Portland

After spending a few days in Seattle last week I packed up my bags, said my goodbyes and hopped on the train down to Portland to visit my brother, Bobby, and his girlfriend, Jess. I was incredibly excited for this visit and to actually experience Portland since my first trip there a year ago was mostly spent moving between the bathroom and the couch at my brother's apartment thanks to a nasty case of food poisoning. I had a lot of lost time to make up - a lot to see, a lot to do, and a lot to eat.

When Bobby asked me what I wanted to do while I was in town I told him I only had two things on my list: Voodoo Doughnut and Pok Pok. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures at Pok Pok, but you should definitely go there if you're in the area. My favorite dish was the Cha Ca La Vong, and the whole fried halibut came in second. The other thing I didn't take pictures of was our afternoon of cribbage and beers where I skunked my brother 2 games to 1. I guess the memory will have to suffice.

On my second morning in town Bobby whipped up a much-anticipated batch of lemon poppyseed dinosaur scones. They were very, very lemony and the tart lemon glaze elevated them to another level.

The rest of this post (especially the end) may lead you to believe that I did nothing but chow down on baked goods while I was in Portland, so I feel obligated to include a picture of one of the healthy breakfasts I ate. It was a tasty combo of pomegranate seeds, kiwi berries, yogurt and Kashi nuggets.

With Portland's forecast calling for rain, Bobby and I set out through the Columbia River Gorge toward Hood River. We stopped at Multnomah Falls to wander around and snap some photos, and we took our cue to leave when busloads of kids on a field trip showed up.

I'll blame the humidity for making my hair look like that of a soccer mom.

After a little shopping and lunch in Hood River, we headed out on the Fruit Loop and met some friendly alpacas. Twenty-five cents got us a big handful of alpaca food and a crowd of alpacas to pet. Twenty-five bucks got me a couple skeins of alpaca yarn.

After we pulled ourselves away from our fuzzy friends, we headed for an orchard and got a stunning view of Mt. Hood on the way. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Giant apple! An apple a week keeps the doctor away if you're eating these monsters.

Giant collard greens!

Meet Jess. She likes dinos.

One night I stood around and watched while Bobby and Jess cooked a delicious dinner of boiled/sauteed veggies and crispy smashed potatoes. I guess I kind of contributed by picking up the bread and wine. Oh, and I chopped up a head of cabbage. I earned my keep.

The following morning, while trying to show Bobby how I make omelets, I made this mess of eggs, sauteed onions and spinach, colby jack, and fresh dill. It tasted much better than it looked. The dill was key.

That afternoon Bobby and I went to the Japanese Gardens...

...and saw some pretty leaves.

Bobby got to do a little bit of bird watching.

After a quick sweep through the Rose Gardens, we stopped by a little cafe for lunch and dessert. Bobby got one of their amazing macaroons that was filled with chopped nuts and chunks of dried fruit. They put regular macaroons to shame. I need to recreate them soon.

I got a rhino animal cookie.

And finally, the night before I left, we stopped by Voodoo Doughnut. I was a little disappointed that they were all out of the maple bacon doughnuts, but they did still have some of the jelly-filled voodoo dolls. Two days and a flight to Minneapolis later and they're still delicious.

Actual cooking posts coming soon!

Pike Place Market + Homemade Pasta

Still in Seattle. Still loving it. Still cooking.

Yesterday we had some yummy crepes for brunch, headed to Pike Place Market to do a little shopping, and then spent the rest of the day in the kitchen prepping for a a big dinner party. Or a little dinner party where 5'5" was the maximum height of about 90% of the attendees. The theme was Little Italy - little people and Italian from scratch - complete with Windows 7 door prizes since, after all, we're in Seattle.

Sarah and I by the water.

Pike Place.

Pretty veggies.

And more.

Fresh cheese curds, so fresh that they're squeaky on your teeth! Just like the ones we used to get at the cheese factory in Kalona when I was growing up.

We got some delicious ginger pigs to fuel our day of cooking.

Sarah made a lovely apple, pear, and almond tart.

I made about a million meatballs.

And then WE MADE PASTA! Fresh pasta is something that's been on my list of things to make, and Sarah and I were both excited to finally try it out. It was fun and it was difficult and it was stressful, but it was ultimately rewarding and delicious. After looking back on our experience and checking out a few pasta books today we've learned what we would do differently next time. Here are a few of them, in no particular order:

- Use pasta flour instead of regular flour.

- When kneading becomes difficult, or even hopeless, olive oil helps.

- Fresh pasta is not a quick process. At least not on your first time.

I was really excited to crack an egg into a well of flour. That was also on my list of cooking things that I've been wanting to do, whether it was in the process of making pasta or during some other endeavor.

Sarah was equally excited.

Three and three-quarter cups of flour. Four eggs in the well. A little salt. A little olive oil. A lot more olive oil to come.

Slowly mix them together with a fork.

The recipe we used told us after 15 minutes of kneading and stretching we should have a smooth ball of dough.

After 15 or 20 minutes and many drizzles of olive oil we had two still pretty crumbly balls of dough and achy arms and wrists. We were more than happy to let it rest for 30 minutes, and we would have been fine with letting it rest in the garbage for eternity. But we had people to serve, so we pressed on.

After some struggling we realized that pressing pieces out a little by hand makes getting them through the pasta roller much easier.

Crank crank crank.

Once you have a sheet rolled out things are somewhat smooth sailing. Unless it's too wide or you don't feed it in straight. We became familiar with the reverse crank.

Some of our noodles were a little on the long side. Or maybe Sarah just has really short arms.

And we have fettucini!

During the kneading phase we had little hope for results like these.

I was relieved that the pasta survived boiling and didn't dissolve once it hit the water.

I snapped a quick photo of the finished pasta and the spicy olive sauce that Sarah's boyfriend made to go along with it. Both the pasta and the sauce were a great success.

Inedible Lobster

Greetings from Seattle! I am officially on fall break and hanging out in the Pacific Northwest for the week, so I apologize in advance for a week of slow posting. I woke up at 4AM to the first snow of the year in Minneapolis, caught a glimpse of the St. Louis Arch from the plane and before I knew it I was landing the Emerald City.

I was welcomed at the airport in a manner usually reserved for our friend Natasha.

Then I rode around with Kyle and Mr. Taters. What a show off!

We picked my dear friend Sarah up from work so she could hang out with her little crustacean.

Ate some fish and chips of the chocolate covered potato chip variety.

Went dumpster diving for bread. Unsuccessfully, I should note.

And then the lobster dog started walking! It was a miracle!

Iowa State Fair

I'm sorry to say I don't have any recipes to post today, but I do have some food-related pictures to share.  I met my parents in Des Moines a few days ago for the Iowa State Fair, and it was awesome.  There were loads of cows, pigs, goats, chickens, sheep, horses, and fried foods.  One of the coolest things was the wind generator, which singlehandedly powers the fairgrounds and then some.  One of the grossest things were the hard-boiled eggs on a stick, which magically appeared out of sealed plastic bags without their shells and then had popsicle sticks jammed into them.  There was a consistent line of about 50 people waiting for these slimy looking suckers, and there's just something wrong about that.  

Meet Buddy, the prize-winning 1,117lb. pig from Ames.  

This is Okie-Dokie and me.  Okie-Dokie weighs in at a mere 1,071lbs.  I think she still has a little growing to do.   

For lunch my mom and I split a tenderloin with the works - ketchup, mustard, onion and pickles.  I always assumed that tenderloins were reconstituted pork, but according to an internet search done by my mom they are actually pork tenderloins pounded out until they're really thin.  I felt a lot better about eating breaded, deep fried meat knowing that it came from the tender loin of a single pig instead of several.  

Have you ever seen a 33.4lb kohlrabi?  Or anything close to it?  I wonder what it tastes like when it gets to that size.  

The infamous butter cow.  Yes, it's about the size of a real cow.  

Super sweet spooning swine.