bacon pickles?! where have you been all my life?

Yes, bacon pickles. There's a guy at the downtown farmers' market who sells many varieties of pickles and pickled items. One of which includes bacon pickles. As in dill pickles in a bacon-flavored brine. And they are are exactly as delicious and fan-freaking-tastic as you might imagine. And when you have emptied the jar of the pickles, you can put other delicious things in the jar so that they, too, can absorb the bacon-y deliciousness. Proving the immutable Law of Bacon, which is that there are few edible things that bacon does not automatically make better*.

lunch, paris slimline:

• maple smoked cheddar slices
• molded egg
• smoked sausages
• bacon pickles
• Starkcrimson pear slices
• mini blueberry pancakes (made by Sally)
• dark chocolate covered raisins

*Yes, I've tried the Vosages chocolate bar with bacon bits. It was...interesting. Not terrible, but not something I'd eat more than a few bites of. Voodoo's bacon maple bar, on the other hand...

i am the heart that you call home

The Decemberists, "The Engine Driver"This Saturday was the Decemberists concert at Pioneer Courthouse Square we've been looking forward to for months. And it was everything that is awesome about The Decemberists, Portland, September, and people in general.

But first -- today's bento, using a box I haven't broken out in awhile.

lunch, deli club:

• herb roasted chicken
• pan sauce Sally made last night from pan drippings (pork chops for dinner), onions, and basil
• baked potato with sour cream and butter
• cucumbers and cherry and lemon drop tomatoes (from our garden)
• Gala apple slices and red grapes

Except for the tomatoes, the veggies are all from our share, the fruit from our bin delivery. This has been a terrible year for the garden, and everyone we talk to says the same. Seeds from last year's end-of-year tomatoes that got composted got spread into our garden as a result, and they completely took over both beds, strangling what few things were able to make it through the months of cold and rain we had in May and June and into July. But of course we had hardly any hot weather this summer, so we have two beds chock full of insane tomato plants absolutely covered with green tomatoes. (And the majority are cherry and lemon drop tomatoes, so they're far too small to justify the time of making green tomato relish.) Sigh. The vagaries of nature, I suppose.

So anyway, the concert! Was awesome! And I still love The Decemberists the mostest! Like of all the things in all the world!

Pioneer Courthouse Square on a perfect September daySaturday was actually part of MusicFest NW, which is 200 bands at 20 venues in 5 days. The Decemberists played at Pioneer Courthouse Square, known locally as "Portland's living room" because it's smack in the middle of downtown and there are always events and rallys and concerts and activities going on there. The weather was absolutely spectacular -- clear and warm -- and just being there, in the center of our city on a gorgous September evening with our favorite music right there, live...well.

Weinland, who were awesomeThey had three bands opening for them, starting at 4 PM with Weinland, who were fabulous. Blue Giant followed, who we liked but didn't love, and then Laura Veirs with Hall of Flame. They were okay, too, but totally the wrong vibe right before The Decemberists. Which, I get why she got that billing because of her collaboration with them on Hazards of Love, but it was music better suited to a coffeehouse than pumping up the crowd before the main act at an outdoor venue.

another side of Pioneer Square, the view directly behind where we were sittingWe opted to sit on the bricks toward the back of the square (one side of the square is an amphitheater-style series of sloping walkways and steps) rather than stand on the square closer to the stage. Not so great for being close to the band and hard on the keisters after 6 hours, but our ears and our feet thanked us for choosing that option. We were at just the right range to see everything on stage and enjoy the music without hurting our ears or needing ear plugs.

taking the stage with "The Infanta"By the time The Decemberists came on stage (7:30), our butts were sore and Laura Veirs had sucked our will to live right out of us, but as soon as they came on, it was totally worth it. Colin Meloy was adorable and hilarious as usual and they sounded terrific. They launched right into "The Infanta", followed by "Billy Liar", so things were hopping in short order.  The set list:

The Infanta
Billy Liar
Yankee Bayonet (w/ Laura Veirs)
Rise to Me (new song off their upcoming album)
Down By the Water (new song off their upcoming album)
The Engine Driver* (and yes, I flipped out, and got a vid, and multiple pictures)
O Valencia!
16 Military Wives
The Rake's Song
Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Island

Encore:
June Hymn (new song off their upcoming album)
Sons and Daughters

closing out the show with "Sons and Daughters'That last was such a fitting tribute for the day that it was, and I appreciated that instead of some kind of long monologue about 9/11 or choosing to cover something as a commemoration -- neither of which is their style -- they opted instead to simply acknowledge the day and that there's nothing that can be said, really, and then play the song that has so much to say about events that define us and generational grief, asking us to join in as harmony with "here all the bombs fade away".

I took a million gajillion pictures and several short vids, so be thankful I didn't post them all. (I would've liked to take advantage of my Droid's capability to do long vids and shoot at least a few minutes of a song or something, but they had security people roaming all the damn time, so I couldn't do more than 10 or 15 seconds at a go. But I did get them singing my two favorite lines from "The Engine Driver", so...score.)

*from "The Engine Driver", for readers who aren't familiar with The Decemberists**:

I am a writer, a writer of fictions
I am the heart that you call home

**(and to you I say: OMG WHUT GET THEE TO A MUSIC PROVIDER OF YOUR CHOICE SRSLY WTFBBQ)

a mix of work and play

We got some much need yard work done yesterday, which makes me feel that our otherwise leisurely weekend was nonetheless productive. The predicted cold and rainy weather never really appeared -- seems to have held off until today, but even so, it's neither very cold nor very rainy -- and yesterday and Saturday were particularly gorgeous days.

Yesterday was a planting day, which involved a trek to Portland Nursery in the neighbor's borrowed truck to spend way more than planned, as usual. We stopped at Flavour Spot on the way home, then finally got started actually digging and planting things mid-afternoon. We had several things to replace, stuff that we lost from last year (though thankfully, not as much as we'd originally feared): the star jasmine (victim of a late freeze in February), the three Ilex trees in pots on the patio (victims of the freeze), one  of the clematis (victim of the raccoons that we battled all last summer/fall), and the two Japanese bayberries on the front porch (victims of our serial neglect*).

*So completely inexcusable. I mean, they're right there, right by the front door! We walk past them every single day! And we both would see the poor things getting a little dry and droopy and be all, "Gee, I should water those." And then...nothing. Meanwhile, our house increasingly looks like the Addams Family house, utterly desicated plants by the front door, enveloped in cobwebs. In conclusion, we suck at adult responsibility, you guys.

Sally also picked up two hops vines (finally), which will be a good catalyst for getting the hops trellis built, and I got annuals for all my patio pots. Portland Nursery always has a great sale on fall color annuals and half price on their end of summer annuals, and since we have such a lovely and extended autumn season here in the PNW, having those cheerful pots of flowers all around just makes the patio that much more enjoyable this time of year. (They're also having a 20% off sale on vines, so check that out if you've had any vines on your wish list.)

We finished up late in the day yesterday, then he remembered he had to go to the school to glaze some tortes, so it meant a late dinner. But a dinner with leftovers, thankfully, which means a hearty lunch today.

lunch, blue bunny & moons:

• herb roasted chicken
• green beans sauteed with caramelized onions
• baked potato with sour cream and butter
• grapes and Gala apple slices
• cashews and dark chocolate covered raisins

Our other accomplishment this weekend is that we mainlined Season 4 of Friday Night Lights, which we'd been waiting for like junkies. (That whoop and holler you just heard was Cat flipping out that we're caught up and are so completely bonkers for this show.) It came out on DVD a couple of weeks ago but even though I'd preordered it, Amazon was being a bitca and didn't deliver it until Saturday. That meant that we could hardly contain ourselves and simply had to mini-marathon it.

I think I'm going to have to write up a squeeage post about it, because you guys, srsly. SRSLY.

all i need is a sleeping bag and it'd be like a sleepover for grownups

New Seasons saves the day yet again! Amazing what a difference a few key items in the pantry can make!

lunch, Paris slimline:

• green beans sauteed with caramelized onions and a cucumber heart for garnish -- the beans are both the regular green and the royal burgundy from our share, but the lovely purple color of the royal burgundy beans dissolves when they're cooked, so they lose that wonderful contrast...still mighty delicious, though!
• molded egg with carrots as baran
• cucumber slices and carrot
• Muenster cheese slices
• cashews and dark chocolate covered raisins

dinner, laptop lunch:

• herb fettucine in a garlic and chanterelle marinara with a cucumber flower garnish
• Tuscan roasted turkey breast
• more of the green beans sauteed with caramelized onions, this time garnished with carrot stars
• carrot sticks and cashews in the condiment container
• a bit of orange creme cheesecake from Sally for a little treat

The big work project I mentioned yesterday begins today. Well, technically, tonight. The project itself will take months to complete, but tonight's work, Phase 1, will be done overnight. I'm really hoping it won't take all night to do, but it will take several hours late into the evening at the very least, and thus I've come prepared with not only lunch for today, but dinner for tonight. That there isn't also a third one for breakfast in the morning is my optimistic hope that I won't actually need one.

not really sure where the week went

I've been gearing up for a big work project, which necessitated doing four training presentations in two days (Friday and Monday). Meanwhile, other projects demanded attention, too, including some number crunching for this morning's shareholder's meeting, a longish (but productive!) executive work session last week, and a spate of conference calls brought about by some weird confluence of planet alignment. And then the usual end-of-month data analysis that marches ever onward no matter what other things are on my plate.

Things at home aren't much quieter. We have about a summer's worth of projects to try to cram into the upcoming weekend -- we were supposed to start on our to do list last weekend, but neither of us felt like doing anything so we...didn't. I did some writing (not much...I ended up getting distracted by other diversions, which is generally a sign that I'm kind of blocked) and Sal brewed another batch of beer. We watched some movies and relaxed a whole lot, and that's pretty much it. So a productive weekend, I say, even if our to do list doesn't reflect it.

More importantly than all of that, however, we received news of a death in Sal's family on Monday, and that has understandably been our focus for the last couple of days. He'll be heading out of town for the funeral and to spend a couple of days with family (wishing I could go, too, but it's just not in the cards, unfortunately) so we're getting things together for him to be gone for that.

Everything taken together has meant that the smaller, daily tasks of life have fallen to the wayside. Things like grocery shopping, for instance. Or in our case, grocery ordering. We have a crazy amount of beautiful and delicious produce, but pretty much nothing else, especially now that I've cleaned out the fridge for today's lunch. Sigh. And of course the weather's turned cooler and we've had a spot of rain -- autumn is definitely in the air -- so I'm feeling all nesty and cozy, wanting to make rustic casseroles and big pots of thick soups and to bake nutty cakey things.

lunch, black strawberry:

• ham and lettuce wraps on picks
• molded egg with carrot and cucumber as gap fillers
• tomato wedge
• orange sections
• dark chocolate covered raisins

It's a testament to just how pathetic our cupboards are at the moment that I have two cups of raisins in my lunch instead of one. I'm just completely out of everything I would use for gap fillers, from berries to dried fruits to nuts to granola...even peas, for pete's sake! I'm never out of peas. I mean, it's meant a double-chocolate day so I'm not going to complain about that, obviously, but it doesn't make a very well-rounded lunch (and there are more gaps than I'd like overall). At least it doesn't have that weird greenish cast that the last few pictures have had. Must remember not to snap a pic directly under the fluorescent in my office....

This will be rectified tonight, however! Tomorrow will be a very long day at the office, necessitating lunch AND dinner bentos, as well as a snack sidecar. Possibly even two! (It's going to be a very late night.) Eep! Which means I must stop by New Seasons today at some point for at least a few things if I'm giong to get through tomorrow with my sanity. Wil I manage it? Tune in tomorrow to find out....

I still need to get the pictures and write-up posted about our wonderful family weekend, especially since Sister was so kind to send me pics before she left for vacation. And of course I haven't posted about our trip to Mt. St. Helens in July during our vacation, which included many lovely pics, as well. Y'know, because I already wasn't feel enough like a slacker....

i'll point in the direction you sing to me

I could swear the weather man said yesterday was going to be in the 80s. Which means he basically lied or doesn't know jack (or I'm mistaken, as vanishing a possibility as that is), because yesterday? Was hot. Not surface of the sun hot, but when you're expecting 80s and you get mid 90s, that's not good times, y'all.

Which means the dinner I'd planned to make for myself had to be scrapped because I have no desire to eat anything when it's hot, let alone cook anything. Which meant no leftovers, and thus, today's lunch of randomness. Like that's anything new.

breakfast, pink strawberry sidecar:

• half a Granny Smith apple
• blueberries
• blackberries
• slice of (homemade by me!) zucchini bread

lunch, blue bunny & moons:

• ham rolls
• cucumber slivers
• smoked gouda
• cheese crackers (Annie's organic bunny crackers ftw!)
• the other half of the Granny Smith apple, sliced
• another slice of (homemade by me!) zucchini bread
• blueberries
• dark chocolate covered raisins

Needs some more veggies and a carb/starch, but oh well.

I've been on the hunt for a CD by a short-lived band called Blue Merle, and didn't want to have to resort to Amazon* if I could help it. Stopped by Everyday Music downtown last night, but they didn't have it, and it showed as backordered (read: unavailable for order) on their computer. The guy offered to call their other stores and thankfully, the store on Sandy had it (and put it on hold for me), but I wasn't in the mood to slog through rush hour traffic down Burnside to the east side and through all that construction where they're diverting Sandy onto Couch.

*(No iTunes, either, unless I'm desperate and/or lazy. I HATE that they make it difficult or impossible to burn (some? most? all?) songs as MP3s on a disc (vs. being able to make a regular audio CD...so nice of them to "allow" us dirty peasants to start doing that finally) so I don't buy much music on iTunes, unless I'm sure I won't want to make a big mix MP3 CD with it. I'm a slave to all things tech and electronic as much as the the next geek girl, but don't fuck with my music, for that way lies badness.)

So I texted Sally to see if he wanted to head over there with me after he got home from work. And this is reason #65,782 that Portland is awesome, because Everyday Music is not only open, y'know, every day, but they are also, ALSO open until midnight every day. We've taken advantage of this very feature many times in the past, and I was quite pleased to be able to last night, because I really wanted that CD nowish. I know! What is up with me and this instant gratification thing? It's like I'm five years old.

Sal picked up the new Mumford & Sons while we were there, and we had a nice drive home listening to new music with the windows rolled down, cruising through our nighttime city.

I've been all over the place with music lately, which is generally an indication of my mood. So I guess that means I've got a lot knocking around in my noggin of late. Broken Bells, Fleet Foxes, Aimee Mann (of course), Cat Power, Mirah, Blue Foundation, Bon Iver (I can't imagine ever tiring of them) and then randomly, early No Doubt and Journey(!) and Nirvana. Wtf, brain?

Oh, and I'm obsessed with that new Brandon Flowers single, "Crossfire". (And revisiting The Killers because of it, along with Pet Shop Boys, because holy crap, do they sound like each other.)

Weirdly, though, I haven't been in the mood for The Decemberists lately, which has me a bit freaked out, frankly. (Though I expect my burning love will be reignited after the concert in a couple of weeks.) I mean, The Decemberists are my constant! What happens if I get caught between time dimensions and my nose starts bleeding and then the smoke monster comes for me? What then?

a feeling of fall in the air...

It's not even September yet and already it feels like fall. Last week's heat wave came (thankfully) to a halt with the cooler weather of the PNW that we know and love, and it seems like the switch has been flipped into fall, even if the calendar doesn't say so. This happens to me every year, the feeling that fall is coming by the end of August, and with it, a deep-seated drive to get the winterizing done before the first frost in September.

Which is hilarious, really, because if we get any frost at all, it won't be until November/December, and we have months of warm weather and beautiful days ahead of us still. What can I say, 27 years in Wyoming, those old instincts die hard. But the vine maples do start changing right around this time, so it's not entirely without premise that I would be sensing that autumnal feeling in the air. Although I did hear on the news last night that we're not done with the heat yet...another 90 degree day coming up tomorrow, supposedly....

Regardless, a roast/stew in the crockpot yesterday seemed just the thing. And I did a bit of baking to use up the zucchini and summer squash that've been in our share for the last few weeks now. So I'm ready for fall, even if the mercury has decided to make a few more jumps upward.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• stew: potatos, carrots, onions, green & royal burgundy beans, chard, and tomato with a pork shoulder roast
• onion sesame crackers and some gouda
• fresh-picked blackberries* (with a few leaves of greens for contrast)
• homemade zucchini bread

*We had a wonderful, wonderful family weekend with Sister, Guy, and the Fabulous Miss M, which included berry picking at a nearby farm. More about that hopefully tomorrow, when I have a couple of pictures that we took together.

(NOTE: I fixed the issue that was making the small pictures unclickable. Now when you click it, the small image above should open up a larger version.)

what, addiction? never heard of it.

lunch, Paris slimline:

• grilled Thai peanut chicken skewers
• jasmine rice
• green and royal burgundy string beans
• cucumber
• rainbow carrots
• cheese bunny crackers (Annie's Organic...we're currently re-addicted to them) with a small container of ranch for dipping hidden underneath
• in the mini sidecar, random pieces of chocolate caramel cut from the big block in the fridge

If you've been following my bento pictures for awhile, you've no doubt noticed that many of them include a bit of chocolate in some form, usually my beloved dark chocolate covered raisins. It's in small quantities -- no more than an ounce, sometimes less -- but it seems to be just enough to satiate my craving for chocolate.

It's been WAY too long since I had any chocolate in my lunch, if my withdrawal symptoms are anything to go by, so you can imagine the cry of delight/relief when Sal mentioned that there was still some chocolate caramel in the fridge that he made for one of his class demonstrations awhile back. I did not wrap my arms around the big block of deliciousness encased in parchment paper and promise my soul and future progeny that my dark mistress would never leave me again. I have my pride after all, and anyway, you can't prove anything.

heat and the marking of a decade

This weekend was the kind of hot I loathe, the kind that sucks every last bit of will and energy you have and spits it out on the baking sidewalk to sizzle into oblivion. We had exactly two things on our to-do list for this weekend -- 1) washing the Prius, and 2) washing the Camry -- and accomplished neither of them.

But! We do get to sleep on the back porch when it gets hot like this, and we have a perfectly idyllic backyard to enjoy, so there are things to be thankful for. Plus -- and I do feel guitly about this -- as hot as it's been and is forecasted to get, we've had an insanely cool and mild summer while the rest of the country has sweltered. So really, I have no business complaining.

lunch, blue bunny & moons

• grilled Thai peanut chicken skewers
• jasmine rice
• green and royal burgundy string beans
• rainbow carrots
• cherries
• Babybel cheese with sour cream & chive bunny crackers as gap filler

Yesterday marked the 10 year anniversary since we packed up our possessions and left Wyoming for our Great Oregon Adventure. Tomorrow will mark 10 years since we became Oregonians. Ten years. It seems simultaneously like it was just yesterday and like it was another lifetime.

and the stars, they fall, but they burn brightest then

After Sal got off work last night, we packed a small cooler with snacks, a bag with warm clothes, grabbed the camp chairs, threw it all in the trunk, and around midnight, headed to the Gorge to catch the Perseids. Last night (early this morning) was supposedly the best night for the shower and they were forecasting as many as 188/hour at the peak.

taken on our daytrip; this is the view from the lookoutI'd had the idea to try a lookout on the Old Columbia River Highway -- it was fresh in my mind after our daytrip with Cat a couple of weeks ago -- called "Portland Women's Forum" (yes, I know, it's a weird name for a lookout point). The lookout point is actually on a hillside so the entrance is at the top, there's a long driveway with parking along its length, and then a turnabout at the bottom, with fir trees on the western edge and a vantage that looks east toward Vista House and across the Gorge. We figured there was a good chance that either 40 billion people had the same idea, or that it hadn't occurred to anyone and we'd have the place to ourselves. But it was only an hour from the house and would be a great vantage point and we were on an adventure, so we figured we'd give it a shot.

Well, we didn't have the place to ourselves, and there were cars parked along the highway leading up to the lookout point, but it wasn't bad at all. We didn't have to park far from the entrance and after a short walk, found a nice spot at the bottom of the hill to set up our chairs with some space all around us. There were probably a few dozen people at the bottom of the hill with us, spread out across a clearing that's a few hundred feet in diameter, so it wasn't crowded at all. And then we just settled in facing east/northeast, munching on snacks and enjoying the show.

Earlier in the evening, the stargazing n00bs (or straight-up dumbasses) did the usual n00bery of driving the whole length of the parking lot as if they're going to magically find a spot that all the other people parked up on the road didn't find, and blinding us all with their lights -- or, god help me, fog lights -- and generally earning the ill will of a hundred strangers. The morons who'd parked directly across from us and left about 45 minutes after we got there will never know how close they came to a messy demise -- they piddly-dinked around their SUV for about 10 minutes while they were getting ready to leave, the SUV's rear lights and brake lights on the whole entire time. They were apparently oblivious to shouts from the crowd to turn off the effing lights, so they fail at not only stargazing etiquette, but also, basic common sense and general courtesy.

But dumbasses notwithstanding, it was great fun. People talked and laughed softly and there was a kind of low-key party atmosphere about the whole thing. Whenever a particularly good meteor streaked across the sky, there'd be a collective "Ooooooh" all across the lookout area. At one point, some wit hilariously quipped, "Double rainbow!" which had Sal and I busting up for quite some time. Ah Internets, what was life like before you?

from the NASA websiteThe night was beautiful and calm and perfect for watching the meteor shower. Which was breathtaking. We saw quite a few meteors and in between, just sat in comfortable silence enjoying the moment and being together and thinking how incredibly lucky we are.

We left at 2 before it really ramped up because we had an hour long drive back and had to work today. So worth it, though! We hadn't done that kind of thing in a long time -- way too long, in truth -- and we were reminded how much we enjoy them, love being able to throw some things in the car at midnight and take off somewhere...I think there'll be more night time jaunts in our future.

lunch lady, lunch lady, make me a lunch

(Imagine the title sung to "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from "Fiddler on the Roof", and you will see that I am, in fact, both brilliant and hilarious. Just sayin'.)

lunch, Laptop Lunch:

• PB&J cutouts (peanut butter and marionberry jam on Sal's homemade ciabatta) with cherry tomatoes, green and royal burgundy beans, and itsy bitsy carrots as gap fillers -- the cutouts are supposed to be a heart, butterfly, flower, and tulip, but they didn't come out as well with the ciabatta as they do with the nine-grain bread)
• molded egg, carrots, royal burgundy beans as gap fillers, and cucumber hearts for a little garnish
• donut peach (cut in half for easier eating) with a cucumber heart for garnish (and more cucumber slices underneath the peach)
• ginormous marionberries and some dip for the veggies in the little condiment container

No lunch Monday because I was sick, no lunch Tuesday because of a working lunch thing, and of course no lunches Wednesdays (and Fridays) because of my work-from-home days. So only today's this week, and yet I stared at my empty fridge and cupboards in desperation last night, wondering petulantly why I don't have a personal chef.

Oh right, I do! Except, yanno, he works at night AND he has this annoying habit of making just what's needed for a meal so there aren't many leftovers from the weekends when he cooks. I know, right? How inconsiderate of him to be all efficient and stuff.

And of course I don't cook as much as I should on the weeknights, especially in the summer, and so I get the lunches I've been having. Which are good, don't get me wrong, and certainly better than eating out, but they look like they were made by someone with no access to modern appliances and no ability to make something more complicated than toast. I'm no chef, it's true, but I am a decent cook, though you certainly wouldn't know it from my lunches. Sigh.

So I'm on a mission! To make actual entrees for dinner at night so I have leftovers the next day. Of course, I'm resolving to do this at the start of what's forecast to be a week-long heatwave, so perhaps I'll wuss out and wait until that passes. But I am going to have something for lunch that necessitates eating utensils sometime soon.

on letting our inner child out once in awhile

I had an ice cream cone for dinner last night. That's it. Just a two-scoop-chocolate-mousse-strawberry-ice-cream-on-a-chocolate-dipped-waffle-cone dinner.

It was that kind of day.

(I also ended up eating a ginormous salad at about 1:30 in the morning, because wtf I don't even know.) There's something to be said for having an ice cream cone for dinner, because who didn't dream of that when they were a kid? I figure we all gotta let that kid out once awhile, otherwise crazy shit happens, like wearing your bunny slippers as a hat or buying a Michael Bolton CD.

None of that has anything to do with today's lunch, other than I was up until two in the morning and this is just a random collection of things. They just happen to look pretty and be insanely healthy because we have a weekly CSA and our fridge is overflowing with gorgeous produce. So...yay?

lunch, black strawberry

• mini salad of red leaf and green lettuces, cherry tomatoes, cucumber (cut into pretty shapes...haven't done that in awhile!)
• boiled egg halves (sadly, not molded)
• provider (green) and royal burgundy string beans
• fresh basil
• sausages (underneath everything)
• blueberries
• Marcona almonds
• dark chocolate covered raisins
• homemade sweet vinaigrette
• sea salt

gettin' a little fancy

I don't know why it is, but my Paris slimline box inevitably ends up the most design-y of my lunches, even when I'm not really planning it to be. Or, as happened last night, when I was really just trying to fill the thing up with whatever I could scrounge. I suppose that must be the mysterious magic of slimline boxes, and why people like them.

lunch, Paris slimline:

• sausages
• molded egg
• peas
• cherry tomatoes
• blueberries
• Jazz apple slices
• dark chocolate covered raisins

weekend fun, then back to the grind

I purposefully chose the Ms. Bento this morning as a motivator to get myself out the door at lunch and eat at the park. I haven't had a chance in awhile to do that. It's so easy each day for me to get to a point where I just can't get away and end up eating at my desk, so sometimes I just have to Have A Plan. And the only way I could drag myself out of my comfy bed this morning, after such a fun weekend, was to promise myself that I would eat lunch at the park today, dammit.

lunch, Ms. Bento

• stir fry -- kale, rainbow chard, bok choy, onion, garlic, chicken, broccoli, snow peas, peanuts, secret special sauce ;)
• jasmine rice
• half a Jazz apple (the other half, along with some blueberries, served as breakfast)
• chocolate covered raisins

So Cat arrived Friday evening and we headed over to Screen Door, which was her suggestion. She'd heard about it online somewhere -- she has a love and fascination for all things Southern -- and we'd never been there, so it was perfect. Always love trying a new place, but especially with someone who's as interested in a new culinary adventure as we are.

There was a half hour wait, so we walked down the block for iced tea/coffee until our turn for a table came up. We were lucky to get a table on the patio, and the evening was just absolutely PNW perfect: mid-70s, no wind, sunny with a few high clouds. So glad it wasn't hot, because I just have no appetite in the heat and nothing on the menu would've sounded good to me. When she was here this time last year, we were in the midst of 100 degree temperatures, and it sucked.

Unhampered by heat, then, we proceeded to order a gazillion different things: hush puppies and fritters, corn on the cob and buttermilk fried chicken, and a banana and caramel and shortbread pie thing that we probably would've sold ourselves into indentured servitude for. Sally had to work, so we decided early on we'd start a box of leftovers to take home for him, which freed us up to oder so many dishes...win/win!

We rolled out of there stuffed and content and headed home to relax and visit until Sally got home. We probably could've talked well into the wee hours, but since we were planning to spend our Saturday in the Gorge, we decided to be responsible adults and turn in for a good night's rest.

Saturday started out cool and overcast, then cleared and warmed up later, which seems to be the pattern for the last week or so. Cat had never been to the Gorge, nor seen Multnomah Falls, so we decided this had to be rectified immediately.

So we spent the day on a leisurely drive on the Historic Columbia River Highway, stopping at different view points and landmarks along the way, as well as each of the falls that lead up to Multnomah. While we were up on the ridges portion of the highway, there was no wind at all -- unusual for the Gorge -- so it made the stop at Vista House in particular especially nice.

We stopped for a picnic at Wahkeena Falls, then on to Multnomah at last. Which...well, the sky had cleared and it was a beautiful day by then, but we were reminded why we've never been there on a Saturday at the height of tourist season. HOLY CRAP! People everywhere, and the bridge across the falls was packed, and it eliminated any desire we normally have to linger and enjoy the view the way we usually do when we're there. Despite the hordes of people, however, we did still get lots of beautiful pictures.

We kept going east to Hood River, where one of Sal's former students had recently opened a bakery and he was hoping we'd be able to stop in for a bit. Except he couldn't remember the name. So Cat and I both googled madly with the vague clues for some hint of what the place was called and where we'd find it. Thank goodness that man has passengers with unstoppable google-fu or he'd never find anything....

But find it, we did. Unfortunately, the bakery was closed for the day, but he could see someone (not his studen) inside working some dough. He didn't want to disturb them, but Cat and I insisted that we knock on some windows, find a back door, something. Which earned us designations as rabblerousers, like that was a bad thing. Joke's on him.

We were let inside and got an after hours tour of his former student's bakery, met both her and one of her pastry chefs, talked about the challenges of opening a bakery in a small town, providing product for less traditional-pastry-educated palates, the differences between East Coast and West Coast, and the surprising things that do and don't sell. It was a great experience to see the effect of Sal's work, and how much he inspires his students, and how much they look up to him.

We ended up back at home later than originally planned so scrapped our original dinner plans and instead (thanks to the gracious suggestion of Cat, who is the most thoughful house guest imaginable), opted for pizzas from Pizza Fino and a homemade salad. We were able to eat outside on the patio, then once the mosquitos drove us inside, changed into our jammies and curled up on the couch to visit until bedtime.

Her departure on Sunday morning came all too soon, but such is the way of things when you have a dear friend visiting. We're so fortuante to have friends who visit as often as they do, and who welcome us for visits, too. Now if we could just get that whole "independently wealthy" gig going so we didn't have to limit ourselves to weekends in between job obligations, we'd be able to make those visits far more frequent....

"you didn't tell me we had polenta left over!!"

Those were actual words I actually said last night when I was actually packing today's lunch. Heh. The polenta is left over from the grand meal Sally made Saturday night, of which I had thought there wasn't any left over. So discovering a bit of it in a container tucked a little out of sight in the fridge was like discovering a small decorative box of gold. Except, you know edible.

lunch, blue bunny & moons:

• creamy polenta with parmesan, garnished with broccoli; sugar snaps, mini smoked sausages, carrots, broccoli
• grapes (on a thin layer of Marcona almonds and with a few Marcona almonds as baran), cherries, strawberry; four halves of chocolate cookies Sal made for last week's picnic

One of the things I love best about bento is the way it makes you poke about in your fridge, freezer, and cupboard for those forgotten bits -- the last few cherries from a bag of them you'd snacked on one afternoon, the quarter of a tuna fish sandwich someone thought they'd finish later, the small carrot stub that was all that was left from a plate of crudites and you didn't have the heart to throw out. I hate, hate, hate waste, especially food waste, and one of the many benefits of doing bento is that it keeps those odds and ends from ending up in the garbage needlessly.

there's an old-fashioned countrified theme running through this weekend

This weekend was such a jam-packed weekend that I had to spend Monday recuperating! Actually, I wish that were true, because I really could've used yesterday to recuperate, but instead, had a massive, time-crunchy project that needed to be done and in fact necessitated working from home to finish it. So yay! working from home but boo! working, period.

And although I could've used the evening to rest -- and it was a fine, fine evening for sitting out on the back patio -- I was all responsible and shit and folded the approximately seventy gajillion baskets of laundry that somehow multiplied like rabbits when I wasn't looking. Well, that and Sally is laundry ninja and stays on top of the washing/drying, so one has to be totally kung-fu to keep up with him.

Which meant another lunch packed at late o'clock last night, lots of terrific produce to pick from but no proteins and/or starches/carbs. Well, none that would magically cook themselves, anyway. I resorted to my freezer stash of mini organic sausages -- like li'l smokies, except you know, not evil and full of poisons -- and called it a wash on the starch-y/carb-y goodness.

lunch, black strawberry:

• mini-sausages, broccolini (from our garden!), and cherry tomatoes on a bed of butter leaf lettuce and romaine, with a bit of dressing to make a wee salad
• grapes and strawberries with blueberries as gap fillers, and the last little pieces of chocolate cookie from breakfast

Also, not pictured, sadly, my breakfast. It was tasty and looked so nice (using the Paris slimline), but I ended up eating it in my morning meeting and forgot to bring my phone with me to snap a pic. But it was yummy:

• nectarine-cherry galette that Sally made for dinner Saturday night, bits of chocolate cookie leftover from the batch he made for my company picnic on Friday -- SHUT UP THAT IS TOTALLY A HEALTHY BREAKFAST IT HAS FRUIT OKAY
• cherries, grapes, and strawberries with blueberries as gap fillers

click to see the full galleryIt's been a busy, busy few days. Friday was my company's picnic, held at Oaks Amusement Park. It's this wonderful old-fashioned (and historic) amusement park right on the Willamette with picnic areas all around and the original dance pavilion at its center. We had just gorgeous weather and I took a short stroll to snap some pics from the riverbank and through the park.

Later that evening, I had a dinner invitation with the lovely and erudite DarkEm, who kept dinner simple but elegant and was ever so willing to squee with me over my new phone (DROID X BABY WOOT WOOT). Conversation stretched into the late evening hours, as they are wont to do in her company, and it was an altogether pleasant evening that I didn't want to end.

Saturday, we had a friend coming over for dinner, which meant whipping our poor neglected house into shape and then concocting some wondrous meal to ooh and ahh over. Well, Sal concocted, I did the grunt work of staying on top of dishes. It was a warmish afternoon, but at least that made it perfect for sitting out on the patio for dinner.

The menu Sal came up with was a green salad with a homemade vinaigrette, then a main course of slow-grilled lemon-garlic chicken, parmesan polenta, and cherry tomatoes, and a yummy galette, which of course makes an appearance in today's bento. You can see pictures in his Homemade Masterpieces gallery (though sadly, minus the galette, which we forgot to take a picture of. But it was delicious!)

Late Sunday afternoon was reserved for a wedding of one of Sal's students. He seems to make a real impact on a lot of his students so we often get invites for special events, which we try to attend when we can because it's such a special honor. This was the first wedding invite he's gotten, though, so it was even more important that we go.

The wedding was down in the Canby/Hubbard area, about an hour's drive from the house, at an old homestead smack in the middle of hops fields. They couldn't have asked for more gorgeous weather -- clear blue sky, warm (okay, hot, but not unbearably so), and no wind (not that we get a lot of that anyway).

The wedding theme itself was really sweet, an old-timey country fair sort of idea, and they had some really neat ideas like a candy buffet for guests with lots of old fashioned candies in big glass jars, canned preserves for wedding favors, a cotton candy machine, and lemonade served in mason jars. Dinner was ribs and grilled chicken and all the usual things you'd find at an outdoor country affair, and there was even cotton candy later. Simple and summery and very clever.

The bride was Sal's student and she made the wedding cake herself, so of course there was the requisite discussion with her before the cake was served to discuss technique and whatnot. It looked beautiful and tasted great, so she must've done something right. And of course her chef instructor was pretty proud. :)

We got home and collapsed, but it was a good weekend, full of fun. Between all the time spent eating outside, enjoying the company of friends and reminders of bygone days, we had good reminders to be mindful of these days, to take a moment and enjoy it as it's happening and not let it all pass by in a blur. This is summer, this right here, and we got a full-on dose of it this weekend to remind us.

they're baaa-aaack

Hee. For months and months, dark chocolate-covered (and yogurt-covered) raisins featured in almost every bento. And then I finally depleted my 1 pound supplies (meaning 1 pound of each) -- purchased in January! -- so bentos have been -covered raisin-less since. ::sadface::

I bought some more while I was at New Seasons the other day (not a pound this time) and had a big ol' gap to fill, so it was clearly time to bring back a little treat for myself. Well, that and we're completely out of fruit, if you can imagine such a thing. And the next bin doesn't come until Monday. But raisins count as fruit, and if they just happen to be covered with chocolate? Well, that's hardly a bad thing, is it?

Lunch, blue bunny & moons:

• joi choi sauteed in a bit of toasted sesame oil and soy sauce with crushed peanuts for garnish
• omelet of eggs*, broccoli*, basil*, tat sois*, and a bit of Dorset Red cheese for a smoky, salty bite
• broccoli* for gap filler
• onion sesame crackers
• Marcona almonds
• dark chocolate covered raisins

*from our share

We're in dire need of ordering some groceries. We have a ton of great produce, but are out of staples like bread, milk, sugar, flour(!)(in a chef's house? that's practically a crime), etc. etc. Sigh. Where's my personal assistant who's willing to work for free and live in my basement?

Yesterday while I was out and about running errands, I had some time to kill between appointments. Not long enough to run home, but too long to just sit in the car, especially on such a beautiful summer afternoon/evening. So I pulled over at the Columbia Park Annex and kicked back for a few minutes on a bench overlooking the bluff.

It'll be 10 years next month since we moved here, and I still pinch myself.

lunch reminder of family fun at the farm

Enjoying veggies and the last egg from last week's share and it's got me in mind of the terrific day we had at the farm on Sunday. (More about that -- including pictures! -- below.)

lunch, Fit 'n Fresh:

• salad greens: red oak leaf lettuce, red leaf butter lettuce, romaine lettuce
• snap pea pods, carrots, broccoli; Jarlsberg and smoked gouda cheeses
• more of the mini pound cake Sally made and blueberries from our bushes

Sunday was Kids' Day at Wealth Underground (our CSA) so I invited Sister, Guy, and the Fabulous Miss M to come up for some fun at the farm. We hadn't seen them since Sally's birthday -- far too long! -- so it was nice to get to see each other. And of course to get a refill of Miss M loves and cuddles! We had lunch when they arrived and did some catching up, then headed to the farm.

I know I've mentioned before how much I love the drive out there, but it bears repeating. It's just a few miles from the house, but any time we go north past the bridge, it's like driving backwards in time a little bit. Usually I'm driving from work, so it's a longer trip, but no matter how long my work day is on Tuesdays, I know I have that drive waiting for me at the end of the day, and I know that there's peace waiting for me at the end of the road. I was so excited to share that with our little family.

We were the first to arrive so we got to visit with both Chris and Nolan at length. We got to see the chickens and geese, feed the goats, meet the turkeys (that will be our Thanksgiving birds), and pet the rabbits. We learned that the geese have separated into two cliques and they get into rumbles like any respectable rival gangs should -- they're the Sharks and the Jets of geese! And even though we were conflicting with Miss M's normal afternoon nap, she was a real trooper, content to catnap in mom's arms for a bit while we visited. 

Another sharemember family soon arrived so they joined us as we began the garden part of the activities. Chris and Nolan led us through the old wood door that acts as the gateway to the planting area of the farm. We got to pick and taste flowers, try out our sour faces with some sorrel (which has featured in previous weeks' shares), munch on a bit of dill, water some plant starts, duck through the hothouse to check on the progress of the tomatoes and peppers, climb the sod mountain, and pick (and eat, of course!) pea pods and broccoli. Along the way, we met Eric and Katherine, who also work at the farm.

We were then given the solemn duty of scooping a handful of compost and choosing our favorite plant to feed. Miss M decided we should feed the peas, so we did as ordered. She got a little boost from Dad to reach them.

Our tour ended with the awarding of "garden badges" in recognition of our mad farm skillz in the form of comfrey leaves, which stick to your shirt like magic! (Well, magic to an almost-three-year-old, anyway.)

Oh what a lovely day we had! We talked sustainability and small farming and kids becoming vegetarian when they realize where chicken really comes from and plans for future plantings and childhood memories. We met a rooster named Milton Freewater and delighted in a trampoline repurposed into a turkey pen (coop? enclosure?). And oh my, all the wonderful things that are yet to come in our shares! The weather was perfectly Oregon -- clear and comfortable -- and everything about the day was the stuff of good memories with family. Miss M had lots of fun and the adults had a pretty terrific time, too. As we settled into the car for the ride back to our house, Miss M declared from the backseat, "That was way fun!"

Yes, yes it was.

ho hum monday

Ho hum, a case of the Mondays after an especially wonderful weekend.

Lunch

• ham & havarti dill wraps, with red leaf butter lettuce to eat with them
• broccoli, woot woot!
• cherries from our bin and blueberries from our very own bushes that we planted last year
• a few slices from the mini pound cake Sally made

More about the weekend fun (well, moreso for me -- Sally had to work, unfortunately, though we did make the most of his time at home) in a post later today.

back to work

The sucky thing about vacation is the part where it's over and you have to go back to being all responsible and stuff. That part blows.

I was actually back to work yesterday, but it was a work-from-home day, so no bento. It seems rather strange to have gone two weeks without making one (I didn't really, but more about that soon in another post). Plus, it's hot, which means I don't have a lot of energy for either making dinner/lunch or for eating, so I'm keeping it simple.

Breakfast, pink strawberry sidecar:

• homemade blueberry muffins (yes, made with fresh berries! that I made!)
• cherries

Lunch, pink natural lunch:

• red oak lettuce
• "sneak preview" carrots from this week's share (as in: not quite ready yet, but they pulled a few to get us excited for the carrots in the upcoming weeks)
• broccoli -- can you tell it's my favorite veggie?
• sugar snaps
• molded egg
• sweet vinaigrette underneath the broccoli to make it all kind of a salad thing (see? the heat makes me even lazier than usual!)

Everything in this box except for the vinaigrette is from this week's share.

Lunch/snack, cute animals sidecar:

• cherries
• raspberries
• strawberries (sadly, not Oregon!strawberries)
• blueberries

Everything in this box is from this week's organics bin. If you're thinking to yourself, "Wow, that's a lot of produce", YES THAT IS A LOT OF PRODUCE YOU SHOULD COME VISIT SO WE CAN PAWN IT OFF ON YOU.

And in the Portland Is Eternally Awesome Department, Reason #65,172:

Portland Officially has the Greatest Hold Music in the World