Each holiday season I’m faced with the same dilemma – do I get my Dad a new wallet or the new Star Wars DVD?   I know, both are pretty lame gift ideas, but my Dad is by far the hardest person on my holiday list to shop for and I inevitably fall back on a tried and true (if boring) gift idea.

Well, fear not brave reader, because this year our own Lisa D. appeared on AM Northwest for a Downtown Marketing Initiative segment sharing five inspired gifts for guys that are sure to please everyone, even my “I want anything” Dad.  Best of all, every item on the list can be found in downtown Portland – talk about one-stop-shopping!

Looking for more unique gift ideas?  Check out this segment we worked on with Portland’s “Better” crew and the  Downtown Marketing Initiative’s Explore the Original gift guide.

Last Friday marked the 10th anniversary of my move to Portland.  Thanks to all the folks who helped make the occasion so memorable and who generously helped us raise $ 1,000 to send to the World Wildlife Fund.

The LADies in all their festive gear!

The menu was crazy good thanks to our friends at Country Cat, Culinary Artistry, Deschutes, Black Cap, House Spirits, Nostrana, Tabla, Boedecker Cellars, Grochau Cellars, Penner-Ash, Alma Chocolates, and Cory Schreiber.  Extra credit to Holland Studios who shot the event and to our amazing entertainment — The Shanghai Woolies.

thanks Cory and Julie! Can't wait for your new book.

Thanks to all of you who read our last installment of  “Name That LADie” and ventured a guess about our mystery poster’s identity.

“It’s scary in the attic.”

First of all, in order to full appreciate my dilemma you’ll need a bit of background.   Although the LAD office has a production room and storage area, we do frequent mailings and need an place to store our extensive supply of boxes, packaging peanuts, folders, archived files, etc.  So, we lease a storage space in the attic area of our building.

Imagine, if you will, a small landing at the top of two flights stairs with six foot ceilings, exposed pipes and three old doors leading to the storage spaces.  Adding to the ominous environment is lighting that can be described at best as dim.

Can you picture it?  Excellent.

My “Name that LADie” adventure starts out simply enough – it was a quite Friday with only one other LADie and myself in the office.  It was around eleven o’clock when I realized I needed an older file and after searching through our filing cabinet I knew I had to go upstairs to get what I was looking for.  I grabbed the keys to the attic and our storage unit, breezing through the door and quickly yelling to my co-worker that I was headed upstairs and would be right back. They don’t call them famous last words for nothing.

After entering our storage space, I made my way across the room, found the box I was looking for and opened the lid to the file folder.  And then I heard it.  The unmistakable sound of the door clicking closed behind me.

No big deal – all doors have to open from the inside, right?   Oh, no.  Not our old broken door lock.  Once the door had closed behind me, it had locked shut and wasn’t coming open.   This is the moment I freaked out.

You see, I have a very active imagination and every time I’m in the attic space I manage to convince myself that Michael Meyers is hiding out in the storage unit next door and he’s about to get me. Crazy, but true.

After a few deep breaths (thanks yoga) I was able to calm myself down and start thinking straight.  I wasn’t that far up from the nearest business, someone was bound to hear me if I started screaming for help.

Alas, it was not meant to be.  After about ten minutes of yelling and banging on the door I gave up  decided to sit down and wait it out (it was about this time that I decided a psycho killer was bound to hear my screams and come eat me for dinner).  Plus, I knew that eventually people would notice I was missing and come to find me – after all, they did know where I was.

An hour later I knew it was time to take matters into my own hands.  If I wanted to get out of that storage unit (and boy did I) I was going to have to do it myself.

My first lockpicking thought was a credit card – I’d seen this particular device used many times with great success on tv.  The only problem with that one is a shocking lack of credit cards in most storage spaces.  My next strategy was to search the room and see what I could find that might be of any use.  Now, you’d be really surprised at the number of everday office supplies that might be good lock picking tools – letter openers, staple removers and paperclips (this one seems kind obvious, and yet it really performed the poorest of all my attempts).

Then I found it.  The ultimate tool for unlocking the attic door – the metal rod on a green hanging file.  It’s size and shape are the perfect design to reach between the door and the door frame and open the metal clasp on the lock.

Ha ha!  Take that attic!

As I made my way downstairs towards our office I was still half dazed and completely astounded that I was able to break free. I was also excited to let my co-worker know that I had escaped safe and sound and that they could call off the search.  To my surprise I learned that no one was looking for me – in fact, she thought I had taken an early lunch and was returning late!

After recounting my harrowing tale, my coworkers were understandably awed and inspired by my keen wit and ability to think clearly under pressure.  Following this unfortunate episode (and a commendable peformance with a fire extinguisher) I received a new office nickname – just call me MacGyver.

Northeast 28th was full of the sweet aroma of tomatoes today as 200 pounds of organic heirloom tomatoes from Red Truck Farm on Sauvie Island got washed, milled, cooked, seasoned and canned by the kitchen at Tabla Mediterranean Bistro.

These cooks crave a closer connection to the season and now guests will be able to enjoy house-preserved fresh tomatoes in dishes well into the rainy winter season.

Gorgeous raw product from Red Truck Farm.

The dirtiest part of the job involved squishing tomatoes in this old-fashioned food mill that Anthony has had in his family forever!

Umm, Umm Good

It was off to the stove top for heat and reduction…

Steaming boiling reduction

Anthony was one of the go-to cooks who got really into the preserving part of the festivities

We can’t wait to try a fantastic inventive dish with one of these wonderful tastes of summer.

When I was in high school one of my friends discovered she had celiac, an autoimmune intestinal disorder aggravated by eating gluten. After being diagnosed, she changed her diet and was able to manage her symptoms, but on the downside she was unable to have traditional gluten filled foods like bread, pasta, and brownies.

More and more Americans are being diagnosed with the disease. In a recent story, USA Today reported that there are currently 110,000 diagnosed cases of celiac disease in the U.S., up from 40,000 cased in 2003. (You can see the complete article here.)

Because traditional beers are made using malt and barley, beer has long been considered one of the main no-nos of a gluten free diet.

Well, Deschutes Brewery is planning to change that. The brewery has plans to release a new Gluten Free Golden Ale. Using sorghum, brown rice, and roasted chestnuts instead of malted barley or wheat as the sources of extract to avoid gluten, the brewers were able to create a flavor very similar to the crystal malt used in many of their other signature beers.

Although the brewery has produced a small batch of low gluten beer before, the Deschutes brewers were so fastidious in brewing the Gluten Free that they not only double cleaned the brewing equipment, but also grew the yeast culture used to ferment the beer from a single cell using only sorghum as its nutritional source.

Oregon’s celiacs can check out this new hand-crafted brew on draft at the Deschutes Brewery and Public Houses in Bend and Portland at the end of the month. You can check out the complete pub menu here.

Mmmmm, beer.

Spicy Chicken Salad

He doesn’t have his own Food Network show and his name isn’t on plates in Macy’s, but kids love to learn about food from this guy. Matthew Locricchio wears many hats – chef, teacher and award-winning author. He is the real deal. His cookbooks whisk kids away on a global adventure, connect them to cultures and build their confidence through pure and authentic recipes. With the success of his first international cookbook for kids, Locricchio is gearing up to release The 2nd International Cookbook for Kids in October 2008.

Shrimp with Feta Cheese and Tomatoes

Locricchio’s first international cookbook for kids featured “the big four” of world cooking – China, France, Italy and Mexico. In 2005, it was the winner of several awards including the Disney Adventures Magazine Award for Best Hands-On Book and the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for the Best Cookbook for Children and Families in the USA. The 2nd International Cookbook for Kids maintains the same high standards and design of the first book but includes “the next big four” of world cooking – Brazil, Greece, India and Thailand.

Finished! Shrimp with Feta Cheese and Tomatoes

We received one of Locricchio’s advanced cookbooks and took full advantage of the recipes. I chose to make the Spicy Chicken Salad (Thailand), the Shrimp with Feta Cheese and Tomatoes (Greece) and the Brazil Nut Cookies. These recipes are more advanced than the typical kids cookbooks I remember from my childhood and what I’ve seen in the bookstores today, but they are all easy to follow. This would be a great gift for the holidays for your child or grandchild and a great resource to teach kids about culture through food.

Lota chose to try out the Hearts of Palm salad (Brazil)…

It’s me Lota. Maybe I’m just a kid at heart, because I truly enjoyed reading each and every step of the simple-to-make Hearts of Palm Salad, but most importantly I LOVED eating it.

This is a 10 minute recipe that may be designed for budding chefs that can still count their age on two hands, but it could just as easily be a last minute dish for entertaining people closer to middle age. So for my purposes, I’ve renamed this dish “The Kid-At-Hearts of Palm Salad.” The simplicity is surprising, because the complementary flavors in the salad are actually complex and the presentation is gorgeous.

This is officially my new summer potluck dish. It’s easy to prepare, beautiful, a little exotic and pleasing to palates of all ages. Try it and you’ll like it, I swear… cross my heart.

That’s what a woman said to me last night as she passed my table at Lincoln Restaurant which opens today.

David and Jenn had invited their industry posse to attend a friends and family preview and since we’re handling the PR it was mandatory that we jump in and eat and drink our hearts out (nice perk, right?) at the new, hip restaurant on Williams and Failing.

Congrats guys! The honest, simple food, classic yet inspired cocktails and gorgeous space is going to be instantly popular (at least that’s my two cents).

The dish that jumped out to Julian and me was the baked hen eggs with cream, toasted bread crumbs and green olives. Simple, comforting, inspired, well-balanced — it’s a great icon for Lincoln itself.

It was also so fun that the grower from Dancing Roots felt compelled to shout out “Those are my eggs!” as she walked past our table. She immediately volunteered that she raises 5 kinds of birds and that those gorgeous deep orange yolks come from very happy chickens.

You gotta love a Portland moment that so quintessentially combines the farming intimacy with the city’s signature chic urban pioneers who so adroitly transform garage-like spaces into dining destinations.

Thanks David and Jenn for bringing another fantastic place to my neighborhood!

Whew! It took a bit of work, but Lizzy and I have finally had a chance to format, polish and post the materials from the Fancy Foods Show presentation LAD participated in on June 30th, 2008 in New York City. The presentation, on narrowcasting, interactive PR and marketing and how to reach online media was a three part team with yours truly (Lisa Donoughe), Lizzy Caston, our resident interactive expert and James Curry, the Chief Editor of Epicurious.com.

Included below is the complete PowerPoint Presentation in 3 parts, a partial podcast of the presentation and a list of tips and resources. Just click on the More button below to get the whole shebang.

For those of you who were able to attend the presentation in person, thanks so much again for your enthusiasm, good questions and lively discussion. Lizzy said it, and I’ll say it again, you were one of the best audiences I’ve ever had the pleasure of presenting to.

And as always, please feel free to drop us a line here or leave a comment.

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How fun!

LAD has launched blogs for clients, talked about blogging in front of key industry groups and now we are joining the party.

For LAD this has meaning because it allows us to share all the cool things we have the privilege of working on in a more real time situation.

In fact, one of our most exciting projects, the development of the identity and positioning of Lucier Restaurant is just now beginning to become part of the Portland dialogue and we are so excited about our work and contribution to this seminal project.

When LAD was first invited to talk to Chris and Tyanne Dussin, the owners of Lucier, about the project all we knew was that we had worked with this couple before when we launched Penner-Ash wine Cellars ( Link to Penner-Ash website) . LAD believed Lucier would be as equally exciting. We were right.

Our concept in developing the name or identity for Lucier was to project a French sensibility while connecting directly to Oregon. When Lisa was going through the concept development process, she came across an interesting character in Oregon’s history – Ettienne Luicer, the founder of Oregon’s first farmring colony. Bingo! His melodic French name and his pioneering efforts in agriculture were perfect. It struck LAD that Lucier would potentially become a wonderful icon for the quality and excitement found at this new restaurant.

As with all new ventures, the jury is out. Only the market will decide the relevancy of Lucier. And so the same holds true with LAD’s new blog.

We hope you enjoy reading about our thoughts, adventures, observations and stories and that they help you stop and appreciate what is beautifully presented in front of you as a delicious dish or perhaps a chilled cocktail. It takes a lot of commitment to share great taste and we aspire to those moments. Please feel free to stay in touch and contact us if you wish. We’d love for you to join the conversation.

May you dance like no one’s watching. May you sing like no one’s listening. And may you live as if each day is your last.

Cheers,

Lisa Donoughe and the LAD communications team