Edelweiss Sausage & Delicatessen

My great-grandparents, Elizabeth Heagel Arndt and Johann Arndt, immigrated to Portland from the Norka colony near Saratov, Russia in 1910. So, I think I’ve mentioned once or twice that I’m a (fucking) German girl, and while I generally use that as an excuse for my 

Los Gatos Comida Salvadoreña

Oh man, so I was in the field for a couple days last week, this time in central Oregon. My intrepid coworker and I were feeling a bit peckish, and still had at least 4 hours to go before we hit Prairie City (oxymoron that 

Spring morel dinner at Castagna

Ah, Castagna. Our preferred fancy date-night place. They had a special morel dinner last night (the last in a three-part series), and we had to partake. Usually our steak-frites-and-pear-martini place (well, Scott usually gets a Manhattan since he’s not a homosexual), it was kind of 

Ostrich burgers and animal fries, junebug lust and brome seed in my socks

What a fucking week. I got a sunburn that may warrant a trip to the dermatologist’s office, leaving me with cracking and peeling on my ears and shoulders that feel like I spent a fortnight moving refrigerators. I needed a full recovery day of napping 

Dinner at Simpatica: a reprise

Simpatica Catering and Dining Hall is one of our very favorite restaurants ever. We eat here every other month or so, and are never disappointed. Best-looking kitchen in Portland. There’s just something about boys in aprons, lemme tell ya. The people we were seated with 

Dinner at Simpatica

Can I ever express enough how much I love this place? Saturday, March 15 Cajun Night Appetizers Oysters On The Half Shell with Tabasco Mignonette Fried Pickles Cajun BBQ Shrimp Hush Puppies Louisiana Hot Links Cabbage Slaw Zydeco Meat Pies with Andouille Sausage Cajun Salad 

Romanesco really freaks me out.

Okay, some of you know that I have a day job: I’m a field biologist working in natural resources consulting. I grew up watching a lot of David Attenborough programs. I have seen a lot of crazy shit in my life (truth really is stranger 

Nice Matters

Or, Why Gluten-Free Vegans Bug the Shit Out of Me. Gluten? The fuck? Okay, here’s the thing: if you have celiac disease and actually can’t digest gluten, then that’s one thing. That really fucking sucks for you, but you’re getting by just fine eating a 

Rebound ftw

Okay, I think I’m back a little. I’m back in the kitchen, anyway. Last night I tried my hand at the sous-vide method of cooking (chinook salmon with roasted lemons, dijon mustard, honey and thyme). Hindsight always being 20/20, I would’ve bagged the portions individually 

Epic Fail

Okay, so I never made an after-Thanksgiving post. Thanksgiving was a bit of a letdown, predictably, because the speech-impeded screams of toddlers had me so frazzled that I fucked up three of my side dishes and by the time I even got to sit down