1) G looks for the xmas tree in Pioneer Square

G and I flew down to Portland Friday to enjoy a few days holidaying together before heading out separately tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with family – G flying to Toronto; me to London. We will re-connect in Toronto next Friday for but a single night staying at The Royal York to join Lady Sarah and Sir Phil for dinner at Canoe before flying down to New York City to ring in the New Year, with Blee joining us! Yay!

We continue to adore Portland and continue to eye condominiums there as, gosh, it’s a great place. Fabulous food, weird people, amazing coffee, and best of all, no tax. What better reason to have a home-away-from-home?! We’re holed up at our usual haunt, The Nines and have made a point of trying several of Portland’s restaurants, including Chef Isabel’s self-styled Isabel in the Pearl District (amazing!); the highly rated Andina for Peruian food (sadly, terribly over-rated); Clyde Common (outstanding and highly recommended); and the Nine’s own restaurant, Urban Farmer.  We also enjoyed spending many hours exploring the Portland Art Museum (loving, in particular Sang-Ah Choi‘s whimsical works); the Pearl District and even ventured all the way up to Tazo-tea founder’s Steven Smith‘s new venture this morning … only to find it …. closed …. despite what his website claims. Grrrrrr! There was shopping at Macy’s (open 24 hours); a rather dull Nordstrom’s; strolls through a (frankly) sad Old Town Chinatown, and (too) many happy hours (another bonus feature of Portland), especially loving Brasserie Montmatre last night for truffled frites, frog’s legs, oysters and Kir Violette (champagne cocktails served with Creme de Violette).

2) marinated char-grilled chicken lettuce wraps at Isabel; 3) moi at Isabel on Friday night

4) we had an excellent Oregon State Pinot Noir; 5) Ahi Wonton crisps topped with seared ahi, avocado,
sweet soy & wasabi cream

6) Blue cheese walnut salad, mixed greens, balsamic vinaigrette, blue cheese crumbles, walnuts & grilled bread; 7) Carnitas bowl, tender carnitas served on a bed of steamed brown rice,
black beans, plantains, cilantro lime sauce, avocado sauce & tomato corn salsa

8) G wanders the Pearl District; 9) and Macy’s

10) our suite at The Nines

11) horsing around outside the Portland Art Museum; 12) here’s the entrance to the Museum

13) the perspective here is interesting as this bowl of fruit is actually some 1.5 metres round!; 14) Sang-Ah Choi’s brilliant “Holly-a-saurs”, a perfect take on what Christmas has come to in the west

15) Choi’s “Tree of Life”; 16) each tile is hand done and incorporates much of one of my favourite things, anime!

17) YUCA RELLENA – yuca croquetas stuffed with mozzarella and cotija cheese, served over huancaí sauce; 18) DE PESCADO “5 ELEMENTOS” – a preparation of fresh fish in leche de tigre

19) PALTA RELLENA DE CANGREJO avocado stuffed with crab, topped with a poached prawn; 20) PIMIENTO PIQUILLO RELLENO sweet piquillo peppers stuffed with quinoa, cheese and Serrano ham (this was delicious!)

21) the view of Pioneer Square at night from our hotel

22 & 23) enjoying happy hour at the Urban Farmer with oysters, a cheese plate and oh-my-gawd so-good whiskey cocktail

25) thence onward to Brasserie Montmartre; 26) returning last night feeling oh-so-happy!

27) at 7AM this morning Macy’s was empty so we took time to tour Santaland; 28) Santa Brent, wanna sit on my lap? (wink)

29) the rosemary biscuit with sausage and salsa at Clyde Common this afternoon; 30) roasted potato soup, bacon marmalade, pecorino tartufo, horseradish, crème fraîche

31) open faced pastrami, pepper slaw, herbed brioche, fried egg

Wherever you may find yourself today and tomorrow, G and I wish you a warm and wondrous holiday season!

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1) the holiday platter is presented table-side

Last night G and I enjoyed a first of what will be a few holiday dinners. Knowing we’re both shortly travelling to and fro we chose to spend yesterday cooking. A boutique wine store here had brought in a load of many smaller champagne house bottles, houses that are not Veuves or Moets but are tinnier family run operations that produce smaller batches, at reasonable prices too boot. We had bought a couple of these a while back and enjoyed one with dinner last night. Dinner included:

• turkey alla Gordon Ramsay;
  
• potato pave (these are delicious but do involve a lot of work, not difficult work, but fussy);
  
• a regular-style stuffing that we then incorporated into an apricot and pistachio, pork and chorizo stuffing; 
• frenched beans alla almondine.

2) for the paves, collect up russet potatoes, butter (a lot of butter!), salt & pepper and cream; 3) you basically are making a layer scalloped potato dipping the slices into the cream each time

4) once done layering, wrap and bake for an hour and a half, then weight it down overnight in the fridge; 5) unmold the pave and then cut into squares

6 & 7) then panfry before serving in, yes, more butter

8) brine your turkey overnight; 9) prepare a garlic/lemon butter and put half in under the turkey’s skin over breasts and thighs

10) fill cavity with lemon, bay, onion and garlic; 11) rub rest of butter on outside of bird and then roast on high for 15 mins or so to brown

12) turn down heat, cover breast in bacon and roast for 30min per each kg; 13) done!

14) G makes his fabulous homemade bread stuffing; 15) the ingredients for the pork stuffing

16) mix well together; 17) then line sage leaves on aluminum foil

18) make a layer of pork mixture and lay on sage, then 19) add stuffing and lay chorizo in middle

20) add another layer of pork and then roll into a log and bake in oven; 21) once done, let rest and then cut into medallions

22) meanwhile, prepare your gravy using the onion, bacon, bay and lemon from the turkey adding in cider, wine and broth; 23) reduce by half and thicken

24) get the drinks ready; 25) our new dining room chairs finally arrived! – we had them custom made overseas and waited months for them!

26) table is set and let the eating commence!

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1) on the road south from Meadow Lake, SK

It’s cold in Northern Saskatchewan, bitter cold, cold-as-a-witches-tit. Dayime temperatures while I was there hovered around -25C (without windchill) [that's daytime; nighttime temperatures fall from there] and I remain dumbfounded that Saskatchewanians stay put and live through such temperatures all winter long. I would so be fleeing south! And then I get to thinking of Canada’s early settlers, the traders, who worked their way Up Here (as the magazine that covers life in Canada’s far, far north is so appropriately called) not to mention Saskatchewan’s aboriginal peoples – largely Dene and Cree – who have lived here for centuries without the modern conveniences of heat, gasoline, modern highways, etc. that we are so utterly reliant upon. It is, in a word, stunning. 

It is severe yet serene as well with skies that go on forever, and, presumbably when it’s not snowing, sightings of the Northern Lights.

2 & 3) heading north from Calgary on Central Mountain Air

 

 4) arriving in Lloydminster; 5) whose Main Street literally straddles two provinces – Alberta and Saskatchewan (you’ve no idea the challenges that creates in terms of social service provisions like education and healthcare)

 

 6) awaking to (more) snow one morning; 7) driving north, ever north

 

8) if you should ever find yourself in Meadow Lake, do try Eatery on Main (it’s great!); 9) here’s downtown!

 

10) one of the joys of life up here, filling up with petrol in -35C temperatures – priceless!; 11) members of the group we met gave us balloon gifts

 

12) so, it’s been a trip to the surreal of Saskatchewan ….

 

13) … from the sublime of Palm Springs

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Greetings from Palm Springs, which is sort of like walking straight into 1963 – very surreal. Anyhow, while Palm Springs is nice and all, I am actually wishing I was in London to celebrate my neice, P’s, birthday. Happy Birthday girl; you look fabulous!

1) the beautiful neice with my beautiful mother at a get-together in London a week ago

Before you go on about how tough it must be hanging around Palm Springs, I do note that I must fly to Calgary Monday morning and from there onwards, further north, to Lloydminster, Saskatchewan only to then transfer to a car and drive even further north towards the Northwest Territory border, to visit a very small aboriginal community for a day …. in December!  …and, did I mention it’s currently -30C there?! And has been snowing a week. Talk about going from the sublime to the surreal in a matter of a day or two eh!

ps. I miss the nine o’clock cannon … G will get that reference even though he’s in Seattle tonight.

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I woke up on the weekend with one thought in mind: cookies. That was odd indeed beacuse 1) I don’t particularly like sweets or desserts; and 2) I’m not a baker nor do I particularly enjoy baking, and, if given a choice, I would certainly opt out of baking 9 times out of 10. But for whatever weird reason, not so this weekend and so I set to baking umpteen dozen cookies to eat over the Christmas holidays.  Below are the fresh-out-of-the-oven shots of the five varieties I made.

1) ‘Thimble’ cookies (though I used the end of a fondue fork instead); 2) pecan balls (my favourite)

3) cardamom shortbread (just so-so for me, not enough spice me thinks); 4) cherry and currant shortbread (delicious also but dame candied cherries are not fun to chop!)

5) chocolate ‘crinkles’ (yummy and more akin to a brownie than a cookie)

I’m now up to my ying-yang in cookies but thankful I’ve gotten this out of my system for this year!

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My Uncle Norm passed away last Thursday evening/early Friday morning at the ripe old age of eighty-seven. Passing away is part of life and I know people who knew Uncle Norm are saddened – I would hope not because he died (that is part of life) but more because he’s gone and they’ll miss him. A subtle distinction yes; but an important one nonetheless (and one westerners, in general, could do a better job grasping). That aside…

I am not a seer, or a wizard or anything of that sort; honest. But, I do believe I have a gift, shall we call it. I heard that my Uncle Norm passed away via an email my mom sent and which I read on Sunday afternoon. Nothing untoward there. However, this is where we do cross a line. Last Friday morning I woke up and related to G a dream I had through Thursday night/early Friday morning. A dream that, like near all my dreams (even since childhood), was utterly lifelike. Like I truly was there, in person, in the flesh. In that dream I was visiting my cousin Dale. Dale is the oldest of my many cousins. In the dream Dale met me at his door and was a wizened old man – looking like a cross between Yoda and Gollum; carrying a crooked stick and wearing little but a white loin cloth. We chatted, though now, on Monday night near on 4 days later, I cannot recall what we talked about which is a shame.

That is the dream I conveyed to G Friday morning upon awakening.

Where this becomes strange/creepy/fascinating (take your pick) is that Dale is the son of my Uncle Norm (who died the evening I dreamt this). Dale is also dead, having passed away about a year ago now after complications living a life with multiple sclerosis. Coincidence? Fate? Prescience? Again you can take your pick.

G joked that if is it prescience I should do better foretelling the lottery numbers. But I don’t think it works that way. I do not find it creepy as I have no belief in ghosts. Rather I continue to subscribe to an utter belief in what Jung coined (and Joseph Campbell perhaps best catalogued) a collective unconscious.

I do wonder though if it was me reaching out to them or if they, rather, were reaching out to me. It does set one to wonder indeed….

Regardless, may both Dale and Uncle North enjoy their next adventures till we meet again.

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