super easy to put together - just some chopping and simmering - but had tons of flavor and was perfect paired with a small side salad.  When I heated up the leftovers I added a splash more of milk to make it not as thick, but other than that the soup was just what I needed to hang on to summer a little bit longer while welcoming in my favorite season, Fall.

Corn Chowder

Ingredients
2 slices bacon, finely diced
2 medium shallots, peeled and finely diced
1/2 large yellow onion, diced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Kernels from 6 fresh ears of corn, cobs reserved
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups Vegetable Stock
1 cup milk

Instructions
1. Cook bacon in large soup pot over medium heat until beginning to brown.  Add shallots, onion, thyme, and bay leaf and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add corn kernels, salt and pepper, stirring together and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add stock, milk, and a few corn cobs, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer about 30 minutes until corn is cooked through.
4. Remove corn cobs.  With immersion blender, blend just a portion of soup to thicken {alternately, you can ladle out about 1 cup of soup and blend in regular blender, then return to soup}.
4.  Season with salt and pepper and serve topped with more thyme or other herbs.

Serves 4

adapted from My Father's Daughter

xoxo,
stephanie marie

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis {Bumbershoot}

When Leslie asked me a while back if I wanted to go to Bumbershoot with her to see Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, I only had to think about it for 2 seconds before saying yes.  I was so bummed that I hadn't gotten to see them the last time they were in town and I knew that they would put on a pretty amazing hometown show to close out summer.  We met up for some beers and dinner beforehand then headed to Memorial Stadium at the Seattle Center to get some good seats and settle in.  When the sun went down the show began and it was one of the most fun concerts I've been to in a long time.  You can tell they have the best time up there rapping and dancing and wearing the most insane costumes, and everyone in the audience, young and old, were having a blast.  Even the Seahawks came out at the end of their theme song "Can't Hold Us" {Suze - I kept wishing you were there to dance with me!} and threw footballs into the crowd!  These guys have so much love for the city they come from and it's so awesome to hear them rapping about things like the Mariners and streets in Seattle that so define this place.  And dancing around and singing like a crazy person was a pretty great way for me to enjoy the last days of summer :)  Thanks for taking me Leslie - it really was a heck of a show!

 met up with my friend ryan who was manning the cameras for the festival {awesome shot by leslie}

 the infamous thrifted fur coat

 russell!!

 see what i mean about the costumes?

 ryan lewis!

a terrible video of my favorite song :)

xoxo,
stephanie marie

Go Rams! Errrr.......

Friday night, after getting to leave work early to start the long weekend off right, I headed down to The Dock in Fremont to join my fellow Rams in watching CSU take on CU in the annual Rocky Mountain Showdown.  With a very small Buffs contingent across the bar, about 35 Rammies still showed up to cheer on our boys in their first game of the season.  Even though this game is typically extremely tough and competitive, the Rams couldn't seem to step up at all and ended up losing big time to CU {UGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!}.  Despite the loss, I got to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones {someone that even lived in my dorm the year before me!} while we drowned our sorrows in beers and jello shots.  Let's hope the Rams can bring it a little more when I head out to see them in just a few weeks!

Go Rams!

xoxo,
stephanie marie

Happy {Labor Day} Weekend

Happy Long Weekend!  What are you up to this weekend?  I have plans for some football watchin', some concert goin', and a lot of sleepin' in.  Sounds pretty great, right?  I know it's going to be a very busy fall so I'm trying to take advantage of these weekends I have at home to get stuff done - but also be a bit lazy :)  Now if only the sunshine would come back for a little bit......

Have a great weekend!

xoxo,
stephanie marie

Afternoon at the Ballpark

Last week I got a text from the bro asking if I could take the next afternoon off to head down to Safeco to watch the M's take on the Yankees.  Since I didn't have anything super pressing at work and it was about 90 degrees out, I happily accepted :)  His work had awesome seats for the day, but we spent most of the game wandering around the stadium drinking beers and finding empty sections to chill in and take in the beautiful day.  I even managed to snag us some for-kids-only Mariner Moose piggy-banks!  I love spending time with my bro just the two of us - he's one of my best buddies and I always laugh the hardest with him.  Even though the M's lost {shocking}, I'll always jump at the chance to spend some time with my brother whenever he calls :)

xoxo,
stephanie marie