Monday Outing

Yesterday, I spent a good part of the early afternoon indoors doing laundry (I was running severely low on underwear supply), but the payoff was a walk down to the waterfront to see the cherry trees in bloom. The weather was perfect; 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. J called me on his way out of the office and met me near the Steel Bridge, where we parked his bike and took a nice walk in the sun. When I pulled out my camera to capture him riding in his work outfit, he said, "oh god, are you going to blog about this?" I promptly told him "yes" and that he better look cute. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Portland. Jesse is just one of hundreds who ride to and from the office in their work outfits.

For a minute, it was hard to tell whether I was walking along the Willamette River, or along the Tidal Basin in D.C. Of course, the show is not nearly as spectacular as the Jefferson Memorial framed by pink puffs, but it was pretty great. After our stroll along the rows of cherry trees, we had to haul home to make the tip off of the final NCAA basketball game -- UNC vs. Michigan State. I really didn't want to fill out a bracket this year, but J (and his brother, E) goaded me into submission.

I spent a few hours one night reading about the teams and made a couple of risky selections that eventually paid off -- Villanova beating Pittsburgh in a nail-biter of a game and Michigan State edging out Louisville. I am happy to report that I won this year's bracket and E's girlfriend, Lea came in second place. The ladies dominated. Sweet.

Anyway, we closely watched the game clutching bowls of homemade salmon and leek chowder that I whipped up. The inspiration for chowder on such a warm day? Well, I had a few leeks leftover from our trip to the farmers market and have had salmon on the brain ever since we went out to breakfast with J's parents at Kenny and Zukes. Besides, it was published in the April edition of Bon Appetit (1995), so I knew it couldn't be too heavy. And it wasn't. It's made with milk and only a touch of cream, so it's more silky than creamy. Definitely worth four forks! I made a few changes here and there, like adding corn, reducing the cream, adding a bit of Parmesan, and subbing equal parts wine, chicken stock and clam juice. I also think I might add a clove or two of garlic next time. However, other than that, the recipe was spot on.

Oh, also, I finally captured the elusive "La Pussy Wagon" on camera. We enjoyed a good chuckle with J's parents over breakfast one morning when we spotted it for the first time on Irving Street. Yesterday, it was parked under our window and the sun was just right! Ahh. It's watching you!