Ohhhh. Myyyyy. Gaaawwwd. I just had the best brownie sundae of my life.
But lets back up first. A month ago I had a test show some high glucose readings, so I decided to be safe and cut out most sugars and simple starches from my diet. It’s been pretty easy, except I’ve had a really strong sweet tooth with this pregnancy and I’ve really missed sugar. So I decided if the next test came out clean for glucose, I’d allow myself 1 treat, before returning to my healthy, sugar free ways. A brownie sundae was what my heart desired. Yesterday’s test came out clear for glucose and I suddenly became a lady on a mission. I’d heard about the Sugar Cube cart on Mississippi but I went to the website and found out they aren’t open on Tuesdays. So I looked for alternatives. I tried out Pix on N Williams, they are good, but I didn’t get my brownie sundae. In my opinion, they have the kind of desserts that look really pretty, but they leave you wanting more.
This was not the brownie sundae I was looking for:
See, very beautiful, but my strawberry cream thingy was just kinda meh. I felt kinda gypped. I think they must be great at some things, my coffee was very tasty, and their meringue cookies seemed very popular. They are open late so I want to go back with Tom and get some food off their “Scooby snacks” menu. But for that moment in my life, they didn’t deliver the goods I needed. Anyway. Back to the sundae.
I kept thinking about that brownie sundae. So today I said “eff it” I want my sundae and I’m not going to be happy until I get it. At noon, I drove down the street to the Sugar Cube and ordered me up their “Ultimate Brownie Sundae.” The girl smiled a big smile and said she’d call me when it was ready. When I picked it up, she said “hope it’s good.” So I told her this was the last sugar I’d get to have for a long while. I told her about my glucose thing, how it’s probably not gestational diabetes but how I’d decided to just play it safe and cut out all sugar while I’m pregnant. I told her I was taking the glucose tolerance test next week. Turns out she used to be a phleboligist. Is that weird or what? She warned me the glucose stuff tastes awful and advised I pick the orange flavor, tastes like Orange Crush.
Look at how cute it is! That cherry, divine. Um, oh, so good, every bite. Salty caramel sauce, perfect brownie with chewy bits, creamy ice cream, and super cute plate to boot. I was in heaven for those brief moments. Now that was a sundae worth waiting for. I decided I’d allow myself a few visits between now and the baby’s arrival.
I handed my empty plate back in. The magical Sugar Cube lady asked my how I liked my sundae. “Oh My God” I said. “I’m going to have to make this my monthly stop.”
As I turned to leave, she said:
“Come see Momma, she’ll take care of you.”
I started out with a recipe I found on the internet but my final product had very little in common with the recipe. So here’s what I did. This fits in my 4 quart Crock Pot.
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 large leek, washed and chopped
1 parsnip, scrubbed and cubed
1 large carrot, scrubbed and cubed
4 cups broth
4 oz of Neufchatel cheese
fresh marjoram, about a teaspoon
salt and white pepper
Serves 3 or 4
Add vegetables and broth to a crock pot and let cook on high for 4+ hours. About a hour before dinner, add the marjoram, salt and pepper. Using a hand emulsifier or a blender, blend the soup until smooth. 10 minutes before serving, add the cream cheese, let it melt and incorporate it into the soup. Might want to use the emulsifier for one last stir.
I recommend serving this yummy soup with freshly baked brown bread and honey butter. To make the honey butter, let 2 Tablespoons of butter soften at room temperature. Add a healthy spoonful of honey. Mash and stir with a fork until incorporated.
Quiche is good food. It’s quick and easy to make when you don’t know what to cook for dinner. We had a wild mushroom pack that needed eating and I just got some fennel in our weekly CSA. I use a store bought whole wheat crust. They are too handy to pass up and are very delicious. I get mine at New Seasons. It’s a local company. When choosing a baking sheet to collect any spills, don’t be a goof like me, choose a baking sheet with sides. I put mine on a flat sheet last night and our oven will now forever smell like burnt eggs.
Ingredients:
1 whole wheat pie crust
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 leek, washed and chopped
about 1/2 cup mushrooms. I used oyster and shitake
2 thin slices of prosciutto, diced
1 cup cheddar
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375°. Pierce the crust with a fork and cook for 7-10 minutes, let cool. In a large mixing bowl, add eggs and milk, whisk. Add remaining ingredients. Place pie crust on a baking sheet and carefully pour quiche ingredients into the pie crust. Bake at 375° for 45 minutes or until the center of the quiche is set. Let cool for 10 minutes. Server with salad or a side of green veggies.
This week’s CSA pick up included beets, buternut squash, onions, leeks, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips.
I decided to make a quick stew. I actually still had the winter squash from the last pick-up and I needed to use it while it was still good. This stew was done in about an hour. I cooked the wild rice separately in my rice cooker just to ensure it would be done in time for dinner. You could cook the rice with the stew but I imagine you should add it to the stew in the beginning as it might take a full hour to cook. I used fingerlings for the potatoes. Here is the final product:
Ingredients:
6-8 cups stock
1 small winter squash, peeled and cubed
6 small or 2-3 medium potatoes, washed, peeled and cubed
3 carrots, washed and cubed
3 small parsnips, washed and cubed
1 small onion, diced
1 leek, diced
4-6 fresh wild mushroom mix like oyster or shitake, chopped
1 cup wild rice
about 1/4 cup diced parsley
Add root vegetables, onion, leek, and stock to a large soup pot. Bring to boil and reduce to a slow simmer. In a rice cooker, prepare 1 cup of wild rice. When stew is close to done, add mushrooms. Add rice when it’s done cooking in the rice cooker and add parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.
Another great CSA box week. Last night we had Kale and penne. The kale was sweet and delicious. This dish is best with a little extra stock on the bottom of the bowl.
About 6-8 kale leaves, stems removed and chopped roughly
1/2 bag or box of penne
1/2 cup chicken stock
6-8 mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlice, minced
1 small onion, minced
olive oil
crushed red pepper
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese
Boil a medium-large pot of water and add pasta. Bring a steamer pot to a boil and add kale. In a large skillet, saute onions, garlic and red pepper in 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil. Once the pasta and kale are done, drain pasta and add it to the skillet, add kale and chicken stock. Drizzle another Tablespoon or two of olive oil on top and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook 3-5 minutes until flavors are incorporated. Serve with Parmesan or asagio cheese. Serve in a wide pasta bowl.
This is another dish I’ve made from our Big Leaf Farms CSA. I made it in the crock pot Sunday afternoon. It is made up of about 4 cups chicken stock, 1 peeled and diced celeriac, 1 small onion, 2 cloves garlic, about half a bag of split peas. Cook them all up in the crock pot for 4-6 hours on high. Blend well with an emulsifier. We topped our soups with bacon. Mmmm.
Tom made fresh oregano butter and we had it on toasted sourdough wheat bread. Yum.
If you’ve never tried celeriac (celery root before) make sure you really peel it well. You’ll see a slight difference between the tough outer skin and the softer insides. Make sure you get most of the skin off. Celeriac has a mild, slightly sweet flavor and bares a similarity to celery and it’s in the celery family, but it’s very different from the ants on a log type celery.
We got our second installment of our CSA box from Big Leaf Farm yesterday. Last weeks menu was delicious and I’m looking forward to this week. Here is our first meal of the week:
Spicy Beef with Collard Greens and Potato Mash
Tom asked me where I got this recipe. It’s sort of inspired by a couple different recipes. The first is one that my friend Stacie made for me years ago. She sauteed chard, onions and ground beef with a little red pepper. It was so delicious. I think that was the day I figured out I liked chard. The second part is inspired by a recipe from Lydia’s kitchen where she mashed potatoes with chard and lots of olive oil. If you don’t like leafy greens but wish you ate more of them, I highly recommend trying this mash out. It is downright delicious, even for the most passionate haters of greens. I made this for two and had leftovers for lunch today. You can double or triple it depending on how many guests you have. They will probably want seconds.
Collard Greens and Mashed Potatoes
3 large collard green leaves, stems removed and sliced into 1″ by 3″ strips
3 medium sized starchy potatoes such as russets or Yukon golds
1/4 cup chicken stock
Olive oil
sea or kosher salt
Peel and slice potatoes into quarters. Add to a pot of water and bring to a boil. Once you’ve achieved a rolling boil, add the collard greens. Boil until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Strain in a colander, replace back in the pot. Add chicken stock and a healthy helping of good, extra virgin olive oil. Salt generously with sea or kosher salt. Mash lightly with a potato masher.
Spicy Beef
1 lb 10% lean ground beef
1 small red onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 carrot, shredded
5 mushrooms, sliced
about 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (depending on how hot you like it.)
Olive oil
Heat 1-2 Tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan. Add onion, carrot, mushroom, red pepper, and garlic and saute 2-4 minutes until aromatic. Remember red pepper tends to get hotter as you cook it so you may want to use less than the recommended 1/2 teaspoon. Push vegetables to one side of the pan and break up ground beef into the free side. Brown and incorporate into the vegetables.
Spoon a helping of greens and potatoes into a wide bowl and top with spicy beef mixture. Serve with Sriracha or your favorite hot sauce.
A recap on last week’s box:
We made a fennel, wheat berry goulash with canned tomatoes that was pretty good and would have been even better if I’d either used farro or had given the wheat berries more time to soften. I forgot to soak them over night so I tried to use the quick soak method of adding them to boiling water and letting them sit for a couple hours off heat. It didn’t work very well.
For lunch I had a baked potato with steamed broccoli. Yum yum. We had that amazing farro risotto the first night.
Oh! We had the most kick-ass ramen with the Pak Choi. I got fresh noodles from an Asian market, used our fresh chicken broth from last week’s chicken roast, added a heap of miso paste and sauteed very thinly sliced pork meant for sukiyaki. I also found that at the asian market. So delicious.
I used the remaining savoy cabbage in a yummy coleslaw and we had BBQ chicken sandwiches with coleslaw and yam fries. The chicken was leftover from our chicken roast last week.
The only item I didn’t use from last week’s box was the acorn squash. I figured that would keep well and I wanted to get through the stuff that spoils fast. We may not get a box next week due to the freezing weather so we may have it next week unless we get through our stuff this week.
In addition to getting collard greens, potatoes and carrots, this week we got celeriac, onions, arugula, and beets. Tonight we are having chicken breast with a beet, arugula, goat cheese salad. Yum yum. I’m thinking about a split pea, celeriac soup later this week.
We joined Big Leaf Farm’s winter CSA program and I just picked up our first installment yesterday. We got beautiful red carrots, savoy cabbage, onions, garlic, acorn squash. fennel, pak choy, and broccoli. To celebrate last night I made some farro risotto with savoy cabbage, bacon, mushrooms and apple. It was yum yum yum. Farro is a great grain if you’ve never tried it. It is chewy and nutty, very similar to wheat berry. It makes a great risotto. One drawback is that it needs some forethought. It needs to soak for 8 hours to soften it up a bit. The plus side is that once it’s soaked, it takes less time to finish cooking than arborio rice. You can usually find farro at Whole Foods type stores or in Italian specialty stores.
Recipe:
1 cup Farro, soaked in water for about 8 hours
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups broth
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 head of Savoy cabbage, chopped roughly
5-8 mushrooms, sliced
2 slices cooked bacon, chopped
1 apple, cored, peeled and grated using a large sized grater
salt and pepper
garnish with grated cheese such as Romano or Parmesan.
Soak the farro in water for about 8 hours. Drain and rinse the farro. Add olive oil, farro, and garlic to a large, heated high-sided skillet. Saute for about minute or two until the garlic is aromatic. Add cabbage, mushroom, and enough stock to cover the farro. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir together and simmer on medium heat, adding stock until the farro is tender. Add bacon and grated apple to heat. The risotto should still have a little bit of juiciness but should not be soupy. Serve in a wide bowl topped with grated cheese.
Tonight I’m sauteing some pak choy with garlic to have alongside our steaks. I’m so glad we were finally able to join a CSA, we were too late to join in the spring when we first got to Portland. My lunches are going to be way more exciting now. They also have a few dozen eggs for sale every week and someone else picking up said they were amazing.
As I sat down to my fried eggs and rice breakfast, I started thinking about all the great breakfasts I’ve had around the globe. I decided, if I ever had a breakfast joint, I’d serve these:
The Cafe 100
2 eggs OM, white rice, Portuguese sausage or spam, served with soy sauce or Huli Huli sauce.
The Coronation
Chocolate Cornetto and a cappucino
The Full Monty
2 eggs, beans, english style sausage, grilled tomato, toast
Tom and I got married 11 months ago and in that short time I have gained somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 pounds since then. I finally stepped on the scale and was absolutely horrified. I’ve been flirting with doing something about my weight gain but the scale thing was a serious wake up call today. I went to New Seasons and looked at all their diet books, yes, diet. Tom’s sis had recommended the South Beach diet to me when I was trying to loose weight for the wedding so I picked up the book and thumbed through it. I like that it is geared towards making your own food. I like that it tells me exactly what and how much food to eat every day. I like that there are different phases which makes me feel like I’m making some sort of progress. So I’m going to do it. I’m going to just eat what the little book tells me to eat and I’m going to stick to it.
I feel like a cow. I hate the yo-yoing. I love food but I love feeling good about myself probably more than the few moments of joy I get out of that Delta fried chicken, Otto’s sausages, Tabor Schnitzelwiches, Haydn’s coconut banana creme pie and cheese fondue, Kettleman’s bagels, fresh baked Brioche, Oaks Bottom tatchos, all that beer…. sigh. Oh wait, where was I. Yes, I like feeling sexy more than I like these things. Yes, yes I do. I can abstain from the deliciousness for a while.
Freelancing has made it very difficult for me to maintain any sort of self control when it comes to food. That and all our discovering of Portland’s food treasures has made me what I am today. I need to tighten the belt and just chill out on the eating. Once I feel like I’ve got some sort of grip over the situation, I’ll have to figure out some sort of happy medium of how often to get to do my Portland food exploring.
The weather in Portland is phenomenal today. It’s so good in fact, I’m not sure why I’m bothering to post this right now. But, I thought you might like some salad ideas for this weekend’s BBQ bonanzas. Have a good weekend.
Ingredients
8 oz israeli couscous
1 cucumber diced
1 to 2 cups of cherry tomatoes cup in thirds
1 orange bell pepper diced
about 4 green onions diced
6-8 kale leaves, stems removed
a handful of fresh parsley, diced
a handful on fresh mint, diced
juice of one lime
salt and pepper
olive oil
8 oz of feta cheese
Wash and chop kale into 1″ pieces. Steam for about 5 minutes until soft. Sauté the dry couscous in 1 Tbsp of olive oil until lightly brown, about 5 minutes. Add approximately 1 and 3/4 cups boiling water and simmer on low for about 15 minutes. Test the couscous for doneness, they should be tender all the way through but still chewy. You may need to add a little bit more water along the way if the couscous is drying out before it’s tender.
Add couscous and steamed kale to a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and drizzle with 2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil. Mix well, salt and pepper to taste. Serve along with your favorite BBQ food. We’re having ours with some BBQ chicken thighs.
Edelweiss Deli
****
3119 SE 12th Ave at Powell, Portland OR
Hello momma. Wow, this place is oozing with deliciousness. A deli/German grocery store with tons of German meats for sale. Sausages of every variety imaginable and large racks of smoked pork chops that I must try. They have a small seating area and you can order in if you can’t wait to sink your teeth into their sausages. Spaetzel, kraut, mustards, little pumpernickel breads, pastries, cheese, pickles, oh my, I think I’m gonna cry.
Otto’s Sausage Kitchen
***1/2
4138 Woodstock and SE 34th in the Woodstock Neighborhood of Portland, OR
Cute and hip Sausage grill out on the sidewalk. Three dogs to choose from. Benches to enjoy the sunshine, jalapeño mustard. How can you go wrong? Ottos is a nice place to grab a dog. Don’t expect to get your mind blown but it’s good. They’ve got a deli for take-home. I tried their beans and slaw. Beans were good, wasn’t impressed with the slaw. They sell 3lb jars of local wildflower honey for $14.
Bamboo Sushi
***1/2
310 SE 28th and Pine, Portland, OR
I don’t eat fish. I should just say that now. Tom said the fish was decent but not fantastic. For me, I’d go again for the absolutely delicious vegetarian sushi and the Japanese pickles. There are lots of great tasting non-fish items on the menu. Good selection of sakes. Very nice service and staff. I like this place.
Half and Half Cafe
****
SW 9th Ave and Oak, Downtown Portland, OR
Great local right by Tom’s work. Super fun and friendly staff, killer pastries, interesting coffee. Not your run of the mill french or italian blend, they serve more complex flavors of coffee. I appreciate that about them. I like my coffee with milk instead of cream so I wish they offered more than cream ad soy milk. They make all their coffee by French Press. I always seem to get the last cup.
Mocha Momma’s Cafe
6116 SE Milwaukie and Tolman in the Moreland neighborhood of Portland, OR
****
This place has everything I want in a local cafe. Nice people, commy seats, free internet, access to power outlets, water and treats for dogs, outdoor patio, nice bok selection, good coffee from zbeanz coffee roasters, great bagels from Kettleman’s. I love you, Mocha Momma’s. I’m so glad you’re my neighbor.
Tabor Czech food cart
****1/2
SW 5th and Oak/Stark
Holy Mackerel, A schnitzel on a ciaatta roll with horseradish sauce??? Have I died and gone to heaven? The woman who runs the cart is nice and charming to boot. This place gets ****1/2 for serving ridiculously delicious sandwiches. $6.50 a sandwich.
Read Review On Food Carts Portland
Biwa Japanese Restaurant
****1/2
215 SE 9th and Ash
We had pork fried rice, fried chicken, salted herring, griddle cake. Everything was completely delicious. The chicken was very similar to Chinese salt and pepper pork style which is one of my favorite things. We will be back. The ramen looked really good. Nice selection of sake, shochu, and mixed drinks. Great service, nice atmosphere. Reasonable prices. Lots of Korean and Japanese pickles on the menu, which I love. Great place to share lots of delicious small plates with friends.
Caprials Bistro
***
7015 SE Milwaukie and Bybee, Moreland Neighborhood of Portland, OR
I had a Farro risotto, Tom has miso marinated roast chicken. We had a carmelized onion, fig and goat cheese tart. The wine list was pretty short, the tart was fantastic and my risotto was good, but I felt like the place was overpriced for what you got. The service wasn’t all that impressive and the atmosphere was too casual for the prices they were charging. We are very willing to pay the price for great food and experience and we just didn’t get it here. We’d go back for a glass of wine and an appetizer, but I don’t think we’ll be eating dinner there again.
Laughing Planet Cafe
**1/2
4110 Woodstock and SE 34th in the Woodstock Neighborhood of Portland, OR
This is a great place for a beer or to get your growler filled up. The beer selection is very good with between 10 and 15 microbrews on tap. The food is sort of healthy Mexican. It’s food. So bottom line in come for the beer, eat if you are hungry. They have toy dinosaurs on many of the tables so you can amuse yourself while you drink.
Black Cat Tavern
***
8230 SE 13th and Tenino just past Tacoma in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, OR
The bartender cusses like a sailor. Cute in small doses, a little tiring when you are sitting at the bar. Next time we go, we’ll limit our interactions with her to hello, goodbye. Maybe the regulars love it? Maybe you get used to it? Frankly, I thought it was creepy. Still, good prices on pitches, shuffle board, a beat up ping pong table, pool tables and a great outdoor backyard open until 9pm. Good place for watching a Blazer’s game if that’s what you’re into.
This was an ambrosia apple and it was super duper delicious. I don’t think I’ve ever had one. I got it at Safeway where their apples are usually lackluster but this one was great.
I’m looking at apple recipes. I got a big bag of apples and want to do something a little more fun with my apple a day. I found a yummy recipe for apple-cabbage-bacon raviolis. We determined this is a great combination last week with the napa cabbage recipe I tried, and maybe limiting it to a ravioli filling is the perfect amount. As a matter of fact, I’m considering making the same recipe I did with the napa, bleu cheese, apples and bacon. I’ll just cut things up more small.
I went to the chiropractor today. He admitted to me he that until he saw me much improved today, he was a little worried there wasn’t much else he could do for me. He was going to send me off to Kaiser. This is discouraging. I was in a lot of pain but I don’t think it was anything a handful of good adjustments couldn’t fix. He was a talented chiropractor but he needs an attitude adjustment. Maybe I will do a monthly visit with a new chiropractor until I find one I feel great about.
I’m thinking about Easter. Apple 89 was a celebration that my neck will be all better for Easter egg dying.
We had a housewarming party last night to break in our new place in Portland. I went all out and made ice cream, beehive honey cake, meatballs, and pizza from “scratch” and we had spaghetti, salad, brie, wine, grapes, strawberries and lots of laughs. It felt so great to have a house full of people, and yet there was still room to breath. I have to train myself how to be a host in a decent sized house. In my apartment, there was no place for coats, and all our dishes were pretty much in plain sight so people pretty much fended for themselves. I need to learn the art of “let me take your coat.” Because it’s a nice thing.
We had a blast and I’m looking forward to more dinner parties. It was fun using all my kitchen power tools to make all the yummy food. My meatballs were very stone-like but they tasted good. Gotta work on that recipe. I think it’s the second time I’ve ever made meatballs in my life and I tried to make 6 pounds worth. And yeah, they were hard like stones. Oh well, the honey cake was insanely good as was the pizza, if I do say so myself.
Thanks everyone for coming over, and for all the great flowers and wine and gin!
I take breakfast very seriously. Leaving San Francisco meant leaving the Pork Store Cafe. This fact alone made it hard to move. So it was important that we find a breakfast place on par with the Pork Store as soon as possible, to make our transition easier. We found it in Fuller’s at NW 9th and Davis.
Oh Fuller’s, you are so very delicious. I love your fresh baked breads, your sweet bowls of jams, and your perfect eggs. Your hash browns are divine and so are your waitresses. Your charming ex-con cook makes me smile, even at 6:30 in the morning when I should be at home in my warm bed. Your breakfast meats are thick and tasty. Your coffee, well, I’ll live.
I took Tom to the airport this morning so very early. It wasn’t yet 6am when I pulled out of the airport. I tried my best to navigate my way home, but the Fuller’s vortex was pulling me in. I did not resist. I missed my freeway exit and found myself hurtling towards my destiny. Who was I to deny it. I was the only female there other than my lovely waitress. The place was crawling with 60 year old jovial men. I read my vegetable garden seed guide and tried to look inconspicuous. My waitress thought she recognized me but it was probably just because I belong there. It was a like a sort of homecoming. Returning to the land of perfect breakfasts. Thank you Fuller’s.
I ran across a website called Portland Pie-off, oh yeah, you heard me right. And they had this video on their website, which I liked a lot, because I like pie, and I like that my president likes pie.
I looked for a recipe yesterday that included some of the things currently in my fridge. I have a beautiful head of napa cabbage that I used for homemade pot stickers last week and I didn’t want it to go to waste. I searched for napa cabbage and apples and found this great recipe on BostonChefs.com. We had it as an entree, which was a little too much cabbage in one sitting, but it was really delicious and I’d absolutely make it again and serve it with something like pork tenderloin or corned beef. Might even be good with some sliced up roast chicken. This recipe marks apple #80
I’m back home today after working from Tom’s office yesterday. It was so nice to get out of the hose for the day and spend some time in downtown Portland. I’m going to go downtown at least once a week, just for a change of pace. Back home today, I have a big build due tomorrow. I got a lot of work done yesterday but it’s probably going to be a busy afternoon for me today. It’s hard working from home when there are bumble bee houses waiting to be buried in the yard. I took some time at lunch to hang the mason bee house. Maybe tomorrow I can bury the bumble bee house.
I eat today’s apple, a golden delicious, as I work away on my computer and wait for someone from freecycle to come pick up more empty boxes. I might have another apple later on, I think I’m a couple apples behind schedule.
Apple 79 was yet another Jonagold from the $1 bin at Limbo on 39th and Holgate. I really don’t remember what I was doing when I ate it. I remember I was sitting at our kitchen nook, i remember we were doing something, maybe writing a list?
I really should walk over to Whole Foods this evening and try to get a more exciting assortment of apples. I should also start digging into my apple recipe book because I’ve got to be boring the pants off of you with this resolution. Where’s the mystery? Where’s the intrigue? Now that I’m settled, I need to step up to the plate and start making this apple adventure a little more…. adventurous. Wonder what I could do with napa cabbage and apples.
That said, I had pleurisy for most of the day yesterday. Pleurisy is that weird, sharp pain you might get from time to time in your chest when you inhale. I’ve always gotten it, since I was a kid, sometimes for days at a time. For me it’s usually a sign that I’m too stressed or tired. Maybe I’m wearing myself out with my 20 thousand things done in a day pace, maybe it was the deck sealer I painted on my soon-to-be raised garden bed. It was raining so I painted it on inside the garage and it was a little on the stinky side. Tom could smell it all the way down the driveway several hours after I’d applied it. So yeah, could be that. Could be getting used to the wet, wet weather, could be insomnia taking on new, exciting features. Whatever it is, I suppose I should take it a little easy. But maybe I’ll just say I will and then I won’t. Yay! My favorite!
P.S. found my napa cabbage and apple recipe. Tonight we’re having warm napa cabbage with apples, bleu cheese and bacon. Man, I wish I was me, oh wait, I am me! I’m so lucky!
We were regulars at quite a few Haight Ashbury restaurants. When I came up to Portland to find us a new home, the right neighborhood was just as important as the house. I found our house in Westmoreland, just down the street from the Sellwood district. It seemed to have everything we needed to keep us happy. Now, into week two of our living here, we are enjoying trying each place out. So far we’ve tried the Sweetwater Grill, Kaye’s bar, and Marsee Bakery (such good bagels). Last night we tried Papa Haydn, a lovely restaurant and bakery just 8 blocks from our house.
The dinner was fantastic. Tom had a cream prawn and pasta dish and I had risotto with bacon, brussels and shitakes. So delicious. It’s really too bad because the desserts in this place are so incredible, I’m going to have to stick to their salads so I have room for dessert. We had coconut, banana and chocolate cream pie. The crust was shortbread cookie style. The pie was so ridiculously delicious that I actually said “I wish my dad was here to see this.” I didn’t even say that when we got married. Not that he wouldn’t have love to be at our wedding, but I think this pie would have touched his heart in places no other inanimate object could. He was a pie man. Sorry dad, all the pie’s for me!
It’s not surprising Papa Haydn has such delicious food. They take their ingredients very seriously. Outside the restaurant you can find three or four raised vegetable beds. They try to grow many of their ingredients right on the premises. Looks like they have outdoor seating in the summer. Can’t wait to sit out by the garden and watch the bees. They have great happy hours too.
March 25th, 2009 | Tags: 
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