It was a beautiful day in Portland this morning! Paul and I rode downtown to the post office and to meet someone to drop of buttons around 11. We were craving the green sauce at El Grillo so we headed there for a burrito and a Negra Modelo… when we got there we foudn a paper sign for the same place with a new name! The menu was a stripped down menu of El Grillo and Paul and I started blankly at the new owners.
They insited that they still had the same recipes and the rice and beans were vegan. They also said that they were going to have vegan black beans too. which is great because I prefer black beans. But it was still sort of weird that this Portland Institution next to Mary’s club was gone. At leas the salsa verde was still there and that’s what we were craving.
lots o taps
The weather was getting a bit sketchy by then and we headed to the pearl to the Deschutes brewery. They always have some fantastic stuff on tap that is only available at the brewery. Paul had a Belgian and I had the Night Rider stout on Nitro… not only was it on Nitro, it was a coffee stout! I guess it is basically the obsidian stout with coffee! It smelled so good and tasted great. Totally smooth and rich. I took a long time to drink it. Paul drank the Belgian and a beer that was 40% spelt and reminded me of a hefe in the time I took to drink my one beer! We had our ass kicked by the Oregonian crossword but we managed to finish the NYT… with a little help from the internets on my phone.
yummy goodness in proper glassware!
Then we rode home… up the big hill on Interstate. I realized that this was the first time this year that I rode up that hill. I feel really out of shape.
I got to work making buttons, packing orders, writing e-mails and being stoked that 50 people listened to our zine podcast!
Then it was time for some dinner. I made some brown rice with vegetable stock, roasted some yummy Brussel sprouts and cooked a bit of chard in some red wine vinegar and served them up in these cute little tray type plates that I inherited from my grandmother. We have been on a brussel sprout and asparagus kick lately. We also talked about gettign Oreganics to You again. It was a lot of fun to get randon veggies and then figure out what to do with them. Then again, we have a farmer’s market down the street from us in a few months. maybe we should wait and just start doing that again. Anyway, here’s our meal tonight:
sprouts, chard and brown rice
I keep meaning to edit down the images from the meal Jess and I made the other night with the vegan wine pairing. It was pretty great. I keep meaning to document our wine adventures. I’m such a novice when it comes to wine but Jess is really helping me figure some stuff out… it also helps that she’s a beer and wine steward!
Marc and I talked about our podcast tonight and some ideas for future episodes and maped out a bit of what we plan to do at thezine librarian un-conference. I’m really stoked because with the people there we could get 3-4 shows out of all the zine talk that will be happenning! I’m looking forward to getting better at editing too.
I also have some more photos of my yard… and some of the squirrels from my yard! Plus, it is March and I have to gush about the multiple anniversaries Paul and I celebrate this month.
Alex Wrekk 