The last day my mom was in town we were organizing my studio and were both hit with hunger. We were running low on groceries since they were leaving early the next morning. Even though we still had dinner planned, we didn't have lunch.
"Where could we get food?" she asked.
"I don't know, there is this pizza place that has gluten free dough that I've been wanting to try, it's just up the street."
"Oooh, that sounds good, can you order online?"
I was looking at the place's website and suddenly it all got too complicated. How to pay, I'd have to read her cc over the phone to them? It would still take over half an hour to get here, and by then our hunger might turn into hanger. We were hungry now. Would we go pick it up? It seemed silly to have them deliver. And then I said "Are you sure there's nothing here we could eat?"
Then one of us said "Let's go check." So we went to the kitchen. The hunger had scrambled our thinking wires, but there was still rice bread that David had bought, salty crunchy tortilla chips for the side. A little more searching yielded the rest of the makings for delicious avocado, tomato sandwiches. We had just enough brain power left to get all the fixin's onto the bread.
We decided the path of least resistance was to use what we had.
Don't these look great! A delightful alternative to ordering out.
And afterward I got a big hug from my mom who said "You just saved me twenty-two bucks!"
Part of the reason we put bacon in the potato soup (beyond the fact that bacon makes everything taste more delicious) is because David was hankering for a BLT. So we bought bacon, and used three slices in the soup, some slices went to David's BLT which left four slices for Ian and I to have BLTs the next day.
I asked Ian, my resident cook expert, for a mini-course on cooking the pig. He said to put the bacon in the pan. Turn the pan on high until the bacon starts to sizzle, then find the magic balance of heat when the bacon is still sizzling, yet not smoking. And very important, flip the bacon every minute. "How do I know when it's done?" "when it looks done!" "But when is that?" "It happens kind of all at once, but I know if I just leave you to it, you'll know when that is" So he went outside to smoke a cigarette and I bit my lip hoping he was right.
yum. I got the bacon just how he likes it, crispy and chewy.
I'm hungry and I'm waiting for Ian's rice to cook so we can eat our Thai leftovers together while watching something on Netflix (am so excited for tv season to be started already, Hulu will soon be a good friend again).
While I'm waiting, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on a couple of blog posts (I got backlogged during my parent's visit, lots of post material and no time to update!). Going against all intuition I decided to post some of my bonus delicious from this month (hoping that my stomach can outlast the tempation.)
This past Sunday we had "Potato Soup" on the menu with Ian as cook. Then I remembered we had promised and were going to the "Suck My Flick" screening (one year anniversary even) at the non-profit or is it not-for-profit venue: Curious Comedy Club . And there wouldn't be enough time between Ian getting home from work and our departure, so I would make the soup.
feeling very domestic with a giant soup pot on the stove and veggie broth a'brewin.
September has been a month full of new dishes, delicious meals and trying new things.
Not only have I been cooking all sorts of meals, yet even going out has led to adventurous tastings.
We were in Newport at lunch time on our way up the coast back to Portland from Crater Lake. (If you look at a map the coast seems out of the way, but when you're from Michigan, and you get that close to the ocean a couple of hours doesn't seem like so far away anymore) In Newport we drove down the main strip and were all hungry and looking for food and found none. We did see signs to "Historic Bayfront" and decided to turn around and investigate further. Good thing too, as soon as we turned on the street, we saw Mo's and that was it. We were eating there for lunch, goodbye hungry-grumps.
What we didn't know at the time was there were many Mo's along the coast. We were blinded by hunger, and their award winning clam chowder was in fact delicious.
Ian couldn't get the oyster shooters because it was red tide (too warm). We split a combination platter and since he liked all four/five options, let me pick our three. I initially thought to go for the cod, calamari and . . . but then I decided I get calamari anywhere so I kept the cod as a back up and we ordered the clam strips and oysters. Everything was deep fried (demerits). Ian has been trying to get me to try more sea food (especially shell fish even though I claim to have a slight allergy to them) and he said that deep fried is usually the best way to introduce a new food (everything tastes okay deep fried right?) but deep fried oysters are his least favorite and I didn't like it one bit!
I tried some oyster, but only a bite. I'll try another one if it's cooked differently, Ian says we'll steam them.
What a funny cycle with the sea lions near the dock. A few moments of peaceful laze about then one somewhere would start barking and they'd all bark for a few minutes then some more lazing about. Entertaining!
Newport is also where we got to see the sea lions. Ian showed me how to take video with his camera and I posted one of the delightful animals on youtube.
Graciela and David at the historic bayfront in Newport. Our day driving along the coast was true Oregon. Overcast and kind of raining the whole time.
Sometimes a picture will help cement the memory in your mind for later.
I have so many pictures from the trip, which is great because Ian and I are not picture takers. For one thing he says there is no point of just taking a picture of the ______ (waterfall, ocean, cave, this or that) because someone else has already taken the picture and posted it on the internet that you can look at. And their picture is probably better because someone with nice equipment will surely have taken photos of whatever you're looking at. (For an awesome TED talk about some amazing photo sharing environment building interaction stuff click here.) Better to pay attention with your memory and let it all sink in so you can remember it for yourself later.
So, we don't take many pictures. His theory is one reason I've started drawing when we're out with natural wonders. The drawing is mine, it's how I see it, what I see as important and helps make the scene real in my mind.
My mom and I had several crafty projects in mind when we planned their trip to Portland. One of them was for mom to make a mini quilt like the one I made a few weeks ago. (A funny aside, even though she is one of my few frequent followers on this blog, she missed the part about my giving the quilt to her, so it was a pleasant surprise when I reminded her she'd get to take it home)
In like fashion, we decided to make hers for her mom (my abuela in mexico!). We used two more photos from our trip to Mexico years ago. It took some figuring and adding to figure out how to fit the two photos (the original design calls for just one). The quilt in general is a nice grid and with some scrap grid paper we got it all worked out.
This part reminds us of the song bird in my grandparent's courtyard.
Benefiting from my experience, we made sure mom quilted the design on top before we put on the trim.
The quilt hanging. We used materials I already had around. Now this lovely wall decoration just has to make it to Mexico.
l to r back row: graciela dominguez underwood, mariano contreras front row: Tio Cuco, abuela dominguez, rachel.db, abuelo dominguez
My mom arrived and right away I got presents! Including a few cards I had given her with a bicycle stamped on it, that she embellished and gave back for me to send!
A glittery bicycle, collaborjamma between daughter and mom.
And then she got to work right away making over a dozen cards utilizing all my crafty supplies and extras.
These tags were extra from a project I made for everyone who worked at Paper Zone.
mom rose to the challenge of making good use of my fringe scissors.
After all that glitter (some that I hadn't even opened yet, I just LOVED the color and had to have it around) I thought we needed to send her home with all the colors she didn't have yet.
I knew we were looking for some small containers, maybe ones similar to what the glitter (and embossing powders) come in from the store. Promptly forgetting everytime we were out and about I would remember when we got back to the house. "Oh! We need little jars for the glitter!"
Then on an impromptu run to Fred Meyer for bacon, we popped up to the craft aisle and found the (almost) perfect set!
We got home, and mom used a paper funnel to transfer each of the colors into her new kit.
little containers in a container! Us Dominguez women love containers!
Glitters and embossing powders! She used my collection of Japanese Washi tape to label the embossing powders.
We went to Crater Lake last week! I have some amazing pictures to post and will get to them when my parents have returned to Michigan. It's just not possible to tear myself away from them when their visit is coming so quickly to an end.
So, to tide you over, here are a few sketches from my little notebook that I wanted to share. After accomplishing goal 094 -- draw Mt. Hood, I have a sketching bug, combined with an itch to fill up the whole notebook (only 32 pages altogether). Also, the green wool shirt I borrowed from Ian had the perfect pocket for a field notebook and a little pocket for your pencil, genius!
There were lots of things to draw on the way to Crater Lake.
The bottom sketch on this page is my favorite from the trip. It's not particularly realistic, I just really love the lines.
Ian watched me draw this one and after all the scribbles to delineate trees and such said "There's just too much huh" and I said "yeah, I got what I really wanted, the way the cliff is straight down until that slanty part, but then you can't not draw the rest because it keeps going, but I can't draw the whole thing!"
The trip was GREAT. AMAZING. BEAUTIFUL. WORTH IT. For a few more words about it stay tuned.
