Monthly Archives: March 2023

Mar4

A Valentine’s Day dinner at home

Posted on March 4, 2023 by perfectusvarrus

Saturday, 11-Feb-2023

I’m in a bit of a non-standard relationship situation right now.

Yeah, yeah, shut up I know that’s normal for me. Okay, I get it.

I’m trying, and this is actually working fairly well for both myself, and my partners. That’s right – partners. I don’t often talk about my detailed personal life here, as strange as that is to say about a blog, but… it can’t be avoided when I’m posting two different Valentine’s Day events with two different people.

I’m dating two people non-exclusively – we’ve discussed it in-depth, and this is where everyone’s comfort level is right now. Their lives are a bit crazy and chaotic, and mine isn’t any more normal. You’ll see in mid-March, dear reader, when I post about my upcoming trip to Dublin and the reasoning behind it.

I love holidays, and Valentine’s day is no exception. How to juggle this with two partners, you may ask? Well… it’s easy, when the Universe helps you out. See, my partner Jess got hit with a last-minute work trip for Valentine’s day about two weeks beforehand – she’d need to be in The Bay for the 14th, so we needed to do something ahead of time.

I love cooking. I adore cooking for someone. And I very much enjoy fancy holiday meals.

If those pictures don’t tell the story for you, let me paint the picture a bit more clearly – I cooked up some AMAZING roasted Cornish Game Hens. For sides, Gnocchi and broccoli.

Recipe is at the end, but my special twist was the brine – I actually used a variant of my Thanksgiving turkey brine for this, and damn did it come out well. The sides were lovely, and Jess brought amazing wine and homemade ice cream cake.

It was a very nice evening.

Recipes:

– Brine = cold water, salt, and oranges. Simple and easy.
– Hens = https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/8938/cornish-game-hens-with-garlic-and-rosemary/
– Broccoli = steamed, with a bit of salt and butter and let to sear for 10s after the water boiled off
– Gnocchi = boiled, then seared in a pan with butter and truffle oil

Mar2

A visit from back home – A last hurrah at Wahclella falls, White River Sno Park, and Timberline Lodge!

Posted on March 2, 2023 by perfectusvarrus

Standard

Monday, 06-Feb-2023

My Mom and Steve came to visit!!

It’s been a hot minute since they’ve both been here to visit, explore, and catch up… 2019, if I’m remembering right, from when we went out to Seattle? Yeah… that sounds right, and sounds like long enough that we’ve got some adventuring to catch up on!

With all the beauty that I experience here in Oregon, I’d have been remiss to not take my Mom and Steve out into the wilderness!

The goal was clean – we’d do a lovely loop around Mt. Hood, starting in Portland having breakfast with Bri, and then we’d loop around the mountain clockwise, doing a short hike in the gorge and then having dinner at the Timberline Lodge!

It was lovely, if I may say so myself, and I’m definitely happy that we got the chance to get out into the mountain air!

Out breakfast spot was a lovely location in Ladd’s Addition, called Upper Left roasters… logically named, since it’s at the upper left side of Ladd’s! We ate, we chatted, and my Mom and Steve finally got to meet the legendary Bri from all my climbing and adventure stories. Nicely fed, we packed into the car, and headed into the Gorge!

Our target was Wahclella Falls, a lovely hike in the gorge that end at, unsurprisingly, a nice little pocket waterfall. We arrived, headed in, and made our way into the gulley that lead to the falls. It was short, but surprisingly rough, hiking… and Steve ended up making the safe call and heading back to the car a bit earlier than the rest of us – but we pressed on for the waterfall, enjoying a quick view before heading back and making our way toward the rest of the adventure!

From Wahclella falls, we made a quick stop at the White River Glacier, since I’ve posted so many stories and photos from that one spot. I had to show it off, right?

This time we didn’t go in far – just deep enough onto the snow to explore an amazing (multi room!) igloo that someone had made previously… and get a bit of chill into our bones so that we’d be able to adequately appreciate the warmth and light of our next stop – the Timberline Lodge!

The snowbound Timberline Lodge was, as always, absolutely gorgeous.

We shook off the cold, had an amazing dinner… watched the sunset over Mt. Hood. We actually got a perfect table, too! One of only two or three times that I’ve actually gotten that table!

You know, there’s advantaged to bringing the whole crew, I guess!

It was a lovely adventure. Not long, but great views and an excellent last hurrah to send the trip off, back home to New England.

Mar1

A visit from back home – The Portland Puppet museum!

Posted on March 1, 2023 by perfectusvarrus

Standard

Sunday, 05-Feb-2023

Just a quick note for this one, but after the Evergreen Air and Space museum, my Mom and I had a bit more museum energy to burn off… so we hit a spot that she’d been wanting to see for a while – the Portland Puppet Museum!

Yep, that’s right! Turns out, Portland has the 3rd largest puppet museum in the United States!

I honestly didn’t even know about this, but in retrospect it doesn’t really surprise me that much… I mean, we’ve got Laika, we’ve got countless art houses, and we’ve got tons of film industry now… so it just makes sense that there’d also be a puppet community! I mean, “Keep Portland weird”, right?

The museum was tiny – literally smaller than my apartment, and probably the same size as my living room. But what they had on display… Dang! It was a full room, no doubt about it, and the curator / docent / owner was amazingly well versed and well spoken – We spoke for ages, with him telling stories about the shows and plays the puppets had been in, sharing amazing bits of knowledge, and even letting us use some of the puppets as a demo of how the rigging for them works!

10/10, would recommend and will visit again!