My Northwest Experience

Misaki Now Tolerates EzyDog

2012-01-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

About two and a half months ago, in our infinite wisdom, we bought Misaki an EzyDog QuickFit harness because we thought it would be easier on her neck and shoulders for walks.

She hated it.

She refused to walk in it so we had no choice but to go back to a regular collar. At this point she probably figured she had won and us weak humans would give up.

We did not.

Instead we spent another $30 and bought her the Chest Plate version of the EzyDog harness, also in pink camouflage. The idea was the points of contact on her would be different, allowing her more freedom of motion at the shoulder. We also decided to go a little slower this time and allow her to get used to it, rather than throwing it on her and taking her immediately outside.

She still didn't look very thrilled. (These first couple pics are from the first day, so if the harness looks too loose, it is.)

We put it on and gave her a few treats, enticing her to walk around the living room for a few minutes, moving from treat to treat. After a couple minutes, we took it off and praised her.

We did this every day for a week or so and she gradually warmed up to it. At the beginning of a session she'd move a little awkwardly, but then decided it was okay. Well, okay enough.

Then we decided she was ready for a real walk. Mother Nature proceeded to dump 10+ inches of rain and snow on Portland over the course of two weeks and Misaki never left the house (if I didn't have to go to work, I wouldn't have either).

But today, FINALLY, it was both light out and dry when I came home from work, so Wifey harnessed and treated Misaki and we took her outside.

She still doesn't love it, but she managed to walk in it with no issues. We took her to the local park and back, our normal basic walk. We left her Lupine Martingale collar on just in case, which was good because the harness still needs a little tightening. Overall, though, she managed to walk and sniff whatever she needed to.

She even was willing to pose for a picture with her momma.

Success! We hope, at least. Apparently the QuickFit was just not for her, but then again should I be surprised? She's very particular.

And Misaki, I'm sorry, but this picture was too cute not to share:

Our poor puppy...she puts up with so much. I may want to sleep with one eye open tonight...

Making Homemade Gyoza

2012-01-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

I think I've beaten to death on this blog how much Wifey and I love gyoza, the Japanese version of what Americans more commonly know as Chinese pot stickers and typically stuffed with a mixture of meat and vegetables. At just about every Japanese restaurant we go to it's a must-order for an appetizer.

Since we don't go out for Japanese all the time but do want to eat these more often, we decided to try our hands at making these at home. It's a decent chunk of time, but not really all that difficult. We also cheated just a little bit and bought the wrappers from our local Japanese food store (Uwajimaya for those of you in the Northwest), which saves quite a bit of the hard part.

First you have to make the filling. There are plenty of recipes out on the net, but the one we chose combines ground pork, shredded cabbage, ginger, garlic, pepper, salt, soy sauce, sake, sesame oil, and chopped nira. (There are tons of recipes out there to make all sorts of flavors, but the garlic and pepper to this one was our own interpretation.) You mix all of that together in a bowl and let it marinate, preferably overnight.

I'm sure most people have no idea what nira is, and that's because you won't find it in your grocery store (probably). If you can't, a substitution of scallions will work. So what is it? It's a relative of a chive and translates roughly as garlic chive. Here's what the bunch we bought looks like:

We took some of the leftovers and added it to some turkey stock we made and it adds a nice punch of extra flavor.

After the overnight marination, we laid out wrappers on a flat surface. Then we whisked up an egg and wiped the mixture around the edges of the wrappers, so it would stick together nicely when closed. Into the middle of each wrapper goes roughly a tablespoon of the meat mixture.

Then fold the wrapper over so it looks like a half moon, sealing and pinching the edges together. We added pinch-ridges (for the lack of a better term) in four or five spots around the sealed edge. These pinches, I believe, help hold the wrapper together when it heats in the frying pan.

After quite a bit of manual labor, you get a pan full of uncooked gyoza. We made two batches and in neither one did we get nearly as many as we were supposed to, so I guess we did more than a tablespoon. Whoops.

Now it's time for frying. We poured some sesame oil in the electric skillet, heated it, and then placed the gyoza in the pan to cook for two minutes. Then you add half a cup of water and cover them, cooking for another five minutes.

After the five minutes, remove the cover and let them cook until all the water is evaporated. At this point we flipped them over.

Most recipes don't call for turning the gyoza over and frying both sides, but we did it anyway for half of them because we like the crunch.

And then, when all is done, you have a plateful of tasty looking morsels!

The gyoza can be frozen either cooked or uncooked. We did it uncooked so we can have the nice, fresh crunch when we get them out.

I like eating them just as is after frying, but traditionally they are dipped in a sauce made up of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and optionally crushed chile pepper or dry mustard if you want a kick.

Super tasty, fairly easy, a little time consuming...but you will absolutely impress your friends!

Merry (Belated) Shibamas!

2012-01-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is a little late, being Christmas-themed and all, but it's full of cute Shiba pictures so I bet I get a pass.

Last year a group of the Shibas with Twitter (Twibas, if you will) personas got together and did a gift exchange. Misaki was a little sad we didn't sign her up for it, so when it came time for the 2011 Secret Shiba Gift Exchange, she made sure we put her name in.

Secret Shiba is an honest to goodness real thing, with it's own tumblr site and everything. It's organized by the human mother of Phineas the Shiba, who is famous in his own right after winning awards for a short film this past summer (see it here!).

There were guidelines and I believe something like 60 Shibas signed up for the 2011 version. The pups were from not only all over the United States, but also Australia, Canada, and even Luxembourg! Misaki was assigned Baron (shibamindtrick on Twitter) and she gave us very specific shopping instructions. We were to get things she liked and approved of, so into the package went some Zuke's Z-Bones, a Himalayan chew, and a stuffed goose that honks when the pup chomps it. Plus she advised us to get a little something for Baron's parents, so we found some chocolates from Xocolatl de David.

She also made sure when it came time to wrap the gifts that she approved of the paper.

And she even gave the card a kiss of approval (if you click on the pic below to make it bigger, you can see the nose prints).

My genius self pre-paid for the flat rate box at the post office, so instead of putting a sticker on it with the shipping price, they sold me a pile of stamps. That in itself took five minutes to stick all those things on.

We made sure to get it in the mail with plenty of time before Christmas and a few days later got confirmation on Twitter it had arrived.

Then, a couple days later, a box arrived for Misaki!

She wanted to open it. And, actually, so did the cats. This is Misaki being annoyed...she takes out her agression on a chew toy.

Fine, she said, can you at least put it under the tree for me? Um...sorry Misaki, but we haven't put up a tree in a couple years. This is the best we could do.

She was not amused, and she became convinced Wifey's OSU Beaver reindeer was part of her gift. Every day she wanted to open that box. She'd lay in the living room and give us the saddest, most forlorn puppy dog eyes ever.

When Christmas morning came she was excited, but when she realized Wifey and I were just going to sleep in and take our time making coffee and breakfast, she got sad again. (This cartoon from The Oatmeal about how different age groups celebrate Christmas is so true. We so fall into the category of 30-somethings without kids.)

Finally I opened the box up for her.

Her box came from Nami, who can be found on Twitter here and also on tumblr. Misaki wanted to have everything at once.

That pink Princess Nylabone really got her attention. She has been known to destroy one of these in a month, but apparently Nylabone changed the formula on them. Up until now all of them had been mint flavored, but now they also have a bacon flavor. She was ready to chew this right out of the cardboard packaging.

She also received a sock monkey toy that squeaks, which she has been carrying all over the house.

And there was this neat little container of bacon and mint treats. She loves them!

All in all the Secret Shiba Exchange seemed to go very well. The toy was a hit.

The treats were met with approval.

And probably unknowingly, Nami also sent the kitties toys as well. They love tissue paper like crazy.

Lots of good times. Thank you to Nami and her pack for the gifts, a Merry Christmas to Baron and his pack, and a hearty thank you to Phin and his pack for organizing the whole thing.

And none of this would have been possible without Twitter. Technology really is amazing, isn't it?

Well Crafted Brunch at Ned Ludd

2012-01-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

Ned Ludd, a restaurant in northeast Portland calling itself an "American Craft Kitchen," has been on our list of restaurants to try for quite a while. Each time we came close to choosing it, though, something else looked just a little bit more interesting. Part of that is because it's really difficult to nail down just what kind of restaurant it is. They are big on local and sustainable ingredients and there are influences of many different cuisines in their menus.

This past Saturday we decided to try it out; many pictures of dishes from the restaurant looking fantastic convinced us it was time to go. Here are a couple pictures of the menu and it help to illustrate why Ned Ludd is so hard to categorize (click the pic for a larger version).

Located on NE Martin Luther King Boulevard in a tin shed of a building set back from the street, the restaurant doesn't exactly announce itself. The name over the door blends in with the restaurant's colors. There is a courtyard out front with picnic tables and various plantings, making it seem like a pleasant place for a summer dinner outside (which sounds like a reason in itself to go back). The inside of Ned Ludd is small, seating maybe 40 diners or so, with some tables and some bar seating. The kitchen is open and dominated by a brick oven which keeps the place toasty warm.

On a Saturday morning around 10:30 there was only one other couple there when we arrived, but it started to fill up the closer it got towards noon. The decor is eclectic, a mixture of rustic country with rich curtains giving it a very welcoming feel, as if the chef was inviting you into his home. Large windows let in copious amounts of light.

We decided to start off with two smaller plates from the "bits" section. The first was the deck crisped muffin with honey and butter for $6.

Served on a wooden cutting board, one well loved in a good way, what it looks like is a quartered muffin that has been burnt, but it didn't taste that way at all. It was crisp, as promised, but it was very, very moist inside with a variety of sweet and savory flavors, including some apple, cloves and cinnamon. The cup in the picture is filled with warm honey and the butter flecked with large flakes of salt. The muffin didn't even need he accompaniments, but they definitely didn't hurt. We've never eaten a six-dollar muffin before, but this was fantastic.

Next up was the pork rilletes with mustard and volkhorn brot (that's the bread) for $9. It also came with some slices of pickled apple.

The rillette was smooth, rich, flavorful, and easily spread on the bread. The jar is topped with a layer of fat, which our waitress explained is the traditional way to store a rillette. See the crosshatch design in the top? That's an example of the attention to detail you find at Ned Ludd. It has to be a challenge to top something with a quarter-inch layer of fat and have it look appetizing, but they did it. This was fantastic. The mustard wasn't too hot and worked well with the bread and the pork. The apple also was a nice palate cleanser, though I don't feel it was necessary.

Wifey's main course was the "bird in a nest" over meat ragu for $13. The nest is a polenta cake, with a circle carved out and replaced with an egg.

There's the egg.

Simply put, this was amazing. The polenta cake by itself had plenty of flavors, not just corn, and had a nice crunch. The egg was cooked perfectly. And that ragu? Oh my - melt-in-your-mouth goodness. I don't know how long that had been reducing in the brick oven, but it's totally worth the time.

I went with the "hangtown bake" of eggs, leeks, bacon, mushrooms and oysters served with toast for $14.

Again, all of the flavors perfectly complemented each other. I don't even like mushrooms, but these were tasty and added a level of umami to the dish that was just right. The oyster pieces melted in your mouth and the bacon chunks added a rich, salty profile. These eggs were also done just right.

That's quite a bit of well prepared food that added up to a spendy brunch. While the cost was more than I would typically prefer to spend for brunch, I can't say any of this was overpriced. Considering the attention to detail and exceedingly high quality of the meal, I can only compliment Ned Ludd on a job well done. The service was good also. I will absolutely recommend Ned Ludd to others and can't wait to go back for dinner. Maybe in the summer we can and eat outside, with Misaki curled up at our feet.

Making Mochi at Home

2012-01-14T17:17:00.000-08:00

Making mochi is not the easiest thing in the world. One would think that with just three ingredients it can't be that bad, but you would be wrong. It's one of the more labor intensive items - hard labor - to come out of our kitchen.

What is it? Mochi is a Japanese dish created from glutenous rice, usually sweetened but not always, pounded into shape, and can be filled with just about anything you desire. Traditionally mochi are made to celebrate the new year and are filled with an - a sweetened red bean paste.

On New Year's Eve Wifey's mom came over and supervised our creating of mochi because, well, we have no idea what we are doing. Here's the basic recipe we used:

1 box of Mochiko

2 3/4 cups of water

3 cups of sugar

The first item is this, mochiko - sweet rice flour, and can be found at any Japanese food store (we shop at Uwajimaya in Portland). The above is a little misleading because you need either more mochiko or cornstarch (or powdered sugar, we've read but not tried) for dusting the finished product, plus whatever you are going to use for filling.

You are also going to need some rather unique items, such as these:

These can also be found at a Japanese store and are the Japanese versions of a mortar and pestle. The bowl, called a suribachi, has many thin ridges on the inside in varying directions, which is key for the later steps of pounding the mochi. The stick is, well, for pounding.

You will also need a steamer of some sort and a cheesecloth.

First you mix the box of Mochiko and the sugar together. Add water and mix slowly, until you have a smooth mixture. You may not need all the water the recipe suggests, but knowing exactly how much is a fine line we haven't mastered yet. Wifey's mom was skeptical when we put it all in, saying it was too much, and she ended up being right. I have no idea how to determine what is too much.

After the steamer is ready, put the cheesecloth in it and pour the mochiko/sugar/water mixture in, making sure to keep it all inside the cloth. Cover the steamer and let it do it's magic for 20 minutes or so, until the mixture thickens and becomes more clear rather than milky. It should still be malleable and not completely hold it's shape.

Then you pour the mixture into the special bowl and the fun part begins. At the beginning this will be a little lumpy and the point of pounding the mixture is to smooth everything out. Pound away. Don't stop until the mixture loses any lumpiness and starts to take on an almost glue-like texture.

This may take awhile. Switch hands or switch people, as necessary. Did I mention this is not a one person job? Also, don't get this stuff on your clothes. It's not just "like" glue; I'm pretty sure it has alternative uses.

See this below? It's the an, a paste of red beans (azuki), sugar and salt. There are recipes for this, but it's also sold as a finished product at Japanese food stores. No matter what size you buy it will be way, way too much for a batch of mochi.

After the beating of the mochi, we poured the whole thing out on our marble pastry board we dusted with additional mochiko. For this batch, this was the point we realized there was too much moisture because it was super, super, super sticky. Here you should be able to rip off a chunk (it's still hot, just a warning) and form a nice ball, but ours was simply a sticky mess. We had to use way too much extra mochiko and then wait for it to cool a bit, which isn't ideal.

The general flow is you take a chunk of the mixture, roll it into a ball so the edges are smooth, make a dent in the middle and put in about a tablespoon of an, and then wrap it all up, sealing the edges. Then you get this:

See the one closest to the camera on the left? That was one I did. Don't make them look like that. Instead, they should look like the one to the right of that, which Wifey's mom did. That's the difference between an amateur and a pro.

Mochi food porn shot:

We were making these for the family New Year's celebration, so they got fancy cupcake wrappers.

Gratuitous finished mochi pic:

Super yummy. I'm not even a big fan of an, but once a year, in mochi, it's just the right thing to do.

Remember above how I mentioned all kind of things could be done to the mochi? Well, on the mochiko box is a recipe for Cocoa Mochi - no way were we going to let that go unmade. Plus, it's done in the microwave so it doesn't take very long at all.

Plus, we had some pretty damn good cocoa powder in the cupboard to use. Mmm, Valrhona...

Here is the chocolatey goodness that got whisked with the mochiko.

After microwaving everything together, we poured it into a Pyrex dish with parchment paper on top and bottom so we could easily get it out when it cooled for cutting.

It actually turned out very nicely. It had the normal soft consistency of mochi and a pleasant amount of chocolate flavor; noticeable, but not too much. Unfortunately that's the last picture I have because we were in a hurry when it came to cutting it and heading out to the family function. We kept some extra and set it aside, but notice the part in the recipe at the end where it says "store in airtight container and refrigerate"?

You should definitely do that. We didn't and we got some white spots on our leftover cocoa mochi, so we threw them out before taking another pic (sad face here). Trust me when I say it was really good, much easier to make than the other recipe, and you should try it.

Oh, and if you see this at the store, buy it:

(image from here)

Seriously, just do it. The Kona coffee one (you heard that right) is outstanding and I also really like the strawberry and vanilla. The ice cream inside the mochi is pretty dang good - good flavor, creamy - and one of these little guys is a nice little snack. At only 100 calories (I was surprised too) you won't have to spend too much extra time in the gym either.

So is homemade mochi worth it? I think it is. You can buy it in the stores, but it's honestly just not as good as fresh from your own kitchen. Even if it is a crapload of work.

Oven and Shaker: A New Portland Pearl

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

We are huge fans of pizza, Italian food in general and anything Nostrana owner Cathy Whims does. Anything. Nostrana is one of our favorite restaurants because everything is just really damn good (review here). We go there when we want pizza, when we want a reasonably priced nice dinner, and to check out fresh olive oil every year for their Olio Nuovo (link to the 2010 version we had) series of dishes that highlight the flavors.

So when we found out Whims was opening a new place, a small plates bar with pizza, in Portland's Pearl District, OF COURSE it went to the top of our neverending list of restaurants we need to try. While Oven and Shaker, on NW Everett between 11th and 12th, took much longer to open than many (including I'm sure Whims herself) expected to open, it was well worth the wait.

Wifey and I checked it out on a Tuesday around 4:30pm (open daily 4-midnight). When we got there there were only a couple other tables taken - it's a decent-sized space, much bigger than it looks from the outside - but by the time we left an hour later it was probably well over 3/4 full. It's an open space, with some tables, bar seating, and communal tables as well. The kitchen is open at one end with the pizza oven dominating the area, not unlike the setup at Nostrana.

Food is served as the kitchen finishes it, just like at Toro Bravo and Tasty N Sons, rather than in traditional courses. We ordered three dishes to share and the first one that came was the cazzilli - potato and parmagiano croquettes that are then fried.

Yum! Despite the frying these weren't greasy in the least and the potato mixture inside was soft, practically melting in your mouth. The parm and chives made these little bites quite tasty, and for the $5 price you get seven of them, roughly the length and thickness of two-three fingers.

Our second item was the arancini with saffron risotto, pork, and pea ragu. We had our first arancini at the Garden State food cart. Those were small - golf ball sized - and stuffed with mozzarella and a bit of veggie of some sort. The O&S version is similar, but it's the size of a baseball.

Again, very nicely balanced and even the peas were tasty. The pool of olive oil at the bottom was a nice touch. When we were finished this plate was clean. At $4 this was also a solid value.

Lastly, we had to order pizza, choosing the wild fennel sausage pizza with potato, tomato, chilies, scallions and smoked mozzarella.

Unlike at Nostrana, this pizza comes from the kitchen cut into six slices. It also seems to be a slightly sturdier crust than the Nostrana version. That's not better or worse, just nominally but noticeably different. The middle, for example, isn't nearly as soft and holds its form better at O&S.

We weren't sure about potatoes on pizza at first - and honestly, I'm still not sure - but this worked. The sausage had great flavor and overall the pizza had a great balance. The smoked mozzarella really shined. At $16, this is the most expensive thing on the menu (four other pizzas are also the same price, but many are less also).

All of that for $25 was a very satisfying meal. Between the two of us we polished off everything but two of the cazzilli and one slice of pizza. The service was attentive and seemed to have a solid understanding of the menu, which is always appreciated.

Funny side story: Our waitress took our leftovers back to the kitchen to be wrapped. After what seemed like unduly long amount of time, plus us having to ask for them because the restaurant became very busy, we saw her talking with the manager, who then came over to our table and handed us our wrapped leftovers. He was all apologetic (paraphrasing here). "I hate to tell you this, but I dropped one of your slices of pizza on the floor while wrapping it up. Can I make it up to you by firing a brand new one for you, at no charge?"

Um, yes. Of course you can. Absolutely.

But after he walked away to put in that order for a full pizza to go (remember, $16 value), Wifey and looked at each other funny. "Um," I said, "we only had one slice left over, right? And that's it right here, all wrapped up?" Wifey agreed. Oh, and I seriously doubt it was him who dropped anything, because I never saw him off the main restaurant floor, let alone wrapping up food. That's a strong managerial move, even if it's a blatant misdirection. As a customer I appreciate the manager, who presumably can rectify anything, taking the lead.

So what happened? Did they drop the one piece and wrap it up anyway? Or did they drop someone else's and think it was ours? If we get a free pizza, do we care? Heck, if we are worried about it, we could just throw the one piece away, because we are getting a whole new one, right? No matter what - score!

As it turns out, there must have been something lost in translation. When we opened up the leftovers at home, there was only a single cazzillo (singular of cazzilli?) instead of two, so we assume the one piece of pizza is fine and the other cazzillo was what fell to the floor in the kitchen and likely thrown away. If you are keeping track of home, a single cazzillo cost us about 72 cents...and one dropped on the floor netted us a $16 pizza.

That is more than anyone should reasonably expect, but you can't deny it's awesome customer service. We would have made it a priority to return to O&S anyway because the meal was excellent in every sense, but free pizza? Can't top that can you?

New Year's Day Bombs

2012-01-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

Wifey and I aren't big celebrators of the New Year's holiday. Maybe age is catching up with us now that we have hit mid-thirties, but staying up until midnight to see a ball drop has lost all of it's appeal to me. Not that it was ever all that appealing; most of the time New Year's Eve ended up seeming like a waste of time to me.

I mean, really, all we are celebrating is buying a new calendar, right? I have no cultural or religious ties to the symbolism of a new year and nothing seems to change on that day anyway - hey, it's a holiday, stuff is closed - so I don't see the big deal.

Which makes celebrations of the new year that much more crazy to me. When, exactly, did blowing shit up become a thing for the new year? It makes even less sense than the traditional celebrations on the Fourth of July and increasingly, in my neighborhood at least, the differences between the two holidays are becoming minimal.

This year Wifey and I went to Mirakutei for dinner on New Year's Eve. We got there early and stuffed ourselves with sushi, gyoza and ramen, and were back home by 7ish. The rest of the evening was going to be for a movie and catching up on the DVR. When we got home, though, our cute little puppy was a little freaked out.

When we go places we can't bring her Misaki stays home in her crate, closed in to avoid any possible fights with the cats we can't police. She doesn't mind this at all and is usually pretty stoked to go in there (mostly because it also includes treats). And this one, she is most absolutely not shy. Not in the least. But when we got home Misaki the Shiba was super clingy.

She jumped at sounds, even little ones. She didn't want to go outside just to go to the bathroom. As you can see from the pictures she curled up to Wifey and didn't want to let go, which is something she very, very rarely does. Not this Shiba; this Shiba can take care of herself.

Then we heard the bomb go off.

No, it probably wasn't ACTUALLY a bomb, but close enough. They were going off not long after we got home and then intermittently until after 2am, so I'm sure they started while we were gone. Maybe it's because we weren't home or maybe something louder happened, or maybe it's because it makes no sense to be blowing stuff up on New Year's Eve, but Misaki did not approve at all. (And really, if the Shiba doesn't approve it should not happen. Am I right Shiba owners?) The Fourth of July doesn't bother her at all.

And aren't these fireworks/bombs kind of expensive? I don't exactly live in a neighborhood where the household incomes typically would allow for the spending of hundreds - or thousands - on this kind of crap, but I suppose it's all about priorities and some people apparently have the priority of freaking out my dog. She would never admit it, but we could tell; her normally stoic facade was cracked.

That's how when midnight came we were both laying on the floor with Misaki, skritching her ears to keep her relaxed, away from the television or even a clock. We only knew midnight had come because the blowing-shit-up people started blowing shit up at a more rapid pace. Yay - thanks drunk people with explosives!

But you know what? It was one of my better New Year's Eves. Just the three of us, cuddled up on the floor, with Misaki's Shiba purrs rumbling between Wifey and I.

Moral of the story? Ridiculous amounts of bombs being set off by drunk people celebrating random times (not midnight) are bad, and Shibas are awesome and sometimes even they need a few extra cuddles too.

Christmas Eve Dinner at Simpatica

2012-01-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

It's probably been well established on this blog that Wifey and I are big fans of Simpatica Dining Hall, despite the fact it's a communal dining experience which is not really our thing at all. We had an excellent dinner with a burger as the main course back in 2009, had a great brunch there in 2010, and enjoyed the fruits of Simpatica's labor last summer at the Forest Park benefit we attended.

Each time the food has been at minimum solid and at times spectacular, so this year for Christmas Eve we wanted to do something a little special and chose Simpatica as our dining choice. The meal featured an entree of smoked prime rib and cost $45 per person before tip and drinks.

The first course was a French onion soup with a gruyere crouton (more a chunk of toast than a crouton).

One of the best I've ever had, if not THE best. The broth was thick and rich, and each mouthful of cheesy bread was simply perfect. As you can tell, not the prettiest dish ever, but I'll give it a pass because of the taste. Also, super damn hot. I think I burned my tongue. That's hard to get around when you pull a soup out of the oven like that, but I would think it could have been held back just a few more minutes to let the soup cool. I'm not patient enough - plus I was really hungry at this point - to wait when the food is put in front of me. Save me from myself!

Next up was the salad course - arugula and pear with parsnip crisps and creamy champagne vinaigrette.

It was...fine. Nothing special. The pieces were decent all on their own but didn't seem to make much sense together. And neither of us are big fans of bitter greens. Moving on.

The main course was the smoked prime rib - pecan-smoked Piedmontese prime rib with Marchand de Vin, plus Yukon potato gratin and creamed kale.

The above picture was Wifey's plate, and the one below was mine.

Um, I know prime rib is usually a tad pink, but each of these seemed just a tad bloody to me. Also, look at the flesh of each piece - hers is way fattier, and not in a good way. Much of that was gristle. One would think our dishes were cut in line, but the two pieces of meat don't match up at all.

Plus, OhMyGod those are the biggest chunks of meat I've ever seen on a plate! While it helps add value for the money, it was unnecessary. We took about 2/3 of it home. When the servers brought out these plates jaws were dropping all over the room at the sheer size of the chunk of meat. It reminded me of an episode of Top Chef this current season when a contestant, tasked with creating a dish based on her childhood, served a gigantic ribeye that filled the entire plate because that's how meals were like where she grew up in Wisconsin. Holy hell the size was unnecessary. Give me half the meat and take $5 off each meal price. Wow.

The flavor was actually really good. The smokiness came through very nicely and, the pieces not still bleeding, were really good. The creamed kale was fine, nothing special. The potatoes were overdone and dry, moreso in Wifey's serving than mine, which makes me think they weren't cooked equally.

I will say the prime rib we took home was very good - after it was pan fried to add sear on all sides and then cut into strips. We were able to get five more meals out the leftovers.

The last dish was dessert, an apple tart with salted caramel ice cream.

I would not order this ever again. The apples were dry and overcooked, the crust had no moisture to provide any balance to the overcooked apples, and the ice cream was, well, salty. We both love salted caramels, but now this is two different servings of salted caramel ice cream (the other was at Molly Moon's in Seattle) where the salt factor was ridiculous. Salted caramels taste 95% of caramel - unless they are covered in chocolate as well, then it's a balance - with just a hint of salt. A couple flakes. This was salt ice cream with the flavor of caramel; the proportions are way out of wack. I'd love to see the recipe and how much salt is actually called for - then reduce it to a quarter of the amount. And add more caramel flavoring. We've made caramel ice cream at home - a standard vanilla frozen custard recipe mixed with Alma's caramel sauce - and the flavors are so much more pleasing to the tongue.

In the end we both left a little disappointed. One dish was fantastic (the soup), one was good but had drawbacks (the prime rib), one was just there (the salad), and one really left a bad taste (the dessert). Considering the final bill was three digits (added one glass of the suggested red wine - a 2007 Triennes Vin de Pays from France - to pair with the beef), it seems a little ridiculous, doesn't it? (By the way, if you go to Simpatica for dinner, allow 3-3.5 hours for the entire meal. I thought maybe two, but everyone is served a course at once, meaning you have to wait for everyone to finish the previous one. We typically eat our meals and chat a little bit, so it's not up to our speed. Not good or bad, just something to know before going.)

I'm not really sure what to make of this. Is Simpatica losing their touch? Or were all the inconsistencies and failures in this meal an aberration, perhaps the product of the holidays? Who knows. What I do know is that for the price I expect to see good execution and good flavors in all aspects of the dishes and that didn't happen. If I can get a good meal for half the price or less, even with multiple dishes and dessert, at any number of places around the city - plus not have to share my table with strangers I really have no interest in interacting with - I am much more likely to do that.

A successful meal will make you want to return, especially given a restaurant's reputation and pricing. When you are in the upper tier of both, as Simpatica is, you never want to give a customer a reason to question whether or not you are getting a good value and experience.

Sadly, after some very good meals in the past, I'm left questioning if a return to Simpatica is worth my money and time.

Third Draft Finally Finished

2011-12-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing I've learned since I sat down to write a novel, it's the need for patience.

(Notice I said "the need for" and not that I learned patience. Still working on that.)

As I sit here and look at the date on my computer, I can't believe I started this novel a year ago. A freaking year?! Are you kidding me?! No wonder it takes even professional authors so damn long to put out a new book. Here I am toiling through it as a fourth priority (behind family, first job that pays the bills, and second job that also pays) and it's taken me a year to finish three drafts of a single novel.

Oh yes, the third draft is done. And it's better than the one before it, which is really all one can hope for, right?

For me, the third draft was the first real re-writing I had to do. The second draft was more cursory, but the third...a bomb went off in that one.

I completely wrote out one character and greatly minimized two others. I raised the profile of a fourth. The narrative changed, drastically, and it became a couple shades darker. The ending is completely different. My protagonist, for the lack of a better term, grew a pair. This version of the book, I feel, flows better.

Then again, I haven't read through it with a red pen yet - that will be the fourth draft, after the new year. I need some time to breathe, charge the batteries.

But back to the need for patience.

I always want to work on the book, because I want to finish it. I mean, doesn't everyone want to finish what they are working on? To be able to say "I did that"? Sure, but my stark reality is it has to fit into the schedule, and the schedule is pretty packed.

Perhaps I mentioned this before, but I'm not a student of the "write with any fraction of time you have" school. That works for some people, but all it does is frustrate me. Which, of course, leads directly to how it takes a year to get through the third draft of a 71,900 word novel.

Now I can check that step off the list and move on to the next one. Maybe someday someone will even get to read it.

Mmm...Tacos at Mi Mero Mole

2011-12-27T19:57:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you try out a new place and everything works. Mi Mero Mole, on SE 50th and Division, is that place.

Mi Mero Mole - with the awesome URL of mmmtacospdx.com - is owned by Nick Zukin, the same Nick who is the Zuke in Kenny and Zuke's Deli and Sandwichworks, and who also has gained quite a following in the Portland food scene via Twitter (@extramsg) and articles (like this one on burgers), plus the portlandfood.org messageboards.

However, his first love is Mexican food and Mi Mero Mole specializes in one thing: guisados. What is that, you may ask? It translates roughly as "stew," but there's more to it than that. In Mexico City guisados come in literally hundreds of different flavors and they are served on tortillas. (Don't kill me if this isn't 100% accurate, there isn't a lot of information out there about them.)

Mi Mero Mole (roughly translates as my own mole, or can be interpreted as the same sentiment but more forceful) has a menu that changes every so often, featuring a few of the different guisados at once. Check the menu link and you can see how many will be in rotation, plus others.

The building is not well signed, so unless you know where it is you may miss it. There is a sign in the window that says "Albierto," but not one that says "Mi Mero Mole" that either of us recall seeing. Mi Mero Mole is also not officially open yet; instead, until sometime in January this is considered their soft opening. Given the pedigree of the owner and the food involved it was already on our short list, but then they did a special where we could get a dozen tamales to take home for $24 (more on them later), so we figured we'd get dinner too and check it out.

The decor is minimalist, but still a little homey - think relaxed neighborhood hangout. The current menu is on a chalkboard on the left when you walk in and you order at the register, then your food is brought to you. All of the tortillas are made fresh and there is a small salsa bar if you feel like adding some to your meal. They serve beers, cocktails, and non-alcoholic drinks. Each guisada can be ordered as a taco, a burrito or as a plate, which comes with sides of beans and rice. Currently meat guisados are $2.75 each and vegetarian ones are $2.50, but that may change when the official opening comes.

Wifey and I started off with an order of chips and guacamole, just like we did at Mextiza. Mi Mero Mole's guac was more traditional, but still very creamy and quite tasty. The chips were excellent (perfectly salted!) - I could eat a bag of these without stopping. However, they seemed to be best fresh; we ate them throughout the meal and towards the end they got a little stale. Shrug. They were awesome.

Funny story: Nick actually took our order and brought us our food. We happened to sit at a table without ideal lighting and when he saw us getting ready to take some pictures, he asked us to wait, went behind the counter and grabbed a small light, and let us use it to take pictures. We need to get one of those - thanks Nick!

We ordered four guisados - the taco version - in all. Wifey and I split each one and as you can see by the pictures each taco was well-filled. The first two were albondigas (beed and pork meatballs stuffed with boiled egg and stewed in chipotle tomato sauce) and pollo con nopales en salsa verde (chicken and cactus paddle - prickly pear - stewed in tomatillo and serrano sauce.

Both of those were excellent, but the pollo con napales was on another level. Neither of us had ever eaten prickly pear before and the cactus added so much flavor - it was amazing. I could go back and eat four of just those.

The second plate was rajas con crema (roasted poblana chiles with sauteed onions in a sour cream and aged cheese sauce) and cerdo en adobo (pork in a sweet and sour chile sauce). Again, both of these introduced us to new flavor profiles and were outstanding.

It's a good thing we liked the cerdo en adobo, because that was the same flavor as the dozen tamales we ordered. They were still warm when Nick handed us the tray, and when we got home we opened them up.

Aren't they pretty? They looked so damn good I wanted to try them that night, but the four tacos and chips left both of us pretty full, so we had them for lunch the next day. Here's a look from the open end of the tamale.

And with it unwrapped and split down the middle.

Simply put, these are amazing. The masa used to wrap the filling is the best I've ever had. Neither of us claim to be experts in Mexican food, but we like it and did spend a week eating Oaxacan food in Huatulco a couple years back, so we'd like to think we can recognize good stuff - and this is fantastic.

Frankly, Mi Mero Mole is a must-visit - and it's not going to hurt your wallet. For a dozen tamales, four tacos, and the chips and guac my total bill was $37.75 plus tip - and $24 of that was the tamales. Where else can you get a fantastic meal for two people for $14?! Even if the prices do go up, Mi Mero Mole would be considered steal.

Since I'm reviewing this place so close to Mextiza, I know a question that may come is how the two compare. They don't, actually. Both have excellent food and I'd go back to either one, but I'm getting a different kind of Mexican food at each one.

If I had to choose one though, it would be Mi Mero Mole. We'll be going back for sure.

2011 Pac-12 Bowl Season Picks

2011-12-23T10:49:00.000-08:00

I'm late. Arizona State played yesterday in the first bowl game of the year involving a Pac-12 team and I didn't make my picks. Whoops.

Between the day job, the second job, and trying to finish the third draft of my novel, things get forgotten. What can I say? Gotta prioritize.

After correctly choosing Oregon to win the inaugural Pac-12 title I'm 64-27 on the season heading into the bowl season, one that looks very, very rough for the conference.

For what it's worth, I would have picked Boise State to blow the Sun Devils out, so I'll take a W. After firing Dennis Erickson - well, actually before firing him - that team was a mess. A 6-6 mess of a team matching up with the #7 team in the nation and one of the best in recent history? My cat predicted the blowout.

This is also the first loss of a Pac-12 bowl team that left them with record below .500 on the season.

On to the rest of the bowl games (rankings in parentheses - AP, USA Today):

California v. Texas
Holiday Bowl
12/28/11, 5pm, ESPN

Cal has been up and down all year, as has Texas. Texas has more talent.

The pick: TEXAS

Washington v. Baylor (15, 16)
Alamo Bowl
12/29/11, 6pm, ESPN

Washington couldn't control the better teams of the Pac-12, how can they expect to do any better against Heisman winner Robert Griffin III?

The pick: BAYLOR

Utah v. Georgia Tech (30t, 29)
Sun Bowl
12/30/11, 11am, CBS

Utah got better as the season progressed, they should stand tall here.

The pick: UTAH

UCLA v. Illinois
Fight Hunger Bowl
12/31/11, 12:30pm, ESPN

UCLA does not deserve a bowl game, period. They will be 6-8 when this over.

The pick: ILLINOIS

Oregon (6, 5) v. Wisconsin (9, 8)
Rose Bowl
1/2/12, 2pm, ESPN

The Ducks need a win in a bowl game badly and should match up well with Wisconsin. I figure the Ducks defense will stop the Wisconsin offense more than vice versa.

The pick: OREGON

Stanford (4, 4) v. Oklahoma State (3, 3)
Fiesta Bowl
1/2/12, 5pm, ESPN

Stanford is a tough team and Andrew Luck is a great leader, but the defense will not be able to handle the high scoring Cowboys. Remember what Oregon did to them? OK State will do the same

The pick: OKLAHOMA STATE

---

Projecting a 2-5 record hurts, but can you really disagree? The only one I'm even on the fence about is the Cal pick, just because you have no idea what they will do in any given week. Rough, rough matchups for the conference. If USC had been bowl eligible then everyone would have moved down a notch and the matchups would look a little better, but they'd still be tough.

Cookie, Cake AND Pie!

2011-12-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

There is a blog I follow written by a Seattle artist who goes by the name of CakeSpy. Some of you may be familiar with it, but if you are not I urge you to check it out. She has fun with baking, trying all sorts of things I think would be interesting to have a bite of but usually wouldn't be willing to try myself.

Until now.

Everyone loves pie, right? And chocolate chip cookies? And who doesn't love a good cake? Well, what if you COMBINED THEM ALL INTO ONE MONUMENTAL DISH OF AWESOMENESS?! That would be good, right? You'd be interested?

Well then, let me introduce you to Cookie Cake Pie. No, I'm not kidding, and yes, it's exactly what you think it might be.

And the thing is, it's insanely easy to make. Ideally you make all the components on your own, but you don't have to and it will still be pretty dang tasty. We had one last frozen, 8-inch pie crust I bought at Immortal Pie and Larder's going out of business sale, plus we also had frozen homemade cookie dough balls (this is our favorite recipe, a Jacque Torres adaptation) and frozen homemade buttercream frosting. All I needed to do was buy a Betty Crocker rainbow chip cake mix and we were in business. The picture above is the finished product.

And with frosting.

I would like to point out that Wifey made this and surprised me when I came home from work one day. I love her so much. :)

Also, she differed from CakeSpy's recipe just a tad. The original recipe calls for putting the pie crust, cookie dough, and cake mix together and baking it at the same time, but if you look at the pictures the finished product seems exceedingly gooey (and I like gooey). Instead Wifey pre-baked the crust (about 12 minutes on 425 degrees), then added the cookie dough and baked it for another 20 minutes (at 350 degrees), then added the cake mix for a final 30 minutes (of course, actual times will depend on your oven).

That way when you cut out a slice you can see each of the elements is nicely baked, but not overdone. (By the way, click on the picture below so it fills up your entire computer screen. You're welcome.)

This. Was. Delicious! Yes, it was absolutely super sweet, but that's to be expected. Take a small slice at a time, share with friends who will be in awe of your baking cred, and freeze the rest for another day.

Now what does one do with half a box of cake mix? Make cupcakes of course! But wait, what if you have an odd amount of leftover cookie dough balls too? No worries, CakeSpy has you covered. Of course I mean cookie dough stuffed cupcakes - what else?!

Once again, these are super easy to make. You already have the cookie dough and if you just made the entire cake mix, you have that too. Just fill cupcake pans 2/3 full and drop roughly half the normal amount of dough to make a cookie into the middle of each. It should look like this:

(Those two on the top right didn't get a cookie dough ball - they ended up as boring normal cupcakes.)

Wait, can you not see clearly how it should look? This next picture should help you. (Click it and make it bigger! Impress you coworkers with the deliciousness!)

Cook them normal cupcake time (from the box) and they come out looking like...well, normal cupcakes.

Frost them up and they still look normal.

Then you take a bite or cut them in half - and EXPOSE THE AWESEOMENESS!

These, like the cookie cake pie, were excellent. Seriously, where the hell has this been my entire life?

We've eaten things similar to this from a bakery, but I was amazed at really how easy it was to make. Try it out on your own, you won't be sorry.

Hmm...maybe next time we use a Devil's food recipe...

A Visit to Mextiza

2011-12-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

Wifey and I decided to try out a new Mexican restaurant out in North Portland - Mextiza on North Killingsworth. Mextiza is owned and operated by the same chef who runs Autentica, generally regarded as one of the best Mexican restaurants in the city. This place is more casual than Autentica and boasts a very reasonably price lunch menu.

We started off with an appetizer: Guacamole with thick tortilla chips, topped with cheese

Look at that guac; doesn't it look smooth? It was - very, very smooth. And fantastic. Those chips were as thick as a pita chip, but with all the flavor of a tortilla chip. The cheese they were topped with was just sprinkled and made quite a mess. I'm not the tidiest eater anyway, but that cheese was all over the place.

My main dish was the Pollo Rostizado - Rotisserie chicken with pineapple, served with ~~spicy potato salad~~ refried beans and Oaxacan cheese.

I'm not real sure why I got the beans instead - the waitress wasn't clear on that - but they were good. The chicken had rich flavors with a nice amount of spice. There were a ton of onions (the darker strands are the pineapple, which I didn't figure out until I ate them), but it all worked. I'd definitely recommend this.

Wifey ordered the Zuisas - Green chile and tomatillo sauce enchiladas with chicken, Oaxacan melting chese and cream.

These were also very, very good, with plenty of onions as well. The sauce had a very fresh flavor to it and we both love Oaxacan cheese (since our trip to Huatulco a few years ago), so it was a winner.

Food was very good, prices were reasonable, and the service was, um, passable. Our waitress didn't seem very sure of herself or the dishes she was serving, but perhaps that's a byproduct of it being a new place. It wasn't bad, just a little confused.

We would definitely recommend Mextiza and would go back. It also made us more excited to check out Autentica, one of the many places On The List. (The list is quite long.)

2011 Pac-12 College Football: Championship

2011-12-02T08:15:00.001-08:00

Nothing like finishing the season on an uptick. If Colorado hadn't pulled off an amazing upset in Utah in a game that, had the Utes won, would have pushed them into the Pac-12 championship game I would have managed a 7-0 week. Instead I went 6-1, probably my best week since preseason, pushing me to 63-27 on the season.

And now, thanks to the aforementioned Colorado upset, we have unranked 6-6 UCLA - blown out 50-0 by USC last week - visiting Oregon tonight at Autzen Stadium in Eugene at 5pm Pacific on FOX. Yes, those same Ducks who are 10-2 overall, ranked 8th overall by the Associated Press, and ranked 7th overall by the ESPN Coach's Poll.

For everyone that was overly excited about USC being punished for whatever Reggie Bush did while a "student-athlete", this is the result. How bad are things at UCLA? Sure, they are technically the Pac-12 South champions because of SC's ineligibility, but 6-6 earned coach Rick Neuheisel a pink slip. He will coach tonight, but even if they win he's out and won't coach a bowl game. And if they lose? UCLA supposedly is a top team in the conference (snort) according to tonight's matchup, but a loss leaves them 6-7 and technically not even bowl-eligible. However, they applied for a waiver to the rule and the NCAA inexplicably said they could still go to a bowl even with a sub-.500 record.

Bet that game will be well attended.

The winner of this inaugural Pac-12 championship game, of course, goes to the Rose Bowl and will face the winner of the inaugural Big Ten (yes, that conference with 12 teams) championship game (Saturday at 5:17pm on FOX, Wisconsin at Michigan State in a matchup of 10-2 teams).

If UCLA wins... Wow. First off, that would be a monumental upset and, one could argue, a good reason Neuheisel should KEEP his job. Secondly...there is no second. The likelihood of that is pretty close to zero. The Bruins aren't fast enough to keep up with LaMichael James, Kenjon Barner and DeAnthony Thomas, but what the Ducks need to do is pounce quickly. UCLA has nothing to lose and will play that way, so all the pressure is on Oregon. In games like this the longer the favorite allows the underdog to stay close the more confidence the underdog gain and the more stress the favorite faces. Scoring first and second, quickly, could end this game very early.

Prediction: Oregon 56, UCLA 10

Deschutes Abyss 2011

2011-12-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

It's fall, so that means it's time for another installment of Deschutes Brewery's The Abyss. This beer, while a stout which I don't always love, has become an annual event on my beer calendar (as you can see by me also writing about the 2009 version here, and again here aged, and the 2010 version here).

All have been good, and the 2011 is no different. On the nose Abyss gives you coffee and licorice, then pours rich, thick, and dark into the glass. So dark, actually, that even the bubbles are caramel-toned, and the liquid leaves "legs" like a good wine.

I have no idea why it looks like a face is reflected in my glass. It's somewhat disturbing.

The flavor profile layers as the beer warms, giving molasses and a touch of chocolate with the coffee and licorice. I also felt I found the tiniest bit of tobacco.

As usual The Abyss is a very, very, very good beer. Grab it now, before they sell out. I picked up two bottles - one to drink and one to save - from the Deschutes pub in Portland's Pearl District ($12 each). Some of the local bottle shops placed limits of two and three bottles, but the pub has cases to spare. And, if you go there fairly soon, you may still be able to get Abyss poured for you on the nitro taps. I haven't tried that yet, but plan to eventually. (Oh, and another thing - Deschutes gift cards don't expire. I had one in my wallet for two years and it was still good, allowing me to get my two bottles for $8 out of pocket. Nice.)

Speaking of that bottle to save...here's some beer porn for you:

Who's up for a vertical?

Visit Lovely Pacific City

2011-11-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

Last week I posted about our Mother of All Storms trip to Pacific City, Oregon, but the trip wasn't all about the beer. Well, mostly, but not all.

We drove out on a Friday, which just happened to coincide with the first snow in the coast range, the hills/mountains dividing the coast from the Willamette Valley and the Interstate 5 corridor. The northern route, from Portland which heads to Tillamook, is a higher elevation and had snow on the ground, so we went south to Salem and headed west to Lincoln City, then north to Pacific City. We avoided any snow threats, but as you can see the clouds were pretty damn ominous at the coast. This is looking out at the ocean over Pelican Pub and Brewery.

And this is looking out at Haystack Rock.

Wait, I can hear you saying, isn't Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach? Yep, it sure is. And in Pacific City. And there is, apparently, another one further south in Bandon, Oregon. (Yeah, I didn't know that until I looked it up either.) These rocks are called sea stacks or offshore monoliths. They were created of basalt from volcanic eruptions in the Grande Ronde mountains 10-17 million years ago (thank you Wikipedia) and were once connected to the land, but years of erosion from the ocean now leave them standing as offshore sentinels.

Pacific City's Haystack Rock is actually taller than Cannon Beach's - and the second-tallest in the world - but doesn't get near the press as it's brethren to the north. Why? Our theory is because the Cannon Beach one is close enough to walk to at low tide, while this one is not. Or maybe it just had a better PR team.

This is looking north towards Cape Kiwanda. Just to the right of this picture are some towering dunes which would be very cool to explore were it not rainy and 40 degrees.

But you know what? It was Mother of All Storms weekend and this was a storm...it's impossible not to find some beauty. This picture below was taken just a little before sunset.

This is Misaki and I standing on the porch of Pelican Pub and Brewery the next day. It was still cold and windy, but the rain had let up. During the summer the pub has tables out here, right next to the beach, and dogs are allowed as long as they stay in the sand. When we went previously Misaki broke the rules and hid under the table on the concrete pad next to the stand, but she's so perfect no one cared.

The Wildlife

We found some unexpected wildlife near our hotel. I saw all these black shapes over in an RV park and though they were rocks. Until they moved.

Rabbits. Tons of them. And not the normal wild bunnies you see out here, but big, built bunnies that look like pets.

I asked the front desk at the hotel what the story was with all the rabbits. They seemed not exactly tame, but not as fearful as wild rabbits normally are. She laughed, which made me think they get this question a lot. Apparently there was a rabbit breeder in the area many years back who wanted to get out of the business and didn't know what else to do, so she released the bunnies to the wild.

Surprisingly to us, they have thrived. Usually released domestic animals don't do so hot with predators, but she said the population has gone up and down over the years and they have just always stuck around. Apparently they can be seen all over town as well.

And hey, we found the Easter Bunny!

The Hotel

Speaking of the hotel, we stayed at the Inn at Cape Kiwanda, which is right across the street from the brewery. Check out that link. It's interesting because the Inn, the brewery, and a few other businesses in that immediate area work together to build packages for tourists. I'm not sure if all are owned by the same people or if this is simply a mutually beneficial partnership, but it makes planning easy.

The room was nice and we'd stay there again. It was clean and well managed, and our only complaint was neighbors down the hall being loud around midnight. Then again, we stayed at an inn across the street from a brewery on a Friday night...

Obviously dogs are allowed for $20 extra per night. That fee got Misaki a blanket so she could chill on the couch - which she doesn't get to do at home - and a bag of local dog biscuits, which she liked.

Food

Only being in the town for one night and having Misaki with us limited our food options, but we still had some good meals.

Stimulus Cafe - See the hotel pic above? This is the business in the lower right corner of the building. We had a few espresso drinks from there - eggnog latte, mocha, and caramel macchiato - and each one of them was a tad too sweet. I want to like them because they use Stumptown beans, but the sugaryness was just too much.

Pelican Pub and Brewery - The pub takes orders over the phone and does take out, so given the weather and the proximity we ordered dinner Friday night and breakfast Saturday morning from here.

Dinner (menu link) was fish and chips, made with cod, that came with beer battered fries, coleslaw, and tartar sauce. I'm not usually one for tartar sauce, but this one had a great dill flavor. The fish was solid, not too greasy, but those fries were damn excellent. We'd order this again. We also ordered the risotto cakes, which came with a red pepper coulis, sauteed chard, and topped with a mushroom and fennel salad. The cakes, which sounded like an arancini, really didn't have much flavor and were a tad too oily for me.

For breakfast (menu link) we split an order of the crab cake eggs Benedict, served with hash browns. This was hands down the best thing we've had from Pelican (well, apart from Mother of All Storms, at least for me). The crab cakes were hearty and well done, the eggs cooked perfectly, the Hollandaise creamy goodness, and the hash browns crunched perfectly.

Greatful Bread Bakery - On the way out of town we stopped here to check out a bakery many people had good things to say about. I picked out a pesto baguette, an apricot and sour cream scone, and a cinnamon twist. All of them were okay and we'd go back if we were staying in Pacific City again, but it's not a destination type of bakery for us. The scone I personally didn't think worked very well, but that's probably just me.

TILLAMOOK

We reached the coast really early on Friday, way too early to check in, so we drove up 101 to Tillamook to check out the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Dogs are not allowed inside - which made cheese lover Misaki a tad sad - but she was a good girl in crate for a few minutes while we grabbed some nibbles.

We bought a bag of cheese curds (squeaky cheese) mostly for her, but we like them too. Also picked up some fudge (dreamsicle - interesting) and some smoked white cheddar, which is excellent. Since it was lunch time we grabbed some ice cream - vacation calories don't count, remember? I ordered a scoop of the new pumpkin and one of Grandma's Cake Batter. Neither of them, in our opinion, are keepers (last summer they had a Birthday Cake flavor that was much better). Wifey ordered a scoop of French vanilla with a scoop of orange sherbet. That was predictably fantastic - it's sad the orange sherbet is a Cheese Factory exclusive, because it would always be in our freezer.

LINCOLN CITY

On the way home on Saturday we headed into Lincoln City, but stopped first at a random viewpoint just south of Pacific City. Misaki hopped up on the stone wall to check out the view.

We basically hit Lincoln City for three things: coffee, caramel corn and a bathroom.

Mojo Coffee - Here I just ordered a large mocha, which comes with four shots. Really? They understand that if I want a larger size that doesn't mean I want it sweeter and need more espresso without having to order extra shots? (This is sarcasm - I totally agree with this practice.) Starbucks, take note. I enjoyed it and I'd go back (they also use Stumptown beans).

Candyland - One thing we must always get when we go to the beach is caramel corn. It just seems right. This trip we stopped at Candyland, some place I hadn't been for years. It's right in the old "downtown" part of Lincoln City on Highway 101. The caramel corn was okay - it had this odd flavor we still can't place (and oddly dissipated over time). But hey, caramel corn is still caramel corn. We might go back here, we might not. The woman behind the counter could see Misaki and Wifey in the car from inside the shop and asked me about the dog, what breed she was, etc. Then she offered to dog sit if we needed it. I'm not sure if she was serious or not, but, um, thanks?

We stopped at the beach access at the mouth of the D River (I guess they don't like saying "Devil's") for a bathroom break. Misaki took a liking to the beach grass.

CUBANISIMO

And then it was time to head home. At the last minute, just east of Rickreall, Oregon on Highway 22, we decided to take a quick side trip to Cubanisimo Vineyards for wine tasting. A while back another winery had recommended their rosé, so we were in the area and figured what the heck.

Our tasting that day was for six wines, which costs $5 (or nothing if you buy a bottle). As it turned out we liked five of the six, something that has never happened at any other winery we have visited. Usually we like at most one or two, but at Cubanismo we even like the pinot noir, something else we don't usually go for (despite Oregon being so well known for them). It was just before Thanksgiving so they had already started their specials for the very popular wine weekend, and since we liked so many of the bottles we went with the 2010 Rosado de Pinot Noir, the 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (a blend), and the 2008 Estate Pinot Noir. That last one will go very, very well with a nice steak, but all of them were excellent. I urge you to check out the photos of the vineyard and if you are in the area to check them out. The grounds are beautiful and their people very down to earth and knowledgeable.

We came home with three bottles of wine, a case of beer, baked goods, and a ton of great pictures. What else could you ask for from a weekend away? We definitely want to go back to Pacific City and next time may rent a house and stay longer.

Thanksgiving at The Country Cat

2011-11-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

Wifey and I decided to buck tradition a bit this year and eat our big Thanksgiving meal out. We decided on The Country Cat, one of our favorites in Portland and a place we tried to get a reservation at last year but they filled up too fast. I got us a reservation for 2pm on Thanksgiving Day and this is what we got to eat ($45 each for an amuse bouche, salad, entree, and dessert).

First up, the amuse bouche. Starting at the top and going clockwise: truffled deviled egg; whole wheat cracker with beer cheese spread and a housemade pickle; and a toast topped with chopped crab and grilled shrimp.

The egg was nothing special, but the other two were quite tasty. They call the beer cheese "Judy" according to the menu - I'm sure there is a story behind that, but I don't know it. That was our favorite of the three.

For my salad course I chose the red wine marinated beets with blue cheese, candied bacon and rosemary toasted walnuts.

I don't even really like walnuts, but these were excellent. The beets had great flavor and worked well with everything else. I love the blue cheese, but see that huge chunk? Either it was too much or I didn't distribute it evenly enough in my bites, because I had a big chunk left at the end. No, that's not a problem.

Wifey chose the mixed field greens with blue cheese dressing.

This was...a salad. Because of the "field"ness of the greens it was a tad bitter, but the blue cheese handled that nicely. Nothing special.

For my entree I chose the double cut pork chop and rosemary mashed yams with whole grain mustard plum sauce. The chop was served on a bed of braised collard greens and topped with two roasted figs (that's what's on top of the chop in the pic below).

Everything on this plate was excellent. The pork was cooked through evenly with a very tasty crust, and the yams and collards provided great flavor contrasts. The figs felt a tad out of the place just because they were so far to the sweet side of things, but still tasty. I can't wait to go back to Country Cat for their normal dinner menu to try out The Whole Hog.

Wifey chose the more traditional meal as her entree: brined, smoked and braised turkey, Granny Criss's stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, honey glazed carrots, and cranberry sauce.

Both light and dark meat came on the plate. You can see the dark meat in the top left of the picture; it had been shredded and tasted almost like pulled pork. Each of these items were fantastic on their own, and together it was like a perfect symphony of flavors.

I should note, we were also served biscuits to go with our meal and as usual, The Country Cat nailed them. Love those biscuits.

Both of us, trying not to stuff ourselves too much, barely ate half of our entrees to ensure leftovers and to leave room for dessert. My dessert was an apple-cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream (menu said caramel, but it was definitely just vanilla).

I wasn't sure about the cranberries, but they turned out to be well cooked and not tart at all. Considering it takes much longer to bring a cranberry to the same consistency as a cooked apple that means this crisp wasn't nearly as simple as it seems. The flavors blended nicely, but that caramel ice cream would have added a nice layer of decadence to the dish. Still, really enjoyed it.

Wifey chose the chocolate pecan pie.

We weren't really sure what form the chocolate would take in contrast to a regular pecan pie, but apparently it was mixed in with the normal pecan pie innards, large drops on top of the pie, and then a sauce drizzled over the plate. (This is where I note chocolate pecan pie slices that came out of the kitchen after ours also had whip cream. It wasn't on the menu so I wouldn't think of complaining - not our style - but it's noteworthy.)

Both of the desserts were solid, but not up to the same level as greatness of the rest of the meal. To be honest, were it not included in the set price I'm not sure I would have ordered them - it depends on what the price would be.

Service was generally prompt and not as chaotic as it sometimes can be. Overall we had a great time and a great meal and we'd recommend the Thanksgiving meal to anyone who is interested (you know, next year). Would we go back? Yes, but there are also other places around town who do their own Thanksgiving specials we'd like to try out.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 13

2011-11-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Another weak week for me last Saturday with my picks going only 3-3 to make me 57-26 on the season. Maybe Civil War week will be nicer to me.

There's some interesting dynamics this week. With USC's upset of Oregon, ending their slim nation title game hopes, the Trojans can end UCLA's season with a win this week. A loss by the Bruins (very probable) and the Sun Devils (less likely, but possible as the Devils downward spiral continues) and a win by Utah (also very probable) would send the Utes to the Pac-12 title game as the South Division champion. A UCLA upset and they win the south. If ASU wins and UCLA loses, ASU wins the south.

In the North Oregon takes the division with a Civil War win. If they lose, Stanford plays for the Pac-12 title and a shot at the Rose Bowl.

I think the Beavers will play tough against the Ducks, but the only way they have a chance for an upset is if they make zero turnovers. If they play the Ducks even in that category or if they come up negative, they will get beat. Next year when this freshmen-heavy squad is a year older and the game is at Reser, the Ducks better be ready.

And with that, on to this week's picks! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

FRIDAY

12:30pm - Colorado at Utah (NR, 35) - ROOT Sports - UTAH
7:15pm - California at Arizona State - ESPN - ARIZONA STATE

SATURDAY

12:30pm - Oregon State at Oregon (9, 9) - ABC - OREGON
1pm - Louisiana-Lafayette at Arizona - No TV? - ARIZONA
4:30pm - Washington State at Washington - Versus - WASHINGTON
5pm - Notre Dame (22, 24) at Stanford (4, 5) - ABC - STANFORD
7pm - UCLA at USC (10, NR) - ROOT Sports - USC

Stanford, Washington, Arizona State, Oregon, California, Utah and UCLA are bowl-eligible. USC has enough wins, but is not eligible for the postseason. That will do it for the conference, who won't fill all their bowl obligations, especially when Stanford is chosen for the Fiesta Bowl.

Who do you pick?

Mother Of All Storms

2011-11-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

Last summer Wifey and I stopped in Pacific City for a quick bite on our way up the coast and ate on the patio of the Pelican Pub & Brewery. I had never been there before or tried their beer, but after a solid meal and a tasty Kiwanda Cream Ale, I was ready to try some more.

I had heard stories about the Mother of All Storms, a bourbon-barrel aged barleywine released in the fall bringing scores of visitors from the Willamette Valley into this small beach town. The beer only makes it to a select valley locations, and even then that's if the small run doesn't sell out at the brewery itself. And the taste? It's legendary.

So fall came and we wanted to get out of town for a night, and we came across this deal, a combination deal with Pelican and the Inn at Cape Kiwanda, situated right across the street from the brewery. Keep in mind, I've never even tried this beer, but decided what the hell. I mean, who doesn't need an entire case? They even threw in a free T-shirt with the beer's logo (it says 2010, but who am I to quibble?). Plus, if we got to see an actual storm, that would be nice too.

And it was pretty stormy, at least on Friday. The rain was heavy, the clouds dark, and the wind viciously cold.

The next day the sun broke out of the clouds a bit, and as promised a case of 22-ounce bottles and a T-shirt were waiting for me at the front desk. A case!

Yes, of course I opened one when we got home that evening. I mean, how could I not, since we spent the night and drove to the coast and back for it. Plus, I have quite a few of them - might as well get started, right?

This beer has a very nice nose if you are a bourbon fan (I am, as you can see in my comments about Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout, Full Sail's Top Sail, and Boulevard's Bourbon Barrel Quad). It pours a very, very dark amber, but isn't nearly as viscous or syrupy as some other beers. As the beer warms in various turns you will get flavors of malt, caramel, vanilla, and oak.

And it should be allowed to warm a bit, for this is a sipper if there ever was one. Why? At the time of bottling this beer is a 13.5% alcohol and as it ages - as it should age well in the bottle if stored correctly - that number will go up. To be real honest, half a bottle of this is plenty. Unless you really don't have any other plans that night, it's best to share with someone or even stick half in the fridge, where it will be fine for a couple days.

All of that adds up to a ringing endorsement from me. I'm glad we went out there and I'm glad I have so many of these, but it probably wasn't necessary. I'd go back next year to pick up a couple bottles on release day, but I don't drink enough beer - and like variety - to justify an entire case. Maybe splitting it with someone.

Either way, if you find yourself driving north from Lincoln City and want to stop for a bite and a beer, Pelican Brewery is the place to go. And, if it's November and you want one of the most exclusive and well-balanced beers in the state of Oregon, pick yourself up a Mother of All Storms. Or a case.

Pizza At Via Tribunali

2011-11-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you've been coming to this blog for awhile now you know we love pizza. All kinds. American style, northern Italian, New York, Napoletana - anything. And between places like Ken's Artisan, Apizza Scholls, Dove Vivi, Nostrana and Lovely's 50-50 Portland has quite a nice mix of pizza varieties.

But until now Portland did not have a pizzeria with a pizzialo certified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. What is that? The short version is they train and certify pizza makers (pizziali) in the making of pizza Napoletana - that is, pizza styled in the history of Napoli (Naples). Why there? Because, it's the best in the world. Anyone who tells you differently simply has not been there to experience it. (Full disclosure: I have. I spent the summer between my junior and senior years at the University of Oregon study at the Universita di Perugia per Stranieri (University of Perugia for Foreigners) and on one weekend trip we took the train all the way down to Napoli where one of my roommates, who had been to Italy before, took us to this tiny whole in the wall pizza place that was simply amazing. I don't know the name, I could never find it again, and I have no idea how it compares to what is considered the best in Napoli, but I will tell you the quality was simply amazing. It's difficult to put into words, to be honest. It's one of those things that when you put it in your mouth you just know you are having a transcendent experience. So yes, I'm a big fan of anyone who gets certified and will never say it's just another certificate. Well, maybe it is - a certificate of being awesome.)

Enter Via Tribunali. Via Tribunali started in Seattle and just a couple weeks back opened their first restaurant outside of Washington with a spot in downtown Portland next door to VooDoo Doughnuts on Second Avenue.

We tried Via Tribunali a while back on a food tour through Belltown in Seattle and really enjoyed it, so when the rumors started up almost two years ago about Portland getting their own outpost, we were of course excited, so on a recent weeknight when we didn't want to cook we checked it out.

First impression? Via Tribunali Portland is dark. Very dark. You walk in off the street and the building is long and narrow, with a bar to the right and booths on the left. At the far end of the bar sits the legendary pizza oven and a few more tables are to the left. In the very back is a stairway that leads up to more tables in a balcony (this is very similar to the setup at Little Bird Bistro and Mucca Osteria, so apparently this style of buildings is common in the older part of downtown Portland).

The tables are lit with candles and are the only thing with which to light the menu. I get the vibe they are going for, but it could be just a tiny bit brighter.

On to the food. We ordered two pizzas (sadly, no pictures since we forgot the camera, but the lack of light would have made it problematic). First was the MARGHERITA (pomodoro, fresh mozzarella, grana padano, olive oil, basil) for $13 (grana padano is a hard cheese, comparable to parmesan, and pomodoro is Italian for tomato, which in this case refers to the sauce).

To be blunt, this is one of the absolute best pizzas we've ever had. It's simple, but perfect. The crust had a nice char, thicker around the edges and thinner, almost soft, in the middle. The sauce also was perfectly seasoned and the cheese was spectacular. We'd get this again in a heartbeat.

Our other pizza was the VIA TRIBUNALI (pomodoro, smoked mozzarella, cherry tomato, ricotta, bufala mozzarella, grana, basil) for $17. This has an interesting presentation. Imagine a normal pizza with toppings. Now, imagine a quarter of it folded to the middle on each side. Then, sprinkle down the middle with bitter greens - that's the Via Tribunali namesake.

Just like with the other, the flavors were were very, very well done. If we had one beef it was with the topping distribution. The sausage and tomatoes didn't make it all over and clumped in spots. Again, the crust was nicely charred and hit the perfect amount of chewiness.

That crust...it's perfect. I told Wifey it transported me straight back to Napoli, it was that good. And really, that's the key to a real Italian pizza - the crust. Toppings are just there for flavor, not as the focus, and at Via Tribunali they take that to heart and execute it very, very well. It's no surprise their pizziali have the Napoletana certification.

Is this our favorite in Portland? Well...who knows, really? I tend to be most excited about whichever I've had last and each one of our favorites (mentioned at the top of the post) has something that is unique about them. This one, I will say, is closest to Italy and brings back those memories of a great two-month stay back in college. I really, really need to return so I can bring Wifey and so we can experience the flavors of Italy together. Until then, Via Tribunali, Nostrana and Mucca Osteria are going to have to be good enough.

We will absolutely be returning and can't wait to go back.

Oh, and one more thing. Keep in mind a key piece of physics if you sit in the balcony as we did: heat rises. And that pizza oven? Super freaking hot. I was wearing a sweatshirt because it was cold outside and by the end of the meal I was sweating. Not good or bad, just something to keep in mind. If you wear something warm, make sure it's a layer and you can take it off. I wasn't comfortable with the shirt under my sweatshirt, so I just suffered.

Have to Mention

If you order a pizza and don't finish it, or take your leftovers to go, they will be boxed in this:

(Photo via Scott's Pizza Tours)

Apparently these boxes are made by a company in Italy and Via Tribunali buys them for their stores. Their logo is nowhere on the box (a sharp departure from any pizza place I'm familiar with), but it definitely is...memorable, isn't it?

Another Visit to Bakery Bar

2011-11-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

Wifey and I have a place we really like to hit up for brunch on a Saturday or Sunday morning. It's a small place out on NE Glisan called Bakery Bar, just a block up from Cuban restaurant Pambiche between 29th and 30th. They have a wide array of baked goods, an espresso bar, small and tasty breakfast and lunch plates, make cakes and things for special events, and also serve drinks.

Bakery Bar is in a bright, orange-red building set back from the road with picnic tables and plenty of outdoor seating where one can bring a well-behaved dog (Misaki hasn't been...yet). Service can be a little chaotic. Closer to noon on the weekend there may be a line out the door to sit and eat, though anything can be ordered to go. Inside they have seating for around 35-40 people. (Apparently I wrote about them two years ago...well, they are still yummy.)

We've been enough times now I think I can make some more comments on them. The service is, just about always, not in a hurry. It takes time to be seated, time for a waiter to take your order, time for your food to come, time for boxes and the bill to come, and time for payments to be processed. This is, of course, normal, but at Bakery Bar it's always twice as long as necessary - or more.

So if you are in a hurry and want a quick bite, Bakery Bar is not the place for you. However, if you want to sit back, relax, and enjoy some good conversation because you don't have much planned that day - or nothing planned at all - this is a great place. The atmosphere is lively, the service is friendly, and the food is pretty dang good.

On our last visit I ordered the D-Bear Bowl. I have no idea where the name comes from, but it's their tasty rosemary hash browns topped with sausage gravy, two eggs, and two strips of bacon (optional add-on - of course I said yes). I ordered my eggs over easy (why I'm not sure, since I prefer medium).

All of this together I enjoyed, but by itself some of the elements weren't great. The eggs, for example, didn't have much flavor. Maybe they aren't cage free and the chickens don't enjoy a well-rounded, healthy diet? I have no idea, but they just tasted a tad weak for me. The bacon, also, wasn't anything to write home about, and I would have liked a tad more rosemary in my hash browns (I think they have started using less than they used to).

But when all of the elements are mixed with the sausage gravy, which is always super damn fantastic...let's just say it's a satisfying meal.

Wifey ordered a special, the eggs Benedict with ham with a side of the rosemary hashbrowns.

This was also a solid dish. The Hollondaise was well done, the eggs cooked well, and their English muffins are always pretty tasty. However, like with my plate it needed a little more...something. Seasoning? Salt and pepper? Not sure.

Also, if you ever go, always order a bourbon caramel latte (which you can add an actual shot of bourbon if you like) - you will never, ever regret that.

We'll go back despite the little things, but I think it's slipped just a bit on our list of places we love in Portland.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 12

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Humbling. Last week was my worst I can recall, going just 2-4 to set me at 54-23 on the season. I'm pleased I was wrong about Stanford, but who seriously could have thought Colorado would pick last week to actually show up? And Sun Devils, what the heck is going on?

This week we once again have some nice matchups, highlighted by USC's visit to Eugene. The Ducks cannot afford a letdown.

Here's another storyline for you that will be going down in Corvallis: Is this the beginning of the Nick Montana era for the Washington Huskies? (And yes, Joe is his father.) Montana has played well when given plays and starter Keith Price likely is out this week. Will he get his job back? Or will he fall out of favor like Ryan Katz did for the Beavers, or Jeff Tuel might be after the performance of Connor Halliday at Washington State?

Even the not as good teams have intrigue this time of year.

And with that, on to this week's picks! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

SATURDAY

12:30pm - Washington (34, NR) at Oregon State - ROOT Sports - WASHINGTON
2pm - Utah (NR, 36t) at Washington State - Fox College Sports Atlantic - UTAH
4:30pm - Colorado at UCLA - Versus - UCLA
5pm - USC (18, NR) at Oregon (4, 4) - ABC - OREGON
6:30pm - Arizona at Arizona State (33, 36t) - No TV? - ARIZONA STATE
7:15pm - California at Stanford (8, 9) - ESPN - STANFORD

Stanford, Washington, Arizona State, Oregon, California and Utah are bowl-eligible. USC has enough wins, but is not eligible for the postseason. UCLA has five wins and at least one of them will become bowl-eligible this week.

Who do you pick?

Dinner at Mirakutei

2011-11-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

A couple months back I wrote about a fantastic lunch Wifey and I had at Mirakutei on East Burnside and I commented about how we needed to go back for dinner. So we did.

I won't rehash the history of the place. I'll just say we went for dinner on a Saturday night and did not have to wait at all - it was about half full. This, dear readers, is a travesty.

We started with some tempura - shrimp and broccoli.

Very lightly breaded and cooked just enough so not to be greasy but still be done thoroughly.

And of course we had to get the gyoza, which were so damn good before. (We wanted the fried rice that we had before, too, but unfortunately it's not on the dinner menu.)

Again, cooked just right with a bit of crunch on the outside and the pork and onion mixture inside still soft.

We also ordered a sushi roll, one called the crunchy roll, with shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, and a couple other ingredients. It was fantastic.

Next up was kara-age, or fried chicken. Skinless pieces of chicken breast, lightly fried and a tad salty. Perfect.

Our last item was a special of the night, a slow cooked piece of pork belly. It melted in your mouth, both the meat and the fat layers. The sauce was a little sweet, too, which was a nice complementary flavor. I could eat this every night, though I may die of a heart attack or something.

Conclusion? Mirakutei is fantastic for lunch OR dinner! Seriously, go - it's right there at the top of best Japanese restaurants in Portland (as you can see, we've tried many). Kurata is good, but not quite this good, and Yuza, Wafu, Shigezo and Biwa are in a slightly different category as izakayas. We haven't yet been to Murata or Yakuza, but they are on the short list.

Oh, one more thing: this entire meal was $33. Not bad at all.

Venturing Into Trappist Beer

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge beer drinker, but I do like to sample new things and gain appreciation for the most well respected flavors and traditions on the market. And while I still cannot drink a Guinness - it's too harsh for my palate - I have enjoyed the few beers I've had that claim to be traditionally Belgian in influence.

So if I like those, why not check out the giants in the field? That, and the encouragement of friends, led me to decide I needed to try out these Trappist beers.

A few weeks back when I made my pilgrimage to Belmont Station for Pumking they also had this:

What better way to get a feel for a classic Belgian than a sampler pack of Chimay? And hey, free glass - sold.

I started with the Red Cap, pouring into, of course, the new glass.

The red has a very rich, dark orange color with a nice head on it, pouring very smoothly. The nose is mildly sweet with some spiciness. I expected a very rich flavor from the smell and color, but I didn't get that. It wasn't bad, just a little flat, in my opinion (which, I see, doesn't match 1,400+ reviews on Beer Advocate). I also felt the alcohol showed through a tad too much, almost overpowering the flavors of the malt and the spices. It wasn't bad, really, just wasn't the greatest thing ever.

Next up was the Triple, in the bottle with yellow label.

I really liked this one. It had a slightly sweeter, more fuller flavor than the red. I was a tad surprised by that because the color was lighter in the glass (had about the same amount of head). A tiny bit of fruit in the nose. I'd have this one again.

Last up of the Chimay gift pack was the Blue Cap, predictably the one with the blue label.

This was, by far, my favorite of the group. It had a great nose, a little bit fruity and with a nice yeastiness, like rising bread. The Blue pours a rich, dark auburn/orange - almost a mahogany color. Unlike with the other two Chimays, the alcohol is almost non-existent in the flavor in favor of various fruits. Definitely the most balanced of the group.

Overall I would buy the Blue Cap again, I'd drink the Trippel if available and in the mood but I wouldn't seek it out, and the Red Cap I probably wouldn't go back to.

But wait - there's more!

Saying I'm trying Trappist ales and then only trying one brewery seems a little silly, doesn't it?

So I also picked up a Rochefort 8 at the suggestion of friend on Twitter, from the Abbey of St. Remy in Rochefort, Belgium (that link is in French, but if you use Google Chrome as a browser it will handily translate the page for you).

The 8 is the middle offering from Rochefort, and I picked it over the 6 and the 10 (John's Marketplace in Multnomah Village, just outside of Portland, carries all three) because...no reason. Just on a whim. I do intend to try the others at some point.

This beer had a very foamy head on it and poured a very rich amber color. It had only a slightly yeasty smell and little fruit. My suggestion? Let it warm up a bit and the flavors will meld very nicely. Also, don't drink it before having to do some serious writing for the night. It's less than a 12-ounce bottle, but be wary of that 9.2% - it sneaks up on you.

I did really enjoy the Rochefort 8, but of these four Trappist ales Chimay Blue was my favorite, with the 8 a clear second place over the other two Chimays. I thoroughly enjoyed this foray into Trappist ales and will at some point try the other Rocheforts as well the other breweries - Orval, Westmalle, and the like.

I don't know that I'll decide I like these better than my favorite stouts and porters, but they are a nice change of pace and just as enjoyable in their own right.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 11

2011-11-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

An upset by the UCLA Bruins last week left me at 4-2 on the week and 52-19 on the season.

This week, if you care about college football at all, you know is the red-letter game in the 2011 Pac-12 season with Oregon visiting Stanford. The winner of that game will (the world is 99% sure) win the Pac-12 North Division and host the conference championship game where they will be heavily favored to earn the conference's automatic BCS berth and perhaps be in the running for the national title game (if it's Stanford, probably not for Oregon). Whew.

I'm not much for detailed breakdowns, but seeing how the Stanford offensive line handles Oregon's fast defense to protect quarterback Andrew Luck should be entertaining. Plus, watching any team try and handle Oregon's offense is always interesting. If you read on you'll see my pick, but I went back and forth a few times before I made it.

Ted Miller, ESPN Pac-12 expert who I have linked to in this space before, has been adamant all season long Stanford would win this game. However, when it came time for him to make his own weekly picks (note his season record compared to mine) this week, he chose Oregon.

In other news, UCLA's upset win over Arizona State apparently has some thinking the Bruins could win the Pac-12 South. Yes, as of today they are in the driver's seat, but it won't happen. They will lose this week to Utah (while ASU will also win) and they are going to lose their final game at USC. Don't get excited Bruins; the Sun Devils will still play the Oregon-Stanford winner in the league championship game.

Oregon State-Cal is another interesting matchup because each week you never know which version of these teams is going to show up. I have little faith in Cal's offense and a lot in Oregon State's defense, which led to my pick.

And with that, on to this week's picks! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

SATURDAY

11:40am - Arizona at Colorado - Fox College Sports Pacific - ARIZONA
12:45pm - Washington (30, 29) at USC (18, NR) - FX - USC
3:30pm - Oregon State at California - ROOT Sports - OREGON STATE
3:30pm - UCLA at Utah - Fox College Sports Central - UTAH
5pm - Oregon (6, 6) at Stanford (3, 2) - ABC - STANFORD
7:30pm - Arizona State (28, 26) at Washington State - Versus - ARIZONA STATE

Stanford, Washington, Arizona State and Oregon are bowl-eligible. USC has enough wins, but is not eligible for the postseason. California, UCLA and Utah each have five wins and at least one of them will become bowl-eligible this week.

Who do you pick?

Another Brunch at ISK

2011-11-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

A while back we had a fantastic brunch at Irving Street Kitchen in Northwest Portland, so last weekend we went back for another round.

I ordered the French toast bread pudding, which came with vanilla whip cream and warm plums.

Not only was it pretty, but it was damn tasty. With the whip cream it might have been a tad on the sweet side, but those plums melted in your mouth.

Wifey ordered the "Smothered Southern" with sunny side eggs, a biscuit, grits and chili creole. Fried chicken was optional and after the waitress assured us it was a breast and not brown meat, she added that as well.

It's a pretty plate, isn't it?

We finished with their butterscotch pudding, which we were told didn't come with cookies for brunch, only at dinner (never mind the visual evidence from our last visit in the link at the top of this post - but yes, it could have changed; on the bill it's listed as a "to go" pudding...hmmm). They did bring us out a molasses cookie, which smelled fantastic but ended up being dry and bland. The taste fell way short of the smell's promises.

The meal was very good, but we have a few beefs.

1) That was not breast meat. Instead, it was a drumstick and a thigh. And yes, this is typical for fried chicken, but that's why we asked the question. There are restaurants around town - Screen Door comes to mind - that use white meat for their fried chicken. If we had simply been told no, it wasn't breast, we wouldn't have ordered it. Considering it was a $7 addition that's noteworthy. We probably should have been wary after the waitress didn't really seem too sure of her confirmation. It would have been easy enough for the waitress to say she didn't know and go ask, and we would have appreciated that extra effort. But she didn't and she didn't know the product. That's not okay.

2) Service in general was fairly slow. I'm not talking about how long it took to get the food, but at the end of the meal when it came time to bring out bill. I don't understand why any restaurant would take so damn long to bring a bill after diners are clearly finished with dessert, and then why it would take so long to process and return the receipt to be signed. It was busier than our last brunch, but the restaurant was far from "busy." Also, I should note she brought the bill without even asking if we wanted dessert, which we did.

3) Packing up the leftovers was a complete failure. In general I prefer to package my own leftovers because then I can pick and choose what I want, but many restaurants do it for you. Normally that's fine, but not for this meal. I finished my food, but Wifey only ate about half of each piece of her meal, and less than half of the chicken. Our waitress took away the plate and brought out a box which seemed small but we didn't really think much of it. After we got home and opened it up, we saw all that was in there was the leftover biscuit and just the thigh piece of chicken (the drumstick was partially eaten). No egg, no grits, and none of the chili creole. Not only did we spend an extra $7 for the chicken that wasn't what we were promised, but half of the leftovers didn't make it in the box.

And yes, my tip was less than I would normally give, but probably higher than was deserved.

Maybe our waitress was new, I don't know, but it left a bad taste in our mouths. We will probably still return at some point because the food really is very good - and we want to check out dinner - but we might be a little less patient if the same issues crop up again.

In the meantime, ISK is doing a take-out menu for Thanksgiving we are thinking about ordering from. At least then we don't have to wonder about service.

Misaki Does Not Love EzyDog

2011-11-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

Pet owners are a little crazy, we know that. Still, after some research and hearing some recommendations on Twitter from other Shiba owners, we decided to get Misaki an EzyDog QuickFit harness. Harnesses are suppose to put less strain on the dog's neck than a regular collar and leash, especially if you have a dog with a mind of its own (meaning: a Shiba).

Other Shibas can't be wrong, right? Check out Tokyo with her harness in San Diego, Prince Zuko wearing his in Yosemite Park, Phineas pimped out on the sidewalk in Jersey, and Kuri hiking in Hawaii. All of them proudly wear their EzyDog harnesses and their owners love them because they are, well, easy to put on and make the dog easier to control.

But ordering wasn't easy. We wanted the pink camouflage, which apparently meant a special order. We could have ordered it ourselves, but a store we stopped by to see if they had the color offered to order it for us. That saved us $5 in shipping so we said sure. They told us 1-2 weeks. Three weeks, a phone call, and an email later, it finally showed up. Rrrr.

Anyway, we brought it home, got it adjusted, and put it on Misaki in the house. She seemed okay with it.

Of course, upon further review, this is the look she gives us when we put anything on her. It's the "I can't believe I let you do this" look. By the way, anytime I see her sitting like this, Paul Wall's Sittin' Sideways pops into my head.

It was rainy that day, so we just took a couple pics and took off the harness. On Sunday it was a beautiful, chilly, clear, fall day, so we got the harness on her and took her outside. At first she didn't want to leave the house, but we didn't think anything of it. We managed to get her off the porch.

And then down a stair, where she didn't want to go any further. This is her "what the eff do you think you are doing to me?" look.

After some cajoling (and tugging) we got her all the front steps.

And there she sat, as annoyed as a dog can be.

We tried a little more cajoling and tugging, but she resisted.

And then she tried eating the leash, which doesn't bother her in the least with her regular collar.

She sat again and refused to look at us. There was no chance in hell she was going for a walk in the harness.

We have read stories about Shibas who refuse to walk on leash, throwing themselves onto the ground and whining, but they were always kind of funny in an "I'm glad that's not me" kind of way. Misaki has always loved loved loved going for walks and she gets excited every time we get out her leash.

But not with the harness. At least she doesn't whine, but that would be beneath her anyway. She'll just huff at us and give us condescending looks until we give in to her desires.

And, of course, we finally did. I took the harness back in the house and exchanged it for her collar, and she proceeded to go for a walk like everything was fine.

I'm obviously a little annoyed, after waiting all that time and dropping $29 on the harness, but what can I do? I have a theory here. Misaki has never worn a harness of any kind, just a collar. I think she feels completely restricted with having the band of fabric now running behind her front legs. I have no idea what she thinks is going on with it, but she sure doesn't approve. What's funny is her son that we have met, Aizu, also refuses to wear a harness and when his parents make him wear it, he just mopes around.

What I think we are going to try is giving her treats when we put it on and let her wear it in the house, perhaps building up to another attempt at walking on the leash. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears (or eyes I suppose, since this is a blog and all).

Misaki may have won this round, this battle, but we'll break her yet. What? Just ignore that sound of a dog laughing in the background...

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 10

2011-11-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Another 4-2 week (seriously, what's up with Cal?) pushed me to 48-17 on the season with my Pac-12 picks.

Couple big warmup games this week for Stanford and Oregon, both going on the road before their matchup next week in Palo Alto. I believe the Beavers will play the Cardinal tougher than many expect and they will play much better than they did against Utah.

As for the Ducks, a few in the media seem to be picking the Dawgs for an upset. True, the Ducks didn't look great last week, but Darren Thomas and LaMichael James are healthy (or so they say). I don't think it will be close.

The best game of the week may be Utah and Arizona. Utah looked fantastic against the Beavers last week and the Wildcats have been very productive since firing Mike Stoops. If the same Utah team shows up this week that beat BYU, Pitt, and dominated Oregon State on both sides of the line, the Cats will have problems.

Oh, and I bet ESPN thought that SC-Colorado game would be a little more interesting when they scheduled it. Whoops.

And with that, on to this week's picks! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

FRIDAY

6pm - USC (21, NR) at Colorado - ESPN - USC

SATURDAY

12:30pm - Stanford (4, 3) at Oregon State - ABC - STANFORD
3:30pm - Washington State at California - ROOT Sports - WASHINGTON STATE
4pm - Utah at Arizona - Fox College Sports Central - UTAH
4:30pm - Arizona State (20, 18) at UCLA - Versus - ARIZONA STATE
7:30pm - Oregon (6, 6) at Washington (28, 28) - ROOT Sports - OREGON

Stanford, Washington, Arizona State and Oregon are bowl-eligible with six wins. USC earned their sixth win, but is not eligible for the postseason. California, UCLA and Utah each have four wins.

Who do you pick?

Have My Cats Sprouted Thumbs?

2011-10-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I came out of the bedroom just after six in the morning, as I do every workday, following Misaki who bursts out of the bedroom in a whirl of fur. (I'm actually not kidding about fur - she's blowing her coat right now, which means fur everywhere.)

For some reason she ran over to the corner of the coffee table (the picture below is a weak re-enactment), sniffing at something. Thinking maybe one of the cats had been sick during the night and not wanting Misaki to "clean up," I followed her over to check it out.

She was sniffing the base of one of the table legs (in this pic it would be the one furthest from the camera). There was something small there, so I picked it up and found this.

It took me a minute to figure out what it was: a nut that holds the frame of the table to the legs. Both the frame and the legs are steel and each leg is attached to the frame with four bolts and nuts (the below picture is an upside down look at each corner). That may sound like overkill, but the top of the table simply lays on the frame and is made from a solid piece of slate; it's freakin' heavy.

But now that I knew what the item in my hand was, I was confused. How did it come unscrewed from the bolt? Each of the other fifteen nuts were screwed on tight. The table hadn't moved in a couple years and in that time no one has ever messed with the nuts and bolts. Misaki will sometimes curl up under that table, but not at the corner that was unscrewed (in the picture above it's the corner to the left side of the image). Plus, she doesn't sit and paw at random things.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one other tidbit. See, I didn't even find this nut under where it came unscrewed. No, instead it was nestled at the base of the another leg three feet away.

In the absence of any other explanation, that only leaves these fiendishly clever little felines.

Sera and Moochie: "What do you want?"

Did my cats really do this? Did they figure out how to unscrew a nut that at one time was tightened with a wrench? And how long have they been working on this? Was it just one of them, or a team effort? And what were they trying to accomplish?

So many questions, so few answers. Maybe, perhaps, the biggest questions of all are these: Should I be worried? What are they going to unscrew next?

If you don't hear from me for a while, it might be because the cats unscrewed my office chair and I collapsed. They are pretty sneaky...

Hail to the King, the Pumking

2011-10-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

I had sworn off fruity and flavored beers completely.

There had been some bad experiences - and zero good ones - most notably the Black & Blue by Dogfish Head tasting of rancid blueberries and raspberries. Ugh.

I was not going to bother with ales brewed with pumpkin, figuring it was just another shtick I would end up regretting spending my money on. But then friends started going on and on about how good their pumpkin brews were, and it eventually broke down my defenses. Everyone else was enjoying them and I wanted in.

So I started with Stingy Jack, a pumpkin brew from the local Laurelwood Brewery. I could smell the pumpkin a little bit when I popped the cap off the bottle, but I only barely tasted it. The flavors were very well balanced though, with not too much pumpkin pie spices or hops. I enjoyed it, so I decided I was willing to try more.

Next came Punkin Ale from Dogfish Head.

As I mentioned above, I'd had a bad experience with Dogfish, even though many craft brew fans love them. Another one of theirs I tried, the Festina Peche (peach flavored), was just odd and I wouldn't recommend it. But still, Punkin was one of the top-rated pumpkin brews nationally and also one of the more inexpensive bottles, so I said what the heck.

And I liked this one too. It had slightly more spice than the Stingy Jack, but was still well balanced. I'm not a big hops fan, something Dogfish Head is known for, but this brew shows a lot of restraint in that regard.

At this point I deemed myself a pumpkin ale convert.

Friends on the east coast sang the praises of Southern Tier's Pumking all this time, so I had to have it. The problem was Southern Tier hadn't sent any to Portland yet. Most of the local places I pick up beer - Whole Foods or New Seasons, or specialty shops like Belmont Station and John's Marketplace - all carry Southern Tier and I swore I had seen it in previous years, but the middle of October came and still no one had any in stock.

I had just about resigned myself to not getting any Pumking, when Belmont Station - about 18 miles away from me across Portland - posted this:

Here it is. After literally hundreds of phone calls over the last few weeks, the Southern Tier Pumking is finally here. Despite us receiving 40 cases it's sure to go quick, so don't delay if you're hoping to stock up.

Belmont Station is a great place for craft brew aficionados and they maintain their website very well with twice-weekly updates of bottles they get. Needless to say, I was there when they opened the next day. (I have no idea how far 40 cases - 480 bottles - goes, and since they had hundreds of calls I didn't want to miss out.

I bought two bottles and opened up one that night with dinner. Just opening this bottle is tasty, because it smells exactly like pumpkin pie. Exactly. You don't get the alcohol in the nose at all. It pours a nice orange-amber with little head.

And it tastes as good as it smells. Maybe better. I would recommend this to the entire world if I could, since I stocked up with a couple more bottles the next day.

I'm saving these a little bit...it'll be nice to crack one open in March or April, to get a little bit of a fall flashback.

Then, after all of that pining and looking, I stopped at New Seasons to get some milk on the way home from work the other day and what do I see? Cases of Pumking. So buy them now, while you can, because they sure won't last long.

Well, that, and it's one of the best beers I've ever had. Believe the hype and bow down before the Pumking.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 9

2011-10-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

Last week I managed a 4-2 to push me to 44-15 on the season. To be honest, I need to pick it up. A 6-0 week here or there would be nice.

Of course, when Utah and California seem to trot out completely different teams every game, it makes picking winners difficult. And what about those Oregon State Beavers? The quality of those freshmen they play...they may be two years away from a Rose Bowl berth. Laugh at your own risk.

The Oregon and Arizona State games should be over before halftime this week, but the rest of the games have a chance to go down to the wire. Don't discount the Wildcats in Seattle - an upset would not be a total shock. And I picked Stanford over USC, but I am willing to bet their streak of eight straight wins of 25 points or more comes to an end.

And with that, on to this week's picks! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

Saturday

12:00pm - Washington State at Oregon (7, 7) - ROOT Sports - OREGON
3:30pm - Colorado at Arizona State (23, 20) - Fox College Sports Pacific - ARIZONA STATE
4pm - Cal at UCLA - No TV - CAL
4pm - Oregon State at Utah - ROOT Sports - OREGON STATE
5pm - Stanford (4, 3) at USC (20, NR) - ABC - STANFORD
7:30pm - Arizona at Washington (29, 31) - ROOT Sports - WASHINGTON

Stanford and Oregon are bowl-eligible with six wins. Washington and Arizona State should become bowl-eligible this week with wins. USC earned their sixth win, but is not eligible for the postseason.

The Pac-12 has contracts with seven bowl games. Look at the current standings - I'm not convinced they can fill even five of them... Cal? Maybe. UCLA? Wazzu? Oregon State? Utah? They all need quite a bit of help to get to six wins.

Who do you pick?

Dear Netflix: Thank You

2011-10-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Netflix:

I changed my plan on the website today, downgrading to a cheaper option. It was something I've been meaning to do for awhile, I just hadn't got around to it. Then, not more than a couple hours later, I read this article on CNN about how you lost 800,000 subscribers this past summer and I felt I needed to explain a bit.

See, the fact of the matter is I changed my plan because of that initial decision by your company to split apart the Instant streaming option from the disc options, but it's not out of anger or annoyance. No, it's because I'm glad they are now two different things and I don't want to pay for streaming.

This is Misaki's Twitter buddy, Taro the Shiba, nomming on a Netflix envelope.

See, streaming just doesn't do anything for me. I understand the point, but I don't use it. I don't watch video on my computer, my phone, or my iPad, nor do I have any intention of beginning anytime soon. I own a 46-inch television which I like very much, but it's not a streaming device. Sure, I can use my PlayStation3 (and have), but every time I go to stream something I have to re-synch the device to my account or download some kind of update. After I finally get that done, then I have to wait for the movie to download and most of the time there are still hiccups.

On top of that, it doesn't download in the same quality of video as a Blu-Ray disc. It's a hassle, and whether or not it's my setup (I doubt it) or my ISP (maybe), the fact of the matter is it just doesn't work for me.

And that's fine, I'm sure. I understand Netflix's plan all along has been the discs were only a bridge until they could go all streaming. Unfortunately infrastructure just doesn't support that yet, nor are people ready for that. And then there are people like me, who sit in front of a computer all day long and really want to relax on the couch and enjoy that wide screen Sony they bought. Maybe if my computer monitor was nicer, or my office chair more comfortable, I'd change my mind. But they aren't. Add in the fact I watch a movie at most once a week (usually less) and it's not like I'm going to run out of first-run movies (that aren't available for streaming anyway) to watch.

So all of this is just to say when a dollar amount was finally attached to streaming and the opportunity there to choose to not include streaming and pay less, I was very pleased.

Yes, there were hiccups for Netflix, PR-wise, but I get it. I totally understand the thought process behind coming up with Qwikster, even if you aren't sticking with it. It makes sense because that's not your core business, that's not what is going to carry Netflix forward. The price changes make sense too, since I have read about how the studios, some of whom gave you a sweetheart distribution deal in the beginning, are now squeezing you. I know your costs are about to skyrocket, and you know what? Even with raising the price, your service is still cheaper for me than any other service.

Netflix, I get it. And yes, I did change my plan, and as a single number in a spreadsheet which says I downgraded and am now paying you less money per month, it will look like I made the decision because I'm unhappy, but I wanted to make it clear that's the furthest from the truth. I am, in fact, very happy with Netflix's service and made the change because of that.

Thank you for finally giving me exactly what I want. I appreciate that.

Sincerely,

The MyNWX Family

Moochie Wanted A Walk

2011-10-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

Most of the time when we go to take Misaki for a walk the cats barely raise an eyebrow. Moochie and Sera have no desire to go outside and while Lilo would like to, they generally stay away from the front door.

Not the other day. I called Misaki over to put on her collar and leash. As usual, she took her time, but Moochie raced over, rubbing on legs and talking like a madman (this is normal for him). Misaki just shakes her head and huffs at him.

Then I had this great idea - why not put the collar on Moochie? I had no idea if he would go for it, but I told Wifey to grab the camera, just in case. The next time he rubbed on my shin I dropped the collar over his head (the collar is way bigger than his head).

At first he seemed a little surprised.

It wasn't Moochie's first experience with a leash. We actually bought cat harnesses and leads for him and Sera way back when we first got them. Moochie doesn't mind the harness, but he doesn't do well being led around by the leash, even just in the backyard - he still goes where he wants. Sera...well, we got the harness on her a couple times - yes, blood was drawn - and she freaked out, throwing her body around the room and bouncing off walls until we finally took it off. Lilo loves it.

Then Misaki had to come over and check out what was going on. After all, it was her leash. She kept sniffing and sniffing at the leash and at Moochie.

Mooch decided to walk around a bit. The weight of the collar didn't seem to bother him too much, but then again he's an 18-pound beast of a Bengal cat. Everywhere he went Misaki shadowed him.

This is Misaki finally very, very concerned. She was told we were taking her for a walk, and now the cat is wearing her collar and leash and she isn't going anywhere. I believe she is trying to work her Shiba Mind Control on Moochie to take off the collar.

Right after the previous picture, he just about did. I didn't have a tight hold on the Flexi-lead - just enough to guide him because I didn't want to yank on his neck. Cats, as those of you that have had them probably know, aren't very receptive to being tugged on.

I'm not quite sure what happened, but Moochie suddenly freaked out and took off, yanking the Flexi out of my hand. The handle hit Wifey in the leg, bounced around the couch and off the glass side table, hit the wall, and finally wrapped itself around a chair leg as Moochie ran for refuge by his scratching post.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but his tail is fluffed out huge - you could have cleaned a bottle with that thing.

After he calmed down I took the collar off of him and he was fine. Misaki huffed like crazy though, because she didn't appreciate her collar being shared with her little bro.

So if you ever get bored and have a cat, throw a leash on him and see what happens. Have your camera ready.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 8

2011-10-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I went 3-3. Yikes - one of my worst weeks in a long time. Who knew Utah would go on the road and kick ass after getting worked in the Pac-12? And that Cal would roll over like that? Oh, and apparently BYU has a good offense. Oh well - 3-3 sends me to 40-13 on the season. I need to do better.

Couple things I figured out last week:

1 - Oregon doesn't need LaMichael James. That may sound odd considering he could be the best running back in the nation, but Kenjon Barner filled the star back role just fine. James is very, very good, but the Ducks can win without him.

2 - Oregon State needs to quit making the mistakes. If the Beavers could cut down on the turnovers on offense they would have at least two more wins now - maybe more. The defense, which is just as young as the offense, is forcing turnovers like crazy, but the offense is giving it right back. Until they can keep it to two or less and win the turnover battle, they will continue to struggle. Love all the talent they have on both sides, and an expanded role for Malcolm Agnew at running back this week should be a positive.

Also, I'm pleased the Beavers are finally on a station this week I get in HD. After three straight weeks on Fox College Sports Pacific (which is not in HD), getting a game on Root Sports is something worth celebrating. Plus, besides the lack of HD the production on Fox College Sports Pacific is pathetic. The cameramen keep losing the ball, their is a distinct lack of replays, and the score and time on the screen is almost always wrong. Bad announcers I can deal with, since that's common on most all channels, but bad production? It's like Fox just hired meth-addicted monkeys to put on the show.

And with that, on to this week's picks! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

Thursday

6pm - UCLA at Arizona - ESPN - ARIZONA

Saturday

12:40pm - Oregon (9, 8) at Colorado - ROOT Sports - OREGON
4pm - Utah at California - No TV? - UTAH
4:30pm - USC (28, NR) at Notre Dame (27, 27) - NBC - USC
5pm - Washington (22, 24) at Stanford (7, 5) - ABC - STANFORD
7:30pm - Oregon State at Washington State (in Seattle) - ROOT Sports - WASHINGTON STATE

Stanford is bowl-eligible with six wins. Oregon and Washington can become bowl-eligible this week with wins. USC also could get it's sixth win, but is not eligible for the postseason.

Who do you pick?

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 7

2011-10-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

Finally I managed a slightly better week with the picks, going 4-1 last week to push me to 37-10 on the season. The lone miss was Oregon State earning their first win of the season over Arizona, which may have led directly like to Zona Coach Mike Stoops' firing a couple days later.

I'm not overly surprised the Beavers won. If you have watched them the last couple weeks you've seen a very young team improve dramatically week to week. If they continue to improve at this rate, it wouldn't be a total shock to see them at 4-4 when they visit Stanford on November 5th (I wouldn't put money on it, I'm just saying).

One tidbit I want to point you to this week, from ESPN's Ted Miller. For his second half prediction article he posted today he predicted a Pac-12 championship game matchup of a 9-3 ASU and 11-1 Stanford. I have no problem with him choosing those two teams, but I do have a question: How does Stanford win the Pac-12 North and end up with an 11-1 record?

One of two things must happen for Stanford to win the division and lose a game.

1 - They beat Oregon, but lose to someone else. Given the rest of their schedule I just don't see a game the Cardinal lose if it's not Oregon. If both teams finish with one conference loss, the first tie-breaker is the head-to-head matchup.

OR:

2 - Stanford beats Oregon but loses to someone else (Washington? USC?) and the Ducks also lose another conference game (Washington)?

I find either of these, given the conference dominance by Stanford and Oregon, unlikely. I strongly believe the winner of the Oregon-Stanford game - November 12th in Palo Alto - will determine the Pac-12 North winner. And nothing else. That means Oregon will represent at 11-1 overall (with the loss to LSU), or Stanford will at 12-0. If Stanford finishes the season at 12-0, they have a strong shot at going to the national championship game, and if they finish 11-1 (with only a loss to Oregon), they have a strong shot at going to another BCS game with an at-large bid.

But 11-1 and playing in the Pac-12 title game? I can't see it.

On to the games! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

Thursday

6pm - USC (31, NR) at Cal - ESPN - CAL

Saturday

9am - Utah at Pittsburgh - ESPNU - PITTSBURGH
12:30pm - Colorado at Washington (27, 27) - ROOT - WASHINGTON
1pm - BYU at Oregon State - Fox College Sports Pacific - OREGON STATE
4:30 pm - Stanford (7, 5) at Washington State - Versus - STANFORD
7:15pm - Arizona State (18, 20) at Oregon (9, 9) - ESPN - OREGON

This week Arizona and UCLA are off. Stanford and ASU can both become bowl-eligible with wins this week.

Who do you pick?

Do Not Miss: Mucca Osteria

2011-10-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

A new Italian restaurant is open in downtown Portland, Mucca Osteria, on SW Morrison between 10th and 11th, right on the westbound MAX tracks. The chef, Simone Savaiano, is a native of Rome, but moved to the U.S., married an American from Los Angeles, worked in Santa Monica for five years, then they traveled. On that trip they came to Portland, loved it, and moved here.

I am, selfishly, glad they did. The restaurant is two levels, with stairs that go up to the second floor balcony (you can see the railing in the picture below). There are tables on the main floor and a few seats at the bar of the open kitchen. (As always, click on the picture for a larger version.)

Wifey and I visited on a Friday night, arriving just as they opened at 5:30pm (they are also open for lunch). We were first, but the restaurant had tables available for anyone who may have walked by. The staff was very knowledgeable, helpful with questions, and gave us space while at the same time very attentive. Mucca's menu is online, but don't take it as gospel - the actual menu was slightly different, and they have chalkboard specials.

First we were brought housemade bread, two slices each of a ciabatta, a sourdough, and a dark, nutty bread. All of them were excellent, and even tastier with the wonderful olive oil provided for dipping.

We decided on an appetizer of burrata (see here for a definition of burrata) with heirloom tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil, and balsamic vinegar.

This entire dish was fantastic. The balsamic, in particular, really made everything pop, and the burrata was a revelation. I may never be satisfied with "normal" fresh mozzarella again. See the dark spots on top? A black salt, perfect for the dish. I could eat this all day.

Wifey ordered gnochetti with gorgonzola cheese, Italian sausage and walnuts (watch Simone make it!) These small puffs of pasta were not overpowered by the flavor of the gorgonzola, a mistake many restaurants can (and do) make. The sausage had plenty of flavor, providing welcome bursts of spice.

I ordered the spaghetti amatraciana with guanciale and San Marzano tomatoes. Again, fantastic flavors. The sauce had a pleasant creaminess to it, with the guanciale providing punches of meatiness.

I knew I wanted a glass of wine with dinner, but looking at the long wine list all in Italian I didn't know what to choose (well, actually, by the glass there are only two whites and two reds to choose from). At the suggestion of the staff based on the pastas we ordered, we went with a red: Cannonau di Sardegna d.o.c. Feudi della Medusa 2007 (from Sardegna). This was the smoother of the two and it was very pleasant on the tongue, almost velvety. Great flavor as well.

One note about the pastas: Depending on how much you normally eat and how hungry you are, it may not be enough. They are created with fantastic flavor and an exceptional level of skill, but the servings may be considered small compared to other restaurants. Don't worry about it - order an appetizer too.

Or two desserts, like we did.

The first was a vanilla bean panna cotta with fresh blueberry sauce. Panna cotta is something we love to order (especially if it's vanilla bean) and so fancy ourselves amateur experts; this may be the best we've had in town. Look at the picture below - see how the panna cotta holds its shape? Usually it seems to be served in a dish and if I had to guess there is no way it would stay together served on a plate like this. And yet, it still has all the soft creaminess necessary for a great version of the classic. The blueberries were a nice addition and the vanilla flavor was, well, perfect. I'd go back just to eat one of these. Or two.

The other dessert, almost as good, was a flourless chocolate cake with strawberry reduction and balsamic vinegar drizzled around the plate. Dense and moist, the chocolate tasted of high quality and the strawberry added the perfect amount of sweetness to go with the rich dark chocolate. One bite of all three flavors is about as close to the perfect dessert as one can get.

With our desserts we were also served complimentary glasses of a white dessert wine. It was a moscato called Dinderello from the Maculan winery in Veneto. We were told it had fig flavors, which I am not a fig person so I don't know, but it has a wonderful smell and a flavor to match. Sweet, but not too sweet like most dessert wines, especially the local ones. Oregon has a great, young wine industry, but it's going to be a long time before they can realistically compete with the centuries old vines from the old world.

Dinner wasn't cheap, but not crazy either. $69 for an appetizer, two pasta dishes, two desserts, and a glass of wine isn't that bad, but I would pay this gladly every single time. There was not one thing we didn't like about the meal or the service and we plan on making this a regular stop.

There's just one thing that's bothering me. They need more customers! We walked in on a Friday night in downtown Portland and were seated right away. Sure, it was early, but when we left over an hour later, we still would have been seated immediately. Mucca is quickly becoming a food favorite and has been written up in The Oregonian (see above), but they still aren't that busy. Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily want a line out the door of my favorite restaurant so cumbersome I decide to go elsewhere or work my schedule around it (like, say, Toro Bravo or Tasty n Sons), but more customers to assure Mucca's continued success would be nice.

By writing this and telling people about the virtues of the restaurant I'm doing what I can do to help them out - even though the number of people who will read this I can count on my fingers and toes (yep, toes too, moving on up...) - so hopefully it's enough to convince people to give Mucca a try. I guarantee if I help get you in the door, Mucca will do the rest to ensure you return and tell your friends.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 6

2011-10-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

Not a good week for me at all in Week 5, posting just a 3-2 record to bring the season score to 33-9. The conference this year really is very balanced; after Oregon and Stanford any of these teams can win on any given Sunday.

Some of you may be laughing at that comment, especially considering Oregon State's 0-4 record, but I actually thought the Beavers played a ton better this past week than they did in the weeks before. They still desperately need running back Malcolm Agnew back, but the freshman are improving every week. Running back Terron Ward looked better, and the freshman defensive players (like Dylan Wynn and Scott Crichton) at times dominated Arizona State. (By the way, check out the roster to see the proportion of freshmen.)

And yes, there were also mistakes, but sometimes freshman make mistakes. They are competing and I have a strong feeling by the end of this season they will put together a couple complete games and the Beavers will surprise some people. And next year? The Beavers could be very good.

Also, I can't wait until the Pac-12 network comes around next year. I'm sick of watching games on Fox College Sports because I don't get that in HD. Yeah, I know, first world problems.

On to the games! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

THURSDAY

6pm - California at Oregon (9, 9) - ESPN - OREGON

SATURDAY

12:30pm - Arizona at Oregon State - Fox College Sports Pacific - ARIZONA
12:30pm - Arizona State (22, 24) at Utah - Root Sports - ARIZONA STATE
4:30pm - Colorado at Stanford (7, 4) - Versus - STANFORD
7:30pm - Washington State at UCLA - Root Sports - UCLA

This week USC (35, NR) and Washington (28, 31) have the week off.

Who do you pick?

My Personal Energy Report

2011-10-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

Apparently NW Natural Gas and Portland General Electric have decided to go out of their way to make me feel guilty about the amount of energy we use here in the MyNWX household.

Each month they jointly send out something called the Personal Energy Report. They mail this to me, rather than sending it via email, despite the fact both have my email address on file and were adamant they wanted to send my bills electronically about a year or so back.

I never asked for this report, but it just started appearing in my mailbox sometime in the last year.

What it does is tell you how much energy I use in this index they created that combines eletricity (kilowatt hours) and natural gas (therms) into a single measurement. They then take this number, put it on a bar graph, and compare your household to 100 neighbors that have a home similar in size and also have gas and electricity service.

This bar graph has three lines. A green line indicates how much energy the most efficient 20% of neighbors in the group uses.

The gray line in the middle is an average of all 100 neighbors.

The blue line at the bottom is your usage rate. Then, in big, bold lettering they give you your rank among the 100 neighbors.

Apparently my house is not very efficient, or I'm using way more juice than everyone else, because every month this report calls out my rank of 75 or lower in the group of 100 and then proceeds to detail ways for me to be more efficient.

I have no issues with pointing this information out. On some level, it's helpful. However, it also lacks complete context. The value of my home is right about average for my neighborhood, which is about as average middle class as it gets. However, my house has air conditioning, which I run from roughly June through September. Yes, it uses significantly more juice than a house without it, which doesn't bother me one bit - I will pay for A/C in my house and not feel a shred of remorse.

However, homes with A/C are not common in the greater Portland area, especially on homes in similar size and value as mine (I'd like to say it was my idea to put it in, but the house came with it, thankfully). I'm curious: How many of the 74 homes who are more efficient than mine have A/C? There could be some, sure, but I'm guessing not many.

Of course, the people putting together this report have no idea if I have A/C or not, or if anyone else does either. They don't know if I have a gas stove or anything else - this entire report is based simply on the fact I and 99 other people in houses of similar size have both gas and electric service.

Again, send me the report if you must, but give it context. My home should only be compared with like homes (i.e., ones with A/C). By ignoring a key point of information, this group is inadvertantly making a blanket statement that the only thing that matters is your energy bottom line. If I simply opened my windows and laid on the floor sweating heavily when the thermostat topped 95 degrees, I'd get a gold star.

The end of the report has something called Action Steps - things you can do to reduce your energy costs. Again, a great idea. But are they helpful? Here's the three things:

1 - Hang laundry to dry. Sure, I could do that, I suppose. That might save a tiny bit of electricity - in those same four months I use my A/C. Not really sure what they expect their customers in Portland to do the other eight months of the year...

2 - Remove your second refrigerator. I'll keep that in mind, if I ever buy one.

3 - Use solar outdoor lights. I'll keep this in mind, also, if I ever start using outdoor lights.

I gotta say, getting this report every month never fails to simply annoy me. It feels a little bit like a personal attack, even though it's really meaningless. It's not like my rates are going up or anything, it's simply a statement of what NW Natural and PGE consider facts.

And I still can't get over how they can't just email this to me...

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 5

2011-09-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I built up a solid cushion in the preseason, because it gets harder during the Pac-12 matchups every year. My picks went only 3-2 last week to set me up at 30-7 on the season.

Oregon State will get RB Malcolm Agnew back this week (UPDATE: just kidding!)and the offense should get that much better...but is it too little too late? And Arizona, fresh off three straight losses to top-ten teams, gets a road trip to USC - that's a brutal schedule. Are the Huskies for real? I still don't know...

On to the games! Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.

Saturday
(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)

12:30pm - Arizona at USC - ROOT Sports - USC
12:40pm - Washington State at Colorado - Fox College Sports Pacific - COLORADO
4pm - Washington at Utah - ROOT Sports - UTAH
7:30pm - UCLA at Stanford - ROOT Sports - STANFORD
7:30pm - Oregon State at Arizona State - Fox College Sports Pacific - ARIZONA STATE

This week Oregon (9, 11) and Cal have the week off.

Who do you pick?

Wafu Isn't Traditional, But We Don't Care

2011-09-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I extolled the traditional cuisine at Mirakutei, but a visit to Wafu (like to Portlandfood.org because Wafu's website is just a shell) was a trip to the complete other end of the Japanese food spectrum.

That's not good or bad, it's just different. And you know what? Different can be pretty damn awesome.

I started off with a glass of Rogue's Morimoto Soba Ale. It's a very light beer, but has a nice developing crispness to it. Solid beer, but $8/glass is a bit much for me.

Our food started with a ceviche with mahi mahi, tomato, corn, calabrian chile, cilantro and mint.

This was fantastic. I'm not normally a mahi mahi fan, but these pieces were luscious and tasty - and that sauce I could drink a glass of. See the corn? Freeze-dried, I believe, which added an interesting layer.

We also ordered an onigiri (rice ball) with grilled prawn, tomato, bacon, and soy mayo, topped with bonito (fish flakes) and nori (seaweed). Since it's rice on the outside and the restaurant was dark, the photo didn't turn out at all. This was a tasty bite, but didn't hold together well. Probably wouldn't get again.

This next dish was the star of the night: tempura shrimp with creamy spicy sauce and with wasabi mayo, plus a daikon palate cleanser.

And a closer look just at the tempura shrimps (wasabi mayo on the left, creamy spicy on the right):

We both liked the creamy spicy better, but it's really splitting hairs - both were fantastic. The daikon - something I don't normally eat raw - was nice between the two different flavors of shrimps, allowing the tongue to fully enjoy the flavors of each.

Our last dish of the night was the reason we went in the first place: Wafu ramen with pork belly and slow poach egg added. The ramen comes with corn, scallions, kamaboko (that's the pink-rimmed thing - a fish cake), and smoked schmaltz (rendered pork fat used for frying).

The pork was perfectly cooked and literally fell apart in the bowl. I liked the corn addition (highly recommended from Japan), but Wifey wasn't in love with it. The egg was nicely done. The broth, though - wow. Awesome. So many levels of porky goodness. I'm not sure it's better than Mirakutei, but it was damn, damn good.

But again, not traditional - none of this was traditional Japanese, but quite obviously Japanese inspired. It was good, very good, and we wouldn't hesitate to return.

Besides, it's right next door to Sunshine Tavern. And a block away from Pok Pok. And just up the street from Taste Unique and Little T American Baker. Maybe we should move closer.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 4

2011-09-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

If Arizona State had come up with a score on their final drive last week the NWX blog could have posted a very rare perfect week. That was not to be, so instead I'll take a 9-1 record to push me to 27-5 on the season.

Now it gets hard. Starting this week the Pac-12 teams will be playing almost all conference games and there is quite a bit of parity. Home field is huge in this conference and really only Stanford and Oregon have shown they should be favored in any game.

Speaking of those two schools, how about Arizona's schedule? Two weeks ago they played Oklahoma State, then last week Stanford, and this week Oregon. Three top-10 teams in a row...that's tough.

This is a make-or-break week for the UCLA Bruins and Oregon State Beavers. A loss by either team could pretty much end any bowl hopes, but the game is being played in Corvallis AND the Beavers should be much improved. They didn't get freshman running back Malcolm Agnew back, but they will have redshirt freshman quarterback Sean Mannion taking all of the snaps AND seniors James Rodgers (WR) and Joe Halahuni (TE) will be making their season debuts. You can see my pick below, but I don't think it's very close.

I'm happy to see the conference opted against bringing in Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. While all of those universities would bring great traditions, I get the distinct impression both UT and OU felt they would be able to come in and control the conference, to run it the way they see fit. Texas doesn't want to share it's TV network and OU simply thinks they know better than everyone else, as evidenced by their assertion they would only stay in the Big 12 if commissioner Dan Beebe were replaced (among other demands). Today word leaked there will be a new commissioner.

Thank you, Larry Scott - I'm sure you want to deal with prima donnas like that less than I want them in the Pac-12.

On to the games! (Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.)

Saturday

(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)
12:30pm - UCLA at Oregon State - CBS College Sports Pacific - OREGON STATE
12:30pm - Colorado at Ohio State (32, 26) - ABC/ESPN2 - OHIO STATE
12:30pm - California (t42, 32) at Washington (NR, t42) - ROOT - CALIFORNIA
7:15pm - Oregon (10, 13) at Arizona - ESPN2 - OREGON
7:15pm - USC (23, NR) at Arizona State (36, 35) - ESPN - ARIZONA STATE

Utah (t30, 34), Washington State and Stanford (5, 5) are off this weekend.

Who do you pick?

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 3

2011-09-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Week two in the 2011 Pacific-12 Conference football season went pretty much as expected. I managed a 8-2 week to push me to 18-4 on the season.

This week Oregon State has a bye to lick the wounds from their 0-2 start. But guess what? They might look pretty dang good when they face UCLA next weekend. Why? Coach Mike Riley mercifully made a call on the starting quarterback, giving the job to redshirt freshman Sean Mannion, a big, strong arm who clearly outplayed Ryan Katz in the previous weeks. In addition, freshman running back Malcolm Agnew - he of the 200+ yards against Sacramento State - tight end Joe Halahuni, and (still a maybe) wide receiver James Rodgers could all be back. The defense didn't play horribly against Wisconsin, and if the offense can keep up the Beavers could rebound from a bad start.

One other fun point this week: Cal is playing a team called "Presbyterian," a "Big South Conference" opponent with a mascot called the "Blue Hose." I'm not entirely sure I buy it, but apparently it's a real school and thinks it has a football team. What are Blue Hose? Well, Presbyterian must get that question a lot, because back in 2008 they actually posted a piece on their athletic site telling the world. I think they should have just gone with Blue Sox. My pick in this game won't be a surprise...but Ted Miller's (of ESPN) were more entertaining.

On to the games! (Rankings in parentheses (AP, ESPN). All times Pacific.)

Saturday

(Time - Matchup - Network - Pick)
10:30am - Colorado State at Colorado - ROOT - COLORADO
12:30pm - Missouri State at Oregon (12, 14) - Comcast Sports - OREGON
12:30pm - Texas (t23, 21) at UCLA - ESPN - TEXAS
12:30pm - Washington (t35, 37) at Nebraska (11, 10) - ABC - NEBRASKA
2:30pm - Presbyterian at California (NR, 38) - No TV - CALIFORNIA
3:30pm - Washington State at San Diego State (NR, 39) - No TV - SAN DIEGO STATE
4pm - Arizona State (22, 18) at Illinois - Big 10 Network - ARIZONA STATE
5pm - Syracuse at USC (27, NR) - FX - USC
6:15pm - Utah at BYU (33, 42) - ESPN2 - UTAH
7:45pm - Stanford (6, 6) at Arizona - ESPN - STANFORD

Who do you pick?

Mirakutei: Traditional Japanese Goodness

2011-09-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Last week Wifey and I got a hankering for some good Japanese ramen and tried out two different places. The first one was Mirakutei (the link is to Facebook, because their other page is devoid of info), a small shop on East Burnside, near Burnside Brewing and Le Pigeon. It's housed in a newer building and run by the same man (Hiroshi) who ran Hiroshi's, a sushi spot in Northwest. Both places were running for awhile, but Hiroshi's recently was closed and Hiroshi now does sushi (only for dinner) at Mirakutei.

The lunch menu offers a choice of two different bentos, a few different ramens, and some small plates. We started off with some fried rice.

This was, in short, perfectly traditional (as far as fried rice goes, which no, is not a Japanese dish) and perfectly tasty. And cooked perfectly. Great flavors, good size of veggies, and everything worked. Wifey says it might be the best she's ever had.

Next up, the gyoza - we always have to get gyoza.

As you can see the gyoza had a nice crunch on the outside, but still were soft. The onion and pork ratio also was spot on. And that sauce? Normally I don't really care for gyoza sauce, but this one I could drink it was so good. No idea if it's housemade, but it's damn good.

Wifey ordered the tonkatsu and salmon bento, which also came with a side of rice, some tempura veggies and a tempura shrimp.

The pork tonkatsu also was cooked just right. Crunchy, but still moist and still recognizable as pork. We had a bad experience with a restaurant's tonkatsu a couple weeks back and this buried that memory. The tempura was nice, not overly battered and still preserving the flavors of each vegetable. The salmon...well, it was just okay. There was something in the flavor I wasn't a fan of, something that made me thing it wasn't the greatest quality fish. Hiroshi's was known for it's high quality fish, so I don't know what the deal was...or maybe I'm just spoiled from Copper River salmon fillets. Shrug.

The last dish we ordered was the Genki Ramen, which is a white miso base with scrambled egg, shredded pork, and topped with bean sprouts.

Absolutely fantastic. The broth was rich and full of flavor, garlic and pepper adding depth and a kick, the egg and pork adding just the right amount of goodness, and even the bean sprouts - which I don't normally eat - seemed to just fit with their added crunch. The noodles were also perfectly cooked.

And you know what else? We got there when it opened at 11:30 and despite ordering and eating our way through four dishes, only one other customer showed up. I'm not sure if it's the location isn't conducive to a lunchtime spot on the weekday or what, but we had the place to ourselves.

We both highly, highly recommend Mirakutei and we absolutely will return. Next time we may have to go for dinner to try out Hiroshi's legendary sushi to go with the ramen. And fried rice. And gyoza. Might have to skip lunch that day.

Deer Are Out To Get Me

2011-09-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

Trips to the beach are starting to get pretty damn expensive for me, and not for good reasons like overstuffing myself on caramel corn, fudge and saltwater taffy.

A few weeks back there was the speeding ticket. That sucked, but it was also 100% my fault - I can deal with that, accept it, and make sure it doesn't happen again. (By the way, all I had to do was call them, say I was guilty, and they cut $47 off the fine so it was only $143. Still sucked, but not as bad.)

Then there are things that happen you have absolutely no control over and couldn't avoid at all. Mother Nature loves to assert her dominance over people with weather, but the more overlooked piece of her power is her use of wild animals. Even among those, events like bears attacking campsites or sharks attacking surfers get all the press, but I'm here today to tell you about a much bigger scourge being sent against the human race.

Deer.

Picture found on Google Images from Tru-Wildlife

No, I'm not kidding, so stop laughing.

These things are evil, and Mother Nature is sending them to attack me like a Stinger missile.

Perhaps I should explain...

Wifey and I are driving west to Newport on Highway 20 from Corvallis. We are just a few miles away from hitting Highway 101, which runs north-south along the Pacific Ocean. Highway 20 is four lanes across, with a fifth lane in the center for making left turns. I'm headed uphill at about 10am. It's a weekday and traffic is light, so I am not following anyone or being followed by anyone closely in the right-most lane. My car is moving at about 60 miles an hour, because I learned my lesson from the last trip to the beach and am not speeding.

As a driver I keep my focus to everything forward of my vehicle, especially when moving that fast, because experience tells me threats to the safety of my car will be in front of me, not behind or to the side. At 60 miles an hour anything to the side is already too far away to be a worry.

Usually.

As I am driving west my vehicle is in the sun and the eastbound lanes are somewhat in the shade. Suddenly there is movement on the south side of the highway and a figure bursts from the woods and races across the street. This happens closer to my vehicle than my normal range of focus, so I didn't immediately see it.

This shape flashed across four lanes of highway (three driving lanes and the middle turn lane) at an impossibly high rate of speed, heading straight for my vehicle. I see it at the last second, a flash of brown with white spots, too late for me to react. I see the spots in my rear view mirror as the shape slams into the side of my car near the back bumper, rattling the vehicle and scaring the shit out of Wifey and me (but not Misaki, who only raises her head from Wifey's lap to wonder why we are freaking out...).

The impact is light and didn't alter the course of the car. I slowed down only slightly and looked in the rear view mirror both in the street and then off to the side, seeing nothing. Briefly I debated stopping, but for what? If the deer is injured it's not like I'm going to put him out of his misery or something. Sucks for the deer, but I don't carry a handgun in my car, nor do I have a wrench to clock him over the head with (and it's highly doubtful I could bring myself to do that anyway). Plus, the deer wasn't in the street, so it wasn't a hazard to other drivers (again, not really sure what I would do, since they are pretty heavy).

I coasted a little, testing to see if the car is moving differently, but everything seemed fine. From the side mirror I could tell the gas tank lid was open and I think the bumper is loose, but the side of Highway 20 isn't the place to worry about that, especially if the car is running fine.

So I kept driving, all the way to the Nye Beach parking lot. There I took out the camera to see what kind of damage this evil deer had left on my car. Here you go.

As you can see the gas tank lid is open. Upon further inspection that's all it was - just open, not damaged. Can you see the dent just below the window? Not really? Well how about here:

Instead of a smooth piece of metal from the gas tank to the tail light, you can see the distortion in the reflection of me taking the picture (and Misaki behind my legs). This is likely from the deer's shoulder and didn't scratch or crack the paint at all. Maybe it will pop out easily, maybe not, but it'll still cost a couple hundred dollars I'm sure.

The other, more important (to me) damage is with the bumper.

If you click on the image and maximize you can see deer fur stuck on the corner. And yes, that piece of black plastic is suppose to be attached to the body of the car. See the top piece of plastic, where it looks like it should just snap on? Yep, it should, but the impact of the stupid deer snapped off the plastic, so it can't be reattached.

Maybe it can be fixed, I don't know yet, but if not I'll have to buy an entirely new bumper because it's only piece that wraps all the way around the rear of the car. That, I'm sure, is a few hundred more dollars.

And here I thought the speeding ticket hurt the pocket book; that's chump change compared to what this deer did.

I've spent some time thinking about this, wondering if I could have avoided it. (Ironically, I would have driven by this exact point earlier had I been driving faster...) I don't think I could have. Mother Nature knows this...and she'll do it again.

How do I know THAT? Because it's happened before...

*****

Mother Nature sent one of her spotted minions at my moving vehicle 12 years ago. It was the summer of 1999 and I had just graduated from the college. I can't recall if I had started my job as a gofer at a law firm yet, or if it was in the two months I was just unemployed. I drove a 1986 Honda Accord at the time, a four-door sedan (smaller than the current SUV in the pictures above, with less surface space to absorb a hit), and was living at home with my parents. They live in a rural area outside of the city, which meant a 15-20-minute drive to get anywhere resembling civilization.

Here it is - a 1986 Honda Accord sedan. Even the same color and with the same wheel covers. From TypeRHonda.com.

It was a Friday night and I took my sister the closest Blockbuster to pick up a couple movies. It wasn't too late but the sun had gone down, so we drove back in the dark along country roads where the posted speed limit was 45 but the curves rarely let you go that fast. Of course, my Accord handled pretty damn well and you probably figured by now I'd push it on a road like that when I could. And I did.

The road came down a hill from a 120-degree, 20mph-turn, into some smoother turns I could take at 35-40, with no shoulder - just drainage ditches. The last turn before a stretch of straight road bent 90 degrees to the left. Friends lived on this road, ones I had been visiting for years, and I took this road every day up to Clackamas Community College, where I spent my freshman year, so it's safe to say I knew this road very well and could drive it in my sleep.

As I started to exit that last curve I slowly accelerated - you know, because that's how race car drivers do it, exploding out of the turn - and that's when I saw it.

A spotted deer, perhaps a still adolescent female, stood in the middle of my lane, frozen in my headlights and looking straight at us. There wasn't enough time to swerve into the opposite lane - and remember, no shoulder - so I slammed on the brakes, my wheels locking, and my sister started screaming.

As the car slid towards the deer time slowed down the way it sometimes does when something bad happens. I knew I wasn't going to stop in time, but there really was nothing I could do to prevent what happened next. The deer's face grew larger in my view and at some point the pointed front of my car's bumper must have taken out her legs, because she fell towards the windshield. I swear her mouth was open, her eyes wide, and she probably screamed just as loud as my sister did.

Thankfully she didn't hit the windshield. Instead she bounced off the hood and off the side of the road. I have this recollection of her bouncing to her feet, but given the car first hit her legs I don't see how that could have been possible.

The car finally came to a stop and I believe the engine died, because it was a manual transmission and I was worried about the brakes, not making sure I had the clutch engaged. The deer was now laying in the pasture next to the road, and my sister was still screaming. I had to grab her just above the knee and squeeze, asking her quietly to stop, before she finally took a breath. I was okay, she was okay, and here we were at a dead stop on a country road in the dark with any traffic that would come behind us coming out of a blind curve.

Just like with the deer the other day, there wasn't anything I could do. I turned the car back on and everything sounded okay. It also seemed to move okay, so we drove home, freaked out.

When we finally did get home it took our parents a little while to calm us down, then Dad and I went and checked out the damage. The entire hood was caved in, but nothing was leaking and the bumper looked okay. In the end nothing functional was broken, but fixing the cosmetic damage cost me $1200 (or, the same amount I paid for the car...). The first two paychecks I received working as a full-time adult went towards fixing my car (so, yay for living at home at the time, I suppose).

*****

In the interim my sister has also hit a deer in her small Honda Civic hatchback, causing hundreds of dollars in damage she had to address. I've also swerved to miss deer a couple other times.

I have no idea what we did to piss them off, but apparently Deer Nation is after me and my family. Is Mother Nature just screwing with us?

No clue. Every time I see those yellow deer crossing signs on the highway panic starts to set in, nausea rising in my stomach as I get a little more vigilant.

And don't even get me started on the elk crossing signs. Those are so not funny.

But apparently this is how it must be. From now on, Ms. Nature, this is war. This is the face of the enemy:

Found on Google Images

Not that I'm going to do much about it. I don't hunt, nor do I have much of a taste for venison.

I could buy a Hummer though. Then deer in the road would just make me laugh, rather than cringe.

Toro Bravo: In Pictures

2011-09-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

Two years ago Wifey and I went to dinner at Toro Bravo and experienced one of the best meals of our lives. For some inexplicable reason we had not been back since. Why? I have no idea. We could blame it on the fact you have to get there early to get a table, which is problematic during the week and not helpful on the weekend. We could blame it on the fact you can't make reservations for just two people.

We could, but really, I don't know why. Today we rectified that...and were rewarded with an absolutely fantastic meal. With minimal commentary, here is Toro Bravo in pictures.

Any meal at Toro must start with these - griddle bacon wrapped dates in honey stuffed with an almond. Just two bites each, these are divine, sweet and savory and crunchy all rolled into the perfect mouthful.

We ordered drinks too, a white wine sangria (with blackberries, blueberries, and orange), and a limoncello drink, with cava and Tosca cherries.

The next plate to come was a fresh empanada stuffed with tomato, ham and corn. This came with a side of greens and pickled onions, plus a mayo-based dipping sauce. The empanada also had spinach inside.

Want to see the inside? Well, here you go:

Yeah, it was also awesome. Great flavors, light crust, and the greens provided a nice palate cleanser.

The next dish was grilled corn with cilantro pesto. It came on the cob, cut into thirds.

Not only was it pretty in the initial presentation, but after slicing the corn off the cob it still looked nice.

The crisp, sweet corn worked fantastic with the cilantro pesto. I could eat a mountain of this.

The last small plate was drunken pork and avocado salad. The pork was wrapped in bacon, making it more awesome, and everything about this dish was just right.

The last dish was the biggest, the paella Toro.

Yep, there is all sorts of fun stuff in there: mussels, clams, shrimp, chorizo, braised chicken, rice, tomatoes, peppers, and even lemon slices. Neither of us had ever eaten paella before - again, I have no idea why - but everything in this plate had great flavor, was cooked perfectly, and it just looks so damn pretty.

We ate everything but couldn't finish off the paella - we had to save room for dessert. We each ordered a dessert. The first to come out was caramel panna cotta. The two layers - both of which are made in house - tasted fantastic on their own and phenomenal together. Panna cotta in general is one of our favorites, but this quite possibly could be the best (our waitress said this was her favorite dessert on their menu) in the entire city.

Our other dessert was the molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. We sat at the chef's counter again this time and could see much of the prep work and cooking - which is fascinating - and the chef closest to us leaned over and placed this before us:

Does it look awesome? Oh it was, it sure was. The gooey insides leaked all over the plate when we cracked it open with a fork, mixing with the cake and the vanilla to make taste buds happy. The chef also made a point of telling us we had chosen well and this was his favorite dessert on their menu.

It's not a cheap meal - $72 plus tip - but with the quality of the food, I really don't care. It was that good.

We will absolutely go back....and it will not take us two years to return. That's a promise.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 2

2011-09-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Week One in the Pacific 12 was not good to me or to the state of Oregon. Ouch.

Actually, outside of Oregon college football was just fine for me, resulting in a 10-2 week picking last week's games. The Ducks have a lot to work on now if they even want to be conference contenders, let alone championship contenders (how about a running game?) The Beavers...they should have won. Unfortunately for them they have a very, very hard game this week. They will improve.

On to the games! (Added the rankings this week (AP, ESPN) - forgot those in Week One. All times Pacific.)

Thursday

5pm - Arizona (NR, 33) at Oklahoma State (9,7) - ESPN - OKLAHOMA STATE

Friday

7:30pm - Missouri (21, 19) at Arizona State (26, 23) - ESPN - ARIZONA STATE

Saturday

9am - Oregon State at Wisconsin (8, 9) - ESPN - WISCONSIN
12:30pm - Nevada at Oregon (13, 14) - FX - OREGON
12:30pm - California (NR, 43t) at Colorado - Fox College Sports Pacific - COLORADO
12:30pm - Stanford (6, 6) at Duke - ESPNU - STANFORD
12:30pm - Hawaii (42t, 35) at Washington (NR, 42) - ROOT - HAWAII
2pm - UNLV at Washington State - No TV - WASHINGTON STATE
4:30pm - Utah (35, 29) at USC (28, NR) - Versus - USC
7pm - San Jose State at UCLA - Fox College Sports Pacific - UCLA

Who do you pick?

Go To Sunshine Tavern

2011-09-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sunshine Tavern is an American place over on Division Street in Southeast Portland. Just this past weekend they started a brunch service that also features many of their dinner items. Wifey and I can't stay away from brunch and we had been meaning to check out this place anyway, so we stopped in just after 11am on a Saturday.

Maybe because it was the first day and they just opened, maybe because it was still early, or maybe because it was a holiday weekend, the place was pretty dead when we walked in (it did fill up later). Our waiter was David, who is also the co-owner with his wife, Jenn (also the head chef). They also own Lincoln, a restaurant that has been on our list for awhile but we haven't made it to yet.

The space fronts on Division Street and the entire front of the restaurant opens up to allow in the fresh air. Early on a hot day, this was pretty nice. Pok Pok is just a short distance away and the smells from their outdoor grill wafted in to mix with Sunshine's own smells from their open kitchen. Yes, it was heaven.

David dropped these buttermilk biscuits by the table first. They were complementary for the first day of brunch, and they were excellent. Light and fluffy, but still with a soft crunch and fresh out of the oven, they came with butter and a marionberry (I think) jam, which worked great for dipping.

We didn't order biscuits and gravy (theirs comes with egg, pork gravy, and fontina), but given how good these were I'm sure it is fantastic.

Wifey ordered the fried chicken sandwich with blue cheese dressing, celery, red onion, and chili mayo. This normally comes with a side of fries, but for $3 more you get those fries topped with the pork gravy and fontina. The fries by themselves were just fantastic - nice crunch, good flavor. Definitely one of the better fries we've had in Portland. (Better than Potato Champion? Need a side by side taste test...)

We felt a little bad because this pile of fries was monstrous and we barely touched the sandwich. The logic was the sandwich would be better reheated than the fries, so we focused on eating those. David asked us at the end of the meal if it was all okay, since we didn't eat it all. David, we promise, it was phenomenal, both fresh and reheated - but we had to save room for dessert.

My entree was the pizza with two eggs, oregano, tesa, and olive oil. David asked if I might want to make that a true bacon and egg breakfast...of course I would, so upgraded from tesa to bacon. Just look at this magnificent pizza (and ignore the fact these were cell phone pictures with too much direct sunlight) - great char on the crust, wonderful presentations. The eggs were just barely done so the yolk could be popped and spread all around. The bacon was thick and smoky, the perfect complement to everything else. In short, the pizza was fantastic.

Just for fun, another view, to illustrate the sunlight.

We only ate about a third of this too; those fries were very filling (and super damn tasty). And, as I mentioned above, we wanted to save room for dessert. And why is that?

Sunshine does soft serve ice cream, a honey and vanilla combination people have raved about all over the internet. You can order it with a magic shell chocolate topping or a hazelnut crunch, but we opted for plain. The conclusion? Excellent. The honey didn't overpower the vanilla, as it can sometimes, and the ice cream has a perfect creaminess.

The entire meal cost us $32 plus tip, which for the amount of and quality of the food (hey, we had two more meals each out of it at home) we thought was a great deal. We will absolutely be returning to Sunshine and recommend it to friends.

2011 Pacific-12 Football: Week 1

2011-09-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's college football season again. Finally. Actually, it doesn't even seem like it is time for the season to begin, not with the Portland weather forecast for Saturday to hit 90 degrees.

I don't plan to get too crazy with the football on the blog this year (and yes, I did say that last year, didn't I?). This year it will be one post per week, with the schedule, TV (for the Portland area), and predictions. Last year my predictions ended up 60-21 including the bowl season, so my goal in 2011 is to beat that. (Note: picks are straight up, not against any line.)

Occasionally I may write more if I feel inspired, but I won't force myself. I have a book to revise, after all.

So here you go, Week One of the new Pacific-12 Conference! Yep, 12 - can't forget a warm welcome to the conference for the University of Utah Utes and University of Colorado Buffaloes. Oh, and that the conference is split between North and South now, with a conference championship game in December.

Now, if that conference TV network could just get going yesterday, we'd be all good.

Thursday

5pm - Montana State at Utah - No TV - UTAH

7pm - UC Davis at ASU - No TV - ASU

Saturday

12:30pm - UCLA at Houston - ROOT (formerly FSNW) - HOUSTON

12:30pm - Minnesota at USC - ABC - USC

1pm - Sac State at OSU - No TV (Beaver Online) - OSU

2pm - Idaho State at Wazzu - No TV - WAZZU

2pm - SJSU at Stanford - No TV - STANFORD

4pm - Fresno State at Cal - No TV - CAL

4pm - Eastern Washington at Washington - ROOT - WASHINGTON

5pm - Oregon at LSU - ABC - OREGON

7pm - Northern Arizona at Arizona - Fox College Sports - ZONA

7:15pm - Colorado at Hawaii - ESPN2 - HAWAII

Who do you pick?

Ah Yes, the Revision Stage

2011-08-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I was feeling pretty good about my writer self. I had finished the first draft of my novel, read through it and made some changes, and spent a ridiculous amount of money printing out 300 pages.

Then I began a class on novel structure, taught by Lani Diane Rich (author of many books), the same person who taught the Discovery writing class I took earlier this year. The basic synopsis of the class is teaching beginning novelists the ins and outs of a four-act novel with seven anchor scenes, learning how the action builds from one point to the next. If you can remember back to middle school English, it's similar - but more detailed - to the basic graph of a three-act play, with fun terms like "rising action" and "denouement" (Mrs. McCormick would be so pleased I remember those things).

First off, Lani is a terrific teacher and her classes are a lot of fun, but they are also work and she will be completely honest when you share pieces of your work. As she should be - that's exactly what I wanted.

The first thing we shared was our opening scene, which for me is my first chapter. It's about 1,600 words or so, eight or nine pages double spaced in Word. Each person in the class reviewed each of the scenes with specific questions in mind and Lani did the same.

She warned us ahead of time she would be brutal if it called for it, and she was - but in a good way. There were pieces of mine she really liked, and pieces she didn't like. She followed that up with great suggestions on how it could be better, most of which I agreed with. (I should note at this point she also recommended we share the scene with some friends who didn't know what the story was about, and see what they expected from the rest of the book - this was a fantastic, and revealing, exercise.)

After that I felt pretty good. She was honest and brutal, but she didn't shred it to pieces - I counted that as a win.

The second exercise was taking the action in our book and applying it to the structure presented in the class. I thought this would be easy, since as part of the planning for my novel I kept an Excel spreadsheet where I detailed the action by chapter.

It was not easy. In fact, it was really, really freaking hard - a zillion times harder than I expected. There were points where I'm supposed to be talking about my own book, about something I had written and spent countless hours with, and I didn't know what to say, didn't know what was right. Or, as I wrote it thought, hey, that doesn't make sense.

Predictably the honest critique exposed all of that. And it was, again, awesome and revealing and I wouldn't change a single thing about it, but at the same time it's a tad depressing. I plan on incorporating about 70% or so of her suggestions into the next draft of the book, but it does mean some very drastic changes. Characters will be minimized and in some cases their entire roles in the story will be changed. My main character needs to be harder, tougher, and the next draft will reflect that.

In fact, with Lani's suggestions, other suggestions from classmates, and my own thoughts, I made a list of (so far) 10 things I will focus on in the next draft. Some of them are big, some small. Some chapters will be totally redone, some will just be tweaked. Some points in the story are going to change drastically.

This is a daunting task, especially after having already written 300 pages and having felt pretty good about it.

But at the same time, another exercise was to read my own novel like a reader, just making notes of things that did and did not work. My conclusion? It's a long way from what I thought it was in my head - but it's also not horrible. There is some good stuff here and I think with my list of focal points I'm going to pull out a much tighter story, and I firmly believe this next phase will be completely worth it.

So here I am, getting ready to begin. I've put it off for a week, dealing with some stressful times at both of my jobs, but this weekend the next draft will begin.

Some authors love this part. Wifey and I went to Tawna Fenske's book signing in Beaverton last week and another well-known Portland author, Bill Cameron (whom I admire and respect and writes similar stories to mine) was also there. I awkwardly introduced myself - we had chatted on Twitter but never met in person - and after he placed my face with where he knew me from, he asked me about my own progress. I told him about the stage I was at and he nodded, knowingly. This was his favorite part, he said, because this is where a story really finds it's voice. Lani said almost the same thing, as did Tawna.

I'm ready, story. I'm going to dig that voice out of you, shredding to pieces whatever needs shredding, and it will be good (when I want to be really cocky I can think "great").

Wish me luck!

Not So Lucky This Time

2011-08-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

Last fall I got pulled over for speeding in Hillsboro and inexplicably did not get a ticket. I mean, that's great, I don't want one, but it always surprises me (not that it happens all the time or anything) how subjective the process is.

To me it's pretty clear. Officer records driver speeding, officer pulls driver over, officer writes ticket.

So why do they sometimes not write a ticket? Or why do they sometimes pull a driver over in a given situation, but then in an identical situation not pull them over? Why is so much left to however the officer feels in a given moment? (I have no answers for these questions, only weak suppositions having to do with how much sleep the officer got the night before or how motivated they may be feeling - kind of like me every day I go to work.)

A few months ago we drove out to the coast for the day. We go to Cannon Beach a lot (that's where I proposed), so that means taking Highway 26 straight west from Portland to Highway 101 and heading south a few miles. Highway 26 is a beautiful drive, twisting through the Coast range, hitting a summit of about 1600 feet, with forests and tiny, tiny towns dotting the route. It crosses back and forth over rivers and streams, mostly on two-lane roads with the occasional passing lanes, and about the only negative is having to see some of the clear-cut forests desperately trying to recover.

And it's a smooth drive. The posted speed limit is 55 and generally people follow it, but often they drop to 50 and sometimes even lower. I pass those people whenever I can, because I'm more likely to be hitting 60-65. I love the drive, but it's still 70 miles to the coast and even at 8am I'm in a hurry to avoid the rush and make sure we get a parking spot, either in town in Cannon Beach or one of the beaches near the town. (On a summer weekend if you don't get there by 10am you will have great, great, great difficulty finding a parking spot anywhere on the coast.)

There is a stretch of road heading west, coming down from the summit, where it widens to four lanes as it twists down the mountains. It passes by the one rest stop on the way (so if you need to go, you can't miss it) and eventually bottoms out near the turn-off to the north to head to Saddle Mountain (a hike we have done once and need to do again, but it's not an easy one). Coming down the mountain the road curves in lazy turns and cars just about always hit 70. I do. Sometimes it's planned because I'm passing someone who inexplicably drives 50 when there is one lane but hits 65 when there are two, but others it's just a product of enjoying the smooth drive and coasting downhill.

Coming out of one these curves, a couple miles east still of the Saddle Mountain turn-off, about half the time a state trooper is sitting there gunning the Portlanders heading to the beach. I've seen him many, many times. I've panicked many, many times, wondering if I'm going to get pulled over. I've driven past him at 72 miles an hour, and not been pulled over.

Saturday I was not lucky. I came out of the curve at 71, saw the police car, and hit the brakes, but of course once you see the car it's too late - your speed has already been recorded. As I passed him, down to about 63 by that time, I saw the lights come on and swore. I pulled over before he barely made it on the road and had my license and insurance card waiting for him. Not a lot you can say, right? Nothing to argue.

The officer was polite, but he did give me a ticket ($190, ouch). He must not have been a dog person, because Misaki gave him her best puppy dog eyes to no avail.

Like I said, I can't complain - I was speeding. What really bugs me is I know there is always an police car in this exact spot, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to anticipate that. (Yes, sure, the other option is just always keep it under 65 - I know.) Not only do I have only myself to blame for speeding, but I have only myself to blame for being stupid and speeding without paying attention to my exact circumstances.

One of these days I'll learn, I suppose.

Good thing I don't have a car that really would be conducive to driving fast, like a BMW or a Porsche. I'd be screwed then.

2011 NW Shibas 4 Life Annual Picnic

2011-08-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks back NW Shibas 4 Life had their annual picnic and we, of course, took Misaki to play with all the other Shibas. Somehow I have neglected to post pictures of the event, so it's time to rectify that.

An unknown black and tan Shiba.

Running around their two-acre field on a hot day wears out a Shiba.

This is Koda, a creme Shiba.

Misaki checking out a mole hill. (She had something to say about that.)

Cuddling up to her momma. (She had something to say about this, too.)

Mugen is the red and white Shiba with the ball in his mouth. I think the other is Abbey.

Two Shibas playing.

Misaki and a sesame Shiba named Joey.

This Aizu, one of Misaki's sons is from her second litter.

Misaki and Cookie, a very timid little girl.

This is Jewel, the official hostess of NW Shibas 4 Life.

A Shiba checking out some scattered debris.

Eight Shibas in one picture! Pretty proud of myself.

Misaki sniffing Aizu.

Abbey with a softball. She and Misaki didn't growl at each other, which is a win in my book

Misaki sniffing the stump with Abbey and a another Shiba.

Misaki had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back!

We encourage those who would like to support NW Shibas 4 Life. They sell a calendar annually and the proceeds go directly to their Shiba rescue program. You can order one here.

Another Sad Goodbye: Ziba's Pitas

2011-08-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

Wifey and I are big, big fans of Ziba's Pitas, a Bosnian foodcart in downtown Portland on 9th and Alder. Last week it was announced Ziba was retiring and had put the cart up for sale, which is sad for her fans all over the city (on the other hand, yay for retirement!).

She is continuing to work the cart until it sells and is even willing to teach someone all of her tricks and techniques if they want to make a go of following in her footsteps. (Believe me, I thought about it. Briefly. Then I saw the lunch rush.)

So what better way to say goodbye than by stuffing ourselves silly with Bosnian food?

We opted for two full plates, the first being the burek - meat filled pitas. It comes with a side salad of cucumbers and sour cream and generous helping of ajvar - a relish made from red bell peppers, eggplant, garlic, and chili pepper (it has a kick). The ajvar is the perfect complement to the wonderfully seasoned meat.

We opted for a side of ustipaks too, which are soft, fluffy puffs of bread. They also come with ajvar and a side of cottage cheese.

Our second main course was very similar to the burek, but it's called zeljanica. Instead of a meat filling, it's a mixture of spinach, eggs, cottage cheese and sour cream.

All of it, as usual, was fantastic. The pitas are fried to a nice crunch and when topped with the ajvar the flavors are just amazing.

Happy retirement Ziba, but you will be sorely missed. Hopefully someone takes her up on her offer to teach them her food, but these are big shoes to fill.

Forest Park Benefit Picnic

2011-07-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

All the time in Portland there are these great events to raise money for this or that involving a few top chefs and great beer and wine. We've wanted to attend one, but they are usually pretty expensive - $50/person and up - and it's hard to justify the costs without really having any idea what you get. (Yes, sure, we could go for the charity aspect, but I fully admit I rarely give that kind of money. For anything.)

However, Portland Monthly Magazine put on an event this past Sunday called A Picnic for Forest Park to raise money for the park. Food was from the chefs at Ned Ludd, Simpatica and Boke Bowl; drinks from Widmer, Ninkasi, Henry Weinhard's, Wine by Joe, Torii Mor, and Archery Summit; and treats from Petunia's Bakery, Oregon Ice Works and Sol Pops.

We like the park - we take Misaki hiking there sometimes - and the lineup of food sounded great, but the best part was the price: $17 advance tickets. That couldn't be bad, right?

It most surely was not.

THE FOOD

We arrived just before opening (via Max - more on that later) near the entrance of Portland's World Forestry Center across the parking lot from the Oregon Zoo. The charcoal grills were already going, so we took some pictures. (As always, click on the pic to get a larger version.)

The cooks - from bottom to top, Ned Ludd, Simpatica, Boke Bowl.

Close up of Ned Ludd's grill.

Simpatica's grill, with Boke Bowl's in the background.

Our first dish came from Boke Bowl. Wifey and I hit up this pop-up restaurant - planning a brick and mortar location soon - when they took over Yakuza in Northeast Portland a couple months ago and had some outstanding ramen and other food. No ramen today, but plenty of other good stuff.

In the picture below from the 12:00 position going clockwise is: miso butterscotch "twinkie", green onion grilled rice cake, grilled char siu pork belly with pickled mustard sauce, grilled smoked tofu with ginger soy, pickled cucumbers/carrots/red peppers, kim chee, and warm asparagus/mango/cauliflower/arugula/tofu croutons with a Thai vinaigrette in a sno-cone.

Sampling from Boke Bowl

All of it was excellent - we went back for seconds on the twinkie, pork belly, rice cake and tofu. Miso butterscotch may sound a little odd, but it's fantastic.

Next up a sample from Ned Ludd and Simpatica, while we waited for Simpatica to cook up more chicken.

Wrap from Ned Ludd, the rest from Simpatica.

Simpatica's (one of our favorite restaurants) offering included grilled chicken thighs (flavored with paprika, marjoram and lemon), baked beans with pork and green chiles, and roasted corn on the cob tossed in chili basil butter. The beans were outstanding and the corn had great flavor, though since it's not quite corn season in the Northwest it could be better. In the glass in the picture below is Widmer's Citra Blonde Summer Brew, which was just okay - very citrusy. (We also tried wines from all three wineries and didn't really like any of them, but that doesn't mean anything. We aren't experts by any means.)

Sampling from Simpatica

Ned Ludd's chef offered up chili-rubbed grilled skirt steak, summer salad, slow cooked black beans with pulled pork, and toasted tortillas. All of this is very good, which only confirms in my own mind that we really need to visit Ned Ludd for dinner at some point.

Ned Ludd samples.

We also tried all sorts of treats. The picture below shows samples of Strawberry and Lemon from Oregon Ice Works. They are Italian ices, which are different from sorbets in some subtle way I'm not real clear on. They were solid, but I don't think I'd go out of my way for them. We also tried the Vanilla Coconut, which we both enjoyed but agreed it was an ice cream tease.

Oregon Ice Works.

From Sol Pops we tried the Stumptown Coffee and the Mango Lime, both of which were good but shouldn't be tasted together. Just saying. Somewhere along the way I ended up with a glass of Ninkasi's Radiant Ale, a very hoppy brew that didn't go very well with any of the food.

And lastly, we tried almost everything Petunia's Bakery had to offer (and nommed it all before remembering I had the camera in my pocket). Cowgirl cookies, peanut butter crispy bars, peach vanilla hazelnut babycakes (mini cupcakes - frozen bit of peach inside!), and chocolate banana peanut butter babycakes. All of these were absolutely fantastic which surprised me, honestly. Why?

They were all vegan (and gluten-free). We have avoided vegan baked goods like the plague on principal, but each and every one of these was absolutely excellent. I won't say we are converts, but definitely more open to the possibilities.

ANIMALS

For some reason I'm really not clear on, there was a petting zoo. Maybe just to keep the kids busy? All of them were so patient with the kids yanking on them and petting (smacking) them. This alpaca here wins an award. Some kid piled cedar chips on his head and the alpaca just sat there quietly. Someone tried to brush them off, but they were still stuck in his fur.

And goats!

And a donkey!

Okay, so the donkey didn't look all that thrilled.

GREAT TIME

Overall it seemed like a well-run event and everyone seemed quite pleased with the food. Some were also overly pleased with the beer and wine.

Very, very, very satisfied. So satisfied in fact that even though we left, stuffed, just before two in the afternoon we didn't eat again until breakfast Monday morning. That's not good nutrition, but whatever.

We'd absolutely do it again next year. For the amount and quality of the food, $17 is a great deal. Plus, yay Forest Park!

MAX

I have to rant just a tiny, tiny bit here. Since the event was up by the zoo and started at noon, parking there wasn't even an option. On any weekend, even with bad weather, you have to get to the Oregon Zoo before it opens to count on a parking spot up there, and Sunday was a fantastic weather day, clear with temperatures in the mid-eighties.

So, being good Portlanders, we decided to take MAX from out in Beaverton. Normally we drive everywhere because I'm not a fan of public transportation (see, normally bad Portlanders...), but this seemed like a good time to use the service. The train was fine, the people were fine, but I have one little complaint: the cost.

For the two of us to travel about six-seven miles down the line to the Oregon Zoo stop and back (for all-day tickets since we were there over two hours), it cost $9.50. Now, perhaps that's the true cost of the service, which is fine, but why should I use this service when it's almost the price of three gallons of gas? That gets me 75 miles of driving or so, in any direction I choose.

So why exactly would I use public transportation? Yes, sure, with the all-day ticket I could ride from Gresham to Hillsboro to the airport to Clackamas Town Center if I chose, but why would I? To me public transportation only has value if the cost at least comparable to driving my own car. If it's not, why would I choose it when the options it offers are limited? (No matter what anyone tells you, Tri-Met in Portland does NOT go everywhere. Many places, but not everywhere.)

I'll keep my car, thanks.

A Writer "Moment"

2011-07-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not the kind of person who tends to toot their own horn, especially around people I don't know very well or at all. When people ask me what I do I inevitably tell them about the day job, the one paying the bills, and leave it at that.

Rarely do I mention my second job - online news writing and editing - because I figure most people really don't care anyway. Which is true, they probably don't, but even if they did my point is I wouldn't bring it up without prodding.

I sure as hell don't broadcast that I am writing a book (I save that for between me and you here on the blog, because who could see it, right?). That brings up honest questions from people I never know how to answer, if I even know the answer. I don't know where this is going or how it will get there or any of that, and to be honest I haven't thought too far ahead because I'm more worried about the steps I can control.

You know, write the damn thing first, then worry about the agent/publisher/book tour/how to spend millions. Or something like that.

So I find it hard to identify myself as a writer because of that. To me a writer is someone who gets paid to write, which isn't quite where I am at the moment. To me it's a place I'd like to be, but I don't have the resume to back up the claim.

But today, I had a moment.

Yesterday I finished the second draft of my novel. I added something like 40 pages and 12,000 words to the second draft, incorporating seven more chapters, another minor storyline, and another character's point of view (this was already multi-POV). For a class I am taking about structure my instructions were to then print out the full story and approach it like a reader would (as best as possible knowing what will happen next and knowing the background of the characters that doesn't get put on the pages).

To that end I dumped the 300 page Word document onto a flash drive and stopped by FedEx Office (apparently Kinko's isn't in the name anymore and will live only in my memory) to print there, so I didn't burn through a full ink cartridge on my tiny home laser printer. After it was printed ($32?! Are you kidding me?! You know how many e-books I can buy for that?!) the woman helping me brought it to the counter for my approval. Another customer standing next to me, being helped by another employee, turned to me and said:

"Oh, wow, did you write a book?!"

My first instinct here was to brush it off, to just smile and let the moment pass, and for a split-second I almost did.

But you know what? Then I thought, "Fuck it. I DID write a book. I am PROUD of the fact I WROTE A BOOK. So yes, I did."

Out loud I said this: "I did." And smiled politely.

"That's so amazing!"

"Well, it's just a draft..."

"That's way more than I have ever done. That's great!"

Then the employee helping me weighed in: "The most I've ever written is a couple poems. That IS amazing."

Now I'm just embarrassed and want to spend my $32 and leave, but at the same time part of me is pretty damn proud. I am a writer.

It's funny, I just read this post yesterday evening by young adult writer Kiersten White (author of Paranormalcy - good read - and next-week release Supernaturally) on inkpop.com and she talked about what made her think of herself as a writer. She lists four things she felt made her an actual writer, but the one that resonates most with me - right now at least - is the fourth one about giving yourself permission.

This, for me, was the most important stage leading up to hitting the next level in my writing. Before, I'd always treated it as a hobby. Something that I did for fun in my spare time. I'd only talk about it if people pressed me, if they specifically asked, and even then I kind of brushed it off dismissively ... Because if I didn't claim to be serious about it, if I didn't admit how much I loved it and how big a goal getting published was, if I didn't CLAIM to be a writer, then it wouldn't matter if I failed.

Yes, yes, and more yes. She nailed it. That, I think, is a little bit why I feel the way I do.

Well guess what? Maybe I don't feel that way anymore. Or maybe I'm at least on the road to being more confident.

Published writers all, when they talk about their journey, discuss "moments" along the way that told them they could do this in a big-time way. Maybe this is one of mine, and 10-15 years from now I can look back on this, point at it, and say there. That's when it all began to change.

Crazier things have happened.

No, My Dog Is Not For Sale

2011-07-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Wifey and I took Misaki for a walk around the neighborhood and to the local park, like we try and do daily. Usually we don't run into anyone, but on this day there were three girls, probably about 9-13 (I'm horrible at estimating, so give that a +/- of 5), who saw her from the other side of the street.

We could hear them talking about Misaki from a ways away, with one of them saying "That looks like a fox!" and then another one saying the same thing.

"I already said that."

Oh lord. Predictably the girls crossed the street and then asked if they could pet Misaki. At least they asked first. The following conversation actually happened.

Girl 1: Your dog looks like a fox!
I just smiled.
Girl 2: Can we pet your dog?
Girl 3: Can we pet your fox?
Me: Sure, you can pet her.
Girl 1: Wait, is it really a fox?!
Me, incredulous: No, she's a dog.

Quick aside: How many suburbanites have ever seen a fox? I'm guessing not many at all. Yet still, every time we go out people crack jokes about how Misaki looks like a fox. Really? Could you pick a fox out of a lineup of Shibas? Where do people run across foxes in everyday life? I grew up in a rural area outside of Portland and saw a fox exactly once, early on a very cold morning, and even then it was in a field far away from people. I blame Disney.

They pet her, oohing and ahhing. Misaki loves the attention, gladly allowing herself to be loved up by three erratic young girls at the same time. One of them, the youngest I think, put her face up to Misaki's muzzle and looked her straight in the eye, which was right about the time we decided it was time to go. Apparently no one has ever taught these girls how to be around a dog. Hell, I wouldn't do that with most dogs ever, let alone dogs I don't know. (Misaki I do, but she's the sweetest thing ever.)

Then the following exchange also really happened.

Girl 2: Can I buy your dog? This is my new dog.
Me: Um, no...
Girl 2: How much would you sell your dog for? I'll buy your dog.
Me, getting the hell out of there: She's not for sale

First off, crazy girl, you can't afford her. I'm pretty sure you don't have a million dollars socked away in a drawer. Secondly, who DOES that? Just tries to buy a dog from someone off the street?

I suppose I could blame the parents, but I don't think I can because they probably don't know any better. Hard to teach something to kids you don't understand or do yourself, I'm guessing (I don't have kids, so I'm hardly a reliable resource on the subject). The parents would probably do the same thing in the same situation.

So someone, somewhere, at some point decided this was acceptable practice. That person is insane.

Yes, you can pet my dog. She's a sweetheart. If she weren't, I'd tell you no (we usually told people no with Ruby). Please keep your face away from hers.

And don't ask me is she's for sale or intimate in any way you want to take her. That's rude...and really, really creepy.

What Really Scares Me

2011-07-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make: vampires don't scare me. Neither do ghosts, werewolves, zombies, or pretty much anything in the paranormal realm. It doesn't matter if the character/being is being spun at me all sparkly and with feelings by Stephanie Meyer or with fangs dripping blood bent only on imminent in something concocted by the crazy mind of Stephen King.

It doesn't scare me because it's not real. I don't believe in the existence of any of these things/beings outside our own imaginations, so how could I be scared of them?

That's not to say I completely discount their possible existence. Who knows? The world is a crazy place and unexplained occurrences happen all the time, so maybe at some point I will be shown some kind of proof, but until then I'm just as happily agnostic about the paranormal as I am in the existence of a higher power.

Some say there is crossover between the two; I don't want to get into that.

I just can't find myself getting scared by this genre in a book or a movie. Sure, I may get bothered or shocked out of my skin, but scared? Nope. (This is not an invitation to the world to go out of your way to scare the shit out of me. That would just be rude.)

What does scare me is scenarios with truth in them. A time and place where something happens to a person and I think, hey, I could see that happening to me. And what would I do in that situation?

Getting caught in the middle of a store robbery.

Getting in a car wreck with a drunk driver.

Being stuck on a plane with malfunctioning engines.

Finding myself as one of the unfortunate pieces of collateral damage in a terrorist attack.

Stuck in the crossfire between two gangs in an urban neighborhood.

Wrongfully accused of something and being unable to prove it.

Losing my job and running out of money.

THAT shit scares me. THOSE are the kinds of things that keep me up at night.

The late night ringing of the doorbell.

This one actually happened a few weeks back. Wifey and I were in the office, her studying and me working on the novel, about 9:30 or 10 at night, when the doorbell rang. Odd. Who rings a doorbell that late? That's never good, right? Misaki didn't even bark, just looked down the hallway towards the stairs and then back at us.

After debating for a couple seconds, I decided to answer the door. "Be careful," Wifey called as I walked down the stairs.

Think about that for a minute. We are sitting in our own house, minding our business, and the simple action of a doorbell ringing after dark necessitates a reminder to be careful. What does that say? And yes, I was a little freaked out. Should I grab a knife from the kitchen, just in case? Do I even open the door?

I debated this as I walked down the stairs. Then I did what most people do in these situations: I chose to believe the 99% probability this would be completely harmless. That other 1%, though, is where I get totally freaked out about.

I answered the door after flipping on the porch light and a man, who had made it back to the sidewalk at this point, hurried back to my door. I tensed, unsure what to expect, until I recognized his face as my neighbor. Then I relaxed, mostly (not completely - we don't know them that well), and asked what was up.

"I have to tell you something," he said. Um, really? Now? Okay, what?

Neighbor proceeded to point out a house just up the street on the next corner, a house with a family I don't know, and said that a couple days before - he just found this out - the mom woke up early in the morning, about 5ish, and went to the kitchen to make some breakfast. She saw a man in her backyard. Here Neighbor made a point to say the man didn't belong there, but in my mind I'm thinking well, what man does belong in any backyard at 5am?

The man saw her and ran off. She didn't get a good look at his face and had no description, but a patrol car did come out and take a statement, then pledging to up patrols in the area a bit.

The end result of this story had Neighbor urging us to keep our doors locked and our eyes open. He thought we should know. I said thank you, I appreciated that, and didn't say I was more freaked out by the doorbell ringing late than this story.

But it is disconcerting, to say the least. Backyards are not secure by any means. When you really think about it, neither are houses. Or cars. Or really much of anything. Locked doors are more of a deterrent than they are really about keeping the bad people out, the presumption being why make it easy for them, and if it's not easy, they will look elsewhere.

But this, this is the shit that scares me. The little bits of every day life that could so easily go horribly wrong. Or the events with a broader impact, like a terrorist attack, and getting stuck in the middle of a fight I have no dog in (which, really, is a horrible, horrible phrase - dogfighting? really? that's a metaphor?) and being forced to deal with the situation in the way I best know how, which may not be very good at all.

In the story I have written, part of the main sequence of events is under the control of the main characters, but the biggest flashpoint of the story is not - they are forced to react with something they never saw coming and go from there. To me the story is not necessarily in the event itself, though the events are fun to write and work through, but in how a given set of characters reacts to those events.

For me, a story will always begin with the phrase "What if....?" and go from there. Maybe it's an exercise in learning about myself, about preparing myself for the unexpected, or maybe it's simpler than that. Or more complicated. Or simply just is.

I do know that this is the shit that keeps me up at night. This is the shit that scares the holy hell out of me when I think about it too much, too deeply.

Vampires and werewolves? That's just entertainment.

Oreos Aren't Just For Kids

2011-07-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm probably not the only one in the world who grew up loving Oreos. They were one of the few packaged things Mom would buy, and even then not very often. When we went camping we always bought them and I ate more than my fair share.

When I went to college my roommates and I would scarf down an entire package in a sitting (no, this had nothing to do with munchies - just cause they were yummy).

But diets change and Oreos - with their highly processed ingredients and high fructose corn syrup - just aren't worth the calories anymore. I thought I would never get them again.

That is, until we found this awesomeness:

These are made in Portland by a baker who goes by Miss Zumstein. They are roughly 3-4 times the size of a traditional Oreo and about 75 times yummier. Hard to beat that, isn't it?

We found these at Heart Coffee Roasters on East Burnside and while the price - $1.50 each - seemed steep, we tried it anyway. Worth. Every. Cent. And I'd pay more. Obviously, for legal reasons, she cannot call them Oreos - instead they are simply "Chocolate Sandwich Cookies." Personally I would have gone for "Sweet Awesomeness on a Plate" but I can appreciate the restraint shown in the naming.

Heart no longer carries them, but Miss Zumstein's products can be found locally at Pastaworks, Extracto, The Daily Cafe, and others. Or you can, like we did, order them by the dozen over the phone (she also ships) and pick them up at her place on North Williams, by Tasty & Sons and Hopworks Bike Bar.

Look at that...don't you just want a bite?!

So why did we order a full dozen? Well, some of them are going into the blender for the next batch of ice cream: Mocha Madness, a recipe we found via King Arthur Flour.

I have a hunch it will be awesome. And even if it's not, we still have plenty of these grown up Oreos to munch. Oops, I mean Sweet Awesomeness on a Plate.

Misaki Learns Sit

2011-06-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

When we first adopted Misaki - as an almost seven-year-old retired show dog - we were surprised to find out she didn't know basic commands like sit, stay, down, etc. Apparently this is not what show dogs learn; instead they learn a different kind of commands and something called "stacking."

No big deal, we could just teach the commands to her, right? We taught our Akita all the basics with little trouble, which is easy to do when you have a very food-motivated dog. Ruby was. Misaki is.

But teaching Misaki didn't go so well. She looked at us like were crazy, so we gave up. Besides, she was still a very well-mannered dog, she walked well on leash, she doesn't jump on people (usually) - so what if she doesn't sit on command, right? We aren't sticklers, as perhaps we should be as pack leaders.

Who are we kidding - Misaki runs this pack. She's got us squarely under her paw.

A couple weeks ago we decided to try again, just to see. We used Zuke's treats, giving her the command to sit with a finger snap, tapping her at the base of her tail to encourage her to sit down. And she responded - quickly. In fact, with just a few five-minute sessions Misaki is now sitting on command.

Of course, there are some caveats, as there always is with our cute little Shiba. One, she won't do it for you unless she knows you are holding a treat she can have. Otherwise why bother, right? Also, she will only sit on the carpet, not on the tile in the bathroom or the hardwood floor in the kitchen.

Look at that posture though - a perfect sit! Not the well-known sideways Shiba sit. Sometimes she does want to "stack" though, mostly when she doesn't want to be forced to sit. She'll extend her back legs rigid and somehow make herself unnaturally heavy - she can't be moved. I have no idea how she does this.

But hey, good puppies get treats...

She is normally grateful for the treat. And, she will sit and wait as long as it takes to get the treat.

And if she isn't getting a treat - maybe just some skritches instead - she wants to know why.

There has been an unexpected result of this training. Because her training sessions have been at the same time every day, she now knows exactly what is going on. Why is that important? She doesn't wait for the command. Instead, she just sits right in front of us and expects her treat for being such a good girl.

I'm torn. This is obviously a polite move by the dog, and we like the fact she will sit. However, I have this feeling I've lost control of the situation a bit. After all, if I give her a treat when she sits - rather than me asking her to sit, her sitting, and then giving her a treat - who is training who? She now is the master, I'm only doing what she expects.

Sly, sly move, Miss Misaki. But do I regain the upper hand by knowing what she's doing? She'll probably let me think that.

I have visions in my head of her randomly sitting in front of house guests and waiting for them to do their duty and give her a treat. I can totally see her doing this - maybe even at the beach too. She already looks up at any person who walks by, stopping almost in their path and expecting to get loved up. Sitting and waiting for a treat is the obvious next step.

Have to keep an eye on that girl.

So there you have it - you can teach an old dog new tricks! Don't tell her I said that.

I Killed a Red Pen

2011-06-24T17:49:00.000-07:00

My first ever round of revisions went pretty well, I think. I mean, I have nothing to compare them to.

I printed each chapter as I wrote it over the previous two months, three-hole punching them and putting them in a binder. When I was finished, after letting it sit for two weeks, I broke out the red pen and started reading the pages. It took me about two weeks to cover my 260 pages and 37 chapters with red ink.

A lot of red ink. So much, in fact, around Chapter 22 or so my pen died. Yikes.

It wasn't a brand new pen when I started, but I don't normally use it very often so there was plenty of ink. Now all of that ink is soaking the pages of my manuscript.

Some people get really freaked out by red ink, as if it gives them flashbacks to elementary school, but it doesn't bother me. It's just another step on the road from Point A to Point B, and a take an odd kind of glee in marking up pages. I take more glee when they are someone else's, but still, it's fun. The whole point is to make the end product better, so it's hard to be mad at that.

I learned a couple things reading through the manuscript:

1 - There were scenes where I knew as I wrote them I would need to come back and spend serious time on them during the revision stage. These scenes were not nearly as bad as I remembered.

2 - There were scenes where as I wrote them I knew I had nailed them, that the revisions here would be minimal. These scenes are not nearly as good as I remember.

Then there were the scenes where I didn't have a good sense of where they would end up. Those scenes ended up being really good or really horrible.

In the end, no scene escaped with only a minimum of red ink. In fact, I could probably count on two fingers the number of pages without red on them - and those two pages probably were at the end of a chapter with only a few lines on it.

To me, I take this all as good news. I think at the first draft stage if I don't find problems or things to improve in every scene I'm not looking hard enough.

What's the next step? This weekend I will start the integration of these edits into a second draft. I'm hoping this only takes a couple weeks, but who knows? I signed up for a six-week online class about revisions starting on July 17th, so I want to be finished at least a week before that so I can let it sit. (In my confirmation email for the class it was suggested I should come to class with a manuscript I hadn't looked at in six weeks. Oh well.)

That class is going to produce the edits leading to the third draft, and after that, maybe, I'll see if anyone wants to read the thing. Maybe.

It's all progress - and it feels good to reach another milestone.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to run to Office Max for more red pens...

Paley's Place For Dining Month Portland

2011-06-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

Last week Wifey and I decided to take advantage of this pretty cool thing Portland does called Dining Month Portland. Participating restaurants offer up special menus - appetizer, entree, and dessert - for $25. Usually this is a good deal, but it depends on the restaurant, of course.

The idea of Dining Month Portland is to encourage out of town visitors to check out the restaurants, but - and this is just a guess on my part - I think locals partake in it just as much or even more.

Paley's Place, in Northwest Portland, is one of the top restaurants in the city, with owner Vitaly Paley recently appearing on Iron Chef America (and winning the radish challenge) and also authoring a book. Paley's prides itself on sustainable, local food done with a French twist (Paley's background).

The restaurant also does half and full portions of many of its entrees, something we love because it means we get to taste more things without getting stuffed.

With the Dining Month special it worked out the dessert was free based on the menu list prices. The offered a salad, a dessert, and an entrees. We ordered another entree and another dessert and shared everything.

We were started off with some fresh bread from Ken's Artisan Bakery, which is just down the street.

Then came the salad.

George's Gathered Greens - with lemon and extra virgin olive oil

This may be the best salad I've ever eaten. The lemon aided a whole new dimension for me. See those white things on top? Radishes. He's good with them.

The first entree, the one as part of the Dining Month menu, was a half-order of grilled pork shoulder.

Grilled pork shoulder with fava beans, raab, and apple cider pork jus

Again, this was excellent. The vegetables on the side were just as tasty as the pork, and apple cider jus provided the right amount of sweetness.

Our other entree was a half order of grilled salmon. Our waiter - who was very, very helpful and courteous - told us it came from the Quinalt Indian Nation in northern Washington (yes Twilight fans, the same Quinalt, but no, I don't think our fish was caught by a shapeshifter/werewolf), on the Olympic peninsula. Apparently rules state 90% of the fish caught there must stay with the nation and Paley's has a deal for a decent chunk of the final 10%. Our fish was caught by a fisherman named Sonny, so - thanks Sonny!

Quinalt River grilled salmon with pesto, braised leeks, roasted potatoes and turnips, and greens.

The skin on this fish was amazing - crunchy and salty. Wifey doesn't like fish skin so I ate the whole thing. And it was heaven.

Here's another view. The fish was cooked medium rare, but the flavors were excellent. I've never put pest on salmon - might have to try that at home.

Then it was time for dessert. Paley's pastry chef is Kristen Murray, also widely regarded as one of the best in the city. Since we love our desserts, we were excited to try her treats. This toasted coconut cake came with the Dining Month menu.

Toasted coconut cake with salted butter ice cream and pineapple

We weren't sure about salted butter ice cream, but it was done with a light touch and worked perfectly with the coconut cake, served warm.

Wifey ordered the chocolate souffle cake after agonizing between that and the creme brulee.

Chocolate souffle cake with toasted hazelnuts and honey-vanilla ice cream

Everything on this plate complemented everything else, even the hazelnuts - and neither of us are super excited about nutty things.

My only gripe is I was still a tad hungry at the end, which just meant we should have chosen the full order of salmon. Duly noted for next time - and there will be a next time. Paley's Place is one of those Portland restaurants that can't be missed. (And we might have to try another restaurant or two before Dining Month is over.)

First Draft: Complete

2011-05-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

When I decided to buckle down and actually write a novel the idea was pretty overwhelming. I mean, sit down and produce something of at least 50,000 words? And who knows how many pages? Wow. Insane.

I've written quite a bit in my life, probably millions of words worth of things. I write for my second job, producing multiple pieces per week, but the longest thing I had ever before written was about 30 pages (my senior thesis at the University of Oregon - something about Japan-US relations, the details I can't remember now), and the longest piece of fiction I had written was something in the range of 15 pages, at most.

Armed with my idea, one I had marinated on for months, letting the details come together, and with the help of a couple writing classes, I sat down to write it. Obviously this was not an overnight endeavor.

One thing writing classes or experts will tell a young/fresh writer is to write every day. Set aside a chunk of time, a place to do it, and every day at that time for a specified length of time, you write. You don't let anything get in your way of that time, be it friends, family, life, or even writer's block. You just write. You don't worry about the quality, because the idea is to keep the words pouring onto the page.

To me, there is a time and place for that. While trying to write a novel is not the time nor the place. If I were to sit down every day after work, after hitting the gym, after doing whatever else I need to do, and write in my novel every single day for x amount of time regardless of how I felt, you know what I would have? A steaming pile of crap.

I need to be in the right frame of mind when I write. I can't have things I need to do. I can't feel hurried by an end time because I have do something else. People don't like to hear that (I have found) because (I believe) they don't think it's the right way to go about it, since that's not what all experts say you should do.

I would caution people to remember the number one rule of writing: do what works best for you. Setting up a specific time every day may work for you, but it doesn't for me.

I took a few things into account when deciding whether or not to write on a given day.

First, how tired am I? My day starts at 5:30am and usually ends close to midnight. Some days I will simply be more tired than others. On those days I didn't work on the novel, because I knew for a fact when I read through it again I'd have to do major rework (as I opposed to what I did write on days when I felt good, when there is only the strong possibility of major rework - slight difference). Why waste my time when I'll just have to completely re-do it later? Instead, I waited for the days when I felt I would produce good work, which ended up being 3-4 days a week (two of those days being Saturday and Sunday, when I could sleep in - big surprise). The days I did not work on the novel I still wrote - I caught up on the blog, Misaki's blog, emails, Facebook, Twitter - things that don't need nearly as much though and focus.

Second, do I have time to write an entire chapter? For this novel, for me, one chapter represented one complete thought or scene. Usually you are told to set word counts or time minimums. I like to spend some time thinking about the next chapter, planning how it will go and who will be involved, so when I sit down and write it the flow is there. My novel has each chapter being told from a different point of view from the previous, so the planning is completely different. There are six or seven points of view and just under 40 chapters, so this planning helped me keep each switch of scenes straight in my head. I hate stopping in the middle because I would lose my train of thought, lose the feel of the scene. Planning is key for me here. I mapped out all my chapters in the beginning so I knew who the POV would be and what the chapter would be trying to accomplish. I didn't detail it any deeper, because I wanted to allow for creativity without letting it get to off the rails. I also revised my spreadsheet about eight times while writing, deleting and adding prospective chapters, changing the goals. Creativity needs parameters if the goal is to get from point A to point Z, while hitting each point in between.

Third, does my list have at least three things? (You will get that joke if you watch 30 Rock.)

Fourth, what do I have to drink? All writers need to feel comfortable in the place they write. For me, I always need something to drink. It could be coffee, water, beer, wine, tea, anything - but I need something to drink. I have no idea why my throat seems to get parched typing, but it does. And hey, when said drink is beer/wine/bourbon/something like that, it really puts that little voice in your head that says "Are you sure that's what you want it to say?" to sleep. I think my voice is a lightweight. I'm sure not.

It took me about eight weeks to write the first draft. Every time I sat down and opened up the Word document with the manuscript in it I was amazed, watching the word and page count rise. Suddenly 50,000 words didn't seem too far away. Then it was in the rear view mirror.

All told it checked in at 37 chapters, six different points of view, 253 pages, and a tiny shade under 70,000 words. Wow.

To me, the best part of all of that is not only that I did it, but that I like what I did. I've seen many people talk about how they hated their first drafts, but I like mine. It's far from perfect, but I told the story how I wanted to be told, without getting too sidetracked and still with letting my characters develop and change the storyline due to their needs. I tried not to force anything.

And, perhaps most of all, I already know what I want to change. As I was writing I knew I wasn't paying as much attention to details of scenes and characters, the little things that help a reader recreate the picture in their own mind. I don't plan on being a writer who goes crazy with that, but I know I want to do more than I did. For the first draft I wanted to stay focused on the basic structure - I can add the paint on the second time through, and the furniture on the third. It's funny to me how I was conscious of this as I wrote the words, but I didn't want to slow down. I made mental notes and when I sit down with my red pen and a hard copy of the novel over the next couple weeks, I'll be adding those notes to the pages in preparation for the second draft.

I also know I need to write more as well. One character who I didn't intend to be a focal point of the novel became one, and because of that I felt about two-thirds of the way through I needed to add his point of view, his voice.Three or four chapters should do it, I think, so I'll be noting where best to insert those during the editing as well.

Another idea I had I'm not ready to tackle yet. I'm a big fan of how some authors - Jodi Piccoult is the best example I have off the top of my head - write their chapters from multiple points of view (like this book), but all in first-person. I like that and thought it would be fun to do this book that way, to get even closer to the characters, to know what they are really feeling in a given moment. That would, obviously, involve serious amounts of rewriting and I don't think it's necessary, at this point. I may change my mind in the future. Maybe for the second book.

So now it's time for the editing. Some people hate it, some love it - I'm cautiously excited for it, since I haven't read any of these things I've written since I saved them the first time. (That was one rule I made - finish it first. Read it through later. Don't get distracted with editing as you go.) Will the ending match the beginning? Probably not. Will the intros of the characters match what they became later? Probably not. Does it flow well and make sense? I hope so. I set out to write a page-turning thriller/mystery, did I keep the pages turning? I already know the answer here is not always, but I hope at least some.

One fun thing I want to do - that I can do because I set the book in Portland, Oregon - is I need to do some recon of the parts of the city I chose to use. I used settings familiar to me, but I need to read what I wrote and then go to that place, take some pictures, and make sure what I wrote matches a feasible reality. (Yes, perhaps this would have made sense to do beforehand, but it involves time and planning, and I wanted to write. Maybe this will become a lesson learned, or maybe it will work - that's all part of the fun!)

It all needs tweaking/re-writing/editing/cleaning/polishing/painting. Maybe I should get started. I haven't looked at it in two weeks...it's time to rein this puppy in and start ripping it apart.

Now where is my red pen...

Quick link to share: I read this post the other day from author John Rickards on his opinion of pricing for ebooks and I have to say, it was fantastic. Read it if you are into that kind of thing.

A Newport Sunset - In Pictures

2011-05-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

During vacation a couple weeks back Wifey and spent a couple nights at the Hallmark Inn in Newport, Oregon, right on the beach (and dog friendly - Misaki approved!). The day we arrived the weather was nice, but by about 7pm the clouds had rolled in, so despite our oceanfront room there was no pretty sunset (my favorite part of staying the beach, other than eating a whole bunch of crap).

Then Day 2 it rained all day long...until about 6 (which meant reading most of Chelsea Cain's Heartsick, which was a fantastic book). Then the clouds started to break up off the coast and we actually received a pretty decent sunset. Here are a few pictures as the sun went down (it actually still sprinkled on land, but out over the water it was pretty nice.

Newport is a decent place to spend a couple days. It's pretty laid back and has some good places to eat, in addition to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and being the World Headquarters of Rogue Brewery.

We had a decent meal from Nana's Irish Pub, which wasn't too far from the hotel. The scotch eggs tasted good, but I barely found any sausage flavor at all. The chicken pot pie was very good. They also do food to go, which we did since we had Misaki, and the pot pie came in a piece of cookware ($5 deposit pending the return).

La Maison Cafe and Bakery does fantastic baked goods. Supposedly they do good cafe food too, but again, we had Misaki. Surprisingly hard to find food when the weather isn't nice and we can't eat outside with the dog. We had a decent chocolate muffin (really, a cupcake), and a fantastic chocolate peanut butter pie.

The area we stayed at is called Nye Beach, where there are plenty of hotels and shops. One shop was in the middle of construction but had a sign on it saying Indulge Sweets was coming soon, with a link to their website. After looking them up we found out their original store was 10 miles south in Seal Rock. Since the weather was crappy, we checked it out. Conclusion? Awesome. The chocolate peanut butter fudge had actual peanut butter in it (as opposed to just peanut butter fudge, which sounds like it would be better but never is), the dark chocolate sea salt caramels were excellent, and so was the dark chocolate covered house made marshmallows. Cannot recommend this place highly enough.

On the way home we drove up the coast to Tillamook instead of heading back through Corvallis to the Interstate. Just a few miles north of Newport we stopped in Depoe Bay and took some pictures, then picked up some caramel corn (this is a coast trip must - every single time) at Jordy's Karmelkorn Shop, which we both enjoyed.

Lunch was at the Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City. It was nice outside and they had a patio, so despite the wind we sat and ate there because of the pup. Dogs aren't actually allowed on the patio and are supposed to stay in the sand next to it, but Misaki curled up under Wifey's chair to get out of the wind and no one seemed to mind (probably because it's not busy on a Thursday afternoon). Pelican does most of the normal pub foods and it being the coast had red snapper fish and chips. Between than and a pizza with a couple different meats we had plenty to eat (and bring home). Their Kiwanda Cream Ale is very good. Surprisingly clear for a cream, but with plenty of nuanced flavors. Nice to see they have it at the grocery stores at home, along with others, so I'll be checking those out. Pacific City also seems like it would be a nice place to spend a few days, so maybe our next trip to the coast will be there if we can find a dog-friendly place to stay.

Our final stop before home was at Cape Mears, where Misaki took in the sights with us.

I gotta say - we had never traveled with Misaki before on an overnight trip. We thought she'd be fine because she's a quiet, sweetheart of a Shiba, but you never know, right? As it turns out she was fantastic, minding all of her manners and being a good dog the entire time. We'll have to do it again in the summer where we can eat at more places outside, instead of having to bring food or find places that do takeout.