Help 42,000 Families and have a Fabulous Time Doing It!
It’s kind of amazing what one little ticket can do! The 2010 Classic Wines Auction is Saturday March 7th at the Oregon Convention Center. The event benefits five very deserving charities, and by extension, will help support over 42,000 children and families in the Portland area. The charities are: Metropolitan Family Services, New Avenues for Youth, Friends of the Children-Portland, Trillium Family Services, and YWCA Clark County. If you attend the Wine Auction on March 7th, You’ll rub elbows with hundreds of well-to-do Portlanders and watch with awe as they bid on amazingly expensive wines and wine related trips. You’ll also eat a gala dinner prepared by David Machado (Lauro Mediterranean Kitchen, Vindalho and Nel Centro) and Cory Schrieber (formerly of Wildwood Restaurant and author). Paired with that dinner of course, will also be high-end wines from Dr. Loosen Estate, Stoller Vineyards and Winery, Pahlmeyer, and Owen Roe . However if you don’t have the $750 dollars for a ticket (I know…your mouth just dropped open a little bit) there are several much more affordable events you can attend leading up to the auction, and all of those proceeds still help the five very deserving charities!
The Classic Wines Auction also hosts several Winemakers Dinners. The dinners take place over 3 nights leading up to the big auction, march 2-4th. Those tix are $150 a person (and $65 of that is tax deductible)! The dinners will be held at some of the best restaurants in Portland and the dinners will each be paired with different wines and winemakers! In all, 28 restaurants and 51 wineries will participate in the Classic Wines Acution Winemaker Dinner Series. Some of my favorites include Oba, Noble Rot and The Country Cat, but many are selling out fast, so check out the link if you want to attend!
If $150 is still a little high for you, but you still want to help and attend one of the events tied in with the Classic Wines Auction, on March 1st, there will be a Walla Walla Wines Tasting at Ten 01. $45 dollars gets you into this event, you’ll taste wine from 24 Walla Walla winemakers, and pair the wines with hors d’ouevres and you still get to help the five charites!
Very rarely do you find an event that will help so many people. The Classic Wines Auction is now rated as one of the top 5 wine auctions in the country, and the event has raised over 21.6 million since it’s inception in 1982! While it’s fun to revel in the sheer magnitude of the dollar amount, it’s also quite amazing to think of the good all those dollars have done as local Oregon charities have used those proceeds to help those in our community who need it most! Not bad for the price of a ticket some great food and a few glasses of wine!
Three Words: FAB-U-LOUS!
The Beaux Arts Ball is at the Portland Art Museum this Saturday at 5pm, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is one of THE defining events of the PDX social calendar! Aside from the amazing people watching, the pure spectacle of the performing artists, the drinking in the museum and the fact that you’re rubbing elbows with some of the creme de la creme of Portland High Society, it’s also going to be a blast! I got to shoot a News story for our 8 O’clock News with the body painter who will be transforming some models into living breathing works of art for the party. Check out the body painting pics, the party pics and then, go get your tickets!!
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- This year’s Ball is Saturday at the Portland Art Musuem
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- This year’s Ball is Saturday at the Portland Art Musuem
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- This year’s Ball is Saturday at the Portland Art Musuem
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- This year’s Ball is Saturday at the Portland Art Musuem
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- One of the body painting models transformed into VanGogh’s Starry Night for this year’s Beaux Arts Ball
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- This year’s Ball is Saturday at the Portland Art Musuem
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- Dressing up for the Beaux Arts Ball is not required, but encouraged
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- This year’s Ball is Saturday at the Portland Art Musuem
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- Naomi, of Time Honored Designs will be creating body paintings based on the works of great masters for the Beaux Arts Ball
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- Naomi, of Time Honored Designs will be creating body paintings based on the works of great masters for the Beaux Arts Ball
Goodness Gracious!
I’ve experienced a huge amount of Good Samaritan kindness recently. I don’t know if someone poured happy juice in the water reservoir, or if those darn “pass it on” public service announcements are finally making a dent in our collective psyche, but whatever it is, I like it! I wanted to share my stories and the consequent warm fuzzy feelings in the hope that these random acts of kindness will spread into a world-wide phenomenon! Hey, I saw “Pay it Forward” I know how this stuff works! 
My first Good Samaritan encounter happened as a direct result of my sailor mouth! “Whaaa?” you ask, “something good happened because you cursed?” Yes, children, despite what your Mom and Dad tell you, sometimes good things do happen when you say a swear! I was in the locker room at my gym, I had gotten all of my clothes out, but hadn’t started to change yet because someone was in the row of lockers next to me, and ladies, you know we will dawdle and procrastinate until that person leaves, even if it takes an extra 15 minutes! Anyhow, I was doing my inventory of gym supplies, when I realized that I was missing one very important element…SOCKS! You can work out without a sports bra if you have to, you can exercise without a hair tie, but you cannot exercise without socks! “SON OF A %*^#@! I said, a little too loudly and dramatically for the issue at hand. As I randomly started shoving items back into my gym bag, I heard a voice next to me, it was the woman I had been studiously avoiding getting naked in front of. “Did you forget something?” she asked sympathetically. I told her that I’d forgotten my socks, and as I continued shoving my gym shoes and my gym towel back into my workout bag, she held out a balled up pair of clean socks from her own bag. “I’ve got these extra socks, and they’re clean…” she offered. I finally looked up at this kind stranger, standing in the gym locker aisle next to me. She seemed friendly enough, and the socks were obviously clean, so I took them. This locker room Good Samaritan explained that she had forgotten a hair tie just last week and someone had given her one. After repeated thanks from me, we chatted a few more minutes. As she left, I finally started changing into my gym clothes, and vowed silently to meet her again, and give her a clean pair of socks in return or a whole packet of hair ties, or perhaps I will just pass the favor along to the next stranded victim of forgetfulness that I meet in the gym locker room!
My second story of random kindness comes at the expense of being slightly, but very publicly embarrassed. I know, you think I’d be used to that by now, all of the dumb stuff I’ve done on TV, but trust me…it’s harder when you do something dumb in front of a live audience! Last Saturday, I had an appearance scheduled at Gravity Slashers, freestyle motocross at the Rose Garden. I pulled up to the Rose Garden at 6:30pm and pulled our Livepdx.com Scion on the brick walkway between the Rose Garden and the Memorial Coliseum. I slowly drove around the roundabout by the box office, and parked triumphantly with the front of the Scion pointed back out of the gate (so I didn’t have to back up with people walking behind the car…that always makes me nervous). I gathered up my movie passes to hand out, flicked on the hazard lights for a little extra pizazz, and hopped out of the car to hang out with the considerable line that had formed outside the main gates. As I got out of my car, a man walked up to me, as readied a smile and some free movie tickets, he said to me “I think you have a flat tire”. I explained to him that the tires are low profile, and sometimes they look flat, but he patiently said to me that no, he was pretty sure this tire really was flat. I followed him around to the front passenger side tire, and sure enough…riding on a rim, with no air in the tire, was the livepdx.com Street Team car. “Whoops!” I said jovially, “I better get the spare tire out and get that fixed” I said. I thanked the man and opened the trunk to look for a spare tire. As I dug, the man followed me back and told me to look under the floor mat, I did, and there was no tire. He knelt down with me in a puddle on the wet pavement to look under the car for a spare… no tire! As we were conducting our fruitless search for a spare tire, several other people got out of the now giant line to get in and see crazy freestyle motocross to tell me about the flat tire, one teenager even offered to change the tire if I could find one! Ultimately, I had to call my husband, who also works for the station. He called a tow truck. As eager event attendees filed into the Rose Garden, a giant tow truck with lights flashing (much more pizazz than my little hazard lights could produce) pulled up on the walkway. After airing my tire up and staying with me for 30 minutes to make sure the tire would hold, the driver followed me off of the Rose Garden walkway, and I safely made it back to the station. If it weren’t for the kind souls at the Rose Garden, I shudder to think what would have happened driving back to the station on 26. I would never have checked my tires before leaving the Rose Garden that night, and while I don’t claim to be any sort of auto mechanic or tire structural engineer, I’m pretty sure that flat tires and freeway speeds don’t mix!
I would like to personally and publicly say a big “Thank-you” to all of my personal Good Samaritans, and I would also like to encourage you to go out of your way just a little bit and do something nice for someone else. You’ll be surprised at how great you feel afterwards, and I guarantee the person you help will be spreading word of your anonymous greatness for the rest of the week!
Love List
Just for fun, here’s a list of a few random things I’m loving now…in no particular order!
-Green Earth Bread-it’s a new eco-friendly bread line from local Franz Bakery. The bread is certified organic, and baked in a way that reduced emissions & uses clean energy. The bread is dense and nutty and packed w/ good for you stuff while also being pretty darn tasty!
-Radish Underground-no, it’s not another food, it’s actually a fantastically wonderful whimsical and stylish little shop in downtown PDX! The shop features local artists on a rotating basis, has fabulous local clothes and accessories, and was the first place I saw Snarky cards! Who can beat that?
-Snarky Cards-while we’re at it! These fabulously offensive, homespun little ne’er-do-well note cards are all at once, quaint, spit-your-soda shocking, and tons of fun! Billed as the “kinder, gentler brutal honesty” share these w/ someone you love…a lot…and who will understand the special brand of humor in these cards! (Warning…if you click on this link…there are curse words on the cards! If this offends you, don’t click)!
-Schnecken-on a cleaner note, and back to the food again, if you ever find yourself in downtown Hillsboro (whether you’re horribly lost, or you actually meant to drive all the way out there), you’ve got to stop by Perfection Bakery, located right next to Hank’s Thriftway, this locally owned little gem of a bakery specializes in a pastry called schnecken, an Eastern European pastry that’s a little like a combination of a croissant, baklava and a cinnamon roll. The pastry is flaky and rolled thin, then filled with some kind of delicious honey/caramel sort of filling and sprinkled w/ hazelnuts. then the pastry is rolled up, cut like a cinnamon roll and baked. The result is a chewy, sticky, flaky disk of heaven!
-12 Bridges Gin-From food right into booze, I’m really covering my bases here! Again, this is a locally made product that sets my SPIRITS soaring. (pun intended). Named after Portland’s 12 bridges, and produced by Integrity Spirits, this is a treat for any gin drinker in your life, and if you think you don’t like gin, try this yourself…unless you’re under 21…then wait until you’re of age!! This gin is simply fantastic with tonic or soda, much more flavorful than traditional gins, full of juniper berries, cucumber, ginger, and a slight anise like finish that is an amazing compliment to any citrus!
-David Hill Winery Blackjack Pinot Noir 2006-while we’re on the booze cruise here might as well finish with stellar nightcap! I was lucky enough to run into this wine when I was emceeing the Rockaway Beach Wine, Cheese and all that Jazz Festival. I got to spend an entire afternoon visiting with winemaker, Jason Bull, and when I tasted this wine, though I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to spend over $20 a bottle, I very happily paid $45 dollars for the Blackjack! Smooth, velvety, jammy and wonderful, if you can find this wine, buy it!
O.K. you’ve read my random list! Share yours w/ me! What local stuff are you loving right now?
A KITTY IN NEED…DESERVES C.A.T. INDEED
Ummm…aside from my hugely nerdy headline, I hope this post inspires you to help a very worthy cause!
Cat Adoption Team (who I’ve blogged about in the past) has opened a cat food bank for pet owners who are unable to afford to feed their loved family kitty. The economy has forced a record number of pet surrenders and shelters are filling up. Cat Adoption Team saw an opportunity to help those in need and allow them to keep the comfort of a furry friend with them during trying economic times.
The first Sunday of every month, C.A.T. opens the doors to the Cat Food Bank and hands out enough food and litter to last a month. The food bank will supply food and litter for up to four kitties per household.
families in need fill out a quick application and take home food, litter, and sometimes even toys and treats for their kitties. In September alone, the Cat Food Bank handed out over 2,500 pounds of food, that’s over a ton of food handed out to help feed local cats!
The Cat Adoption Team is in need of food donations so they can supply the growning demand for the food bank and they are also desperately in need of litter donations! Litter is harder to come by and is very much needed!
If you want to volunteer at the food bank, or donate food or litter (or cash), visit the Cat Adoption Team website.
If you also wanted to take home a little kitty while you’re there, I think that would be a lovely idea! I hope the pictures of my little guys below will inspire you to adopt!
A Seriously Good Cause
Portland Rescue Mission offers support and recovery programs to homeless men, women and children in the Portland area. The Mission offers food, shelter, counseling, education, clothing and more to those in need at no cost. The organization is entirely privately funded (no government $$). On Tuesday, 11/24/09, Portland Rescue Mission will host their annual “Give Hope” radiothon in partnership with 98.7 KUPL. The radiothon will be held at the FOX 12 Studios.
I met three amazing people last week who have been helped by Portland Rescue Mission. Two women, who are residents of Shepherd’s Door, a facility run by Portland Rescue Mission offering recovery to women and children, and I also spoke with a man living at Portland Rescue Mission in the men’s recovery program.
Speaking with the people who have been helped by Portland Rescue Mission was inspirational, and humbling. The stories I heard were of hard lives, and pain but also of transformation; and I am so glad there is a place here in Portland not only providing a meal to those in need, but providing an opportunity for an entirely different life.
You can see an 8 O’clock News story about Shepherd’s Door here, and here is a short segment with Edward, the gentleman I got to speak with at Portland Rescue Mission.
Please take a look at these stories. I hope you are as moved as I am every time I watch them. I know money is extremely tight right now, but if you have even a few dollars to give, please call in on Tuesday and donate whatever you can. Or, you can also log on to the Portland Rescue Mission website and look at other ways you can help.
Great Getaways!
Don’t you just adore alliteration?
I got to do a fantastic shoot this week that I just had to tell you about! We went up to The Resort at The Mountain in Welches. I have to admit, I hadn’t been to The Resort before our shoot, but now I can’t wait to go back!
Just about an hour from Beaverton (that would be 45 minutes or less from Portland or the East side) The Resort at the Mountain is a giant complex consisting of a 27 hole golf course, an 18 hole putting green, a spa, a gourmet restaurant, biking, hiking, warm cozy rooms and fantastic views!
The Resort just finished a 17 million dollar renovation, that not only improved the property aesthetically for human visitors, but improved it ecologically for the rest of nature’s inhabitants!
The Golf course is now an Audubon bird sanctuary as well as a salmon-friendly spawning grounds! Streams that were diverted generations ago to make way for the golf course were re-instated to flow in their natural beds. Salmon that had been missing for years from the small lakes and streams in Welches are now reappearing to spawn in the streams, and hatch in the lakes before returning once again to the ocean. You can actually see salmon spawning in the streams on the golf course right now!
Also new to The Resort is a beautiful spa. The spa was built to evoke the calm and serenity of the mountains that surround it. You automatically want to speak in quiet tones from the moment you set foot in the spa (and wow, does it smell great in there)! Mud wraps, a multitude of massages, and facials await you in the spa as well as quiet contemplation in their serenity tea garden (which is a gorgeous open room with a fireplace and glass walls looking out onto a calming garden and an amazing view of the mountain.
You’ll also find dishes to rival any fancy Portland restaurant at The Resort, the main restaurant, called Altitude is home to Chef Paul Bosch, who specializes in NW Cuisine with a definite twist. Chef Paul practices “molecular gastronomy” which basically means taking familiar foods, and re-inventing ways in which to serve them that open up flavors and textures so that you enjoy foods you love in an entirely different form. Even if you don’t understand the science, you’ll love the results! You can also find traditional NW dishes on the menu such as bbq glazed pork belly (the bbq sauce has an amazing spicy apricot kick)! Everything at Altitude is plated beautifully, and served in a dining room with once again, a beautiful Pacific NW view.
I really love finding a weekend getaway that isn’t too far from home, and isn’t too expensive! They are doing a big Thanksgiving champagne buffet that I’m seriously considering instead of cooking this year…Besides, even if I did stay home and cook, I couldn’t do a glazed ham, NY strip loin, and turkey! I’m good…but I’m not that good!
Anyway, I was really impressed with The Resort at the Mountain, and I’m looking forward to dragging the husband up there (Thanksgiving dinner or no Thanksgiving dinner) for a little getaway. If you’re looking for a little something special, anniversary, birthday, Christmas, or just ’cause you gosh-darn-love your family and want to take them on a little getaway, check out The Resort at the Mountain!
Super Top Secret Restaurant Gathering
Just like the Super-Friends, the area’s best local restaurants gather in an annual meeting to decide what you’ll be eating, when you eat out in the upcoming year.
The Food Services of America Trade Show takes up an entire hall of the Expo Center (each year’s show has a theme-this year’s was Wizard of Oz). The Trade Show is aisle upon aisle, row upon row of fantastic food samples (and by samples, I mean a full plate serving or slightly smaller)!
the Trade Show is only open to Restaurant Professionals and as the area’s best and brightest of the culinary world gather, they walk the aisles, sampling produce, meats, cheeses, drinks, condiments, and of course, dessert. All of this tasting in order to decide which fantastic new items you’ll be seeing on area restaurant menus in the next year!
I’m not a restaurant professional (though I keep hoping if I hang out in enough local restaurants, they’ll accept me as one of their own)! Despite my lack of restaurant pedigree, the fine folks at Food Services of America agreed to let me roam the halls of the Expo Center, sampling the samples in an effort to find a few of the most unique local items you may be seeing on local menus!
The decision was tough, I found non-dairy ice-cream that tasted like the real thing, and chicken straws (just like chicken nuggets, only straw-shaped), and a local company that not only buys local berries, but turns them into fabulous home-made pies, but I finally narrowed the selection down to just a couple fun and hopefully recognizable items to highlight. That way, when you see them in your area restaurant, you may say to your dining partner “this is a brand-new item, and I knew about it before almost anyone else”-people love to say that sort of thing to dining partners!
My first pick was found at the Zenner’s Sausage Booth, where they were unveiling a brand-new sausage variety; a Tillamook Cheddar Jalepeno Sausage, which they’d wrapped in a flour tortilla and grilled. If you see this on a menu, definitely give it a try! It is fantastic and gooey and sausage-y and has just a little kick to it!
Second, I found the only Pacific Northwest pickle producer at the trade show! Pleasant Valley Farms is located in North-Western Washington, and the gentleman manning the booth at the trade show was the pickle-maker himself (they called him “Mr. Pickle”…I’m not making that up)! I got to learn about a brand-new pickle that Pleasant Valley Farms will be rolling out in the upcoming year, a horseradish bread and butter pickle. I also got to try a garlic dill pickle at the Pleasant Valley Farms booth. I will go on record as saying that the garlic dill pickle was the best pickle I’ve ever eaten! If you want to try Pleasant Valley Farms, you will need to visit a local restaurant to do so. The company only sells to restaurants, not to supermarkets or direct to us non-restaurant folk!
Unless you are a restaurant industry professional, you won’t be getting an invite to next year’s fabulous array of samples, so if you want to try any of the items from the Food Services of America Trade Show, a great way to do so is to visit DoItNW.com. The website lists locally owned restaurants all over the area that may be carrying some new items discovered at the Trade Show this year.
Great Restaurant in Suburbia!!
Did I read that headline right?!? (you ask incredulously)
Yes…yes…you did!
First, a little confession…I live in the ‘burbs! The land of strip malls and mulitple chain stores. On the bright side, my neighborhood is quiet, and I have a 10 minute commute to work…on the down side…I feel perpetually uncool! 
However, some of that uncool has been alleviated with my discovery of a unique, delicious little restaurant right in my neighborhood. Kitty corner from the Starbucks (but what isn’t these days) there’s a super-cute little bistro called Bethany’s Table. The food is sophisticated, but approachable NW cuisine. On my last visit, I had a carmelized onion tart with gorgonzola cheese, and a beet salad with fennel and mint that was absolutely fantastic! On another visit for brunch, I had a smoked Salmon scramble that was terriffic and my hubby had biscuits and gravy which he enjoyed very much! (by the way, I’m thinking of doing a blog post just on different biscuits and gravy around town b/c that’s all the hubs ever orders)!
Anyway, back to Bethany’s Table, the food is slow food, prepared to order, so be prepared to sip a glass of wine and talk at one of the family style tables, or tucked off to the side in a candle-lit corner. Windows cover 3 walls, so people-watching is plentiful, and the exposed brick and warm feel inside make this a perfect spot to eradicate your city-dwelling-friends’ predispositions about suburban cuisine! (I wouldn’t try trotting that sentence out after a glass of wine however)! Next on the list, I’ve decided that I have to go back to Bethany’s Table for a little sampling of the sweets menu. I saw a strawberry cake concoction that looked amazing at a neighboring table on my last visit!
If you make it over the bridge or through the tunnel, and you’re in the market for an original, refreshing dining experience (kitty corner from the Starbucks) pull up a chair, or a bench and relax at Bethany’s Table. Also, if you have any other Suburban dining reccomendations, please let me know! I’m always in the market for a little slice of cool originality to shake up the predictability of the ‘burbs!
Scary Good Times!
Halloween is here! I didn’t used to be a dress-up person…and now I am…but I’m a dress up person with no costume wardrobe! That means I get extra excited when I see fantastical costumes (extra points for home made by the way)!
Now, where to where those ghostly get-ups? Here’s a whole list of my favorite Halloween-y fun in Portland!
-Howloween at the Oregon Zoo: This fantastic event is actually on Halloween this year–how cool is that?!? Come out to the Zoo from 11am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday this weekend! Dress-up, do an educational scavenger hunt, and get a goodie bag! Also, be sure to stop by and tell the Tigers Happy Birthday, and watch the elephants squish some pumpkins and see all of the animals at the Zoo get Halloween themed treats! There is nothing cuter than watching an otter bob for a pumpkin! While you’re out at the Zoo swing by the livepdx.com street team car too! I’ll be hanging out all weekend, handing out goodies and taking pictures of cute costumed families to show on the 8 O’clock News on PDX TV Monday night!
-Scream at the Beach: I love this haunt! We’ve been lucky enough to get to shoot with the gang at Scream at the Beach for five years running, and every year, this haunt just gets bigger and more creative and fun! This year, all five haunts are located in the old Circuit City Building at Jantzen Beach Center, there’s a full carinval (or should I say Carn-EVIL) outside and inside, along with the haunts, you’ll find Halloween Town: food, face painting, a little kids play area, bands and you can even get a make-over into a real Scream at the Beach monster. I know, all of this sounds pretty cool already, but I haven’t even told you my two favorite things about Scream at the Beach yet! This year, there are no lines! You pay once for all five haunts, you wait until your group number is called, and then you and your group go through all five haunts at once, no stopping and getting back in line, no standing in line waiting for your turn…it’s fantastic! My second favorite thing is that you can print out a coupon right from livepdx.com that will save you $$ on admission! =)
-Rose City Rollers Get Ups and Get Down Halloween Gala: Need I say more?!? The Rose City Rollers already dress up for every roller derby bout in fantastic team costumes and knee pads! If these fierce females are throwing a costume party, you know it’s going to be EPIC! Along with the costume contest, there will also be a not-so-talented Talent show, where contestants can do anything that will keep them from getting gonged off the stage before their act is over! The dancing, prizes and mayhem all starts at 9pm at the Bossanova on Burnside!
-FrightTown: in the basement of the Memorial Coliseum, like demons from an underground lair, springs FrightTown! 3 haunts, some of them more child appropriate than others, but all of them are a scream! Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors is the most kid-friendly, offering oddities, rarities, and strange specimens from around the globe, not to mention a food court of the damned and a singing panda bear karaoke! Elshoff Manor features goblins ghosties crazy doctors and hidden passageways, and the third haunt, the Chop Shop is scary, wrong, and disturbing in the best way a haunted house can be. You can score a discount coupon to FrightTown at any area DQ too!
There are some weekend reccomendations for you! Get out there and have a frighteningly good Halloween! Remember, with daylight savings time this year, you can add one more hour of screams! (insert your own version of an evil laugh here)…
