Buttermilk bars, preferably unfrosted, are my favorite type of donut. Unfortunately, not many bakeries make them. Locally, they are available, on a hit-or-miss basis, at Larry & Kristi’s Bakery in Manette. When I visit my dad and sister in Del Mar, CA, we always make a trip to the legendary V.G.’s in Encinitas, a great bakery and creator of some of the best buttermilk bars made anywhere. But if you can’t find them at a nearby bakery, you can make buttermilk bars at home. While they aren’t the same as the donut-style bars, they are devilishly good, and it’s worth passing on the recipe.
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Category Archives: Friends & Family
Buttermilk Bars
Posted in Friends & Family, Home
A Sign from the Past
Highfield & Myers sign
This morning when I picked up K’s mom to take her to work I saw an abandoned real estate sign in a vacant wooded lot across the road from her house (see photo). I have been to her house hundreds of times and never noticed it before. Yet there it was. Real estate signs are apparently indestructible as she said it’s been there about 25 years. The sign brought back some memories because Blaine Highfield was one of the first people I met when I moved here in 1975.
Just before the Trident submarine base was built at Bangor, Data-Design Laboratories, the company I worked for, decided to open an office in Silverdale. I volunteered to help staff the new office and relocated here from Norfolk, Virgina, arriving in October. During the Trident boom the office grew to more than 100 people. But when there were just a few of us, thousands of miles from our East Coast homes and unsure of what to make of rainy western Washington, it was Blaine and his wife Doris who extended a warm Kitsap County welcome. He found office space for us, first in a trailer across from the old Poplars Motel and later above Mitchell Lumber. In 1977 his real estate firm, Highfield & Myers, built what was then the largest office building in Silverdale on busy Bucklin Hill Road. We were the first tenants. I should call Blaine and ask him if he wants the sign as a keepsake.
Posted in Friends & Family
A Long-Distance Taste Test
“It tastes like instant coffee. Good, but definitely instant coffee.” That was my sister’s verdict this morning on the Colombia blend of Starbucks VIA Ready Brew instant coffee (the company calls it “Soluble and Microground Coffee” that has a “Smooth, nutty flavor any place, any time”). I agreed with her although I was also thinking the slightly bitter and slightly burnt taste left no doubt it was definitely a Starbucks product. So how do you conduct a long-distance taste test?
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Posted in Friends & Family
Getting Older
I have a friend, B.H., at Treasure Island whom I haven’t seen around for awhile. On Monday I checked on his whereabouts with the homeowner’s association secretary and was saddened to find out that he is in an assisted-care facility in Woodinville. While I’m sure the decision was made with great care, I hate to see him lose his independence.
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Posted in Friends & Family
So Long, Panda Inn
Panda Inn Sign
This isn’t news. The Kitsap Sun reported a couple of weeks ago that the Panda Inn was about to close after 14 years at its location on Kitsap Way in West Bremerton. (The East Bremerton Panda Inn will remain open.) The restaurant’s passing didn’t fully register with me though until I noticed the “restaurant for sale” sign during yesterday’s bike ride (see photo).
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Posted in Business Beat, Friends & Family
Trike Ban
How does an organization like the San Diego Wild Animal Park with an experienced public relations staff err on the question of allowing adult tricycles on their trails? My take is that they must not understand what an adult tricycle means to someone who has difficulty walking. I don’t have difficulty walking, but the co-owner of my vacation place at Treasure Island does. Last year several of us chipped in to get her a shiny blue adult tricycle for her birthday. Having purchased a trike and having seen the effect the increased mobility it provides has on her, I think the Wild Animal Park was dead wrong in their decision last month.
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Posted in Friends & Family
Pittsboro’s Finest
Pittsboro storefront
I just bought a painting—a watercolor titled “Pittsboro’s Finest.” The artist is one of my cousins, G.K. of Sandy, UT. She and her sister, who also paints, plus their husbands, were in San Diego last weekend to attend the 2009 Western Federation Art Show. I flew down from Seattle to visit my dad and sister in Del Mar and to attend the family reunion triggered by their trip. My cousin had some note cards displaying renditions of her work. After looking through them, I decided, on the spot, to buy one of her watercolors.
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Posted in Friends & Family, Home
Mud Bay Blog 