Falafel

When I lived in Bellingham, Sam, Heidi and I would occasional make falafel.  Sam introduced it to me as an Egyptian Taco.  Basically, it is spiced garbanzo beans rolled into balls and deep fried.  Break it up into pocket pitas with veggies and sauce and it is quite good.  I read an article online that suggested it more of an Israeli meal.

 

Sandi and I invited a friend over for dinner Wednesday evening.  I thought it would be fun to relive my past and serve falafel.  In Bellingham we would buy a box of dried mix and add water.  Turns out, making it from scratch is almost as easy (providing you skip the step of soaking, drying and grinding your own beans - garbanzo bean flour works great). 

 

These are still raw.  I'll need to fry them tomorrow.

 

Sandi decided to make Tzatziki sauce (a yogurt, dill, cucumber mixture) for the falafel.

Grinding and salting the cucumber

Straining the yogurt to make 'Greek Style' yogurt

Finally, the hummus

Siouxon Creek 2013

 Last weekend was my opportunity to go backpacking with friends.  We chose the same trail Sandi and I did last year: Siouxon Creek near Battle Ground, WA.

 

It was a great trail.  It follows a creek and therefore eliminates the typical switchbacks we encounter in the Cascades.  It is well groomed and quite beautiful.

The trail brings you to a few waterfalls and many campsites.

 

We found the perfect campsite only four-miles into our trek.  We were all surprised to drop our packs at 3:00 and set up camp, but you can't mess with perfection: lots of level ground, an established fire pit and benches, just off the creek and a great pool for water, an easy bear-hang and even a little kitchen area.  We were set for the weekend.

Last year, Sandi and I hiked up to Siouxon Peak.  It was a lot of work but not much fun.  This year, my friends and I tackled Horseshoe Ridge.  It was incredibly steep (gaining 1500 feet in 3 miles) but we had nice views at the top.  By the end of Saturday, we hike 9 exhausting miles.

This is a great little camp stove - very efficient and easy to pack

This is the little kitchen area I was talking about.

Good weekend.  If it wasn't so far, it would be fun to hike more often.

Cheese! Our adventure at Tillamook

Sandi had 6-days off so I took off Monday for a quick camping trip to Tillamook on Sunday night. Our goal was to eat good food and relax.  Though I don't have a picture to prove it, we did almost all our cooking over our campfire: blue cheese skirt steak and roasted sweet potato with onions.  We sautéed our mushrooms on our camp stove because our cookware isn't designed for open flames.  It was so good.

 

The next morning, we warmed our scones over the fire but had an otherwise cold breakfast of fresh fruit.

 

We finally left our campsite at 1:00 and headed over to the cheese factory for ice cream and cheese curds.  Sandi was devastated because they discontinued 'Blueberry Cheesecake' ice cream.  After growing up with that ice cream, Tillamook Mudslide, though good, was a distant second.  I enjoyed my mocha almond fudge.

 

We didn't get the hike in that we hoped.  Instead we hiked out to Bay-Ocean spit, as you can see below.

 

Enjoying our cheese curds and veggies for lunch.

Our Korean food experience

Sandi and I had an evening together after a long weekend of work.  We decided to walk to downtown Beaverton for dinner.  Last month we came across a Korean restaurant that looked interesting.  We decided, for better or worse, we should try it (rather than say we'll try it later and never do it).

It is a small family-run business. From the outside, it looked promising because of the many native Koreans eating there.  We had to wait a few minutes before being seating, but the waiter warned us that it would take a long time for us to get food.  Evidently, they run a lean kitchen staff.

We perused our menus and decided on dinner.  Sandi chose a beef dish and I chose a beef soup with noodles in a black bean sauce.  We also got pot stickers True to his word, it was at least 40 minutes before anything arrived.  The first to arrive was six small plates of Korean fair - a sampler of kimchee, seaweed, rice cakes, and unknown vegetable in an unknown sauce and potato salad (yes, potato salad).  The potato salad was pretty good.  Everything else was as good as it sounds, though the kimchee was slightly better than I expected.  The pot stickers were excellent.

The main course was good.  I don't care for udon noodles, but the black bean sauce was good.  Sandi liked her beef.  We both took home leftovers.  All in all, we are glad for the experience but have no desire to eat Korean food again.

Our date was complete with homemade ice cream and rented DVD of old Sherlock Holmes shows.

Banks to Vernonia Bike ride

 

 

It was Sunday afternoon and Sandi was sleeping for work that night.  Instead of staying around the house, I decided to check an activity off my do-to list: the Banks to Vernonia bike trail.  It is a 21-mile one-way trail on an old railroad track.  It's really nice, especially on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. 

It started out flat.  When you come upon this farm house it you begin a gentle grade for the next several miles.

 

 

This is about 1/2 way to Vernonia.  Most of the trail is through the forest, but there are a lot of open, sunny parts.

 

Finally, I reach Vernonia.  This is the high school.

I added a 3-mile loop around Lake Vernonia.  Not terribly pretty, but it gave me a few more miles.

 

I'm about 10-miles from my car at this point.  Time to take a break.

 

From car to car: 45 miles.  I was working the last few miles.  I will need to train more if I ever plan on a day-long ride.

Garden update

It's been a couple months since we planted our garden.  The herbs are doing well, except the cilantro which celebrates Independence Day by going to seed and dying.  We are still waiting on most of our vegetables, but our kale and lettuce are going gang-busters.

 

The raspberries are doing really well considering their recent transplant.  The rhubarb, not so much.

The kale exceeded my expectations.  The variety on the upper right is our favorite.

The peas and beans are just coming on line.

Got any recipes that call for lots of chives?

Our basil is doing fairly well, but we always want more.  The oregano in back is trying to stage a coup.  The thyme sits by passively.

Tomatoes: when, oh when will you produce more than flowers?  Get here before the basil dies off, please.

Meet Chandler

Chandler is our newest addition to our backyard.  We got him at the Farmer's Market last week. He is a late-season blueberry bush that purportedly produces the largest blueberries.  He is five years old and we expect great things from him.

 

'Chandler' is the variety

 

Waiting for August...