Booze Bazaar

House Spirits opened their distilling doors on Saturday between 12-5. It was quite packed when we arrived to sample the libations. House Spirits is the brainchild of Lee Medoff and Christian Krogstad. Their focus is on whiskey but their cash cow has been the Medoyeff vodka and Aviation Gin. Their newest addition is the Aquavit. We had Christian mix us up a couple of drinks as we sampled the choclate and ports around the distillery. Watching the two owners hobnob and drink was great fun....I am here to say - these boys can drink. They were recently written up in GQ and they are always in the papers around town. Read this WW article to learn more.

Pictures speak a thousand words....

this one screams - YUM!

Sock Puppet Party

The cow received an invitation to a holiday party being hosted by a client he met through work. The company does Public Relations for companies like Kettle Chips and Gold Toe Socks. I just want to say ...these people know how to plan a party. They had a great three piece band, a full bar (free) and great food.

We picked up a glass of Evolution wine to start and made our way around the room. The sock puppet wall was beginning to fill up. The invitation was sent in a tube with all of the ingredients to create a sock puppet for the competition. The cow created Henrietta which for some reason he kept referring to her as a fish. As you can see from the really bad picture, there are several people a bit more creative than the cow. By the time we finished our first glass of wine we realized we had to choose between wine and pear brandy cocktails. I think both of us chose I nice glass of Pinot Noir. We found the room where the Kettle Chip tasting was in full swing. There were five flavors and voting cards. All of the flavors were from the new campaign so we felt we were adding our input. The five flavors were: Aztec Chocolate, Chili-lime, Island Jerk, Indian Curry and Five-Spice. When I first sat down I wanted to like the Aztec chocolate the best. It was a tie between the Indian curry and the Island jerk. We finished our wine, listened to the music and chatted with people who were waiting for the Tarot card reader. We skipped on over to Oaks Bottom pub and had a Hot Damn burger to top off a midweek extravaganza.

Bakery in the middle of nowhere

As I mentioned in my last update, while visiting the Beran winery we happen to sample some interesting bread from a local artisan german bread maker. The wine pourer told us to head down to the bakery and purchase some of the various offerings.
We actually thought we were in the wrong location when we pulled into the driveway. There was a house in front and what appeared to be a barn in the back. We found the small sign pointing to the entrance on the side of the building (see above for pictures). Once inside we realized this was a serious venture; large ovens, huge flour containers and the smell of artisan bread. My sister purchased several different varieties for the low price of $7.00 and the cow and I sampled many.

Sun and wine

A day in the sun enjoying the product of the vine. The Portland Metro area has accumulated over 11" of rain for the month of November. So, you can understand when I say how WoNdErFuL it was to have sunshine the day of wine tasting. My sister and her husband, joined the cow and I exploring new wineries that are generally not open to the public. We started at Cooper Mountain which is a biodynamic producer. Ponzi was second, they had a really good red table wine - Tavola. We ventured down the road a bit and found Beran Vineyard. This is a very small producer, but I thought they had created the BEST Pinot Noir we had all day. This winery was also featuring a local bakeries products-Fressen Artisan Bakery (I am dedicating an entire blog to this so stay tuned). Many of the breads were very good but a couple just plain strange tasting. We then found Freja Cellars. Very nice Pinot Noir - both estate and limited bottling. We purchased a couple of bottles here. I don't have much to say about Oak Knoll winery other than they had a singer with a very powerful bose speaker. Our last stop was David Hill- the cats are the hill cats. This is my all-time favorite winery. We have been here multiple times and the wine keeps getting better and better.

What are you doing with those bricks?

One evening last week I was looking for the cow. He was outside with the garage door up staring at a pile of bricks. I asked, "what the hell are you doing?" He replied, "looking for bricks." I stood and stared and decided not to ask why. A couple of days later he had created a brick vase with what I thought were twigs, turned out to be wire, neatly deposited inside. Creative!

Thanksgiving dinner

The cow can cook a mean Paella! The cow and I drank a dark rose while preparing for guests. He made fresh bread while I prepped (washed) asparagus, green beans, mache and many other items. We nibbled on smoked mozzerlla, fromage fort, cashews and olives while the Paella simmered on the stove. My sister and her husband drove all the way from Sacramento for a taste of the seafood medley. We also had a couple of friends join the party. We all shared what we were thankful for during the past year. I, of course, am sincerely thankful to have such a fun, supportive person beside me on this journey called life. Thanks cow for another great memory.

While other were driving...

the cow and I met and shot a few rounds of pool. The weather and the traffic were frightful in and around PDX last night. We met at Touche and enjoyed a very empty bar, free pool and happy hour. We then wandered over to Olea to have a glass of wine and listen to a band (the band director from the school in which I work plays with said band). While chatting a server showed up with a plate of nibbles. We informed her that we had not ordered anything to eat. She wondered off confused. Our original server came back with the tasty morsels and said they were compliments of the chef from the band. Life is sweet!
The above picture are from our last stop. Masu! A well regarded sushi joint in an upstairs converted factory building. It was super quiet as we sat at the sushi bar chatting with the chefs. We enjoyed the SOUTHSIDE: yellowtail, jalapenos, asparagus and cucumbers rolled with tempura crisps and topped with avocado and black tobiko; The ST. HELEN'S VOLCANO: whitefish, crab, scallops, shrimp and avocado baked with our volcano cream sauce; AND SEARED SCALLOPS. The chefs were very active getting ready for their busy - post thanksgiving rush on Friday. They were hackin the hell out of some really large fish.

Glorious smell of bread

The cow made this glorious loaf! The house was filled with that glorious smell of bread. It tasted even better than it looks. I LOVE BREAD.

Bakery Bar

Out doing a bit of shopping and stopped by the Bakery Bar for a snack and a pick me up. I ordered the Brandy-carmel latte and it had a homemade marshmellow on top (i don't really care for marshmellows but it was very tasty - not too sweet). We also enjoyed a savory scone.

bettie ford anyone?

The cow sat me down and gave me a "lecture" about how I needed to clean up my act. He suggested I check into the local bettie ford clinic. I would invite anyone who believes they have an issue to join me at the PDX bettie ford center and we can get some real therapy for our drinking issues.

Pictures at an exposition

Sunday afternoon at the symphony. The cow and I attended Oregon symphony series called "Inside the Score" at the Schnitzer concert hall . The composition performed was, Pictures at an Exposition originally created in 1874 by Modest Mussorgsky for piano. Mussorgsky created the suite for piano after his artist friend Viktor Harman died suddenly at age 39. Mussorgsky had gone to an exposition of Harmans work and created the music as a homage to his friends paintings. The most famous part of the music is the promenade piece that is played as a transition to each of the pieces of art - like you are promenading through a gallery. Moving on to the next piece of art.

The conductor actually talked the audience through the history of Pictures at an exposition. Not about the Paintings but the "SCORE" that was created based on the original Piano suite. It was fabulous to have the conductor talk about the variations of the piece from Ravel's famous interpretation in 1922 to Leopold Stokowski in 1938 to Carl Simpson in 1997. The orchestra played an example from each conductor so the audience could hear the difference of creative interpretation. After the discussion was over, they played Ravel's piece in it entirety.

My favorite night

Pizza and movie nights are my favorite. The cow mentioned during the week that he thought we should have a P&M night. I had actually been looking forward to it all week. I sat with my wine glass in hand and watched and smelled the production of the pizza assembly line. The cow created two masterpieces last night. The first, at my request, a pesto, tomato and fresh mozzerlla. The second, carmelized onions and mushrooms - mouth watering. I sat in the kitchen as he kneaded the dough, sliced onions and made pesto. Once the pies were out of the oven we watched, The Fastest Indian - a movie KP would like due to the fact it is about an old man with a passion for motorcycles and speed.
I think at some point- els and the cow should get together for a pizza contest because I think the cow's pies are the best in the world! Challenge on?

Excuses, Excuses

I have been on hiatus for a week or two. Not that I haven't thought about blogging every single day and the cow keeps putting pressure on me saying, "haven't seen a new post in a while." I came up with a list of excuses why I haven't been bloggin' on a regular basis.
Here goes:

1. My camera took a nose dive. The lcd screen on my pocket size camera busted. Luckily, it was under warranty but I had to mail it to Illinois for repairs. Hopefully I will have it back by next week.
2. The cow and I have been super busy doing nothing. Last weekend went by so fast that the cow had to go in late on Monday because he was so tired from the weekend. We had a neighbor over for drinks on Friday night (very nice and engaging). Then on Saturday a co-worker from school and his wife came over for dinner. They moved to Oregon from South Dakota and let's just say that they did not appreciate the homemade hummus, pear salad and seared scallop atop risotto that was served.
3. The two of us took Thursday off to paint our bathrooms. We have had the paint for over two months. It was a constant thorn in my mind. We worked from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. Don't ask why because painting a bathroom is tedious. You have to take everything out of the shower, the cow had to dismantle toilets not to mention putting them back together. On a side note- he broke the tank on mine during reassembly. I can't tell you how but we found another tank lying around the house to be able to fix the problem by 9:00pm.
The colors are great - think Tiffany blue for my bathroom and Mustard for the cow's.
4. I feel like every weekend I am planning for the following week of school. I just spent a good two hours of my morning trying to figure out what those little buggers will be doing all week so they are not bugging ME!

MY LAST EXCUSE FOR NOT BLOGGING IS:
I have just been too drunk to log-on and tell you about the craziness.

Stay tuned for the funny things I've witnessed in the last week. Trailer= commuter flipping off a cop on the side of the road.

el serrach - kitchen color

This is for el s!

He asked if I could find the color of his kitchen in nature. I believe somewhere in this leaf is the beautiful green in your kitchen. Enjoy!

Nature is wonderful.

Fancy Red Shoes

The cow got a new pair of shoes. Bright RED Puma leather. He is so stylish!

Colors of PDX

Beautiful Saturday morning in Sellwood. The cow and I took a three-mile walk around the neighborhood and found inspiring colors within nature. The trees are brilliant right now. It makes me wonder why Americans don't copy nature in their housing colors. Many people love the color of the leaves but they would never paint their kitchen majenta.
Vivid reds, yellows, greens, blues - the color of nature.

Guest Commentary

Saturday evening at the EvanSmith household is yummy pizza goodness lately. This week we hit the farmers market near PSU and came home with fresh arugula (to make arugula pesto), beautiful mushrooms and lovely yellow tomatoes.
The evening was extremely relaxing. We were in absolutely no hurry - I was doing a bit of work for school and the cow was dancing around the kitchen to his favorite music of the moment.
As you can see from the pictures he spent some time in the kitchen preparing my feast. He starts the dough early in the day so it has time to rise. He then works on the toppings and rolls out the dough just before production time. this week we ended up with a Shitaki mushroom, carmelized onion and lovely cheese ensemble, as well as, a yellow tomato, fresh mozzarella and anchovy pizza. The argula pesto was for spreading on either but it was the best with the mushrooms.