So many good things have come our way food-wise from friends in the last few weeks. We’re so lucky. Here are some of the yummy things we’ve been gifted lately…

Our friend Amanda Myers of Infinity Tattoo keeps bees and we got some of their spoils -- two jars of liquid gold honey.

Our next door neighbors recently went to Portugal for a couple weeks and brought us back this lovely olive oil.

Our friend Ariel Kempf gave us a jar of her Creaux Creole Mustard. Hot and spicy good. Learn more about it at www.creaux-mustard.com.

Our friend Dave gave us two jars of super yummy almond butter.

We got a couple Woodblock Chocolate bars from the makers themselves. Delicious!

Eat anything tasty lately?

Check out Friend Food Pt. 1

This Satuday in Portland 10am-2pm!

Giovanna Zivny, Elizabeth Nathan and others have organized Portland’s Bakesale for Japan next Saturday, April 2nd from 10am-2pm at two of Portland’s favorite coffee shops — Ristretto Roasters (Williams) and Barista (Pearl).

Home and professional bakers are grabbing their whisks and cranking up their ovens to raise money for Peace Winds Japan, a partner of Mercy Corps.

This is a nationwide effort (Bakesale for Japan currently has generated 17+ bake sales stretching from San Francisco to NYC) that originated with Oakland chef Samin Nosrat. She raised $23K for Haiti last year with just three bake sale locations. Portland’s Bakesale for Japan has a matching donation lined up from Intel.

If you’d like to bake (amateurs and professionals welcome) or volunteer for Bakesale for Japan contact pdxbakesale@gmail.com.

Here is the amazing list of Portland folks signed up so far to contribute tasty baked goods: Little T American Baker, Alder Pastry & Dessert, Woodlawn Coffee and Pastry, Fleur de Lis Bakery and Cafe, Alma Chocolate, Kir Jensen (The Sugar Cube), Kristen Murray (Paley’s Place), Kim Boyce (Golden Oven), Bakery Bar, Suzette, Random Order Coffeehouse & Bakery, Petunia’s Pies & Pastries, Confectionery, Little Branch Jam, and Bees & Beans.

Portland’s Bakesale for Japan
10am-2pm Saturday, April 2nd @

Ristretto Roasters (N Williams location)
3808 N Williams Ave
&
Barista (Pearl location)
539 NW 13th Ave

Linda Chaplik stopped by recently with some of her peppermint chocolate gluten-free brownies for me. I'm spoiled.

I’m sorry for the silent treatment the past couple weeks. We’ve been through some hard times with our family and I couldn’t think about this, or anything beyond that, for a spell. I’m back now and here’s to good times ahead. This is a post I put together awhile back. It’s still very much pre-expiration date though. Nothing stinky…

I wrote about the Food Innovation Center’s Time to Market Showcase several weeks ago for Willamette Week and then followed that up with a Willamette Week blog post about the event. Now I’m following up my follow-up with even more here about participant Linda Chaplik’s super tasty gluten-free brownies.

Linda is a former corporate training manager turned food entrepreneur here in Portland and her gluten-free brownies (for the record, I have no problem whatsoever with gluten) are fantastic. In upcoming weeks Linda is working on securing a commercial kitchen and getting cafe accounts so keep your eyes peeled for her Oh, Goodness! brownies. I’ll keep you posted here.

Linda's gluten-free brownies are freakishly good. If you see them for sale somewhere buy them. All.

Linda Chaplik and her friend Peggy Flynn at the Food Innovation Center's Time to Market Showcase in December.

Paul Gerald's 2nd edition of Breakfast in Bridgetown is out!

I don’t usually have multiple plans on a weekday night but next Tuesday , December 14th there are three fantastic food events that I’m not going to miss and all of them are free and open to the public. I don’t know how I’m going to pack them all in but I will. Here’s the scoop…

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday!

Breakfast in Bridgetown Party
5:30-8pm @ Cafe Nell

My friend and fellow PDX writer Paul Gerald is throwing a killer breakfast-for-dinner launch party for the second edition of his Breakfast in Bridgetown book at Cafe Nell. There’s no charge to attend but you do need to RSVP here.

Here are the details straight from the source:

* Cafe Nell is at the corner of NW 20th and Kearney, and they do have a parking lot.
* “Breakfast for dinner” provided by Cafe Nell, including cups of hash, quartered Monte cristo sandwiches, house made pork sausages, Pumpkin breads, shrimp and grits, silver dollar pumpkin pancakes. Mmm!
* Signed breakfast books for $16 each, or two for $30.
* $2 from every sale will be donated to the Oregon Food Bank.
* Full bar available with amazing cocktails
* Short program around 6:30, with comments from the author, contributors Nick Zukin of ExtraMSG.com and Brett Burmeister of FoodCartsPortland.com, and perhaps a little snippet from Portland’s appearance in the PBS documentary Breakfast Special.

This is how in the field, literally, a Friends of Family Farmers internship can be.

Friends of Family Farmers End of the Year Celebration and InFARMation
5:30-10pm @ Holocene

Come out and celebrate the end of the year with one of my favorite local organizations — Friends of Family Farmers. One of the best part of the night is the silent auction that will benefit FOFF programs and initiatives. Here’s the schedule followed by a list of some of the awesome items that will be on auction…

5:30 Door to Holocene Open – come early to order food, get drinks (food and drink is not paid for so bring your $) and socialize

6:15 Friends of Family Farmers – don’t miss this short presentation of our programs and successes over the last year, pretty impressive for such a small group if we say so ourselves.

6:30 Silent Auction Starts, Live Acoustic Music & MC

8:00 Silent Auction Ends, Live Auction Starts – some of the bigger auction items will be dealt with by our auctioneer

8:15/30 Greasy Chain String Band – dancing and celebrating! Winners get to cash out and take home their items!

This InFARMation (and Beer!) is 21+, so don’t forget your ID.

Some of the many amazing items on the silent auction list…
* Pig Butchery Class Gift Certificate – Portland Meat Collective & Camas Davis
* Private Breadmaking Class with Professional Baker from Nostrana – Giana Bernardini
* Raw Honey-White Clover, Raspberry Blossom & Forest Wildflower- Mountain Meadow Honey Co.
* Loaf of Rustic Bread per Month for One Year – Grand Central Bakery
* Pizza Gift Certificate – Hot Lips Pizza
* Fruit Trees from Local Sustainable Nursery – One Green World Nursery
* Three Night Romantic Getaway in Yachats Cabin – Sue Tate & Dave Morgan
* Widmer Party Pack (1/4 Barrell, Tap & Tub, Sleeve of Cups and Ice) – Widmer Brewing
* Basket of Rogue goodies and Rogue Beer – Rogue Ales
* Magnum of Bethel Heights Justice Vineyards 2007 Estate Pinot Noir – Bethel Heights Vineyard
* Handcrafted Wood Cutting Board – The Joinery
* One-Year Family Membership to OMSI
* $75 Gift Certificate to to 50 Plates in the Pearl – Ginger Rapport of 50 Plates
* $50 Gift Certificate for Feed Concentrates – Concentrates NW
* Laptop Lunch Box – Mirador Community Store
* $75 Gift Certificate to Meriwether’s Restaurant. Specializing in Farm to Table Meals
* $50 Gift Certificate Higgins Restaurant & Bar. Cuisine rooted in our Northwest Soil
* $20 Gift Certificate from the Urban Farm Store, a Family-Owned and Operated Local Business
* Farmer Love Basket – A Collection of Goodies from Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply
* 2 Tickets to to the September 24th Farm to Fork Farm Dinner at Kiyokawa Family Orchards
* Holiday Wreath Lovingly Handcrafted with Local Greens by Kelly Ingram

Food Innovation Center’s Time to Market Showcase
6-9pm @ the Food Innovation Center

I already wrote about this fantastic event in this week’s Willamette Week so I’ll just point you in their direction for the scoop.

Judge this book by its cover. What's is even better...

I get a fair number of review copies in the mail and I have to say that Primal Cuts: Cooking with America’s Best Butchers is one of the more exciting ones. One reason I got a review copy is because of the 50 US butchers that Marissa Guggiana interviews in what her publisher Welcome Books calls “a modern meat bible” three are from Portland:

Ben Dyer of Laurelhurst Market
Jason Barwikowski of Olympic Provisions
&
Berlin Reed aka The Ethical Butcher

I wish I had a scale here at my studio because I’d weigh this meat tome. Oh wait, there’s the online oracle — ok so it’s an impressive three-plus pounds. This is a hefty book that costs a pretty penny and although I know you can get three-pounds of pork butt for significantly less — and then you can make Ben Dyer’s Little Smokies pickled in a hot vinegary brine on page 125 — the book is worth every penny.

Each butcher profiled introduces him or herself and then there are great, big photos of them with their meat (excuse me but it’s true) as well as recipes for everything from cinnamon oxtail stew (Gabriel Claycamp, formerly from The Swinery, WA) and pork belly confit (Olivia Sargeant, Farm 255, GA) to boudin (Donald Link, Cochon Butcher, LA) and venison jerky (Scott Leysath, The Sporting Chef, CA). In addition to recipes the books includes DIY for homemade sausage, bacon and dry cured meats as well as advice for kick-ass burgers, deboning a chicken and making stock.

It’s a fantastic book and I’m really looking forward to learning and cooking from it. Even though it’s a little over the top when pulled out of context I really like what Dario Cecchini says in the book’s introduction:

Here is the essence of our craft as butchers: a task crude and compassionate, strong yet delicate, always respectful toward the killed animal, with the ethical imperative of always using the meat in the best manner possible, knowing that, since the beginning of time, these animals were were given to mankind as a gift from God.

Saving the best for last, Primal Cuts is coming to Portland:

Friday, November 12, 7:30pm
Dinner with Marissa Guggiana, Jason Barwikowski, & Ben Dyer
Simpatica Catering & Dining Hall
828 Southeast Ash Street
Portland, OR 97214

The menu from Simpatica’s site:

Sliced Corned Veal Tongue and Fried Oxtail Roulade with Broken Sauce Gribiche, Grilled Toasts and Bitter Herb Salad

Turnip and Turnip Top Soup

Wood-Roasted Whole Cattail Creek Lamb with Chickpea and Viridian Farms Grilled Pepper Stew and Skordalia

Blood Orange Curd Crepes with Chantilly Cream

Price is $40 per person plus wine and gratuity. Dinner begins at 7:30pm. Please email Simpatica or call the kitchen at 503.235.1600 to make reservations.

And Thursday, November 18th:

Info. from the press release:

$20 PRESALE. $30 DOOR.
Buy your ticket today at theethicalbutcher@gmail.com
Thursday, November 18th 7-11pm
The Cleaners at Ace Hotel
403 SW 10th Avenue

***AFTER PARTY***
After you fill up on all that local meaty goodness and get dancing to the beats at The Cleaners you’ll want to keep going. Head down the street to Beauty Bar for Homo Deluxe/Primal Cuts After Party.

Beauty Bar
111 Southwest Ash Street, Portland