Seen downtown, No. 5

Let me count a few of my daily life blessings for you.

First, from my employer I get a 24/7/365 mass transit pass. 

Second, I work in a building a single block from a bus stop where three bus lines that go west over the Willamette River stop at the beginning of my lunch hour. 

Third, those buses all stop a couple of blocks from the Wednesday downtown Portland Farmers Market, located at Shemanski Park in the South Park Blocks, behind the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. 

Fourth, while this particular version of the PFM is less than a square block, I prefer to think of it as being village-like, intimate and personable and filled to the brim with the bounty of folks who must have huge hearts because they're willing to grow all of these vegetables, fruits, and flowers--or to bake tarts and breads and cookies and quiches or make goat cheese--so that we can zoom over there on our lunch hour and shop among the trees. 

Fifth blessing, those founders of the city who donated the downtown blocks of land which have become home  of two versions of the Portland Farmers Market, this small one at the north end of the South Park Blocks and the huge Saturday PFM at the south end of the South Park Blocks.

So, this week on Wednesday I happily saw once again, up close and personal, why it is so ever-lovin' OK that it rains in Portland. These vegetables. Other fruits I didn't get a photo of because I was carrying too many vegetables back to work with me and couldn't manipulate the camera. And the flowers in the next photo, one that I took before I had all of the vegetables to lug.




Once I got home from work, I took everything out of the bags and washed it all and put it in these two colanders to drain.

Sixth blessing, knowing I'll soon cook and eat all of these beautiful vegetables. More on that next time.

• Seventh blessing, my friend Sarah of Portland Creamery sold me some mighty fine chevre and gave me a great big hug!

Felt good enough to go to the Portland Farmers Market Saturday

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Saturday evening I ate a small, fresh-baked baguette--no kidding, I got it at the Dollar Tree in a package of two which you're instructed to bake on the oven rack for 8-10 minutes until golden brown, imported from Holland, of all places--a sensible amount of Pearl Creamery Artisan Goat Cheese, a sensible amount of Rose City Pepperheads' Mango Madness, a sensible amount of Chop's Farmhouse Country Style Pate, and a sensible amount of Unbound Pickling's Bread & Butter Pickles. Wow. Then for a late lunch today, after a laundry marathon, I ate a sandwich on Pearl Bakery's honey wheat bread--with, once again, sensible amounts of goat cheese, pate, pepper jelly and pickles. I eat sensible amounts of these goodies because I want them to last all week. I cannot get over living in Portland where I am allowed to happily spend my hard-earned cash on products produced with pride by locals. I am blessed. See more details about my purchases below. I'll bet your mouth will water, maybe your stomach will growl. Let me know, OK?


My friend Sarah, a recent graduate of University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Italy, has found a great job with the Portland Creamery. She sweetly posed for this photo holding my purchases. I bought Artisan Goat Cheese, Sweet Fire Artisan Goat Cheese (the addition of marionberry preserves adds the sweet, habanero pepper adds the fire), and Cajeta, Artisan Goat Caramel. Swoon city, y'all. Creamy, flavorful, spreadable yumminess. I am very excited to have these products in my frig, even more happy to have them on my plate!
 

Sarah didn't know that I stopped to take this photo. I love the look of concentration on her face as she listens, ready to answer questions and offer tastes of Portland Creamery's products.
 

I bought Bread & Butter Pickles, pure perfection. From their Web site, every word the truth in my opinion: sweetened with blueberries and pear. Bread and butter pickles, subtracting out large quantities of sugar from the formula while adding fresh Willamette Valley blueberries and pear juice to sweeten the taste equation. Perfect on sandwiches and cheeseburgers or add a flavorful and joyous touch to your tuna or chicken salad.
 

I bought a loaf of totally wonderful, great textured honey wheat bread (see the one still there with the big white label in the low basket to the right) and one satisfyingly sweet little pastry called a rugelah, I think that's how they spelled it. I decided to eat it slowly; it's small enough to be gone in two bites, but that would be plain stupid. I made it last for five bites. Yea for me! It's in the case on the top shelf, right, as you look at the photo. The lady had just helped me and had a smile on her face--I caught her in this photo with what I'm sure was a passing moment of farmers-market-been-there-since-probably-6:30-a.m. fatigue. I took the photo at 1:03 p.m. 
 

I bought my all-time-favorite pepper jelly, Mango Madness. My gosh. That stuff is so good! Sweet and spicy, a nice-to-the-tooth-and-tongue consistency. Spreads like a champ!
 

I bought a couple of pears, green and red anjou, if I remember right. I know they're going to be good because every other single piece of fruit I've bought here over the years has been. I trust fruit from Draper Girls.
 

When I go to the Farmers Market, I have to have enough money with me to get a box of Cherry Country Dried Cherries & Milk and Dark Chocolate. So outta sight good, melting chocolate and chewy cherries. I can eat them one at a time without cheating myself by eating them more quickly. I really can! There are 20 in the eight ounce box. I like to get the mixed chocolate because variety is the spice of life. I also got a jar of Montmorency Tart Cherry Jam. I shall have Pearl Bakery honey wheat toast and Cherry County jam for breakfast this week. I am blessed.
 

I bought Farmhouse Country Style Pate, to which I readily admit I am addicted. You can see tidbits of it there on the edge of the cutting board, right in front of the Chop man. In my haste to get into the package, I tore through the label, rendering it unreadable. To tell you the truth, I'll be buying it again before too long; I'll be more careful so that I can share the ingredients with you--I'll even take a photo of the slab inside the butcher paper.
 

Finally, I bought a bunch of both the yellow irises and the purple irises. I stopped by the Blue Diamond on the way home and left them for the sweetest bartender in town, Janessa. Her birthday is this Wednesday, so those flowers are her birthday happy from me.

Sing-A-Long Mary Poppins, Cinema 21, NW 21st Avenue

Saturday, March 5, my friend Sarah and I enjoyed ourselves very much at the 2 p.m. Sing-A-Long Mary Poppins at Cinema 21, over in my old neighborhood. Dimwit that I am, I completely forgot to take a photo of the marquee! I have until March 20 to make it back over there to take a photo and attend the Sing-A-Long Grease--it's at 7 p.m.

While we waited in line to pick up our will-call tickets, Mary Poppins herself came out to speak to me--I had on a headband sporting two long-stemmed flowers and a butterfly because people were encouraged to dress up in costume. She wanted to talk flowers-on-your-hat for a minute or two. Delightful. Soon this charming little girl appeared with her grownups. Seeing Mary Poppins literally stopped her in her tracks. I thought it was very sweet of MP to speak with her, to call attention to her friend Winnie the Pooh who had come to see the movie with her.


As we walked through the lobby, each of us received a bag of goodies--turned out to be sort of movie props for the audience's enjoyment, to heighten our sense of participation beyond mere singing. Here you see Sarah holding our cards and her umbrella. Mine's the card on the left.


Mary Poppins held each item up, one at a time, and asked the audience for suggestions when to use them during the movie. Other items included a chocolate penny for Feed the Birds; a Pixy Stix for A Spoonful of Sugar, the umbrella for Mary Poppins arrival and departure, a kazoo for when the penguins show up in the part where Mary and Bert and Michael and Jane jump into Bert's sidewalk art, a Champagne Party Popper to pull and cause to explode at one of the times that Admiral Boom's man shot off that cannon on the roof, a paper fan to blow away all of those other nannies who answered Mr. Banks' ad for a new nanny, and the pink card to hold up while everyone sang Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! You could smell the gunpowder every time that cannon went boom, what with all of us deciding to pull the string on our party popper at different times. One more thing Mary Poppins told us--the words would appear on the screen for each song which relieved my anxiety about remembering all of them.


Here's the silhouette of my "hat," caused by the light behind me inside the theater itself.


And here I am in the hall mirror at home, before heading to the show.

I can't think of what to wear when I go see Grease. I don't know where my scarves are, yet.