Autumn pantry

Photo courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu

After a grueling drive back from Portland yesterday, I am so glad to be home and enveloped in the comfort of my apartment. It took me several hours to get home yesterday. The drive typically takes 3-4 hours depending on traffic, but our timing for the drive back was pretty awful and we spent quite a lot of the trip stuck in traffic in various places along the route. Add to that the torrential downpour that struck the Seattle area last night, and you can imagine my relief at finally arriving home late last night. My pantry is a bit bare, but I still have zucchini, mushrooms and pork chops, as well as some sausage and eggs, so I think I will stay in today and recuperate. I may walk over to the local grocery for some fruit and wine before dinner, and I do need to stretch my legs today for sure, as the conference was all sitting for three days.

That being said, I did really well on the food front this trip, although most of my meals were way over the $5 a day limit, at least I ate mostly primal. On Wednesday I fasted until lunch. We drove down to Portland that morning, and stopped partway at a Starbucks. I had one of the snack packages for my lunch which included an egg, about 1/2 an ounce of white cheddar cheese, two large apple slices, and about 6 grapes. There was also some peanut butter with honey and a whole grain flatbread with raisins, but I skipped those, and stuck to pretty good primal food choices. It was enough to tide me over until dinner.

We had dinner at Journeys in Multnomah Village. I was hoping to stop there at least once, it is a very cute neighborhood bar with excellent food. They don't have a large menu, but their food is excellent quality and not too expensive. They also have a nice selection of beer and wine and a great atmosphere. I encourage you if you are ever in the Beaverton/Tigard area to check it out. I had a mixed greens salad with a homemade honey mustard dressing, chopped hazelnuts, bleu cheese and cranberries topped with chicken for about $8. It was huge salad and served with Italian bread that I didn't eat. I did have half of the "grilled cheese bites" appetizer that we ordered. It was pesto and mozzarella on Italian bread--very thin crispy slices--and truly awesome. They didn't really have anything that looked pure paleo or primal, but I could have been better than I was and I am sure they would have catered to my needs. Like I said, great place. Really love it. Hope to go there every year, at least once...

The food at the conference was equally edible and absolutely above par for an event like that. They have huge fruit platters for breakfast, coffee, tea, and yogurt along side pastries and bagels. I had fruit and skipped the rest. Then lunch the first day has been the same for the last three years, grilled chicken skewers, Mediterranean salad (cucumbers, onion, tomato and olives in a Greek marinade)a Vegan rice dish, an orzo and vegetable dish, hummus, pita bread and tzatziki. I had the chicken and salad with a huge pile of tzatziki, and skipped the rest. It was really good. YUM. That night we went to dinner at the Alba Osteria in Multinomah Village, after a couple of glasses of wine and snacks at Journeys first.

We shared a bottle of wine among four of us, and I had chicken cacciatore and some beets cooked in cream for dinner. Along with some of the salumi we got for an appetizer. The chicken was very non-traditional, but excellent. The wine was awesome, and the beets in cream were interesting and very nice. I just ignored the polenta that was served with the chicken. I don't like polenta, and as it is a grain, I just skipped it.

The next day at the conference they had an Asian style menu with stir-fried veggies and tofu, a Vegan rice dish, a noodle dish, and Asian barbecued chicken. I had just the veggies and chicken, although some tofu snuck in as well, and I ate it since I didn't want to stop for lunch on the way home, and I figured the extra protein would be nice.

So, as you see, not too bad. I spent about $100 on food and wine, which was sort of typical for an event like that.

Today, now that I am back, I am ready to go with the Autumn menus. I have some excellent salads and stews that I want to try, so tomorrow I am going to re-stock my pantry as much as possible with some Autumn foods, like apples, squash, turnips, sweet potatoes, pears, etc. The gardens are winding down, and days are getting shorter, so I'm interested to see what will be available for the Paleo/primal budget.

I also purchased a book on my trip that I am going to be blogging about over the next few weeks. I know many of you have probably read Michael Pollan's books. "The Omnivore's Dilemma", "In Defense of Food", etc. I have been dying to read his "Food Rules" for a while now, and finally just broke down and bought a copy ($11 paperback). It is chock-full of practical advice, and takes about 20 minutes to read. This is the advice many of our old-world grandmothers or great-grandmothers most likely would have given us. A lot of this is the advice my father and mother certainly passed on to my siblings and to me. It is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.