We Moved!

Again, it's been awhile since I posted. So much has happened, including a big move from Southeast to North Portland, so we were really busy settling in. It's SO NICE to live in an actual house, rather than an apartment. We had forgotten what it's like to sleep through the night, as we'd had horrible upstairs neighbors for the longest time! Now, instead of living around a bunch of self-entitled hipsters, our neighbors are super friendly & down-to-earth. Yay!

Shortly after moving, my siblings & I went on our annual camping trip, this time to Champoeg, one of my favorite camping spots evar!

We took our time at camp, after surviving an indecent rush-hour trek to Champoeg. Sean munches a Tofurky-avocado bagel, in recovery:


Smels was impressed with her mustard skillz, & had to get photographic evidence:


Friday night, we went down to check out the beautiful river.


A confession: my biggest fears in life are drowning, & having big fish touch me in the water(so irrational, I know! I hope to conquer these neuroses before I die!), so I wasn't keen on diving in, but the next day, after we walked a few miles to the Butteville Store, Sean asked if he could swim in the freezing, murky, Willamette. My sister, the voice of reason, said she thought it was okay, so he bravely waded in. This is one of my favorite pictures ever. Such cuteness!


We also walked to an old grave site & found an orchard with pear, apple & hazelnut trees. Smels spotted this picturesque ladybug. Way to strike a pose, gurrlll!


We also found some shelf fungi along the trail, home to behbeh slugs!


I brought a pie, baked from these delish raspberries from Sauvie Island.


We had zero trouble eating it all up. I used a recipe from CHOW as the base, but modified it a little bit, for pure raspberry delight.


Raspberry Pie

• 2 1/2 cups flour (I used half white whole wheat & half white)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons cold, salted butter
• 6-8 tablespoons ice water, mixed with 2 teaspoons lemon juice

• 6 cups raspberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
  
• 1 tablespoons lemon juice
• zest of one lemon

• milk for brushing crust, plus sugar for sanding (optional)
  

Mix together the flour & salt. Cut the butter into it, until sandy, with small, pea-sized balls of butter. Add the minimum amount of water necessary to get the dough to hold together. Try not to overwork it! Divide dough into two disks, then refrigerate them till chilled.

In a separate large bowl, mix together the berries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, & zest.

Preheat the oven to 375*F. Roll out the pie crusts to 1/4-inch thickness. Line the bottom of your favorite pie tin with one of the crusts, leaving the extra dough hanging around the edge.

Pour in the filling. Top with the other half of dough. Trim the edges, but leave about an inch extra around the outside. (Save the extra tidbits for turnovers, or cinnamon-sugar munchies!) Turn the dough under, then crimp/decorate in your own way.

Brush the top with milk & sprinkle with sugar, if you like it that way. Cut a few slits in the top, then bake until the crust is golden & the filling is bubbling out the slits. If the crust begins to brown too quickly. cover it lightly with foil. Let cool before cutting, or it'll be soupy!


Here's the jam I made with those same raspberries! It's made with only three ingredients: raspberries, honey & Pomona Pectin.


Fun! Fun! Fun! I also want to recommend the OMSI exhibit, "Game On", to any gamers out there. We took Sean & had a blast. There were SO MANY CONSOLES, from all around the world, most of which were playable. My brother & I even played PONG, which was projected onto a huge wall. I took a bunch of pictures before I saw the "no pictures" signs that were posted in randomly weird areas. It was hard to notice them through the herds of kids & flashing lights, but I stopped once I saw them. Oops! I feel like an asshole, since people who saw me snapping away must have been like, "This lady thinks she's too cool for school..."


Hello there!


I just had to share this amigurumi schlong that I made for Coral's bachelorette party. A bunch of us ladies went on a limo-driven wine tour around 5 or 6 vinyards (I lost track after awhile), which is hilariously unlike me, but it was fun. The peen is from Anticraft, but I used worsted weight Red Heart yarn. I didn't make the taint. It looked weird, so I frogged it out & just sewed the shaft & balls together. He seems happy, even though he's taintless.


Here's the beautiful bride-to-be. Her feather boa kept shedding all over, ha ha.


Hope everyone is having a good summer! I can't wait to share photos from Coral's wedding! See you soon...

Peaches, Peaches, Everywhere!

On Saturday a bunch of us headed out to Bays Farms, in Banks, to pick peaches. The summer has been mild, & Coral had been calling the farms every week, asking if the fruit was ripe yet. It was finally time!


It was a blast & went much quicker than berry picking, that's for sure! The people at the farm are sweet---we go there regularly for fruit & Christmas trees---& they always give us freebies. This time they gave each of us 3 pounds of Shiro plums, which are a beautiful, pale, yellow-green.


Here are the lovely peach-mamas (Allie, Smels, Coral, & Sage), with fresh buckets in hand, ready to go back for another round of peaches:


Here's some of our loot:


Gorgeous golden globes:


Once home, we had to decide what to do with all these peaches. I think I got 50 pounds & Sage got 17 (a much wiser amount, in hindsight!). Here we have peaches in medium syrup & plain peach jam.


Then the next day, Sage made scrumptious poached peaches, with a hint of spice & vanilla. Tastiest. Breakfast. Evar.


And I made a few quarts of peaches, as more of my peaches ripened. (I picked them at various stages of ripeness, since there was no way I could have canned them all in one day---in fact, I still have a TON left). Yeah, they are floating, even though we followed the "rules."


And then Sage made her very first pie! It came out delicious as hell & it was my first time eating peach pie too. Weird!


Then we made more jam. Peach-lavender & shiro plum, with vanilla & black pepper. F'realz! It's an old-fashioned, pectin-free recipe.


The lavender flavor was made by using the peach recipe on the no-sugar/low-sugar pectin box, but we steeped 2 tablespoons of lavender flowers in hot apple juice for 10 minutes. I won't post the basic directions, since they come with the pectin, but the "recipe" contained:

• 2 tablespoons lavender
• 1 cup apple juice (heated to steep the lavender)
  
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 cups diced peaches
• 1 box pectin
• 1/2 teaspoon butter
• 2 1/2 cups sugar

You wouldn't believe how well the lavender flavor compliments the peaches. We were blown away. I can't wait to give a jar to Ethan's mom, Cathy, who loves lavender & once made me some lavender shortbread. :)

Even after all these peach concoctions, we still have about 30 pounds of 'em here. Millions of peaches...