bounty. so much bounty.

Many Saturdays in Chicago we would leash up the dog and walk to the Green City Market early in the morning. Generally, we would get there right before the crowds hit but after the stroller brigade had invaded. We'd find some choice produce - usually squash, tomatoes, some herbs, mushrooms, whatever looked really great and in season - and enjoy our picks. It was a lovely experience and a great tradition of summer that I relish.

This Saturday, we made it to our first Portland Farmers Market at PSU downtown. Oh. My. Goodness. It put the Chicago market to shame, and the Green City market is nothing to sneeze at. Granted, Oregon is one of the top food-producing states in the U.S., but wow. Everything I saw was beautiful, with many organic purveyors and some fantastic food stands. I barely resisted the urge to buy a FOUR DOLLAR artichoke, just because it was so pretty. I don't even really LIKE artichokes that much! It just looked like the world's most beautiful, edible cactus.

I took the opportunity to play around with a Composer Pro and funky lens from Lensbaby and try to get some serious food porn.

Not technically food, but if you've ever eaten a Pine State Biscuit, you know it's the business. They have a stand at the market. Giant cast-iron pots of boiling oil with fried chicken in them = awesome.

Real seafood at the market. 

Garlic scapes! Now that I know what to do with these, I want to get some next week.

STRAWBERRIES. We bought a half-flat. On Saturday. There are two small boxes left. Nom.

 Sauteed veggies from Verde Cocina. More on this in a minute...

Some sort of pretty flowers. There were two people, pulling all kinds of beautiful flowers from buckets and hand-tying bouquets. Lovely.

This woman is hand-pressing and grilling corn tortillas for Verde Cocina. I watched her for 15 minutes and wanted to hug her. I could write a huge post on my love of Mexican food, especially fresh tortillas, but another time.

Chilaquiles. Fresh tortillas, scrambled eggs, white bean salad, kale, sauteed veggies, and kicky salsa with a little crumble of cheese. The. Perfect. Breakfast.

We ended up leaving with the aforementioned strawberries, a microscopic bag of morel mushrooms, a pound and a half of English peas, some zucchini, and a bunch of basil. I decided to give risotto a try for the first time. Wow. Something I learned about risotto: Your patience will be rewarded! It was perfect, and delicious, and the sweet, fat peas were amazing in it with some lightly sauteed morels. Like heaven. 

Heaven, right here...

We had a balsamic-strawberry and arugula salad and some grilled baguette to finish off the meal. It was magical. Oh Oregon. Just when I needed that boost! Can't wait to see what I discover next weekend. 

mountaincountrycity girl.

I was born and raised in Kansas. Not on a farm, but in several different towns, ranging from the college town where I was born to the Kansas City suburb to the central-state county seat to the town of 3,000 where my dad grew up. Each has a distinctive vibe and offers a different view of a state most people associate with Dorothy, a church full of bigoted jerkwads that I refuse to even mention by name, and tornadoes. I was never much of a country girl, save for a few rides on horses here and there. Really, I've always been more of a city girl who knows how to camp. Though I do enjoy cowboy boots and I have been run over by a four-wheeler, so I have a little country girl cred.

When I was 4 years old, my grandparents took me to Colorado for a road trip. I vaguely remember being overwhelmed by the looming Rockies. It was several years before I went back, but I remained awed and drawn in by the mountains. I saw the ocean for the first time a few years later, and that image of an expanse of water as far as my eyes could see remained with me as well. When I was 12, I went to Chicago. I ate it up, loving the architecture and the buzz and the lakefront. It was so exciting and busy, and my pre-teen self said "self, you will live in this city some day." I knew I was made for Chicago, and vice versa.

I lived there for longer than I lived anywhere else: Eight years. People ask me where I'm from, and I tell them Chicago more than half the time. It's not that I don't love Kansas in its own way, but Chicago became such a part of my identity. It's MY city, and I am a part of it as well. If Chicago had mountains, or an ocean (the lake SO does not count), I can't imagine we would have left it.

My theory used to be that I was half city mouse and half country mouse, still appreciating a sweeping field of wheat and in love with the idea of having goats some day. About a month ago, I realized that I'm about two-thirds city mouse and one-third mountain mouse. That ratio can change from day to day, but I really do need those mountains in my life right now, even if Portland might be a little too friendly for me. I had better not lose my edge with all this niceness around me!

visitors.

Yeesh! I have not posted for a while. I'm not so busy that I can't write, but I guess I haven't had anything that interesting to say. And we have had several guests (and more coming!)  the past few weeks to keep us busy.

One of my very, best, favorite things about Portland is the quality and quantity of awesome little dining establishments. Not just restaurants but also the food cart culture is amazing. Needless to say, we have a lot of options. Our dear friends who love food as much as we do visited for several days last week, and I knew I needed a fairly edited list of favorites from which to choose. I wanted to hit what I thought were most important to me but also fit their expectations and palates!

This post would be ridiculously long if I went through our entire weekend, but I want to highlight the places we were able to visit and express our love for them. There was a five-mile hike thrown in there, too, so don't think it was a weekend of total fatness!

Pine State Biscuits - Never disappoints. Though I don't know how fried chicken on a biscuit could let anyone down...

Olympic Provisions - Charcuterie. Pickles. Bread. Cheese. We are carnivores, so this was a no-brainer.

Bamboo Sushi - First certified, sustainable sushi restaurant in the world. Amazing food, ambiance (especially from our seat in the open front window), and drinks. Doesn't hurt that it's right next door to my favorite pizza place and you can smell wood-fired pizza while eating super-fresh salmon. A new favorite for me is the habanero masago smelt roll. My face was on FIRE, and I liked it.

Barista - Great coffee, great vibe, delightful people. Beer in a coffee shop! I love it all.

Hiking! - This is a great hike for almost anyone who doesn't mind breaking a sweat. Starting on the Wahkeena side is my preference. It was just gorgeous, and our guests loved it.

Double Mountain Brewery - Post-hike pizza and beers in adorable Hood River. A bike race to watch that day, too! Awesome all around.

Everybody's Brewing - Stopped in here for the view and a beer. Gorgeous look at Mt. Hood from the Washington side! And I recommend the Country Boy IPA.

Pok Pok Noi - It seems like everybody knows about Pok Pok, and with good reason! We just had a little snack of some fish sauce wings to go since our dinner wasn't until late. The papaya salad and sticky rice are my go-to here as well.

Beast - OK, this is one of the most regarded restaurants in Portland. I could write an entire post detailing our meal, but I won't. They offer a tasting menu and optional wine pairing. It was a good dinner at a great price, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the greatest meal of my life. Some of the pairings were huge misses for all of us, which was so disappointing. The soup, charcuterie, salad, and dessert were pretty out-of-this-world. I'm glad we went, but I can say now that I much prefer DOC, just half a block away. Those guys killed me with their food a couple months ago, and I cannot wait to go back.

Our friends' flight was mid-afternoon and it was another beautiful day, so we had time to get in a beer on the patio at Prost and sandwiches from Garden State/Burgatroyd. To quote our guest, "It's a good thing we came here last because I could sit here for an entire day." It's an addictive place to be!

This is the tip(-py top!) of the iceberg as far as my list of favorites in this city. If I sent this out and asked for opinions, I'd probably get a ton of criticism saying, "But what about Screen Door?" "You forgot Toro Bravo!" "How could you miss Apizza Scholls?" But, I can say with confidence, it was a successful weekend that left our friends wanting more... and this is good news, because they will come back!

two lips.

Just this week, I noticed the leaves were budding on the trees. The cherry blossoms and daffodils have been in bloom for a while now, but I'm ready for the spring green of new foliage.

I bought some local tulips on sale at the store the other day, and they are the brightest, girliest pink I've ever seen in a flower. Love them. I put them in my (only) vase and set them on the table where I have my favorite Heath Ceramics bowl. If you haven't checked out Heath, do it now! They are an awesome mid-century ceramics company. I went to the factory when I was in Sausalito, California, a few years ago. Fabulous place, amazing wares. I love the pale green on this piece.

Now we just need the sun to show up, right Portland??

the story of the shopping cart.

I came home yesterday and there was a shopping cart sitting in front of our neighbors' driveway. Not directly in front, but off to the side. I didn't think much of it other than "huh, wonder how that got there?" A couple of hours later, I was making the bed in our guest room, which looks out onto the street, and I saw our neighbor get out of his car, glower at our front door, and kick the shopping cart into our driveway.

Seriously. Can you say passive-aggressive neighborhood? And I haven't even told you the story of the neighbors across the street and their note... maybe another day...

Tuesday is garbage/recycling day, so when I finished making up the bed, I went outside to put the bins on the curb for early-morning pick up. I grabbed the cart and hauled it up onto the sidewalk so at least it would be out of the street, GLARING at the neighbors' front door the entire time. Then, I fretted. What the heck am I going to do with a shopping cart? I know the neighbor made it MY problem, but it's not my style to just pass the buck and do that to someone else. So, I was awake half the night, somewhere between anger and confusion, thinking about an abandoned Safeway shopping cart. Full of grocery bags. What was in those bags? Body parts? Drugs? My imagination ran wild.

I woke up this morning and it was still there. Staring at me, half on the curb, half in the gutter. I had called the store to see if they would come get it, but I got a "not our problem" response. It took all of my energy not to run next door and ask them to help me put it in their truck and get rid of it. It certainly wasn't going to fit in my Jetta! But I resisted and took the dog to play some fetch and clear my mind.

The happy ending, if you want to call it that, is that as I rounded the corner on my way back from the park, I saw a man walking off, pushing the cart in front of him! I lingered at the corner, letting him take his time. I've never been so grateful for recycling day and the folks who pick the bottles out for the 5 cent return. Hopefully, it will help him collect lots of cans and bottles and he'll get some decent cash.

These are the days that I miss Chicago and its direct (OK, actively aggressive) tone. I am so not cut out for this friendly neighborhood business.