Zombie Walk

I realize I'm a bit out of order with my posts, but you'll have to bear with me. I've been slow to upload my photos so I forget what happened when, etc. Once I rediscover things, I feel the need to share, which brings me to this post: ZOMBIE WALK 2010. Portland has a lot of cool things going for it: great happy hours, Powell's, Reed, many lovely people, food carts, pretty neighborhoods, and, as I discovered for the first time this year, Zombie Walk. Now Zombie Walk is a very strange experience. Basically it's a bunch of people all dressed up like zombies that lurch, stumble, and stagger around downtown Portland. It started in Pioneer square around 4:30 pm the weekend before Halloween. My neighbor and I decided to go (I miraculously had the day off from work, and I never get Saturdays off). He dressed up as a zombie boyscout, I was a zombie fairy princess. We headed downtown on the bus (and get a lot fewer strange looks than I expected) and walked over to Pioneer Square. It was packed. A bit after we got there everyone started moving around to make space in the square and a few minutes later the music for Thriller came on. Everyone in the square danced, and it was epic. After the song/dance ended, the zombies were off! We lurched along, following the pack. There was apparently a designated route that someone knew since all the zombies were headed in the same direction, but I'm not really sure what it was. Not only were there tons of zombies of all ages (little kids dressed in tuxes with zombie makeup and babies gnawing on rubber, dismembered hands, little skanky preteen zombies, older zombies, zombies from other eras, Snookie zombie(!), etc), there was also a huge crowd of people lining the sidewalk watching and taking photos. It was pretty funny. There were also Zombie Hunters and even a fake ambulance that the Zombie Hunters drove. It go attacked and it was great. I'm planning to do this every year I'm in Portland.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I made pie--apple betty and pumpkin. We also had a champagne turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, yums, and más. Very yum. There was also a teepee and a lot of war paint. One of the more exciting, delish, and fantastic Thanksgiving's I've had in a long while! Apple Betty Pie


4 Cups peeled and sliced tart apples

1/4 Cup orange juice

2/3 Cup white sugar

1/4 Cup brown sugar

3/4 Cup flour

1/2 Cup butter (1/4 Cup works fine)

1/2 tsp/ cinnamon

1/4 tsp. Nutmeg

dash salt

Mound apples in buttered 9” pie plate

Sprinkle w/ orange juice

Combine sugar, flour, spices, and salt

Cut in butter until crumbly

Scatter over apples

Bake 375 for 45 minutes or until apples are done, and

topping is crisp and lightly browned.

(sorry for the huge font--I'm failing at cutting and pasting...)

Pumpkin Pie (none of that canned pumpkin nonsense here)

Cut pumpkin in half crosswise. Remove seeds and strings. Place in a pan, shell side up; bake at 325 for an hour or until tender and begins to fall apart.

Scrape the pulp from shell and put in blender.

2 cups cooked, blended pumpkin

1 ½ cups evaporated milk (low-fat is ok)

2 slightly beaten eggs

*** Mix together in separate bowl ***

¼ cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

½ tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

½ tsp. Ginger

¼ tsp. Nutmeg

1/8 tsp. Cloves

Add to pumpkin mixture

Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake 15 minutes at 425, then reduce heat to 350 and bake 45 minutes to an hour (or more) or until knife comes out clean. Eat with mucho whipped cream.

Excellent Portland Food/Drink

1. Mulled cider drink thing at the Shanghai Tunnels

2. Supposedly the best Indian food cart in PDX. It's downtown and a bit misleading since there are two carts by the same name (apparently one was started by a husband-wife duo, but after the divorce they split into two carts, kept the same names, and set up next to each other...) but the one farthest from the corner is supposed to be the best. This is the $5 lunch special (plus you get chai)

3. Biwa ramen bowl. Major yum.

4. Bacon-infused bloody mary at Genies

5. Scorpian Bowl Thing at Gold Dust Meridian

Butternut Squash Pastas

My mom really loves butternut squash so I discovered it at a fairly young age when she tried to convince my brother and I that it was different from other squash and tasted like candy. Nice try mom! However, I do like it quite a bit more now. The other day I decided to make dinner with some friends and they put me on shopping duty. I wanted something different--not tomato sauce or Alfredo sauce based so I found some recipe for roasted butternut squash+Parmesan. I decided to toss in some peas as well, and my friend decided she just had to have chorizo, so we rolled with it.

Pasta Numero Uno:
Butternut Squash, Peas, Chorizo, Plus Cheese Pasta:
*feeds at least 5
-1 large package whole wheat pasta
-1/2 a small butternut squash, peeled and chopped
-1/2 a package frozen peas
-3 or 4 links of chorizo, chopped
-shaved Parmesan (I think we actually used a Parmesan/pecorino blend)
-onion and garlic to taste (I think we used maybe 1/2 an onion and a few cloves of garlic)

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the squash (I had never seen it cooked this way, so thanks to Lindsey for teaching), cook until tender
2. Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the onions and chorizo, then the garlic, and cook until chorizo is cooked through
3. Boil more water for pasta and cook until al dente or however you prefer pasta
4. Once the chorizo is cooked through, add the peas and cook until warmed through
5. Once pasta and squash are cooked and drained, mix everything together in a large pot (reserving a little of the cooking liquids as needed), and top with shaved Parmesan or pecorino or whatever cheese you like and let the heat melt the cheese. Enjoy!

Pasta Numero Dos:
As you might have noticed from the first post, you only use half of the butternut squash, so I had to figure out what to do with it. I also had the rest of the frozen peas, some baby spinach,

-1/2 a butternut squash, grated (I also recently discovered my grating blade on my food processor and was super excited to use it)
-1/2 a bag of frozen peas
-3/4 of a bag of baby spinach, chopped
-half an onion, diced
-a few cloves of garlic, diced
-a few links of chorizo if you have them on hand (which I did)
-a bag of your favorite kind of pasta
-grated cheese of whatever kind you like

-Heat olive oil in a large, deep pan, add onions and chorizo if using
-Add garlic and squash
-Once they soften, add peas
-Once peas are cooked through add spinach
-Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes or whatever seasoning you feel like
-As soon as the pasta is done, add everything else and cheese on top!

*Note: This is not only a really nice, light pasta (I know there's chorizo, but not much. It's really like 3 or 4 lengths between 5 or 6 servings which isn't so bad), but it's unusual and super cheap. For the first pasta I bought 1 butternut squash, 1 bag of frozen peas, 1 bag of pasta, 1 package of cheese, 1 bag of spinach, and 2 bottles of wine for about $17. I already had the onions, garlic, spices, and oil, plus one bag of pasta, so if you factor those prices in, it would maybe be $25 for two hearty, healthy dinners for 5 or so people. Not bad!

SPICY Chili

I had non vegetarian chili for the first time (that I can remember) a few weeks ago at a friends. It was surprisingly good. Lately it's been super cold here, low 40s!, so I needed something cozy to make and figured I'd give chili a shot. For whatever reason I always thought chili was a mixture of beans and ground meat and maybe tomatoes...upon investigating recipes I quickly learned that it was usually meat or beans but rarely both. Too bad! I made my own version. It turned out very well in my opinion but I somehow made it super spicy. And don't believe me (since I'm a spice wimp), my roommate and neighbors both agreed and shoveled it down.

CHILI:
-3/4 medium/large onion, finely chopped
-4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
-olive oil
-1/2 lb ground turkey, broken up
-2 chorizo sausage links, cut into small pieces
-about 14 oz canned whole tomatoes (half of one of those really big cans), including liquid
-2 tomatoes, chopped
-1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped (*)
-1 or 2 chipotles in adobo, chopped (as needed)
-1/2 a red bell pepper (or more if you actually like them...I don't, I just wanted the texture)
-2 medium yellow squash, chopped
-1 can pinto beans (or whatever kind you like)
-3/4-1 can of another type of bean...I used dark red kidney beans)* As needed if it's too hot or too thin--in my case, too spicy
-1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
-salt n pepper to taste
-thyme and basil to taste (I only had dried and used a few tsps of each)

1. Heat a deep, heavy pan on medium heat, add oil to coat.
2. When oil is hot, add onions, cook until they begin to soften, add turkey and sausage.
3. As everything starts to cook add garlic.
4. As turkey begins to brown add canned tomatoes and regular tomatoes, and bring to a simmer.
5. Add 1st can of beans, peppers, and squash.
6. Keep mixture simmering, add spices, chocolate, salt, and pepper.
7.Simmer over low heat until liquid thickens up quite a lot and takes on your desired consistency. Taste frequently and adjust heat as needed (adding more beans or more peppers as needed).
8. Once chili thickens nicely, devour with cheddar, jalapeño, beer bread (coming soon!)

*I, for whatever reason, happen to be an expert at finding the hottest jalapeños...I am not good with spicy food (I like them but they really hurt my mouth...). No idea how I do this since I know nothing about spicy peppers, but the few times I've used them I only have to use one when most people would use several. Weird. Anyway, if you chili doesn't have any heat after one pepper, add as needed since I seem to be gifted/cursed...Enjoy!