july 13, 2013 dinner

grilled chicken & veggies on my dad's deck after a fun, sunny day at blake island.

june 9, 2013 dinner

belated dinner celebration for my dad's 60th: lamb/beef meatballs over cauliflower rice (dusted with chopped pistachios), alongside a crisp spring salad of lettuce, radishes, and avocado. no complaints here!

may 25, 2013 newt!

my friend alex picked up this fellow on the trail. good thing he's wearing gloves, as rough-skinned newts (taricha granulosa) harbor a neurotoxin (tetrododoxin), which is the same bad stuff found in fugu!

may 19, 2013 breakfast prep

eggs from three sisters, artichoke hearts, basil, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted asparagus, bacon - these are a few of my favorite things, and they're going into this week's frittata!

prior to going into the frittata, bacon needs to be fried, and asparagus needs to be tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted in the oven. sunday nights are busy but fragrant around here!

may 18, 2013 dinner

we picked up a few cuts of meat from three sisters farm on whidbey island last weekend, and decided to try the tri-tips with mel's insanely delicious moroccan dipping sauce, as well as brussels wrapped in foil in the campfire. the perfect meal!

may 10, 2013 dinner

the first camping trip of the season calls for grilled salmon! we live in a tiny apartment with no room for a grill, so camping brings out a whole new side of food for us. accompanied by brussel sprouts seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrapped in foil, and allowed to ponder life's deeper meaning in the campfire coals for a good half hour or so.

april 15, 2013 breakfast

after an extended hiatus, i am back for another season of crow-eatin’! i feel a bit like a disoriented bear emerging from hibernation, so bear with me (wow, so not intentional) as I claw my way back into regular bear form (ok, that one was totally intentional). i’ll start the ball rolling with a simple monday morning breakfast of eggs and bacon. i’ve got a fresh egg hookup from a coworker who lives on a farm (love those bright yolks!), and the bacon is a new type i’ve been digging on lately: beeler’s. it’s thick and chewy and has a good salty/smoky balance. and even though it didn’t make it into the shot, rest assured I am still keeping cholula in business. 

september 22, 2012 swift-watching

my favorite thing to do in portland in september is to pack a picnic dinner and some wine, and head to chapman elementary to watch the bedtime ritual of migrating vaux's swifts. hundreds of people line every available piece of lawn on the school grounds, and thousands of swifts don't disappoint, putting on an unbelievable aerial display as they prepare to dive into the chimney for the night. the crowd boos the occasional peregrine falcon or cooper's hawk, and cheers as the swirling vortex of tiny cigar-shaped birds starts its dramatic plunge, funneling into the chimney. from late august until mid-september, the swifts make this their resting place before continuing their migration south. (the school kindly does not turn on the furnace during this time.) i lived within walking distance for a few years, and would head over every late summer evening. the swifts don't seem to mind the audience - it is a very convivial scene as groups of friends chat on picnic blankets, kids slide down the hill on cardboard boxes, and soccer games go on below.

september 15, 2012 fort flagler

camping late in the season is so pleasant. mid-september is still tank top weather (at least for me), and the campground was less than half full. did some geocaching, hit up the port townsend farmer's market, and hiked all over.

sep 1, 2012 sunset

camping with craig, brent and matt at san juan county park on the west side of san juan island. the campground looks out over haro strait, where earlier in the day, the four of us and my dad and darcy went kayaking. just like last year, orcas passed by within an hour after we returned to shore. such an idyllic place..

august 6, 2012 dinner

 clockwise from top: takoyaki (filled with wheat and soy and sugar, oh my/oh well), saba shioyaki (salt-grilled mackerel, one of my comfort foods!) and renkon (lotus root) cooked in butter. what's the occasion? an old friend i hadn't seen in over ten years is in town. she's from chicago, and i'm from seattle, but we became friends when we both lived in japan, i in hiroshima, her in kure, about 15 miles away. (coincidentally, today is the 67th anniversary of the bombing of hiroshima.) a group of us met up at maekawa bar in the international district and ordered a bunch of small plates to share.

this was so obscenely delicious it made me want to dance down the street. it's like okonomiyaki without the batter and noodles and cabbage, just pork wrapped up in an omelet, drizzled with the same tangy, sweet sauce and mayo.

some gyutan (grilled beef tongue) was also consumed, which i quite enjoyed. it was sliced really thinly, and flavored sparely with salt and pepper. i did not get a good photo of it, probably because i ate it too fast. all in all, it was great catching up while enjoying some izakaya treats.



time out!

i haven't been the most timely or thorough about updates lately, and i think it's because i've bitten off a bit more than i can chew. timewise, it's been demanding and i'm starting to get woefully behind on posts. so from here on out, i'm not going to document every single meal. to be honest, i am boring myself silly with shots of the same breakfast four days in a row. it's started to feel like a chore - taking a photo of each work lunch, then getting a week or two behind, then uploading a bunch of meals all at once and hustling to get through it all. so here's the new, reasonable plan: i'm going to include only one of each repeating meal, and even skip documenting some meals. (i forgot to bring my camera to sushi last week, for example, but i'm not going to fret about it!) while my posts may be more infrequent, i hope that they will have more substance overall. i'll post more of things like step-by-step recipes, special occasion meals, eating out at restaurants, and camping meals.

ahhh, feels good to loosen the blog shackles a bit. thanks for reading!

august 5, 2012 breakfast

breakfast as we tear down camp is a scramble of everything we have left: eggs, ham, mushrooms, zucchini, onions and avocado.

we do a short hike from sunrise, getting a taste of the other side of the mountain..

the view from the ridge is breathtaking, but swarms of mosquitos are mobilizing, so we keep marching.

this clark's nutcracker is keeping pace with us along the trail.

august 4, 2012 dinner

after breakfast, we drove up to paradise. the weather was absolutely perfect, not a cloud anywhere. the beginning trudge uphill up to panorama point is a superhighway of a trail, but the further you hike, the more it thins out. a lot of people turn around about halfway. we pushed on, although part of it went through snow on an incline - kinda sketchy without poles!

you could see for miles. that is mt. st. helens peeking over the horizon in the distance.

the wildflowers were everywhere. here are some magenta paintbrush.

marmots were moseying about. this one seemed to relish the contrast of the sun on his back and the snow under his belly.

naturally, godzilla was our amiable hiking companion. although his boastful posing on the way back held up our party a bit.

following a not very picturesque lunch of leftover sausage, eggplant and zucchini, we decided to tackle the silver falls trail, which leaves directly from the campground. this waterfall, on the ohanapecosh, is definitely worth the hike!

the trail winds through some mossy forest, strewn with massive boulders. part of it passed through old growth forest (the trail links to both the grove of the patriarchs trail and the pacific coast trail).

we'd passed some hot springs upstream of here, but didn't linger, as the day was sweltering enough. returning to the campground, we saw that some folks had the right idea!

i dunked myself in the river a couple of times, but it was freezing! we'd hiked about ten miles that day through temperatures in the 80's, so it felt good to get some of the grime off, though. anyways, on to the campfire pig greens. ridiculously easy. cut a cabbage into eighths, wrap each with a piece of thick bacon, dab butter here and there, and salt and pepper the whole thing. wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil (more than one layer strongly recommended) and place in the campfire coals. Turn occasionally - it'll be done in, oh, 45 minutes, or longer if you want to leave it in the fire..

as the piggie greens sizzled away in the campfire, we grilled up some cod for fish tacos, using this amazing recipe.

eaten open-faced on butter lettuce leaves. (we are foolish, and brought living lettuce camping. it sure takes up a lot of cooler space! next time we will wash and prep the leaves at home.)

the spicy citrus sauce and mango avocado salsa on top made for messy but oh-so-delicious eating.
(note: right now, this photo is upside down. i will fix it later. for now, marvel at the amazing gravity-defying fish taco!)

august 4, 2012

good morning! sleeping to the white noise of the river was so peaceful. that was the best night's sleep i've had in i don't know how long..

make way for grilled portobello breakfast sandwiches! we were excited to try out this idea. these were hearty, and had to be eaten with a fork, not as a handheld sandwich. assembly was simple enough:

first, we grilled up some portobello caps that we'd brushed with garlic olive oil.

topped each with a few slices of thick bacon..

then a fried egg for the next layer..

half an avocado atop the whole shebang, and she's ready to nom nom!

deliciousness. this steller's jay wanted a bite, but no dice.

august 3, 2012 dinner

it's still light out when we arrive, but by the time we get our campsite set up, it's pretty dark. (it's a walk-in site, so we have to carry everything down a steep path to the riverbank, where our campsite is.) we're staying at ohanapecosh, on the southeastern side of mt. rainier. it's in a lovely old growth forest, with the turquoise ohanapecosh river flowing right by our tent. grilled zucchini and japanese eggplant, brushed with garlic oil, as well as mushrooms (not shown) are starters.

two of these sausages are for tonight, and two will be cold munchables for tomorrow. it feels late in this old forest, even though it isn't, so off to tent!

august 3, 2012 lunch

leaving in a couple of hours for mt. rainier for the weekend! first, the last of the italian sausage & eggplant strata and a salad.

august 3, 2012 breakfast

takoyaki girl photobombs my frittata.

august 2, 2012 lunch

a turkey burger with the other half of yesterday's avocado plus salad is a light lunch.

august 2, 2012 breakfast

attempting to get as much dahlia backdrop in this week as possible. breakfast is almost as colorful and quite satisfying.