Ashland/Brookings Trip

Now that Fall has arrived in Portland, I figure its about time I get up the pictures of our final days of Summer. A couple of weeks ago we met up with some Scovilles (Sue, Greg, Scott and Bekah) in Ashland to see a Shakespeare play. Then we headed West to Brookings, OR to stay at a beach house for five days. The vacation was lovely, and a wonderful way to end summer. We loved the Shakespeare play, I've always wanted to go and was happy to be able to check it off the list. Walking around Ashland was really nice too. The house we stayed in felt like a Grandma's house with trinkets and very old, cheesy (or should I say "apple-y" there was quite the apple theme) wall paper throughout. These details made it feel cozy though. The deer in Ashland are quite comfortable with people to. At any given point in the day a deer would be in the backyard or walking down the sidewalk. So lovely.

Here is a picture of the Ashland House:

And here are some pictures of our Ashland fun:

 And after a very large breakfast...

 And a 3 hour drive...

We made it to the beach house in Brookings...

Some beach-combing and clam chowder later and we were picking wild-berries for a berry cobbler...

  
 Yummy food was devoured (including delicious Whiskey-chocolate cake and Lamb Tagine)...


and a good time was had by all...

THEN,

On the drive home to Portland, we spotted Elk on the side of the road. Surprisingly this was our second time on this trip spotting these beauties. The first time it was a group of about 40 elk with a good amount of males present, so the antlers were just gorgeous. Unfortunately we didn't take the time to stop and take pictures. Regretting it the whole trip we were so excited to get the opportunity for a second time. This time there was only one male, but still- gorgeous.

 

So, that concludes our grand beach-house-adventure. We had a wonderful time! Can't wait to be home for thanksgiving celebrating the wonderful season of crunchy golden leaves, and crisp cool weather.

Pumpkin Lattes, Pumpkins, Turkey Basters, and Rain...

September is here! September in Portland is very special to me. It marks the anniversary of our big move up from Sacramento (three years this year), Sunflowers are in full bloom gracing every other yard around town, the Swifts (birds) put on a show every night of the month bringing hundreds of Portlanders together, school starts, and the weather begins to change.

Believe it or not this weekend is the first rain I've seen all summer here in Portland. I'm sure it did rain a couple of days this summer but I think I somehow managed to be gone for those days. Anyway, the rain really has gotten me thinking about fall... not only the rain but the presence of Pumpkin Latte's at Palios, and Turkey Equipment at the grocery store has made me realize that summer is coming to a close. School starts for me next Monday and some butterflies in my tummy have started to flutter. I'm not nervous about school starting, rather quite the opposite. I am very excited, and also am slowly becoming more and more emotional about saying goodbye to Portland. I know we still have 8 months left, but I now know how fast 8 months passes by. I feel like school will start and time will be filled with papers, projects and before I know it I'll be graduating and we'll be moving. We are very excited about the moving though! Europe has been in our conversations daily. Our first month will be spent backpacking, and so we have been watching backpacking videos like this one and dreaming up the best route. We will keep you posted as plans firm up. As for now, I hope you are enjoying the last bits of summer as we are.

Memory Lane

Hi Blog-Family,

I just took a brief trip down Memory Lane (that is, some of our oldest blog posts) and felt like saying I sincerely love our blog and love you! Our blog would be nothing if we didn't have amazing friends and family who genuinely care and support us. Thank you for checking in and reading about our simple lives.

From my computer to yours,

Katie 

Adventures in the Scoville Kitchen

A couple weeks ago Wes and I actually attempted to make: homemade Tortellini with a slow-roasted homemade tomato sauce (not once, but twice!),  Whiskey- Chocolate Mousse, Zucchini bread, and Shashuka all in the same week. (Disclaimer: we didn't consume all of these on our own mind you!) It was a very overwhelming week in the kitchen, and frankly kind of embarrassing to tell you about. Why we attempted to take on so many new recipes in one week, I'm not quite sure of. It was one of those things where we said, "This is what we want to make this week" and so we stuck with it, and never once thought "ehh.... maybe we should pick only one?..." So we set out on a Monday night to make some Pasta dough for Tortellini with our nifty pasta maker that we got for Christmas (thanks Scott and Bekah!). Mind you, this wasn't just our first time making Tortellini, this was our first time making pasta dough. We were inspired to make the tortellini as well as the accompanying homemade sauce because of the recipes we saw on a blog called What Katie Ate. This was dinner... Chocolate mousse was for The Bourbon Intelligencer (Wes' blog), Zucchini bread was made for an event I helped put on in my art class; and the Shashuka was just yummy breakfast on a Wednesday morning.

Unfortunately the tortellini was a complete disaster. I basically translated the wrong amount of pasta flour into our dough mixture, which made for very tough thick dough. :/ So because we failed miserably the first night (seriously, inedible!!), and because we had a lot of leftover ingredients we attempted to make the tortellini again the following night, only this time - the right way! .... aaaaaaand... failed again. :( After our second go around, we felt that either the dough recipe we used wasn't great or we aren't making the dough thin enough. Everything else turned out pretty good though!!

 

 More kitchen adventures to come!

We have been enjoying summer and hope you have been too.

My Trip Home 2011

Hello all! Long time no see! I'm backtracking to catch you up on it all. It's been a busy, fun and productive summer thus far. So where did I last leave off? Oh! With my trip home...

Annie!

One of the main things I must do when going home is go to my favorite restaurants. Tres Harmanos (I know I likely spelled that wrong.) is one of them!

Delicious Margaritas!

 

And then of course there is In-N-out!!!

Pedicures with Mom

I got to see my Cousin's new baby Taylor - She is adorable!!!

My other cousin's baby Peyton - this was her first beater! Licking the beater from the homemade whipped cream.

 Then there was the Farmer's Market. Since I was missing class back in Portland (a Art and Farm class) I was given an extra assignment to do while in CA. The assignment? To visit a farmer's market, make a meal with my purchases, and take pictures of it. Really??? I do that weekly anyways!! Ha ha I was thrilled to have an excuse to do this while at home. So..... on the menu: blackened cat fish, a saute' of tomatoes, corn and spinach as well as some roasted potatoes/beets. It was quite lovely....

Here is me picking out some heirloom tomatoes.

 an onion

 Corn

 

And why, there's a familiar name! It was such a pleasant surprise to see my neighbor's and best friend's ranch there. 

This is me preparing the catfish.

 

 And here is the cooked up meal. It was delicious! Thanks Mom and Dad for enjoying this meal with me and letting me invade your kitchen!

 

Also to happen this weekend was Rebekah's baby shower. I was so happy to be home for this!!!

 The decorations were adorable! Can't wait to meet little Sawyer!

 Rebekah, you looked amazing! So great to see you and feel your cute belly! :)

 Rebekah cried when she opened our gift. Sorry Bekah, this is the only picture I have!

 And then this happened, but I'll spare you from hearing that story again. ;)

In addition to little "just-like-my-uncle-Wes"Converse shoes, we got them a little "just-like-my-daddy" onesie that had tattoo sleeves sewn into it.

 

Oh and I definitely cannot forget the games! We had a great time playing "Stop."

 My time home was very enjoyable and so great to catch up with family and friends. Wes are coming home for thanksgiving this year so we can't wait to see you again soon!