I spent the past week in California for work and took a few days to visit my mom, grandma, and aunts while I was in the area (it's always so much fun when they all get together!). Now I'm back home in Portland and trying to get back into my normal routine. Our garden grew so much while I was gone! Patrick valiantly ate salads every day, but he's only one man. We need to step up our lettuce, beet, and chard consumption before things get really out of hand!

While I'm catching up, here are two recently purchased outfits. I like the idea of wearing dresses and tunics with leggings this summer. It's a good combination of cuteness and practicality (this way I can still ride my bike).

These are from two of my favorite clothing stores in Portland. The first one is from Mink (leggings from American Apparel next door). I love going to Mink--everybody who works there is friendly and enthusiastic! They seem genuinely interested in helping me find clothes that I will love.

And the second top is from the newly opened Makool Loves You shop in the Ford Building (at SE Division and 11th). Anisa makes such cool clothes, and they're very reasonably priced considering that they're handmade. This shirtdress is a little bit hipper than what I normally wear, but I like it--the plaid is so happy, and the wooden button accents are great (she adds all sorts of cute embellishments to her clothes).

Added bonus: both of these tops have pockets! If I can find the time, I want to sew a few more shirtdresses, but I'm not sure if it'll happen this summer, given all the other things I want to do.

P.S. Sleeping on the porch in the summertime is great! I did it this weekend at my mom's house in California, and it was so nice to be out under the stars. I'm hoping to do some more porch-camping (or backyard camping) at home this summer. Ooh, and go berry picking and make jam and go see movies in the park! I'm excited for summer :)

Portland must be rubbing off on me, because this past weekend, I went camping and ran a 5k, and I enjoyed it! When we finished our first 5k, I searched for more upcoming events on active.com, and the Ocean's Edge run in Lincoln City sounded nice. Patrick had been angling for a camping trip for a while, and it just so happened that his new camping book recommended a campsite that was only a few miles from Lincoln City.

And so it was that on Friday, we drove out to Beverly Beach State Park. We got there after dark, set up our tent, and went to bed. The next morning, we woke up to rain, but luckily the tent kept us dry. I didn't feel particularly inspired to run a 5k in the rain, but we headed out to Lincoln City anyway.

It was cold and windy on the beach, but at least the rain had stopped. About 40 people showed up for the run, and I was the only one wearing a hot pink skirt and stripey green socks. Go figure! I got the impression that most of them were from around Lincoln City--more of a neon windbreaker crowd. The run was kind of demotivating--we started out running into the wind, on a sloped beach, and the sand wasn't packed in a few places. And my socks kept rolling down, which was super annoying! I just wasn't feeling motivated, so I stopped and walked for a little bit, and Patrick ran ahead (and made good enough time to get the camera from the car and take a picture of me crossing the finish line). I actually finished this run faster than the Starlight Run (~35 minutes), probably because it was a flat course. Still, I'm glad it wasn't my first 5k. I would have felt bad that I stopped and walked so many times after all that C25k training.

After the run, we headed to Otis Cafe to try their famous brown molasses bread on our friend Chrissy's recommendation. There were a couple other people from the run there, which was cool. I had the hangtown fry, along with hashbrowns and brown bread toast. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of cooked oysters, but the hashbrowns and toast were excellent. The brown bread was so good--kind of like eating huge buttered slabs of gingerbread (but a little less sweet and a little more bready). I'm excited that the recipe is available online. I'll have to try making it someday!

We had originally planned to get pie from Cafe Roma after the run, but luckily we scrapped that plan, since on our way back through Lincoln City, we found out that it had been replaced by a Thai restaurant. Bummer. We bought saltwater taffy instead.

Next, we headed down to Newport to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium. They have a really cute ad campaign, so I was excited to visit. The grounds were nicely done, and I liked that some of the exhibits (like the otters and giant octopus) were outside. Although it had all of the standard exhibits I enjoy in an aquarium, it mostly made me miss the Monterey Bay Aquarium--I hadn't realized how awesome that place is. That's okay though, it was a still a fun visit.

Next, we stopped at the South Beach Fish Market to buy some salmon for dinner. Unfortunately, we weren't hungry enough to try their fish and chips, which are supposed to be tasty. In fact, we didn't eat any fish and chips on this trip. That seems like an oversight...

Back at the campsite, we showered (so nice to have a hot shower after running a 5k and driving around the coast all day!), and Patrick successfully started a campfire and made an excellent dinner of salmon, biscuits, and asparagus with sugar snap peas. And we had s'mores for dessert! We also managed to scare off a wily raccoon that was coming to raid the campsites while our neighbors were at a free lecture on how to stop raccoons from stealing your food (Lesson 1: don't leave all your food out at your campsite while you go learn about raccoons!).

One of the main drawbacks of the Beverly Beach campsite was how close the neighboring sites were, which meant that it was pretty noisy with very little privacy. Definitely not the kind of place where you can sit and enjoy the solitude of nature. Instead you can enjoy the sound of RC cars and drunk college guys cheering. But it was a really pretty setting (very close to the beach and full of lush greenery), and the bathrooms and showers were nice, so we were happy with it. Maybe next time we'll try for something a little more secluded. Some of the other sites seemed to be a little larger and more screened off by trees and bushes, so maybe campsite C27 was just a bad choice.

The next morning, we had a campfire breakfast (leftover biscuits, bacon, and fried eggs), hung around the campsite for a little bit and visited the beach, and then headed out. We went back to Portland by way of Tillamook so we could check out the Tillamook Cheese factory.

The drive to Tillamook was beautiful, and we stopped at Munson Creek Falls to spend a little more time in nature and have a picnic. We only saw a couple other people along the trail, which was nice. There were salmonberries lining the path, but I wasn't confident enough in my foraging skills to eat any. I guess that's just as well, since Wikipedia says they're "insipid." It was a pleasant little side trip on our way to Tillamook. I'm glad we decided to stop there.

In retrospect, it was a bad decision to go to the Tillamook factory on a Sunday afternoon in June, since I guess everybody visits the Oregon coast on summer weekends. It was packed! We waited in a long line for some free cheese samples (mmm, curds), took the self-guided tour, and then waited in two more lines for the legendary Tillamook ice cream (we bought our ice cream at the upstairs counter, which seemed to have a considerably shorter line than the ice cream counter downstairs). It was tasty ice cream! I had the marionberry pie flavor in a waffle cone. We ate outside and then hightailed it out of there, back to the peaceful silence of our car. Phew! I'm not a big fan of crowds, but I do like dairy products.

We'll have to try visiting the Oregon Coast again during the week or in the fall. At least we know that our tent will keep us dry if it rains.

P.S. I wanted to mention again how much we like Lori at Rainy Day Pet Sitting. Our sweet kitty had some unexpected dental surgery (3 teeth pulled because of cavities) a few days before our trip, and Lori totally took it in stride. She added extra visits and had no trouble giving Patches her antibiotics and pain meds. Plus she texted me to let me know that everything was going fine. I'm so glad to have found a reliable cat sitter in Portland!

This is Patches right after she got back from the vet, all hopped up on kitty painkillers and with a shaved area on her leg from the IV (it looks like she has a little furry go go boot on that leg!). Not to worry--she's doing much better now. We'll have to do a better job of brushing her teeth in the future so she doesn't need to have any more teeth pulled!

Here are some more recent garden pictures, for those of you who enjoy such things. It sure makes me happy to see everything growing so vigorously! (click through for more pictures on Flickr)

I've kept putting off talking about our garden because I wanted to wait until it was done, but that's silly--it will never be done. That's part of the beauty of a garden--it's always changing! So here's a quick overview of what we've done so far.

February: We made a garden plan (inspired by Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades) and ordered seeds from Territorial Seed.

March: Patrick cut down a scraggly volunteer tree in the front yard and tore out some ivy and mint, and we planted a dwarf fig tree and some dwarf blueberries from One Green World. We also planted two kinds of table grapes along the side of the house. Patrick started rhubarb and tomato seedlings in our basement. Daffodils, crocus, and grape hyacinth emerged and bloomed!

April: Tulips appeared! We tore out the vinca and old man's beard vines alongside our house (though it's an ongoing battle--they continue to pop up). Patrick planted PDX Habitat seed mix in its place. He built a cold frame out of a free pallet (from Ecohaus) and old single-paned windows from the Rebuilding Center, and we moved our tomato and rhubarb seedlings into it. He also built raised beds for our backyard, and after much debate, we settled on a configuration and filled them with 4-way soil mix from Mount Scott Fuel Co. We sowed seed for beets, scallions, chard, and lettuce. Bluebells popped up all over our yard, and our new crabapple tree bloomed. And we bought a beautiful used push mower on Craigslist.

May: We planted seeds for herbs, carrots, asparagus, pole beans, flowers, and leeks (for winter) and transplanted our rhubarb and tomato seedlings. The tomatoes had weak stems (damping off disease?), and we weren't sure if they were going to make it, but they're doing great now! I discovered the wonders of the pelargonium family and bought a rose geranium for making experimental desserts. Portland Nursery has other scented geraniums, including a lemon meringue pie geranium. Oh, the ice cream possibilities! Wildflowers bloomed, as did our roses. Seedlings emerged! I thinned our beets and lettuce, and we had our first salad from our new backyard.

June: Vigorous growth by almost everything in the garden! Things really took off within the last week or two (the picture below is from the beginning of the month; I need to post a more current picture). We've harvested some lettuce and strawberries, and I think beets will be ready shortly. I just noticed baby tomatoes today. This is fun :)

Due to our lack of menu planning, we had some nice meals around SE Portland this weekend. We ate lunch at Broder on Saturday. Man, I love that place! We're so lucky to live nearby. This time I had the winter board, and everything on it was delicious, especially the seasonal salad (peas, bacon, and blue cheese). I love the little spoon that comes with the soft-boiled egg!

That night, we went to Shangri-La, a brand new laid-back restaurant serving Indian food, located where Clinton Street Brewing used to be (SE 26th and SE Clinton). I had just mentioned to Patrick the night before that I wished we had a low-key Indian place nearby (Vindalho is nice, but it feels a little too fancy for us some nights). Lo and behold, we do have a low-key Indian place nearby! Woo hoo! They're still in the process of opening, so the menu is limited for the next few weeks, but what they're offering so far is great. We both got the dinner plate, which included samosas, dal, greens, two curries, and rice, and then we split a big cakey orange cardamom chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

Such a good meal, the owner was friendly, and the ambiance is nice and casual. The menu was entirely vegetarian the night we were there; I forgot to ask if it was going to stay that way. That would be cool.

And while I'm talking about food, let me catch you up on a few recent meals we've made at home...

A few weeks ago, I made English muffins again, this time using the recipe in The Breakfast Book. It's a pretty easy yeast dough (very little kneading involved), and I love the fact that you bake them on the stove in rings (I used cookie cutters). They even tasted like English muffins are supposed to! We had some for dinner topped with poached eggs and ate the extras with jam. Homemade English muffins make me happy :)

Even though I'm pretty well rhubarbed-out at this point, I feel compelled to buy it if I see it at the farmers' market. A week or two ago, there were also strawberries at the People's Coop Market (yay!), so I made a strawberry-rhubarb oat crumble. It was based on the recipe for Rhubarb, Oat, and Pecan Crumble in Rustic Fruit Desserts, but I used a mix of 1/3 strawberries and 2/3 rhubarb (and reduced the sugar by a smidge) and replaced the pecans with peanuts, since those were the only nuts in the house. The end result was reminiscent of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but in a good way.

Last week, we continued our quest for interesting vegetarian lunches and tried falafel wraps--tortillas filled with Moosewood tabouli, salad greens, and falafel and topped with yogurt + lemon juice. I wasn't a fan of the tabouli on its own (probably because I used overly assertive wild mint and parsley from our garden), but it was fine in the wraps. And the falafel patties were great! The wraps turned out really well, though they're a bit more labor-intensive than normal sandwiches.

We got our first CSA box from Big Leaf Farm last Thursday (Patrick rigged up an elaborate bike trailer + cooler contraption so we could pick it up by bike). Everything is so pretty! We used the purple broccoli/kale mix from the box, along with kale and collards that Susan generously shared with us from her garden, to make Cook's Illustrated manicotti with greens for last night's dinner. So good (not surprising, given the amount of cheese it contains!).

Since I had leftover ricotta and some frozen pie dough scraps, I made mini lemon ricotta pies, topped with sliced and sugared strawberries. They were enjoyable (though I'm not sure if I like the grainy texture imparted by the ricotta) but not very photogenic. It's so satisfying to combine a bunch of kitchen odds and ends to make something tasty!