Grow Your Own Book Launch Party at Holocene Wednesday, September 27

September 21, 2017 in Book Event, Cannabis, Grow Your Own, Keep Portland Weird, Portland Gardening, Portland Homegrow

In 2015 and 2016 I got to write two books and edit one. It was a wild (and very busy) ride that allowed me to have one book launch party in July -- True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People, another launch party in August -- Hello! My Name is Tasty and a third launch party in September -- next week's Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis!

We have put together one of the most ambitious and awesome book launch parties for Grow Your Own and I really, really hope that you can come. The party is next Wednesday, September 27th at Holocene from 6-10pm and it is free, open-to-the-public and 21+. There will be no cannabis on site as per OLCC rules but there will be all kinds of cannabis experts, growers, appreciators ++ on hand for an evening of green appreciation and education and last but not least CELEBRATION!

My fine fellow DJ Jimbo will be spinning music all-night long, I'll be emceeing on the upper stage throughout the night, the super smart and on-the-scene Ravens from Raven Grass -- coauthors of Grow Your Own -- will be tabling, talking and whooping it up in general and the fine folks of Tin House Books who brought this book to life will be the hosts with the most.

Did I mention that Bill Murray will be in the photobooth? Yep. You'll see what I mean. Did I mention that there will be a giant blow-up of the book's cover and rad Tin House interns snapping instant photos of party attendees with it? Yep. There will also be a special Grow Your Own cocktail of the night that I helped conjure up, all sorts of treats to try, herbs to sniff (as a part of the cannabis terpenes informational display), cannabis crafts to make (thanks to Make & Mary), and much, much more.

Below I'm including descriptions of all of the talks that will be taking place throughout the night on the upper stage by rad, super smart women in cannabis from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Curious about sex and cannabis, particularly how it affects women? We've got you covered. Have a question regarding growing or consuming cannabis that you've been wanting to ask? Stop by the 9:30pm Q&A with Nichole Graf and Lena Davidson.

I'm also including a linked list of all of the awesome businesses and organizations tabling at the event's Cannabis Community Fair in the main dance area of Holocene.

Please mark your calendars and help us to spread the word! This is the fist event of its kind in Portland -- a noncommercial, free, learn from the experts, cannabis education and appreciation event. Portland is lucky to get it and I'm lucky to be a part. I'm particularly excited about all of the women in cannabis talks and the terpene station. Thank you Holocene, thank you Tin House, thank you Ravens and thank YOU for reading this and coming out for our Grow Your Own launch party spectacular next Wednesday night!

XOXO

CANNABIS COMMUNITY FAIR TABLERS

Botanica Hilary Brown will be on hand to demo the Magic Shell recipe from Grow Your Own and talk through her recommendations for flavor pairings with cannabis, based on her experience as a world renown chocolatier. Plus, get ready to sample all of Botanica’s delicious (non-cannabis infused) treats!

Broccoli Magazine Get a sneak peek of this new to-launch women-in-cannabis quarterly from Anja Charbonneau the creator of Kinfolk. Van der Pop Check out samples of all of Van der Pop's beautiful offerings with April Pride.

Phylos Bioscience Get hands-on experience with the Phylos Galaxy model and learn how to track the strains you purchase from your favorite growers.

Hands-on Terpene Station from Pearl Extracts ++ A hands-on terpene station sponsored by Pearl Extracts and led by Grow Your Own author Micah Sherman — Learn about these aromatic cannabis compounds by interacting with them in person. Gain confidence in selecting strains based on terpene profiles, which can help you predict how different strains will interact with your body much more accurately than the old standbys of indica vs. sativa and THC potency.

Hana Medicinals Learn from Amy Risch all about the health and healing side of cannabis particularly its use in combating chronic pain in topicals.

WOMEN IN CANNABIS SPEAKERS

7:00PM — ANDI BIXEL, Creator of Drip Ice CreamCannabis as Medicine for Our Culture Let’s talk about the ways that normalizing cannabis can make big waves for our culture. Andi will explore the importance of properly introducing the plant to newbies and how we can play with and understand our experience of cannabis.

7:30PM — CAROLYN WHITE, Marketing Manager of Phylos BioscienceStaying True: Building a Values-Based Brand in the Cannabis Industry Carolyn will talk about the Phylos Bioscience model, science, and dreams for the industry. Get ready for a deep dive into the Phylos Galaxy and learn about the organization’s ambitious goal of mapping the cannabis genome.

8:00PM — MARY J POPPINS, Founder & CEO of Sativa Science ClubThe Importance of Education and Advocacy in the Cannabis Industry Mary will discuss the need for foundational science education for all those involved in the cannabis industry—professionals and consumers alike. She’ll also dive into why she founded Sativa Science Club and how to empower cannabis users through education.

8:30PM — EMMA CHASEN, Director of Education at Farma & Cannabis Educator at Sativa Science ClubCounter Culture: Re-framing Your Relationship with Cannabis in a Dispensary Environment The wonderful world of legal cannabis can be overwhelming to the novice consumer. That's why we have budtenders to guide our dispensary experiences. But what happens when the budtenders are ill informed? How can we as consumers ask the right questions? Emma Chasen, recently named Portland’s Best Budtender of 2016, will share helpful tips to make sure you get the most out of your dispensary experience.

9:00 PM — APRIL PRIDE, Founder of Van der PopHot Box: Women's Sexual Health in the Age of Legal Cannabis April, founder of cannabis lifestyle brand Van der Pop, will share all she's learned on how cannabis inspires sexual freedom in relationships and sexual satisfaction while alone. With only one approved medication dedicated to women’s sexual health (as compared to 26 for men), cannabis promises to close the gap.

9:30PM — NICHOLE GRAF, co-author of Grow Your Own and Creative Director of Raven Grass & LENA DAVIDSON, Director of Community Outreach at Botanica SeattleAsk Us Anything (About Cannabis) Join Nichole and Lena for a frank conversation about cannabis as a movement, our power as professionals and consumers, and the importance of Growing Your Own now more than ever. They’ll also be answering the questions you’ve dropped in the “Ask Us Anything” box over the course of the night.

See you next Wednesday at Holocene! #growyourownbook

My new batch of miso salted in and in the crock! The oldest I have now that's still fermenting is 5 years old.

Yard Fresh Pt. 31

June 19, 2015 in Cookbooks, Edible Gardening, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Foraged Food, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

Well, well, well, it's been a year since I did one of these installments. Time flies when you're having fun and I've been having a lot of fun lately. Candle both ends as usual. The last Yard Fresh I wrote in May 2014 right when my kitchen was going into remodel surgery. That seems like years ago -- so many parties and dinner parties and cooking fun has transpired in it since. I am so grateful to my good friends at St. Johns Design Build for making my kitchen dreams come true. I couldn't love my kitchen more or recommend these fellows more highly for any home remodel project.

I'll get to the food photos in a second but here's a quick recap. of the past few months. I got to do my very first writing residency for my novel at The Sou'wester in April and it was awesome. I cranked out 3,000 words a day on average and even managed to cook and eat all kinds of tasty treats that you'll see below. I also got to go to San Francisco in early May to interview one of my food heroes Mark Bittman for a magazine I've subscribed to and loved for years. That interview won't publish for awhile and I'll be sure to let you know when it does.

For now, I'm still loving my work at Hawthorne Books which recently merged with Dzanc Books, working on my novel one day a week, we just finished the Tasty Cookbook proposal (we originally proposed a brunch book but now it's AM plus PM dishes mmmm) and our agent is sending it out, I'm working on a hard cider book with someone near and dear, we're about to set the date for the 6th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival this fall and get cracking on that again, I'm doing all kinds of fun things with Team Gorham as always, and I'm working on something with the fine folks at Inkshares this summer. Sheesh. That's a lot.

This summer I plan to be the river rat that I always am when the days are long and this time around it will often be with my sweet, sweet fellow Jimbo. That makes me very happy. I also plan to camp and cook outside a lot and use my pie irons often. We're going to the Outer Banks with my family in a month. I have 200 bottles of homemade plum wine to bottle this year from the Brooks Plum tree in the front yard. And, you know, drink. Friends make the world go round so I will be playing in the sun with them a whole heck of a lot in upcoming months.

Hope you've been working on good projects, having fun with friends and family and cooking and eating delicious food. I harvested my garlic one month early this year -- so hot these days! -- and now I have flashy trout's back lettuce and kale and soon tomatoes, chiles, zukes etc. SUMMMMMMMMMER! Love to you and hope you have an incredible summer. Do all the fun things as much as you can. Summer is magic and it always goes fast.

I didn't actually cook this buuuuut isn't it pretty?! My super talented friend Tom Humphrey designed it and John G and I and his team worked our arses off putting this FIFTY page book proposal together. Going out to publishers this week!

Potato taco time! My friend Raquel's late mom Anna taught me how to make these. These mean summer and love to me.

Potato tacos at night aaaaand potato tostadas in the morning! With soyrizo and eggs. Yummmmm.

Plum wine bottling and drinking with my housey and friend. And the White Wolf. Only 25 more gallons to go!

Plum wine in Grolsch bottles and getting fizzzzzzy.

Flashy Trout's Back lettuce from Territorial Seed. Have twenty this size in the backyard. Salad Dayzzzzz

Straining my homemade vinegars -- plum wine vin and grapefruit. My friend Gilion gave me the vinegar mother and I've made a bunch of these and pineapple vinegar so far. Love them.

Nettle pesto fixings -- olive oil, toasted hazelnuts, asiago, olive oil. Added bonus: flash boil the nettles for the pesto and you get nettle tea too.

Nettle pesto orzo with home canned tuna and pickled peppers.

Beach Bloody Mary and oyster bar with friends. And TINY TABASCO!

Backyard garlic harvest one month early this year.

Razor clam deviled eggs!! Sou'wester owner Thandi brought the clams to my trailer and I made us these with preserved lemon, pimenton and lots and lots of olive oil. One of my best deviled eggs to date and I LOVE deviled eggs. Dreamy.

Mr. Bittman's wacky good Manchurian Tofu and Cauliflower from his latest cookbook How to Cook Everything Faster which I love and have cooked a ton from.

Leftover mac and cheese from Dig A Pony with my kimchi and eggs. I want this now!

I'll leave you with this picture of spring/summer happiness: solo early eve Sazerac on my trailer stoop at the Sou'wester. Life is sweet.

My kitchen is being remodeled by my friends at St. Johns Design Build. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Yard Fresh Pt. 30

May 15, 2014 in Foraged Food, Portland Gardening, Portland Yard, Uncategorized

I haven't done one of these since last summer! Holy shit time flies. Lately I've been wishing that there were a way to expand time to fit more of the best of life in. I don't necessarily want the days to be longer I just want to be writing, sailing, cooking, loving, swimming, travelling and on and on and on contemporaneously somehow/someway. So that each would be enjoyed fully but a different part of me would be present for each. I'll go do some more drugs now. Sorry.

So, I'm getting my kitchen remodeled! Finally. My super talented friends at St. Johns Design Build (they don't have a website yet but once they do I'll shout it out here) -- Brian McVay, Clarence Jacobs and Rude Graves -- are kicking ass doing a complete overhaul. Things that I'm really looking forward to: the original fir floor being sanded and finished, my new-to-me kick-ass professional-style Dynasty gas stove, sweet-ass tiling by Rude, old bleachers made into beautiful new cabinets and drawers and shelves by Clarence, a bar, maple chopping block peninsula, paperstone counters and all sorts of other magic by Brian and crew. Life is sweet. I'll put up some photos of the progress in the next several weeks.

In the meantime, near and dear friends in the neighborhood are happy because I've been using their kitchens more and I also have a funky little interim kitchen in the back of my house in the utility room with a hotpot, rice steamer and toaster. It works and it's actually been fun to have some cooking restraints. It's like camp cooking, boat cooking etc. -- pushes you to be creative and work in new ways with what you've got.

It's been a really fun spring so far and I hope you've been doing well too. I just finished writing the Tasty Brunch Book proposal with John (now it's with our agent, next to the designer), I'm working on all sorts of food-plus projects at Hawthorne Books, working on a still secret book project, little here and there on my novel and Food Lover's Guide to Portland 2.0 review copies go out NEXT WEEK and it publishes in three short months. Madness. In the very best sense of the word.

Here's what I've been eating. What have you been cooking and eating?

Miso, bacon, fish sauce, broccolini spaghetti. Really good.

Mission Street Food's Braised Sausage with my friend Kalera's kraut, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and house German sausage from Western Meat Market on Lombard.

Rice cooker steamed Dover sole in homemade miso/ginger/lemon sauce with asparagus.

Nettle'ing with Jess. Made all kinds of dishes with them. Morel nettle risotto, sauces, tea yada yada. Love nettles.

Found this huuuuuge morel in my backyard. Was too waterlogged and gone to eat but still had...

The last of the dehydrated/foraged ones from last spring. Have been making a lot of risottos with them. My friend Jess, different Jess, took these from the Mother's Day risotto I made for her and Rich with red-veined sorrel from the yard and my home… — The last of the dehydrated/foraged ones from last spring. Have been making a lot of risottos with them. My friend Jess, different Jess, took these from the Mother's Day risotto I made for her and Rich with red-veined sorrel from the yard and my homemade plum wine. Tasty.

Bottled the plum wine. 100 bottles this year from the Brooks plum tree in my front yard

Also bottled last year's dandelion wine and started this year's. Make it every year with my friend Michelle and her daughter...

Dinner becomes breakfast. Spag and eggs. One of my favorites.

Still cooking from the Toro cookbook. Forever and always. Toro's piperade and boquerones over pan-fried polenta.

For our first kitchen remodel meeting/party made a big batch of kimchi fried rice and it, of course, became breakfast the next day. So good.

I had a big party for my 37th and this kimchi jjigae is one of the things I cooked for it. Really, really tasty.

Yard Fresh Pt. 29

January 02, 2014 in Cookbooks, Food Fermentation, Homemade Food, Jacques Pepin, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

It's been a crazy fall and winter with the launch of the Toro Bravo cookbook, our book tour, local events and media and everything else in my life. I really couldn't be happier these days. 2013 was a big, beautiful year for me -- following a very rough 2012 -- in fact it was one of the best of my life, if not the best. There's a term that I learned recently that pretty much sums that up -- post-traumatic growth.

Despite the wild ride and burning the candle on both ends I still managed to cook and eat a lot of good food at home and at friends' and family's homes and I'm including some of those things here. I hope that you've enjoyed a great closing of 2013 and start to 2014 too -- food-wise and beyond. Food is one of the great pleasures of life if you let it be -- especially if you treasure it and share that magic with those in your life. The love you have is the love you give. Cook something delicious for someone that you love today. Cheers to 2014!

I also made a huge batch of kimchi bacon fried rice for the party. Breakfast the next day...

Citrusy golden beet salad for my friend Michelle's birthday.

Jacques Pepin's delicious Provencal beef stew -- Beef Daube Arlesienne -- loaded with nicoise olives, capers and tomatoes.

Super yummy garlic cheese grits, bacon and eggs breakfast.

Garlic cheese grits, kimchi, bacon and eggs.

Future Toro Bravo limoncello from the book.

I used the juice of those lemons for lemon curd and lemon syrup from Linda's Ziedrich's book.

Aaaaand Grand Central's lemon bars that a friend said were the best he'd ever had. Really tasty.

Toro's crepes with berry syrup and maple yogurt sauce.

Eggs wtih salami, olives, cheese and homemade hot sauce.

Christmas family food tradition -- olives stuffed with cream cheese and roasted almonds.

Toro's Jerez Negroni in the book. Cheers to 2014!

I've been making this rhubarb syrup the past few years with rhubarb from the front yard and it always turns out great. I mixed it with margaritas and also used it with my new favorite kitchen gadget below.

Yard Fresh Pt. 28

August 22, 2013 in Edible Gardening, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

I'm still enjoying this incredible summer as much as possible (trips to the river, plum wine, dancing, reading, camping and much more) and working less than usual before the Toro Bravo cookbook storm hits. Right now we're in the planning stages for the tour that commences in one short month. (You can pre-order the cookbook now from Powell's and Amazon.) We'll be heading to New York, DC, Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle, Boise and Eugene this fall for the book! I'll post more details about that soon as well as about the cookbook launch party. For now, save the date for it -- the evening of Tuesday, October 15th at Toro Bravo. If you've never been to a Toro party before expect to stay late and party hard. It's going to be crazy fun.

The garden is growing and in full swing and mostly I'm getting a lot of tomatoes which are my favorite in the summer. I could eat them for just about every meal -- in a scramble for breakfast, sliced with a little salt on toasted bread with mayo for lunch, chips and salsa for a snack, in a sauce or saute for dinner. I never get sick of garden fresh summer tomatoes. I also have pickling cukes, green beans, zucchini, grapes and all the herbs and more going strong now. Life is good.

Here's some of what I've cooked and eaten lately. What have you been happily eating?

I've wanted one of these for awhile and now I finally have one! Fizzy water around the clock. Mostly I just drink it straight up but it was pretty tasty with the rhubarb syrup.

Harvested the 90 or so softnecks and left it to cure a little too long. Pretty dry but that's ok. I think I'll roast some and store it in oil.

Butter lettuce, Choi's white kimchi (homemade), boiled egg, radish, scallions and miso lime vinaigrette. Really good salad.

First tomato haul with some of the early Concords.

River snack. Cottage cheese, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Simple and perfect.

Late night camping trip bar prep of gingery Bloody Mary mix and margarita mix made with two bags of limes.

Sweet pea tomatoes or, as Kylie likes to call them...TINY TOMATOES!

Salame rolls with chipotle, preserved lemon cream cheese and a cornichon topper.

First spicy garlic dills of the season! Many more to come.

In late May I went on an incredible morel hunting camping trip in Washington and collected SIX pounds of morels! This is a morel cream sauce with eggs and rice for breakfast after I got back to town. So good.

Yard Fresh Pt. 27

July 19, 2013 in Book News, Edible Gardening, Food Preservation, Foraged Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Portland Mushrooms, Uncategorized

I'm really sorry that it's been so long since I've written anything here but I've been crazy busy finishing up two book projects and now I'm shutting down the mind machine a bit for some much needed summer fun. I plan to work as little as possible this summer. I've already been on a trip to Missoula and now I'm off for a week in Maine. After burning the candle on both ends for the past year I have absolutely no guilt about telling my usually very strong work ethic to fuck off.

Even though the Toro Bravo cookbook (you can pre-order it now!) is pretty much out of my hands now and soon to be on press for its fall release I've still been cooking from it. (I'll put together another cooking from the book post again soon too.) I've cooked and eaten a lot of other tasty things lately as well now that the garden is just about in full swing. Lately I've been eating a lot of arugula and greens, sugar snap peas and various herbs and berries from it. I harvested the garlic and it's curing in the utility room. Next up: tomatoes, cukes, chiles, green beans and more. I love summer.

Here's some of what I've cooked and eaten lately...

This is what went into the sauce above the night before -- morels, lemons, garlic, homemade plum wine and cream.

With sorrel from the garden and Edelwiess sausages over toast. Yum!

Homemade kimchi rice, egg and cheese never gets old.

Baguette sandwich with Freybe salame, tapenade and pickled peppers.

Some of the best deviled eggs I've ever made with fish sauce, kimchi, chives, sprinkled with togarashi

Used these spring onions in a bunch of things...

Arugula hazelnut preserved lemon pesto and my little friend.

Get tomatoes next Friday grown from seeds that this man, the late Ulisse Edera, grew for years -- 100 year old, tomato seeds that he brought to Portland from Italy. Photo courtesy of Keith Skelton.

2nd Annual Ulisse Edera Tomato Sale

May 06, 2013 in Ecotrust, Edible Gardening, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

Want to buy this man's Italian, 100-year-old heirloom seed tomatoes for your garden? Wish granted. Go to HOTLIPS Pizza's 2nd annual, Ulisse Edera Tomato Sale -- a one-day plant sale at its Ecotrust location next Friday, May 17th from 9am-5pm. Each one-gallon tomato plant will be $10 and 100% of sales go to support Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center. Here's more info. pretty much straight from the press release...

HOTLIPS owner, David Yudkin, has saved seeds and propagated these 100 year old tomato plants since meeting the late Ulisse Edera in 1984 in Edera’s garden south of Portland in Milwaukie's Ardenwald neighborhood, where many of Portland’s early Italian truck farms were located.

Born in Canelli, Italy, in August, 1890, Ulisse was an orphan raised by three different families, finally in Colcavagno, Austria, where he attended school. After serving in the Italian Army, Ulisse followed his brother to the US at age 23, hand carrying tomato seeds on the voyage. Ulisse filed citizenship papers at La Grande, Oregon in 1916, and in 1917 joined the US Army. The brothers made weekend visits to the Italian families living in Ardenwald, who farmed and sold produce at the Portland Farmers Market. It was there he met his wife, Daria, and at age 31 Ulisse and Daria were married. In 1925 they built a house on 32nd Avenue in Ardenwald and continued farming on 22 acres then known as Johnson Creek Farms. They both lived in that house the rest of their lives with close Italian neighbors and many friends nearby.

Every inch of Ulisse’s small yard was planted with vegetables and flowers. He grew 200 pounds of garlic every year, drying it and selling it, along with homemade vinegar. A visit with Ulisse always included a taste of his “bagnait” on dried bread with a sip or two of red wine. Visitors left his house without a bag of garden delights picked during their visit. Ulisse died at age 103. Though he had slowed down some, he was still gardening, cooking, preserving foods, hunting mushrooms on Mt. Hood, welcoming visitors and visiting neighbors at that time.

About Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center

Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, (a private 501(c)3 non-profit), was founded in 1989 as Friends of Opal Creek to gain protection of the Opal Creek watershed for future generations to study and enjoy, a goal we achieved in 1996. Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center maintains and stewards Jawbone Flats, a rejuvenated historic mining town in the heart of the 35,000-acre ancient forest watershed of the Opal Creek Wilderness and Scenic Recreation Area. We are located on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains, one hour east of Salem, Oregon, and approximately two hours from Portland, two and a half from Eugene and three from Bend. Opal Creek’s Mission” “Promoting conservation through educational experiences in wilderness.” www.opalcreek.orgAbout HOTLIPS

Founded in 1984, HOTLIPS is a Portland family-owned business with five pizza restaurants and a line of real fruit soda. Our mission is to preserve culture and celebrate humanity through rich culinary experiences, and by joining others in finding new and sustainable ways of doing business. Currently with 135 on staff, we train our folks to get out and talk about sustainability, ask questions, think of new things. We spend a lot of time teaching, taking our show on the road. We love what we do. www.hotlipspizza.com

2nd Annual Ulisse Edera Tomato Sale Friday, May 17th 9am-5pm at HOTLIPS Pizza @ Ecotrust 721 NW 9th Ave., #150 Portland, Oregon 97209 www.hotlipspizza.com

I made this version of Choi's White Napa Kimchi while working on a story about the Portland mother-son-duo kimchi business for Mix Magazine. I'm still enjoying it -- really tasty. It's a mild kimchi with no chiles but a lot of ginger, garlic, Asian … — I made this version of Choi's White Napa Kimchi while working on a story about the Portland mother-son-duo kimchi business for Mix Magazine. I'm still enjoying it -- really tasty. It's a mild kimchi with no chiles but a lot of ginger, garlic, Asian pear and red peppers.

Yard Fresh Pt. 25

January 07, 2013 in Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Toro Bravo, Toro Bravo Cookbook, Uncategorized

I've got a lot on my plate these days so I haven't been cooking as much as usual. I had two weeks off over the holidays though and did a lot of eat, drink, be merry. I just didn't do much of the cooking. I think I'll put together a Cincinnati post soon -- my hometown -- and include some of the great food and drink there. I brewed beer with my brother (my first time brewing beer!) when I visited this time around amongst other things.

I went to Seattle for a few days at the beginning of my vacation and met with one of my publishers, Gary Luke of Sasquatch Books, while there. (I also saw Louis C.K. at the Paramount!) As a result, I'm now working on revising Food Lover's Guide to Portland! I'm not sure when that will be complete and when you can get a new/improved copy but fingers crossed for summer or fall 2013.

After Seattle I visited family and friends in Cincinnati for a week and ate tasty German food and Cincinnati chili as usual. And to cap off my vacation I went to the Oregon coast for a few days to ring in the new year. Food/drink highlights there: We smoked Netarts Bay oysters (so good!) and then made omelets with them with goat cheese, there was a super yummy New Year's risotto with freshly hunted seared duck breast followed by a kick-ass Caesar and much, much more. Anyway, here's some of what I've cooked and eaten at home in the past couple months. Hope you've been eating well in the new year and are happy and healthy. Happy New Year!

I made this egg sammy a few weeks back with the kimchi above because I was craving the breakfast sandwich with kimchi and sausage on pretzel bread at the Saturday and Sunday brunch at Kenton Club. If you haven't been to this pop-up brunch yet go get… — I made this egg sammy a few weeks back with the kimchi above because I was craving the breakfast sandwich with kimchi and sausage on pretzel bread at the Saturday and Sunday brunch at Kenton Club. If you haven't been to this pop-up brunch yet go get it. Nik Woideck is rocking it in the kitchen there -- really good stuff.

I put all the beds under thick blankets to sleep until the spring. My neighbor Alison and I have an agreement -- if I clean her chicken coop then I get the skat straw for my yard. Perfect.

I made these garlic cheese grits for Thanksgiving. It's an old family recipe and no holiday is complete without them. Sharp cheddar, lots of butter and eggs, heaps of minced garlic and a cornflake topper.

I made a big batch of Toro Bravo's red sangria for Thanksgiving too.

And roasted some paprika glazed hazelnuts from Eric Joppie's Bar Avignon recipe in the August 2012 issue of Mix Magazine.

I also whipped up some smoked escolar butter (Newman's Fish Co.) from a Janie Hibler recipe in her cookbook titled Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers.

I'm going to keep cooking through the Toro Bravo Cookbook (due out fall 2013 from McSweeney's) this winter. This big batch of Toro's brussels sprouts with bacon sherry cream was tasty. Life is sweet.

Nigel Slater's Trappist beer beef stew with baked brothy potatoes from his cookbook Tender. So good. Ate it for several days.

Pulled out my homemade 2 year (left) and one year miso...

And scraped and salted it. Made sure to scoop off some to eat before putting it back down to ferment. It's so fucking good. With 5 gallons of the 1 year (on the right) I think I'll be able to get it to 10-plus years. It will just get darker, richer … — And scraped and salted it. Made sure to scoop off some to eat before putting it back down to ferment. It's so fucking good. With 5 gallons of the 1 year (on the right) I think I'll be able to get it to 10-plus years. It will just get darker, richer and more developed as it ages.

And racked the plum wine. 21 gallons this year!

Plum wine sangria that tweaked from the Toro Bravo white wine sangria recipe. Mmmm.

Yard Fresh Pt. 24

November 19, 2012 in Edible Gardening, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

It's been awhile since I've done one of these and to tell the truth I've been so busy meeting our final deadline for the Toro Bravo Cookbook (WE DID IT!) amongst several other big deadline projects I really haven't been cooking all that much. That said, I've made a few tasty thing lately and I'm going to share them with you here. Have you cooked anything really good in the past few weeks?

First roasted bird of the season -- stuffed with lemon and seasoned with a lot of olive oil and smoked paprika.

Last batch of spicy garlic dills. Didn't go overboard this year like I tend to with these...

And the last haul from the garden -- mostly went into soup...

Made twice as much plum wine this year -- all from the Brooks plum tree in the front yard. Should have about 100 bottles come spring!

Potato tacos became potato tostadas for breakfast. One of my favorite breakfasts...

Grilled sockeye that my neighbor caught (I'm so lucky) with grilled cauliflower and stewed green beans.

Toro Bravo's John Gorham cooking up some incredibly delicious back patio Rabbit Sausage Squid Ink Fideos for the Toro Bravo Cookbook.

Yard Fresh Pt. 23

August 20, 2012 in Book News, Edible Gardening, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

We've been eating a lot from the yard these days with much more to come. It was in the 90s for a good enough stretch that the fruits are ripening and the zukes and cukes are going crazy. Hope you've been eating good local fruits and veggies lately too...