When your neighbor’s tree is full of plums you make olive oil plum cake

Grasshopper fire throwing up a column, go now evac in areas close, blowing up a bit I’m many miles away, looking south

Plume from the Grasshopper fire drifting west, edge directly above the shack but the usual wind is blowing so I don’t smell it

Grasshopper fire been kicking up all afternoon but the plume is blowing by to the south

Happy with this reclaimed 1X4 fir skip sheathing as the siding on the big shack, but it’s so windy it’s hard to hold the tape still to get a measurement

They got it knocked down, and looks like same for the column I could see earlier over the ridge from 5 mile butte

8 Mile fire popping about 5 miles south of the shack, southerly wind so probably won’t head my way At the east end of the Columbia River Gorge south of The Dalles

Spent my weekend buying these salvaged 1X4 fir boards, renting a pickup to haul them to my house, renting this flatbed and loading them up, stopping to pick up some cedar decking, and driving it out to our shack near The Dalles & unloading. Then drove the truck back to Portland

This year’s apricot jam, cooked in the sun for a few days, inspired by a Bill Addison piece in the LA times years ago

Inspired by the glizzies I ate in Scandinavia, local Olympia Provisions dogs with crispy fried shallots and Swedish style pickled cukes, aka pressgurka

Berlin thunderstorms after 100 degree Saturday, you can feel the rain coming

Eating the indigenous foods of Germany, part 2

The best fries I’ve had since McDonalds stopped cooking fresh russets in beef tallow 50 years ago At POPL in Copenhagen

Congratulations

Eating the indigenous foods of Germany part 1

Spotted in Hamburg

10 hr redeye pdx-lhr, got into our soho flat late afternoon, got water at Tesco express, walked around until Judith & Chris saw a rainbow flag and had to check it out, turned out to be tiny gay bar but I was ready for a beer and enjoyed the diverse crowd on this random corner

Leaving the country for awhile

Also true on a smaller scale, near our land between Mt Hood and the Columbia River are thousands of empty acres where humans rarely set foot

The artichoke grower from the Oregon coast who kept the Portland farmer’s market flush with baby purple thistles sold her farm a few years ago so I don’t get to eat them as often as I like, crisped then braised like these are my favorites

I first saw these umarelli sitting in this loggia in San Gimignano 20 years ago, and when we were there last year I asked the current bunch if I could join them (I’m the guy with the hat)

Unless you're in New Orleans

Every one of the 9 dishes at the Maialata dinner contained pork, but before that we worked on this massive pile of different kinds of cured pork, & dessert was soft chocolate cookies filled with sugar whipped leaf lard. Damn

My not-as-bad-as-usual photo

Terrible late night shot, but after boiling the nettles the water looks like used motor oil, I’ll reduce to a couple of quarts and freeze, lots of umami, I’ll use it for gumbo I’ll portion the parboiled nettles and freeze them

Big pot of boiling water, stuff it with nettles, cook 3 minutes, then transfer to the colander with tongs Repeat using same water

Today’s haul, Judith and I picked 3 bags full in about an hour A short thread on the process

Grilled cheese manifesto never lets me down (find it at @wweek.com but search since it’s from a few years back)

I’d be with y’all at the no kings protest in Portland but had to get some work done on our shack on the other side of the mountain

It's always nice to get home, especially when it's not raining and you get a nice view on the approach to PDX