Days of PDX

Today marks my 11th day in Portland, Oregon.

The house is still full of boxes, though fewer and fewer as time passes. We haven’t had many times we needed to open something in a hurry, but there have been one or two incidents.

Peaches and strawberries are still in season. I didn’t manage to each ANY in Chicago this year, so I can’t tell you how happy this is for me. So far in PDX, I have eaten peaches straight and in cakes and as sides to savory meals. I have gorged on strawberries. (And tomatoes.)

There’s a farmers market just across the street from my house. And there’s a couple green spaces nearby that are fun to walk around. A big park nearby has me considering purchasing this cart and an exercise pen to have a makeshift yard for the pups to run around in while I work nearby.… Continue reading →

Experimenting in the kitchen

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

I’ll write this up fully later, but I just wanted to share a couple of photos with you. I’ve been in the kitchen more than my silence might indicate, but mostly doing simply things like hummus. Today’s my first experiment in awhile.

Well, I call it an experiment, but like the cautious cook I usually am, I took Marc Bittman’s recipe for “Braised Oxtail with Garlic and White Wine” and messed with it as I cooked. For one thing, I used beef neck instead of oxtail. It looks just as (if not more) tasty than the oxtails I’ve had, but was astoundingly cheaper. If this works out, I may never go back to oxtail.

His recipe also calls for 4 ounces of bacon. I didn’t remember that before I started quick thawing the beef neck.… Continue reading →

[122] 2011 Christmas Dinner Bone-In Prime Rib Roast

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

Last year, Bill and I accidentally started a tradition. At least, it felt that way to me earlier this month, when I was thinking about what to cook for dinner.

Apparently, I felt that way last year too. Even though I made some mistakes last year.

This year was also good, but not as good. I didn’t like the wine as much (a Washington State Malbec vs a Chilean (I think) Pinot Noir). This was a bone-in roast, and also had substantially more fat on it. The rancher (same as last year) had also had the bones cut off the meat, then tied back on. I do not know why, but it prevented carving the way Mr. Bittman suggested.

Anyway, I thought you guys might want a quick look at what we had.… Continue reading →

Tasha’s (attempt at) Asparagus Risotto

Cover of How to Pick a Peach, by Russ Parsons

One of the first things I wanted to do upon arriving home to Chicago was find some asparagus. I love asparagus utterly, and could probably eat it until I turn into an asparagus spear.

Luckily for me, asparagus season isn’t that long.

“Asparagus season isn’t that long” was actually my biggest fear upon arriving home too. I was terrified that three weeks gone from home, and a couple weeks of not shopping prior to that meant I’d missed out completely. Which would have made me quite sad.

So, of course, it only makes utter sense that we would get in about 8:00 pm on a Friday, and I’d be prepared to go to a Saturday morning farmers’ market. Where, thankfully, I found asparagus. I also found a couple of tomato plants, an amazing tamale (that isn’t New Mexican style at all), and some eggs.… Continue reading →

[97] Boneless Prime Rib for a Small Crowd

How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Bill and I have two farms we tend to buy meat from at “Green City Market.”:http://www.greencitymarket.org/index.asp One I’ve mentioned in passing several times, is “Meadow Haven Farm.”:http://www.meadowhavenfarm.com/ While they have beef, we tend to purchase from them mostly poultry and pork. In fact, I think we’ve never purchased beef from Meadow Haven.

The farm we get our beef from, generally, is “Heartland Meats.”:http://www.heartlandmeats.com/ Now, we don’t buy it explicitly because it tastes better. We have, in fact, not tried most of the other vendors’ beef. We end up buying it from Heartland because it is pretty darn good, and because we managed to form a relationship with them, albeit “just” buyer and seller, long before we connected with any of the other farmers.… Continue reading →