Home Sweet Home

This last month in Portland was wonderful for so many reasons, probably the top being spending so much quality time with my mom. We had a great time causing all sorts of trouble--well, mostly eating awesome food that she cooked, going for walks and talking. I miss her already.

I also was lucky enough to spend time with Wendy up in Seattle and to have Mer visit me at my rented tree house in Portland. Yep, a wonderful month it was. I walked for an hour or more almost every day through the forest, by the river, all over the place. I ate delicious, healthy food. I spent a lot of time just thinking, hanging around with Tiny Clover and being quiet. It was a quiet and beautiful month. Here are a few pictures:

At the same time it is really nice being home. REALLY, REALLY NICE! I missed my people and my place, and what's really sweet is I feel like they missed me too.

Upon returning home I was greeted with a great home cooked meal by Eric: chicken, veggies and salad, mmm!

Then I made dinner a couple of days later: sweet chicken apple sausages, roasted broccoli with gran padano cheese, roasted asparagus and these (http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/baked-quinoa-patties-recipe.html) quinoa patties. Actually these are a little different than the ones in her cookbook, which I highly recommend, Super Natural Every Day.

Today Mead and I had our usual Sunday afternoon date which I must admit I missed a lot while I was in Portland. One fun thing about hanging around with Mead is that while I see her every Sunday, I never know what we'll end up doing. Today we went to Penzey's Spices and went on a great shopping spree! All of the bottles on the right are from today's adventure. Oh, it was SUPER! I am so excited to try these herbs and spices and see what difference they make in my cooking.

Also there are two that aren't pictured: star anise and bay leaves. Already I am thinking of returning!