Dubbed “Cyber Monday” by industry trackers, online shopping is expected to reach an all time high today and shoppers can expect to see major discounts launched by online retailers.

An article posted today on CNN Money estimates that online retailers will see roughly 4.3 million shoppers per minute at the peak of web traffic with 96.5 million shoppers visiting online stores throughout the day.  Although online traffic is expected to increase as the holiday shopping season continues, Cyber Monday is the unofficial start to the online holiday shopping season.

If you’re one of the millions of shoppers trying to find the items left on lists  after the Black Friday weekend, and not break the bank, check out a few of our staff picks for great online deals:

Portland Monthly Direct Offers – Recommended by Stephanie

This is a fantastic online service that allows shoppers to browse hundreds of printable coupons at local retailers and restaurants.  If you find an offer or service you’d like, just print the offer and take it with you when you go to the store for an exclusive discount or deal.  25% off any one item at Say Say Boutique?  Yes please!

Groupon – Recommended by Lota

Collective buying power at its best! Groupon features one deal a day at between 50%-90% off regular price. What makes this site so interesting is that the featured products run the gamut… one day it’s an oil change for $10 and the next it’s half off the ticket price for the Holiday Beer Festival. There’s one catch – you only get the deal if enough people join that day.

Half Price Hot Spot – Recommended by Ashley

Gift certificates and services available 50% off face value. For example – a $100 spa gift certificate is available for only $50.  A limited number of certificates from new featured businesses are listed every other Thursday morning, so act fast.  Once you make your purchase a hard copy of the gift certificate is mailed to you.

If you’ve got a great value shopping secret, feel free to post it in the comments!

Amazing review of Wildwood Restaurant & Bar by Downtown Monthly Editor Janet Filips!  She hit on all of Wildwood’s great offerings – seasonal food and drink with a warm atmosphere.  As we are sad to see that this is the last issue of the Downtown Monthly, we are happy to see this section close with a review of one of Portland’s most well-known and well-loved restaurants.

This week I am very excited to share a wonderful fresh hop beer story from The New York Times that was written by Lucy Burningham, one of our favorite local freelance friends.  Over the past few years, Lucy has switched beats from general lifestyle and travel to emerge as a leading freelance beer writer, with pieces appearing in Beer Northwest, Northwest Palate, and of course, The New York Times.

“A Hop and a Sip to Fresh Ales,” discusses fresh hop beers and what makes them so special, including their distinctive bitterness and citrus flavors.  Given the number of Oregon breweries that are located in such close proximity to hop farms and are producing fresh hop beers, one could argue that the Oregon brewing industry has taken a clear lead in these once-a-year brews.

As public relations partners with the Oregon Brewer’s Guild, we’ve long been fans and supporters of fresh hop beers, hosting numerous media tours of hop farms and conducting large scale samples mailings to media outlets, so it’s especially exciting to see this style – and the Oregon brewers who are at the heart of the trend – get some richly deserved recognition.

Goodbye  fresh hop beers, and hello holiday ales!

Wow, it’s great to experience the Pacific Northwest’s beer seasons, and the transition from fall to winter is one of our favorites. One reason is that holiday ales pair so well with the hearty cuisine of this season. A side note… if you’re interested in pairing beer with food, I highly recommend checking out this month’s Mix Magazine, which features a full fall beer pairing menu with recipes, created by beer writer Lucy Burningham and Cafe Nell executive chef Andrew Garrett.

Whether planning a pairing dinner or just looking to quench your thirst, the crew at Watershed has done the dirty work of tasting through an abundance of Pacific Northwest seasonal ales for you. This two part tasting process included an in-house tasting of Oregon beers, provided by the Oregon Brewer’s Guild, and a broader Northwest tasting at Seattle’s holiday ale festival. From these two tastings, we’ve put together a palette of earthy, spicey and delicious beers to recommend. Here are our tasting notes!

OREGON ALES:

McMenamins Nutbrown Seasonal

Deschutes Jubelale

Slight peppermint,  sweet, roasty & toasty

Widmer Bros Black IPA (preview – director’s cut)

Big hops on the nose, smooth palate, IPA in black clothing

Deschutes Jubelale

Malty, dark caramel, citrus, floral, layered

Full Sail Wreck The Halls

Tobacco and cigar box, bitter, orange peel

Widmer Brrr...

Full Sail Wassail

Mild, vegetal, stout without the chocolate

Widmer Brrr… (Staff Pick)

Hoppy, malty, balanced, full, like a meal, complete, the all-around favorite!

SEATTLE ALES: (These were the two favorites at the festival)

Beacon Hill Brewing Saison du Bekon

Spearmint, refreshing, big nose, full flavor, light yellow in color, a true stand-out at the festival

Silver City Fat Woody Scotch Ale

Coconut, chocolate and nuts (an Almond Joy!), smooth, addictively delicious

Beacon Hill Brewer Colin Lenfesty & Crew

Last Wednesday over 50 people crammed into the kitchen at the International Culinary School to observe as Adam Sappington from the Country Cat Dinnerhouse and Bar skillfully demonstrated his butchery prowess.  Writers including B.T. Shaw, Emily Chenoweth and Joe Strecket shared their experiences with eating (or not eating) meat.  Heartfelt and emotional testimonials about their relationships to animals, meat, and death were accentuated with the tearing of flesh and sawing of bone.  Cameras trained on Adam’s work were directed to two video screens for a close up look at the action.

November 11th gives us the second installment of Livestock featuring Cathy Whims of Nostrana and wine from Big Table Farm and Montinore Estate.  More information is provided below, but first let’s take a peek at some photos!

Portland, OR – Watershed Culinary Productions, in collaboration with Camas Davis, food writer and founder of the soon-to-be-launched Portland Meat Collective, is pleased to present the first ever Livestock, an urban conversation designed to explore the literary and literal aspects of killing our dinner.

“Our goal is to produce an educational experience that brings the discussions happening around food safety and animal welfare to life in a thoughtful, and poetic way,” says Lisa Donoughe, executive producer of Livestock and Director of Watershed Communications.

Livestock 2 will be held on Wednesday, November 11th, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Portland, 34 NW 8th Ave Portland, OR 97209.

Tickets are SOLD OUT with $10 from every ticket sold going to Friends of Family Farmers, an organization working to promote and protect socially responsible agriculture in Oregon.

Readers November 11th
Langdon Cook was a senior book editor at Amazon.com before leaving the corporate world in 2004 to live in a cabin off the grid with his wife and son. Now a freelance writer and blogger, Cook has written for Gray’s Sporting Journal, Outside, Fly Fisherman, The Stranger, Seattle Metropolitan, Northwest Palate, and numerous other publications. Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager is his first book. In his prime as a meat-eater, he was known to take down a King Arthur’s cut of roast beast post-haste, but more recently he has switched to the Milady’s cut, which earns raised eyebrows ’round the round table. Cook lives in Seattle, WA, with his wife, poet Martha Silano, and their two children.

Anna Sachse is a freelance writer who has covered everything from high-end travel and food, to health, beauty, weddings, politics and Hollywood for the likes of the L.A. Times Magazine, Portland Monthly, and McSweeney’s, among other publications. In addition, she is working on both a wedding planner for women who aren’t lame, and a novel.  Many of her stories, as well as her novel, are based on the five years she spent working as a waiter and cocktail server in a high end Hollywood nightclub—the kind of establishment where customers could, and did, attempt to trade cocaine for beef carpaccio. Upon “winning” the audition that landed her this coveted waitressing job, she was forbidden to tell the customers that she was a vegetarian.
She is now openly vegetarian and lives in Portland with her husband, Chris, who eats tongue burritos and tripe.

Rob Newton, a recent transplant from New York City, has worked in publishing, television, theater, interior design, porn, child wrangling and other more or lesser-esteemed endeavors. His de-formative years were spent outside Puyallup, Washington, to wit his love of timber and his aversion to second cousins once removed. Rob’s newest works, Dirty Bomb and Happy Talk will premier at Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival, January 22 through February 2, where butchery of another variety will no doubt ensue.

Call 503-827-6564 for more information.  Ask for Mike.

She grew up on a farm, but Stephanie Selk brings home more than just the bacon.

Last night, while some of us were busy at Livestock, Stephanie and Lota represented Watershed at the annual Spotlight Awards presentation at The Governor Hotel.  The Spotlight Awards are presented to public relations professionals who have successfully addressed a communications challenge with skill, creativity and resourcefulness.

At the end of the evening, the ladies accepted two merit awards for accounts headed by Ms. Selk – Event: Zwickelmania and Press Conference: Holiday Construction Moratorium.

Congrats, Stephanie and the whole Watershed crew!

I couldn’t resist popping into Nostrana with my wig on.

A Whimsical Moment at Nostrana