Portland Farmer's Market and a Delicious Dinner

Today, my last day in Portland, we visited the Portland farmer's market, got a gourmet sandwich from a food cart downtown called PBJ's, and then came home and made a wonderful dinner (see the following pictures) consisting of homemade bruschetta, pesto, pasta, and more. I was so lazy after all of this that I didn't even want to blog but S bribed with me a bowl of chocolate ice cream topped with a delicious mixture of Farmer's market berries, peaches, and mango. I know, I know. I've been gluttonous all week. But I love experiencing the unique flavors of new places. The last three days have been full of delicious surprises.

It was interesting to see how the Portland farmer's market differs from the ones I'm used to back in the Midwest. I've never been able to buy a fresh, locally grown artichoke, nor have I seen such abundant peaches, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Our peaches come from Michigan and Georgia!

Farmer's market fruit bento

Grilled artichokes

Grilled tomato bruschetta

Oregonian sandwich from PBJ's food cart downtown Portland:
Challah bread, Marion berry jam, Rogue Creamery blue cheese, Oregon hazelnut butter

More pictures are in the following album:

Portland 2010 Final Day

Thanks to S and L for a wonderful visit! I will see you both again soon. Thanks for always making me feel so welcome and allowing me to experience your world so completely. S is making a big decision about something and I will be thinking of her often. S, sometimes you can't reach decisions through facts or logic or what looks good on paper. Sometimes you just have to do what FEELS right and natural and normal and good. I'm there for you.

My hosts, S and L

Hobbes, the bengal (one of their three
beautiful kitties)

Best. Scallops. Ever.

Melt in your mouth. Best. Scallops. Ever. I have to admit, when we first walked in to this restaurant in Cannon Beach, Oregon, I wasn't expecting that much. It's the type of restaurant where you go up to the counter and order, and then go get your food when they call out the number. I just wasn't expecting anything so utterly delicious...sadly, we even noticed several couples walk in the door, take a look around, and then leave right away. They have no idea what they missed out on!

Ecola Restaurant in Cannon Beach, Oregon

Scallops at Ecola

Homemade clam chowder at Ecola

Even their cocktail sauce was delicious and homemade, as was the tartar sauce, which had the most delicious and surprising bite of fresh dill to it.

 It was 1.5 hour drive to this little oceanside town of Cannon Beach, Oregon. The temperature was in the high 80's. We walked the beach for several miles and it was glorious. This included viewing Haystack Rock, which you may remember from the 1985 movie, The Goonies.

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon

Below is a link to a slide show of my trip so far.



Aside from experiencing some fantastic sites and super yummy food, S has informed me that I need a new digital camera (mine is an OLD Kodak EasyShare 3.1 megapixel--would you call this vintage digital?) a smart phone, iPad, and cable TV or I am not keeping up with basic professional development! Also, being around her reminds me that I need to read more. How is it that we forget to make time for some of those things we like the most?

Fun in Portland

We got up at 2 a.m. on Monday morning and C dropped me off at the airport at about 5:20 a.m. By the time I got through security, my 6:30 a.m. flight was already boarding when I got to the gate. I had just enough time! I had a 1.5 hour flight to Denver and then a 2 hour flight to Portland.

One of the first things I wanted to do in Portland was go back to Deschutes Brewery. We didn't have any beer this time...it was only 11 a.m. and just didn't seem appealing...but we did share a delicious pretzel and a marionberry cobbler. I made sure to take a picture of the cobbler this time.

House-baked pretzel With a Creamy White Cheese Dipping Sauce ringed
with Black Butte Porter-Stone Ground Ale Mustard.

Marionberry Cobbler

Sunshine is ready for the marionberries

A few blocks down from Deschutes, we spent a few hours at Powell's Books, the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world, according to their website. I bought the book Put 'Em Up! by Sherri Brooks Vinton. It has a recipe for peach salsa that I'm pretty excited about.




We were going to go to the Rose Gardens, but another day hopefully...I was exhausted by 3 pm, which is actually 5 pm in the time zone I'm used to. I even took a short nap before we went out for sushi for dinner, but I was in bed by 9 p.m.

Delicious sushi dinner at Mio

Today we're headed to Cannon Beach for some fun and seafood...in the meantime, I'm being stalked by a bengal named Hobbes. Can you tell the cat from the carpet?

Hobbes

Biloxi, Mississippi and Orange Beach, Alabama

Here are the pictures from our April trip to Biloxi and Orange Beach. Orange Beach was so beautiful, it breaks my heart to think of all that oil destroying such a beautiful coast. I think we all agreed that the Crawdad Festival in Biloxi was alot of fun. It was so strange for us Wisconsinites to see people of all ages devouring massive piles of those very unappealling looking crawfish. I guess we prefer cheesecurds, although we did try the crawdads, as you'll see in the photos. We were surprised to learn that Biloxi is still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina, and that many southern cities besides New Orleans were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.