All the Pretty Pun-kins!

I can't think what might make me happier right now. The sun is shining bright, the leaves are all beautiful contrasting colors, the air is crisp but comfortable.....Life is good.

We went to the pumpkin patch today on Sauvie Island. The same place we rode our bikes a few weeks ago. It was like the Washington Town and Country Fair out there! There were cow tractor rides, corn mazes like none I've ever seen and the "Field of Screams" so cleverly named. We walked around the hundreds of acres for a couple of hours today and just dreamed about our own farm someday. Since we don't have cute kids to take pictures of with the pumpkins, you'll have to look at us acting like kids.




Oh yeah, we also rooted for Mizzou in spirit, as we did not get the game on any TV stations out here. But I heard it was a blowout. Mizzou-RAH!

Piece of Cake.

I made a great discovery last week. The powers of cake mix recipes. I don't know about you, but when the cold weather comes in, the leaves change color and the days get shorter I crave baked goods. No more icecream. Fresh berries aren't at their peak anymore. What is another easy sweet treat for after dinner? Last tuesday, we were needing something to satisfy the sweet tooth. One thing we did have was a box of yellow cake mix. Hmm....not very exciting. Wonder how I could fancy it up? There are dozens of recipes online that spice up cake mixes. Here are two (yes, that's right. we like our sweets) that we've tried so far:


Apple Cream Cake

1 box spiced cake mix
3 cups peeled, sliced apples (tart preferrably)
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup whipping cream

Prepare cake batter according to package directions. Pour into a 9X13 inch greased baking dish.

Combine apples, sugar, walnuts and cinnamon. Spoon over batter. Pour cream over top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

*Can serve with whipped cream or scoop of icecream


Amaretto Almond Cake

1.5 cups chopped almonds (preferrably toasted)
1 box yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla instant pudding mix
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 amaretto liqueur
1 tsp. almond extract (I used vanilla)

**glaze***
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. butter
1/4 amaretto
1/2 tsp. almond extract (again, I used vanilla)

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10" tube or bundt pan and sprinkle 1 cup of almonds inside. (I used 1 regular cake pan and saved all almonds for batter)

Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, water, amaretto and extract. Beat on low with electric mixer or stir by hand for a couple of minutes. Stir in the rest of the almonds. Pour batter into cake pan and bake for an hour. Cool for 10-15 minutes on a plate.

For glaze, in a small saucepan, combine sugar, water and butter and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool for 15 minutes. Stir in amaretto and extract. Punch holes in cake with wooden pick or knife. Slowly spoon glaze over the cake until absorbed.

See...Adam likes cake.

By the way, we wandered south this past weekend and stayed with some dear friends at their amazing ranch on the Rogue River. The Doubletree Ranch is absolutely wonderful, and if anyone comes to visit Southern Oregon, they should stay here for a few days! Enjoy the cakes.

"Oh Give Me a Home..."

The words that come to mind when I think about this past vacation are the lyrics to "Home on the Range". Our experience was much like stepping back in time.....a simpler time. No, we did not have electricity, nor running water. Here, take a gander at our swanky place:

The Wenatchee Guard StationBut we have these views right outside the door....

What you're looking at are called the Blue Mountains. On our first day there we hiked all the way down that canyon. During our hike, we saw a herd of elk. The first night we stayed in the cabin, we saw another herd of elk grazing by the gravel road. We're thinking it was the same herd that kept us up that same night yelping their weird elk calls. I know you can barely see them by the road, but if you squint just enough and tilt your head to the right....

There are so many beautiful pictures and so much to share, I'm not sure I can fit it all in this post. I think I should mention that the nearest "town" was approximately 20 miles away on a gravel road. Here's the sign as you enter "town". The nearest real town was about 45 miles away.

The second part of our trip was to Hell's Canyon National Recreation Area. This place is what I would imagine the Grand Canyon looks like. Since I haven't been there, that's what I'm going to compare it to, even though I know (and Adam tells me) that its not quite close in grandeur. It is, however, just as spectacular. The Snake River, which has carved the canyon, is the border between Oregon and Idaho. You can see it way below.

We obviously had a gorgeous sunshiney day. That doesn't quite mean warm though. No, actually it was the opposite. The night we camped up on the ridge of Hell's Canyon, temperatures dipped into the low 20's. Don't believe us? Reference the picture below of the frozen towel...

Here's a tally of the wildlife we saw on our trip: two different herds of elk, pronghorns, a coyote, grouse, quail, turkey and mule deer. We unfortunately did not get to see the wild mountain goats and big horn sheep that roam the area. We have yet to spot a black bear or cougar. One of these days though. In the end, we did not get to see the "buffalo roam", but we did watch the elk roam and the deer and the pronghorns play.

"Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word. And the skies are not cloudy all
day"

On the Road Again.

Hey Folks!

I have a week off of work, so Adam and I are going on a road trip. We will be renting an old fire ranger cabin in the Umatilla National Forest, which is also near the Blue Mountains. The location of this magical place is just about as far east as you can get, right on the border of Washington and Oregon (almost to Idaho).

Hence, there won't be any cool posts until we get back. But, rest assured that you will be blown away by the tales of our adventures.

M-I-Z...............Z-O-U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta run and watch the Tigers :)

It's Not Easy Being Green

Yesterday, we explored some national forest just east of Salem. The hike we chose was called Opal Creek.

The forest where this hike took place is considered a rain forest that contains some of the last old growth douglas fir and western red cedar trees.

Another cool thing about this place was that it is a historic mining settlement in which 11 people still reside. Mining doesn't take place anymore, but the people who live there carry on educational camps for kids and families. This place is "off the grid", so they have to supply their own power, which comes from the creek rushing nearby.

There were all these random items sitting outside, like this old woodstove, named "cheerful". Strange.

Not much else to report except it was beautiful, pristine and green as green could be. Lots of great photo ops.

Today, we will ride our road bikes on Sauvie Island, which is a small island off the Columbia River that's filled with farms and orchards. Apparently, there's a great ride that goes around the perimeter of this place. I'm sure we'll let you know how it goes!

"Gimme Some of Your Tots!"

I'm going to fill you all in on some of the other wonders of Oregon, other than the natural ones. Let's talk for a minute about some of the child rearing we've witnessed in Portland thus far. Take friday night for example:

On a usual rip-roaring friday eve, after watching the Presidential Debate, we headed over to the local pub for a beer and a game of chess. In walks a typical Portland family with two kids under the age of 5. The eldest, a girl, begins to freak out "I WANT TO SIT AT THAT TABLE!!!! I DON'T WANT TO SIT HERE!!! WITH YOU AND MOMMY AND THEM AND....!!!" She almost begins to hyperventilate. Luckily for us, the table she so desperately wanted to sit at was right next to ours. The mother, wanting her dear daughter to be happy and comfortable, obliges and moves the entire party of 5 to a table for 2 + three extra chairs. Once everyone was in place, the same child shrieks "I WANT MY SUGAR PACKETS!!!!! I WANT THEM!!!!" Mother says "you have some sugar packets right here honey". Girl responds "I WANT THE SAME ONES FROM THE OTHER TABLE!!!!!". The mother smiles at her husband and says "can you go get the other sugar packets honey?". Not only was this child emotionally unstable at this point, but also high on refined white sugar. Oh boy. Adam and I continue to play chess. And the only reason he is beating me is because I can't take my eyes and ears off this family.

Later, the food arrives. The younger child, a walking and talking 2.5 (maybe 3 year old) is asking his mother for some "nummies". He doesn't just want his tator tots, he wants tater tots with breast milk. Mother responds "Honey, I can't give you nummies in the restaurant. We'll have to go out in the car if you want nummies". This was only after she attempted to give him "nummies" once and he just kept casually going from the boob to the tots. Unbelievable! Not many kids can say they've had that for dinner! So, they leave. And I'm not sure if I'm happy or slightly disappointed that I won't be entertained anymore.....The chess game ended, if anyone cares, as a stale mate game.

Okay, not ALL Portlanders parent this way, but stuff like that happens an awful lot more around here than anywhere else I've lived. I can say after this experience, no child of mine will be getting "nummies" in the bar while I sip on a good heifewizen. I think, as a personal rule, once the child can ask for his own breast milk is when they probably don't need to be nursing anymore.

"It's Like Buttah"

Guess what? You're not gonna believe this...Adam and I went to yet another farmer's market this weekend and processed more food for our back shelf. I know, it's so unlike us. This time, we went to the big deal though. The downtown Portland Farmer's Market. It was so huge and so crazy, but tons of fun. There were ALL KINDS of cool things to look at and think about buying. Mushrooms, fresh roasted peppers, flowers, bread, any kind of produce you would ever want, wine, chocolate, cider......the list goes on.

Adam bought me some of the biggest, most beautiful dahlias I've ever seen. Take a look....

We had a project on the brain going into the market, so we tried our best to stick with our plan. The project was apple butter and more dried tomatoes. So our first stop was the apple stand. It may seem easy, going to the apple stand and buying some apples. Well, you have to choose between over a dozen varieties, which is oh-so-hard when they are all delicious. After moments of deliberation and sampling we chose a mix of Tokyo Rose and Gravestein varieties (as well as some Ginger Gold for snacking).

So we did buy lots of tomatoes, but nothing special, so I won't bore you with those details. We also picked up mushrooms: shitake, lobster and chantrelle. I need to get a picture of the lobster ones. They are pretty weird looking. Perhaps in a later update.

I will post the recipe for the apple butter below. It turned out to be (not to toot my own horn) the best apple butter in the history of apple butters. And we had to make homemade biscuits to give our apple butter a proper delivery system. Those turned out equally as good. I'll go ahead and throw that one in too, but I'm ashamed of how much shortening is in them, so on second thought...

Apple Butter:
4 lbs of apples (we chose a mixture of tart and sweet varieties)
4 cups of sugar (however, after pouring 3 cups in, I decided that was enough and it was)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Peel, core and cut up apples. Put in a large stockpot with two cups of water. Simmer until they are soft. Puree softened apples in a food processor or blender. Mix the pureed apples with the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Simmer slowly in the pot until the mixture turns out round on a spoon when you scoop it out. Ladle hot butter into hot, sterilized jars. Place lids and seals on. Put the jars in a hot water canner bath and process (boil) for 10 minutes. Listen for the lids to "pop".

Now we need to roll ourselves out the door and go for a bike ride to work off those biscuits! Take care :)