Spotlight on something weird: Portland Ketchup

It's been almost two years since I've moved here to Portland.  I feel that in the past I've done a fairly poor job at highlighting the region, which is one of the main reasons I write:  for the people at home that have either never been here, or have no time to come and visit.

So this year, I think I'm going to try highlighting things about Portland (and other parts of the West Coast) which are favorites of mine.  And I plan to travel.  I'd love to do Vancouver, B.C. and Southern California this year.

First on the list is this:

Portland Ketchup is a current obsession of mine.  I'm a fan of ketchup for the start, believing that fries are only a vehicle for getting the tomato-y sauce into my mouth in as high a quantity as possible.  Coming from Pittsburgh, maybe ketchup is a good regional identifier in my mind.  If that's so, then I'm sorry Pittsburgh, but Portland Ketchup totally eclipses Heinz in almost every way possible.  Made with all natural (and probably organic?) ingredients(no hfcs), this ketchup is fantastic.  The price isn't too good at $5 for this size bottle, but I've seen worse things to spend your money on in my lifetime.  It is very thick and has a good flavor, with spicy cloves very noticeable but not overpowering in a standard tangy, delicious sauce.  Basically it tastes like ketchup.  But better somehow.  I thought I was crazy until I made my husband try it;  he agreed.  (Not that I was crazy, but that the ketchup is fabulous.)

I first noticed its existence in the cafeteria at OMSI where I volunteer. I put it on a beanburger and was totally impressed.  I'm not sure of the availability of this product outside my region, but if you come to my house you will be greeted with some fries slathered in this golden god of a ketchup.

Read all about it! http://www.portlandiafoods.com/  Notice that if you buy it in a 12-bottle case it only costs $3.50 a bottle.  Additionally you can buy a gallon container for $32.00, which obviously I'm thinking very hard about.

Here's some pictures (I'm not dead, just getting old)

Balloon once had a feather growing out of her tail....I have no idea how it got there. 

Our new wheelbarrow before it got filled with dirt.  It's still in the front yard because it's too heavy to move now.

Zach put in a new walkway....he got halfway through before injuring his wrist and having to stop for a while.

I've been making flags out of fabric + double fold bias.  Easy peasy.

Last knitting project...A headband to keep my ears warm.

Dinner....Black Beans and Quinoa

Bose speakers for X-mas.  I didn't know music had all these sounds and stuff in it.

Chloe

This is another neighbor's cat, Chloe, who is a cross-eyed Burmese.  Being cross-eyed doesn't stop her from chasing Priscilla around and up into trees.  Gorgeous fur!

Toasty legs!

I just wanted to put these up.  I've been doing a lot of sewing and cooking (with exciting new Christmas presents!), which I should update with soon, but these legwarmers were a long time in coming....

The book they are from is a few years old...they are the "Super-easy Legwarmers" from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but I got it from the library just so I could make these.  They are so boring to make, but they make a pretty fabulous legwarmer.  I wouldn't make them as a gift though, they took me several months of slogging through k1p1 ribbing.  Kind of brain-melting.

Yes those are my front steps and yes that much moss is standard here.

Comments can be helpful.

Or dangerous.

When browsing sites like Allrecipes.com I enjoy reading the comments.  Sometimes they can be really helpful.  Add more ginger.  Add allspice.  Too sweet, reduce sugar. Adding a touch of lemon juice to your apple pie makes it amazing (true fact). These things can be very, very good to know.  

But sometimes comments can be misleading or even strange.  Here are a few of my favorites:  

Comment on a Tabbouleh Recipe:

"I have always made it without mint, just because I didn't have it on hand and it is wonderful. I have't tried it with the green onions suggested here, usually just a little yellow onion chopped super fine, or just left it out. I don't squeeze fresh lemons either, though I'm going to try that way next. "

There aren't that many things actually in Tabbouleh.  Sure, some people add cucumber.  I personally make it with quinoa instead of bulgur so that it's gluten free for parties.  This person, however, is leaving out three of the CORE ingredients of Tabbouleh.   I'm going to make cheeseburgers and leave out the meat and buns and cheese.  By the way you shouldn't just try to use fresh ingredients in your cooking. That should be a cornerstone of your cooking from the beginning.This goes doubly for lemon juice in a dish where the main dressing is composed of it.  Realemon juice is plain nasty.  

Try not.  Do. Or do not.  There is no try.  Yoda knows how to cook.  

Another bad comment is people who try to make ethnic foods but are afraid of foreign ingredients:

"I didn't have any tahini in the house so I substituted a little peanut butter and some ground sesame seeds to get the nutty flavor."

My god, woman get to a grocery store now!  Tahini, for those who don't know, is ground sesame seed paste.  It tastes, looks, and smells completely different from peanut butter.  I can't even fathom how gross it would be to put that into a dip with garlic, lemon and beans.  Maybe it's more like a thai peanut sauce flavor?  Still that is really NOT HUMMUS.  I don't put red peppers in my apple pie, so don't put peanut butter in your tahini.  

There's also the "I messed this up terribly, so I'll give this perfectly good recipe a bad review" comment.

On a perfectly functional recipe for crepes:

"Sadly, my crepes turned out thick, undercooked (or burned), and tasted like flour. I'm not sure if that's a reflection of this recipe (followed to a T) or if I'm just an awful cook."  

My crepes were great, so I'll let you pick which one was the reason your crepes came out badly.  Undercooked?  How is that the recipe's fault?  Turn up your stove.

Now everyone makes mistakes.  Most of mine in the past have resulted from an attempt to vegan-ize a recipe that really is a disaster without meat.  And experimentation is fine, that's how fusion is born, but I happen to be very by-the-book in the way that I do things, because I don't have time for a meal to taste bad.  

Bottom line:  Reader beware!  I like to check more than one recipe if I'm looking online.  Usually all the best recipes are similar, i.e. Gravlax, which I'm about to try soon!  I also really, desperately try to avoid About.com pages at any cost.  As an information professional as well as a cook, I really feel they are the bottom of the barrel as far as reliability is concerned.

Sewing...yep still hate it.

I managed, against all odds, to finish this.  That's a really easy-looking tutorial, right?!  Wowee, what fun, I said to myself.

The tension on my sewing machine is very iffy and no matter how you do it, it only goes right every...3 times you re-thread the machine.  This means the thread may break at any time, or get loopy in the back or whatever the hell else thread wants to do wrong.  Annoying.  Also while I was sewing, the needle snapped in three pieces.  I still haven't found one of them.  Maybe it flew up my nose and is currently lodged in my brain.  That could explain why I feel dumber than when I started.

Not to mention finding acceptable-looking fabric at JoAnn's is like looking for the Arc of the Covenant. It may or may not exist.  If it does, its probably buried very deep, and its going to kill you to find it.  I guess most people who sew go on the internet to find their lovely designer fabric.  I managed to get this one with shoes (wtf?) that isn't too bad.

In the end, the goddamn fabric shrunk so much during prewash, that I was only able to make the bag half the size I wanted it to be, so now it's totally unsuitable for its intended purpose, which was to be a swim/gym bag for myself.  Now its more like a purse.  What a scam.

The straps were also twisted, even though I swear I had them in there straight when I sewed it up.  I tried to fix this but only one one side, and I found that to be the least valuable endeavor I've ever attempted.  So one is twisted?  Well too bad, nobody will ever notice.

Oh, and I added a pocket.

Ugh point me towards the handbag store. :(

I finally did it!

Zach helped.  Really. Our own crepes with Nutella and home-made cardamom-vanilla-agave whipped cream.  The All Clad d-5 pan helped a little, I'm sure.

And if you don't have one yet, you should get yourself one of these:  MISTO.  Its a bit like Pam or other non-stick cooking spray, but you can use your own gourmet oils (EVO or something organic?).  Pump it up and it makes a fine spray that easily coats pans, veggies, etc. Re-use again and again.  Find them at discount stores like Marshall's and also at places like Kitchen Connection. Genius.