07 Sunday Jan 2018
Posted in 365project, about town
Tags
This weekend I’ve gotten out to some neighborhoods I don’t frequent too often. It’s always great to see what’s going on somewhere else. Here’s a few murals I saw that spoke to me.
#365project #photoaday #noturningback
23 Sunday Aug 2015
Posted in about town, photo challenge
Tags
antiques, blogging101, brisket taco, cookbooks, Elwood's Shack, Kingfish, Office Space, photo challenge, wordpress weekly photo challenge, Young Ave Deli
I’ve had such a good week and Saturday was the cherry on top. Normally I wake up and take coffee on the patio leaving the phone behind for an hour or so until I think of something I need to google. But this particular morning something made me grab it before I grabbed the coffee.
At 7:13 a.m. I found a the perfectly simple message Breakfast? Quickly followed with Sorry, probably too early. Since I had just rolled out of bed, literally, I informed my friend if she didn’t mind me unshowered, I could be there in no time. No problem was the response.
Face wash, teeth, eyes, yoga pants and trainers… out I went. Breakfast of two turned into three. Sharing, comparing, lamenting, and laughing. A lovely time.
We then went to find some far off antique store filled with amazing treasures. I scored with a red Swingline stapler and a cookbook from 1908. Having recently had a sour cream cookie made by the Amish of Southern Illinois, finding that recipe was on my list. I opened a random church cookbook from the 1940’s to a page with such a recipe! This will be on the to-do list ASAP!
As we were pondering lunch, I quickly said turn here and she did as instructed. We scored again and a small restaurant that always has a line, magically had none. We got our lunch and a table. We were not disappointed.
Home for a nap then out late for a show to see Kingfish. This 16 year old kid was amazing. Think Jimi Hendrix meets BB King. Quite impressive. The only drawback to the show were the drunk college kids. That’s another post in itself… as she shakes her head.
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Today Was a Good Day.”
21 Friday Sep 2012
Posted in about town
Tags
autumn, clouds, cocktail, creativy, dreams, friday, garden, iphone photos, slugs, sunset, swifts, work
Oh Happy Friday!!
I’ve been sitting in a classroom for 4 weeks being talked at. You may recall my work rant awhile back that I didn’t get xyz at work. The Rolling Stones had it right. You get what you need and not necessarily what you want (clearly paraphrasing). It’s hard to see that sometimes they aren’t the same thing. After week 2 of this class, I was really questioning whether I wanted xyz. Now after some practical application, I’m still unsure, but feel a teeny bit better.
I really try to be a glass half full kinda gal. So this class has been a test of my good humor. We had 3 instructors who rotated. One talked so loud it bordered on yelling. If someone asked a question she didn’t want to answer or had already been asked, she talked louder and faster. Another instructor is super smart, so smart that he’d go off on these random technical tangents and lose everyone who had been moderately following along. The third, was fairly well balanced, engaging and informative without talking down.
Mr Super Smart has been our coach and go-to guy since we’ve been out of the classroom. And now that he’s allowed to go a little more off script, he’s a great coach. Answers questions so you can understand what needs to be done and isn’t condescending in the slightest. Hope of understanding this new stuff is still yet a mere pin-prick…
The summer seems to be lingering and fading at the same time. I hate waking up and leaving home while it’s still dark. I swear just a week ago I was wearing my sunglasses on my way in! Now I get home and have what feels like mere minutes of daylight left… sigh…
With my “school schedule” I’ve not gotten my long lunch walks. They’ve turned into walks in the office building garden. Not nearly as satisfying as walking along the river or meandering through town, but almost as interesting. With being talked at all day and staring at a computer, my brain has turned to mush. All the creativity I felt I had drained out my ears while I slept dreaming about nonsense work, formulas, forms, rules, rum running, the roaring 20’s and home repairs.
I saw my first fall leaf this morning, and as of tomorrow, fall is really here. I’m not quite ready, but with a new season comes new ideas, new projects, and new colors.
17 Friday Aug 2012
Posted in about town, cocktails, dining
Tags
cocktails, corn on the cob, drinking vinegar, Fish Sauce Restaurant, happy hour, interior design, Mortified, repurpose
Giggly girl’s night went out on the town. After work, Christa and I headed to NW to kill time before meeting up with the other girls. We scored an incredible parking spot and now wondered what we’d do with this extra 45 minutes.
What’s that? Used to be St Cupcake, looks like it might be a bar now. Perfect.
We wandered into Fish Sauce and were immediately taken with the decor and layout of the small space. On your right is a chalk drawn mural that looks like a 50’s cocktail scene and running down the length of the restaurant is a gorgeous community table. Over the table are mason jar lights and over the entrance to the kitchen are half pallets that have been hung as light fixtures. Upon closer inspection, I realized the wood paneling all over the restaurant is wood from old pallets. It’s brilliant and gorgeous!
We had planned on gathering then heading out for dinner before we went to Mortified, but decided to stay where we were since the menu looked great.
The happy hour menu had quite an offering, both of food and drink. I asked our bartender Jared for his pick between 2 and his recommendation was the Elephant Parade with tequila, sherry, and strawberry drinking vinegar. I’ve been enjoying drinking vinegars lately so I went with it. It was lovely and while I would never have put all these flavors together, they all worked well and was balanced with just a hint of vinegar tartness.
My friend Megan turned me onto sesame balls at our secret sushi joint, so I had to give these a try. It was what I was expecting, but not. Up to now all the mung bean paste I have had has been either brown or a dark purple. This was pale throughout and was mixed with a bit of coconut. Jared did some quizzing of the chef for us and advised us there are actually 3 different varieties of mung bean. Any which way, they were tasty and sweet.
After the first round, and one of the girl’s realizing this place was on her to-do list, we moved to the big table.
I ordered the other drink off the menu that caught my eye, the Green Lemon. A delightful blend of gin, rum, peach, lemon, and basil. A combination I’m going to have to play with now that New Deal has released a rum. I could have drank this all night!
We ordered a bunch of dishes to share. The salad rolls were salad rolls, nothing special there. But the corn on the cob with scallion oil and chili was quite good. We ordered the Kalbi, Korean short ribs, which we unanimously enjoyed. The Ga Hainan, chicken served with soy ginger garlic sauce, was the one dish we all agreed was skip-able. The one dish we didn’t order (and will have to go back for) because we were so full from the huge happy hour portions was the Bo Luc Lac, a huge plate of bites of filet mignon.
Off to Mortified. If this comes to your town, I recommend going. What an entertaining evening. A handful of folks regaling you with the horror stories and lessons learned from their youth as recorded in their personal journals, letters, poems, and in one case a horror movie. This gave me some good ideas for a future party.
Since I had gotten up so darn early, as usual, I faded early but couldn’t quite wind down when I got home. That was coupled with my house was over 80! After all the things I’ve been cramming in my head this week, this ecard was just too appropriate. Now how do I get this song out of my head 😉
30 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in about town
Tags
bbq, brewfest, creativity, girlfriends, iphone photos, Portland, Portland parks summer concerts, summer
what a whirlwind it’s been! Portland is one of the best places to live but in the summer, it is truly non-stop, jam packed go-go-go!
Giggly girl’s nights, summer concerts in the park, picnics and wine tasting, BBQ’s, birthday parties, babies, food festivals galore, and brew fest. How’s a gal supposed to keep up with everything?!
I haven’t. I’ve been absent because I’ve been doing everything. and when I sit down to be creative the cupboard is bare. I’ve been walking around with my camera to my face as usual, but haven’t had the time to sort through it all and see what it’s worth.
so, just a few images of my summer on the go, with stories to follow soon.
09 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in about town, restaurants
Tags
banh mi, Coava, cocktails, coffee, Lardo, local roaster, New Deal Distillery, pork belly, Restaurant
Eating good on Hawthorne just got a little easier, not there wasn’t already an ample supply of great food. But, Lardo opened it’s brick and mortar restaurant location on Friday. This cold has impaired my eating and cognitive skills, so much so, that on Friday afternoon while driving home with Christa, I wondered when Lardo would be opening. All hail my iPhone and it’s speedy google abilities. I found it was opening on Friday July 6. Without another word, Christa takes a hard left and I look at her like she’s mad. Where are you going? It IS Friday July 6th. Ooohhh, right! Good thinking.
We walked in to the refreshed space with all of its beautiful new wood and mostly well stocked bar. There was the slight air of chaos, but this being opening day, that was to be understood. We placed our order and got it shortly. Me: the pork meatball banh mi. Christa: double burger with pork belly and cheddar. We cut each in half and shared along with an order of dirty fries. I’ve had the regular fries before, which are quite good topped with parmesan and fried herbs. When we asked what made the fries dirty, the gal told us there was bacon on top. Sounds great. But, oh no, there wasn’t bacon on top, it was fried bit of pork belly and pork rind. glutenous yumminess that was out of this world!
My biggest (and most vocal) complaint was now that they are in the heart of distillery row, they had none of the row’s spirits on their bar. I talked to the bar manager and we will be remedying this shortly. Other than them not stocking local spirits on the bar, my only other beef was there were folks smoking on the patio. Hopefully they’ll curb that once they get things better under control. We did hear that later in the evening, that service was incredibly slow (and they were packed), but all the food was still outstanding. When it was a food cart and one guy was cooking, it took about the same amount of time to get your food. I’m sure they’ll get their rhythm in no time. Being where they are located, I’ll be going there often.
Saturday night was Coava Coffee’s second anniversary party. Lydia of Tender Bar was serving up New Deal cocktails that were quite tasty. I had both the Ginger Fizzle and Bumble Berry. With it being 85ish degrees out (and 110 inside), I skipped trying the milk pUnch. The Ginger Fizzle was good, but the Bumble Berry was great. We all decided it tasted like lifesavers made with fresh berries. It went down easily. As a non-alcoholic option, she had made a fresh ginger beer which was just the right amount of big ginger flavor. The Koi Fusion truck was parked outside to provide food. Bar was free and flowing, so I didn’t mind paying for good food. It was screaming hot in the space and since I get up so freaking early, I tucked out about 9:30. I heard the event went well into the night with a dance party in another part of the space.
