Mission: PDX

Kyle and I got back very early Monday morning from a whirlwind of a weekend trip to the City of Roses.

If you haven't yet heard, we'll be moving to Portland this fall. Both Kyle and I are super excited to be moving back to a city and do the urban thing for a while. While we love Whitefish and hate to leave a place where you can be hiking, mountain biking, or skiing within minutes of our door, we are ready for a change of pace. It feels like the perfect time in our lives to live it up!

So this weekend was all about exploration. Scope the neighborhoods, check out the public transportation, and most importantly - find some really good food.

(digging in at Pok Pok - Kyle was like a little kid on Christmas morning;

at the Screen Door for brunch - totally worth the wait)

I wish I had taken more pictures of some of the places we went. We had some awesome desserts and pastries (my fav) as well as food and drinks. We even managed to watch a little of the Grand Floral Parade outside of our hotel room, and caught glimpses of the City Fair going on and some smaller street fairs. There were definitely not enough hours in the day to see everything we wanted, but we will be back!

Oh yes, we can

A little back story: Last fall/winter we had 2 students at the clinic, Jamie and Amanda, who were interested in learning to can their own jam. I had plans to do so anyway since I was out of stock, so they came over for a "canning party" before going cross country skiing one Saturday. We successfully got the jars all filled and processed and sealed up, but they never quite set up like we had hoped.....so we ended up with strawberry sauce instead.

Well, I've had the jars sitting out, waiting to be poured back in to the pot and fixed up, then returned to the jars so that they can be eaten. However, for the last 6 months they've just been sitting there, taunting me, teasing me with their sweet goodness while I keep putting off the re-do.

So anyway, I FINALLY corrected the recipe and have been enjoying some delicious homemade strawberry jam - on my very own homemade bagels, nonetheless. One of the most rewarding baking projects to date! They're really not that hard to make, if you find the right recipe. I'm sure they'd be even better if I used the recipes that call for overnight proofing and whatnot, but hey, I like to keep things simple.

So then I had the canning bug...and some cucumbers to use up... so I went for it and made some pickles. Another pretty easy task, just a little time consuming. But, ta-dah! Pickles that cost almost nothing that taste better than the store bought kind.