Volunteer Time: Cider and Craft Beer Festival

Last night Cliff and I volunteered for the first annual McKenzie Cider and Craft Beer Festival. The event  was a benefit for Belly-Full, a program that helps to feed hungry kids in Springfield.  For a first time event I was really impressed with the amount of vendors they had as there were 41 cider and beer folks providing samples.  You can see a full list on their website, however a few noted were not in attendance last night (like Dogfish Head...sad...we miss them...a lot).  For $15 attendees got a 8oz souvenir glass and four tasting tickets.  Folks could buy additional tickets for $1 a piece.  As volunteers, we got a t-shirt, glass, and four tasting tickets for free.  Sweet deal.

We signed up to be pourers and we were assigned to Rusty Truck Brewing Company based out of Lincoln City, Oregon.   The brewer and the owners trained us on how to pour then peaced out to mingle with other beer folk.  It was awesome.  They had a really nice set-up as they brought their red 1956 Ford truck that has 16 taps on the back.  It was by far the nicest looking set-up.  Plus we were the first booth by the door so we were a happening spot.  The event was pretty crowded when we arrived for our four hour shift.  However, the Ducks game came on at 4:00pm and the crowd dwindled as we think folks went to their normal watering hole to watch.  That is kinda sad as we had a 16 x 14 inflatable screen in the venue showing the game.  You honestly could see what was happening on the field from every inch of the event...well except for our booth as we were straight sideways from it.  No worries as Cliff and I made it a game to guess what was going on from the little we could see and the crowd reactions.

Pouring was a whole lot of fun.  We memorized a few facts about the brewery and tried to be helpful to patrons who asked questions.  As a volunteer you couldn't drink until after your shift (obviously) so we had to give recommendations based on feedback from previous folks.  I won't lie...this experience totally makes me want to brew and sell our own drinks.  Cliff is pretty solid when it comes to beer facts and learning how to make stuff (heck we did make some pretty great cherry wine out of a pickle tub once) and I'm really stinkin good at chatting people up (I credit that to my parent's video/office supply store).  It's on the list.

After our shift Cliff and I finally got to sample.  Most of the vendors had two drinks on tap but some had more.  We narrowed down our choices by ruling out any Eugene/Springfield breweries as we can go there anytime (plus we've already sampled all of them).  We also didn't consider companies that we could easily buy in any grocery store.  That made things a little easier.

Ok so here is the official run down of the drinks we sampled and our ratings:

Rusty Truck Brewing Company- Lincoln City, OR: Moonlight Ride Blackberry Ale, Taft Draft Toffee Porter, and Pedal to the Metal Double IPA. All three were solid but I think their Double IPA was the best.  We weren't surprised as so many people kept coming back for it multiple times while we were pouring.  Good choice folks.

2 Towns Ciderhouse- Corviallis, OR: We heard tons of good reviews of these folks as we were pouring to we decided to try them out.  We had The Incider (a semi-sweet cider) and Serious Scrump Dry Cider (really nice but packs a punch at 11% ABV).  They were really tasty. 

Flat Tail Brewing- Corvallis, OR: I had my ear out all night looking for the best pumpkin ale in the room and that lead me to these guys.  I had their seasonal Pumpkin Saison.  It was pumpkiny without being too sweet. Saison is a french farmhouse style beer with a low ABV that is cloudy and sometimes kinda tastes  bananay.  When I looked on Flat Tail's website I see that they also have a pumpkin stout.  I want that one.  Pumpkin beers (even if they are hit or miss) make me happy.  Maybe this means we need to heard up to Corvallis on our next beer tour.

Wandering Aengus Ciderworks- Salem, OR:  While I was sipping on my pumpkin beer Cliff tried these guy's Anthem Cherry Cider.  Cliff said it was really fun and enjoyable.  Like a delicious drink version of a cherry pie.  He really liked it as I only got one sip before it was gone.

Good Life Brewing Company- Bend, Oregon: Cliff got their Pass Stout American Stout Ale.  Cliff and I agreed that it was quite good.  Hoppy and big flavored.  We would get it again if we found it on tap.

Tieton Cider Works- Tieton, WA: We tried their Yakima Valley Dry Hopped Cider and it was awesome.  Such a good idea! Seriously brilliant.  The Northwest is known for hops and apples so why not mix them?  It was crisp, dry, not too sweet, and hoppy.  We would definitely get this again and in fact are going to be on the lookout for it. 

Crazy Mountain Brewing Company- Edwards, CO: We got their Old Soul Strong Belgian Ale.  I liked it but I sadly don't remember all that much about it.  Whoops.  We should have been taking notes.

Base Camp Brewing Company- Portland, OR: After reading their menu we had to try their S'More Stout.  We really like S'mores and we really like stouts.  What could be better?  It was really rich and was 8.5% ABV.  So just like s'mores this drink was a nice treat.

Our results...

Best Cider: Tieton Cider Works - Yakima Valley Dry Hopped Cider

Best Beer: Rusty Truck Brewing Company- Pedal to the Metal Double IPA
We also got Hole-In-The Wall BBQ for dinner and split a bag of kinda gross popcorn.  It was an awesome volunteer opportunity that turned into a pretty fun night. 

More Visitors!

Cliff and I felt super popular and loved this week as we got to see a few people that we hadn't seen in a long time.

Last Sunday we ate lunch with Katie Bradley.  Katie was a few years behind us at Calverton, but we did theater together.  She is currently going to grad school in southern Oregon and was passing through Eugene.  It was fun to see her and catch up.  It's scary to think that we have been out of high school for 10 years!  What?  How did that happen!?!?!

On Wednesday, my Aunt Dottie and Uncle John passed through Eugene on their west coast tour.  They are traveling from Seattle to San Fransisco and then back again.  Aunt Dottie and Uncle John were a major part of my life growing up (along with Aunt Peggy and Uncle David and Aunt Teresa and Uncle John).  Everyone pretty much moved away from LaPlata and Waldorf around the time that I graduated from high school so we haven't had an opportunity to see each other as much.  We took them on a tour of Eugene and Springfield.  They honestly saw every building that ever meant anything to Cliff or I (we even took them past out old apartment).  Uncle John video taped a lot of it so some of you might even get a chance to see it at some point when they are back on the east coast.

For dinner we went to Hop Valley, an area brewpub, as we thought it was a fun place that gave them a sense of the area.  The food was great and Uncle John and Cliff sampled beers.  Uncle John wasn't a big fan of the Northwest style IPA, but liked all the other beers he tried. He especially liked the strong ale aged in a bourbon barrel they had on special named "Ladder to Heaven." It was fun.  We had an awesome waitress with some awesome muscles.  Cliff and I have had her in the past as I always feel bad as I can't help by stare.  Her muscles are incredible.  I've never seen muscles like hers in real life.  Well it turns out she has the same last name as my Aunt Dottie and Uncle John which created a bond.  We took a group photo at the end.  I came home and googled our her and sure enough she is a legit figure competitor.  She won a title back in 2010.   Awesome.  That's all I can say. 

 

After dinner we got ice cream at Prince Puckler's and then went home.  Aunt Dottie and Uncle John are a lot of fun!  I was sad that it was such a short visit but hopefully we will get to see them again soon!

Jen's Visit

Last month Cliff's best friend from college, Jen, presented at a conference in Portland.  She is super smart and just graduated from medical school in Buffalo, NY.  When we found out she was coming to Portland we let her know that we wanted to come up and see her one night.  Well...she one-uped us and instead rented a car and came down to Eugene.  The last time as saw Jen was our wedding and we sadly didn't get to hang out long.  It was so nice to see her and she was totally game for jam-packing her 24 hours with all the Eugene-goodness we could fit.

Photo by Jen Cheung

Upon her arrival we went to Falling Sky Brewery.  They just opened up within the past few months and we were excited to try their beer.  Well let me say that their beer is good but their food is even better.  We got two samplers, a mushroom pate appetizer, and sandwiches.  Jen and I both got the field burger which is a garbanzo bean, barley and mushroom patty with pub sauce and field greens.  It comes with fries or a field green salad.  It is amazing.  Hands down the best thing I have eaten in Eugene so far.  Honestly, I sometimes day dream about eating this burger.  Cliff got a roast beef sandwich with cheddar, horseradish, and caramelized onions.  It was a wonderful night.   Good food and a great friend.  Jen (who is a pretty great photographer) took some photos at Falling Sky including this one.  I honestly think it is the best/worst photo of us ever.  Jen really captured us.  It makes me so happy.

The next morning we got up early and hiked Spencer Butte.  It was the foggiest that we have ever seen it.  Seriously, we have hiked it like ten times and have never had such poor visibility.  It was cool though as we realized that the brain does some pretty odd things when there is only white all around.  Cliff noticed it first but when you starred into the fog eventually you started to see sparkles.  Jen and I both tried and sure enough...there they were.  Oh science.   On the way down we saw a huge slug. 

After the hike we hit Laughing Planet for food as we were headed west to go wine tasting.  The best prep for this event is a hearty burrito filled with beans, rice, and other semi-local organic goodies.  We went to Sweet Cheeks and Silvan Ridge as they are literally right across the road from one another.  Silvan Ridge has the amazing peachie-o's wine and Jen was so much of a fan that she bought a bottle.  Cliff and Jen decided to look very somber for their wine tasting photo.  At Sweet Cheeks we had a long conversation with the lady behind the bar about one of their wines that has an evil looking koala on the label.  Seriously, it looks possessed.  It was so creepy that I needed to take a photo.

On the way back home we decided to end the whirl-wind visit with Red Wagon Creamery.  We had never tried it before and we knew Jen would be up to some non-traditional ice cream flavors.  We found the cart and sampled almost all of the flavors they had left.  I'm pretty sure we all got their smoked salt caramel #6 plus another flavor (I got chocolate and I think they both for the frozen goat coffee).  So fun.  I know we've chatted about them before but their flavors are really interesting.

It was so sad when Jen had to leave.  In a few weeks she will be moving from the east coast to Los Angeles where she is going to start her residency in family medicine.  We are set on finding a time to go down and visit.  Oh!  Also, Jen brought us a Buffalo treat called sponge candy.  Sponge candy is like crispy caramelized sugar dipped in chocolate.  Between Cliff and I the box of candy didn't last long. If you are ever in Buffalo...do yourself a favor and try some.

Beats and Brushstrokes

Last Saturday Cliff and I left the house for a nighttime social event.  Over the past few weeks I have been reconnecting with faculty and staff from the Arts Administration Program (AAD).  It has been really wonderful.  On several occasions I've had a chance to sit, chat, and drink tea with people who really made our first years here special.  My former research advisor let me know that the Emerging Leaders in the Arts Network (ELAN) was having a fundraiser at that we should come.  And by gosh....we went!

The event was called Beats and Brushstrokes.  It was a silent auction of recycled art made from old records and record sleeves.  All of the works were made by local art-loving people.  It was at the old firehouse in the Whitaker (eclectic Eugene neighborhood) which was fun.  For a $5 cover we got two free beers from Ninkasi Brewing, pizza, Voodoo Doughnut bits, other snacks, and a chance to look at some pretty fun local art.  There was a DJ and band with an accordion.  We left early so sadly we missed the accordion fun time.  Cliff and I felt pretty cool. Or at least I did. It was really nice as the place was packed by the time that we left and the bids were starting to pick-up.  Way to go AAD and ELAN!  You make me proud.

A majority of the works started at $5 with a minimum $1 bid increase.  The one piece that Cliff and I both liked initially had a robot on it.  Apparently alot of other folks liked that one too as the first bid went directly to $25 bucks.  Welp, that meant that we were out.  I bid $6 on another record and was quickly outdone within five minutes.  Oh well.  There were quite a few records that I thought were pretty cool but one in particular was real creepy.  So creepy in fact that over the night I slowly grew to love it but couldn't bring myself to bid on it.  I just kept thinking "What would I do with it?  Where would we put it?  Ah I'm so creeped out.  I think it's watching me!  Oh I think I might like it though.  It has that folksy quality that I like. Huummm."  What do you think?  I have named it Sir Creepy Turkey Head.

In the end we left empty handed.  We had a fun night out on the town and Sir Creepy Turkey Head will forever haunt my dreams.

Happy Leap Day!

Hop Valley Canning Party

I know...I know.  Two posts in one day.  Crazy!  Well, we did something fun this afternoon and I wanted to share.

We really enjoy Hop Valley Brewing in Springfield.  They have a great happy hour (fish tacos!), they hold blood drive events and promotions, and they have a new cask ale on tap every time we go in there.  Plus their waitstaff is really friendly and they have the hard chocolate mints as you leave.

Today we went to Hop Valley because they were having a canning party.  Within the past few months they have started canning their craft beer.  Normally you see craft beer in bottles but Hop Valley is the first local brewery to join the canning revolution.

Cliff and I got to can our own six pack of their IPA.  It is a small operation as you can only fill two cans at a time.  Their brewer told us that when they are cranking they can produce six to eight cans per minute.  There were quite a few folks excited to practice their canning skills.  We even got to meet the brewer's grandmother who was happily sporting her Hop Valley t-shirt and waiting for her friends to arrive to join in on the fun.  I love locally owned businesses.

How do you can your own beer you might ask?  What are the steps?  We knew you would want some photos to illustrate the process so we did the best we could to document.

1.  Get cans out of a sterile bath and place on the filler machine (that is my technical term for it).  Press the button and balance the cans on the platform as they automatically fill.

2. Watch the can fill. Once the foam hits the top a sensor will stop the flow.

3. Remove the full cans from the filler machine, pick up a top from the sterile bath, place the top on the can, put the can on the capper machine (another technical term), and press the button.

4. Remove sealed can and dunk it in a final sterile bath.  When six cans are complete place them in recycled plastic handle (thanks to another Eugene company) and take home to enjoy.

We had a lot of fun this afternoon.  A tasty hamburger, a great bbq chicken quesadilla, two good beers, and our very own canned six pack.

A Week In Review

Last weekend Cliff and I found Steelhead on sale for about $2/lb.  at the grocery store.  This is an awesome price as it is normally around $10/lb.  Obviously we had to get it.  When we lived here before we really didn't eat any of the amazing seafood that the Northwest has to offer so we are changing that this time around.  We baked/steamed it in a foil pouch with lemon, sliced onion, and butter and ate with with rosemary mashed potatoes and peas.  Yum.  We had so much fish and mashed potatoes left over that we made fish cakes the next day for lunch.  This is the first reminder of the week that things fried in corn meal are always amazing. (Note to self: remove paper towel before taking a picture of fried food next time).  Thank you Albertson's grocery store for having a seafood sale that was within our budget and worth our while. Now if only your normal prices were as exciting.

Not a whole lot happened on Monday unless you consider watching Dancing with the Starts newsworthy.  In case you are wondering...I am rooting for Ricki Lake but I do hope that Rob Kardashian comes in second.  He just looks so happy when he dances.  Oh!  I also rowed 5,000 meters.

On Tuesday we went to Divine Cupcake for their trivia night.  As I am sure you can imagine Cliff loves trivia.  We played a few times with his classmates at the Green Leafe in Williamsburg but we stopped after a while as it took forever and people with smart phones ruined it.  We decided to give this one a try as I had a Groupon for $20 worth of cupcakes and beverages.  Apparently with Groupon you need to use the whole value at one time so Cliff and I both got a drink (he got an espresso and I got a hot chocolate with rice milk) and we got six cupcakes.  All of their cupcakes are vegan and organic.  I've had some amazing vegan cookies in the past so I was excited to see how vegan cupcakes compared.  To help you imagine our dining experience I will fill you in on the flavors.  From left to right and top to bottom: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, lime cake with lime and coconut frosting, cherry vanilla cake with cherry frosting, lemon and vanilla cake with lemon frosting, chocolate cake with maple frosting, and chocolate cake with orange frosting.  In my opinion chocolate  vegan deserts are the best.  But anyway, back to trivia.  Their trivia is a bit different from bar trivia.  First off it starts at 7pm and only goes until 8pm which is our kind of event.  It is 25 questions broken down into five categories and the trivia hosts shoots them out one right after the other.  When all was said and done Cliff came in second place.  He was just one point behind the winner.  I'm sure you are asking "what does a trivia contestant get if you win or come in the top three?".  Well first place gets the choice of two mystery packages or a free cupcake and the remaining two get to choose between what is left.  Cliff won a super cute stuffed red dinosaur.   It was pretty exciting.  Also, more rowing all around.

On Wednesday Cliff and I ventured out to our old stomping ground of Springfield.  We ate amazing fish tacos at Hop Valley Brewing (along with a cesar salad, mozzarella sticks, and the worlds largest order of onion rings).  They have a pretty wonderful happy hour menu. Afterwards we ventured towards Walmart to do our grocery shopping.  On the way we saw something amazing.... a Sonic!  That's right....Oregon now has Sonic.  Amazing.  I know that we will go back soon as I love their chocolate malt milkshakes.  We stopped at the local home improvement store and bought daffodil and crocuses bulbs (they were 50% off) as we wanted to plant fun things on our little hill.  Afterwards we finally made it to Walmart.  We needed to find a small turkey as both our oven and freezer can't handle the size bird I typically buy around the holidays (I just can't help myself when they are $.27/lb!). We were up to our elbows in turkeys when we finally found a 12lb. turkey!  It was our lucky day.

On Thursday we spent the afternoon planting the 72 bulbs we purchased the night before on the little hill right outside our window.  It was chilly and rainy (it is Oregon after all).  Let me tell you that it is not easy to plant that many bulbs on a muddy hill with only a kid friendly trowel.  We will post photos in the spring when they come up.  It is going to be so beautiful!  We really loved all of the daffodils in Williamsbug and knew that we were going to miss them so we decided to get some for our new place. 

On Friday we saw our first snow of the season.  Downtown Eugene didn't see any but since we are in the hills we got to see the little white stuff.  It only lasted about 15 minutes and it didn't stick (which is good as we do live on some pretty steep slopes). Cliff and I were so excited that we sat there and watched it from start to finish.  We tried to take photos (see <-----) but it was heavy snow and fell to the ground pretty quickly.  I hope that we get to see snowflakes a few times this winter.  So pretty.

On Saturday I officially entered my late 20s. To celebrate Cliff and I went to Oakshire Brewing as they are open on Saturdays for tours and tastings.  It was really nice as a bunch of folks were there just hanging out before the Duck game (Go Ducks!).  They aren't a brew pub but they did have a food cart outside.  Food carts are pretty popular in the Northwest and Eugene has a few.  This was my first time eating out of a non-festival food cart and oh my goodness it was good. Delacata sells southern food with a flair.  Cliff and I split a basket of cornmeal fried catfish with cheddar and jalapeno hushpuppies. They also gave us a cilantro and lime coleslaw.  Living here I am finding that I might actually like coleslaw but it has to be a topping.  I now like it on fish tacos and falaffel and apparently with cat fish.   We will be going back as everything was sooo good.

After the brewery we went to an estate sale.  I love estate sales.  Last week we went to one and I purchased some super cute Christmas decorations and all of it came to under $5.  The estate sale we went to this weekend had lots of old bottles, canning jars, craft items, and clothes.  It was a jackpot!  I found a full sized Pendleton wool blanket (only $10!), old Ball canning jars (only $1), and antique handkerchiefs.  They are big which is great since we keep all of our baking supplies, beans, and pasta in jars. It was like Christmas.  Cliff was pretty excited as he found wool yard and knitting needles in sizes that we didn't already have.  The lady conducting the sale wanted to get rid of the craft supplies so bad that she told Cliff to go back in the craft room and pick out anything he wanted for free.  Sadly there wasn't any more wool yarn but there was the ugliest yarn on the face of the earth...and there was plenty of it!  We have no clue what to knit with it.  We will gladly take any suggestions.  Seriously.  It is red, yellow, brown, and white. If you are lucky you might get a Christmas gift made from it.  After the estate sale we went to PF Changs for dinner.  We ate dim sum dumplings (chicken with lemongrass and spicy pork and rice) and their stir-fried spicy eggplant.  So good.  On the way home we got cupcakes and ice cream.  I would say that it was a very good birthday. I'm a lucky gal.


Yesterday we finally washed our car.  We hadn't since moving and it really needed it.  We took it to one of those places where you can wash it yourself but the lady there gave us a free automatic wash in their new bay with felt brushes.  It did a really nice job as our car is back to its original color :)  It also put the rain repellant stuff on the windshield.  I love that stuff.


Ok I have laundry to fold.  Hope everyone has a good week as you prep for Thanksgiving.  I know I will post a few times more this week as we are hosting Thanksgiving at our new place and Brie, Kathy, and Jill are coming down. I can't wait!

Our Trip Part II: Ann Arbor, MI

Hi Guys!

From Newell we drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan to stay with Cliff's college roommate Matt. We had to listen to about 40 minutes total of barking.  Rudy's longest spell went for 20 minutes and each spell decreased almost in half.  Progress.  We were shocked at how quickly the behavior was changing.  When we got into town we dropped him off at a local kennel (I cried when we left but he was super excited to go explore the facility) as where we wee staying did allow pets.  We arrived at Matt's just in time for dinner, to get a tour of the beautiful and oh-so-amazing Telluride House, walk around the arboretum, and go out on the town to get some frozen yogurt.  It was so nice to see Matt.  

Us by the Michigan Football Stadium

Matt had a slew of things to do the next day (he is a Ph.D. candidate after all) so Cliff and I toured the area like nobody's business.  First we drove to Dexter, MI to a cider mill and got homemade cider donuts and a half gallon of cider.  Next we went to a fancy antique store that billed itself as a unique salvage store.  It was amazing but everything in there was way out of our price range.  We strolled around a cute park that went along side the Huron River, walked to a working local pottery, approached Michigan stadium (we never found a way in because it was sooo huge),  and got a flight of beer samples from the Jolly Pumpkin Brewery.  Quick note on the brewery.  I wanted to go in because it had the word pumpkin in its name and that made me really happy.  The place actually had really interesting beers.  They are all open fermented so they are a bit sour.  We got to sample seven of their beers and two from other local Michigan breweries ( a chocolate stout and a seasonal pumpkin IPA).  We also got an order of rosemary and truffle french fries.  We were very happy campers.  We will totally go again when we go back to Ann Arbor.  After our snack we met Matt for coffee at Comet Coffee which was a very cool coffee shop.   The whole place smelled amazing and they had a bunch of fancy coffee making equipment.  It was like a dream for any Lyddane.

Coffee Gadgets

Hot Chocolate Art

We also went to the University's free natural history museum.  There were so many taxidermy animals of all the Michigan wildlife.  Now Cliff and I can identify and name the three types of squirrels.  After the museum we walked home and then went out a bit with Matt and finally had a chance to catch up. At this point, I have already decided that Ann Arbor is an amazing town.

The Menu

The next morning we got up at 6am so that we could go to Selma's Cafe.  It is a cafe that is only open from 6am-10am on Fridays and it is in the kitchen/living room of a house.  Local chefs come to create culinary masterpieces each week.  It is donation only and all of the proceeds go towards local organic farming.  Currently they are raising money for crop covers so that they can extend their growing season. When you enter, you write your name on a piece of tape so that everyone feels acquainted. I got the waffles with blueberries and baked apples.  The waffles were amazing.  So light and fluffy (and made with whole wheat flour!).   Matt and Cliff got the Chyenne Batter Bread with a poached egg and seasonal greens served with Brunswick rabbit stew.   It is without a doubt one of my top five dining experiences ever.  So fantastic.  I honestly cannot say enough about the whole experience.  Everyone was very friendly, welcoming.  The food was so good and the atmosphere was really pleasant.  I can now say that I have sat in a strangers kitchen at 6:15am and ate a five star meal with friends.  Nice work Ann Arbor.

The View From Our Table

My Amazing Waffles

Cliff's Breakfast

After breakfast, Matt went to Akron, OH for a school trip so Cliff and I once again had a chance to take in the city; we also decided to nap and do our laundry.  We toured the dentistry museum and we got to learn about all of the sad side effects of early x-ray machines.  We also visited the University's archeology museum (beautiful and really well done in my opinion), did a bit of people watching on campus, sampled treats at Cherry Republic, and gawked at all of the huge greek life houses that line the streets near campus.  It was rush week so we got a real taste of Michigan greek life.  When Matt got home we went out for a drink at a local sports bar (the Orioles were playing the Detroit Tigers...and winning) then came home and went to bed as we were all beat.  At this point, I have totally decided that Ann Arbor is cool town and that I would really like to visit again.

The next morning Matt took us to another fun breakfast spot, the Northside Grill.  They are so smart and they put a little coffee pot out front to help appease the crowds as they wait for a table.  The food was totally filling and a perfect way to start our day of driving up to the Upper Peninsula. 

Also, Scarlett red is the most popular Fiesta color sold (thanks Pam for guessing!).  Another quick trivia question....are wolverines (Michigan's mascot) native to Michigan?