0055 -- our first visitor!

This weekend our old roommate and dear friend Dawn came up from LA to visit us. We have been so excited to get to show some one around as well as finally get to put our newly finished spare room to use! Of course I woke up for work on Friday and it was snowing. Yes, you read that right, SNOWING!!! I was too excited to see it, but with it came some seriously cold weather (duh)! Here's what our street looked like on Friday morning!

Fortunately the snow stopped before I had to drive back home, as much as I find it really neat and pretty, I'm still nervous to drive in the snow. We picked up Dawn from the airport and headed right over to grab some dinner and drinks!

Saturday we headed over to the NW to feed Dawn the best donuts up here (sorry Voodoo)! From there we shopped around at all the cute and painfully hip shops in the Pearl area. We headed over to a neat little gift pop up shop back in SE before finally heading up to Mississippi for some lunch and oddities shopping!

We walked around Mississippi picking up fun decorations for Dawn's new place and stopping into a few bars along the way for refreshments! How cute is my Dawny?! Love this girl to bits!

Check out what we ended up creating with all the awesome goodies Dawn found! I hope to make something similar to this soon!

Jordan and I also picked up a new little creepy plant for our house too. Meet Seymore, our Venus Fly Trap! Apparently this little guy will attract his own food as long as we make sure he gets enough sunlight and water. 

Jordan and I wanted to make a nice dinner for Dawn Saturday night so we made some pork chops, apple sauce, and sweet potato curry latkes. YUM! After dinner we walked over to a local bar to meet up with some other friends. Of course, we thought we were so tough walking the few blocks to the bar in 11 degree weather...

On Sunday we started over at City State Cafe, a little breakfast spot over by our house. One look at the menu and we knew we had make the right choice, I mean look at that bloody mary pyramid! 

After breakfast we headed down to Hawthorne to show Dawn some other fun shops and areas of Portland! We paused in one of our favorite knick knack shops and she snapped this hilarious shot of me in a pug mask.

As always, it's hard to let our friends leave (even Larry didn't want Dawn to go). We had such a great time and are really looking forward to having more visitors!!

Update again soon!!

xxo

0054 -- back to reality

It's back to reality for me lately. I've started working again and my days are filled back behind a huge computer screen editing files and preparing things for print...oh the life of a designer! Other than work and learning to wake up when it's dark and be functioning, we've finally found a hot yoga studio we like! We've only gone to one class but are heading to a different flow class tonight!

The holidays are coming up quick and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with what in the world to do for gifts this year. Jordan and I agreed that it will be a thrifting/vintage/DIY x-mas this year. I've been looking for all kinds of ideas...are you doing anything fun for x-mas gifts this year?

As in my last post I said I would share the recipes for our Vegan Apple Pie and our Vegan Mexican Wedding Cookies, so here you go:

Apple Pie with Granola Dutch Topping:
Pie crust of your choice (we just make a really simple one) 2 ½ lbs assorted apples, peeled and cored Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cut apples into 1/4 inch slice. In a large bowl toss the apples with lemon juice, sugar, and spices. Pour the apple mixture into the crust.
For the crumble combine all ingredients into a bowl and press together with fingers until large chunks form. Sprinkle crumble on top of pie. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.


Vegan Mexican Wedding Cookies (also known as Russian Tea Cookies):
1 c Earth Balance (or vegan butter substitute)
2 c powder sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 c flour
1 c coarsely chopped nuts (I used almonds, but walnuts and pecans are super yummy too)

Beat butter butter until fluffy, add 1/2 cup powder sugar and the vanilla. Beat until well blended. Add in flour and then nuts and combine. Divide dough into two balls and wrap with plastic wrap. Allow to cook for about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With the chilled dough roll balls (we did smaller bite size ones but you could do up to two tablespoon size balls) onto baking sheet. Bake 11-15 minutes until the balls are golden brown on the bottom and just lightly changing on top. Roll the warmed cookies in the remaining powder sugar and allow to cool on a wire rack! Voila!

0053 -- giving thanks

The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind adventure. We have been so lucky to have SO many amazing friends, such great experiences, each other, and our health. Really, how could anyone ask for anything more?!?

This thanksgiving we spend it with our friends Linsay and Wesley. We met them through a mutual friend from LA and have been fortunate enough to see them weekly since we met. They made a vegan thanksgiving feast that words really cannot describe!!! 

We also got to be witnesses to their baby Phelyn eating her fist solid food; an avocado of course!!!

The meal was beyond delicious and we topped it off with our homemade desserts (recipes in my next post): apple pie & Mexican wedding cookies 

and a seriously KILLER round of Cards Against Humanity (of course Lynsay's daughter Sierra won)!

All in all it was the most magical day and we are SO darn thankful for the way that everything is playing out. It's really just so amazing that we have been so fortunate. Happy holidays!!

Update again soon!

xxo

0052 -- laurelhurst market

A few posts ago I mentioned the sandwich from Laurelhurt Market as being one on our hunt for the best sandwich. Today to celebrate that I landed a job and because Jordan had never gone, we went for lunch. I have to say, you should look over their dinner menu, it looks INSANE!

I had been before and decided to go with a build my own, pâté and pickled onions. Jordan picked off the sandwich board and went with the pastrami and cheese. 

Enough words, time for photos:

They have an awesome little butcher shop in the front also that has some killer cuts of meat. I would love to get a rack of lamb from there and make it one day!

Update again soon!!

xxo

0051 -- saturday on mississippi

This Saturday we celebrated our friend Wesley's birthday by going out day drinking and shopping on Mississippi in north Portland.

We had been twice (although very unknowingly) but not actually walked around much. The first time we went to Paxton Gate which is an incredible taxidermy and natural oddities shop. The other time we went was strictly to eat the biscuits at Pine State (yum)!!

On Saturday we had planned to eat at Por Que No? But it was closed for renovations so we ended up at Bar Bar for burgers and boozies! I had the veggie burger which was incredible!! The bun was out of this world and they even came with my favorite pickles on top! Along with our banging burgers I had one seriously delicious Bloody Mary! Just the perfect way to start Saturday!

From there we went to an awesome thrift, meets knick knack, meets, decorations shop. I believe it was called flutter. Jordan bought me two of my favorite tarot cards there (the 3 of cups and the 3 of swords). 

Our next stop was cocktails tails again and this time around a fire pit in the back of Interurban. A few pimm's cups later and we were ready for more thrifting! 

Along with thrifting where I finally found the perfect wide brim hat, we did pop into Paxton Gate again so we could pick a piranha for our shelves!!

On the way back to the car before our last bar stop we paused in the most random shop call the Meadow. The shop carries only salts, chocolates, wine, bitters, and a very small selection of fresh flowers. Everything is available to sample and they strongly encourage it. They were very knowledgable and our friends ended up buying the most yummy rhubarb bitters! I can't wait to see what kind of cocktails they create with it!

We ended the evening over at Liberty Glass, a cute little bar with great vegan options and a warm atmosphere! It was a fabulous day and we were so excited to be able to slow crawl and wander into all the shops the area had to offer!!

Update again soon!

xxo.

0050 -- tails and trotters

Since we moved to Portland almost two months ago (can you even believe that?) we've been trying a bunch of delis and sandwich shops looking for the best sandwich. 

We've had Laurelhurst Market on Burnside, Roman Candle on Division, both Lardo locations, and just yesterday we tried Tails and Trotters which is very conveniently located on our street. Now I should warn if you aren't a meat eater, this post is not for you.

Tails and Trotters was started by some guys back in 2009 after they learned everything they could about how raising pigs changes their flavors. Kind of interesting. Walking into their shop it's small, really clean, and all the guys there look like they are nothing more than my other brothers. Awesome! They a few displays of mustards, sauces and pickles, a butcher display, a small freezer with sausages and fats. There's a few stools at the back of the shop.

The sandwich list is perfect. Just enough to choose from without the over complications of too many options. There were a few specials too, but we stuck to the country pâté with pickles on a small soft baguette and a Cubano on a panini. 

Well these guys killed it! They were two of the best sammies we've had here. The pork was truly flavorful. The pâté melted in my mouth! The bread choice was perfect as it didn't cut the roof of my mouth as so many sammies before have...

We still haven't picked a favorite, but was are so thrilled to have this gem so close to home! 

Update again soon!

xxo

0049 -- q bert and crafts

This week is coming to an end and I am so excited for this weekend!! We've got a friend's birthday to celebrate on Saturday and I've got a meeting Sunday about some VERY exciting plans I'll share with you soon!
Jordan has been a very busy bee with his writing so I've been trying to find some creative ways of using up my time. I've been inspired enough lately to work on a few logo projects which have been really nice and I love being reminded why I love design.

Our buddy Ty also took my out on afternoon to the coolest bar/arcade I've ever been to. It reminded me a lot of a joint we went to when we were just ending the movingmoon down in Eugene. Ground Control is literally just all old arcade games in rows and rows and rows. Most games are only a quarter except the multi player pac man (one of my favs) and the pinball machines (which take up the whole second floor). Apparently after 5pm they serve booze, but we were there when it was still light out, so I can't comment on that. There was a really cool comic book shop not far either...

As well my girlfriend Lynsay came over to do a really fun DIY we had seen on Refinery29. How cute did their hanging planter turn out??

The project was easy and now that we've done it once, I'm sure that it would be easy to make these holders much more custom and intricate. When I find some more yarn I'll definitely be making more! Here's ours:

I also have to talk about the crazy sparkling wine that we devoured while tying knots. It was strawberry and cream flavored and tasted just like those puffy faux marshmallow strawberry candies. Heaven in a glass! And to top it off it's the most precious shade of pink. We think it would be good with some whipped cream vodka, fresh muddled strawberries, and maybe some basil for garnish. I'm sure we'll be drinking these while we dream of summer garden parties this winter!

Promise to update again soon...maybe after my adventures of thrifting! 

xxo