A Day in Court and a New Favorite Portland Eatery

It’s officially Autumn! This is my favorite time of year with cool, crisp mornings and mildly warm days. The trees are beginning to turn and the deck is already lightly scattered with yellow leaves. It’s about time to break out the winter clothes and boots, put away the canning paraphernalia, think about heavier, slow-cooked meals (like beef bourguignon), and make plans for the holidays.

We returned from our trip to Missouri and were home just long enough to do laundry and repack our suitcases for a trip to Portland. This was our fourth year attending the Northwest Quilt Expo and it was as inspirational as ever. My Santa Barbara quilting friends, Sally and Sandy, flew up for the show and, of course, a little fabric shopping at two of our favorite shops. However, the inventory was marginal compared to last year’s truckload sale and the discounts weren’t exceptional. Although disappointed, they still managed to fill a couple of suitcases with their purchases.

The day before our company arrived we visited Lauren’s work at the Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland. I have to say this was the highlight of our trip. We have been hearing stories about the Courthouse and Judge Bloch and Joanne, the judicial assistant, for almost two years now. Our trips to Portland are always packed with lots to do and we’ve never found time (actually, we’ve never taken time) to visit her work and meet her work family. We arrived at the Courthouse just before lunch and started our tour by going through visitor’s security. I was carrying my purse that was crammed with all kinds of extraneous stuff (you know how it is when you travel) and it must have taken five inspections of my bag and twenty minutes to get the go-ahead. A bit embarrassing as the guard scanned my belongings for explosives and other contraband, but I am comforted that they’re so careful. After all, my baby spends a good portion of her life there and sometimes encounters some pretty unsavory characters.

We toured the first floor and then gradually made our way upstairs to the fifth floor where she works. Judge Bloch and Joanne were there to greet us, all of us happy to make each others acquaintance. I’m sure they’ve heard as many stories as we have and were curious about their clerk’s parents. Lauren took us into the jury room (where she sometimes has her lunch), through the judge’s chambers, and into the courtroom, where her desk sits directly below the judges’ bench. Unless court is in session, she has the room to herself to read and research, write memos and opinions, and on a slow day, call her mommy or chat with friends she’s made in the courthouse. It was a great experience.

Lauren planned lunch for us at a Courthouse-favorite downtown restaurant, The Picnic House (www.picnichousepdx.com). We decided to drive even though she said it was only four or five blocks. She walks all over Portland and her estimates are sometimes a bit skewed. The last “short walk” with her must have been a good mile, so she’s proven herself to be untrustworthy. Her choice of restaurants couldn’t have been better, though. It’s our new favorite! We’d give it four stars or forks or whatever ranks it among the best. The food was outstanding (I had a curry pumpkin soup that was incredible), the décor and ambience charming, and the service couldn’t have been better. I can’t wait to go back.

We love Portland. To think Lauren could have gone to law school in Florida…it makes me shudder. Attending Lewis and Clark and then remaining in Oregon to work was one of her better decisions. It has especially been good for us, because we get to visit her several times a year, experience all that makes Portland wonderful (and weird), and then return to sunny California and all of its goodness. The best of both worlds!

P.S. We stopped by the Portland Police Department hoping to see Nick Burkhardt, detective and local Grimm, but he was out chasing Wesen. Hopefully, next time.

Family Historian

Genealogy has never held any interest for me. Not even a little bit. Today, however, I hold a new title, Family Historian, and am responsible for the completion of the search for our ancestors that was started several years ago by my niece, Leanne. We just returned from a trip to visit her in Eldon, Missouri. Loving all things having to do with history, Leanne started this project several years ago and has one family line traced back to the 1600’s. She’s filled several binders with her research notes and findings. About 18 months ago, Leanne’s work on the genealogy project as well as her continuing education at a local college came to an abrupt halt when she was informed that she had breast cancer. After months of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, the cancer has spread to her liver. Despite her weakened condition and constant pain, Leanne has bravely used the last few months to put pictures in albums for her three children and frame keepsakes she’s preserved over the last thirty years. If you’ve read my quilting blog, www.stixchix-stix.blogspot.com, then you’re familiar with the quilting blocks Leanne sent to me that were made by my grandmother on my father’s side, Grandma Wier. She saved these blocks and another quilt top from the trash bin years ago with intentions to complete them at some point. I’ve spent the last few weeks finishing the first quilt, shown below with the recipient, Leanne’s 12-year daughter Emma, and have returned from our trip with a second beautiful example of Grandma’s handwork that I plan to quilt in the next few months.

While I’ve never really been interested in old quilts, I have to admit working with my grandmother’s quilt blocks sparked an interest in me. Not so much about old quilts, but about the person who spent hours each day foregoing housework to sit with her cats and crochet, embroider, or hand appliqué her quilt blocks and then even more time assembling the blocks and hand-quilting her final creation. I’ve been told more than once that she was a terrible housekeeper. I say: who cares? The woman had her priorities straight! She lives on through these quilts and crocheted bedspreads. For the first time in my life, I feel a connection to this person who was long dead when I was born. 

While in Eldon we stayed with Leanne’s in-laws in their beautiful farmhouse in the heart of Amish (actually, Mennonite) country. My sister (and Leanne’s mother) Judy had been staying in Leanne’s home, but joined us there at night along with my other sister, Jane, who drove up from her home in Arkansas to spend the weekend with the family. We’ve made trips to this area before and have memorable experiences driving through the Lake of the Ozarks and actually visiting an Amish home where quilts were made and sold and then corresponding with the owner, Vera, for several years after. It’s like a step back in time to see the women with bonnets and wearing long dresses riding bikes or driving horse-pulled buggies with young replicas of themselves sitting in the back. The weather was beautiful during our visit, but all thoughts of living in Missouri (just joking) were dashed by the stories told of ice storms that stripped trees of their branches, mosquitoes, and cesspools.

We’re home for a couple of days and then off to Portland for another adventure at the annual Northwest Quilting Expo. This will be our fourth year attending the event, which has become a family and friends tradition.

  

Fun Fermenting

I love kitchen stuff. I’m like a kid (and some adults) with a comic book when the William Sonoma, Sur la Table, or Chef’s Catalogs arrive. I browse them over and over, dog-earing pages of interesting new kitchen equipment and gadgets. Just writing this reminded me of one of my favorite new tools that Lauren gave me for Mother’s Day. I hadn’t planned to talk about it, but I’m so excited about it and this is the perfect forum. It’s called a Kuhn Rikon Smart Lid. The lid snugly fits both our 10” and 12” fry pans, but also may be used with smaller pans; it's clear on top so you can see what’s happening in the pan and it has a venting system that allows you to let the steam escape or it may be closed tight keeping moisture in. It’s a bit expensive at $30, but well worth the price. Check it out.

Okay, back to the point of this story. During my MFP training, we learned about fermenting and made sauerkraut as an example of that technique. It was incredibly easy and turned out well. It was while I was eating the sauerkraut at our graduation dinner that a fellow-MFPer told me she’d bought her father a fermenting system from a store on Etsy. He hadn’t used it yet, but the design she described sounded interesting. I wasted no time and ordered a starter kit from the shop, Primal Kitchen. The starter kit included a glass crock with a special lid (Kraut Kap) with a hole in the middle and an airlock device that securely fits into the silicone seal surrounding the hole. The design is unique, because it allows the carbon dioxide to escape, while not allowing oxygen to enter the system (or anything else while it sits in a closet for over a month fermenting). Also included in the kit was a crock rock Mason jar weight, which keeps the kraut submerged in brine. It sounded good and looked impressive and I ordered it. We started our first batch in August and not being able to wait any longer, we ate it this past weekend. This story isn’t really about the recipe we used, but this is a perfect time to share it, so I’ll digress again. 

This is a recipe a friend shared with us and includes our changes. Place a quart of sauerkraut in a Dutch oven. Top it with a layer of sliced onions (I can’t stand partially cooked onions, so we lightly caramelized them). Next, add a layer of sliced apple that has been cored and peeled and a layer of sliced potatoes (Yukon Gold are my favs). Finally, top with a couple of fresh sausages (for example, Apple Sausage from Lockeford). Pour over these stacked ingredients about 4 ounces of beer or white wine and cook on the stove top for about 35 minutes or until done. At the end of the cooking time, remove the sausages and either quickly brown them in a frying pan or grill pan. Serve. It’s an easy one-pot meal and very tasty. The sauerkraut was the star and it didn’t disappoint.

Back to the fermenting jar. Our results were perfect. Never had a problem with loss of brine, slime, or scum and no bad smells in our pantry where it resides; all problems that can occur when making sauerkraut. We spent no more than 30 minutes total preparing the cabbage for the fermenting process. That’s it.  After that we just checked it weekly to make sure the cabbage remained submerged. The closed system seemed to keep the brine from evaporating and the level actually increased slightly at first and then remained constant. It couldn’t be simpler.

What’s the point of fermenting? Aside from the incredibly beneficial bacteria created, lactobacillus, I find the process absolutely fascinating. To think that two ingredients, cabbage and salt…

…placed in a fairly warm room (68° to 72° F) for a month or more result in something edible is beyond me. We happen to love the taste, so that’s a bonus. Now, if you don’t like the taste of sauerkraut, but do like a good dill pickle, then there’s still an opportunity for you to begin fermenting. Before we started our second batch of kraut today, we started three quarts of Kirby cucumbers fermenting in a salt-water brine and a few other non-essential additions to the fermenting process, dill weed, garlic, red peppers, cabbage leaves, and grape leaves for crispness. 

Preparing the pickles for the fermentation process was very similar to making sauerkraut. This time, though, we just used a 1-quart large mouth canning jar. The extra Kraut Kaps came with my second order from Primal Kitchen. I know what you’re thinking (second order?)…LOL! Here’s the web address: www.etsy.com/shop/PrimalKitchen.  Order a starter kit and have a little fun fermenting.