I was introduced to Trinacria over a decade ago by my friend Amanda. She has given me many gifts over the years, but this is the one that keeps on giving. Trinacria is, hands-down, my very favorite restaurant in Olympia.

Trinacria is not flashy, but its beauty really is in the details. You almost always must have a reservation. Not that you always need one (I’ve rarely seen it completely packed), but, I imagine, because they like to know how many mouths to feed. I also feel like it creates a bit of exclusivity, which never hurts.

You also need cash or a local check….they do not take cards of any kind. But they will wait for you to run to the ATM down the street if you forget.

I may or may not know this from experience(s).

There are sweet little paintings all around and an original Nikki McClure paper cutting when you first walk in the door (and may I just tell you it’s right next door to a spot that is infamous in my life for being the place where I got my one-and-only tattoo when I was eighteen? I have a little grin every time I eat here.). The tables -of which there are less than ten – have simple paper place mats and are each set neatly with Fiestaware and Duralex glasses from France…just like at my house. Your wine gets served in the smallest-sized glass by Duralex, which is simply a small juice glass. Love! I have taken to drinking wine from these glasses at home, too, and I would love to get rid of my stemware, but Mr. Fresh Scratch keeps holding on.

There is instrumental music playing that feels very appropriate, and the lights are always very, very dim, with the brightest spot easily being the twinkle lights around the front – and only – window. A waitress greets you at the door and seats you, and they always are so sweet and so….Olympia.

The menu had not changed for about twenty years, but in the last year it got taken up a notch, going from being a laminated, single sheet, to a finely letter-pressed, single-fold menu with the addition of a few items, including a couple of Napolese pizzas. When Mr. Fresh Scratch and I ate there last week for the eleventh anniversary of our first date, we spent a good amount of time ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the new menu. It was printed at the local Sherwood Press, which is the same place where our wedding invitations were printed. It was so fancy!

So what’s on this gorgeous menu? Classic Sicilian fare. Trinacria does not make anything that is not amazing. Cute little knots of bread land on the table around the time that the wine arrives (I always get the house red, which is from Montepulciano and is delish). There’s a classic Caprese salad that will knock your socks off. It has no balsalmic vinegar on it, which I appreciate. I think it ruins the flavor of the basil and everything else, plus, during a month in Italy no one ever put balsalmic vinegar on anything I ate. Ever. There is lasagana that’s to die for, gnocchi (this is where I ate it for the first time), rigatoni, and spaghetti with hollow noodles. One of my favorites is the cheese tortellini, which is so freshly made and light. There are two choices for sauces, which are ragu (with meat) or pomodoro (without and heavy on fresh tomatoes).

The stars, I feel, are the Sicilian pizzas, which are what we here call a calzone. It’s nearly impossible to finish one, but they are so indescribably amazing. There are about five combinations to choose from as far as fillings go, and the one with eggplant and mozzerella is my favorite.

The very simple salad comes after the meal and is very authentic. It’s a small plate of simple greens dressed with a basic vinagriette. No frills. I love it.

For dessert there are only two choices, but it’s so hard to choose: tiramisu or cannoli. I lean slightly toward the tiramisu. And if you know which one you’ll be having that night, make your request to set it aside when you call for your reservation. One small pan of tiramisu is made the night before, and there are only n-i-n-e coveted pieces in the pan. Nine, folks. Don’t be the sad person who gets told, “We ran out.” You can imagine I have learned this the hard way!

The owner and chef, Eugenio, is a huge part of Trinacria’s charm. He comes out from the kitchen (which you walk through on the way to the bathroom) and into the dining area multiple times during an evening, always looking sharp: clean white t-shirt and a very crisp white apron around his waist every time. He is the most fit Italian cook I’ve ever seen. He seems a little shy, but always loves to chat in his thick Sicilian accent, gesticulating with his hands.

In the past, when we used to bring Teensy there, he’d seat us at the family table back in the kitchen. We loved it because we didn’t have to worry about her disturbing the guests on their romantic dates out front, yet we still got to enjoy our favorite place. She loved it because we could watch him and another cook in the kitchen, plus Eugenio would serve her a little bowl of pasta, corn, and cream, which I noticed is now on the menu as “The Eugenio.” Saying hello to him is definitely something I look forward to each time.

But not quite as much as the tiramisu. Almost.

If you’re new to my Monday Meal Madness, please click here to read how I plan my meals each week.

Grocery lists handy?

Good job!

The past week has mostly been inadvertantly full of vegetarian meals out our house, but you could easily throw some meat into any of these dishes.

You may have noticed that Mr. Fresh Scratch has a soft spot for macaroni and trees (macaroni and cheese with broccoli).

Good observation!

He was at it again this week.

And you may have noticed I’ve been on quite a pizza kick lately. My, how keen you are!

And you’d be right.  I have been working my way through the pizza section of The Working Parents Cookbook: More Than 200 Recipes for Great Family Meals. This past week I made a heavenly pizza with “the works.” Goooood night, it was amazing. The house smelled like a real pizza joint – like “Green Onion Pizza,” the place we had in my little town where I grew up in Connecticut. I used gruyere instead of the usual mozzarella or cheddar, and I topped it with green peppers, mushrooms, sliced onions (only on half), and browned chorizo and sweet Italian sausage (casings removed before browing).  If you’re opposed to meat on a pizza, you could easily leave the meat off and it’d be just as tasty.

As always, I make my pizza dough from this recipe by my friend Stacee. It’s very hands-off and way easy.

Next time, I’ll throw some sliced black olives on top. I absolutely do not know what I was thinking – leaving a pizza called “the works” without black olives! I must’ve used too much hair product that day.

You can spy a bit of cheese pizza there, too. Yes, that would be me catering to my kids. You know we all do it sometimes.

Yes, even you.

Don’t look at me like that.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to see our local theatre company’s production of “Good Night Moon.” Sooo funny and so sweet. It was Teensy-Weensy’s first time. Three is a magical age for going to see things on stage at last. By the time we got home, it was almost bedtime, and everyone was hungry.

I quickly sliced and diced and put it all together to meld…voila! Panzanella, or “bread salad.” I had some nice bread I’d let go stale for this very purpose. It was amazing and easy. I used a recipe from my trusty cookbook, My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness, as my guide. We had a little cheese on the side to fill in the blanks for protein. But I think next time I’d cook up some canellini beans or some garbanzo beans, chill them, and throw them into the salad.

Or you could slice up some salami and toss it in.

Mr. Fresh Scratch scoured all kinds of specialty shops for won-ton wrappers yesterday and then made homemade ravioli with them. In theory, it’s great, but in reality…they are slimy. A good try, Mr.! The filling was divine.

Have you tried cooking something that didn’t turn out quite as you’d planned lately? Tell me about it in the comments below!

I’ve managed to stumble through another week and make it to Friday. Holla’!

When I find myself falling asleep while trying to keep up with the reading for my own English class (of which I am the teacher, for Pete’s sake!), I know it’s time for the weekend. Hello, Friday! Hello, three-day weekend! Hello, my garden: you are about to get some serious attention!

And hello to you!

I’m linking up my week in cell phone pictures here:

Do you use Instagram? If so, follow me at kellisamson. It will be a beautiful friendship.

Last Friday was pretty much one of the best in eons.

So, that’s me, being adventurous at the salon. I told my hairdresser that my color needed some punch. Only I didn’t describe it as “punch.” I pretty much just sat there with the word on the end of my tongue until I blurted, “Just make my hair be as crazy as my insides!”

Oookay.

Lucky for me, she thinks I’m not too wacky.

But that’s what I look like with my curls all brushed out! I’ve got some big hair, people.

So, reason #1 why the latter part of last Friday was good: new hair.

Reason #2: I read that entire “People” magazine cover to cover.

Here are the results, though you can’t see all the red through my effects on the picture. My hair is now below my shoulder blades, after four years of working toward my goal.

My goal is to have Julia Roberts’ hair from “Mystic Pizza.”

You’ve gotta embrace what you’re given.

So now I have all of this blonde and strawberry blond and these huge chunks of red ribboning around in my hair. And some leftover brown.

It took some getting used to.

Ten or so more inches to go…..

Reason #3 why last Friday was stellar: While I was at the aforementioned hairdresser, I got a very important email that I had not been expecting.

At all.

And it was a good one.

That does not happen enough!

As some of you may have noticed this week, my blog has received ads at the bottom of the postings. Hopefully this is not too annoying for you!

This is a big deal because my blog is still too small for ads. But…

…Someone has been following its growth, and it looks promising enough that they took a chance on me.

Hence, the bottle of wine. I had to celebrate as soon as I got home, and this cute label seemed perfect to toast to my little baking blog.

Cheers!

Later that night I toasted lots more at Swing Wine Bar with my ladies Emily, Carie, and Chris. Thanks, girls!

I love Fridays.

My dear friend Marie and I have a barter system going. She paints any items I want painted (painting is the devil), and I bake for her. This time she requested a banana cake with honey frosting for her birthday. Those are banana chips on top.

Happy Birthday, Marie! Hope it was fab!

Aww. Here’s Teensy. This was the afternoon after  her first slumber party. Her Girl Scout troop camped out in her leader’s yard.

Fifteen girls.

What a brave leader.

She asked for a couple of moms to sleepover, too. I stayed far away from volunteering for that one!

By dinner time the next night, Teensy was an inconsolable mess. She can’t even remember anything from that first night home. Five hours of sleep for a girl who usually gets 11 apparently will do that.

Ahh, what I have to look forward to in the years to come…

Mr. Fresh Scratch and I snuck out for our annual May 23rd date at our favorite local restaurant, Trinacria. We have gone there for years to celebrate the anniversary of our first date, which now was eleven years ago.

This year was particularly special because my girls understood the significance of that first date. They wanted to hear all about it. Teensy said, “If you hadn’t said yes, we wouldn’t be here!”

My parents were divorced, so I never got to hear the story of their first date, etc, until I asked as an adult. It’s really fun and new and different to celebrate an anniversary with my family. I love it.

Anyway, that’s my salad. It comes at the end of the meal there. It (along with the calzone, house red, tiramisu, and my date) was fantastico.

The last eleven years have been (mostly) fantastico, too.

Teensy had “Cool Day” at school yesterday. She knew the sunglasses were cool, but had no idea what to wear.

I love it. She is growing up!

And I am getting old. Those rubbery glasses were cool when I was in middle school. As were neon colors.

Save me.

I refuse to wear all that again.

She and I had a date yesterday afternoon. Part of it included grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s because she never eats most of her lunch from home at school, so I wanted her to help me pick things out that she’d want to eat. You know, now that there’s one month left of school.

What a novel idea.

While we were there, she found Sasquatch! He’s always hiding, and if a kid finds him, she gets a treat and gets to hide him again. It was our lucky week, as Teensy-Weensy found him a few days before.

She found him in the noodles, then hid him in the dried figs…wayyyyy back. So far back, in fact, that I had to ask her to pull him forward a bit.

She wanted to really give some short person a challenge.

Moral to the story: if you’re going to TJ’s with your kid today, look in the dried figs.

I had bought an Amazon Local Deals coupon-thingy to a new coffee house that has opened up on my side of town, and I figured it’d be the perfect date with Teensy to go check it out.

Locals: Dino’s Coffee House is awesome!

It was all new and clean and spacious and cute. It’s in a little bungalow, and it totally, totally, reminds me of The Coffee House, which is where I worked in college.

It felt so good to be there.

The owners are young and nice and really great with kids. And they had amazing pastries and cupcakes and drinks. Teensy wanted this rainbow cupcake with Nerds on top. She is a huge Nerds fan.

I interviewed her there, in exchange for said cupcake. More on that later. It was very enlightening!

How about you? How was your week? Tell me the best part in the comments below.

Good.

It’s time to jot a few meal ideas down!

Now that my husband has a new camera for work, I realize how inadequate mine is in comparison. Either that, or I must face-up to the fact that food does not necessarily have to be visually pleasing in order to taste out-of-this-world amazing.

And these homemade veggie burgers were just that: out-of-this-world-amazing!

Who’d have thought?

Mr. Fresh Scratch, in an effort to harmonize with our children in many ways as of late, decided to meet them where they are; and where they are is in a place in their little world where ground beef is disgusting. As former children ourselves who would have happily eaten a cheeseburger for every meal, we do not understand this aversion. Rather than try yet another burger recipe out, the Mr. decided to cater to them.

He made these from a recipe in what has truly become a favorite cookbook in the last year at our house, My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness. The bulk of the work came from cooking black beans and cooking up some rice, both of which you could shortcut on with cans/packaged items. They were amazing….and we didn’t even have ketchup at our house that night!

The kids, however….well, they thought they were not-so-amazing.

{sigh}

When I was speaking of unappetizing meals up there, this is primarily the meal I was thinking of. Meet the chicken divan recipe from The Comfort Table. I think what made this baby look so unappealing was the presence of red wine in what is traditionally a very non-red dish. It turned it the slightest hue of pink. Ewww.

But….It was stunningly delicious. Total comfort food. I would definitely make it again. Teensy gobbled it up. And – here’s a weird trick for you – Teensy-Weensy gobbled it up after I sprinkled cinnamon on it. Not the meat, mind you {never the meat!}, but at least she ate the broccoli and rice.

Chicken divan and I go way back. This is one of the first meals I knew how to make, back in college. My roommate Katie got the recipe from her grandma. You know, one of those recipes that involves a little help from a can of Campbell’s Soup?  Yes. It added to our repertoire of burritos, teriyaki chicken with Yoshida’s sauce, brunches, banana bread, and pumpkin pie. I can remember making it whenever we had friends over. It was how we got fancy in the kitchen.

I can tell you with confidence that it is quicker to make the version with the Campbell’s soup, but I hope you will go the distance and try it from scratch!

Mmmm. This was so good. So good. And vegetarian!

My best guy friend from college, Scotty, and his lovely wife Regan made a last-minute trip to our house over the weekend, as they are house-hunting for a big move up from Astoria “Home-of-”The Goonies,” Oregon. Yay! Mr. Fresh Scratch made what he called enchiladas. I don’t know what I call them, other than scrumptious!

He mashed some black beans, fried up some green peppers and corn and tomatoes, slapped it all together, put some cheese on it, and baked it.

Since we suddenly had a reason to get festive, my husband started googling margarita recipes, to which I said, “Umm, what are you doing? Didn’t we spend all last spring concocting the perfect margarita for the blog? Hel-LO!?” So the trusty recipe did not fail us, but rather helped us all to succeed in being very joyful and exuberant.

You know; more so than your average Saturday night.

I love margaritas. In case you didn’t know.

And this is what I spent the greater part of Sunday afternoon making: The Pioneer Woman’s Taco Pizza. I don’t think it was intended to take so long, but I make my crust from scratch, and I also made the refried beans. And then there was the matter of baking some taco strips to put on top. This easily could be much faster with some store-bought crust, a can of refried beans, and a bag of Fritos.

My afternoon was well spent, though, since every.single.person. in my family gobbled up their pizza.

Every single one!

Score!

PS: What you didn’t see here was an awesome baked ham dinner I made with cherry preserves on top and mashed potatoes and salad on the side. I did something I never do, which was to be spontaneous, and called my older brother and his girls to invite them over for dinner “in a half an hour.” Know what? They showed up! We had a wonderful meal, great conversation, and no leftovers. I loved it so much that I forgot to take a picture. Just think of Norman Rockwell, okay? Yep, that’s what it was like.

What’s on your menu this week?

And it’s like they tag team; “Hey! I will go downstairs and say I am scared. Then you say you need water after I’ve been in bed for about ten minutes. We’ll do this for a couple of hours. Then, at 4 am, I will go tell her what I’m worried about. Then, at 4:45 am, you go in and say your nose hurts and insist on snuggling. Yeah! High five!”

Have I mentioned lately how badly I need a weekend away?

Well, this won’t be the weekend; lots of baking orders to fill and friends coming in from out of town.

But this post is not about this weekend; it’s about the last week!

I’m linking up here:

If you are on instagram, follow me! I’m kellisamson.

Ahhh, Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day, I love you.

I slept in.

I read in bed.

I took a leisurely shower.

I came down to this lovely breakfast, none of which was made by moi (thanks, hon!). Some cards were awaiting me, and one of those special little gifts only your child could have made…at school.

My mother-in-law came bearing a new re-usable shopping bag {I now officially have way. too. many. Need a shopping bag?} and this.

This little bit of heaven.

Hello, Sandra Bullock. You look like my friend Shannon would if she had blonde hair.

Goodbye, MCA. “Intergalactic Planetary” will forever be the anthem of my college days, dancing at our one-and-only dance club until it closed many mornings a week.

I read this cover-to-cover, uninterrupted, on my deck after painting my toenails on Mother’s Day. Do you know that I love Mother’s Day?

At one point, Teensy-Weensy, who is three, came running out into the backyard so fast she did not notice me. I watched her swing and smile up at the trees and talk to the dog and giggle.

She didn’t see me.

That was the best moment of my Mother’s Day.

It is such a gift to get to watch your child when they think no one is looking and to be pleased at what you see.

Another best moment on Mother’s Day: Mr. Fresh Scratch handed me one of his five hundred million Starbucks cards and told me to skedaddle in my freshly-washed car. So I finally tried a Passion Tea (yum!) and rocked out to some very early Foo Fighters on 107.7 The End, which is an institution of radio.

Did you watch “The Real World: Seattle” back in the days when we were much, much younger?

This is the radio station where they worked.

And it pretty much sticks to the golden days of grunge and 90′s alternative rock.

I love you, 107.7 The End!

So I was that mom on Mother’s Day, driving to the craft store in my station wagon with the windows down and music blaring which did not match the car. {giggle}

My two girlfriends and I snuck out that afternoon for some window shopping downtown and a glass of vino. It was hot. I felt so carefree.

I saw this awesome sign in the window of my favorite store, The Compass Rose.

Here is my Mother’s Day bouquet. I know everyone says this, but I love Gerbera Daisies!

Last year I took a very, very similar photo of this very bush on my walk to work. I couldn’t resist again yesterday. It’s some sort of hydrangea tree/bush.

I love all the shades of green.

Last  night I stayed up too late, writing a recommendation letter for a student and baking and telling my kids to get back in bed until it was nearly time for me to go to bed.

And then it was past time for me to go to bed. Sigh.

But I had an accompanying soundtrack, which was the Counting Crows Pandora Station. I like to listen to this when Mr. Fresh Scratch is out {which he was – out playing music with a friend} and sing and dance around and text my old friends that I am thinking of them.

“Lightning Crashes,” by Live (who I saw in concert like three times back in the day; Shara and I even followed their tour bus after a concert until it stopped and…nobody emerged. Dang.) came on. Such a beautiful song. But I always get a little embarrassed when I hear it because once I dedicated it to someone over the radio when I was 18. The radio guy was like, “Why would you dedicate this song?”

I hear you now, radio guy.

Youth is a funny thing. But somewhere locked inside of me, truly not too far in there, is that same girl. No matter how old I am, I will always carry her around. Sometimes she comes out to rock out while baking cookies in her kitchen.

How about you? Did you ever make a dedication on the radio? Do they even do that anymore?!

“The Tourist”: This movie was, in one word, fun. I can’t believe more people haven’t seen it! Just to start off and prove my credibility, it was nominated for three big Golden Globes in 2012 (Depp: Best Actor, Jolie: Best Actress, and Best Motion Picture, people!).

Why did I add it to my Netflix queue? It was because of Venice. The city of Venice is a major player in this movie, and she is a beauty. The previews showed our characters glamorously zipping around the canals in old wooden boats, and I knew I would just love it. And I did absolutely, 100% adore it. I once spent three days in Venice with Mr. Fresh Scratch, mom-and-father-in-law Fresh Scratch, and Teensy. Teensy was very sick most of the time, though, and we were all tired after a month abroad. Plus, the crowds were enormous (Italy in the summer is not recommended, travelers!). Even though I feel like I got to see a lot of cool stuff in the city (hellllooo, 150-Euro night-time gondola ride through a brewing thunderstorm!), there just was not as much carefree exploration as I had hoped. This movie actually filled in a lot of blanks for me, as far as Venice goes.

So, aside from a virtual vacation to Venice, what does this movie offer? Well, it offers Johnny Depp, first of all. He so often plays larger-than-life characters, so it was so entertaining and endearing to see him as a fumbling American school teacher who somehow found himself mixed up with the character played by Angelina Jolie. She is somewhat of a spy, a character who used to catch spies but found herself in love with the biggest wanted man of all. She’s being followed everywhere by British agents who want their man, and they think she will slip-up and lead them to her.

It may all sound a little bit Jason Bourne-esque, but, truly, hilarity ensues. The two of them were delightful together, and the film has some major twists. It reminded me of a 1980′s romantic caper. We don’t see enough of these types of films. Well, at least I don’t.

Have you tried these bags?

After years of using another brand of compostable bags in our kitchen garbage can and in our kitchen compost container, I had had it with Mr. Fresh Scratch’s complaints. Inevitably, he would go to take the garbage out every two weeks to the same tune, “*(^*(^$! The bag split again! I hate these bags!”

I would wince and say something about how they were the only biodregradeable bag I could find at the store. I was starting to get worried he was going to insist on going back to “the regular kind” in an effort to make his life easier.

But then I went to a different store (Bayview Thriftway, for you locals) and happened upon this brand: World Centric. Check them out; they are a business with very reassuring values.

I now buy their “Yard Waste” (33 gallon) size for our kitchen garbage can (so there’s over-hang) and the “Trash Bag” (3 gallon) size for our compost bucket (again, so there’s over-hang). They are awesome because they are slightly thicker than the brand we used to use, and it seems to be the difference between aluminum and steel. They are a little bit more expensive, but not much.

I’m not getting paid by them to say these things, by the way; it has just been so nice to have no complaints on trash night that I had to share!