Portland Part I

Well hello blog world, guess what? Today is my birthday! It has been a great day of opening cards and packages, making a delicious breakfast at home, and a surprise Seattle hailstorm. Oh yes...and recovering from my foodie birthday trip to Portland!

Stuart and I made the 3 hour drive down to Portland on Friday morning, and got back late Saturday night. We always like to try and do mini getaways to celebrate special occasions, rather than focus on what "stuff" we think the other person wants. We had a whirlwind trip and I will post in two batches: the basics & the city pictures (posted here today) and the food that we ate (to be posted tomorrow). I need to sift through my many food pictures and decide which to share!

 MORE free champagne in honor of my birthday, thanks to the wonderful Hotel Modera (we had lots during our honeymoon last month in Hawaii)

 Our view from our hotel room of the courtyard

 Powell's City of Books = Best. Bookstore. Ever.

 We visited the Portland Saturday Market...and drank lots of coffee and beer!

More photos and foodie tips to come soon...

Weekend Dinner Party

Well, the rain has finally arrived full force in Seattle! It's been a busy weekend of grading student papers, presenting at my first academic conference, and grading some more! We also got our Halloween pumpkin today, and it is now adding some much-needed bright decoration our drizzly front door.

On Saturday, Stuart and I were invited by a family friend for a lovely dinner at his home north of Seattle. Paul cooked up an an amazing (and seemingly effortless!) feast of farmers' market goodies. I just had to share the photos, because everything was so fresh, local, and delicious!

 Pork shoulder bacon

 Turnip greens

 Farmers' market pork chops

 Our cooking companion, Zoey!

 The bacon went in with some fresh-off-the-stalk Brussel sprouts...

 Potatoes and baby turnips, baked with olive oil

 Cherry tomatoes with basil and olive oil started off our meal

 The main event came together as this beautiful dish!

Let's just say I'm hoping we get invited back soon, if it means we get treated to such delicious food! ;)

Red Mill Burgers

Ok, get ready to either have found your new favorite burger joint, or to be very jealous that you don't live in Seattle. Even as I'm posting this I am craving my favorite chicken bacon burger and peanut butter milkshake!! 

Red Mill Burgers is an icon burger establishment in Seattle, and has won all sorts of awards and honorable mentions for their grilled-up goodness. I really like this burger joint because of the reasonable prices and consistently tasty food. Like I said above, I have my favorite meal and I order it every single time! For some reason Red Mill is most famous for the pile of bacon that they always have ready on the grill. You can even get a T-shirt featuring the bacon pile! 

If you go (which you should), note that they only take cash. You may also have to act like a vulture while you wait for someone to give up their seat.

The Wisdom Tooth Diet

Happy Saturday everyone! It's still an incredible 72 degrees and sunny fall day in Seattle today. The only not-so-sunny thing about this weekend is that Stuart had his wisdom teeth out yesterday morning...ouch! I remember back to when I had mine taken out in high school - I felt like a groggy chipmunk for a couple of days, due to my numbed up mouth and puffy cheeks.

In preparation for his surgery, we stocked up on lots of foods suitable for a liquid diet that does not require much chewing. This list includes applesauce, yogurt, soup, pudding, ice cream, and smoothie ingredients. Stuart joked this morning that he feel like a baby because of all the soft foods (I mean, when was the last time you ate chocolate pudding??)

Thankfully the hardest part is the first few hours post-surgery, and he is now recovering wonderfully! You would never guess he had oral surgery just about 24 hours ago. I swear I could not have gone out in public the day after mine were taken out, but he has - what a champ!

Mango Salsa

When I visited California over the summer, my friend Adrian made the most delicious mango salsa that is one of his family’s secret recipes. It’s a “secret” because there is really no set amount of each ingredient that must be included – you just combine everything in a haphazard and magical way, adding lemon and salt to suit your personal taste. 

I tried to re-create this salsa on my own last weekend, and the results were very tasty (although admittedly not as tasty as Adrian’s version!). The mango I bought was ripe and delicious, although I never realized how difficult mangoes are to cut, as you cannot eat the hard “core” that runs through the middle. I didn’t have jalapeno on hand, but I think it would have added a nice extra kick, to balance out the sweet taste of the mango. 

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango

1 large tomato

Red onion

Cilantro

Jalapeno

Lemon or lime