First Day In Portland

I'm not sure yet how I want to do this. I want to blog about Portland but there is so much to
talk about. Maybe I'll break it up into a couple posts. Yay, for pictures!

For anyone wondering what it was like to see Tom for the first time in four months, it's hard to explain. Unless you've done the long distance thing. It was emotional, it was surreal, it was amazing. And then we went right back into

being... us. We set off into Portland on our rental bikes and spent some time trying to get to know

our new home.

Tom's flight didn't get in until around 8 30 pm on Sunday so we chilled in the hotel that night and

started exploring Monday morning. We got a couple cups of coffee and bagels at Tiny's and then went to pick up bikes to use for the next three days. Since we've been told everything is closer together in Portland than it is in Atlanta we figured bikes would be fine for riding around looking for "For Rent" signs. Lets just say we both worked off a good amount of the calories from the

beer and food we had this week. Portland is not... flat. But the weather was perfect and it felt

great to be exercising while getting to know the city.

The first day was a little disheartening. I live in Midtown in a neighborhood that is littered with "For Rent" signs. It is so easy to find a place to live in Atlanta, there are so many choices. But we found quickly that the neighborhoods we liked

were mostly inhabited by home owners. No renters. We went back to the hotel that night

with no leads. But at least we learned where

NOT to look for a place to live.

We went up and down the grid in Hawthorne, Mississippi, Laurelhurst, Northwest, and everywhere in between. Even though we didn't find any places to rent, I loved seeing all of the beautiful, unique homes, and beautiful gardens. People love to garden in Portland. There were sunflowers or roses in every other yard, we saw corn stalks in front yards, pumpkins and tomatoes. Amazing. We also ate some great food. We stopped at Prost! for a late lunch and a couple beers while we were in the Mississippi district. It was a really cool vibe, they only serve German beer! Which was delicious. We split their popular pretzel sandwich with potato salad.

For dinner that night we ate at Le Pigeon. One of the best meals I've had along with McCrady's and Husk in Charleston. And the other two dinners in Portland, haha. After discussing the menu with the server he recommended that we do a tasting and share several courses. Perfect. The first course was octopus, second quail, third rabbit, fourth sweetbreads, and sixth beef cheeks and pork (check out the website for the menu). We had a cheese plate for dessert. Every dish was

great. I wish I had taken pictures of every course, I would be able to remember all of the details better. But as you can see there are a lot of dishes I would have to describe anyways.

Point is, if you are ever in Portland, you need to eat here. It is a tiny spot, looked like it might seat forty people max. One big communal table that seats 12ish, a couple smaller tables, and the bar. The bar comes up to the kitchen, it's open so you can see the guys in their t-shirts and bandannas doing their thing.

After dinner we considered going out but crashed instead. We are getting boring. The experience at Le Pigeon was all we needed for the night, though. I'll try to post about the rest of the trip later!

A Really Long (and Interesting!) Post

(I know these posts look so long and boring without pictures, but starting Sunday I will have Tom's camera and I'll post a bunch of pictures to break up all my wordiness :) )

Every time I start a new post, I try to do the title first. I should know better. My posts are never really planned out in my head, so how am I supposed to know how to title it before I even get started? Silly. Anyways.

I mentioned that I want to start writing about what I cook with all these great things I'm getting at the farmers markets. So I'll start by just mentioning a few things I can remember. I'm no chef, and I usually don't give myself much time so nothing is very fancy. But it works for me. And if anyone actually reads this maybe it will help inspire you to start with the fresh and local ingredients and go from there instead of starting with a menu.

Beets! I never knew how much I loved them until recently. Working at La Tavola I knew they were normally roasted to produce the tastiest results. So I knew this meant putting them in the oven. That's about it. I asked Tom for some advice, he said to put them in a pan with some aromatics (carrots, onions, celery) and rub them with olive oil and salt. Made sense to me! I happened to have some leftover celery and carrots from a soup I made recently so I used those and put them in the oven for about 25 minutes on 350, basically until they felt right when I poked them with a fork. Then you need to remove the skins. Peeling them is a pain in the ass. Obviously I let them cool first. Then I really actually enjoy eating them plain, no seasoning. But I have been buying goat cheese at the market so I like that combo with some nuts if I have any. So easy and delicious! Aaaand, good for you!

Soup. Best thing if you have veggies you don't know what to do with, or you're worried are going to go bad. I usually check out my favorite food blog, www.smittenkitchen.com, because she has some amazing recipes, and she is witty and fun :). But recently I just improvised and used chicken stock and canned tomatoes as a base with a bunch of veggies. If you think it will work, it probably will. It is fun learning how to trust yourself!

I thought I didn't like eggplant but I've really enjoyed it lately. The lady who sells goat cheese at the markets recommended toast with the basil pesto goat cheese and eggplant. Perfect. I just sauteed the eggplant for a little bit. I also used this recipe to make babaganoush soup, which is AWESOME. If you have a gas range I definitely suggest using it to fire the peppers. It's tedious, but it really gives it a distinct flavor. Delicious. (I wish mine had the pretty yellow color hers does, mine ended up brownish.)

My go to with veggies is sauteing. Unfortunately, cooking fruits and vegetables kills a lot of the good enzymes and things that keep you healthy. So when it's something that tastes good raw, I try to do that. Watch Food Matters if you want to learn more about the food you eat and how it affects your health. It's very extreme, but a good guideline if you really want to stay healthy without loading up on vitamins and supplements.

I almost always have some sausage from the Spotted Trotter around, so that's fun to have with vegetables. Or eggs in the morning. My favorite breakfast the last couple weeks of tomato season were tomato and goat cheese omelets. Yum. I can't really execute an omelet very well, I pretty much just cook the eggs and then throw the stuff in the middle and fold it over. But it works. That's my second favorite way to eat tomatoes next to just eating them raw with salt and pepper. I miss them already.

Quinoa is great. A lot of protein. Good as a base with vegetables. I threw some sweet white corn, raw bell peppers, and green onions in with some quinoa the other day, and let it chill. Delicious and filling.

This post has started to bore me. From now on when I update I'll include what I've cooked lately so it's fresh in my mind. Right now I can't think of anything and it's starting to sound... simple.

Time for a beauty product update! I started adding castile soap when I wash my hair. That's exactly what it needed. I still start with baking soda, and then I add a little bit of the liquid castile to suds it up. I have a lot of hair so even though it is short the baking soda wasn't distributing through very well. The couple of times I tried to blow dry it it looked greasy. I used the blow dryer and flat iron last night for Wicked (amazing!) and it looked great! It didn't look dry, and it didn't look greasy, just perfectly healthy! I want to dye it darker so bad, but I keep putting it off because I don't want to put the chemicals in my hair. For now I'll leave it but I don't know if I'll last.

Also, I made some toothpaste! Not the recipe I wanted to use that had baking soda, chalk, vegetable glycerin, stevia, and peppermint oil. I couldn't find chalk anywhere! So I just used baking soda, peppermint oil, and stevia. It works great, and doesn't taste bad! I would still like to make that first recipe so it is a paste instead of powder. But it works for now.

My face. That has been the biggest adjustment since I started making my own products. The first soap I made was alright. The ratio of soap to infusion was off, it didn't suds enough for me. I'm so used to soap that makes a lot of bubbles, so that threw me off. When I ran out of it I started using the bar castile soap. That suds a lot so I felt like my face was cleaner. Before I say this, I'm not implying that castile soap doesn't kill any bacteria. But my face has been breaking out, BAD. And I know it isn't because of my diet or stress. My diet has been better and my stress is the same. So it has to be the soap. After a couple weeks of bad breakouts (I'm such a procrastinator) I finally decided to change something. Make Your Place has some recipes for facial toners specifically for acne that I've been meaning to make. But I need some grape seed or jojoba oil. Finally I didn't want to wait anymore, I don't want the first time Tom sees me for him to see a pizza face! So I Googled essential oils for acne to see if I could just use what I have. Tea tree is supposed to be one of the best essential oils for acne because of it's anti-bacterial qualities. But most websites say not to apply it directly to your skin because it's too harsh. I was back to needing a carrier oil (like grape seed or jojoba). Then I remembered my Thayer's Witch Hazel toner. Why not use that as a base? So I put some of the toner on a cotton ball and then added two drops of lavender and two-ish drops of tea tree. I meant to only use one drop of tea tree because it's strong, but I think three came out! Oops. It burned! I had to use a fresh cotton ball with only the toner to help calm it down, my eyes were watering so bad! Point is, be careful with tea tree. So the past few nights I've been using one drop tea tree with two drops lavender with the toner and my face is clearing up already! Yay, essential oils :)

Okay, I'm done. The next post will probably be about my vacation with Tom this week, woo!

The Highlight Of My Week

I caved. Only once though. I'm ashamed of myself BUT the jambalaya I got at Fontaine's was DELICIOUS. I barely spent any money outside of the farmers market and bills this week, so I still consider it a successful week.







Unfortunately I am working brunch tomorrow so I can't make it to the Grant Park Farmers Market. I might go before my shift to see if anyone has tomatoes though, last time I went before they were officially open most vendors were setting up and fine with selling to me. So this morning I went to the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. I hadn't been in a few weeks, it was nice but I definitely missed Grant Park. The vibe there is better. I got red potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, bok choy (woo!), arugula, bell peppers, yogurt, rosso sausages, applewood smoked bacon, turkey chili, goat cheese, garlic, candied almonds, and acai coconut energy bites!

Pure Bliss Organics is one of my favorite vendors, I'm obsessed with their acai coconut bites, so good! I grabbed a bag first thing I got there, and the lady (I didn't get her name :( ) asked if I would mind answering a couple questions and having my picture taken for some free product. Of course I said yes! It's $6 a bag for most of their products so I was all about it. They got my name and asked why I liked the product and then took a picture of Roxy and I. I picked the candied almonds as my gift :)

I also got to chat with Megan of Spotted Trotter Charcuterie, she and Kevin are one of my absolute favorite inspiring couples! Check out their website and read the "about me", such a cool story. Kevin has worked for some great chefs and found that charcuterie is his passion and decided to start his own business! His wife Megan is an attorney full time but also helps Kevin with Spotted Trotter. I'm so impressed with her, what a great woman to have by your side! I told her I work at La Tavola and I would love if they could come in for a date night. I'm sure they need it and I would love to take care of them, hopefully they can make it in soon! Oh, and Kevin's sausages are AMAZING. I get something new every week, and I'm always impressed. It is amazing how much better food tastes without preservatives.

I have always wanted to be a regular at a restaurant/bar, as someone in the industry I love that relationship between the server and the guests, but obviously I'm on the other side of it so it is hard to frequent another restaurant. This is so much better! Instead of blowing money on beer and food at a bar, I'm buying fresh, local products at the farmers market every weekend and building relationships with the vendors. Even if you don't make it to the markets, always try to support your local businesses, these are all wonderful people who are very passionate about their products and relationships with their customers.

King of Pops is a good example of one of my favorite local businesses as well. Why get ice cream from a chain when you can get a delicious, refreshing pop made with seasonal fruit! Their story is great, leaving the corporate world to sell handmade pops around the city. They have gotten so huge this past year, I hope they continue to stay true to themselves and don't compromise quality.

This post has turned into an ad for local businesses and markets, ha. I didn't mean to, I'm just so passionate about all of this, the markets have become the highlight of my week! I love telling complete strangers about my move to Portland, stopping to let children pet Roxy, hearing the success stories and hardships from the farmers. I could go on and on :) Point is, you don't know what you're missing out on...

When Tom gets back with his camera these posts wont look so... wordy. I need pictures to break these posts up, but I don't have a camera, and I hate posting pictures from my phone. I will post later about what I've been cooking this week with my produce, I could keep writing but this is already way too long!

No Eating Out

I need to save some money. October 16 is only six weeks away, and so far I don't have anything saved. The main reason for that is my car, the money I have in my account right now will be used for new tires and if Tom can't figure it out, getting my O2 sensors replaced. Bleh. Stupid car.

Anyways. I've been racking my brain for ways to make some more money on the side, and so far I haven't made much progress. I can't pick up extra shifts at work because they are already scheduling me full time and I'm not allowed to work overtime. The catering company isn't busy enough right now to need any extra help. So I thought maybe I could clean houses for a couple weeks. But I don't even know how to get started on something like that. I jumped on to Craigslist to see if there was anything that looked appealing. I actually found something that might work out. Research groups. I signed up for two of them and I am waiting to here back. One session averages from $125-$300 so if I could get a couple of those in that would definitely be something. We shall see.

So it's looking like odd jobs aren't going to help too much, so I need to be EXTREMELY careful about what I am spending. I don't spend much already, I never go clothes shopping or anything like that. But I do eat out here and there and buy little things that aren't necessary. So this means my plan for this week is to eat what I got at the Farmers Market today. No going out. No shift meal at work. I can do this. I bought eggs, bread, sausages, goat cheese, beets, eggplant, onions, corn, field peas, tomatoes, potatoes, and yogurt today. I have some rice, quinoa, and other random stuff in the pantry too. So, that should be plenty for meals all week! Plus I'll allow myself to eat family meal a couple times this week. I need to start watching how much pasta I eat though, it's not helping me lose weight.

So, I spent $70 at the Farmers Market today. That's about normal. But it's also normal for me to spend around another $50 on average eating out on top of that. And I will be honest, this means some produce goes bad sometimes. I'm not going to let that happen this week. When Tom gets back we will treat ourselves to eating out a few times, so until then I can't eat out at all. This is going to be tough for me. I love random Chipotle days, buying food at La Tavola after a shift, etc. It will be fun, though. Part of what I've loved about shopping at Farmers Markets is being forced to get creative with food. Not using a recipe to go shopping. I get what is in season, and then figure out what to do with it. I think Tom will be surprised at how I've gotten more comfortable in the kitchen :) I used to let him do most of the cooking.

Today for work I'm going to use a bag of mixed greens to make a salad with some tomatoes, walnuts, and goat cheese. Some boiled eggs on the side for protein. (I love boiled eggs, but not so much on my salad.) Oh and some apple too, perfect! On that note, I need to go get ready for work! Wish me luck this week, I'll hate myself if I cave!