Kiwi-marinated Grilled Pork Tenderloin with a Kiwi and Fig Sauce
And this little figgy piggy screamed “kiwi, kiwi, kiwi” all the way home!
This semi-exotic fruit lends a clean, tart flavor to savory dishes.
Category: Outdoors
Tuna adventure ends with delicious Albacore Poke
Ever since I became and avid fisherman not long after moving to Oregon, I’ve dreamed of fishing for albacore tuna. But the hefty cost, time commitment and other things conspired to keep it an unrealized dream for nearly 10 years. Finally, the past week during my two-week staycation, my spouse and my mother gave me […]
On the trail of truffles
We had gotten a whiff of the lore about Oregon white truffles more than 10 years ago, before my partner, Charles Price, and I moved to Oregon from Baltimore. But it wasn’t until a few years after we got here that we truly were infected with the truffle bug. At first, the idea of Oregon […]
Pan-fried Razor Clams — A Trip to Sunset Beach Pays Off
Love of razor clams will make you go to great lengths if you’re an outdoor adventurer. It drove Mom and me to get up at 3:30 a.m. recently on one of my days off in order to pick up friends Tina and Allison Martin and head out on the three-hour drive from Salem to Sunset Beach, north of Seaside, Oregon, in time to get there for the minus low tide at 7:30 a.m. I can’t remember the last time I got up at 3:30 a.m. Nor can I remember the last time I drove 125 miles to catch dinner.
Taking the Roads Less Traveled, with Spectacular Results
Sometimes it pays off to explore the roads less traveled in Oregon. You never know what magnificent vistas await you. Today, we explored National Forest Service Road 2212, in the Willamette National Forest, and were rewarded with magnificent views of Mt. Jefferson and Detroit Lake.
A Gluten-free Culinary Adventure on the Rogue River
Celiac disease and gluten allergies don’t have to limit you from enjoying the outdoors and camping. One outdoor adventure company, ROW, has created a special culinary Rogue River rafting trip that provides gluten-free meals during the three-day rafting adventure.
Tillamook Bay Cockle Chowder
Chowder is easy to make and once you’ve tasted it made from fresh cockles or clams, you’ll never feel the same about opening a can of chowder again. It will make you want to look up the tide tables and head to Tillamook Bay with your bucket and garden rake!
Rainbow Trout Poached in White Wine with Olive and Garlic Dressing: From Mt. Hebo Lake to the Dinner Table
I love fishing for trout in Oregon and go out every chance I get. Our freezer is always well stocked with vacuum packed rainbow trout, labeled with the date and lake where the fish were caught. Part of the fun is also figuring out different ways of cooking the trout.Tonight for dinner, I decided to poach the trout in some white wine, skin them, and then serve them covered in a dressing of chopped olives, garlic, herbs and olive oil. It was delicious, judging from the empty plates and smiles at the dinner table.
Miner’s Lettuce Salad with Pomegranate Dressing — Foraging in the Spring for Wild Greens
Mom and I took the dogs for a walk in a park not far from our home during one of the pauses in the rain, and I discovered to my surprise that several of the towering Douglas Firs in a grove at the edge of the park had green shawls of miner’s lettuce around the bases of their trunks. Miner’s lettuce grows wild in the woodlands of Oregon but its season is a brief one and it withers and dies back as soon as the rains stop and the weather warms. Native Americans ate this wild green. Early settlers of the Pacific Northwest also ate it. Folklore has it that California Gold Rush miners ate it to prevent scurvy, and thus its nickname. It’s also known as winter purslane, spring beauty or Indian lettuce.
Take a Culinary Adventure on the Rogue
For those craving a wild river experience and good food to boot, nowhere else in the United States can you raft a wilderness river during the day and stay in a comfortable lodge with delectable food each evening than with ROW Adventures’ series of culinary Rogue River rafting trips. ROW offers three this year: a gourmet food and wine rafting trip, a gourmet food and Oregon craft beer trip, and a gluten-free trip. The trips offer food lovers, wine lovers and beer lovers a chance to combine their passions with a fun outdoor adventure. And the gluten-free trip allows those with wheat allergies to enjoy a multiple-day rafting trek without having to bring along special meals.
Three Sisters
Commonly known as Sisters, but properly named Three Sisters, these three volcanic peaks of the Cascade Range each exceeds 10,000 ft in elevation. They are the third, fourth and fifth highest peaks in Oregon and are located in the Three Sisters Wilderness, about 15 miles southwest of the town of Sisters, Oregon. The three peaks were originally named Faith, Hope and Charity by early settlers but the names didn’t stick.
Siletz Bay
Wide and shallow, Siletz Bay is located just south of Lincoln City and is a popular spot for clammers in search of purple varnish clams near the edge of the bay. Four Brothers, a formation of rocks sits out in the bay just beyond where the Siletz River empties into the bay, like stone sentries marching towards the sea.
Smith Rock
When most people think of Oregon, they think of our volcanic mountains, like Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson, the lush Willamette Valley, or our rugged coastline. But you might be surprised that part of the state is also high desert country like you would find in New Mexico and Arizona, although it doesn’t get nearly […]
Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm
Every year during the spring, the fields of the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm near Woodburn are splashed with color and the fields are open for visitors.
Yaquina Head and Lighthouse
Just outside of Newport, Yaquina Head Lighthouse is a picturesque stop along the coast.
Rogue River
The Rogue River just outside Crater Lake National Park is worth a side trip if you’re headed to Crater Lake.
Crater Lake
Crater Lake National Monument, located off the beaten path in southern Oregon, is truly one of the great and beautiful wonders of the world. It was formed by the collapse of a giant volcano.
Jetty-caught Striped Perch and Mussels in a Tomato and Tamarind Sauce
A tomato and tamarind sauce lends a sweet, sour and salty melange of flavors to a seafood bounty of deep-fried striped perch I caught from the jetty at Newport, and mussels from the store. It was the perfect way to enjoy my catch and easy enough for you to prepare at home with any firm-fleshed ocean fish like sea bass or red snapper.
In the Great Crab Race, Dungeness Wins
In the great crab race, there are those who believe that Alaska’s King Crabs get the checkered flag and beat all other decapod crustaceans for flavor. When Charles and I lived in Baltimore, Md., and Fort Worth, Tex., we were in the stands cheering on the sleek Blue Crab while the rambunctious Floridians were raising […]
Lingcod — A Fish So Ugly Only Its Mother Would Love It…Unless You’re a Seafood Lover
Being a Buddhist, I don’t believe in killing animals for the sake of sport. But that has its drawbacks when you’re angling on the wave-soaked rocks of Garibaldi’s north jetty. I’m thinking back to the first time that I took my partner, Charles Price, jetty fishing with me. I was happy to rig his line […]
Hot, Live and Kickin’ — Grilled Pacific Spot Shrimp
As a child growing up in Bangkok, I remember going to the markets with my mother and seeing tanks teeming with live fish, eels, crabs, snails and clams, and tubs filled with live mudfish, frogs and other sea creatures. We could select our dinner live, and take it home so that it was as fresh […]
Fresh from the Ocean…to a Table near You: Rockfish en papillote
The one thing that I quickly learned from Oregon natives after moving here is you can’t let the weather deter you. The weather in Salem or Portland can be nice and sunny, but by the time you get to the coast an hour to the west, it can be blustery and rainy. You just […]
When the Going Gets Tough in Oregon, the Tough Go Trout Fishing…Guess What’s for Dinner?
Most people work all day at a stressful job in an office and then, to blow off steam, go work out at a windowless indoor gym somewhere. In Oregon, you can still go to an indoor gym, but why do that when there’s so much more you can do outdoors? Right around the end […]
Life in Oregon Is Berry, Berry Good in August and September
It’s that time of year in Oregon when marionberries and blackberries appear in abundance. Wild blackberries are everywhere in the Willamette Valley, even growing along the median of Interstate 5.
I can literally walk out my front door and return in a very short period of time with enough berries to make a pie or cobbler from scavenging along the nearby streets.
Is There Such a Thing as a “Dull” Weekend in Oregon? Never!
When we first moved here from Baltimore more than 6 years ago, it was the middle of winter. In Oregon, that means days and days of drizzle. I think that December I counted 30 days of rain in a row. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll take 30 days of drizzle in the winter over stretches […]
Salmon Chanted Evening, or A Fish Tale — Hot Alderwood Smoked Salmon — Thai Boxing Square Chicken
There were lulls in the morning, with no bites, but we were often treated to schools of iridescent and brilliantly hued jellyfish. Some were tiny and others had tentacles trailing several feet. It was an impressive show. An even more stunning show was the ever-changing and colorful dawn viewed from offshore.
