House Concerts: De Temps Antans and Lisa Ornstein with Dan Compton (12/10 & 12/17)

It wasn't until I arrived at Abbie's house that I realized her house concerts are the perfect community meal event.  About two years ago, one of Brett's fiddle classmates had our friend Matias build a stage for her living room and began hosting traditional music concerts occasionally.  She now hosts concerts every couple months and they are preceded by a potluck dinner. 

This month's concert featured De Temps Antans, a group from Quebec specializing in Old Timey music.  They were like a comedy routine to watch - it was by far the most entertaining and fun concert I've been to in a long time!  I think everyone bought both CDs in an effort to bring the spirit home with them, but what we really needed was a live recording to capture their energy and humor.  Or we need them to move out here.

The potluck was a great lead-in.  Abbie and family had prepared a zippy Thai dish that was delicious and everyone else filled in around that with good cheeses, homemade bread, salads and cookies.  Any pot luck is well worth it to me when people bring homemade foods and the house concert guests came through with shining colors.

One week after the concert at Abbie's we attended a concert at Scott Killops' house by Brett's fiddle teacher, Dan Compton, and the outstanding Québécoise-turned-Portlander fiddle player, Lisa Ornstein.  Dan pointed out she was a real Portlander now because her footboard (the piece of wood traditional musicians stomp on with their feet for percussion) was made of bamboo.  Lisa and Dan were in some ways the opposite of De Temps Antan.  Their music was technically outstanding - their finger work floored me at times - and their introductions to the music were very educational.  Their performance style was much straighter and more serious than De Temps Antan.

Scott's house was a beautiful, large place on Mt. Tabor - the views from his neighborhood must be priceless.  There was less focus on the potluck side of things for this concert - in fact I wanted to invite the Club, but I couldn't figure out if there would be a dinner or not, a critical criteria for the PDX Community Dinner Club.  It turned out that there was a snacky dinner and some tasty homemade cookies.  The star dish of the evening was a traditional Quebec dish called a Tourtière.  Lisa made it herself using her family recipe.  It's a seasoned meat pie - she used pork and beef seasoned with rosemary and a long list of other spices.

For the next potluck house concert I'll make sure to send out a notice to the club so more of us can attend.  It's a great way to share a meal and spend an evening!

Reedwood Friends Concert and Dessert (12/12/10)

You'd think a holiday gathering at a Quaker church would be the antithesis of yesterday's distillery events, but the amount of sugar held in the dozens of dessert platters weighing down the banquet table was probably as intoxicating as any of the teaspoon-size samples of spirits yesterday. 

The event started in the church with a bell ringing performance that set the holiday tone, followed by piano, trumpet and choir performances interspirsed with short prayers and bible readings.  It was a relaxing way to spend an hour. 

Then everyone filed down to the community room and the 25 foot table laden with confections.  Whoa.  Given the number of people I saw in the church I thought there was no way all this stuff would be eaten, but the crowd (probably especially the dozens of kids) took care of almost everything.  My favorites were the peanut butter rice crispy treats with chocolate on top and a pumpkin bread that was still warm. 

Several church members brought items from home to decorate the tables, which warmed the otherwise standard church event room aesthetic.

I was thankful that they didn't have newcomers introduce themselves.  Everyone was friendly to us, but didn't make a fuss over not having seen us before.  They seem to host a lot of community events, so maybe they are used to new faces, or maybe it was mostly newcomers. 

My mental image of Quakers is a very white one, so I enjoyed the diversity I saw at the event - Latin American and Japanese families, and our tablemate mentioned her Kenyan friends there.

Overall, a 10 out of 10 ooey, gooey chocolately treats for an event that in every way lived up to what was advertised and didn't include any religious pushiness.

House Spirits Booze Bazaar & New Deal Distillery Season's Eatings (12/11/10)

The *extremely* rainy bike ride over to House Spirits definitely had my spirits down, so the toasty interior was a welcome respite in itself.  The cheese, chocolate, relish, coffee and, of course, spirits tastings were a big bonus. 

The event was held in the warehouse-like distillery and alcohol purchases could be made in the more refined salesroom next door.  Dave B, my cheesemaking partner in crime, Brett and I all walked away with the Acquavit - delicious! 

Brett and Dave B at House Spirits showing off their loot - Olympic Provisions meat, JP Cigars, and Jacobs Creamery blue cheese - we had yet to purchase bottles of Acquavit and White Dog.

It was tough to pull ourselves away, but Brett and I finally made it over to New Deal where we met up with Matthew and Windy for a similar, but even larger event.  This one had a more community feel to it since they allowed kids and had a wider variety of vendors offering generous samples of their wares - baked goods, cheese, beer, rum, sauces, chocolate, and most of New Deal's line of spirits.  In the more finished space next door they had an experienced bartender making half-size mixed drinks.  The hot toddy with their No. 3 gin, palm sugar, licorice root and lemon and hot water was outstandingly delicious.  There was even a place to sit and enjoy our drink and some conversation.  Very nice.

Matthew, Windy and Brett enjoying hot toddies at New Deal

Overall, it was well worth the bike ride in the driving rain.  While these events don't exactly fit into the meal theme, they were full of community and lots of good conversation - I especially enjoyed the multiple opportunities to chat with the owners of many of the small businesses sampling their goods at each place.  It's amazing to have such a collection of food crafting experts in our city!

Portland Blind Cafe 2 (12/3/10)

While we milled around in the lit waiting area of Tabor Space, Paul, Jana, Brett and I could only find one of the five other people who would be joining us at Table 11.  As the host led us, conga-line-style, to the basement dining room we caught a quick glimpse of our other tablemates.  The host then handed our conga line off to Steve, our blind server, who led us through a twisting tunnel that ended in a pitch black room.  Even after our eyes adjusted we couldn't see an inkling of light. 

Super cool!!

Despite having only glanced at our tablemates before dinner, we were now in a ropes-course-like challenge to collaboratively serve ourselves from the containers of unknown contents covering our table.  Lucky for us vegetarians everything on the menu was vegan, peanut free and gluten free.  Despite all that, the food was delicious (though not particularly filling).  From what we could taste, the first course was a stuffed chard leaf, then there was a spinach and asian pear salad with tempeh and polenta with a mushroom sauce.  Dessert was a super rich and delicious dark chocolate mousse.

It was a testament to either our team work or our hunger that when the lights came up at the end of dinner there was only a single spinach leaf clinging to one serving bowl - every other scrap had been consumed.  I couldn't even scrape more from my mousse cup, though I tried.

Blind Cafe 2: If only you could see our sparkling conversation and the inappropriate gestures that my tablemate is making.

I thought it would be challenging to have a conversation in such a crowded place with tables of people nearby, but I hardly heard the other tables and had a great conversation with my immediate neighbors.  One of the interesting things about being in the dark is that I felt like I could disappear when I wanted to - if I didn't feel like contributing to the conversation at the moment it was completely comfortable to be quiet and listen in or itch my armpit or kiss my neighbor (luckily it was my husband). 

The entertainment portion of the evening consisted of spoken word poetry by our waiter, Steve, followed by a compelling speech by another of the blind waitstaff who shared a bit about his experience of becoming blind and a tiny bit of his experiences as a blind person.  Finally we were treated to a guitar and cello concert by the One Eye Glass Open band, led by the head organizer of the dinner. 

After the entertainment and dessert the staff lit candles and we were able to see our environment for the first time.  It was interesting to compare our mental images with actuality.

The experience plus the quality of food was worth the $35 price tag, though we would have like a more generous helping of it - I think everyone at our table was not quite full by the end. 

I give it 9.5 out of 10 quinoa-stuffed chard rolls.  It was a phenomenal experience that I highly, highly recommend should there be a Blind Cafe 3!

http://www.portlandblindcafe.com/PortlandBlindCafe/Portland_Blind_Cafe.html

67th Annual St. Philip Neri Spaghetti Dinner (11/14/10)

After interviewing about 20 guests, it became clear that the meatballs are the stars at this dinner.  The meat sauce came in a close second.   I’m pretty sure that the recipes came directly from the Italian immigrants who made up the original congregation.  The (slightly) more diverse group that now runs the food side of the dinner has the good sense to not mess with the best - according to Amy Costanza, the meatballs taste just like the ones her Italian relatives make.  Other sentiments included:

"The meatballs are tender, they have a complex flavor."

"I don't think you can get meatballs like this at any restaurant in Portland."

"Phenomenal meat sauce - it's so hearty."

This year we had the pleasure of being a part of a group of over 30 sprawled across four tables to celebrate Amy’s birthday over spaghetti and meatballs, so the community feel in our section was great.  The servers were very accommodating and they really will bring you all the spaghetti and meatballs you can eat.

The $12 dinner starts with a Wonderbread version of Italian bread and a salad with a dressing that is zippy enough to entice me despite the limp iceberg lettuce.  MSG?  I hope not, though I doubt it is homemade.  Then comes the piece de resistance (for most), the spaghetti and meatballs.  Despite all this talk of meatballs I am vegetarian and in my 9 years of attending this event I’ve only ever had the vegetarian sauce, which is homemade with lots of fresh ingredients, but I have a feeling it’s a far cry from the real deal in this case.  After as many plates of spaghetti as you can handle, the final course is a square of vanilla or chocolate cake, likely from CostCo, which makes tasty cakes as sheet cakes go.  The kids especially seemed quite pleased with the dessert.  Wine by the glass or carafe is a very reasonably priced extra (it's from a box after all).

Post dinner, in the behind the scenes role I played as server for the second half of the dinner, I was saddened by the fact that we had no composting, served the salad and cake in disposable bowls, and served the cake with a plastic fork when we had just collected the guests’ metal spaghetti forks from them.  St. Philip Neri’s other big fundraiser is the Muddy Boot Festival, an event that hosts more people than the spaghetti dinner, but managed to only generate two bags of trash this past year.  I also heard complaints about the lack of bike parking – bummer.  Needless to say, it’s time for the Spaghetti Dinner organizers to talk with the Muddy Boot organizers.  I’m pretty sure that we put the wheels in motion for eco-upgrades to the dinner next year. 

Based on the feedback I heard, I give this dinner 11 out of 10 on the meatballs and sauce, but overall it gets 7 out of 10 spaghetti noodles because of the lackluster non-main-course items and decidedly unenvironmental choices from a parish that should know better, but on the other hand an outstanding main course, very friendly service, and welcoming community.  I’m confident that next year they can get to 9 out of 10 with some eco upgrades – I’d highly recommend checking it out!

Breakfast Club Cafe at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church & School (11/14/10)

The first things that struck me about this meal was that they did not collect money at the door and we ordered from menus – very restaurant-like!  They had a lean crew of about 4 or 5 running the kitchen and taking the orders for various combinations of pancakes, eggs and meats.  Sometimes they offer “specials” like French toast.  If I remember correctly, the prices were very reasonable – two eggs, pancakes OR toast and your choice of meat was under $6 I think.

Our server was super friendly so we happily forgave him when our orders came out a little wrong, and he corrected the problem by allowing us to keep the incorrect order and bringing out the correct order in addition.  So we had plenty of food! 

This event was especially jovial and fun because it doubled as the post-baptism party for our friends’ Jill and Greg’s daughter, Finley.  So in addition to a welcoming staff we were surrounded by family and friends who were all in a great mood, which made for a great meal. 

While there were no outstanding dishes, the overeasy eggs were properly prepared and the pancakes were fluffy and yummy.  The school basement cafeteria venue was a little dark.  On the positive side the low, tiled ceiling kept the room quiet enough to enjoy a good conversation without yelling.

Everything was served on reusable tableware with cloth napkins.  I doubt they had composting, but I appreciated that all items but the napkins were reusable (including the laminated menus). 

Overall I’d give it 9 out of 10 pancakes for friendly service, tasty food, and great value with the only downside being the dim cafeteria environment.

The cafe is open most Sundays between 9am and 12pm in Cantwell Hall (in the school that is next
door to the church at 6606 N Williams).

The 37th Annual Neil Kelly Memorial Auction & Dinner at St. Andrew (11/6/10)

Brett and I have heard lots of great things about this community, so even though we knew nothing about the event we decided to head over there with our friends Matthew and Windy. 

Cost: $20, plus whatever you spend on auction items

What you get:
Large selection of quite tasty meats and cheeses for appetizers (well above and beyond supermarket cubed cheddar); all-you-care-to-drink beverages including beer and wine (a strategic decision, given that the auction follows dinner); Mexican food prepared by St. Andrew's Spanish-speaking community; and wide variety of desserts contributed by many parishioners. 

Vegetarian options:
Everything but a few of the appetizers and the main entree (chicken mole) was vegetarian.  For the veg heads they had handmade tamales.  DELICIOUS!  The vegetarians are the winners at this dinner - my meat eating friends were not head-over-heels about the mole.  They gave me 5 or 6 tamales - enough fill myself, share a couple with the table and take two home for later. The addition of salsa and cheese would have made this meal food cart-worthy.

Activities:
The door attendant took our credit card information and gave us an auction number.  For the entire night we just needed to give our number to purchase any item and it all got charged in one (tax deductable) charge at the end of the night.  Opportunities to spend included:
- Silent auction for things like a large wine fridge, storm door installation and a quite nice outdoor grill
- 50/50 and vacation raffles
- Sign up for future activities to be hosted by parishioners like "learn to knit," "bike ride in the Columbia Gorge," and "Games & Pie Night" for anywhere from $10 - $100 each.
- Live auction that included lots of vacation rentals and dinners. 

The vibe:
This parish is known for having a somewhat "hippy" vibe, but I didn't get that feel from this evening.  It was extremely well run and everyone I met was very welcoming and with it.  The decor of white lights, tulle and branches dressed up the place a little, but it was still a church hall.  I was impressed that the auction items were mostly things I would like to buy into and toward the end of the evening started to become affordable - Matthew, Windy, Brett and I were happy to score a week-long stay at a cabin near Mt. St. Helens for $500 toward the end of the auction when everyone else was starting to feel broke.

Reasons to go again:
- The live auction was by far the coolest part of the night.  They hired a professional auctioneer and she was amazing to watch. 
- The feeling of being part of something successful and energetic.
- The tamales.

Things we hope they change next year:
- The food was good, but desperately needed salsa and cheese. 

Overall value: 9/10 tamales for great energy, great auction items, decent food, and inclusion of beer and wine in the admission price.