Post -- Liz Crain

Food Lover's Guide to Portland Blog...

began as a collection of some of the research, recipes, images and culinary adventures that went into the making of Food Lover’s Guide to Portland. The first edition came out in 2010 and I started the blog in February 2009 as a companion piece to it and to help organize my thoughts while researching and writing it. The second edition came out in September 2014 from Hawthorne Books. The blog is now home to all different food, drink and beyond things I want to show and tell.

I didn’t think I’d like blogging when I first started this, but it turns out I really do, mostly because I get to shout out people and things that I love.

I planted my peas over the weekend even though I usually wait until early April. It's been so warm that I thought I'd give it a shot. While planting them I noticed that the nettles are all coming up around the front porch along with the rhubarb and all the tiny oregano, peppermint, sorrel and lemon balm.

I bought a bale of straw last weekend at Urban Farm Store and weeded a few areas in the front and then covered them with it. Next weekend I'll do the same in the back and plant some borage and arugula. I'm so happy that spring is on its way. I'm really looking forward to gardening this summer especially now that we cut down the old apple tree in the backyard. It's bittersweet because we really loved that tree but it was old, hollowed out and threatening to do some structural damage. We'll also get a lot more backyard sun light now that it's gone.

Hope you've been getting outside more now that it's been so nice. Here are a few of the tasty things we've been cooking and eating lately...