Today my friend Natalie and I hit the Portland Yarn Crawl. Since I had to be out the door and to her place in northeast Portland early this morning there was no time to make a good breakfast and so.. there’s not recipe to share this week. Maybe I’ll make something mid-week. I’ve been considering making my own version of the Garlic Romano bread you can find at New Seasons. I love it because it has whole garlic cloves.. but there never seem to be enough. So fingers crossed there might be that recipe later this week.

So today Natalie and I went to about seven different yarn shops. I have to say that I am not much of a knitter. I’m more the seamstress/quilter but since I’ve figured out that I can make homemade socks using a sock knitting loom and it doesn’t hurt my wrists (I have carpal tunnel.) I’ve become a bit of a knitter. In any case I have to say today was super fun. What made it fun? Well, being with my great friend Natalie, but being with someone that knows a TON about knitting.

Typically I go into a knit shop, find the sock yarn, pick something, and leave. Going with Natalie was great because I learned so much. I learned how to reinforce the heel and toe of my socks so they last longer. I also learned which types of yarn are best, and most durable when it comes to making socks. I was just blown away by all that Natalie knows and freely shares. It’s obvious she loves knitting (Note: everything but the jeans she wore today she’d knitted.). She has a podcast that’s great, Cloud with a Chance of Fiber and she blogs about her knitting adventures at I am addicted. She’s all over the place on the web sharing what she knows and knitting like crazy.

Thanks Natalie for a great day!

Every year about this time, I go berry picking as a local farm.  I love berries, specifically I LOVE raspberries. In any case, every year I go out and pick a ton of berries so I can eat some and freeze some so in those awful, rainy winters I have some great summer berries. This year my friend Natalie came along with my neighbors, Sammy, Pla, and their cutie son Matthew. We went to West Union Gardens.

I guess this year has been slow for berries to come on, sort of like the grapes I guess. In any case, we got our boxes from them and were off.  I am always amazed each year just how big the farm is. We walked down past the currents and went straight for the raspberries.  I picked one row, Natalie another, and Sammy and Pla took the row behind me. I was picking and eating and picking and eating. Ok, did I tell you I love raspberries? As we picked Sammy, Pla and I talked about picking berries. I guess they’ve never done it before. This was their first time I think. Matthew loved it. He’d pick a berry and eat it, dig in the dirt with a small stick, and then pick another berry. What a cutie! So we were picking along and my box got about half full when Natalie and I decided to head to the Marionberries. I guess her husband, also named Eric, loves them. So we went picking while Sammy, Pla, and Matthew continued on and walked around. I picked over a half a flat of Marionberries and realized I had no way to carry any more with me and I wanted to get blueberries. I went over to the blueberries and started picking. The blueberries weren’t ready. There was like one ripe one per bushel. So I decided to stop…. that’s when I lost steam. I mean we’d only been picking for about 2 hours but I was done. Ready to pack it in. That’s about the time Sammy and Pla did too… and Natalie wasn’t far behind.

I ended up with a flat and a half of berries. I could have had more if I wouldn’t have lost steam. I’m going to get back there on Saturday for a “super” run and get several flats and call it good.  So I came home with all the berries and was thinking about what to do with them. Well, I washed half and stuck them in the freezer and the other half went in this great fruit crisp I made for dessert that we’d eat when Sammy, Pla, and Matthew came over later for a BBQ. I love my recipe. I think I love it because a lot of crisps don’t have oatmeal and that’s one thing I love.

So here’s the recipe (Just for you Pla.)

Jona’s Fruit Crisp

Ingredients

Fruit (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 cup flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 – 3/4 cup of butter

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have ready an un-buttered 13×9 pan.

Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Scatter the topping evenly overs the fruit. Tap the dish on the counter once or twice to settle the crumbs. Bake for 30-50 minutes until the toping is golden brown, the juices are bubbling, and the fruit is tender. Serve with ice cream.

You know there’s nothing better than spending time with friends you haven’t seen for a while.  Tonight Eric and I met up with our friends Eric and Natalie at Toro Bravo for dinner.  It was such a nice time. We all had some AMAZING food. Thanks Eric for ordering the Paella because that was the bomb!

What’s even nicer is that the four of us talked about all sorts of things; politics, greenhouse emissions, farming hemp, American history, and more. It’s so nice to have friends that are well rounded and able to hold conversations well.  I always learn so much from Natalie and Eric each time we get together.  It’s fun too because I can share the things I know a little bit more about too.  Thank you both for a great night.  We need to do it more.

After dinner and after dinner drinks Eric and I headed to southeast Portland for the infamous Whiffies Pies that I’ve heard about from people I follow on Twitter.  All I can say is YUM!  I had the marionberry pie and Eric has the pineapple pie. They were both so tasty, nice and warm.. and well… just good.

I snapped a picture of Eric with his pie.

Yesterday was my birthday and it couldn’t have gone better. I had so much fun, I think I’m going to do that every year. SO what did I do? How was my day? Well, it all started when I was served breakfast in bed by the most handsome guy. I love my husband Eric, he’s so sweet. He made me breakfast in bed and coffee. It was such a treat to wake up and be made a wonderful breakfast. He’s the omelet king. I could get used to that sort of treatment every day.

After breakfast it was off to shower and get dressed for the day. Eric had to work so I planned a “girls day” with two of my best friends here in Portland, oh, and they just happen to work at Intel in the same group I do . I headed to Julie’s and then we went to Natalie’s, picked her up then we were off for a three hour drive to Seattle and Ikea. I’ll be so glad when they get the one built here next year. I love that place and can’t get enough of it. We all armed ourselves with our shopping lists and a cart of each one of us and descended with vigor on Ikea. I think within the first hour all of our carts were pretty full. We had to take a break about halfway and get Swedish meatball lunches so we could make it through the rest of the place. In total I think we were in and out in three hours, which is pretty good for all of us, of course we didn’t get any furniture this time. After Ikea it was Cost Plus and then the South Center mall. Natalie had a funeral she had to go to in the next week or so and she wanted to get some clothes so we helped her find the perfect skirt and top. It was fun, brought back memories of high school where we’d get together and go shopping for the day. We even hit Bath and Body Works. I love that store and always find things I like there. This time I found some coca lotion and scrub and this comfy robe. I sort of wanted to get it all but then the realist entered my head and I couldn’t help thinking, “You don’t NEED this, yeah it’s nice but you don’t NEED this and with Eric’s school not yet determined, do you really think you should buy this?” Then I thought about what Eric had said before I left, “You go and have fun, you know the budget amount and don’t feel bad if you spend that. You need to go have a fun day!” SO I broke down and bought the fun girly things. It was a hard thing to do but it was sort of next to have a bag of splurged on things.

After shopping we went to Claim Jumper for dinner. I love that place. The servings are HUGE and the food is GREAT. We had to wait for more than an hour to sit but once we did we ate like kings. It was such a fun ending to a great day. After dinner we hoped in the car and drove back to Portland. BY the time I got home is was something like 1am Sunday morning. I couldn’t believe that we were gone that long.

AWESOME DAY!!!!