Category: All (-ish)

Literary Arts 30th anniversary.

Kelly and I attended this lovely evening which included two songs performed by Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists).  It also included a talk by Calvin Trillin, a poem by Zach Schomburg, and a poem by Bella Trent, who had an amazing voice.  Also Liz Gilbert* spoke on creativity.  AND because we were among the first 700 to purchase tickets we each got a copy of Elizabeth Gilbert’s** Signature of All Things.  It was even autographed. It was a good evening.
ps.  Authors (at least the ones from out of town that spoke) really like to come to Portland.  Do you think they were just humoring us?
*That’s what the program says:  Liz Gilbert.
**That’s what the book says:  Elizabeth Gilbert

Finding efficiencies in food.

One of my goals this summer is to find efficiencies in food.  As such, I have been tracking how much it costs to produce the food I eat.  I’ve discovered that in general, my daily food costs between $7.00 and $11.00 in ingredients.  This is interesting to know and lets me know that there is no way in hell I can keep eating the way I do and reasonably have a monthly food budget of $150.00.  Which I knew, but I didn’t really know, know, if you know what I mean.
So far, the best efficiency I have discovered (which again, I knew, knew, but this really brought it home) is to break down your own chicken. It’s so much cheaper!  Do you want to pay $2.52 per chicken breast* rather than $5.99 per pound?  Buy the whole chicken, divide it up and package.  Voila!  Much cheaper.  
Here’s what I do.  I line the toaster oven roasting pan with aluminum foil and oil that.  I set out a plate, a plastic bag from the produce section, a cutting board and a container for the freezer.  I also make sure the dishwasher is empty and hope the cats are fast asleep.
The plastic bag is for holding the bag that the chicken comes in and the pad that is with the chicken to absorb moisture.
I pop the legs off first and separate the drumstick from the thighbone.  I sort of knew how to do this anyway, but I watched a few YouTube videos to refresh my memory. Drumsticks go into the roasting pan, Thighs go on the plate.  You can debone, but I leave bone in.
I cut off the wings (still a bit tricky) and put them on the roasting pan.  Then I slice into the breast and pull out the wishbone (which is incredibly fun, my favorite part) and cut down the back which gives me the breasts still joined.  The back goes into the container for making stock.  
I cut the breasts down the middle and sometimes debone them, sometimes not.  They go on the plate too.
Then  rinse off the cutting board (and usually shoo away the cats who are bugging me) put it in the dishwasher. I wash my hands and doing my best not to get chicken juice anywhere, wrap the pieces on the plate.  Those go into a plastic bag in the freezer and the plate gets rinsed and put in the dishwasher.
The container with the back goes into the freezer too.  
The drumsticks and wings I cook right away using this recipe.  Most chicken recipes in my world are for thighs or breasts, not drumsticks.  Matt gets the wings (which he loves and I don’t) and I get the drumsticks.  
This is a pretty sweaty process the first few times you do it, but becomes automated after about the third time.  I also enjoy it because I remember watching my mother do this when I was a child and being totally grossed out.  She told me it was cheaper than buying the parts and I remember thinking I would just buy the parts when I grew up.  I’m happy to master the technique instead.
*Just to be clear, I buy meat at New Seasons.  So it’s more expensive than standard supermarket prices. 

Walk to work. The sunrise edition.

It has become apparent that if I can keep up these one-per-week walks to work through the school year, it will probably be dark for most of them.  Let’s watch the light change as the sun rises.
This was an amazing amount of cars parked.  I think there were five.

Squash growing up!

Delacata on one side, Butternut on the other.  This was a most impressive parking strip garden, but apparently the owner was not at all thrilled with people helping themselves because s/he had posted a very passive aggressive sign about how much work s/he spends every week and the produce is for “MY FAMILY!!!!”  Signs like that make me want to take stuff too.  But I didn’t.

Pretty black-eyed susans.

Renovation!  Maybe I will be able to find this house again and report on the finished product.

I love how they just cut it off.

Kitten!  Cat, really.  But cute.

Pretty red flowers.

Poem from the Poem Booth.  You can read it here.  

This was a block length (at least) hop scotch grid.

I liked that they attached the slide to the porch steps.

I wanted to see how far the hopscotch went on this side of the block, but had to be getting to work.

Nice stone and hens and chicks.

Sunrise!

This is a house that hangs out on the overhang below Interstate, just at the top of the  hill.  I’m worried it is not long for this world, given that everything looked very overgrown and there seems to not be siding on it anymore.

Here is the parking spot.  

I’m glad to see that someone is finally renovating this building as I have always loved  it.

Later in the day, I found myself behind the satchel brigade.

Morning surprises: Kittens! Mural!

Oh my gosh, two of them, sitting in front of a fence on the way to the Max train.  They froze when they saw me and bolted through the hedge into the cat wonderland that is the former City of Roses Motel.  (Chain link fence all around, flat ground, depressions with copious amounts of weeds growing.) There was one already waiting for them, so there were three!  Three kittens!
Sadly, I suspect they are feral. 

And, blooming on the side of a building, is the beginning of a mural.  That would be the grey thing on the left.  The exposed brick is the historic painted sign for the first indoor car dealership in Oregon.  The building was required to preserve it when they did the renovation.