Stephanie says

Umpqua Lighthouse Lunch on the water Then we hit the beach

Territorial Seed Company is located in Cottage Grove, about 25 miles north of my house.  I've had stuff to do in C.G. a lot lately and make it a point to stop by and check out what's new. I forget the entire universe doesn't revolve around me until I get a rude awakening that other people buy interesting (and apparently of limited quantity) plant materials like almond trees.  I dinked around and next thing I knew, the 2014 crop was sold out.  I've had my eye on passion-fruit vines; they're not in stock yet, so I'm ordering them online to ensure that I get 'em. Passion-fruit tastes like a hit of the tropics. It's intense. There are all sorts of unusual berries available, including goji.  Last year there were pomegranate bushes - I missed those too.  I've got seeds sprouting in my garden window and jalapeno peppers growing in re-purposed pop bottle mini-greenhouses.  This is going to be the year of the pepper; new seed varieties avail...

Spring arrived; the early flowers are blossoming.  This bergenia is a riot of color!

(The girl of the golden west) by Giacomo Puccini, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910; the time frame is the gold mining era in California.   It’s a kick to consider something close to home “exotic,” but the rootin, tootin Wild West was intriguing to more sedate Western Europe.   I attended a performance at the Hult Center in Eugene over the weekend, where the cast in full-costume mingled with the audience in the lobby before the show, (definitely at odds with the notion of opera being stuffy.   Oh, and they performed at intermission at the Emerald City Roller Girls on Saturday.)   Some members of the audience wore period costumes which added to the fun of people-watching.   I’m always intrigued with set design at the theater and these sets were minimalistic, partly because there’s a large cast, and partly not to distract from the opera.   That’s conjecture on my part but it sounds logical.   The lighting seemed somewhat flattene...

I’m a fan of America’s Test Kitchen on PBS.   Any recipe from their site that I’ve cooked has turned out beautifully.   The great thing is they do all the testing and tweaking so all I have to do is follow the recipe.   At least the first time. A recipe for sausage and pasta recently aired.   I limit pasta in my diet these days, but every once in a while I’ll indulge.   And this recipe looked so good I made a mental note to cook if for Terry, being certain he’d love it. Then a friend who’d suffered a serious illness was released from the hospital, and here was my opportunity to give this a try.    I doubled the recipe, filled a large casserole for my friend, then one for Terry, and had enough left just for me, me, me.   And it is superb! Four fork review from all who were treated to this dish. It's not real pretty but the rosemary spiced sausage makes me forget that. Serves 6 White mushrooms may be substituted f...

A jar of Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co. Green Chili Paste has been sitting right at eye level on the pantry shelf since Christmas.   Whenever I focus on it, a vision of chili verde comes to mind.    When I was a kid there was little or no Mexican food available here in Oregon.   There wasn’t much of a Hispanic population, but as that population grew, here came the spicy food.   Thank you, thank you, thank you.   I have total food recall.   I can tell you where I was and how old when I ate something fabulous for the first time.   Case in point: 1967 out with my boyfriend, 90 th & Powell in Portland, discovered Taco Bell and ate my first tostado.   It was a sensory delight of crisp corn tortilla, creamy refried beans, shredded cheese and hot sauce.      On to the chili verde.   Twenty odd years later, living in Salem, I made friends with a girl from Colorado – which I suspect had more access t...

Somewhere, but not here.  That bitter winter cold snap decimated my three-year old plants although one sole survivor is leafing out.  I had such hopes of enormous globe chokes this season, sigh. Fortunately the local market had a source, and remarkably cheap:  10 chokes for $10.  I bought six.  I cooked braised artichoke hearts, the second time I've made this recipe, Braised artichokes   Last time I chopped off the stems, a little misunderstanding of the directions or semantics, (What is the bottom of a choke?  To me, it's the stem,) which is a shame because stems, once peeled, are pure artichoke essence.  I shot a few photos along the way.  Cooked artichokes don't present as pretty. However good they taste, they look kinda creepy. I need a better camera, although that won't make a difference with artichokes.  Being a Thompson, I'm trying to justify the expense, which is ridiculous.  I expect I'll have a new one in ha...