My First Raw Oyster

As I mentioned in my last entry, Cliff and I have fallen in love with the Eugene Fisherman's Market. Over the last week, Cliff has been dreaming about the six giant oysters that Joe got when we ate there (six giant oysters for $4.50 may I add).  We went back yesterday and feasted on fresh, local seafood for $15 total.  We split a salmon fish and chips with poppy seed coleslaw and two kinds of tarter sauce, a basket of fried clams (I love that I can eat shellfish now!), and six oyster shooters as they were on special for two for a dollar.  Cliff raves about oysters but I had never tried one raw..until yesterday.  Cliff documented the momentous occasion.

You can clearly see my terror....

It wasn't bad!  I was relived when I didn't gag...or throw-up...or die.  Next time I will need to eat one directly out of a shell that I have shucked.

Victory.

Andrea and Joe's Culinary Tour

The week before last Andrea and Joe came to Oregon for a spring break trip.  We spent a day and a half in Portland and then seven days in Eugene.  It was amazing.  We miss them terribly and wish that their trip could haee lasted longer (although it was one day longer due to a blizzard in Colorado).

Andrea and Joe got to explore the area while Cliff and I were at work.  Every night we found something fun to do.  All in all I think we ate for most of the trip.  The photos I took prove it as they all involve food.

So here they are....enjoy the restaurant list and photos from Andrea and Joe's Oregon Culinary Tour/Vacation.

Saturday

1:00pm Hopworks Urban Brewery in Southeast Portland with Brie.  Beers, salads, calzones.  Very cheesy but delicious.

4:00pm: Albina Press on Hawthorne in Southeast Portland.  Macchiatto, mocha, two hot chocolates.  Beautiful coffee/hot chocolate art.

6:00pm: le Bistro Montage under the Morrison Bridge in Southeast Portland with Kathy and Jill.  Rolls, fried catfish, greens with hominy, gumbo, red beans and rice, spicy macaroni and cheese.  Great atmosphere with a very diligent water server and a flair for fun foil animals to hold your leftovers.

Sunday

9:00am: Moonstruck Chocolate Co. in Northwest Portland.  Dark hot chocolate, Mayan hot chocolate with cinnamon and almond, and spicy dark hot chocolate.  Really wonderful sipping hot chocolates and the cutest Easter truffles (they were shaped like little cows, lambs, pigs, horses, dogs, cats, etc.).

9:15am:  Portland Bagel Company in Northwest Portland.  Jalapeno and cheese bagels, marionberry french toast bagels, and pesto bagels with cream cheese.  Less of a bagel and more of a buttery round roll with a hole in the middle.  Between the hot chocolates and the bagels, it was a really good fancy feeling but cheap breakfast.

2:30pm: Kettle Corn at the Daffodil Drive Festival at the Long Tom Grange in Junction City.  A bag of warm kettle corn from a bag the size of a toddler.

5:30pm: Falling Sky Brewing in Eugene. St. Pattie's Day beer, corned beef with rye bread pudding, chickpea field burger with salad, and sadly I forgot what Andrea and Joe got.  I got some sort of weird allergic reaction where my face got really red and felt instantly sunburned.  Didn't matter as it was still delicious.

7:00pm: Root beer floats at home.

8:00pm: Cocktails.

Monday

5:30pm: Hop Valley Brewing Company in Springfield. Happy hour cask beers, nachos, sliders with fried, fish tacos, and onion rings.  Greasy and delicious.

7:30pm: Root beer floats at home.

8:00pm: County ham and biscuits at home.

8:30pm: Cocktails at home.

Tuesday

4:30pm:  La Perla Pizzeria Napolentana in downtown Eugene.  Ceasar salad, Margherita pizza,
Quattro Stagioni pizza with atrichokes, muschrooms and basil, and La Perla pizza with tomatoes, house made mozzarella, and Calabrese salami. Too expense as it did not live up to the hype (in our opinions).

5:45pm:  Vanilla Jill's Frozen Yogurt in the Eugene Whitaker neighborhood. Sundae's made with hard frozen yogurt (made with Nancy's local yogurt).  We met one of the owners, Vanilla Jill's sister Chocolate Megan. Sampled pretty much off of the flavors including those that were paleo or vegan.  The vegan cinnamon waffles and fresh whipped cream helped to make Vanilla Jill's a happy Groupon experience.  To me the hard yogurt beats their soft serve yogurt.



Wednesday

5:00pm: Snack at home of nachos and cheese.

7:30pm: Cliff's chana dal with rice at home.

Thursday

5:30pn: Euphoria Chocolate Company in Eugene.  Truffles.  Delicious, delicious truffles.

6:30pm: Fisherman's Market in downtown Eugene. Raw oysters, fish tacos, fish and chips, and fried oysters.  My new favorite place to eat as they have great seafood at a great price. 

7:15pm: Sweet Life Patisserie in downtown Eugene.  Chocolate mouse cake and an oatmeal stout with malted cream cupcake.   Caused us to be so full of rich food that it hurt.

9:00pm: Mead from Maryland at home.

Friday

1:30pm: Falling Sky Brewing in downtown Eugene.  Beer, burgers, chickpea field burger, grilled ham and cheese, potato leak soup, and pulled pork french fries.

3:00pm: Domaine Meriwether Sparkling Wines in Veneta.  Sampled two sparking and three traditional wines.  The owner's dog, Captain, kept us entertained during our tasting by forcing us to play fetch.

4:00pm: Silvan Ridge Winery in Eugene.  Sampled five wines.  Still our favorite winery in the area and to prove it we bought two bottles of their muscat (aka peachie-o's wine).

5:00pm: Sweet Cheeky Winery in Eugene. Sampled five wines and feasted on fruit and cheese that we bought at Market of Choice.  Their view is beautiful so we bought a bottle of riesling to sit outside by a fire and eat fancy blue cheese and aged cheddar with bread and grapes.  We even made a new friend who encouraged us to start line dancing at the Whiskey River Bar in Springfield. 

9:15pm: Prince Pucklers Gourmet Ice Cream in Eugene. Euphoria Chocolate Sundaes.  Best ice cream in town and a happening spot at 9:00pm on a chilly night.

Saturday

8:30am: Dutch babies at home.

2:00pm: Dizzy Dean's Donuts in West Eugene.  One dozen donuts.  Best crullers I have ever had. Once again another great Groupon purchase.

2:45pm: Holy Cow in South Eugene. Kombucha, beer, felafel, lentils and rice, an Indian platter, and fish tacos. Their food makes my stomach and heart happy.

3:45pm: Allan Bros. Coffee in South Eugene.  Americano, mocha, hot chocolate, and more Dizzy Dean's donuts. Joe's favorite hot chocolate of the trip.

8:00pm: Salad, potato pancakes, and homemade sauerkraut at home. Our crock is amazing.

9:00pm: Warmed, spiced mead from Maryland at home.  Absolutely delightful. 


Sunday

8:00am: The rest of the Dizzy Dean's donuts.


I was a wonderful nine days.

Our Last Month In Photos & Blurbs

Over the last month or so I've had a few days where I've said "I should totally put this on the blog". Then I came to my senses and realized that each of my "awesome!" moments probably wasn't worth an entire blog post.  Which brings me to our last month in photos and short blurbs.

Cliff and I actually celebrated Valentine's Day this year (I know...I was shocked too).  We saw that Falling Sky had a prefixed meal for two.  Oooh...how fancy. We ate warm ceasar salad, cassoulet, beeramisu, and three pints.  It was amazing. Falling Sky has really taken it up a notch since the fall. Their Facebook feed tempts me constantly, so much so that we ate this there on Tuesday.

A new bakery recently opened up in Springfield and its name is Chaos Kolaches.  They sell kolaches (ko-la-chees)  which are traditional Chech pastries filled with either savory or sweet things. Apparently they are really big in Texas and in the midwest. Well, they are new to Springfield and they are new to me.  We checked them out one day for lunch. We split a bbq brisket sandwich on the kolache bread.  For dessert, Cliff has one filled with apricots and I had one with Oregon cherries and cream cheese. Yum. 

Last week I spent three days in Seaside, Oregon for the Oregon Festival and Events Association Conference.  It was fantastic.  The sessions were incredibly informative, I got to reunite with my Albany Parks and Rec. co-workers from my 2007 internship, and I got to spend time on the coast in a pretty nice hotel.  There were also fireworks.  I was introduced to two new bands: Lincoln's Beard and Screaming Orphans.  They were some of the folks who performed at the event hoping to get booked at upcoming festivals.  Lincoln's Beard sounds like a mix of Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, and Mumford and Sons (to me at least).  Screaming Orphans are this amazing mix of ABBA, The Bangles, Indigos Girls, and Celtic Women (as they are Irish).  Intrigued by both?  We you should be.  Check 'em out.

I snuck down to Cannon Beach during a break to finally see the big rock in the water (Haystack Rock).  I gasped when I caught a glimpse of it from Highway 101 and then I actually cried as I walked down the beach towards it.  I know this probably makes me sound like a nut but it is honestly the one of the most beautiful and peaceful places.  I need to go back.  I. Need. To. Go. Back.

On the way home from the conference I stopped at a logging restaurant, museum, and memorial called Camp 18.  It was a fantastic log cabin.  Warm and glowey.  I ate cabbage soup with a grilled ham and cheese.  There were dancing bears carved out of log and a nice fire.

I took home an enormous cinnamon roll from Camp 18 for Cliff and I to gorge ourselves on.  It lasted less than 12 hours. 

Oh and I finally learned how to use Instagram so that is why the last few photos are better than my normal ones.

This past weekend I took the plunge and bought my own climbing gear **shocked face**.  We have been talking about climbing outside for the last few months and in order for this to happen I needed my own stuff (and we need a rope, carabiners, etc. but that will come eventually).  On Sunday, I donned my new goods as we climbed with a friend at the Columns at Skinner Butte. This was only my second time climbing outside and it went so much better than the first.  The first time was back in August and I cried and panicked about 15 feet off the ground.  Embarrassing.  But not on Sunday!  I climbed up to the top twice.  On a more difficult route.  TWICE!  And I went a different way each time.  Look at those amazing shots of my being awesome.

I should also mention that Cliff is a pretty darn good climber.  He climbed all morning long.  Up and down.  All in his Lyddane 2012 Vacation t-shirt.  See the number 4?

Oh and bulbs of many kinds are coming up....

Did I forget to mention that Andrea and Joe are in Oregon in t-minus 18 hours.

Oscar Party

Last year in honor of the Oscars I posted about why I love movies.  This year, I was apart of a small crew that organized an Oscar Viewing Party.

We had almost 40 people come to the event.  People dressed up, walked the red carpet, gave autographs, posed for photos, played bingo, cast their ballots, and ate and drank until their hearts were happy.  I sadly didn't see any of the show (except for the last 15 seconds of the Les Mis performance and Anne Hathaway's acceptance speech) but everyone had a good time so that is all that mattered. The event was a lot of fun and it gave me an excuse to go to Value Village and purchase a 46 vintage cocktail dress.

Oh, and I did I mention that I got to be on the news?  I did!  Click here to watch.  Plus, two of the newscasters got dressed up and served as our emcees for the night.  All of this put together made me feel like a minor, minor, minor, minor, minor local celebrity.

Fun times.

Belknap Hot Springs

Yesterday, Cliff and I took a five hour mini vacation.  We drove up route 126 into the mountains to breath fresh air, see tall trees, and soak in mineral water.  We visited Belknap Hot Springs which is a campground, hotel, and apparently rural development that has two hot spring pools on their property.  The public can come and for $7/hour or $12/day soak in one of their pools.  It's not a natural hot spring environment as pipes bring in the hot/mineraly water into what looks like a swimming pool.  It's a cute little area tucked into the trees. Oh and what would a mountain lodge be without countless carved bears.

This is a great place to bring future visitors who would like to experience a hot spring without any hiking (or nudity) involved.  Besides the pool, they also have a few trails that lead people to gardens and meadows.  It was nice but weird all at the same time.  We were an hour along the river, in the middle of the mountains yet there was a very manicured and concrete garden in the middle of nowhere. Odd but nice.

Oh and there were fuzzy rocks.  I really love living here as moss grows all over everything.  It makes me so happy.  It just makes things feel more peaceful.

We soaked for an hour.  As you can see we looked really relaxed afterwards (and unsurprisingly I looked really red).  We need to take more trips like this.  It didn't take all that long but we got out of the city (ha...even I call Eugene/Springfield a city now) and got to unwind thanks to the lack of cell service.

Oh and they also had these guys.  They are sculptures of musicians.  I wonder if they play ambient music around the patio area in the spring and summer.  If not, they should.  Oh and you are right...there are plants growing out of that piano.

Since we were already an hour up route 126, we decided to drive a little further up the mountain to see Sahalie Falls in the snow.  We passed several signs telling us that we were officially in the snow zone but since it was a 50 degree sunny day (hacha!) we decided to proceed forward without the required chains or snow tires.  There were walls of plowed snow on each side of the car but somehow we were still hopeful that the parking lot would be plowed and open.  Well, it wasn't.  This was the first time that I actually wanted to have snowshoes in hand so that we could have hiked in to see the falls buried under a few feet of snow and ice.  My imagination tells me that it was beautiful.  Instead this is all that we got to see.

As we headed home, I decided to stop at a country store/gas station to get kettle corn (as I remembered buying some there when Dad came to visit back in 2007).  We got caramel kettle corn and taters as I love them (my PopPop's nickname for me when I was little was Tater as I liked them so much).  Well in the Northwest they are called Jo Jo's apparently.  Check this recipe out to see what I'm talking about (p.s. Cliff really loves this blog).

It was a really relaxing day.  I love where we live.

2013 Garden Update I

This year Cliff and I are ahead of the game when it comes to getting seed into the ground.  We are going to be more successful this year!  So far here is what we have brewing in pots, on the hillside, and in the garden.


Outdoor Pots:  Right after Christmas, Cliff and I bought a ton of 50% off bulbs at Jerry's Home Improvement. We planted crocus (mix), ranunculus (red and yellow), allium (blue and white), iris, ixia, narcissus, and hyacinth.  We layered the inside the pots so that we should have some blooms spring through late summer.  I'm really excited as once they start to bloom we will be able to scatter the pots around the cottage so that we can see color from all of our windows. It seems too soon for the bulbs to be coming up but Cliff reminds me that we are quickly coming into spring.  We had so much snow last year.  it didn't feel cold enough this winter for it to already be over!  I'm hoping that some flowers are up in time for Andrea and Joe's visit.

Indoor pots:  Two or three weekends ago Cliff planted our pretty orange/red amaryllis bulb that we had bloom last year.  It looks like we didn't kill out red one from last year (despite unnecessarily storing it in the fridge over the summer) which is a relief as we were both pretty sad and worried.  He also planned our new white amaryllis. We are excited to see them both in bloom in a few weeks.  We also planned lots of basil starters this morning and put them in our mini greenhouse.  The more basil the better.  Grow little plants...grow!

The hillside:  As you all might remember we planted a ton of crocuses and daffodils last year.  See...they were really prettyhttp://lyddanesinoregon.blogspot.com/2012/05/day-4-flowers.html! Well...they are starting to come up!  This is a really crummy photo but I promise you there are four little clumps of pretty purple flowers there.  There are other little white ones starting to come up in other pockets as well.  There appear to be little baby daffodils starting to come up as well.  Our white daffodils were amazing last year.  They were so beautiful and managed to stay white and alive looking for weeks.  My fingers are crossed that we have the same luck this year.  Another hops is that my next photo of the flowers is way better...so that you can actually seem them

Lastly, we got seed into the ground today!  Over the last few weeks, Cliff and I have spend a few hours each Saturday or Sunday making a garden bed right outside of our window (as we hope this area will get more sun that our little patch last year).  It is about 12 feet long by 2 1/2 feet wide.  Today we planted: two kinds of parsley, New Zealand spinach, fennel, broccoli rabe, two kinds of chives, oakleaf lettuce, dill, more spinach, chervil, mustard greens, cilantro, tom thumb lettuce, arugula, and radishes.  In a few weeks we are also going to plant flowers (like California poppies).  Eventually (mid-May) we are going to get to tomato starters and hope that they get enough light this year.  it will be fun.  Now we just need to decide on a CSA to help round out our greens and herbs.

Happy planting to everyone and we will keep you posted on our successes and learning moments!