Posts Tagged portland
Fried Green Tomatoes & Rainy Chickens
It is fall in Portland, which means one bad thing: my garden is dying! It is too cloudy to ripen the dozens of plump green tomatoes still left on the vine, so tonight I decided to make fried green tomatoes! I used a fabulous recipe from VeganYumYum.com.
Chopped up green tomatoes, fresh from my garden.
Frying one side…
Then the other!
Completed!
The full meal: drizzle balsamic vinegar and place on a bed of greens (fresh from the garden, of course!), and chopped black olives.
Today it stormed….
The chickens don’t mind the rain too much. However, the do become quite muddy in their chicken run. And poor Little Miss, with her head full of feathers, gets muddy dreads from the rain!
4 comments October 18, 2009
What’s My Age Again?
Today was a random and amusing day.
While waiting at the bus stop downtown, a guy who had thrown his cigarette butt into the landscaped side of a Portland State building started a mini-brush fire. Well, it wasn’t really a fire–not yet anyway. It was more like a gentle smoldering that emitted a lot of smoke.
When I first arrived at the bus stop and noticed the smoke, I went over and tried to stamp it out with my feet. Then the guy who was apparently the cause of the incident, showed up and said, “Yah, don’t worry. I just talked to the firemen down the street. They are going to swing by with a bucket of water,” and then added nonchalantly, “hmm…looks like it could get serious.”
The culprit ended up boarding the number 12 bus with me, leaving behind his potential fire. When we drove by the fire station, I saw the firemen outside, enjoying the sunshine and washing their truck, apparently oblivious to the horrible potential danger down the street from them.
Later that day, Mike and I went to the opening of a new vegan BBQ restaurant. Well, it wasn’t really a restaurant, more like a few picnic tables and a huge grill set up in a once vacant plot of land on Alberta street. While we were gobbling down our BBQ Tempeh, Spicy Soy Curls Pita Sandwich, and “Mac and No Cheese,” a gentleman came strolling down the street, loudly and proudly singing the lyrics to that classic song, “What’s My Age Again?,” by Blink 182. He had ear-buds in, so he apparently had no idea what he sounded like or how loudly he was singing. It was by far one of the most amusing and entertaining 30 seconds I have ever experienced.
After we got lost at The City of Books, we came home and clipped off the flight feathers of our pet chickens. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Portland???
Oh, and to top it off, I found this:
1 comment July 4, 2009
Chicks: Week 1
The little chickies are doing very well! We added the third and last one to the pack, a Buff Lace Polish hen who will look something like this when full grown:
We picked this breed because of how fancy and unusual it is. The original two chicks have grown so much in only a week. They are getting their wing feathers in and are loosing more and more down every day. They are going to outgrow the brooder very soon!
The Americana, the brown one with the larger eyes and the tiger pattern on its head, is named Clementine. She is the quiet and shy one of the bunch. She enjoys staring at the wall, being pecked by the others, and doing yoga stretches while pooping.
The Speckled, the other brown one with the single black stripe through its eye, is named Kiwi. She is the leader of the pack. She is active and likes digging holes in the pine shavings by kicking it everywhere. She also enjoys roosting on her post, pecking Clementine, and being followed by the others. She is also adventurous, as she has tried to fly out of the box on a few occasions.
The Polish, the tiny white one with the funny crown, is named Lady Macbeth or Little Miss Lady for short. She is the sweetheart baby of the group and constantly copies the other chicks. She is very vocal, and enjoys pecking at the walls.
3 comments April 24, 2009
Baby Chicks!
When I was a kid, I remember discovering that my neighbors down the street had a couple of chickens living in their backyard. I thought that was the coolest thing ever, and from that day on, dreamed of having pet chickens one day. Well, dreams come true in Portland, OR, where it has become the fashionable (and eco-conscious) thing to do–have 3 pet chickens kickin’ it in your backyard and garden.
Today we got two chicks, from a really awesome new store that just opened: Urban Farm. It is owned by a couple who loved their chickens so much they decided to open up a shop and spread their knowledge. They really know their stuff, and offer free workshops on chicken-raising.
We decided to get a Speckled Sussex, which is a very pretty variety:
And an Ameraucana, which lay “Easter Eggs” (green and blue).
We plan on getting one more chick, but we are going to wait for a specific bread which comes in next week.
The baby chicks will live indoors for the next two months, keeping warm under a heat lamp. Once they have all their feathers, they will be relocated outside to their new home. With three chickens, we should expect to have about 14 eggs a week. They begin to lay 5 months after they are born.
They are good friends already:
Here is a short video of the chicks, shortly after they arrived at their new home. Enjoy!
3 comments April 17, 2009
Mark Bittman Visits Portland
Portlanders love books. We are a town of bookies.
Portlanders love food. We are a town of foodies.
If there is anything that Portland loves more than books and food, it is a book about food. But wait! Toss in the slow-food movement, and some polemics from a New York Times author and you’ve got a delicious recipe for success!
I am disappointed to say that I was completed out-nerded by most of Portland last Thursday. I thought arriving to Powell’s ½ an hour before Mark Bittman was to speak would suffice (Remember, this guy?). But the second I stepped into The City of Books I hear over the intercom, “If you are here to see Mark Bittman, you better hurry your ass to the fourth floor because most of Portland has already taken their seats!”
I rush up the stairs, whereupon by complete surprise I run into Karen and Bob from work (everyone really is here!), and we push our way through a crowd of enthusiastic foodies. And low-and-behold there is not a free seat in sight. I lean up against the travel books bookcase with a copy of Food Matters, and read until 7:30 when he arrives to applause clad in his iconic blue striped sweater.
Bittman explains that he is an “incriminatalist.” He advocates for Americans to take an incremental approach to improving their diet and thereby their health and environmental impact. Eat 30 meals a week with meat in it? Try cutting it down to 27 meat-meals a week. Also, did you know that the #1 source of calories in the American diet, weighing in at 17%, is soda? And the #1 food group we eat from is that of the “pastry, donuts, sweets” group? Truly astonishing!
I see Bittman as embracing the middle way in terms of food philosophies. He is not a vegetarian, but practices more or less “vegan ‘till 6.” He is pushing for us to more conscious of our food choices. Home cooking has become an activity of the past, with most Americans eating out for the majority of their meals. The only way to become one with your food, to know it and therefore know what exactly is in it is to cook for yourself. But with our ever shortening leisure time, where do we find the time to cook, or to even learn how to cook?
Food in this country, and in the world, is a perplexing and difficult issue. How is it that our country is the wealthiest, fattest, yet most diet-obsessed country in the world?
Oh, and just as a side note: the meat industry sure has done a superb job at brainwashing our entire nation into making us equate “protein” with “meat” when in reality ounce for ounce spinach has 10x more protein than meat! And spinach won’t give you cancer! And don’t even get me started on the dairy industry….
Happy eatin’!
Add comment January 19, 2009
