Cirrus – Riveted

Cooking with Jake

Laura Domela — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 22:36:25 +0000

Last week we flew down to San Jose for work, and then continued on down to San Diego to spend a few days visiting our good friends Jake and Patti. I've known Jake and Patti since I was 20 years old (so, you know, not that long), and Kevin's known them since he's known me. They were the two witnesses at our wedding (in our living room in Portland, in 1997, along with Kevin's daughters) and it was so nice to get to hang with them for a few days.

We flew into Carlsbad, CA. The flight through the Los Angeles airspace was strangely smooth with little traffic ("Where IS everyone?"). ATC routed us right down the coast from Seal Beach to Carlsbad…gorgeous!

Jake and I both really like to cook (remember, camping with the sous vide?), and we spent two of our four days in San Diego cooking up two different multi-course dinners (we've done this before). We planned two nights' worth of menus and went to work!

Dinner No. 1

Appetizer: figs stuffed with blue cheese, wrapped in prosciutto

First course: salmon, sorrel, and mustard, wrapped in filo dough and topped with sorrel cream sauce (delicious, I'm totally making this again):

Main course: filet of beef tenderloin, foie, with parmesan truffled zucchini noodles:

Dessert was a custard bread pudding cut into a little circle, edges wrapped in prosciutto and filled with melon "caviar" (oh yeah, we did a little molecular gastronomy too). Here's how this dessert looks in the cookbook (we modified it, of course, so ours looked a little different):

Dinner No. 2:

The next night, we decided to invite some friends over (since we'd gotten a practice run in) so we had more people to cook for. Another long-time friend of mine lives in San Diego with her husband Mike, and they were our second night guinea pigs dinner guests.

We served several amuse-bouches out on the patio with a prosecco. The first bite was a strawberry stuffed with whipped cream, smoked salmon, and horseradish (flavor bomb!). Next, a Carlsbad oyster with a classic champagne/vinegar/shallot/pepper mignonette, and some of the leftover melon caviar from the night before.

I was skeptical about the Carlsbad oysters (that's all they had at the market), but they were delicate and great. The next amuse was a mozzarella ball sphere (more molecular gastronomy), a dehydrated tomato, with a basil leaf and a drop of good balsamic vinegar.

You make these by mixing up some fresh mozzarella, some of the water from the fresh mozzarella container, along with some chemical that I don't remember, into a liquid that's the consistency of drinking yogurt. Then you prepare a cold water bath mixed with another chemical I don't remember, and slowly drop small amounts of the mozzarella mixture into this bath.

After about 4 minutes you very gently turn the blobs over without ruining them (this is difficult, but I got really good at it), and after another 4 minutes, you remove them with a slotted spoon and put them into a plain cold water bath. You end up with these really cool spheres of mozzarella that are tight on the outside, and like soft cheese on the inside. The flavor of the dehydrated tomato is so intense, and this is a beautiful little course:

We moved inside to the dining table and served one last small course: a cup of gazpacho soup with a spicy corn relish. I didn't mange to take a photo, but it was pretty. We had fun figuring out all the plating options for the different courses, and it was very handy that Jake has a chef friend across the street with all sorts of fabulous little dishes we were able to borrow.

The next course was probably my favorite. We made a clam linquine, where some of the noodles were regular linguine, and some were made out of clam juice and soy sauce (and those were black). You mix the clam juice and soy sauce, heat in a pan with a bit of some other MG chemical I don't remember the name of, and with a syringe, suck the liquid into a piece of rubber tubing. Then, you immerse the tube(s) into a bowl of ice water for a few minutes, and then use the syringe to blow the "noodle" out the end of the tube. It was crazy cool, but we soon realized that to do this more efficiently we'd need a lot of tubes, and larger diameter ones. (This is the realization that caused us to add standard pasta to this dish, but it turned out great having the contrast of light and dark noodles.)

The sauce was a clam, cream, garlic, wine sauce, and we steamed some fresh Manila clams in white wine and garlic to go along side:

The main course was duck confit with a red wine reduction, roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes, and a cold green bean, tomato, and cotija cheese salad. I didn't get a photo, because that's what happens when you multitask. You forget to do things. It was pretty, and tasty though. Trust me.

For dessert, Kevin made his delicious maple bacon bourbon ice cream, served with a salted carmel and dark chocolate cookie, and we paired it with a great Port that our friends Tee and Mike brought over. We all had such a fun evening…good food and lots of laughs (LOTS of laughs!) (No photo of the ice cream either, sorry.)

On Sunday we said goodbye and headed back up the coast toward home. We decided to continue on up to Anacortes for the night, so on Sunday we flew pretty much the entire West Coast of the United States (about 6 hours, one fuel stop in Red Bluff). Pretty sweet!

View from dinner in Anacortes:

Orcas Island with Tiffani and Deke

Laura Domela — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 00:55:17 +0000

Today we busted out the flying RV to go say goodbye (temporarily) to two of the coolest people we know. Tiffani and Deke are moving from Whidbey Island to North Carolina, and although we're happy for them, we're bummed for ourselves. We love these guys!

We flew up to Whidbey Island to pick them up and take them flying (and we got to see Kyle again, too! — Kyle stayed at our house for the several weeks we were in Italy, but we only got to see him for two days when we were home before he headed North.)

Taking off in Portland (this is what happens in photos when the prop is going around):

The flight up to Whidbey was incredible. We could see Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Jefferson all at the same time. Crazy!

Mt. Adams behind Mt. St. Helens, off the wing:

Flying into Oak Harbor. This runway is 3200 feet, but look how narrow it is…it's only 25ft wide (with a 1.6% downward slope the direction we were landing). It's there, right off the wing, running perpendicular to the shoreline (Tiffani took this photo when we came back, so I'm cheating and putting it out of order):

We were greeted enthusiastically at the Oak Harbor airport by Tiffani and Deke and Kyle. See the three of 'em there? (This photo was taken after the waving and jumping up and down had stopped):

"Take Tiffani and Deke flying" was still on our "Things To Do with Tiffani and Deke" list and we're SO happy we got to do this before they left! It was a blast!

We headed up to Orcas Island and parked in the grass area for visitors at the Eastsound airport. Kevin and Deke talking planes:

We walked into town and decided on a spot called The Madrona Bar & Grill (no idea how the food was going to be, but they were waterfront, and that's what mattered). Turns out the food was quite good!

We took a quick self-timer group photo (nice reflection in the wing!) before taking off for a bit of sightseeing around the San Juan Islands:

Tiffani and Deke each got some front seat time with a bit of flying. I think they dug it. (I'm sure of it, actually.) Eastsound Airport on Orcas, right off the wing:

We had such an amazing day with wonderful friends, good weather, beautiful scenery, and not enough time. We dropped Tiff and Deke off back on Whidbey Island and flew home, talking about our next across-the-country Airstream trip that will include North Carolina. We DO still have that whole upper right corner of the United States to explore!

We Flew to Friday Harbor with our Bike Fridays

Laura Domela — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 01:02:40 +0000

On Saturday we decided to see if the new bikes would fit nicely in the Cirrus, so we planned a flight up to Friday Harbor for lunch and a ride. This photo on takeoff is blurry because my camera focused on a dead bug on the windshield instead of the runway, but I still kinda like it:

Here are the bikes in their bags tucked nicely in the back of the plane (that's the luggage door open, on the right, but I took this photo before we took off, don't worry):

The flight up to the San Juans is always such a gorgeous flight and the weather on Saturday could not have been better.

Mt. Rainier off the wing:

The Olympic range:

Approaching Friday Harbor:

Right over the airport:

We got the bikes out and unfolded them and off we went into town for some lunch.

We have a favorite spot we like for lunch in Friday Harbor called Downriggers. It's right on the water with a nice big outdoor deck where you can watch the ferry and the fishing boats and sailboats go in and out of the marina. As we got down to the waterfront, um, well, there was nothing but an empty lot surrounded by chain link fence where Downriggers used to be:

Unfortunately, in August of 2013 the building burned down (electrical fire, accident, 2:30 in the morning) and we hadn't heard. (Even though as I searched the blog for the last time we were there, which was July 2013, I noticed a comment from our friend Eric telling us of such news…somehow I missed that I guess!)

Anyway, they are rebuilding and will be back! But as a backup, we ate at the place across the street called Cask & Schooner and it was great! Not the same view as Downriggers, but the burger and the fish & chips we shared were both very good.

After we'd had lunch, we browsed a map of the island on my iPhone and planned a rough route across the island and around one end, and then headed out. Although this is not a particularly mountainous island (like, say Orcas Island is), this was still a hilly, hilly ride! Gorgeous, but hilly. It mostly looked like this (but with more hills). I wasn't going to stop on a hill to take a photo because, well, starting back up on a hill is hard.

Horses running (there were also deer, and alpacas):

We rode about 20 miles with about 1250 feet of climbing overall (Tuscany, here we come!) It was basically this ride, with a couple more miles in while we were bopping from the airport to town and around:

My top speed was about 35mph. Bet you can tell where that was:

The flight home ending up being a sunset flight and was just beautiful! Islands at dusk:

Olympics at sunset:

In the early days when I was in art school, when we first started coming to the San Juan Islands, we used to drive up to Anacortes after work and school (about a 4 hour drive without traffic), our backpacks loaded up with our tent, candle lantern, sleeping bag, Thermarests (and our titanium spork, of course). We'd sleep in the back of our old Ford Explorer overnight at the nearby campground, and catch an early ferry over to Orcas Island in the morning (about an hour ferry ride). From there we'd head over to Doe Bay Resort (about a half hour drive) and get a campsite (Lone Pine was our favorite). We used to say two days of vacation there felt like a week of vacation anywhere else…it was so relaxing (hot tub, sauna, cafe, great views, generally chill atmosphere). But man it was an ordeal to get up there. Those were wonderful times, and these are wonderful times as well. Now, we can be on Orcas or San Juan in just over an hour, and we can take our bikes! We just need to find the Lone Pine equivalent in a little hotel or B&B and we're set. Or maybe we'll just dust off our backpacking gear and strap it to the bikes!

Silver RV in the Sky

Laura Domela — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 20:26:04 +0000

Here's one more shot from the plane on our way home from Disneyland last week:

Looks kinda fake, doesn't it? It was not. Gorgeous flight home!

We Flew Ourselves to Disneyland

Laura Domela — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 00:44:30 +0000

We left Portland this morning and headed south in the Cirrus. Destination: Disneyland. I know, it's August. Whatever. We're taking our daughter and her daughter (who's 5!) for her first trip to Disneyland before she starts kindergarten. I grew up in Seal Beach, so we went ALL THE TIME and it's, well, you know…a very well-known theme park to me. It'll be so much fun to watch a little kid experience it all for the first time.

We landed for gas and leg stretching in Davis at the Yolo County Airport. We saw several rounds of skydivers landing while we were there:

Flight was about 4 hours total into Fullerton. Here we are over downtown Los Angeles:

I tried to find my old loft in these photos but it's a little too dense.

Catalina Island off the wing:

L.A. Harbor:

Belmont Shore. I used to live right there:

It was pretty cool that ATC routed us right over Seal Beach — the town where I grew up:

Look at those deserted freeways!! Must be Sunday:

We found a great little Mexican place near our hotel called Tatiana's Tamales (found on Yelp) and had some tamales, mole, tacos, etc. Fantastic!! Tomorrow morning we're hittin' the park. Wish us luck!

A Day Trip in the Other Silver RV

Laura Domela — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 01:32:26 +0000

Today we took some other Airstreamers –our friends Lisa and George– on an adventure without our Airstreams. We flew the Cirrus up to Friday Harbor for some lunch and some exploring and it was a fabulous day. When we took off from Portland it was a bit cloudy still (scheduled to burn off by the time we got to the San Juan Islands) and we flew part of the time on top:

Air Traffic Control gave us a little present and routed us RIGHT OVER the edge of the Olympics!!

Just as we were nearing the airport at Friday Harbor, we could see the end of the cloud bank, but we had to do an instrument approach down through the cloud layer, popping out at 800 ft. Cool! We parked the plane and walked into town and grabbed some late lunch at Downriggers on the waterfront (fish tacos are great, and they've got a great outside seating area right at the marina).

Lisa and George and I (none for the pilot, awwww) all decided to try a cocktail called the Hot Mess (basically a margarita with cilantro, jalapeno, a little watermelon, with a salt and pepper rim, and we seriously need to learn how to make these…they were great!)

The view from lunch (not pictured: ferries, float planes, and the smell of fresh sea air):

We walked out onto the docks and checked out the aquarium:

There was a gorgeous schooner docked and we talked a bit to one of the crew who was lounging on deck. The boat is the Spike Australia and they do day sails, evening sails (for 39/per person!!), and longer multi-day charters as well. We went on board and checked it all out and I think we'll be doing this sometime!

After we walked around town a bit we headed back to the airport (just at the edge of town, super quick walk) and took off for home. We did a detour loop around Mount St. Helens and it was fabulous.

Mount St. Helens with airplane wing:

St. Helens with Mt. Rainier in the background:

St. Helens, Rainier, airplane tail:

Pretty great, huh?

Landing (our little shadow's almost caught up with us!!):

A great day with great friends!