chez mccarthy

it had been way too long since i'd seen holly. 

i mean, like, way-way tooooo long. 

i was really looking forward to squeezing in some holly time while on my 8-day whirlwind westward trip.  imagine my excitement when i had found out that les and hol had coordinated so that we could eat dinner at chez mccarthy.  i mean, this is the home of a real deal chef + wife.  even though scott was out of town, holly can most definitely hold her own in the kitch.

behold: kabocha ginger pear soup

i must say that holly and scott's home in walnut creek is adorable. it is a two story, two bedroom townhome, that also has two patios. one patio is home to a giant hot tub, and also opens up onto a shared garden space. with the autumnal smells of soup wafting from the kitchen, their place felt totally homey!

i'll leave the rest of the post up to the photos to do most of the talking
(though maybe holly will elaborate for us!) ...

holly's homemade quince paste!

holly looking trim in the kitchen!

MINER!!

this photo is out of order, but there is holly pouring the stock over the squash

voila!

and miss leslie brought an apple dessert!

it was so good to spend the evening catching up with holly and seeing her 'new' northern california home.  it's been years and years since we lived together, but as soon as i walked in, it felt just like a holly house!

kantahara home + an sf art store

i finally met hudson and have no pictures to show for it!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!

love him. love him. love him.

wanted to pack him up to oklahoma with us.

in lieu of dev-huds makeout photos,
i do have snapshots of the cozy guest room leslie set up:

which was conveniently located next to several necessities:

like the kitchen sink and all the foooooood!!!

yes, only leslie can manage putting a guest bed in the kitchen and still make her guests feel as comfortable as if they were in their own private master suite.

***

les and i wasted no time in getting down to wedding planning business the morning after we dined with holly.  rise and shine and leslie was instantly skyping with her sis and adding her to the bridesmaid brigade!  little kasser is in spain and i got to chat with her as she ate peanut butter with a spoon - very college.

after stuffing ourselves with dotties for brunch,

we headed to the world's best art store:

arch.

within these garage walls we spent hours comparing paper.

feeling paper.

touching paper.

cutting paper.

you name it, we did it to some paper.

we successfully nailed down the concept for the save the dates.

(really leslie came up with the idea, then just bounced it off me,
with the wording hammered out while we were on southwest airlines
en route to our layover in denver)

we also selected all the pieces and enclosures for a mockup of her invitations.

again, les masterminded the effort

and i was the lackey, of course.

regardless, this was like a dream come true,

to get to think about wedding invites again.

i could get married every year and be happy as a peach.

or a clam. whichever is happier.

we also came up with an idea for menus,

but we didn't touch on the programs at all.

leslie is definitely my most crafty friend and she'll come up with something fabulous. can't wait to see how they all turn out!

it was deemed a very successful trip to the art store!

dando gracias!

last year we had a great time throwing an early thanksgiving potluck for our friends! so when we realized that we didn't quite get around to it in time this year, i was definitely bummed. thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

when we looked at our calendar, we definintely thought the upcoming weekend was way too close to thanksgiving to be roasting an entire turkey, when just days later, we would be doing that again. however, christine suggested we could still throw a ... let's say ... mexican themed fete in the name of giving thanks. our SUNDAY was open and we decided we could have a few people over (who has people over on a sunday anyway?).

please join us in dando gracias!

(that's giving thanks, gringos!)

(ok i made it up, so i don't know if it's grammatically correct)

this sunday, november 22nd

beginning at 4:00pm

let's have a drink before we start thinking about monday morning, then sit down together at a real table for una cena de estilo de fiesta (a fiesta style dinner)!! the bears game starts at 7:00 and anyone interested in 'sport' can stay after dinner to watch.

we're putting a mexican spin on our 2nd annual thanksgiving con nuestros amigos
(tday with our friends).

we plan on serving up:

pomegranate margaritas

turkey enchiladas

chilied rice & beans

and

pumpkin pie

***

at first it was just going to be the bonkos coming over.

and then, it somehow became
dinner for 15 people!?

and we couldn't invite everyone we wanted to :(

because our place is tiny and can't seat more than that...
but instead of focusing on the downside,

i will post pics of the preparation and celebration!

what's been keeping me busy...

besides salem, portland, san francisco, and okc ... october and november have kept me busy with

• bucktown 5k
• pumpkins in the park 5k
• the opera
• publican
• state and lake
• cirque du soleil banana shpeel
• scripps admissions interviews
• brunch club
• winter warriors
• iab (interactive adverstising bureau)
• dando gracias mexican fiesta
• plus tomorrow, family over for thanksgiving!

o-klahoma!

uncle bob's

nice face, bob.

uncle bob is one of my nana's younger brothers. he is 72, and i think he looks pretty darn good.  even better if he weren't making that face.  well, maybe.

nana grew up with buckets of siblings ... gene her older sister, then her, and a younger brother who died as a boy whose name was jack i think, and ralph, bruce, peggy, and karen ... so i don't know exactly where bob falls on the continuum, but that's at least 8 kids, sheesh.

and did someone say something earlier about my nana being 80?  not that i'm bragging or anything, but she had her 80th birthday party almost three years ago, and so nana will be 83 in january!! 

bob and his wife pat invited my dad and i over
on the morning i left oregon.

TANGENT: speaking of dad ... here he is in what i would guess was about 1963, with his older and younger brothers, my nana, and his father frank who passed away when my father was a teenager.

since he and his dad had the same name, everyone called my dad

BIFF

you know, for differentiation
i'm not kidding.

all that side of the family calls my dad biff to this day!!

-- unrelated, everyone patrick grew up with calls patrick 'fitz' and his sister 'zelda'--

back to the story,
bob and pat invited us over to their beautiful craftsman:

it might be on an historic register.

the american craftsman style "incorporated locally handcrafted wood, glass, and metal work that is both simple and elegant. A reaction to Victorian opulence and the increasingly common mass-produced housing elements, the style incorporated clean lines, sturdy structure, and natural materials." (wikipedia)

uncle bob grows all the flowers.

and pat says that the ladies who pass by as he's gardening basically want a piece of him.

not to mention that their neighborhood is gorgeous and sits right on the edge of bush pasture park, the walking paths of which provide the constant competition for the 72 year old hottie in the garden.

so when we got there, everyone went for either a run or a walk through the park and we convened back at the "party house" for beer and local goodies, including breads and cheeses.  though i never saw any of this competition they spoke of.

beautiful home + park + beer + cheese?
my kind of morning!

more posts to come:

yikes, now i'm behind on my posts. 
coming up in due time:

• uncle bob's house in salem, or
• holly and scott's house in walnut creek, ca 
• leslie and jamie's house in sf, ca 
• katie and ryan's house in okc
• lauren and brad's house in okc

i'll get through all these photos, weed out the duplicates, and finally post to flickr. promise.

also coming up, a post on champaign-urbana, illinois.

wishing everyone a happy, productive week!

walking through portland

i'm obsessed with this place, portland.

stuffing my face in portland

i'm pretty convinced that street foods are making a big comeback (they're getting trendy, right?).  in september i had read an article in bon appetit about ziba's, a bosnia food cart in portland.  bosnian?  trendy or not, i had to go.

here's the link to the full article which includes coverage of additional carts:
http://foodcartsportland.com/tag/bon-appetit/

September 2009 The Art of the Street Cart

By Nancy Rommelmann

Portland, Oregon, is leading a delicious dining revolution. And it's not taking place at restaurants—small trucks and mobile carts are serving a range of diverse, inventive, and budget-friendly food. Join us as we visit the carts and meet the cooks who are creating a new curbside cuisine.

Ziba's Pitas
SW 9th Ave. and Alder St.; 503-473-9372; zibaspitas.com

Not your father's pita, but a light, flaky Bosnian dough made each morning by Ziba Ljucevic, a former accountant who emigrated with her family from Sarajevo in 2002 and opened her cart in 2006. Her recipes were handed down from her grandmother: Burek is a pita stuffed with beef, onions, tomatoes, and spices, pictured above with a sour cream and cucumber salad and ajvar, a relish made with tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, and paprika. Ziba also makes great cufte (meatballs). They come with a garlicky white sauce and two ustipaks, which the menu describes as "like bread, but much better"—an understatement for these chewy puffs.

these were so amazingly delicious and not at all adequately describable.

i wish i could communicate the deep toothiness of this handmade dough;

it's light and flaky while at the same time having a chewy tenderness,

and a deep caramelized finish on the underside.  i don't get it!

here's the menu:

 i had the #3 tikvenica

aka holy zucchini chewy flaky wonder

(and you guys know how much i love ajvar)

when we were downtown again the next day,

dad and tove wanted to try these stuffed bosnia "pita's" too.

so we went back and ziba was SOLD OUT!

no to worry, we found some delicious soups and grilled cheeses instead...

this is tove from norway (dad's gf). she had the

curried red lentil and cauliflower with cilantro soup

dad and i both had

tomato soup with fennel and orange.

it was good, but not even close to the tomato soup i had later in the week with holly and leslie in sf. however, my grilled cheese with gruyere and apple butter was pretty outstanding.

i found the following website, which i recommend for anyone headed to PDX soon!

http://foodcartsportland.com/tag/bon-appetit/

wine tasting in the willamette valley

nana and i packed up and headed about 45 minutes away to a stretch of small highway in the heart of the willamette valley. hello pinot noir! the beautiful late afternoon gave me yet another reason to love oregon.

 "In recent decades, the valley has also become a major wine producer, with multiple American Viticultural Areas of its own. With a cooler climate than California, the gently rolling hills surrounding the Willamette are home to some of the best (and most-expensive) pinot noir in the world, as well as a high-quality pinot gris. It is home to Eyrie Vineyards, winner of the pinot noir competition at the Wine Olympics held in Paris in 1979...

The major agricultural products of the valley include many varieties of berries and vegetables. The valley also produces most[citation needed] of the grass seed, Christmas trees, and hazelnuts[^ Hazelnut Production (8/26/96), USDA NSS report ] sold in North America. It is also noted for its hops, which are widely used in craft beer and microbreweries throughout the U.S." -- wikipedia

ya i mean are you kidding WINE and BEER, howcome I always forget how much I love oregon?