Vacation, Day 11, 10/31/2009, Part 2

Do these guys know that they're at NASCAR's longest track, 2.66 miles around? Yep, they do. Individualism rocks for NASCAR fans!


No wondering where we are! Here's the sign to prove it. Oh, joy!


This is where we're going!


Tire trouble on the track led to a trip down Pit Road. That's T.J. Bell's Toyota.


The pit crew works on changing the two right-side tires.


The back tire's finished while work continues on the front wheel. See the child on the seat at the back of the pit box? His ticket hanging around his neck is almost as big as he is! And I think that woman to the right in front of him has on a red-devil-horns-headband!


Bell's Toyota won't start, so two of his crew push it down pit road--they're already two pit spaces away from theirs. Taylor Malsams' #81 rolled into his pit, making for close quarters. Bell's crew look to their right, hoping for a break in the traffic on pit road so that they can get him out onto it as Malsam's crew puts gasoline into the truck and one guy makes an adjustment of some sort there at the back window, probably in the wedge. Here's some info about wedge, from NASCAR's glossary: Refers to the relationship from corner-to-corner of the weight of the race vehicle. Increasing the weight on any corner of the vehicle affects the weight of the other three corners in direct proportion. Weight adjustments are made by turning "weight jacking screws" mounted on each corner with a ratchet. A typical adjustment for a "loose" car would be to increase the weight of the left rear corner of the vehicle, which decreases the weight of the left front and right rear corners and increases the weight of the right front. A typical adjustment for a "tight" vehicle would be to increase the weight of the right rear corner, which decreases the weight of the right front and left rear and increases the weight of the left front.

Anyway, the truck race is on!

By the way, over at Portland Oregon Daily Photo there's a spectacular photo of the Hawthorne Bridge that I think you'll really like!

Vacation, Day 11, 10/31/2009, Part 1

Halloween morning at Talladega Superspeedway, and we're having Cafe du Monde beignets courtesy of Kay! Way to go, Kay!


And pancakes courtesy of Betty! Way to go, Betty!


Having never really been around golf carts before this trip, I found them endlessly fascinating.


Here's another one.


Tinkerbell's ready to go outside. It had rained during the night; rain and/or mist persisted. She's a well-dressed cutie pie, thanks to Kay! Way to go Kay!


Mike and Milton, searching for the weather report on the TV.


Off to the race! The Mtn Dew 250 of Talladega fueled by Fred's Hometown Discount Store!


Don't forget the tickets!


See what I mean? Fascinating. Lots and lots of folks park their golf carts at the edge of the campground and walk on over to the Superspeedway.


Here's how lots of other folks arrive at the track. See way off--all of those white things? Those are travel trailers, motorhomes, all sorts of RVs, camped between Speedway Boulevard and I-20.

Vacation, Day 10, 10/30/2009, Part 8

After dinner entertainment, courtesy of Ian, Milton and Kay's grandson. I wondered why he asked me to bring him some shoe strings and light sticks from Walmart. He tied a shoe string to a light stick, made one for each hand, and started to rotate his arms and wrists. See the spectacular results!











By the way, go over to Portland Oregon Daily Photo (on My Other Blogs) and see a beauty of a Chevrolet Pickup Truck, maybe a 1952. You'll be glad that you looked!

Vacation, Day 10, 10/30/2009, Part 7

First let me say that I've decided that I'll post about our fan-tab-u-lous vacation here at Mama and Me from PDX and about Portland over at Portland Oregon Daily Photo. I hope you'll have a moment to click on the link to the other blog, as shown in My Other Blogs. Thanks! And for anyone who wants to see previous vacation posts, go back to May 28 and before. Thanks again!

Now for the fried food, courtesy of Milton at the campground at Talladega Superspeedway.


Milton mans the Cajun Fryer. You can see he's been a busy, busy man.


The Cajun Fryer at work.




Fried okra.


Deep-fried corn on the cob.


Corn on the cob waiting to be fried.


Fried jalapeno slices.




Fried fish.


I think these are corn poppers, but I cannot remember for sure. It's too late to call Milton and ask him--I'm doing my post on Thursday night, to appear on Friday morning.


French fries waiting for the hot oil.


What sort of poppers do these look like to you? Milton? Kay? Are you out there?


Kay's banana pudding--some kind of delicious dessert!

Setting sun sparks KOIN Tower windows as I wait for the 4th of July fireworks

From my friends' boat on the Willamette River, I noticed the KOIN Tower windows, glowing wondrously. I clicked the D50 a few times, hoping to get at least one photo that would do justice to the sight. I like this one best because it not only shows the windows but also give you a good idea of the size of the crowd at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival there in Tom McCall Waterfront Park as well as the number of boats visible in the narrow space captured by the camera.

The building is 509 feet tall, Oregon's third tallest building. The building was originally named Fountain Plaza, but it quickly came to be known as the KOIN Center, or KOIN Tower, reflecting the name of its highest-profile occupant, KOIN television. The building was controversial while being constructed because its location blocked the view of Mount Hood that had long been seen by drivers emerging from the Vista Ridge Tunnel under Portland's West Hills going eastbound on U.S. Route 26. The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is the largest blues fest west of the Mississippi and the second largest on in the USA.

Savor summertime at 3 Doors Down Cafe

New entree on the menu at 3 Doors Down Cafe. This is the first time I've ever taken a photo of a dish that I didn't eat afterwards. I had listened to Lamont's description of it and knew immediately that I would want to photograph it. So I asked him to let me know when he plated it again. Our waitress did just that. It's pan-roasted Oregon albacore tuna, bacon, chilled mache greens and sliced heirloom tomatoes with Mama Lil's Hungarian pepper aioli.

Before I forget, since Mama and I were at 3 Doors Down on Sunday night, we had Happy Hour food, all small dishes which we shared: grilled corn on the cob with blue cheese butter; tuna salad stuffed piquillo peppers; egg fettuccine, truffle oil and black pepper; mini meatballs, marinara, mozzarella. Actually I took half of the fettuccine and the tuna-stuffed piquillo peppers home and ate them for lunch on Monday. Lucky, lucky me!

Going south on the Willamette, towards the 4th of July fireworks

The Fremont Bridge takes my breath away. Looking south at the bridge.










Looking north at the bridge.

Waiting for the Fireworks No. 1

I got to ride on some friends' boat on the Willamette River for our July 4 fireworks in downtown Portland. All they asked was that I just take photos of everything else, not them--such camera-shy folks. I quickly agreed and had a blast!


When the breeze blew, it was just this cool in the shade.


Elvis is on the river.

Although this is the first post on this topic, the posts will not be in chronological order. You know how much I like to do that, but I thought, "Hey! What's wrong with random now and then?" Enjoy!

Cool off considerably at 3 Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th & Hawthorne

Every bite, every sip, a reward for having the sense to come in out of the heat at 3 Doors Down Cafe after work.


Cool, the appetizer vitello tonnato, a classic Italian dish of chilled braised veal breast resting on a bed of tuna sauce that includes capers, cornichons and aoili. The first three bites I ate without the lemon juice, savoring the flavors, then I decided to go for it, to drip lemon juice on a corner of the vitello tonnato. My gosh! Talk about accentuating perfection! That's what the lemon juice did to the veal--it actually made it taste even better. In no time flat I had dripped lemon juice all over it!


Chilled, the Perfect Manhattan--it looks gorgeous, doesn't it? It went very well with the vitello tonnato.


Cold and creamy, the housemade strawberry ice cream, two great big scoops with that crispy wafer in between them. Satisfaction.

Happy 4th of July from Portland, Oregon

How do you like the looks of the Bit-o-Honey Building?

When I first saw the golden sections on this high rise, I immediately thought of a candy from my childhood, Bit-O-Honey. Those of you familiar with the candy can see why, I'm sure. Actually the building is The Casey, a condo tower. Online I found that there are 61 living spaces in the 16-story building, averaging 2100 square feet and starting at $600,000. Outta my league, mine and Mama's.

Here's what I found at Wikipedia: Bit-O-Honey first appeared in 1924 and was made by the Schutter-Johnson Company of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Bit-O-Honey was a new kind of candy bar consisting of six pieces of candy wrapped in wax paper and then packaged in a wrapper. The candy consists of almond bits embedded in a honey-flavored taffy which makes for a long-chewing candy. It is possible to purchase the larger, candy bar version, or a bag of smaller, bite-size versions. Between the mid- and late-1970s, a chocolate-flavored version called Bit-O-Chocolate was made, but this product was later dropped. Bit-O-Honey was acquired by the Nestlé Company in 1984, which continues production. Bit-O-Honey is similar in style and packaging (single pieces) to Mary Jane made by Necco.

Here's a bit more about The Casey, found on the World Wide Web:

N.W. 12th and Everett
The Casey is distinctive because it occupies one quarter block, elegantly scaled in comparison to other Pearl projects which occupy half and full blocks. It offers 61 well-appointed residential units, ground floor retail, concierge service and underground parking.

The Casey is a “green building” -- meeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) requirements -- and has the 52 LEED points required for a Platinum rating, the highest certification possible. It features an eco-roof, photovoltaic panels for powering common-area spaces, operable windows, and window glazing that keeps out unwanted heat.

Developer : Gerding Edlen

Architect : GBD Architects

Builder: Hoffman Construction

From June 18, at 3 Doors Down Cafe, a cocktail and an appetizer

House-made maraschino cherry sidecar, a refreshing cocktail with the added delight of those two cherries, one Bing, one Rainier. See the juice about the drip from the Bing?


Thanks to 3 Doors Down Cafe for widening my food experience well beyond its former boundaries. Here you see the latest in a six-year-long line of luscious-looking dishes whose tastes, smells, and textures are all designed to please the senses. This is an appetizer, a house-made rabbit and pork terrine, served with accoutrements: the mustard and the cornichons (tiny tart pickles) and the toasted, sliced baguette. The roundish shapes in the slice of terrine are hazelnuts I found out once I had finished and flew to the kitchen to ask, "What's that nut in the terrine? "Hazelnut," Dave answered, a slight smile on his face, as Lamont stood to his right, sort of shaking his head in wonder that I've eaten the terrine and loved it. (He does that whenever I eat anything new and different because he knows what a picky eater I was growing up, really disgustingly picky.) I loved my first hazelnuts, too. Yummy mild flavor, smooth texture. Every single bite of that terrine, slowly eaten to extend the experience, yummy. I confess, I didn't eat any of the mustard--I'm not much for mustard--it's too pungent for me. But that bread, that terrine, those cornichons, a perfect combination of flavors, crispness, and densities.

Curious about the terrine's provenance, later on I got Lamont to explain it to me. Seems that at 3 Doors Down, the rabbit and pork are rough ground, mixed with eggs and spices (I didn't get a list of them), the hazelnuts, then poured into a thinly-sliced-proscuitto-or-pancetta-lined iron loaf pan (Lamont couldn't remember which P--they're both divine Ps from pigs to me.) The loaf pan is placed in a water bath which is then placed into the oven where it is baked. Lamont explained that because the mixture expands as it bakes, once it's out of the oven, while still in the loaf pan, it's wrapped in foil or paper--I can't remember what for sure and I've already called the poor guy twice in the last three hours--and a piece of something sturdy (like cardboard) is cut to fit onto the top of the loaf, fitting up against the inside rim of the pan, then something heavy, like a brick or two or a ten-pound weight, is put on top to cover the entire sturdy piece completely in order to compress the mixture as it cools. The whole idea is to compress the ingredients into a firm loaf that will slice smoothly into an attractive piece of forcemeat. See the photo for success.

And I have to say that thanks again to 3 Doors Down Cafe, for when I read page xiii of "Medium Raw," I knew exactly what Anthony Bourdain meant when he wrote these words: terrines, rillettes, and pate. I've savored bites of each one of them at one time or another there where my two sons and a whole lot of other intelligent, creative, determined, hard-working people willingly step up repeatedly to prepare, to cook, to serve those of us blessed with the time and the money for a night out, dining on the results of their excellent efforts. Thank you, one and all.

She matches the crosswalk signal.

Walking south on SE 7th Avenue, towards SE Belmont. I saw her coming and waited to take the photo until she'd gone on by last Saturday while on my way to the Architectural Heritage Center for a lecture on Portland's concrete houses, both form-to-look-like-stone and poured-in-forms walls.

Here's what was on their Web site about the lecture: Concrete Houses of Portland
In the early twentieth century, concrete challenged Portland’s ubiquitous timber as the building material of choice for “modern” residences. As early as 1906, Portland architects and builders had begun constructing homes from solid concrete blocks formed to look like stone. In following years, other local builders experimented with the “Edison mold”—houses built entirely of continuous poured concrete panels. Concrete houses never became the norm in Portland, but numerous examples can still be found in all quarters of the city.