Moreland Farmer's Market

I hate it when I remember to bring the camera and forget to take pictures. That's what happened tonight at the Farmer's Market. I was going to post some lovely pictures for you all to view the wonders of the Moreland Farmer's Market, but instead you'll have to look at not-as-cool pictures of the produce we bought. Maybe next time.

Let's just say there's not a shortage of lucious berries in this state, especially this time of year. We struggle with which booth to buy our berries at. There's blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, logan berries, marion berries, goose berries.....its ridiculous - but delicious.

I told you all in the last post about how I'm trying to figure out what to do with all of the herbs in the back garden, well I'm giving you a little taste of my efforts. Homemade basil pesto and lavender cookies. Both very good. I'll post the recipes below. I'm using one of our back door shelves as an herb drying space - I thought I'd share that too.

One last thing: Carol requested a picture of the front of the house - well.....here it is!

This has been quite a random post. We might have something more exciting to share after the weekend.

Love to all!

Recipes:

Lavender Cookies

1 cup of butter

1/2 cup lavender sugar (mix half cup sugar with half cup dried lavender blossoms)

dash of salt

2 cups flour

*cream butter and sugar, add flour and salt. Mix with mixer or by hand with wooden spoon. Chill in fridge. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Cook for 10-12 minutes

Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves

1/2 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1/4 cup grated fresh parmesean cheese

*in a blender or food processor, puree basil, parsley, oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the nuts and cheese and process briefly until pesto reaches the desired consistency.

ENJOY!!!

A Real Stinger!!

Hey there! Adam and I took one last trip to our apartment in Jacksonville this weekend to pick up my car and drop off keys. We definately got our fill of Southern Oregon. Between a yoga class at the new Rasa Yoga Center, a hike up to Pilot Rock, an epic mountain bike ride on Mt. Ashland and a few beers at Siskiyou Pub - we were tired and fulfilled.

Back in PDX we've been continuing our home improvements. I've been trying to figure out what to do with all the fresh herbs we have, so I've been experimenting with making pestos and drying bundles of herbs. I feel so domestic...We have also been touring around the area to see what there is to see and eat what there is to eat.... We went to get dessert at "Pix Patisserie" (not sure on the spelling there). En route to the dessert shop, Adam got stung on the pinkie by a hornet. This was just a week and a half after he was stung on the ankle during a 10K trail run race by a hornet. His ankle is still swollen and now his hand looks like an elephant foot. Poor guy.





On a better note, the dessert was to die for. I got the "Queen of Sheba" which was some kind of heavenly chocolate molten cake. Adam got the "Shazaam" which was carmel mousse on top of chocolate almond cake with a gooey carmel center and salted almonds - all of it was encased in some kind of a dark bitter chocolate purse. "Wow" is all I can say. I think Adam thinks the dessert was well worth the hornet sting.

New Home Projects...

So...with a house comes....projects. Now that we have some space, we decided that we had some things we needed to get done. Like --- refinishing the old sewing table/computer desk we bought last year at the Jacksonville city-wide yard sale. And, constructing some sort of rack for our kayak. Well, that's just what we did, or have begun at least.



Of course we needed Pabst Blue Ribbon to help us along. Especially since I realized the refinishing job requires me to sand the whole damn thing by hand. I'm already sore I think.

Adam is as happy as a clam using his hand tools to make stuff. This is his first project in a while. Good first project.



I also had to get some shots of the herb garden in the back yard. Note the gigantic sage bush in front. We are pretty excited about that. Also, for all of you SOESD folks, I had to get a shot of the chimes on our back deck. They sound beautiful by the way....thanks again!

Welcome to Portland!

Adam and I moved to Portland in a real quick hurry. We found out how rental places in desired neighborhoods here go really fast, so we jumped on the first chance we got. We now live in what's called "Eastmoreland Heights" which is kind of a cool old neighborhood in "close in" SE Portland. Portlanders like to use the phrase "close in" when you are one of the lucky ones to live within 3-5 miles of downtown (or something like that). Anyway, we already love the area. We have ridden our bikes to the surrounding neighborhoods of Sellwood, Westmoreland and Woodstock and are quickly becoming true Portlanders who use the bike as a mode of transportation. Well, we're trying at least. We have tried a few of the HUNDREDS of wonderful restaurants here in the city. Last night it was a Thai place called "Pok Pok".

I've posted some pictures of our new house. Please keep checking in to see what we're up to in Stumptown!