Turkey Encounters of the Third Kind

November 25th, 2009 No comments »

So I think I mentioned this is my first Thanksgiving that I’m cooking. Which means my first attempt at Turkey. Now I’ve seen my family deal with Turkey each year, but it’s totally different when you have to deal with it on your own.

And I’m not one to do things half-heartedly when it comes to food, so I decided I should brine the turkey which NO ONE in my family has done before. We prefer the dried out version of Thanksgiving Turkey.

So tonight I unpacked my Turkey with Dylan’s help. There may have been some goofing around.

I don’t think there is much anyone can tell me that would convince me from serving Turkey neck in some fashion as opposed to feeding it to the dog. I really think it will make her Holiday (and celebrate her 1 year of life in our hands successfully)

Dylan preferred to be in charge of the brine and not touch raw turkey.

Hmmm, we really need to have a talk with him about the creepy mustache…

*Also, that is not enough brine to cover a 14lb turkey. I had to make a quick second batch. Lets keep our fingers crossed on this one.

Serendipity Pumpkin Pie

November 25th, 2009 No comments »

Sunday afternoon I began my pie baking adventure in preparation for Thanksgiving. Considering I haven’t actually eaten the pie yet, I think it turned out ok. It smells like pumpkin pie, and it looks edible – so I’ll call that a success.

I forgot to take pictures when I was making the crust, but it was pretty simple. Flour, butter, eggs, water mix up – pie crust. I’m sure the pie fanatics would have a cow about my lack of caring about the crust, but I’m sure it will be good enough for my family. I can tell you that if you have a dog that likes to stand directly underneath a cutting board that is covered in flour, and you have to roll out a pie crust and flour goes flying everywhere – this is what your dog will look like:

She likes to help out in the kitchen.

So besides the crust, pumpkin pie is pretty easy. You mix up some pumpkin filling, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, eggs, milk & molasses until it’s nice and liquidity.

I have a very well loved, hand-me-down KitchenAid Mixer. It’s not the prettiest thing out there, but it works. If you want to buy me a new one, I’ll make you a pumpkin pie, and maybe some cookies. But until then, I’ll keep trying to win one from the Pioneer Woman.

So it will look like this:

And if you’re lucky you will have your helper-dog underneath your feet for all of this.

Pour it into your pie crust – mine is not pretty. Thats what you get with homemade crust (at least mine)

Bake it for about 45 minutes and here’s what you’ll get:

It’s been very  difficult to not eat this.

I’ll let you know if it tastes as good as it looks!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

November 22nd, 2009 No comments »

I put myself in the driver’s seat of Thanksgiving this year, even though I’ll be cooking at my mom’s house. It’s mostly a logistics thing – our house doesn’t do big dinners well in our tiny kitchen.

Here’s what the days events will include – I’ll try and document anything interesting that happens along the way!

Appetizers

Salami Crisps with Sour Cream and Basil from Best of the Best – thanks Janine! These are a very cool series of cookbooks, so much variety in one book!

Artichoke Dip – Care of the Brendyl family for a fabulous wedding present. What new bride doesn’t want a few of someone else’s best family recipes!

Rosemary walnuts – also from the Brendyl family

Assorted cheese and crackers

I figure since I’ll be cooking all day I’ll get snacks set up early to munch on myself.

Dinner

Turkey – fresh from New Seasons. I’m also going to be trying their apple cider brine recipe before hand. Wish me luck.

Stuffing – Gonna wing this part of the dinner thanks again to New Seasons.

Mashed Potatoes with Pancetta and Rosemary

Roasted Carrots – Recipe from another great wedding cookbook present

Mom’s Squash and Pear casserole

Cranberry Sauce – Another recipe they were handing out at New Seaons but I can’t find it online. Yummy cranberries with orange, agave syrup and port wine.

Gravy & Rolls – nothing exciting here.

Dessert

Pumpkin Pie – all from scratch from a recipe from the best dessert place in the world – Serendipity

Thoughts on College Basketball

November 7th, 2009 No comments »

Just wanted to share a typical Saturday morning conversation at the Toomey house…

Me: Hey! Guess what next Saturday is.

D: Uhhhh, Gonzaga basketball starts?

Me: YES! Well, we had an exhibition game last week…

D: How did you do?

(because I greatly influence a men’s basketball teams’s performance)

Me: Oh ya know, won by like 40 points.

D: Were you playing a high school girls team again?

Me: Yeah, they are called Oregon State.

Boo ya! Score 1 Kimmy.

Go Zags.

I know this is from last season. The thing is we have like 3 returning players and therefore no highlights…

Date Night Review & Halloween!

November 3rd, 2009 No comments »

So I never followed up with our cheap date. Here’s the deal:

Branch is awesome – go there and have the gnocchi, it will change your world.

The play: Was alright. But here is the deal. I don’t like Shakespeare. I want to like Shakespeare – I minored in English (without taking one Shakespeare class mind you) but I just don’t. We left at intermission.

Halloween has come and gone. My wonderful husband humiliated himself and dressed in drag to be Miss Piggy while I was an uber-adorable Kermit the frog. We had about three trick-or-treaters (up from 1 last year) which means we have about 5 pounds of candy to eat.

Consequently, I have joined a gym.

The dog also dressed up – she was a prisoner – K98URSHOOS – get it!

Cheap Portland Date Night

October 23rd, 2009 No comments »

I’m taking my hubby out on a date tonight. I think it is probably one of the cheapest dates in the history of dates, so I thought I would share! Because seriously, who doesn’t like a cheap date ;)

I’m signed up for Groupon, which is a daily deal service. It’s  pretty amazing. Basically because they guarantee the business a certain number of people will sign up for the offer, those businesses will give you a screaming good deal. Caveat – the deal doesn’t go through if more than 20 people don’t sign up, but usually hundreds do, for the good stuff at least.

I scored a coupon earlier this week for Branch Whiskey Bar not to far from our house. It was $10 for a $25 gift certificate. Plus Dylan has art hanging there this month, so we like to support the businesses that  throw some love Dylan’s way. Chances are we’ll spend more than $25, but it is still a good deal.

Portland also offers this program called Free Night of Theater. Tickets are released in October for shows throughout the month. There are still a few shows left but I recommend signing up for their email list for next year because tickets do go fast. I mean, they are free after all.  So we are seeing the Tempest at the Blue Monkey Theater. I had to not tell Dylan where we were going because it’s one of those things that if I told him before hand we were going to see a Shakespeare play he would have thrown a fit and I would have had to drag him out of the house kicking and screaming. But if I just make him go, chances are he’ll probably enjoy the show.

I’ll  try and post tomorrow my review of the show and what Dylan really thought!

How to Make Applesauce in a Crockpot

October 22nd, 2009 No comments »

So you really don’t need a post to explain how to make applesauce in a crockpot, but I feel like my cooking adventure last night reveals a lot about my cooking abilities in general.

1. I’m not a particularly good cook. I am an excellent recipe reader.

2. With all of Oregon’s fall goodness I’ve been completely apple obsessed. Last weekend I bought a bunch of apples with the intention of making applesauce, and finally got around to it last night.

So here is how it goes. And I didn’t take any pictures because it’s really that unimpressive.

  • Cut up about 6-7 apples. Don’t need to peel them, just slice thinly.
  • Throw them in a crockpot with 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, some lemon juice and some cinnamon.
  • Cook on high for about 3 1/2 hours.

Now, that was all I read in any other recipe I found online. And if you follow those directions you will come back 3 1/2 hours later and have a crockpot with what looks like cooked sliced apples and something that does not look like applesauce. In my mind, it would all just magically form in the crockpot.

And at 10:00 at night I’m staring at my crockpot saying, how the hell could I have possibly messed this up!!

And then I grabbed a spoon and mixed it up all up, and realized that then I had applesauce!

Crisis averted. And there are few things better than  a warm bowl of applesauce on a foggy fall morning.

Summer Recap

October 20th, 2009 No comments »

Why hello blog. How are you? Long time no see.

I’ve been busy.
Or have poor time management skills
Or after spending my days at work in front of computer often find it hard to open my computer in the evenings or weekends.

So, as we here in Portland are being thrown full speed into fall/winter, I thought I would share a few photos from my adventures this summer. And because I did a lousy job keeping my blog updated through all these adventures in a timely manner. Ok, here we go.

Summer started with a roadtrip from Portland west to Tillamook, south to Davis care of San Francisco and back home to Portland. It was our first big trip with the dog too…

Roadtrip with the dog

Roadtrip with the dog

She prefered to ride in the front.

We made 3 stops along the coast from Yahats to someplace in Northern California

Considering it was early June on the Oregon/California coast, we did get some good weather, and no rain!

Kim and Tele at the beach

Kim and Tele at the beach

But also found time to relax at our campsites. Nor were we eaten by bears (obviously)

For our wedding last year we were given a hot air balloon ride from my aunt and uncle. We were able to do that right before the 4th of July. For all those who have forgotten since the sun doesn’t currently come up until after 7:30 – to see the sunrise in July you need to be up in the 5’s.

But it was well worth getting up early.

Inside a Hot Air Balloon

Inside a Hot Air Balloon

Newberg, Oregon

Newberg, Oregon

Next on the agenda was our annual Wikiup camping trip in Central Oregon. General mayhem ensues.

Things like shotgunning beers while driving throug the woods at noon.

Sometimes you find a few minutes to just enjoy the beauty of it all.

We again had the dog, and were hit by a nasty storm one evening. Here the dog was exhausted and couldn’t care less about the impending doom of the storm – and possibility of the tent blowing away.

Please ignore the dog’s freakish eyes in this picture. Also ignore our mess of a tent, it was windy. And wikiup is a drunken mess.

But we did get some cool scenery

Besides all the outdoorsy stuff, we found time to party it up Portland style in true 80’s fashion. While not the best photo, it’s the only one where you can see my entire awesome dress. And the creepy guy in the background…we don’t know him.

In September we got to spend a weekend in Long Beach, Washington at one of Dylan’s co-worker’s beach house. It just so happened to be the big hot rod festival that weekend – which is really deserving of its own blog post.

On September 20th we celebrated our first wedding anniversary, and my honey took me wine tasting. And consequently I got too drunk to make it to dinner. But really, that’s only because it was a beautiful day at great wineries and I had just too good of a time.

Patton Valley Vineyard

Montinore Estate

Montinore Estate

I can’t believe I’m posting this photo, just ignore the drunkness factor and it’s kind of cute.

See, look what fun you can have wine tasting. Happy Aniversary babe!

Then we spent a weekend in Bend visiting Dylan’s parents and went on a great hike along the Deschutes River.

Deschutes River, Bend Oregon

Deschutes River, Bend Oregon

And my last big trip of the season was technically the first week of October when I went to the East coast for my grandpa’s 80th birthday and a business trip in NYC.

We ate lobster.

And had a big birthday bash for the old guy. This is just his children (and spouses) and two of the four grandkids – Aimee and I.

I chose to awkwardly stand on the hill. Don’t ask why I do the things I do.

I also took a hundered pictures in NYC, here are just a few of my favorites.

That is where they stick the Christmas tree every year in Rockefeller Center. In case it wasn’t obvious that its not the real Christmas tree.

The view of the Empire State building from the Top of the Rock. I could touch it. Hehe.

We went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This is one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken. I’m still learning my new fancy camera but am really happy with how this came out.

And lastly, a trip to Serendipity with my gracious host Amanda.

Well thats it. Kudos if you made it all the way through. I’m exhausted just going through it all again! I promise I’ll do better from here on out.

Update on Firehouse Restaurant

September 30th, 2009 No comments »

I think someone may have read my blog post because this is exactly what Dylan and I had for dinner. Or Jennifer Coughlin and I just have good taste and ordered some of the best things on the menu.

If you want to read this great write up on our little neighborhood from Neighborhood Notes, please do. We love our little spot in NE Portland. And the art in the pictures in the back of the Good Neighbor Pizza photos are Dylan’s. You can mostly see John Graeter’s work who is also awesome and we have one of his pieces in my office at home.

Portland Girl Meets SMX East

September 30th, 2009 No comments »

So I leave on Friday night for New York City. I haven’t been since high school when my grandmother passed away. I’m going this weekend 1. because it is my grandpa’s 80th birthday and my whole family will be there and 2. to go to SMX East in New York next week. For all non-internet marketing professionals, you can call it geek fest. Look, they even give you a badge to put on my site (which I try to keep as non-geeky as possible.)
I’m attending SMX East
Anyway, while I have been excited to go to this I was also facing a huge dilemma. You see, at the company I work for, there is hardly a dress code. People are lucky that I shower in the morning and show up to work with my hair dry. In jeans and a t-shirt. A sweater when it gets cold. And I’m going to business functions in New York City. I also watch too much Mad Men and have probably overly glamorized the whole thing.

But nevertheless, I went shopping yesterday for some “NYC appropriate” clothing. I think my biggest problem will be shoes. At 5′1, flats don’t really do it for me. But I’m envisioning serious pain after trekking through NYC, on subways and at a conference all day in 3 inch heels. Sex in the City is real, I know people do this, right?

Also, are peep toe shoes and colored tights still in style because that is what I’m planning for these, and I know the west coast is a little behind on our fashion. If so I’ll just pack my rain boots and north face and be the laughing stock of the whole thing.

Also, I have lots of adventure stories that I’m way behind posting to this blog, so I’l try and get that done tonight.