Dunno where my brain is pulling these titles from, what dark recess of my mind implores me to begin writing “In which…” but I suspect that it has something to do with reading my second Neil Gaiman book in a row, because it sounds an awful lot like something he’d write.  I’ve moved on from my Michael Crichton Memorial reading phase and am now into my Why Do I Own These Books If I’ve Never Read Them Before? phase.  First up was Gaiman’s Anansi Boys that’s been sitting on my shelf for more than a year, and now I’m into American Gods which I started but couldn’t get into after I first bought it.  Gaiman’s book Coraline was just turned into an animated film that’s getting excellent reviews and he coincidentally won the Newberry Medal for Children’s literature right before the move came out for his most recent novel, The Graveyard Book.

So.  Kicking it old school, by which I mean that on this particular Tuesday night, I find myself at the Green Dragon Bistro and Brewpub, abusing my giant mug while drinking the wares of tonight’s Meet the Brewer, which happens to be Hood River’s Double Mountain Brewery.  The brewers are around here somewhere, but I come for the beer and not always the conversation.  Plus, I met enough brewers this weekend that I don’t need to talk shop or fawn over them.  Hanne and I visited the brewery in Hood River about a year ago and enjoyed their beers there, but that was also stop #2 on our whirlwind tour of Hood River’s brewing operations, so I remember good beer and that the piza smelled delicious but not much else.

This past weekend was somewhat of a mixed bag of epic WIN and epic FAIL.  WIN: Four brewpubs visited on Saturday.  I began my trek at Deschutes, and knowing that I was going to be sampling a few beers I made the 2 mile walk to try and offset the caloric intake.  I had one of their special Oregon Sequicentennial beers there, then moved on to Bridgeport for their tour.  Nothing especially groundbreaing on that tour (and in fact, our knowledgable tour guide had a tendency to go off on tangents fairly easily) and they wouldn’t let us take beer on the tour to boot, so booo to Bridgeport.  The Lucky Lab brewery on Quimby proved more interesting, and the operations were more in my realm of understanding.  See that over there?  I have one of those, only smaller!  They also treated us to samples of a port-aged stout that won’t be ready for another year, as well as some of the Super Duper Dog imperial IPA straight from the fermenter.  Damn that was good.  I love that beer, and I always look forward to their yearly release.  Last was Hopworks, where we came in late to the tour but got a few samples nonetheless.

FAIL: I got sick on Saturday.  Not a “too much beer” kind of sick–because I know your mind went there since I just discussed all the brewery tours I took–but this was more of a “my stomach is unhappy and is trying to start a rebellion” sort of sick.  While walking from Hopworks to New Seasons to purchase dinner ingredients, my stomach started cramping up, but I resisted and made it there, bought my food, made it home, and managed to squeak out passable herb-roasted lamb chops with garlic smashed potatoes for dinner.  Unfortunately, that was all I managed to do, and as soon as I finished I told Hanne (who thus far had been very understanding of my ailment) that I needed to go lie down.  I was asleep by 7:30.  I felt so bad, I couldn’t even finish the beer I opened to drink while cooking.  Let me repeat that: I couldn’t even finish a beer.  Yeah.  That’s how bad I felt.

But, after 12 hours of sleep, 2 doses of Pepto, and three Advil I felt pretty good the next morning.  So at least I still have my health, unlike my pink-eyed sister.

I tried to make up for Saturday’s Valentine’s Day debacle (because even though I detest the holiday, I’m honor-bound to enforce the rules nonetheless) by cooking what I hoped would be an equally-inspired dinner Sunday night, and what it lacked in timing it did make up for in deliciousness: spinach, sausage and roasted red pepper rustic torta.  I burned my tongue a bit, but damn, that was a tasty torta.  The recipe called for canned roasted red peppers, but I rebeled and roasted my own.  Real men roast their own damn peppers.  It used sliced baguette for the crust instead of whatever other tortas use, but the crustiness softened up under the onslaught of egg, cheese, and the afore-mentioned headlining ingredients.

And hey!  I finished my  open beer from the previous night, too.  Never let a good IPA go to waste, I always say.  Or something like that.

I had Monday off, which made for an extremely good weekend once I discovered that the previous week.  Seriously–who gets Presidents Day off?  Well, aside from mail carriers, and DMV employees, and pretty much every other federal employee?  I do, I guess.  Word.  Hanne did not, however, so I got to walk her to the bus stop and she got to buy me coffee.  I had planned on meeting up with a friend for a beer at Saraveza that afternoon, and since it wasn’t raining and I certainly had the time I decided to walk all the way up to North Portland.  It was a nice 4 mile walk, and I even got to see some parts of Portland up close that I don’t ever remember seeing before, but of course, once I got there and ordered a beer my friend bailed on me.  Sigh.  I walked back to the Rose Quarter transit center (another 2 miles or so) and caught the bus Hanne normally catches so I could meet her on her way home, though, so it wasn’t a totally wasted afternoon.  No, that’s the wrong expression–I had a nice walk, I bought some beer at Saraveza, and earned the sandwich I bought for dinner, so I think I had a pretty brilliant afternoon.

Due to or in spite of–I don’t know yet–Rogue’s purchase of the place, the Green Dragon is hopping (Ha! “Hopping”) tonight for the Double Mountain Brewers.  Hanne and I haven’t been here often in the last few months not because of that, but just because our schedules don’t match up very well this term.  She has class until 8 three nights a week, and the other four nights we either want to cook for ourselves or want to go get slightly healthier food than the Dragon has to offer.  As a similar example, tomorrow night at the Horse Brass pub (which I’m still getting used to returning to after a much-deserved two and a half year absence) they’re serving a number of Deschutes Brewing beers, including a vertical tasting of three years of the sublime Abyss Imperial Stout as well as a few miscellaneous beers.  That, of course, demands my attendance but despite their excellent fish and chips, Hanne prefers to eat elsewhere.  I guess since almost everything there is deep-fried in the traditional English manner I can understand that feeling, but damn, everything there is deep-fried in the traditional English manner.  Yum.

OK, Caesar salad break complete.  Back to work.

I went for a run after work today and once again confirmed that I need to run more often, but at least I’m not hating running like I did for awhile late last year.  Dunno why that happened.  As the weather gets better, I’m looking forward to some of my more interesting routes to try and keep myself interested and working toward losing a bit of this beer-caused weight gain.  I regret nothing!  I eat well and I drink well!

<takes a sip from his 36 oz. mug>

Taking my lunch to work has certainly helped a bit, as I can tell that I’m eating less because I’m hungry by the time 2-3 PM rolls around.  I’ve started taking a snack when I take my lunch, a piece of fruit or something similar.  When I buy my lunch, I tend to eat a lot and not be hungry until dinner.  Eating less is good!  I eat pretty well generally, but portion sizes are something I need to work on.  For example, for dinner I ordered the large chicken Caesar salad, but I did go for a run today and I was pretty hungry so I can forgive the quantity of oil in the dressing.  It’s usually olive oil, anyway, and my sources tell me that olive oil is like drinking from the fountain of youth.  In fact, I’ve often considered blending together olive oil and red wine to make the Elixir of Life until I remember that oil and water do not, in fact, mix, no matter how good the resulting product would be.  Maybe some dark chocolate would help the blend.

But, back to food.  I have been browsing the Bon Appetit website and collecting recipes I want to make, and I have a pretty good stable of things to make.  Our biweekly Organics to You box is like a mystery box every time we get one, so that’s been a good indicator of what’s on the menu any given weekend.  This weekend I think it will be Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks thanks to a well-timed leek in our box (presumably–I haven’t opened it yet and just looked at the box list online), and I think that calls for some excellent cheese.  We have some nice cheddar in our fridge right now, but some very nice cheddar might be in order for this very glorified mac and cheese recipe.

About leeks for one second–I hate to sound like Jerry Seinfeld, but what’s the deal with leeks?  All the recipes I’ve used that call for them tell me to use just the white and pale green part–fine–but their quantities are way off.  For example, a Thanksgiving recipe I used called for using something along the lines of five leeks to get five cups, and once I’d chopped two of the five I had more than enough.  Are my leeks like superleeks and the recipes call for regular leeks?  I dunno, but the above recipe also calls for five leeks making five cups, so perhaps they’re just squeezing the hell out of them.

OK, a discussion of the usage of leeks in recipes means I’ve run out of material to write about, and now I shall finish my Alpenbrew ESB in silence.