Wow, who knew I would have such fun on our road trip and after enjoying Boise we were so excited to get to Portland. We had driven a long way that day along the Columbia River Gorge, Billy and I have never been to this part of the country and it was beautiful. It was rainy and windy but when we hit the gorge the sun came out and we couldn’t have been happier to experience the water and all the windmills with a little sunshine along this truly scenic drive into Portland.

Well we’ve arrived in Portland and I am so happy to get out of the car. We stayed at Hotel Monaco which was located in the heart of downtown, which I thought was perfect because the best way to see a new city is by walking it. So we parked the Prius and headed out. It’s Friday night and we are starving but first we wanted to walk around to get the lay of the land. There was this huge plaza where all these people were sitting in lawn chairs and eating picnic food they had brought with them. Come to find out this outdoor plaza was showing an outdoor movie on a big screen, which is apparently a weekly gig on Friday nights in the summer, pretty cool. What a great way to spent a evening down town there was so much energy.

Dinner: The staff at our hotel was so helpful and one of the places they recommended was Pazzo, Italian food, perfect. I have to say the whole meal was awesome but my starters were the best thing I think I ate in Portland. It was a plate of local heirloom tomatoes and garlic sauted spinach. The great thing about Portland is that all the restaurant’s are doing the locally grown organic thing, awesome! Oh a slight mention to the homemade hazelnut carmel gelato we had for dessert. This and my starters were the highlight of this meal, so good we went back the next night for a repeat of those two dishes, even after we had already had dinner at another location.

The next morning we headed to the Farmers Market, I mean come on I have to check out other cities markets right? Prior to the market we went to breakfast at local favorite called Mother’s, this place came highly recommended and it didn’t disappoint, we split some warm wholesome oatmeal and a lox and bagel plate. My favorite part of this meal however was the mint tea, it came in a tea pot that had fresh mint leaves along with a peppermint tea bag, it was just so warm and comforting that I’m making it at home now all the time. (lucky for me I can get fresh mint at the farmer’s market) Now, on to the Market. The Portland Farmer’s Market on Saturday’s is held on the Portland University campus. It was shaded by all the wonderful trees and the smells and sounds are familiar to any farmer’s market, but it was fun to see how they do some things differently from ours here in Salt Lake. They only sell food, meaning they didn’t have of the arts and jewelry booths like they do here at our market, and oh did I mention, they had one thing we don’t have here, wine booths! Hello, AWESOME, I bought two bottles from an local area winery to take up to the coast with us. I also grabbed some tomatoes, artichokes, basil and green beans in order to stock up for the next leg of the trip. The other note worthy thing we did that day was we went to a charity jean sale. I know WHAT? There’s an organization called Denim for Charity, and they sell designer jeans at the fraction of the cost for charity. Ofcourse I had to help and do my part, I got a great pair of jeans and was happy to get a great deal. Denim for Charity is actually based here in Utah.

The rest of the day we spent in the Pearl District, it’s a fun and hip area of downtown with lots of great shops, awesome restaurants, design studios, etc. etc, all in a previosly industrial area that’s been revitalized into a trendy upscale part of tow. There are a ton of really nicely done condo developments and great outdoor green spaces, including a natural wet lands park right off of the river front walk, just a really energized part of town that we loved spending the day in.
After walking and exploring all day we were starving so we ate at a place called Henry’s Tavern, I had the best veggie burger of my life there. We sat, relaxed, had a few drinks and just soaked up the city night life, what a great town.

Thanx Portland you were awesome, see you next time.

Up next Manzanita.

The first order of business for me when we go on a trip is the food, ofcourse. Well I guess we have to find places to stay first and then find the best food in those areas. I’ll do a trip breakdown and then highlight each of the places we visited.

That’s right I’m 30, 30. When my husband asked me how I felt about turning 30, I said” well I earned everyone of my twenties so bring on the 30’s.” Since my husbands birthday is two weeks before mine and my mother and father in laws is a week before that were usually partied out by the time it gets to my birthday. Well not this year we wanted to do something fun to welcome age 30 in right, so we took a road trip to the Oregon Coast. I have to say I’m not much of a road tripper but this has to be one of the best trips I’ve been on. I know Billy felt the same way. So sit back relax and take a little drive to the coast, food, charities, free hugs and all! Don’t forget the rain!

Dear Katie Tamony:

I want to start off by saying how much I love my Sunset magazine, it was given to me as a gift a few years ago and I have kept my subscription renewed ever since. Countless travel, food, and gardening ideas have been inspired by your magazine. Thank you and I look forward to each issue.

In the September issue I enjoyed reading the article “Broccoli By the Sea,” about Darryl Wong’s business “Freewheeling Farms,” a farm that delivers their food by bicycle and also operates a CSA group. The thing that prompted me to write in was to respond to Darrly’s question “how can we get this food into Schools? Into Hospitals?”

I am currently enrolled in a Hollistic Nutrition School and the issue of getting healthy, fresh, food onto the plates of children and hospital patients is very important to me as well. A couple of ideas came to mind as potential avenues to look into.

First, a friend of mine here in Salt Lake City, Utah is hosting a public pot luck picnic in association with “Slow Food Utah” to raise awareness for congress to pass a better child nutrition act that brings real food to schools. For more information go to schools.slowfoodusa.org/timeforlunch. I think this is something we can all get behind and support, children need to have proper nutrition in order to allow their bodies and brains to develop and give them the energy that they need to get through the school day.

Second, I recently read an article in the August issue of Vegetarian News, which referenced a group in the San Francisco area called “Physicians for Social Responsibility” who work with local hospitals to put forward menus that promote “healthy, environmentally conscious diets with less meat and more fresh veggies.”

I am excited to see that organizations like these are getting behind the need for real food in our schools and hospitals. Hopefully Darryl could find similar organizations in his area that could help him promote the message and help him push the envelope of his farm.

Brooke

Salt Lake City, Utah

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting in bed blogging. I should tell you I’m sitting in bed so I can enjoy our new bedroom that my husband and I spent all last weekend working on. New paint, flooring and furniture. We are still waiting on the bed frame so our bed is on the floor right now which I don’t mind, surprisingly! (remember I’m a control freak about many things my space being one of them!). Acceptance is the first step right?! Anyways on to the disclaimer, this month has had new challenges for me, a new location for my job and starting holistic nutrition school. So when my life gets too overwhelming I try to simplify, I need balance or I’m not my best. My blog is one thing that falls off the list of ‘to do’s‘. Sad for you and more sad for me, I deal with guilt issues when I’m not able to do it all. I’m sure at times we all feel this way but just know that my blog means a lot to me and it means a lot that you are interested and making the recipes I share. This blog is about food and life and how the two can intersect in a healthy chic way that is responsible to those around us and most importantly ourselves. All I can really say is that I’m still making amazing things and sharing culinary delights with those around me, but in order to have order in my head I haven’t had extra time to blog. I’ll share a list of what’s been happening in my kitchen and I’ll make a good effort to follow up with the recipes. If not we’ll move on and let go of the ‘to do’s!

P.S. I have some new pictures of the market, ENJOY!

-What’s been Happening-
1. Grilled Pizza: We did a pizza on the grill for my mom’s birthday, it was awesome the sweet roasted veggies and the crispy smokey crust were a huge hit. If you have not tried a pizza on the grill, HURRY summers almost over!

2. Peanut Putter Chocolate Cake: This was also for my mom’s birthday, as if the pizza wasn’t enough we finished the meal with a huge piece of this cake and loved every minute of it. (I found this recipe in Sunset Magazine)

3. Gazpacho: Surprising to me some people have never heard or tasted this wonderful cold summer vegetable soup. WHAT? Easy, delicious, healthy, light and refreshing, this has been our lunch for the past two weeks.

4. Wild Mushroom Ravioli: This is like summer in your mouth! Buy your favorite homemade ravioli, cook according to directions and set aside. Mix up 3 T. balsamic vinegar, 2 T. olive oil in a bowl add fresh lemon, sweet or regular basil, cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, toss with the ravioli and serve. Amazing flavor it’s light and can be made in bigger portions for friends and family gatherings. (don’t forget to add salt and pepper to taste) My husband thinks this dish tastes gourmet. Thanx sweetie!

5. Fresh Garden Saute: I took tomatoes, baby yellow squash, and tri colored green beans and whipped then into a saute with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Topped it with local beehive aggiano cheese. How lucky to have such fresh, flavorful food right out my back door.

It starting to really heat up in the city of salt and it’s got me thinking about what we’re all eating. In yoga this week my teacher (Scott) is having us do a practice that is cooling to our bodies instead of the crazy sweaty routine we usually do, (which I’m kind of thank full for, but don’t tell him!). The point of this is to not over heat on the inside when it scorching on the outside. There’s a reason we crave soup in the winter and salads in the summer. Our bodies are telling us what they need temperature wise. I know for me I crave spicy food all the time, I love spicy food but in the summer it makes me feel sick because I’ve raised the internal temp too much do to the temp outside. Why do you think cold watermelon tastes so fresh, and COOLING in the summer?, Well for one thing it’s high in water so it does cool us down as well as refresh us. If we can all start to think about food in the way of what our bodies need do to what season we are in, it will save us some money in the pocket book as well as feeding our bodies what it needs at that time. In addition when we eat what is in season we are getting the most out of those fruits and veggies on a nutritional level. So what’s great about the Farmer’s Market is that the guess work of knowing what is in season is done for you. I will kind of have an idea of what I want to make for the week before I go to the market, but there are plenty of times I will make something based off what I find that week. For the money saving part when you buy fruits and veggies out off season you are paying for the travel it took to get to you, also food shipped into the country from another country has to go through it’s own type of food quarantine. So the longer it takes to get to you that is precious time to produce, as soon as it is cut from it’s source it starts to loose it’s vital nutrients. So again the farmers market offerings are as fresh, local and delicious as you can get! On a little side note it forces me to try new things our bodies want and NEED a variety of fresh organic colorful food, so I encourage you to try something you’ve never tried who knows you might find something awesome.  This happened to me this week, I was buying some mushrooms and the guy selling them had some ‘sea greens’ I had seen them the week before and was to shy to ask about them (I know me shy?, there’s an oxymoron!) so this week I asked he let me try and I bought some and used them in the veggie stir fry I made for lunches this week. There crunchy and slightly salty like the sea!  So go on eat something COOL and buy it from a HOT farmer. 🙂

I can’t believe what a slacker I am! I have the best intentions of keeping my blog updated, but you know life happens. I have been cooking up healthy comforting fresh food just no time to write about it. So last weekend was the 4 of July holiday and we started our day at the farmers market (of coarse) and it was really mellow this weekend which I enjoyed, I’m not big on crowds. I think a lot of people were out of town. This week I went with a list because I get side tracked easily and I wanted to make sure I got what I was after. I got some beautiful baby shitake mushrooms, some balsamic vinegar, goat cheese, green beans, fresh garlic, Oh an this cashew cream from the Sunbridge growers. Holy crap I could eat that stuff with a spoon, it’s made from cashews (obviously)! and who knows what else, it was great over berries and they also have homemade sprouted crackers that made a great spoon for shoveling that yummy goodness in my mouth! Even though I sometimes dislike getting up early to beat the crowds when I come home with all those goodies it’s well worth it. Also I was asked to clarify something, in a previous blog I said ‘ if your anything like my husband you’ll run to you local farmers market’. My sweet husband actually runs from our house to the market which is about 10 miles, and every week Little Polly (my grandma) things he’s crazy and should get his head examined. So here’s some new pictures of this week finds. Enjoy

I LOVE FARMER’S MARKET! Did I mention that I love farmers market. It’s the best reason to get up early on a Saturday morning, I’ve always loved getting up early but now that I’m married I really like staying in bed and snuggling with my sweetie. But fresh veggies are winning the battle between snuggling and rubbing elbows with our community. We’re sure to run into our friends and neighbors and even maybe my 81 yr. old grandma, Little Polly. This is of course when she feels like dealing with all the people and her favorite, the dogs! No one messes with Polly and when my friend the Soap Lady sees her coming, gives her a free slice of her homemade soap. The smell of fresh flowers and savory barbecue are in the air and anything you can imagine your sure to find. I’m sure it’s not any different than any other market, but it’s ours. I have alot of the same vendors that I like to visit every week but I’m branching out. My husband says I look for the ‘most scraggly‘ farmers I can find this somehow ensures they really are the ones doing the farming. Our market also lets the prison come and sell the crops from their garden, kind of cool. The mornings are fresh and the air is crisp and I couldn’t imagine spending those EARLY Saturday mornings anywhere else. We bought everything from tee shirts, earrings, a bird house for my father in law, homemade pesto, artisan cheeses and lots of veggies. I hope you grab some coffee and if your like my husband you’ll run to your local farmer’s market.

Happy Dad Day, I thought I would dedicate this blog to my father in law Mr. Bill. I also call him Big Bill due to the fact that I’m married to Little Bill. My father in law is a tall man with big features, big hands, big feet and a big heart. The first time I saw my husband and my father in law hug ,it was one of the sweetest exchanges between two men that I had ever seen. He’s the kind of dad that let’s us borrow his truck anytime, he’s the kind of dad that helped us pull thousands of staples out of the floor in our new house. He’s the kind of dad who talks about his children as though they are still 4 and 6 when they lived in Europe for a year. He tells this story about how the Italians just loved my husband and my sister in law because of their blonde hair and rosy cheeks, and they would say “bellisimo“! He’s the kind of of dad who got choked up during the speech he gave at our wedding reception, and most of all he’s the kind of dad who has been married to my husband’s mother for 40YEARS. He is a very sweet man and I am so glad that Little Bill had him for a dad. Thank you for your love, thank you for your knowledge and thank you for you. We had a wonderful day up at Snowbird and you looked very daper, did I mention that Mr. Bill smokes a pipe and wears an Indiana Jones like hat. AWESOME!