Easter Dinner

I love that Jeff likes to cook and he is dang good at it too. For Easter dinner he made Pork Chops with Leeks in Mustard Sauce. He also made some roasted tomatoes. Dinner was delicious. Jeff's note: I got the pork recipe from the May issue of Bon Appetit and the tomatoes from watching 5 Ingredients on FoodTV.

San Antonio

Earlier this month we had the opportunity to go down to San Antonio and visit Jeff's sister Cathie, her husband Jared and their cute daughter Lily. They were great tour guides, they took us to fun places and we had some great Texas food. It was a short trip, but we had so much fun spending time with them and we can't wait to go back. Here are some pictures.



They took us to a great BBQ place called Rudy's. It was delicious.






We visited the Alamo and the Riverwalk. We have some video of the boat cruise along the Riverwalk, but we'll have to post it later.


Cathie and Lily

Columbia River Gorge Cruise

About a month ago Jeff and I took a cruise up the Columbia River Gorge to Cascade Locks. The Sternwheeler ship is an authentic replica of the ships that cruised the Gorge in the 1800's. We were able to do some great sightseeing and learn about the Lewis and Clark expedition. It took us 10 hours to arrive at Cascade Locks by ship. Once we got to our destination we then boarded a bus that drove us home to Portland and that trip only took an hour. On the ship we had breakfast, lunch, dessert and a snack. We really enjoyed the food. The only downside about the cruise was the weather, it rained the whole day, but we still had a wonderful time.



I thought it was really cool to see how the bridges would move and lift so the ship could pass through. Here are some pictures of that.

From Collages

From Collages

One part of the trip that I thought was very interesting was going through the Bonneville Dam and Lock. Here's a series of pictures taken as the ship enters the lock and the water rises. When the water rises high enough so the ship can float out of the lock, the gate opens.

From Collages

Here's a selection of some other photos from the trip. It was a long day and we were beat afterwards, but left feeling good about the day and we think we'd like to do this again sometime in the future.

Happy Easter!

Photo from Martha Stewart

Farmer's Market

This morning Jeff and I got up early and went to the Farmer's Market in Portland. We immediately headed over to the Pine State Biscuits booth. They have the best biscuit sandwiches. Jeff took me to Pine State Biscuits the first time I came up to Portland to visit him. I was very excited to find out they have a booth at the Farmer's Market on Saturdays. We both got the McIsley, which is fried chicken with pickles, mustard and honey. I usually don't like a lot of fried food, but I make an exception for this sandwich, it's delicious.

After a wonderful breakfast, we wandered around the market. We got some produce, including leeks, which I've never had before and I'm very excited to try them. We also bought some wonderful desserts. We had a stawberry and rhubarb tart and we bought some cookies at a place called Two Tarts. Yeah, we went a little crazy with the sweets, but it's a holiday weekend.

On a side note, I noticed on Facebook that our friend Elizabeth saw Keri Russell at the Farmer's Market this morning. I can't believe I missed her. I guess we'll just have to hang out at the Market every Saturday morning.

 

Photo Shoot

On Monday I had the opportunity to help out my friend Chelsea of Frolic with a photo shoot she was styling. The photo shoot was a collaboration of some of the wedding vendors in the Portland area. I really enjoyed just being there and interacting with the designers. Check out the designers and their websites. I can't wait to see all the pictures in a few weeks, but here are a few now from the Twigs and Honey website.

Dresses: Elizabeth Dye
Accessories: Twigs and Honey
Stylist: Chelsea Fuss
Photographer: Lisa Warninger