Ho ho ho holidays!

I'm sending out a 3-frog tribute to the holiday.

And for those who need to know, here is what we've been eating.

For Christmas Eve: Stuffed squid in a tomato sauce on spinach fettucine

Today: Halibut with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme stuffing; with wild mushroom gravy.

Still wishing for peace on earth.

Ah rain!

OK, we get it.  Most of 2015 was very dry here in Oregon, but the month of December is making up for it, big time.

This morning, the Pacific looked the color of cappucino.

During sun breaks in the series of storms that have hit us in the last week or so, I've been out walking on the beach looking for beach erosion.

While I have found some beach erosion, it isn't where I expected it.  And driftwood was everywhere, including still coming down the river, and out the mouth of the bay.

Beach erosion along the north edge of the bay.

I don't think that I would sleep well in this house during a storm.

Here's a pile of driftwood at the mouth of the bay.

A bald eagle perched on a log in the center.

Not everything was dismal.

Harbor seal

Great blue heron

Trust me, if I could, I would re-route some of this rain to needy parts of California.

Thanksgiving Day

The secret ingredient in my Thanksgiving gravy: king bolete mushrooms.

The end of the meal: a pear-fig galette.

The end of the day: a sunset over the Pacific.

Food and familly

Our fall has been busy with both food and travel to see family.  Within the last 2 weeks, we have driven south to California and north to Washington.

In Napa, we visited a couple of wineries and my parents.

Domaine Chandon

After we returned to Oregon, the rains began, and the first king bolete mushrooms of the season popped up.  I came home with 4.5 pounds one day last week.

This weekend, we drove up to Washington to visit Fran and Sadie.

Goldilocks, the birthday girl

After our drive home, I went for a neighborhood walk, and came home with three more king bolete mushrooms. 

I'll have what he's having

Today, Bori caught a very nice coho (aka silver) salmon. 

After opening it up, we could see that it had quite recently ingested a dozen squid, that were in very good condition.  So, we saved the squid, cleaned them, and cooked them for dinner.

Who knew we would be eating local squid for dinner?  There isn't a fishery for them.  Only the fish know where to find them.  Tasty!

Surf and surf.

Today's fishing report: while salmon fishing, one Chinook was caught and one Dungeness crab was caught.  The crab was caught on the herring bait that normally attracts salmon.  This seems like a perfect modification of the surf and turf plates that many restaurants offer.

Earlier, I had a sort of surf and turf harvest.  After many weeks of closure due to paralytic shellfish poisoning, mussel harvesting opened up for the entire coast, at the end of August.  So, a week ago, I headed out on a low tide to pluck some off the rocks.  Then later, I wondered what the wild mushroom population looked like.  I came home with over a pound of chanterelles.

Of course, fall is always a busy time for us, with regard to food.  I dried a flat of tomatoes, and we smoked a batch of salmon from the freezer.

Winter is coming, but we will be eating well.

August means salmon season

Although the ocean conditions have been odd this year, some salmon are still showing up at the mouths of rivers.  In the ocean, they seem to be doing OK, but in many of the rivers in Oregon, salmon are dying as a result of high temperature stress.  This doesn't bode well for the long term future of salmon in the state.

Garden report

My garden box is in peak production right now.  We have been harvesting lots of salad greens, as well as kale and snow peas.

Yesterday, I cut the first artichoke of the season, and I pulled my elephant garlic.

But at the same time, I have noticed a deer has discovered my garden box.  On the first visit, it ate a little kale.  On the second visit, it ate a few bites of snow peas.  But last night, it got greedy and munched all across the top of my snow peas, ate more kale, and started in on the rainbow chard.

So, armed with 25-feet of chicken wire and 4 fence posts, this afternoon, I have (hopefully) deer-proofed the garden box.  Unfortunately, I will have to unroll the fence in order to harvest much of anything.  I hope the deer is surprised when it arrives for its next snack.  There is plenty of native vegetation for it to eat.

The garden box yesterday, in the free-lunch mode

The garden box this afternoon, wearing its "deer-proof" fence

A week with family

Visiting us is always about food and the sea.  Last week was no exception.

The black-sand beach in Yachats.

Three generations: Bori, Marley, and Rick

Dungeness crab.

Marley with crab "book ends"

Black rockfish.

Marley with rockfish "bookends"

Buckets of blueberries.

Part of the 42 pounds of blueberries we picked

Gathering

We've been home 10 days, so it was time to get back into our gathering mode.

This morning, we caught the early low tide to gather varnish clams and cockles.  The limit of varnish clams is 72 per person, and we came home with about 130.  Not bad for our first serious dig for varnish clams.

We also brought home some cockles (the dark grey bivalves below).  We have kept both the clams and the cockles in chilled seawater all day, to encourage them to flush out any sand in their guts.

Then later in the day, I headed out looking for mushrooms, and came home with 5 ounces of chanterelles, my first of the season.

Greenland from 37,000 feet

Yesterday, we flew over Greenland.  The sky was clear so I saw lots of ice and snow.

Now we are home and this adventure is over.  Enjoy the summer!

Last day in France

This morning, we walked out the hotel, and turned left, and voila there we were almost on top of the Centre Pompidou.

It is a modern building built with all the function parts on the outside (i.e., the escalator, the heating ducts, pipes), leaving lots of room inside to display modern art.

We rode the external escalator up to the 6th floor, and worked our way down, but most of the great modern art was on the 5th floor.  We saw many paintings by many great artists including Picasso, Braque, Chagall, Matisse, Kandinsky and Klee.

Here is a sample of the art.

Kandinsky

Klee

Picasso

Sculpture with the Paris skyline behind

Chagall

Today's odd encounter was a digerdoo player on the sidewalk outside Pompidou.