Fleur de lis Bakery - Another New Portland Discovery

This morning Roger treated me to breakfast at Besaw's Cafe, a place that is rapidly becoming our favorite place for breakfast.  They serve a thick slice of toasted multi-grain bread that is really delicious so we learned that it comes from the Fleur de lis Bakery in the Hollywood District.  It's quite a distance to travel for bread but we decided that the drive is worth the effort.

The place is a combination cafe and bakery and actually, the cafe is about five times the size of the bakery area.  We're still uncertain about the variety of their products because when we got there about 2 p.m. they had only one loaf of the multi-grain bread left and a small assortment of some pastries.  The baguettes looked just like those in Paris so we're looking forward to going back earlier in the day.

Roger's Homework - Portraits..................

Roger's film SLR class homework for the weekend was to take 24 portraits using natural or artificial light and manual camera settings.  He came up with a great idea to move next door to the Lincoln Lounge where there's lots of room to set up lighting and "stage" an area.  With film, one never knows for sure how the picture will come out so he was pleased at the quality of most of the shots.

Fresh Basil Pesto

Today I made an early trek to the Farmer's Market with two goals in mind: (1) Quail eggs and (2) Fresh basil.  I was lucky to buy the last two dozen of the eggs and I found that basil is in its prime this month.  I just made the following recipe from the Food Network and I recommend it !!

1. 2 cups washed and packed fresh basil leaves
2. 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3. 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (put in 350 degree oven on a flat baking pan and watch carefully.  You might want to toss them around after 5 minutes so they brown evenly.) 
4. 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
5. Seasalt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  I used about 1 tsp salt.
6. 1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Combine the basil, garlic and pine nuts in a food processor.  Pulse until coarsely chopped.  Add oil, salt and pepper.  Stir in the cheese and it's ready to use or freeze.

I doubled the recipe and I have nine cupcake holders filled and in the freezer.  As soon as they freeze hard, I'll wrap them in saran and put them back into the freezer.

Pesto can be used on fresh cooked pasta as it is or sometimes I add some cream and more cheese for a creamy pesto sauce.

I still remember way back (at least 45 years) when Rosanna and I became friends and she introduced us to pesto.  This was way before it became a popular food item in the U.S. so we were greatly impressed with such a unique and delicious idea.  Thanks, Rosanna, for exposing us to an authentic Italian delicacy !!

Hummingbird

A friend on Facebook published the original photo of this hummingbird and she gave me permission to "tweak" it at tonight's Photoshop lesson.  The only thing that I worked on was the head and body.  Because of the intense light on the back of the bird, the face and stomach and body detail was too dark.  Now you can see the striped feathers on the face, the little red area that looks like a bow tie and his tiny feet at the back of his tummy.

This is the original.

July in Portland - Lovely..............................

Today was perfect - Bella had a bath at Urban Fauna, I had an amazing lunch at Papa Haydn on 23rd Avenue, and then we went to a dynamite sale at Macys,

Temperatures remain in the low 80s and there's no rain in sight.

Truly a day to celebrate summer!

Home

Oven & Shaker

This afternoon we tried a restaurant that is new to us, "Oven & Shaker" on Everett in the Pearl District.  Their specialty is wood oven baked pizza so we tried the Margherita with a radicchio salad.  The air is "blue" in the condo from all of the fresh garlic....................

Not complaining - just happy we don't have plans to be around people tonight.