Photos, Baked Cod, Beet Follow-up

The weather has been amazing. In what I interpret to be a very Western weather pattern, we've had bright, bright sunshine, but it remains chilly until noon or a little later. Then the cool gives way to the warmth and it's gaw-geous til sundown, when we get back down into the 40s and 50s. But, even at 72°, the shade feels quite cold. Maybe this is related to humidity, or lack thereof? The air is more fickle? I feel like the heat hits earlier and harder in the East. Better staying power. Regardless, it has been lovely. I hope the summer is similar.

I have more photos to share from our walks by the water---they might be a little redundant to my Easter post since we walk the same path in the same place, but it's an important stretch for us. We go there a lot! And the greenery is ever changing. 

Grassy knoll hides the city

The weaving path is punctuated by cool art installations. You'll just have to trust me on this.

Olympic Peninsula. Forks is thataway, Twilight fans. O'er the mountains.

Best Mt. Rainier visibility to date. Zero to 14,411ft in 54 miles. Hoo-boy!

I'm also loving how, as the skies clear out, we get different views of the snow peaks that surround us. For example, when driving over various hills in town, what I understood to be nothing more than A View of the Neighborhood turns out to be A Lovely Snowy Mountainscape. Such a nice surprise! The effect is similar to snow days; however briefly, we get to experience an environmental makeover. I hope the snow stays on the mountains through the summer so our guests can see them too.

On to food:

With the warm weather, I feel motivated to cook lighter foods. This time I made baked cod with vegetables... it was a real Spa Dinner. I told Edwin, "It'll be so healthy, we'll feel like we haven't eaten anything at all!" ...He pointed out that, for people on a budget, perhaps "empty" dinners of this sort aren't the best idea. Oh well! It wasn't empty in terms of, like, nutrition.

I lined up some asparagus on our toaster oven tray and drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper.

Little green soldiers

Then I put the cod fillets on top of the asparagus and scattered it with thinly sliced garlic, shallots, and halved cherry tomatoes.

This is one pound of "true cod." Fit for four modest servings.

Then I added lemon wedges and thyme...

Prettier by the minute

And, lastly, I drizzled the fish with olive oil and dotted it with tiny tiny bits of butter. If I'd had an open bottle of white wine, I would have sprinkled a little of that on the fish as well.

This is how it looked after 15-20 minutes of baking in the toaster oven, 400°.

AKA about the same as before

Toasty garlic = yum

It tasted great, and I was right: felt like we hadn't eaten anything at all! More room for ice cream, I suppose.

Beet Follow-up

They've been sitting in the pickling liquid for six days and taste great, though crispier than I was expecting (because I didn't roast them long enough?). I'm going to let them sit in the liquid a while longer so they can reach optimum deliciousness. 

It takes a particular constitution to withstand a week of sugar and vinegar and still look this perfect. Or perhaps it's vanity. Is this why some refer to beets as "Diva Bulbs"?