Odds & Ends

I need to clear up a few items on my desk.

We went to a local hang-out this weekend for breakfast. Though the restaurant has been there for several years now, this is the first time we have visited. We used to go to the spot quite a bit when it was an Italian restaurant, but then it closed, re-opened, closed, re-opened... you know how that goes. Now the joint is called Cafe Murrayhill and they have become quite popular for their weekend brunch/breakfast menu. Time for us to check it out!

Lake-side dining in Beaverton, Oregon

I ordered the Greek Frittata. (Hey, didn't I order the Greek Frittata a few weeks ago in Jackson, Wyoming? Yes. I did, but a non-pork-eater has a tough time around a breakfast menu.) Loaded with artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, spinach and feta - there was barely room for the eggs! Yummy. The potatoes were just kinda so-so and I could taste that awful "butter flavoring" (I think it's called margarine, a word not in my vocabulary) used to saute the taters.

Dave ordered the Cafe Murrayhill Eggs Benedict - avocado, tomato, spinach, two poached eggs, and pesto hollandaise sauce. He liked it quite a bit.

Moving on... last night we went downtown Portland (aka The Big City) to a birthday party at the Bridgeport Brewery, for our friends Doris & Mark. They share a birthday and have been best friends since childhood. Music, dancing, food, drink and this fabulous birthday cake:

Isn't that just something? I do not know the procedure, but the photos are somehow silkscreened onto the cake and are completely edible.

I need to get out more.

Closer to home... I have spent the past four days resurrecting my sourdough starter. Left in the freezer for nearly a year, dang, if the little creatures didn't spring back to life under my constant tending. Today, I made a loaf of bread.

Nothing fancy. Just a mix of organic whole wheat and white flours, the sourdough starter, water and salt. Mother Nature/science takes care of the rest.

I come from a long line of bread bakers.

I come from a long line of bread eaters as well.

And have the hips to prove it.

There is no recipe for this bread. I just make it up as I go along and it is different every week.

I'm pretty sure Bill Gates is working on Windows Smell 1.0. Beta.

I tried the bread toasted. With butter. Not too sour yet, but that will come with time.

There. I've done it again. Wasted your precious time and bandwidth with useless information and have posted 8 photos of food. Until my next update, I remain, your toasted correspondent.