Honey, I'm home.

Okay well sorry for that extended absence. A whole hell of a lot has been going on, a little travel to the midwest, and this and that. Okay, well, then let's sally forth.

Trial

I'm in trial and away from this blog for the time being. Send magical justice vibes to the Federal Courthouse please.

Beast

"If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made of meat?" This is scrawled on the back wall of Beast, which I have wanted to check out ever since I moved to Portland. Finally got the chance last night for a little Veteran's Day special somethingorother. So here's the deal: The chef, Naomi Pomeroy, decides what she'll be cooking. It's two big tables and one big prix fixe, no substitutions and big on the creative use of meats. And then with very well thought out vegetables too. Paired with wine if you'd like. We did. The menu went something like this: delicata squash soup with something, maybe fried prosciutto in the middle and a green herbed olive oil bit of float on top and then this very amazing charcuterie plate with all manner of little meat treats and a gummy bear looking sauterne gel square atop foie gras. Then a little sorbet, and then a beet salad of some variety and then slow cooked pork with spicy russian kale greens. And then a cheese course. And then dessert. Something with quince. Between the wine and the good music and then nice company I was delirious in foodie heaven and everything after the sauce that came with the pork is a bit of a glazed over fuzzy/happy/faulty recollection. It was the late seating on a Wednesday night and we seemed to be surrounded by people in the food business: a pastry chef to the left, a sommelier across. Carnivore dividends.

P.S. The great picture above was taken by Alicia J. Rose, who let me gank this image of Naomi and pig. Thanks.

Siren Nation

This weekend was the Siren Nation music festival here in town, which mostly involved staking out the under appreciated Someday Lounge. The line up was through-and-through amazing. My highlights were Emily Wells and Y La Bamba. And everyone else.


Emily Wells - Symphony 6: Fair Thee Well & The Requiem Mix


Y La Bamba - Fasting in San Francisco

I did a wee bit of helping out to put this thing on and it is right up my alley in terms of the lady-centric music scene. There was also a craft fair and a film festival as part of it. The festival hosts events all year long to raise money to pay the musicians. That is most of the budget for the festival since it is produced purely as a volunteer effort to promote women making music and art. Who doesn't like that? I know I do.

Drunken Frenchman Opens Wine Bottle with Shoe

How to Make Grape Jelly

1. Put Etta James on your car stereo.
2. Drive to the Willamette Valley
3. Stop for pork stomach tacos at La Estrella in Forest Grove.
4. Get to Gaston. Slow down because it is a speed trap.
5. Park the car and walk into the vineyard (having ingratiated yourself with the owners).
6. Fill a big Trader Joe's bag with pinot noir grapes from the unusually robust second growth this year.
7. Go home. Find some pectin and jars.
8. Smash the grapes with your bare hands and strain off the juice.
9. Swipe rosemary from a neighbor's yard. Put big sprigs in the juice to steep.
10. Boil a habanero pepper and put some of the liquid in the pectin.
11. Follow the directions on the pectin box for grape jelly.
12. Get distracted. Forget the sugar. Repeat step 11.

Favorite Things

So yeah, I am behind on the updates here. Rest assured dear reader, I promise I am having an ungodly good time. Last Friday, in fact, a friend swooped me up to the tippy-top of Portland, known as Council Crest. I had no idea that is was up there, or that it is so close to my house, or that if you stand in the middle of the circular platform and your friend whispers "Millennium Crystal" in your ear, that everything reverberates and echoes in a very specific way. So now I know. And if the lights of Portland are twinkling down the hill just so, then you really believe that there is a millennium crystal laying about somewhere up on the hill. There used to be an amusement park up there way back in the day.

The next day I went to a Portland/Amsterdam printing event and then an epic hike on foot way up the hill above my house and discovered fancy Portland Heights, which I did not know existed. I eventually found Council Crest again.

Sons of an Illustrious Father - Born Too Late