sweet thank-you: 200 posts!

just out of the oven and cooling before i carry them off to a thanksgiving dinner with friends. i love baking, especially pies. it is an art form, making flour and butter into a crust. many people dread making the crust, but that is my favorite part of the process. it requires confidence, a delicate touch and steely nerves. i like the challange and once i surrender to the process, it's very relaxing. i would bake pie often if it wasn't so hard to resist eating it all!

i want to thank you all for coming here to found object these last eleven months and sharing beauty, inspiration, dreams and reflections with me. this is my 200th post! i am struck by how wonderful blogging is and by how vast the world of creative people looking to connect really is.

amazing, simply amazing.

i hope wherever in the world you are today, you are warm and surrounded by ones you love. and i hope you know that this girl, baking pies and making jewelry in portland, oregon is very thankful for you indeed. i am blessed. 

saying yes: the gluten-free girl

 

as you may know, i find inspiration all around me. in nature, poking into corners of the world via the internet and often, in the people that come into my life.

this week, i had the deep pleasure of meeting shauna james ahern, who writes the marvelous blog, gluten-free girl. she's just published her very first book, pictured above. shauna's been a blogging crush of mine for months now and i was thrilled to meet her in person at piece of cake bakery in sellwood. she's currently on book tour and you can check her whole schedule here. if you can catch her and the chef (her husband) hosting a cooking class near you -go!

reading shauna's words at the blog, gluten-free girl, is a regular shot of inspiration on how to live, love, how to eat healthy while still experiencing the sensuality of food and most of all, how to say yes. yes to life and yes to taking leaps of faith, yes to trusting your gut and yes to feeding yourself well on every level. if the blog is the window into her world, the book is that door thrown wide open. her book is delicious reading and i highly recommend it. shauna is a marvel of a storyteller and offers something satisfying to all, even if gluten allergies are not your issue. 

i've been endlessly inspired as a writer, a blogger and as a sometime food photographer, by shauna's work. i suspected as much as much for a long while, but now meeting shauna, and then diving into her wonderful book, i quickly realize she's a kindred spirit. i was that same teenage girl, curled up with a good book and dreaming about writing one of my own someday. on her blog, shauna is able to strike a lovely balance of contagious optimism and a frank sharing of the struggles involved with taking the risks required to live a life worth living. a full life as an independent writer, a new wife, a gluten-free girl blooming with good health.

bravo, shauna! on the new book and the very best of wishes for a successful book tour. i'll be reading and playing with the recipes...

art that sustains the body

excellent food always inspires me, be it casual or fine dining. for me the feeling of being very well fed comes not just from the flavors, but also from deep within the food: how it is grown and the love and attention it received at each step, from source to kitchen to my table. then there is food that goes another step into sublime. food that is art on your plate, and all the rest.

i had one of the best meals of my life on monday, my birthday, at the bay house, just south of lincoln city, oregon. lovely dining room, wonderful service and they treated me to a table right in front of the window, looking out onto the bay. i've never spent two lingering hours over a meal by myself and certainly not celebrating a birthday. it was wonderful! i didn't even write in my journal or read, i just tuned into the pleasure of the experience, the amazing food and the view.

i was actually staying in the present moment, savoring my own company and feeling that being right where i am in this life is pretty damn great. watching the tide go out, the sun set slowly, the seabirds feeding - was so deeply relaxing. i highly recommend the bay house for a special occasion or anytime you feel like treating yourself really well.

when i arrived and ordered wine, the chef sent out the lovely little bite you see pictured above. salmon soaked in tequila and topped with a dab of creme fresh and cilantro "caviar". it was perfect. after taking a photo and chatting with the server, i sent my compliments to the chef. he then sent out an amazing appetiser, pictured below, that blew me away. i know i won't get every part of the description correct, but it was fois gras with seared scallops and the most delicate reduction sauce, topped with a fresh fennel sprig. absolute heaven on a plate -so beautiful and so delicious.

 

the rest of my meal was equally yummy (creme brulee gets five stars from me!), and i drove back home feeling like a fat, happy puppy. a truly memorable meal in every way. the chef at bay house, justin wills, is also a blogger. you can check him out here at donkeychicken.

thanks again, to the lovely staff at the bay house for making my birthday so special.  

eat, drink, gaze at the sea: repeat

the quintessential greek drink is ouzo, an anise flavored firery liquor. the island of lesvos is actually the home of ouzo, as it has been the center of ouzo production since forever. when you drink ouzo, it is made milder by how it is traditionally served, with a bowl of ice and water on the side. you pour a shot of ouzo, add ice and then cold water to the top. it's delicious! the best stuff isn't even available in athens, it stays on the island. because the drink is on the sweet side, it goes well with salty-spicy-savory foods and most locals will drink it with a plate of meze...a selection of savory appetisers. i happen to hold the opinion that true "black" licorice is the most yummy thing on earth, up there with lemon and dark chocolate, so i hit the traditional cocktail jackpot in greece! if only i had room to bring back several bottles...

greek cuisine isn't complicated or fussy, it is perfectly delicious because of the rustic quality, the simple preperations, and most of all the fresh ingredients. eating fresh, in-season and local is a relatively new trend in america, but it essentially is a return to the way people ate in this country a hundred years ago.

and it's the way people in the villages on lesvos still eat.

above, an amazing lunch -sitting at the harbor of a tiny village, watching the boats bob in the strong wind of the west coast. i had greek salad (half eaten in the background) which is always a mix of tomato, cucumber, green peppers(and i never remembered to ask for those to be left off, as they make me sick) a few olives, dressed with superb olive oil and topped with a generous slice of fresh feta cheese. rustic bread arrives to sop up more fantastic olive oil. my entree was squid, just out of the sea that morning and lightly dusted in batter, then fried to perfection. so tender, not a bit rubbery -squirted with lemon, i gobbled it up!

another wonderful meal, this time of grilled fish. with these small fishes, it's always the whole fish that you are served, dressed with olive oil and lemon. it was a new experience, dealing with the whole fish and picking the meat off the bones. advantage #1: you eat slowly. advantage #2: the fish stays moist and tender during grilling. i had this meal after soaking in the healing waters of the nearby mineral bath and splashing around in the cold sea and i was so relaxed. the courtyard the of taverna was loaded with flowers in bloom and dominated by a towering fig tree, loaded with unripe figs. a circle of stray cats sat around my table, waiting to see if i would share a bite of the fish. (i didn't)

this was the typical texture of my days on lesvos. relaxing into savoring each new thing. gazing at the afternoon light sparkling on the sea, sipping a greek coffee or a glass of ouzo, taking naps and all the while inhaling the cocktail of smells: salty, sweet, rich, fresh.

it was all there in abundance.

i started my days with fresh sheep's milk yogurt, drizzled with wild thyme honey and sprinkled with nuts. mid-day, i might swing by the bakery for a spinach pie. later in the afternoon, most of my meals were greek salad or a plate of steamed wild greens to start, then grilled fish, grilled octopus or fried squid. dinner was eaten late-night, with a few delectable grilled lamb gyro-type wraps, dripping with garliciky tzatziki sauce.

it was all so good.

 

my first octopus

they say you never forget your first. i happen to be one of those who never forgets anything at all - hence my dire need for a vacation! confession: i actually tried grilled octopus one time, at a fancy tapas place in santa fe, but that had to have been frozen, right? fresh is another story. so, the octopus is fresh and plentiful on lesvos. some may find it repulsive, i found it fascinating and delicious. after they are caught and gutted, the fishermen hang the octopus to dry on a line like this, often directly in front of the restaurant. makes it easy to choose your dinner spot if you have grilled octopus on your mind. i also loved them, for their sheer weirdness and exotic qualities. and just look at these subtle colors and interesting shapes in the close-ups! wow.

to prepare them to eat, the tentacles are cut apart from each other and thrown on a grill fueled by wood or charcoal. this gives the most yummy flavor, the outside is crispy and the inside chewy-tender. dressed with amazing olive oil and a generous squeeze of lemon - it is simply divine. the food of the goddess(gods welcome to partake as well). my photo of the dish isn't too wonderful (taken after some ouzo during a big party on my last night on the island), but you can get the general idea. i would go back just for this octopus, eaten sitting looking out at the sea. unforgettable by any measure.