Title: Outstanding In The Field Dinner
Location: Square Peg Farm
Link out: Click here
Description: Chef Troy Maclarty whips up a 5 course menu from fresh ingredients at Square Peg Farm
Start Time: 4:00 pm
Date: 2009-07-09
End Time: 8:00 pm

Title: Outstanding In The Field Dinner
Location: Ford Farm
Link out: Click here
Description: Outdoor dinner at Ford Farm featuring 5 course meal from Chefs Jason French and Ben Meyer of Ned Ludd.
Start Time: 4:00 pm
Date: 2009-07-11
End Time: 8:00 pm

The Banks Vernonia Rails To Trails – One of Oregon’s best kept secrets…

Biking Oregon’s Rails To Trails is a summer must-do.

Oregon is full of old railroad tracks. With logging drying up, the lines that once carried massive old growth trees from small timber towns to  shipping hubs like Portland are now rusting and rotting away. That is unless it’s an old line that gets picked up by the national Rails To Trails program, in which case they paves the way for future tourism and massive outdoor enjoyment. That’s where the Banks Vernonia trail comes in…

Here’s the elevator pitch for this newish rails to trails path: 20 miles of an easy grade, paved path with a flanking equestrian mulch trail, and the best part (drum roll please)… train trestles! Yes, there are at least two of these imposing wood structures towering 80 feet above the ground, one of which you can ride, run or gallop over.

Bike over or under the trestle!

Only a 45 minute drive outside of Portland, by the time you near Vernonia you feel like you’re a world away. Vernonia is a small Oregon logging town that still has a functioning timber industry and a thriving downtown, a combination that is rare to find.

Welcome To Vernonia

A perfect itinerary for biking the Banks Vernonia trail, is to head out in the morning from Portland, stop in for breakfast at one of the many diners on Vernonia’s main street, then head off to one of several trail entrances. A leisurely ride will take most of the day, but serious riders can get through it in a few hours. The trail goes from grassy plains to rich forest and will leave an impression you that is sure to bring you back for more.

40 wineries in one day, how to pick and choose which to taste? Twitter, of course!

Unable to make it to the festival this weekend, but curious which wines will get big buzz? Twitter’s, the answer!

This weekend, the Portland Indie Wine Festival will be a tweeter’s dream. Join the conversation or just follow along to discover Oregon’s best small production, hard to find, wines. It’s gonna be a tweet fest like no other!

Follow the fun at #PIWF09 .

Here’s the scenario… It’s been 2 weeks since you’ve been grocery shopping. Your pantry is bare except for some dried pasta and a few onions. Your fridge is empty, except that last cup of yogurt and some hard cheese. Voila!

You’ve got the essentials for a delicious and inexpensive meal that will blow your mind with simplicity and flavor.

This pasta dish came about when Nostrana Chef and Owner Cathy Whims had an abundance of Nancy’s Yogurt sitting in the fridge, and leave it to the James Beard nominated chef to create a dish that sings to the heavens out of a few humble ingredients. The tanginess of the Nancy’s cultured yogurt, contrasted with the sweet carmalized onion, is then bridged together with a hard cheese like parmesan and freshened up with the spring flavor of chives.

Our local back-to-basics, food and farm publication, Edible Portland, loved Whims’ recipe just as much as we did. And after they published it in their Spring issue, blogs like bread & honey discovered how much they loved it too! This is a recipe that once you’ve tried, you will return to it time and time again.

Edible Portland

Many might consider a sandwich to be simple food, something akin to a one-pot meal. But, in my opinion elemental dishes like that can be more satisfying than a complicated plate of cerebral food pairings. And in the hands of meat-loving Tommy Habetz the lowly sandwich is elevated to a sloppy, abundant meal full of flavor and calories – a masterpiece for the tastebuds, not the brain.

Sausage Po' Boy

I stopped by Habetz’s Bunk Sandwiches a few days ago, and I have to admit… it was my first time. That’s because Bunk is on the EAST side, which is basically a four letter lunch word for those of us who work downtown. But I vow right now, “Thou shalt never let the river keep me from a Sausage Po’ Boy ever again. Never.”

I’ll follow that with another vow, “During my next visit to Bunk, thou shalt order the Meatball Hero.” You’d be making the same vow if you were sitting at the bar and witnessed these melted mozzarella monsters pulled from the oven. I promise.

View from the sandwich bar

For those of us who were not invited to Obama’s inauguration party, we’ll have to be satisfied with our celebration. Next Tuesday, I’ll be gathering a few friends to toast in the new president with a menu that pays homage to our new “worldly” President. I’m still considering the menu, and I want a dish from each influential place our presidentelect has lived. Anyone have a Kenyan recipe?

Here’s what I have so far…

Chicago: Chicago Dogs, of course!

Indonesia: Pisang Goreng, basically fried bananas

Hawaii: Blue Hawaiians (I’m going to try to find a way to make these delicious, a challenge for sure)

New York: New York style pizza

Los Angeles: Avocados w/ finishing salt

As much as I love decorating for the holidays, it’s hard for me to feel good about buying more “stuff” that gets used only once a year, and sits in a basement the rest of the time. So making ornaments from recycled materials last night just felt… good! The Hotel Monaco Portland and SCRAP (School & Community Reuse Action Project) came together for a DIY eco-ornament night during the hotel’s nightly wine hour – though last night we also imbibed on local beer from MacTarnahans (Snow Cap Ale – Yummmm).

Katie and I cut, glued, pasted and laughed the evening away, and ended up with some very cool danglies for our trees. The favorite materials ended up being used CDs – they really shine on the trees and are a perfect surface to work on. Plus they have this kind of 80’s 90’s retro coolness to them. In fact, I’m thinking of doing an entire tree of them next year, all with pop culture clippings pasted on.

I highly recommend doing some of your own! Once you get started it’s addictive, but the best inspiration to get going is to look at what other people have done.

BTW – You can buy eco-ornaments made by SCRAP that have DIY kits inside them for $5 at the Monaco. All proceeds go to the non-profit SCRAP.

Twas the week before Thanksgiving

And all through downtown,

No construction was ringing

Not one hammer sound

Today was the first day of the downtown Portland construction moratorium, and we have the fat man in the red suit to thank for it! Yesterday, Santa granted Mayor-Elect Sam Adams’ holiday wish… to clear the streets of construction gear and open up more parking spaces for seasonal shoppers. No more traffic snarls downtown? Looks like Santa’s gift is going to bring smiles to more than just Sam’s face.

Sam got a construction moratorium, and all I got from Santa was a mini candy cane. Apparently I need to clean up my act for next year.

I love this time of year… Halloween and Fresh Hop Beers! It’s times like this that I count my blessings for living in the Northwest. While people everywhere will celebrate Halloween this week, there isn’t another region of the country where you can get the fresh hop experience, and even if you live here you’d better move fast – they only last a few weeks. In order to seize the moment, we did a LAD taste-test of two Oregon fresh hop brews: Deschutes Hop Trip and Rogue Independence. Both were delicious but very different in style. Here’s a recap of our tasting notes, and since we’re so close to Halloween we’ve given the beers their own costume equivalents.

Festive Fresh Hop Beer

Deschutes Hop Trip / Jack Skellington: Sophisticated, fresh, fruity and smells like a hop farm. This beer was layered with a bright nose and dry palate that evaporates off the tongue leaving you curious for more. Herbal without the intense bitterness, it would be the hit of Halloween Town.

Rogue Independence / A Pirate : Dominant, intense, bitter and might knock you over the head. Simple, but tried and true and always fun. This beer had more hop intensity, with rich malt and caramel flavors. The quintessential hop lover’s beer with a big pop. Get ready to walk the plank, matey…. arrggh.

2004 Piluso Pinot noir

The wine lovers at LAD have officially called it. ‘04 Oregon Pinot noirs are ripe and ready to be drunk. I write this after last night’s dinner went from seriously last minute, to seriously memorable. Here’s how it happened…

I’m drowning in tomatoes. In an effort to eat my mandatory daily ration I decided to cook up a quick tomato tapenade for fish last night. While it was bubbling away on the stove, I ransacked my house for a cheap red wine. Pepperwood Syrah… gone. Red Bicyclette… au revoir. By then I was fixated. Fresh tomato tapenade and no red wine is practically a sin, and one I’m not willing to pay the price for. I trudged down to the cellar, the whole while wondering if I could justify popping a bottle of one of my more prized wines on a Wednesday night, with no company. I’ve got a nice little trove of Oregon indie wines that I’ve collected over the last couple of years at the Portland Indie Wine Festival. Granted, they don’t last very long around my house, so I was quite surprised to discover a forgotten ‘04 Toluca Lane Pinot noir…

Here’s where it gets interesting. It was perfect. It had a little effervescence when I first uncorked it, but the nose was beautiful and it was perfectly balanced and full of flavor. It was Oregon elegance at its best, and 30 minutes later it surpassed my highest expectations. I could tell it was at its prime – 6 months or more and it might have been over the hill, but right now it was perfect!

I told my tale at the office today and learned that I’m not the only one who had this ‘04 experience. Last week Lisa popped a bottle of ‘04 Black Cap Pinot noir and knew she’d hit the jackpot. The nose had particularly interesting rose pedal character and the finesse was incredible. It was a stunning example of Jason Lett’s intuitive talent and must be similar to when a surfer catches the crest of a wave — it was a perfect arc of flavor.

Catching a wine in its prime is a sublime experience, and one you wish you could savor over and over again, but it’s that short window of perfection that makes the moment so coveted. After making this discovery, we understood what we had to do. As Oregon wine lovers, we feel it is our duty to ensure that people get the best experience possible. Take our word for it … drink your ‘04 Oregon Pinot noir, and DRINK IT NOW!