Seasons Change

Fall is definately here in Portland. Temps have fallen and leaves are turning color and the rain has started. It has been a while since it rained here. Rain is forcasted for every single day this week.

Being from dry Utah the wet Portland weather is alright with me. I mean where else can I get 365 days out of one bottle of lotion?!?!

Well bring on the soup, carmel apples and candy corns!! And who can forget the cinnamon devils...hint hint Delta crew....I could use some.

Let 'er Buck !!

This is all that remains from my weekend. For many of you who do not know what this bag is...let me explain.
I have a recipe for wonderful peanut butter, oatmeal, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter chip cookies. They are nummy. They are also fragile. I think it has to do with the chip to dough ratio.

I made a batch of cookies and filled up the Ziploc bag. We munched on them all weekend and traveled over 6 hours with them. I think they held up pretty well.
My adventures this week took Dan, Anna and me to Hermiston. Anna has not been to Hermiston for a couple years and her grandmother was excited to see her as well as her cousins. It was fun all over the place.
Saturday I got tickets to the Pendleton Round-up. This is a rodeo. A huge pro rodeo circuit event. Dan who is from Hermiston (22 miles away) has never been to the round-up, just the parade and party after. I am a rodeo lover. We went to the round-up and I completely loved it. I had the best time. The only draw back was that I lost the mullet bet. Dan, Anna and I had bet the night before about how many mullets we would see. My guess was 7. Anna 7-20 and Dan picked 1-5. I was completely dumb founded when we did not spot one. How shocking.
Even though the cowboys of Eastern Oregon have modern cuts they still are the same, big buckles, tight jeans, climbing bleachers with beers in hand trying not to spill. Great fun! And props to West Haven Ut cowboy who won calf roping--cant remember your name but hey I remember your jeans :)

For Vicki

This is Voodoo Doughnut's maple bacon bar. One of their top sellers...Vicki this is for you

Bring out the hoodies

This is a picture from my opertory window...you can see my reflection hee hee. It was afternoon and cloudy just in time for some rain. I love the view from my window. It is so beautiful. The 'West Hill' is covered in trees and when the clouds are gone it is quite lovely.

What I wanted to note is the tree directly across from my office is starting to turn yellow. Yesterday coming home from work I was walking to the train and the wind rustled the leaves. I was instantly in a leaf storm. Leaves were falling down like rain. It was a surreal moment. It was very magical being in this leaf storm. Yet sad. Leaves falling and turning yellow are indicative of the end of summer. I am not used to Portland summer and it has not been long enough. I feel it just barely warmed up. I understand this is normal for Portland. The good part is that I have this wonderful view of the west side of Portland and get to watch the leaves change and eventually fall off. I am pretty lucky to work and live in such a wonderful city.

Cookies and pancakes

It has been a baking weekend. I love it. It has been so fun. My friend Matthew Ray is moving to Minneapolis. He is a pharmacist for Albertsons and took a position in the great city as district manager of the pharmacies there. There is not Albertsons in MN but there are other parts of the intricate mergers and sister companies. Last night we had a goodbye party. It was a lot of fun. All the Pharmacists and techs that worked at Matt's store as well as some interns and the girls from Starbucks--inside Albertsons came and our significant others. It is weird that I actually mean significant others. One tech is male and brought his fiancee Paul. Yup. Dan and I were the only people who did not drink at the party but everyone made us feel part of the party. It was a great group of people. We had chicken and veggie kabobs with saffron rice, pasta salad, chips and fresh salsa, oreos, chocolate zucchini cake and ice cream. I made the oreos...I am sure you figured that out. No one at this party Dan included had never partaken of a homemade oreo. They were a hit and quickly consumed. I love it when simple foods make everyone so happy!

As you know one of my patients is a culinary instructor in Portland. Her blog linked me to another one titled Wives with Knives. On this blog I found a recipe for Pear Pancake. I am a huge breakfast fan and although I do not love pears I tired the recipe anyway. It was sounded too tempting. My picture is not as elegant as the one on Wives with Knives but you get the idea. You caramelize Anise seeds (gives it a licorice flavor) in a cast iron pan then add pears, cook a bit to brown (mine are a little too done--oops) then add an egg mixture, cook for 5 minutes and then bake for 15. Turn it upside down and serve with syrup and dust with powdered sugar. My only complaint is that the egg mixture instructed me to add 1/2 cup sugar into the egg whites. I think it is too sweet. I like to add syrup to my pancakes therefore usually omit the sugar in all pancake recipes I use frequently. When I make this again I will decrease the sugar and maybe even omit it....with the sweet from the pears it was just too much. But that is me. If you have a few minutes look at the Wives with Knives blog and look to the left. There is a column listing all the previous posts in specific categories. I like the cake one...and the chocolate one and the peach one and....

What a weekend....

I just had the best weekend! Dan and I arranged to have 4 days off work for Labor Day weekend. The original plan was to go to Utah but again that dream was crushed. Instead Friday was completely wonderful. We had a good sleep in and then I ran some errands while I was gone Dan was investigating the prospects of getting orders for active duty. He had some luck and we needed to go to Salem (about an hour south). We were off. Once we made it to the Armory in Salem we found out some more information about jobs for Dan.

While we were in Salem we decided to attend the State Fair. It was delightful. I had so much fun. Dan was the cutest husband ever! We toured the carnival area, the artist area, the vendor area (where we found great sky chairs-I want one), the car area, the tractor area, the horse area, the cow, goat, sheep, etc area. We watched calf roping. I loved it. It was a wonderful eclectic collection of Oregoneons. There was the hippie group, the farmer group, the old timer group, and all in between. I forget that most of Oregon is 'conservative' while Portland is very 'liberal'. It is wonderful to see other 'real' Americans. I loved the fair. The exhibits were wonderful. Dan was completely charming and wonderful.

Saturday and Sunday gave us record amounts of rain...record for Portland..amazing. Needless to say that we were soggy. We had Anna. She did not want to come until Sat afternoon because she was hanging with her cousins. Dan was a little sad. He wanted to spend the whole 4 day weekend with her. It is kind of heartbreaking to watch. We played inside due to the buckets of rain. Sunday afternoon Anna asked to go home now instead of Monday. Dan allowed it. I think he was a little sad when he dropped her off. It was hard.

Monday Dan and I went to the beach. It was wonderful. It was a chilly 63 degrees but that did not stop me from wading in the tide. Dan and I went on a very long walk along the beach. It was completely romantic and wonderful. Dan makes me so happy. We have had some seriously hard times but these past weeks have been like a dream. He is wonderful. I have been wonderful. I am totally in love with my husband. It has been a wonderful weekend!
On our walk we saw this old sea lion. He had gray hairs. He did not look so good. We told the policeman who was patroling the area and so I am not sure the fate of this little guy but I am sure the circle of life occured....