anyways, this week has been a bit up and down as we look for a new place to rent. nothing new to update you on, except that we are staying in portland and seeing [...]]]> it’s friday! or “fry-day” as wil likes to say as he impersonates rebecca black. oh that song…

anyways, this week has been a bit up and down as we look for a new place to rent. nothing new to update you on, except that we are staying in portland and seeing what god has in store for us here in this city for another year or so.

it’s a love-hate relationship with this city right now…it’s frustrating that there are so few places to rent that will take us, all our stuff and our two giants dogs for what we can afford. it makes me very mad at this place. but then, all the sudden these fun little compost bins appeared on our (and all our neighbors’) doorstep a day or so ago. the city is now going to be picking up trash only twice a month, and recycle and compost more frequently. i do love that they make it so easy to recycle and reduce our waste.

portland also officially banned plastic bags at major grocery stores in the last few weeks…you can now use paper, or just bring your own! i think this sounds like the perfect opportunity to get yourself a market tote. even if you don’t live here in the pacific northwest, why not make a statement at the checkstand in your own town (and a cute one, none the less!)?

it’s reassuring to see signs outside of our little ecobubble we live in (because i know, portland is very unique!)…when i got stamps at the post office last time, they were adorable illustrations reminding you easy ways to live a greener life. a fun way to send them out on your letters around the united states, and rest of the world. even if you don’t care as much about the environment as others, some of these things just seem like common sense, ways to save money and even enjoy the little things in life more.

people sometimes ask me if i use the goods i make…i take my market tote with me all the time (not just for markets!). usually every time i go to work i carry the random things i need at my part time hosting job (extra heels, sweater, book for the bus ride). and i love my produce bag for the fruit wil always seems to be craving (and yet every time, he forgets where the fruit is!!!). but i don’t get many opportunities to pack things in my reusable sandwich/snack bags. i am at home most of the days and work at a restaurant where we have a staff meal provided. and wil also eats what he cooks at his restaurant as well. i can’t wait till we have kids someday that i am packing lunches for and putting their snacks in the cute patterned fabrics sacks. just another little fun way for you to live green! (and save money after not buying boxes and boxes of ziplocs! seriously!)

enjoy your weekend, friends!

it’s officially october, and it’s time to get out your pumpkins, gourds and fall decorations! wil and i were admiring the huge crates of white, cinderella and warted pumpkins that were out at trader joe’s last night. as much as fall is my favorite, i actually [...]]]> mmm, the flavors of fall.

it’s officially october, and it’s time to get out your pumpkins, gourds and fall decorations! wil and i were admiring the huge crates of white, cinderella and warted pumpkins that were out at trader joe’s last night. as much as fall is my favorite, i actually am seriously lacking in any autumn decorations.

so instead, we just make sure we eat lots of fall foods at their best. apples, pears, and butternut squash to name a few.

while in central oregon earlier this week, wil cooked a big meal for our family. i think at this point it’s on the docket any time he visits home…his mom lets him go wild in the gourmet grocery, and he comes up with a luxurious feast for all of us to share. it allows him to use his creative side and dabble in small scale catering, the parents to feel budding pride at his amazing skills, and for the rest of us to eat really good food.

the evening was set with 8 of us in attendance, enjoying one another’s company from the get go…we are beyond lucky that the friendship between our parents is strong. there is no stereotypical ‘in-laws’ conflict, as their friendship began as long ago as wil’s & mine. i think their relationship definitely helped shaped ours, as our families joined together for events, vacationing, and home groups. how blessed are we?!

so to say the least, the night was relaxed and jovial as wil and i worked side by side in the kitchen.

but the food, you say? i may be partial to my husband’s cooking, but it was the perfect transition into fall cooking. glamorous, maybe a little, but also hearty, yet light (if that’s possible). and a number of the ingredients & wine happened to be locally sourced, which made the meal feel even more special and ‘oregon’.

- – -

[ first course ]

freshly made mozzarella with prosciutto and fried fennel with a tarragon vinaigrette drizzle

[ second course ]

radicchio & arugula greens tossed with pistachios, roasted butternut squash and a pistachio vinaigrette, atop a black pepper chevre cream

[ main course ]

roasted pheasant with apples and turnips, aside braised leeks

[ dessert ]

pear crumb bars with pumpkin ice cream and a creme fraiche whipped cream (i was enjoying dinner so much at this point, i stopped taking pictures, so i missed this)

- – -

while i do love to bake, i was wil’s sous chef for the night, and we just didn’t have time to make the dessert as well. his mom made it up and it was perfect! to see the rest of the pictures, visit the set here.

every time we visit home it gets a little bit harder to leave. there are a lot of appealing things about bend, but we also love portland so much! who knows what god has in store for us. either way, i know there will be many more dinners like these.

ok, i’ll admit it, fall is upon us. this past weekend seemed to kick it off with the husband watching [...]]]> it’s september 20th…the weather took an immediate turn from 90′s to 70′s and we’re starting to see the peaches fade and the pears and apples begin to shine.

ok, i’ll admit it, fall is upon us. this past weekend seemed to kick it off with the husband watching football, cold rainy weather outside the window, and cravings for hot chocolate and butternut squash (not together!). i’m still going to savor the last few days or weeks that we might have of warm dry weather, but i can tell, my mind is beginning to transition along with the season.

but i’m not ready to give up on some of the favorite summer harvests just quite yet!

in efforts to enjoy foods at their prime throughout the year, we went veggie picking. we intended to see what was left of corn, tomatoes, beans, and what was beginning of peppers. when we pulled up to the farm to see a closed sign we were forced to go to plan b. iphone out, and we were quickly researching any other upick farms in the area, since we were already about 25 minutes out of the city.

‘bushue’s family farm and garden’ was open and picking! some farms feel like a big expanse of land that is a smooth operation with employees and hours. this one truly felt like we just walked up to someone’s house, who was generous enough to let us step around in his garden. sid, a loveable dane/boxer/lab mix barked at our entry, but immediately became a fast friend. and when we strolled over to the small rows of veggies, we were astounded to see they were selling tomatoes of all varieties at only 50 cents a pound!

were we expecting to go crazy and pick 40 pounds of red, green and yellow tomatoes? no. but we did. our pacific northwest season was not great for tomatoes this year, and nearly over, so i bet the friendly farmer was eager to just see people pick anything before it decomposed back into the earth.

by the time we got home, the wheels started turning and we had a long list of what to make. we’ve canned a number of things before, but mostly pickles with high acidity, and for fear of not reaching the correct proportions, times and temperatures needed, we stuck to different methods to preserve these gorgeous fruits. 16lbs went straight into our biggest pot to give us about 7 quarts of tomato sauce, that we intend to store in our deep freezer through the upcoming fall and winter months. also on the docket was drying & packing in oil, ‘jam’ (more like ketchup), salsa, and throwing a few in a pot of chili. wil loves green tomatoes maybe just as much as red and a huge batch of piccalilli was on the top of his list. he also sliced a few to make sweet pickles, and of course we weren’t going to miss the opportunity to have some fried green tomatoes.

what’s your favorite thing to do with tomatoes? i’ve included a bunch of resources and recipes that we either love, did this weekend, or plan to do. and while everyone usually has their own tomato sauce recipe, ours came out pretty great, so we wanted to share.

tomato sauce
yields about 2 quarts

2 tablespoons butter
5 1/2 pounds red ripe tomatoes
1 large onion, diced 2 ribs celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
3-4 sprigs of thyme
1-2 sprigs oregano
1 bay leaf
teeny bit of red wine (1/8-1/4 cup, or a splash)
salt & pepper to taste

1. roughly chop all tomatoes and set aside.

2. toss onions, celery, carrots and garlic into pot with butter and sweat until tender, about 10 minutes. thyme, oregano and bay leaf and sweat for a few more minutes. add wine and simmer 2 minutes. add tomatoes and bring to a simmer. add some salt and a few turns of pepper.

3. stirring continuously, simmer the sauce for a few hours.  you may think the sauce will be done enough to blend after 30 minutes, but when you let it cook longer, you’ll find that the flavors meld together better and are more concentrated turning a decent sauce into a magical sauce. trust me on this.

4. after the magic happens, puree the sauce with your immersion blender or in a food processor or blender. don’t be afraid to add some more salt, it takes a bunch to balance out the sweet acidity of those fresh tomatoes!

ways to enjoy an abundance of tomatoes

canning & freezing according to the nat’l center of home food preservation
heirloom tomato tart
tomato jam
slow roasted BLT
usually anything she does is a favorite
drizzled with herb pestos and salsas on a plate with a nice glass of wine! salud!

but i enjoyed our trip so much i wanted to share it with you.

let’s just start off by saying this [...]]]> warning: this post is VERY picture heavy! i told myself i wanted to take lots of pictures while we were there, and i did not let myself down!

but i enjoyed our trip so much i wanted to share it with you.

let’s just start off by saying this did not begin on the right foot. sunday afternoon rolled around, and wil got home around 4. i had everything packed, ready to leave within the next half hour, but it was just a matter of wil hooking the trailer up, getting the big things loaded, etc. as he prepared to hook the bikes up, he asked me to take a look at the park online to see if they list bike trails.

ok honey! well when i went to go look up the park, the map automatically came up and showed NO spots available. now, we knew we were risking it by choosing to not make a reservation, but we thought we’d rather take a chance so that we can see the spot before choosing it versus blindly reserving something online. we thought, it’s a sunday-tuesday, most of the weekend crowd should be gone! within a matter of minutes wil was calling parks all over the coast, still within our driving range, hearing ‘no vacancy’ over and over. boo hoo. we just weren’t willing to give up…the trailer was packed and ready! we didn’t want to settle for a campground near us either…we wanted the beach.

it’s only about an hour and a half to the water at minimum, so our plan transitioned into taking another risk, leaving in the morning on the chance that people will have left and worst case we spend the day there and come back. we lucked out beyond measure…the first campground we tried was the one we wanted to go to all along and sure enough they had more than one spot available- we got to pick just like we had initially wanted to!

once there it was the perfect camping trip. the weather was the usual coastal cloudiness with breaks of sun, but that didn’t matter as we snacked on peanuts, built fires, watched the dogs see the ocean for the first time and go on walks around the loops to check out everyone else’s ‘rigs’.

look mom, the beach!!!!

it was pretty hilarious watching them run in the soft sand. well, it would probably be hilarious to watch me too…i was huffing and puffing in no time around the dunes.

they weren’t afraid of the water, but gracie definitely preferred to avoid the waves… and instead stick her nose in the sand and then immediately sneeze.

jungle dog loved watching from the grass on the edge of our campsite. (gracie was probably next to me right now, making a dopey face. ava’s a bit more photogenic…)

i enjoy smoking a cigar here and there, but this time around, wil taught me the art of packing and smoking a pipe. so i gave it a try, with a bit of wine.

at one point a deer randomly decided to waltz into our campsite! that’s the dog’s rope and bed in the foreground, maybe about 10 feet away. the girls happened to be relaxing in the back of the car at the time, and gracie was just trembling with excitement! that was one courageous deer. we came upon it again on an evening walk and wil got pretty close to it.

evening walk to the beach, just the two of us, marveling at god’s creation and the interesting things that take place on this lovely coast.

tuesday night we planned on going into the little nearby town for some fish and chips. smelled some dill (above), stepped into some shops, and bought some salt water taffy.

ava wanted to get nice and close to the fire…

where’s your favorite place to camp?

one of my favorite summer days so far!

wordless wed & welcome wed