Under a Red Roof

The Same Wavelength

February 24, 2010 in Drinking, Eating, Exploring, Loving, Remembering by Colleen | 3 comments

Have I ever told you about how the hubster and I share a preternatural ability for wanting the same thing at the very same time? And not just once in a blue moon, either. It is a rather regular occurrence and doesn’t stem from nineteen years of being a couple – it’s happened all along. The most memorable and thrilling example occurred rather early in our relationship. We’d been dating for a few months, and I knew, deep in my heart of hearts, that this man was IT, I-T, IT, so, as we were lying in bed one morning, I asked him to marry me. Never one to lose his temper, and much to my surprise, he slammed his fist on the bedside table and said, “I was just going to ask YOU!” We laughed, kissed, and hugged, and knew we were off to a great start. The same goes for moving to Oregon. I got it in my mind that we should leave Colorado. Lo and behold, on the very afternoon I decided to tell the hubster, he came into our apartment and said, “I think we should move.” Magic.

So, it should come as no surprise that we were both itching to go for a drive in the country this past weekend, to do a little something different, decide to eat at one restaurant, hear about another equally enticing one and (without mentioning a word so as not to disappoint the other) want to eat at said establishment rather than the first, only to discover that the first restaurant was closed for a private party, and we both got what we wanted again (insert giggles and smiles here). Life really is grand, especially when you are on the same wavelength.

McMinnville, our delightful destination, is a neat town or maybe city? It has a population of 32,762 (I am trusting the sign and my memory of it are both correct), with some great architecture and restaurants. Being in Oregon wine country, there are lots and lots of places in town to sample the delicious fruits of their labor. As serendipity would have it, we just so happened to be there on the monthly art walk and wine tasting, buying a bottle of Coelho Pinot Noir and some blackberry honey, too.

A clever and beautiful arrangement of flowers.

I think he liked it.

La Rambla – Tapas for dinner.

Our beautiful dining partner.

I prefer his company.

Time to go!

Bathed in Citrus

February 17, 2010 in Cooking + Baking, Eating by Colleen | 1 comment

I’ve got two gems in the eating department for you today. The cabbage, dressed rather simply in a lemon-parmesan-garlic bit of heaven (adapted from the lovely Molly Wizenberg book A Homemade Life – link to her Orangette blog under YUMMY) and scallops with an orange sherry reduction, conceived by moi under a red roofed kitchen. Both are quite delicious.

First, the cabbage, because it can sit while you make the scallops. I am a recent convert to cabbage, probably within the last two years. I’m not really sure why. I have no ill memories of it as a child. To be more precise, I have no memories of it at all as a child. Maybe I don’t come from cabbage people. Alas, this has changed. I love it in slaw of all varieties, steamed with apples, and raw (especially good with Thai Som Tum salad). The hubster is a pretty big fan, too.

Red Cabbage Salad

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 clove of garlic, diced fine or pressed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 small-medium head of red cabbage

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

In a large serving bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. Set aside. Remove any bruised leaves from the cabbage and cut in quarters. Remove the core from each quarter, and slice the remaining cabbage as thin as you can. Add to the serving bowl and toss with the dressing. Add the parmesan cheese and toss together.

Scallops and Orange Sherry Reduction

My apologies, in advance, as this recipe is much less precise than the previous one, but certainly worth a shot.

1 pound large sea scallops, patted dry

3 tablespoons butter, divided

salt

12 fennel seeds

juice of 1 orange, about 1/3 – 1/2 cup

1-2 tablespoons sherry (not cooking sherry)

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, once hot, add two tablespoons of butter. Allow to bubble briskly and gently add the scallops, one at a time, paying attention to where you started. I like to place them in a spiral around the pan. Don’t add them too quickly or they will start to steam and release too much juice – they won’t be pretty and golden in the end, either. Once you’ve placed your last scallop, sprinkle them lightly and evenly with salt before turning them over in the order you put them down. Once you’ve flipped your final scallop, remove them from the pan in the order you put them down and onto a plate.

Add the orange juice, sherry, remaining butter, and fennel seeds to the pan, being careful not to get burned by the steam created. Scrape any bits of scallop off the bottom, and allow to reduce until it is slightly thick and syrupy. Turn off the heat and strain the liquid into a bowl, squeezing out as much of the yumminess as possible with the back of a spoon. Return to the pan over medium heat. Add the scallops and heat until warmed through.

Serve with the cabbage, delighting in the bits of reduction that mingle with the cabbage.

Enjoy!

Tags: Cooking and Baking, Recipes

Portland City Walks: No. 7

February 16, 2010 in Eating, Exploring by Colleen | 1 comment

What a lovely weekend it was around here – lots of activity, but not at all busy, full of fresh air, exercise, beauty, good company, and good food. The highlight was another Portland City Walk. It had been a while since we last ventured out on one, and it was wonderful to see yet another neighborhood, especially one so very close to home, in a new light. Terrific, I must say. Having the hubster home for an extra day was the veritable cherry on top!

Now, to the walk. Near our beginning point is the stunning gold statue of Joan of Arc – donated in remembrance of American soldiers who fought in World War I. For non Portlanders, Joan is located at the center of a traffic circle, and not at all easy to access on foot. We braved the waves of cars and were glad to appreciate an up close and personal view of this luminous lady.

The violets are in bloom! I want a patch of these in my yard – the scent is intoxicating, and they taste lovely, too. Choward’s Violet Candy, anyone?

A funky red-roofed abode, you know why.

Charming hellebores.

The beautiful east wall at Laurelhurst Park.

The first of the camellia blooms, too bad they don’t have a scent to match their good looks.

Much further into the walk – the Historic Belmont Fire Station. Open the second Saturday of each month (lucky us!), it is a tribute to fire fighting and safety in the Portland area. A real gem! We took our lunch break across the street at the India Oven. We love this place, especially now that they’ve moved into this new and improved location. Malai Kofta, Chana Masala, naan, and Chai. Double yum!

I’m not a firefighter, but I play one on my blog.

This truck cab is a simulator. Hop in, buckle up, and go for a ride on a call to an emergency. It feels very real.

Did you know that fire hats were originally made of leather?

The original bell to the fire house. Look at the size of it. Ooh la, la! I can only imagine the sound it made.

Light on Alder Street.

Mighty Oak leaves.

This walk is a hoot!

Mossy.

The mansion on the hill.

This giant tree and, rather unfortunately, impossibly hard to view sculpture of Shiva Nataraja, are on the grounds of a beautiful Edwardian (best guess) mansion built as an Old People’s Home in 1910. It is now the Portland home of The Movement Center, offering a multitude of yoga and meditation classes. I can’t tell you how many times I passed this building without knowing it was here. I am so excited to have found it!

One of the grand entrances to the Laurelhurst neighborhood.

A fine end to our super day – pizza from Wy’East. Run by two kind-hearted pizza lovers, Red and Squish, it’s cart food at it’s finest, and a great way to support the neighborhood.

Tags: Portland, Restaurants

A Switcheroo and Thirty Grams

February 11, 2010 in Cooking + Baking, Eating by Colleen | Permalink

Hi there!

How are you today? Confused, perhaps? As in, where is the quotation that is usually posted here on Thursday? That Colleen is like clockwork with those. Well, I didn’t figure you wanted to be inundated with them, and therefore pulled a little switcheroo with my anniversary post on Tuesday. Nineteen years. Ms. Keller certainly got it right. I love finding just the right combination of someone else’s words and my photo, not that the right combination of my own words is exactly simple. Writing can be hard.

Tablecloths are easy, however. I am really loving this one. It is my latest find from the bins, and oh so adorable – how cute is that little lady next to my muffin? It’s cheery, too, like a lemon yellow, full of sun and smiles kind of day, which, by the way, is what we’ve had in great abundance in these parts these past few weeks. It has been wonderful and a bit odd, I must say. I cannot recall a sunnier winter in my eleven here in Stumptown.

Hmmm, I have no segue way for what comes next, drat. It’s tough going from writing about sunshine and cheer to um, fiber. My naturopath wants me to eat 30 grams a day. While I definitely appreciate the benefits of healthy bowel movements, lower cholesterol, lower risk of cancer, I have to say that, save for the not at all pleasant psyllium drink I have morning and evening, it is not so easy to get-r-done, and this is coming from someone who really strives for such things. I eat beans, a lotta beans, whole grain everything, fruits, veges, but still have a hard time reaching the magic number. Take these muffins, by my calculation, they’ve got three grams each, so I would need ten to get my recommended daily allowance, and while I really, really like them, that would just be too much. Not that it will keep me from trying to get to 30 by other means (Yams! Parsnips!), by golly, I will.

Just in case you’d like to try the muffins, here’s the recipe, and I hope you aren’t dissuaded by their healthfulness (that word is a mouthful) because they really are delicious, like carrot cake. I like carrot cake. Yum.

Carrot Muffins

2 beaten eggs

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat bran

1/2 cup sugar (actually, I used 3/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup agave nectar, but don’t know how easy it is to find everywhere)

1/2 teaspoon ginger

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots

3/8 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/8 olive and 1/4 sunflower)

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup chopped dates (I am a recent convert – slightly sweet and full of fiber!)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger.

In a medium bowl, combine eggs, agave (if using), carrots, and oil. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir until combined. Mix in walnuts, raisins, and dates. Pour batter into greased or lined muffin tins.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This made 11 muffins, but I fill my cups pretty high, so you might get 12, or you might get less.

Enjoy!

Tags: Cooking and Baking, Decorating, Recipes

An Education (or Two)

February 5, 2010 in Eating, Remembering, Spotlighting, Watching by Colleen | 2 comments

Happy Friday, dear readers! Hope you had a lovely week. Mine was up, down, and sideways, but mostly down, to be honest. Even though I stopped taking the post-surgical hormones two months ago, I still feel funny, not to mention heavy. I gained fifteen pounds and have not been able to shake it, despite my pretty rigorous routine. A serious bummer but all part of my endometriosis education. It goes a bit like this:

1. Suffer serious pain

2. Suffer mental anguish at the fact that the pain is disregarded by a couple doctors (NOT Petra Caruso – she’s the tops), and, despite myriad efforts over ten years, does not lessen.

3. Deliver shock and awe over the severity and complexity of my case to a specialist dealing in these problems for more than thirty years.

4. Have fallopian tubes, the right ovary, uterus, and innumerable adhesions removed in a 6 1/2 hour surgery that was only meant to be two.

5. Lose so much blood in the process that standing for more than a minute on my own will be an event weeks in the making.

6. Take massive doses of progesterone to keep the endometriosis at bay while suffering through eighteen unpleasant side effects, including uber moodiness, headaches, sleeplessness, and the aforementioned weight gain.

7. Realize, holy smokes, this suff is hard, and depressing, and crappy, a real emotional roller coaster, and it isn’t over yet. I’m really ready for it to be, really, really.

On top of this, one of my great pleasures, as you well know, is going to the movies. Unfortunately there’s been a serious dearth of good films to see at the theaters I frequent. I can’t even remember the last time I was at the Academy. So, with all this in mind, imagine my delight, more like giddiness, when I saw that the Hollywood Theater had not one, but THREE movies this little lover of cinema was pining to see. I went into paroxysms of glee people. Glee! I would have my friend Bridget attest to this fact, for she was on the other end of the phone at the moment of my great discovery, but she is a little shy of the blog, so you will just have to take my word for it. I’m as honest as Abe.

One more bit before the movie, and yes, I do know I’ve gone on. The hubster was going out of town for a couple of days on business (to Napa! Fine food, wine, and learning), so we decided to make a little date night of it. We tried the new Foster Burger and enjoyed it quite a bit. I had a ginormous wedge salad with fresh herbs, apples, blue cheese crumbles, and a crazy piece of pork belly fried in duck fat, light as air and oh my, my, ooh la, la! The hubster had the expected burger, fries, and a chocolate milk shake, which he shared (I shared too). All was good – the food, convivial service, and music on the hi-fi. We’ll be back, definitely.

Of course, the movie was the icing on top. It follows Jenny (a girl who reminds me an awful lot of myself at that age), a sweet, smart, and occasionally sassy girl on the verge of turning seventeen. She’s a Francophile with a serious love for music, art, literature, and cigarettes. Though she has someone who is sweet on her, she finds him boring, and is swept off her feet by a man who is probably twice her age. He possesses everything she desires: culture, intelligence, good looks, and an impressive car to boot (a gorgeous Bristol 405, gulp), as well as some other dubious characteristics she is willing to overlook. He delights her, spoils her, and takes her places no one else can. All with her parents permission, I might add, for they are just as smitten as she. As their romance progresses, Jenny questions the worthiness of an education over spending her life married to someone so worldly, raising some pretty interesting questions in the process. Very well done.

Tags: Endometriosis, Movies