One Year Wedding Anniversary

Today is our One Year Wedding Anniversary!



I can't believe how fast time flies, we've had a blast this last year and can't wait for another fun filled year. Last night we celebrated by going out to eat after our church's Trunk-or-Treat. We went to Laurelhurst Market for dinner and then to Papa Haydn's for dessert. Both places were delicious!

Rickshaw Business???

If graduate school doesn't work out for Jeff, we may have a future in the Rickshaw business.

Jeff and I helped out at Bynley's birthday party. He gave the kids a ride and they loved it.

It reminds us of a Seinfeld episode.





Here are some pictures of the farm where the party was held. It was absolutely beautiful.

Star Wars in Concert

A few weeks ago we went to see "Star Wars in Concert". A live symphony was playing the Star Wars music as we were watching scenes from all 6 movies. We had a wonderful time. Before the show, we walked around and saw all the different costumes and movie props. A lot of people were dressed up in Star Wars costumes, it's kind of crazy how some people go all out. If "Star Wars in Concert" comes to your city, we highly recommend it.

Tyler Florence

A couple of months ago, Macy's Department Store was hosting a cooking demonstration done by Tyler Florence. Jeff loves to watch Tyler on the Food Network, so we were very excited to go to this event. Apparently, everyone else loves Tyler as well because it was very crowded. We were in the back, but we had a great view of everything. It was so nice because we got to sample all the food that Tyler made. He made Crab Artichoke Dip, Roasted Pork Shoulder with mashed potatoes and an Apple Crisp for dessert. All the food was absolutely delicious and it was fun to watch him make all the food. He also passed along some helpful cooking tips. It was such a fun night.

The new menu

So, the menu is a bit more condensed this week. It's been a busy weekend having been out of town for the weekend and I've got school Friday night and most of Saturday, plus the usual work/life dance. So I'm not going to be as ambitious with the menu.

So just three items, I'll be making some changes to utilize some of the things we've got in the house. I think that's one of the great things about recipes is that you can make changes to address what you have on hand.

#1: Penne with Braised Squash and Greens

#2: Steak with Horseradish Potato Salad

#3: I'm going to try and replicate some of the great food we had at the Tyler Florence event of this past week. Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with Salsa Verde and Grainy Mustard Mashed Potatoes. You can find these and some other great recipes here.

What's Cooking at the Tingeys

So after some requests about the things we're cooking, I've decided to start pre-posting our planned menus for the coming week. I usually plan a more involved meal for Sundays and 3 simple meals throughout the week. We usually get some great leftovers for lunches or the following night. We usually pair the main dish with a simple salad or vegetable side dish. With our busy schedules it's worked great and we've really enjoyed the food. So here's what's planned for next week with the links to the recipes.

Sunday:

Chilaquiles Style Roasted Chicken Legs
Avocado, Cilantro and White Onion Salad
Impossible Coconut Pie

Meal 1: Chicken Posole

Meal 2: Funky Buddha Chicken

Meal 3: Pork Loin Spiedino with Pine Nut, Garlic and Current Soffritto

Looking forward to some good eating this week. :)

Houzz Home Design Website

You have to check out this website for home design and decorating. I love it! I've already added tons of pictures in my ideabook.

The September Issue

I can't wait to see this documentary about Anna Wintour, the Editor-In-Chief of Vogue, and the events surrounding the 2007 fall fashion issue.

Downtown Chic

I love this design book, Downtown Chic, by Robert and Cortney Novogratz. I recently got it from the library and I had to wait forever to get it. I loved looking at all the pictures and seeing the before and afters. The pictures and their style are both amazing and very inspiring. I also love that most of their renovations are in NYC, a city I absolutely adore. I think I'll definitely be purchasing this book in the near future. Robert and Cortney Novogratz's company is called Sixx Design and I recently found out that Bravo is shooting a new television series called Design Sixx featuring Robert and Cortney. It will be airing in January 2010, I can't wait.

Multnomah Falls

A few weekends ago Jeff's brother Brad, his wife Vanessa and their two cute kids were in Portland and we got to spend the day with them. We went to Multnomah Falls in the morning and then we met Jeff's parents for lunch. We had so much fun spending time with them. It was a wonderful day! Here are some pictures of us at Multnomah Falls.

Mulnomah Falls

Vanessa, Brad and Samantha. Henry was asleep in the stroller and I'm sad I didn't get a picture of him.

Me and Jeff

Samantha and Vanessa

Me and Vanessa

Beast

August 7th was Jeff's birthday, so to celebrate he wanted to go to a restaurant called Beast. The chef, Naomi Pomeroy, is from Jeff's hometown Corvallis, and she is one of the best new chefs in the country. She is also featured in this month's Food and Wine magazine.

The food was absolutely amazing. It was a six course meal and there were two different seatings, one at 6:00pm and the other at 8:45pm. The menu is a set menu that changes weekly and there are no substitutions. We made reservations for the 6:00pm seating. We started out with cream of summer corn soup with herb salsa verde and fried shallots. The soup was outstanding and the salsa verde gave a touch of brightness to the soulful soup. The second course was a sampler plate of house made pate's, steak tartare and foie-gras. The third course was a duck confit with a bean cassoulet with pork sausage and lamb shoulder with braised greens and cherry tomatoes. The duck was the star of the dish, but the cassoulet was exceptionally simple and tasty. The fourth course was a baby lettuce salad with apricot and brown butter vinaigrette with sheep's cheese and croutons. The dressing had a nice sweetness as a counterpoint to the earthy flavor of the sheep's cheese. The fifth course was a cheese plate with figs and candied hazelnuts. Finally, the dessert was a peach and amaretto mousse with blackberry sauce and pistachio praline whipped cream.

Not only was the food amazing, but the ambiance was equally impressive. While we were there, they were filming a pilot TV show for Food Network. It was fun to see all that went on to film the pilot, I don't think we were on TV, but we can't wait to watch it when it airs.

Beast has community seating and we met some very nice people at our table. We shared our table with the manager of Broder and his parents. They shared some great ideas for future food adventures here in Portland. That being said, we're looking forward to coming back to Beast many more times and making more great memories.

Here are some pictures from our fun night.

Jeff waiting for the door to open

Mad Men

I absolutely love this show and it starts up again tonight on AMC. I can't wait. The styles of the 60's and the retro sets on the show are so cool.

John Hughes

I was very sad to hear that John Hughes passed away today. I grew up on his movies, they were such a huge part of my teenage years. What girl didn't love Jake Ryan and school detention seemed like fun after watching The Breakfast Club. Every John Hughes movie brings back so many great memories and I never get tired of watching them over and over. I think I'm going to have a movie marathon this weekend. Here are a few of my favorites: Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Planes Trains and Automobiles. What are your favorite John Hughes movies?

Rustic Cinnamon Raisin Bread

So for all of you who "complain" about how we always blog about food, you can stop reading now. And really what's wrong about food? :)

Anyways, I've been messing around with my bread baking and this was my second loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. The last one last one didn't last long enough to photograph, since we ate it so quickly.

I'm using the basic 6-3-1.5-1.5 recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes and replacing one cup of flour with whole wheat. Then after letting it rise, I use a portion of the dough and roll it thin. It isn't perfect, but that's part of the fun. Then dust the top side with a generous amount of cinnamon and some fair trade sugar and then a liberal amount of raisins. Then you roll it like you would cinnamon rolls, but instead of cutting it into rolls, just form a loaf with it. Then just before baking, brush the top with melted butter and add a bit of sugar on top.

And really isn't so tasty! I'm thinking I could make some insane french toast with it, but it doesn't last that long.

Here's a photo of the bread and the smile it puts on my face.

Camping Trip

Last weekend we had a great time camping with our ward. I really wasn't sure about the whole camping thing, I just don't camp, but Jeff talked me into going and I had a fun time. The campsite, Cape Lookout, is right on the coast by Tillamook. It was such a nice campground and we had a wonderful time being so close to the ocean. We shared our campsite with the Lyman family. The Lyman's are so great, and we were very excited when we found out we would be camping with them. We got there Friday night and set up our camp. It had been raining in Portland that day and I was afraid that the coast would be the same, but we had great weather, it was just a bit cold. I should clarify, I thought it was cold, Jeff didn't think it was cold at all. There was also a ward BBQ Friday night and it was fun to visit with everyone. Saturday morning Matt Lyman made breakfast for us. He made crab cake sandwiches, along with bacon and eggs. We brought a fruit salad and juice. It was a delicious breakfast. After breakfast we took a walk on the beach and then packed up our stuff to head home. On the way home we drove along the coast before heading back to Portland. It was a nice weekend getaway. I would go camping again, I would just recommend we get a bigger tent, I got a bit claustrophobic in the middle of the night, but overall I had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Here is a picture of our tent, again I think we should get a bigger one.

Matt and Jeff making breakfast.

Crab cakes, eggs and bacon.

A Sand Dollar we found walking along the beach.

I love these houses along the coast.