35th Anniversary

We were all set to go on our neighborhood walk, but at the last moment thought we'd try something different. We looked at our 50 walks in Portland book and found one that starts in Lake Oswego and goes down to the Williamette river. We walked along the river until the pathway was blocked by the high water of the river.

The river was high; but not as high as it has been. We saw lots of flotsam and jetsam even farther up fro the pathway. We got by on the right and went a little further until we realized we had missed our cut off back up some stairs to Lake Oswego.

Later the walk took us down to another view of the river.

After our walk we went home to clean up and then headed to Jeff's place. On the way through downtown we caught a train going by! What a great day.

A picture of Jeff's place

Jeff took us out to lunch at Pok Pok's then Carla and I headed to a movie: Cave of Dreams, about a cave in France that has drawing from 30,000 years ago. Funny, we both kind of nodded off during parts. Not a great movie. 

Aloha Thriftway Classic BBQ Competition

The Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association sanctioned a barbecue competition this weekend at the Aloha Thriftway on Farmington near 170th. My buddy Herb is also a BBQ enthusiast so we took a spin over. I figured I'd be styling in my new BBQ shirt Andrew got for me last week at Real Urban BBQ.

Not a big turnout; 18 teams so it won't be a qualifier for the Jack Daniels annual invitational. This was my first ever visit to a BBQ competition. Things were slow; the meat was getting inspected and so no real cooking had started yet.

The people were mostly pretty friendly. Most folks thought we were competitiors because of my shirt. After that mistake was made once I was real clear we weren't out to steal any secrets. Our first stop was to Junior Q's setup. They are from Portland. What got our attention was there UDS (Ugly Drum Smokers) or BUD (Big Ugly Drums).

They use 55 gallon drums with holes on the bottom for air flow to the coals and wood. With a few bolts through the side, they can easily mount Weber kettle grill grates.

They were nice enough to show us how they trimmed their brisket for cooking.

Next was Jossy Farms. The head guy built a smoker to cook for his daughter's wedding last year. Figured he'd better do something with it so joined the competition circuit.

Next we talked with Pat; forget his name and team; a husband and wife combo. He was preparing his pork butt, making a big cut to expose the "money muscle". We learned a lot from him. Herb said he wished he had a tape recorder to capture it all; I agree.

Here he is talking while trimming while Herb watches.

That head gear reminds me of Michael Fletcher: one of the guys in the office.

Pat's arsenal is a Weber Kettle; two small Weber Smokey Mountains; and one large Weber Smokey Mountain. The kettle he uses for chicken; the small WSM's he does pork butt and brisket on. The big WSM is for ribs. He does his butts and brisket hot and fast rather than low and slow; we heard other teams talking the same way. Hmm.

He also said that the Northwest competitions are different from those in the South and Midwest. We don't tend to do things as sweet here.

As we left we checked in with Dazed and Confused. The most laid back group of all.

They also are using UDS. We asked what the tops were made of. They are the reflectors for some industrial GE halogen lights. Look at the size of the thermometers there. It's hard to see in the picture but these guys are high tech. They have a little computer fan connected to a pipe feeding air into the bottom of the drum on the right. The fan is connected to a thermocouple which helps regulate temp; if the temp falls too low, the fan kicks up a little higher to feed air to the fire.

A fun day; might go back in the morning for the turn ins.

Chicago Visit June 2011

Shortly after Henriët and Andrew graduated from DePaul, I got to go for a quick Father's Day visit to see them.  I arrived on Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday afternoon. Short but sweet.

Unfortunately I lost my little portable camera, so these are all from my iPhone. Oh well.

Here we are in front of the apartment

In the apartment; they are so happy.

When we drove around the city I liked to sit in the back and watch the two of them being all happy cooey.

After a little rest, we walked over to Lincoln Park which is very close to their place.

This is a great urban environment. A street festival was going on and the Polkaholics were playing. Ever heard a polka song done as classic rock? Or Led Zeppelin as polka? No? Check them out some time.

The weather was perfect. We stopped at a little place (Fork?) along the street and got to sit dine al fresco. We split a few meals. I recently joined the KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society) where I had to pledge "to cook and eat as much barbecue as the law allows" so the smoked brisket platter was a must. We also created our own charcuterie plates where we got to hand pick some cheeses and meats. Yum!  

 Friday we had a couple of errands to run and walked down to the Chicago Eleven City Diner; a Jewish deli. Again we got to dine outside. We were the first people of the season to eat outside at this establishment.

I had a Steve Dahl sandwich which is pastrami and swiss on rye. I had to have it because of the name. Steve Dahl is an administrator at Whitford Middle School where Carla works; he was an elementary school teacher at Hazeldale when the boys went there. A fun guy. 

The sandwich, slaw and pickle were great. Andrew and I split some onion rings but they didn't sit very well. Henriët made a delicious South African dish for us for dinner and the two of us couldn't enjoy it as much as we'd have liked because of the after affects of lunch. 

City blocks are MUCH longer in Chicago than Portland. The walk to the deli was about 15 blocks or so. I was thinking that would be like walking from my office in downtown to the Pearl; um, it was about twice that long.

Anyway, we took the brown line train back to Andrew and Henriët's hood. Here they are scoping out places to meet a couple of friends for lunch Saturday morning. (It's all about the food!) 

Saturday afternoon we drove out to Fenwick High School where Andrew will be working next year. Unfortunately it was locked up; but we did get some pics from the outside

Driving back into downtown, the Willis building and the rest of the skyline started to appear on the horizon. The pictures don't do it justice. This enormous building was visible way before any of the other buildings. The snap doesn't give a good sense of perspective.

Saturday night we headed up to Highland Park to Real Urban BBQ. Here we are waiting in line.

Henriët and I had burnt ends; Andrew had straight up sliced brisket. We shared a bunch of sides; cooked apples, cornbread mac and cheese, green beans, and more

A long drive north to the place but it was worth it. Friendly place with good food.

Beautiful summer day; brined grilled chicken

I've been waiting for weeks to grill some chicken on the MAK. I wanted a nice summer day. Today was that day. First day of 80* this summer; about a month later than normal. Jeff and Sarah came over for lunch today; it was nice to meet her. No way was I going to bust out the camera though.

After they left, I put the chairs on the deck and cleaned them up. Took a seat and listened to the Dodgers on the radio. My routine: read, gaze at the sky, doze; repeat.

Dodgers beat the Reds 11 - 8, scoring 5 runs in the 7th inning to tie it at 7; then scoring 4 in the 11th for the win.

I was excited to do the brined grilled chicken today; I got to use my Grill Grates for the first time. They fit real nice in the MAK.

Early this morning I brined the chicken in a solution of 4 quarts water, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar. After a walk with Carla, I took them out of the brine and set the grill to 400.

The plan was to grill on direct heat (left side) for about 8 minutes, then move to the indirect side for about 15 minutes.

Take them off and grill a few limes.

While the chicken was grilling Carla made a sauce 

• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 2 Tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil.

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, but Carla isn't a fan so we left that out.

Once the chicken was off the grill, it goes into the sauce and then onto the serving plate with the limes.

Dinner is served (we got to eat outside twice today!)

Tomorrow we plan to walk around Fort Vancouver, into downtown Couv, then up the Columbia river a bit to see the high water.