Close but no escargot

As you may have read in the previous post, I made and served escargot with margarita jalapeno salsa at dinner on Sunday. I thought escargot were like mushrooms in that you were best to purchase them rather than forage them from the wilds as they could be deadly. Apparently I was wrong. According to quite a lot of research on the internets (hahaha), all you have to do is find them, boil them, clean them, and then enjoy them.

Here are a couple of critters I spotted while out geocaching on Saturday. Gee...if only I would have known I could actually have eaten them, I would have brought them home.

Monkey makes friends with lunch

This might give you some idea how much meat there is on these little suckers

FoSaP for May - Around the World in Food

I'm highly disappointed in myself. The only photo I took from my monthly dinner was the cute directional sign I made...doh!

I have to say that the menu was a challenge in trying to mesh the foods from areas around the world in some sort of cohesive way. I might have been successful. You tell me.

A few months back I had all my dinner guests throw the name of a region or a type of cuisine into a hat and I pulled them out one at a time to assign to various aspects of dinner. Here's how it went down:

Appetizers - China, Lebanon
Salad - Greece
Entree - Escargot (that's right a food, not a region or a cuisine), Mexico, Wales
Dessert - Persia, Southern Spain
I ended up with one left in the hat - Poland - so decided to make a beverage from there.

What had I gotten myself into? I also strive to cook items I've never cooked before, use new techniques, or just try to learn something new each month. A double threat to my success.

Here's the menu I came up with:

CHINESE CHICKEN WINGS
LEBANESE LAMB MEATBALLS
GREEK ROASTED BEET SALAD
ESCARGOT WITH MARGARITA JALAPENO SALSA
STEAK FAJITAS
WELSH FISH CAKES
PERSIAN DAINTIES
MISSION FIG FLAN FROM MALAGA
POLISH CHERRY KOMPOT

The next challenge was to source the ingredients. Where would I find escargot in Portland? I found an Asian market that had them live but I didn't want to have to clean and prep them plus the recipe called for canned snails. Wouldn't you know it? I ended up finding everything at Wal-Mart. Who would have guessed?!?!

The wings had been marinated and baked in a mix of soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and other aromatics. All were consumed so I guess everyone liked them.

I thought there would be no way Wal-Mart would have ground lamb, but sure enough they did. It was mixed with breadcrumbs, fresh mint and dill, then rolled into balls and baked. I served it with a chive sour cream. Again, these went quickly and I was so proud that everyone gave them a try...even the ones that I thought would never eat lamb.

The salad from Greece seemed to be a no brainer but since I made and served a typical Greek Salad
 so was looking for something different. I found a recipe for a roasted beet salad from Greece and went that route. I've never roasted beets before and can I say right now, they were delicious! I ate waaaaay too many of the slices just prepping the salad. After roasting the sliced beets were marinated in a dressing of red wine vinegar, olive oil, fresh mint, dill, and chives, and other dried herbs. When ready to serve I dressed greens with the remaining dressing and piled on top the beets. This was a crowd favorite for sure.

The fish cakes were pretty simple. Mashed potatoes, butter and poached and flaked salmon combined and made into little cakes then fried to golden brown. Another crowd favorite.

On to the escargot. I was surprised when I removed them from the can to discover how large they were and how much they looked exactly like snails. I wasn't trying to hide this fact from my diners so left them intact and baked them in the oven in garlic butter and topped with a margarita jalapeno salsa I had prepped earlier in the day. I had one fajita made from several of the escargot in addition to a steak fajita. They were really delicious. And again, I was so proud that almost everyone at least gave them a try. And many enjoyed them too!

On to dessert. I tried to find some kind of common denominator between the two so made a Persian dessert ball of dried dates, raisins, figs, nuts and orange peel. Then I made a fig flan to accompany it. Both were enjoyed by the crowd, but the flan was definitely the fan favorite of the evening.

Oh yeah, the beverage. I wanted something non-alcoholic so discovered that in Poland, many families will boil fresh or dried fruit in water, add a bit of sugar and serve cold. I had a big bag of fresh cherries so gave that a try. It was actually quite nice.

All in all, a wonderful meal. It made me all warm and fuzzy knowing that not only did people enjoy the evening (this was the latest people stayed in a long time), but were adventurous enough to give everything a try. Ahhhhhhhhhhh......until next month.

So much going on...

I've had so many things going on lately that apparently I haven't had time to do some blogging. Plus my computer at home died so I'm limited to using the computer at the office during non-work hours only. Hopefully that will change soon as I just ordered a tablet and should have tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Since I last posted, I'm still going strong with my geocaching. I've logged 15 consecutive days of finding at least 1 cache and on Sunday not only did I break my previous finds in one day with 14, but I passed the 100 cumulative finds as well. I was on my way home from picking up my goodies at ShopGoodwill and decided to swing through Canby and snag a few. I ended up in a mostly industrial area with little to no traffic so just kept going, and going, and... but I digress.

Monkey checks out the bridge while I look for the cache at Westmoreland Park

Let's start with earlier in the week. I continue to be amazed at the beautiful parks and amazing historical information I'm learning while out caching, plus am logging at least 10,000 steps per day as well. I haven't weighed myself but have a feeling I will have lost a couple of pounds through all this.

Friday afternoon I took a friend for her colonoscopy....the second friend I've taken this year and the results were almost identical. Afterwards, she was starving as can be expected so asked if she could take me to lunch at Burnside Brewing Co. I love a good burger and a good brew so off we headed. I got the Brewery Burger ~ 1/2 Pound of Northwest Beef Seared In Duck Fat, Grilled Onions, Pickles, Hop-Studded Potato Roll, Served with house ketchup and fries and the Ivil Krushu Baltic Porter ~ this Baltic style porter is deceivingly easy to session. Brewed with the California Common yeast it leaves a clean finish with notes of licorice, subtle chocolate and molasses. Both were absolutely delicious and very filling.

Friday night I met up with the monthly Supper Club. Kevin's recommendation this month was a Cena. A lovely little Italian restaurant in Sellwood. A Cena literally translates to 'come to supper'. The restaurant was homey yet elegant and obviously a favorite as it was packed. I ordered a gorgeous Barbera wine, though at $9 for a glass it seemed a bit steep. I bypassed an antipasti as I was still a bit full from lunch. For dinner I ordered the Norcia ~ hand-rolled Garganelli pasta, fennel sausage, wild mushrooms in a cream and white wine sauce. Good thing I only requested an half order. Even that was quite large.....and one of the best things I've eaten in a while.

Saturday morning I headed to Vancouver to do a little geocaching before heading to Teresa's house. They must hide things different in Washington because I only scored 1 find out of the 5 I looked for. Ugh! Off to the Hawaiian Luau/Bunco/Tupperware party. It was quite fun and very entertaining and though I didn't win anything, I had a great time and learned about the newest Tupperware offerings. After the party, Angie and I decided to search along Marine Drive for some caches as, according to the map, there were a bunch of them.

Unfortunately what we didn't realize was that they were all placed along the walking/bike path and there was little access to the path from the car until we could finally find a place to park several miles away. Fortunately once we got parked, there were caches placed about every 600-700 feet. We got to the first site and spent at least 30 minutes walking around the 4' high concrete structure, poking and pulling every loose item trying to find the hiding hole. We had both figured it must be a metal bolt on top of the structure but neither of us could reach it, nor could we climb up to get a better look. I suggested we move on to the next one and sure enough, we found it quite quickly. We went back to the concrete structure and at that point I was so frustrated that I got on my hands and knees and told Angie to climb on my back so she could get on top of the structure. Wouldn't you know it? The bolt was the cache. We quickly signed the log, then moved on to find one more before calling it a day.

Monkey holds on to one of the most unique cache containers we've found

I picked up Wade afterwards and we made the trek to Canby to check out a friend's restaurant. Frack Burger offers simple burgers and fries. Nothing fancy, nothing extraordinary, just good food at a good price. We ended up splitting the double cheeseburger basket and each ordered a hand made milkshake. Our total for all this food...$11! Mighty tasty and mighty good value.

Monkey and I discover another hidden gem. This time at the Canby Community Park

Sunday morning I did a little caching before our brunch group go together at Miss Delta. Can I just say that good ole' southern food seems to be high on my list of favorite cuisines? I got the chicken fried steak with grits. It was to die for! The grits were the best I've ever had. And the chicken fried steak? It was slap your mama good. After brunch we did some window shopping on North Mississippi Avenue (favorite store - Gumbo!) before heading our separate ways.

Chicken Fried Steak, eggs, and the best grits I've had this side of the real Mississippi

The storefront of the Rebuilding Center on North Mississippi Avenue

A quick run out to Hillsboro to pick up my goodies from ShopGoodwill (all were much better than anticipated BTW), then to Canby for an epic day of geocaching. These are the highlights of my weekend....now perhaps you can see why I haven't had time for blogging.

Until next time!

This gigantic 'Harvey' has been gracing this spot for well over 30 years

Still going strong

I'm still going strong with my daily geocaching. My goal is one per day until I hit 100 total finds. I'm currently at 84 so just 16 more to go. I've actually got several places to be away from home this weekend so anticipate adding a couple more distant ones to the list.

I even went out on Mother's Day. My sister hosted the entire family for brunch so it was a houseful. I had agreed to make my Cheddar Bay Cheese Biscuits so made a run to the local grocery store for some needed ingredients. Before I headed in I thought it might be interesting to see if there were any hides nearby. Wouldn't you know? There was one in the parking lot of the store.

The interesting thing about this hiding hole is that the electrical outlet box is really a hollowed out magnetic box that sits on a piece of PVC pipe that also has a magnet inside. I have found several hides from this couple and they always have really interesting items used to hide the cache. I didn't try it, but assume that if I had tried, I could have pulled that piece of PVC right out of the ground. Again, this is why I love geocaching. You could literally be feet away from one and not even know it.

Brunch was fabulous, of course. I get my love of cooking from a long line of cooks. We had a host of goodies to choose from including triple berry muffins, cheddar cheese biscuits, eggs and bacon over hashbrowns, fresh fruit, and many more items. After brunch, my nieces and youngest sister took to the trail looking for hidden caches. There were several within walking distance so decided to start with the closest one. Unfortunately we got skunked at both places. I later learned that one of them had to be archived as the find was no longer there. Fortunately I had found the correct spot, it was just empty. So once it's up and running again, that should make an easy find.

The rest of the week I was up and at 'em early to do a little caching before work. Some were successful, some not so much.

This one was at a local dining hot spot. I tried looking for it previously but didn't have a good GPS device so didn't spend much time searching. To give some perspective, this little monkey is only about 3" tall when sitting down. But even this little guy isn't the smallest one I've ever found.

There are so many caches hidden within a mile of my house that I decided I would try to hit some of the ones further away and then work my way back to my place.

This one was quite unexpected. It's just a little thoroughfare in a quiet residential neighborhood (my least favorite to look for by the way). I never did find the darned thing here though.

The one I found most interesting was the one below. This was an interesting bench and fence the home owners had built and was called cob (a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe). It was right near a bus stop so I was careful not to look like I was waiting for Tri-Met. The find actually took me a good bit since the cache was hidden about 80 feet way. I was able to hone in on where it was located but there were several cars parked in the way so I was a little paranoid about getting too close to people's vehicles. I eventually got over myself and made a quick snag.

The last find also had a wonderful bunch of flowers blooming including this poppy. 

  
The best part of continuing to push myself to log some more finds is that I've averaged at least 7,500 steps per day. Quite an improvement over the typical 4,000 I was getting in before.

Totally mobile?

My home computer has pretty much given up the ghost so I'm going to do a little experiment to see if I can blog from my phone.

This morning I was up at 4am to get ready and drive downtown to help at The Humane Society's Doggie Dash. I saw some really cool, some really friendly, and some really hyper dogs. But I think my favorite was the Leonberger. Big dogs with a friendly disposition and very thick, long hair. I even got a picture of one of them.

Since I had arrived a bit early, I had a chance to look for a geocache that was located only a couple dozen feet from the Registration tent. Unfortunately with all the foot traffic, I didn't feel I could look in earnest. However, I did get a great shot of the sunrise.

The event was great! But since I also volunteered to work at the Friends of the Library Used Book Store, I didn't have a lot of time to spare, so quickly grabbed my stuff and made a dash to the car. As I got close to the parking lot, I noticed something was filming only a block away. Since this is right where the old Police Headquarters is located, I'm assuming it was an episode of Grimm.

After spending the morning at the Doggie Dash and the rest of the day at the Book Store, my dogs were barking by the time I got home. I ended up in the recliner until supper time then took a little stroll afterwards to look for one more geocache. My goal is at least one logged find per day until I hit the 100 finds mark (22 more to go).

Fortunately there were a couple of caches not far from home so decided to see what I could find. Not only did I find the cache, I took a great photo of the falls during sunset and learned more about local history.

Here's more on the story of the Gazelle.Steamer Gazelle Accident

A perfectly wonderful spring day! Oh and by the way....I had to post the photos using the PC but the rest was done on the mobile.

Geocaching and exercise

I'm getting the geocaching bug again after having been away from it for a few months....I decided to get some walking in while the weather is dry and try to find some caches at the same time. Especially after getting an email on Tuesday morning that a new geocache had been placed just a few miles from my house.

I noticed the email on my phone as soon as I rolled out of bed so quickly threw my work clothes on, grabbed my geocaching bag and the coordinates and headed out the door. This park is right behind the mobile home court my grandparents lived in when I was a teenager so it was kind of a treat to go back there. I'm still experimenting with the GC GoGo app on my phone so this was going to be a good way to discover how accurate the compass was. There was a fair bit of traffic in the lower part of the park, but according to the coordinates, I needed to stay up above. I quickly found the cache, logged it in, and then headed back to the car where I watched several RC airplane enthusiasts flying their custom planes.

Wednesday I was back in virtually the same spot as I noticed there were several caches hidden in the general vicinity and thought I would get some exercise in while trying to locate. Again there was a fair bit of traffic in the park making stealthy hunting quite difficult. The first find was hidden in a copse of trees so I got that one logged in.

 

The next two were not so easy. Both were close to the river so between dozens of boats filled with fishermen and those who were trying to launch boats, out walking their dogs, or just otherwise being nosey, I couldn't really look in earnest. I made one last attempt at a cache that was a bit out of the way and came up a winner. The best part of this one is that I got to see the back of the Children's Golf Course. I had forgotten that was in the area and now I have the itch to get the clubs out of the garage and get to swinging.

Thursday found me up at the crack of dawn again and putting a route together to walk and hunt before work. I decided the Trolley Trail that runs between Gladstone and Milwaukie would be a great way to get both accomplished. However, I needed to find a good spot to park the car as the entire walking trail is 2.0 miles meaning a 4.0 mile round trip. I decided to drive the route and mark the parking areas before stopping at Springfield Park and heading out from there. What a lovely park! I've been scouting out locations for my steam punk picnic in July and think this would be the perfect spot. I wanted someplace out of the way with a grassy area for picnicking and playing bocce ball, bathrooms and easy access. This fit the bill to a T. Now to see if I can reserve the spot I want.

But back to walking/caching... I made a quick grab at Springfield Park then headed south on the Trolley Trail. I was able to snag another cache a short distance later. I walked another 15 minutes before heading back to the car. I then moved to another park along the trail.

Risley Park had two caches hidden so I thought that would be a great place to park, search, then hit the trail again. The first cache mentioned it had a difficulty of 2 because of the stealth aspect. Boy were they right. Every time I would get close to GZ (ground zero), someone would stop with their dog, or a neighbor would leave their house. I decided to head across the park to the other cache until things quieted down.

This one took a bit but I eventually found it. Part of the problem was it was in what I considered wetland area and I didn't want to cross the barrier to search. Once got over that fear, I stayed on the concrete culvert and quickly made the find.

Once logged in, I headed back to my original destination and, with no one around, started searching. Now we've all heard the heard the term 'searching high and low'. I don't know why but I always forget to look up while trying to find a cache. I think because 90% of them are on the ground, or under something. Fortunately after looking around the base of the tree I remembered to look up and sure enough, there was a bison tube covered in camo tape hanging about 6' off the ground. I was a little concerned I wouldn't be able to reach it. Finally on my tiptoes I was able to get it down and sign the log. Wheh!

So, I know I'm not breaking any geocaching records with my 3-4 finds a day nor am I logging in a bunch of miles walking but it's all better than what I've been doing....waking up later, drinking too much coffee, and then driving myself to work. This way I get some finds logged, and at least an extra 4,000 steps added to my pedometer every day.

Wheh! Another busy weekend...

Have you ever had one of those weekends that make you look forward to the work week so you can relax a bit?

Friday night was dinner and the Shemekia Copeland show at Jimmy Mak's with Harry. My darling friend Winnie had purchased the tickets for she and Harry but forgot it was in conflict with her trip to Las Vegas for a wedding. Fortunately they thought I would enjoy it (I LOVE Shemekia!). They even bought my steak dinner!

I followed that up by dropping by The Lodge to see LaRhonda Steele and her band perform one set. She had some musicians performing with her that evening that I hadn't seen for a while so that was a pleasant surprise. Guitar player AG Donnaloia, bassist Carl Falls, drummer Lynn Russell to name just a few.

And then finally I stopped at the 505 on my way home to see Deep Blue Soul Revue. Ken Brewer called up a woman to play a couple of songs with them. Gypsy stepped up to the mic and belted out two numbers while accompanying herself on harmonica. You don't see to many women harp players so I always sit up and take notice when I see one.

That was my Friday.

Saturday I was up and out the door by 6:00. The weather was supposed to be warm so I wanted to get my grocery shopping done and back home before it got too hot. It was kind of odd to be driveway down the freeway with all four windows partially down at 7 in the morning. I got my magnificent dessert made and in the fridge, ready to take to Teresa's house in Vancouver for game night. What fun that was?!?! We didn't get a whole lot of game playing done, but boy did we laugh our buns off.

Sunday morning I was up early again and prepping to meet up with Angie so we could do some geocaching. I was itching to get out and find some caches. I mean, I haven't been out looking since before Christmas so it was well past time. We did pretty good, only got skunked on two of them. The most interesting thing was this amazing totem pole made from recycled motorcycle parts near the Lake Oswego Fire Department. I just wish there would have been some information about the pole there.


I then met up with Candy at Trail's End for first Sunday's Gospel hour. Rae Gordon hosts these and does a tremendous job. I told my sister I want Rae to sing at my memorial service. She had four gentleman come in the door just as she was getting ready to go on stage. Apparently there was some sort of mix up and the Tone Setters Quartet came in May and she had them on the calendar for June. They did a couple of quick songs to warm up the audience and now I can't wait to see them next month.

The Pickled Pepper Kitchen Band was the special guest for May. These awesome women play washtubs, spoons, kazoos, washboards, and guitars and take you to a bygone era with their voices and playing.


Next up was the Kevin Selfe jam at the Blue Diamond. I have never seen Kevin Selfe's band so was excited to see him play. Wouldn't you know it?!? He wasn't there. Instead Ben Rice was hosting. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore Ben Rice. But I've seen him many times and was looking forward to something new.

Candy mentioned that Angel Bouchet was doing a jam at Spud Monkey's so after the first set with Ben, we headed that way. She had never heard Angel perform and I had never been to Spud Monkey's so it was a new experience for both of us. Angel is such a wonderful performer. She always gets out in the audience and sings 'to' people instead of 'at' them. And her musicians??? Get outta here!

A wonderful weekend filled with good friends and fantastic live music. I am so very blessed!

FoSaP for April - Who's the fool now?

When I think of April, I think of Fools. That led me to trying to create a FoSaP menu of dishes that I hoped would 'fool' my guests into thinking they were from a restaurant. I was inspired by Todd Wilbur. When I first encountered Todd Wilbur it was in book form with "Top Secret Recipes". In it, not only did he recreate favorite restaurant dishes like McDonald's Big Mac or a Wendy's Frosty but he also offered a bit of history behind the restaurant and the dish itself. Then there were these uber-cool technical drawings showing cross sections and proper assembly instructions.

The hardest part of creating the menu for April was deciding which dishes to choose. Todd now has a dozen or so books, plus there are a bajillion other places to find Copy Cat recipes of our favorite meals. I also had to consider the size of the group (I try to cook for 16 guests regardless of how many people show up) and the prep time. I knew I was going to be busy the entire day before so only had a small window of time Friday night and the rest would have to be done on Sunday.

I settled on:
Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion
Applebees' Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip with crustini
Kentucky Fried Chicken's Coleslaw
Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Outback Steakhouse's Coconut Shrimp
Cheesecake Factory's Jambalaya Pasta
Claim Jumper's Mother Lode Chocolate Cake
Hostess Twinkies

I was able to bake the chocolate cakes (4-8" cakes) and the Twinkies on Friday night and was able to put together the dipping sauces and coleslaw after hitting Cash and Carry and Winco at 6:00am on Saturday morning. I cheated on the shrimp. The prepared coconut shrimp at CnC was about $5.75/lb. The best price I could find for 16/20 shrimp anywhere was $6.00/lb and I still would have had to clean, butterfly and batter them. I was all about saving some dough (and some time).

I was disappointed in the Bloomin' Onion...though I did learn a lesson. I prepped the onions on Sunday morning and left them soaking in ice water for about 6 hours, hoping they would 'bloom'. They never did. Subsequently, the batter didn't really get down into the onion and what did wasn't cooked when I pulled them out of the fryer. Result: Epic Fail!

I loved the artichoke and spinach dip and got lots and lots of compliments on that. It was super easy to put together using bottled alfredo sauce, cream cheese, frozen spinach, artichoke hearts and garlic. In fact, most people said they liked it better than Applebees. Result: Great reviews!

While at CnC I thought I would see if they carried shredded cabbage for the slaw. Not only did they carry shredded cabbage, but they had a gigantic bag of chopped cabbage with carrots and red cabbage for $3.15. Are you kidding me? Why would I even consider buying a whole cabbage and then chopping it up for that kind of money? The dressing was milk, buttermilk, sugar, vinegar, mayo, and some lemon juice. It tasted exactly like the stuff you get at KFC! Result: Perfection!

I almost didn't make the biscuits because everyone seemed to be filling up on the artichoke and spinach dip with bread. But I almost had a mutiny when I suggested this. So back into the kitchen I went and mixed Bisquick, cold butter, sharp cheddar cheese, garlic powder and milk. After removing from the oven I brushed the biscuits with a seasoned butter (garlic powder, parsley, onion powder) and served piping hot. I thought the guest were all going to levitate they were so over the moon for them. Result: Better than Red Lobster

I can't take credit for the coconut shrimp but there were plenty of oohs and aahs. Result: Worth the money

It's always a bit of a challenge when making pasta dishes. For some reason the noodles always stick together unless I've made the pasta by hand. This night was no exception. The sauce was chicken thighs, green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, onions, and tomatoes with cajun spices. I think the dish might have been more successful if the sauce was served over rice but overall, it was pretty darned tasty. Result: Not quite up to par, but delicious

Next I served the Twinkies. I thought they were good though not a replica of the real thing. The cake was too dense and tasty. And while I felt the filling was disgusting (I'm guessing it was the shortening that was whipped in), everyone else said they thought it was spot on compared to the original. Result: Close but no cigar

Finally, I served the Mother Lode cake. First off, if you've never seen one of these first hand they are amazing. A good 8-10" tall and covered with walnuts. I know some of my group don't do walnuts so instead I used sliced almonds. I'm hoping the neighbors weren't listening because I'm sure they might have thought there was something more than eating going on based on the sounds everyone was making. Result: Ultimate chocolate dessert