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.

LAD's personalized buttons

The 2008 National PARK(ing) Day in Portland was a complete success! Thanks to our sponsors, small parks sprouted up all over Fifth Avenue, between Washington and Alder. There were some very creative minds behind these spaces. Great work to all who participated this year!

LAD sponsored this park with Space Design our favorite floral and design guru in town.

Pazzo and Red Star provided an awesome lunch outside for those strolling by to look at the spaces. Who would really pass up a panini from Pazzo or a pulled pork sandwich and watermelon arugula salad from Red Star?

At the end of the day, Hotel Monaco, Hotel Vintage Plaza, Red Star and Pazzo raised $10,000 for The Trust for Public Land.  Special thanks to our co-sponsor, Space Design whose creative work inspired many to stop and live in our LAD sponsored space.

At 4:00 p.m. the “Party in the Park” kicked off where the Oregon Brewers Guild sponsored beer garden poured local micro-brews such as Deschutes Brewery’s Green Lakes Organic Ale and Hopworks Hub Lager. Vendors strolled the streets giving out snow cones and elaborate balloon animals.

Lota and her balloon alien

This years PARK(ing) Day in Portland was just the beginning for an annual event that will continue grow and gain supporters in Portland. We are all excited to see how PARK(ing) Day will evolve in the next few years. Congrats to Portland’s Kimpton properties!

Kegs

Are 21 year olds interested in beer and food pairings? What’s the best social media platform to reach young consumers? Which craft breweries have the most brand awareness with the youth market?

These are just a few of the many questions we’re trying to find answers to here at LAD comm headquarters. To help us in our mission and to provide more industry insight for our client partners, we’ve developed a new online survey that we’ve sent out to our network of targeted beer-loving consumers.

If you’d like to chime in and give us your two cents, check out our Zoomerang survey here. The survey is quick and easy (it should take about five minutes.) We’re interested to hear your thoughts – but don’t worry, all responses remain anonymous.

*UPDATED 10/1/08: Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our beer survey.  Due to the high volume of responses we received the survey is now closed.  We’re excited to start analyzing the data and reading your feedback.   Please check back soon, we’ll be posting some of our findings in the coming weeks.

For those of you who know me, you know that I prefer to be behind the camera, not front and center, so when Lisa called me into her office last Tuesday to ‘brief me for my Wednesday webisode debut’ you can imagine my surprise!

Of course I played it cool. Rachael Ray, no big deal – she only just won an Emmy for her talk show, which happens to be one of today’s top daytime cooking shows. Whew! The nerves started pick up, but luckily the busy working day kept me from daydreaming about potentially embarrassing scenarios…tripping and falling, starting a fire in my kitchen…okay maybe I did a little drifting, but it turned out to be such a blast!

I awoke Wednesday morning and after a quick dose of ‘why I love Oregon’ sunshine, I knew it was going to be a great day.

Call time 9:30 am. The Rach To The Rescue team was downstairs with cameras ready to roll. There were three guys, Josh, Alex and Zsolt, two cameras, and a huge RV out front. I think they could tell I was a bit nervous so Alex, the host and star of Around The World For Free, and Zsolt, the director, quickly explained what was in store.

Rach To The Rescue is traveling across the U.S. searching for hidden culinary gems and helping Rachel Ray viewers with their cooking dilemmas. Starting in NYC, the Rescue crew has hit several states and last week, they finally made it to the Pacific Northwest.

The agenda for the day was the following:
1) walk to the downtown farmers market.
2) explore the market and pick up ingredients for my favorite homemade pasta dish.
3) head back to my place and cook up a feast.

Alex and I strolled down Everett, through the Pearl and down to the Portland Farmers Market chatting away – I completely forgot that the cameras were rolling. Upon entry, I immediately bought a box of blueberries from Viridian Farms to munch on while we shopped. We soon met up with Lisa and Stephanie and together we stopped by our favorite Portland Farmers Market lunch spot, Tastebud Farm. There we chatted with owner and chef Mark Doxtader about his tasty Montreal bagel and Tastebud’s new home on the east side.

@ farmers market

Alex and the guys were in heaven – they were taken aback by the abundance of fresh, organic and local Oregon produce. Needless to say we got distracted. Orange, yellow and pink watermelon here and cheddar cauliflower there, we finally picked up our key ingredients – tomatoes, basil, maitake mushrooms and garlic.

We rode the Max back to Northwest eager to start cooking. The pasta dish came together beautifully. Alex and I christened my food processor, which finely chopped our four plump tomatoes. Alex took on the role of garlic mincer (my garlic press got lost in the move…) while I tore the basil into chunky shreads. Once the garlic was chopped and ready to go, 3/4 of it went into a large heated skillet with a splash of olive oil – it smelled so good! Next I cut the maitake mushrooms and threw them into a small heated pan with some butter and garlic. Who doesn’t love garlic?! Finally, we combined everything into the large skillet with a bit of salt and let it simmer for about 20 minutes while the water boiled and…

Alex and I paused for a quick photo in my kitchen

30 minutes later, we enjoyed my homemade fresh tomato basil pasta dish.
Easy, healthy, fresh and sooo delicious!!

The segment is now live! Check it out here.

It’s time to say a big thank you and congratulations to our soon-to-be former Director of Interactive, Lizzy Caston. We’re sad to see Lizzy leave LAD but thrilled that she has taken a leap of faith and decided to open her own communications practice. We know you will kick some good ole fashioned booty, Lizzy!

A big thanks to our go-to ear on the street, Mr. Mike Thelin who introduced us to Lizzy.

Mike Thelin engaged in conversation during a wine trip to Yakima.

We approached Lizzy with the idea of officially launching our new media or social networking group almost a year ago and have been super happy with the projects we’ve worked on together. In 2007, we decided it was time that our new media work was officially part of all our integrated PR programs and Lizzy did a fantastic job of helping us execute our strategic plans.

Tiki night with Lizzy (took the photo) and my new BFF in New Orleans, Todd Perely

Of course one of the toughest assignments Lizzy and I tackled together was Tales of the Cocktail, as you can see here I was forced to do lots of hands on research and there was definitely a social networking component throughout the conference.

As part of this transition, we are excited to announce our newest member of the New Media Group, Katie Burnett who has worked with us since January.

Katie has a degree from Lewis and Clark and has developed an expertise in building customized e-marketing programs for our clients. We will miss Lizzy’s leadership but do welcome Katie into this department and are excited to see what new ideas come to the table for LAD client partners.

Related links Todd Perely, painter, cat owner, home-absinthe brewer.

Mike works at Urban Works.

Lizzy’s website is coming soon!

Portland’s aloft hotel has finally landed! Located at the Portland Airport at Cascade Station, aloft brings with it an entirely new phase in Portland hospitality that emphasizes style, technology and affordability for the young, modern leisure and business traveler.

aloft opens its doors to the public for the first time today and will host a kick-off fundraising party this Friday, September 19th at its hip lobby bar, w xyz. Friday night, DJ’s and bartenders will mix up an evening of music and signature cocktails as part of the hotel’s complete multiplex sensory experience. A $10 cover charge benefits the Columbia Slough Watershed Council and the Friends of the Gorge Bike Trail Improvement Project, two of aloft Portland’s local community partners.

News of aloft’s opening is traveling fast! Check out KGW’s “Your money your business” segment, which gave viewers a sneak peak into the modern-design hotel and highlighted aloft’s technology driven features.

KGW aloft segment show date: 9/12/08

Portland Monthly included National PARK(ing) Day in the Mudroom section of their September issue!

National Park(ing) Day in Portland Monthly!

National PARK(ing) Day is being spearheaded in Portland by Kimpton owned properties, the Hotel Monaco Portland, Hotel Vintage Plaza, Red Star and Pazzo Ristorante, along with The Trust for Public Land.

On September 19th, 2008 Portlanders will have yet another reason to park their cars as they will reclaim the streets for National PARK(ing) Day, a one-day celebration where artists, citizens and businesses collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into parks, returning the urban landscape to its natural form.

Downtown’s SW 5th Avenue will be closed for the day to decorate more than a dozen parking spaces on the street between Washington and Alder. The day will culminate at this site with a “Party in the Park” featuring a bluegrass band, pork roast and a Beer Garden sponsored by the Oregon Brewers Guild, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Play hopscotch, take a ride down the slide and most importantly, come celebrate keeping Portland green while raising money for The Trust for Public Land.

Dinner on a vineyard. Lots of good people, good wine and what has become for some, a great summer tradition. This is an evening at Plate & Pitchfork

Pre-dinner vineyard tour with A to Z's vineyard manager

These are the vitals:

Saturday, August 2 at Jacob-Hart Vineyard in Newberg
Chef Vito Dilullo from Ciao Vito and Chef Rich Meyer from Higgins
Wines from A to Z Wineworks, Rex Hill Vineyards and Francis Tannahill
Featuring produce from OakHill Organics.
Tickets for this evening are $125 per person.

Dinner began at 6pm. The cashmere blanket, deep mustard scarf, grey wool sweater got wrapped around my shoulders by the time the bay shrimp arrived.

Carrots were the star of the evening. Sausages were delicious too but sometimes a perfect carrot can sweep me off my feet.

Thank god for summer evenings of cool breezes, volunteers from Oregon Tilthe, a local momentum that creates endless opportunities for eating near dirt, and a trunk filled with blankets.

My love affair with Oregon is in full swing this week.

Here at LAD, we do take pride in our gourmet tastes, but even the most discerning palate craves good old fashioned Americana sometimes – especially on the 4th of July. To celebrate our nation’s independence day, I threw a backyard barbecue bash that included traditional American fare like hamburgers and hot dogs, but the real excitement came when we pulled out the… prepare yourself for this – Jelloshot Flag!

Putting together this edible edifice of patriotism was much more difficult than one might imagine. Who would’ve thought that when I googled “Jelloshot Flag” my search would come up blank!? Well, I intend to cure that lack of online content and offer up a photo and some tips for success. Because another thing that we take pride in here at LAD is our ability to spot a trend a mile away. I might be ahead of the times on this one, but I’m going out on a limb to predict that by next year Jelloshot Flags will be all the rage! So, take advice from the new expert lest you be asked to prepare one yourself…

Jelloshot Flag: “Top Tips From A New Pro”
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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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