Road Trip

Portland, OR to Davis, CA.  572.8 miles. 10 hours, 37 minutes.

When We Root, We Root For The Timbers!! #RCTID

 

 

On Sunday we went to our first (of many) Timbers games at the newly renovated Jeld-Wen Field in Portland. Only a few blocks from our house, and informally dubbed "The House of Pane" (Jeld-Wen makes windows, clever), the intimacy of the stadium makes you feel like you are in the storied soccer environs of Old Trafford or Maracana, albeit on a much smaller scale. Still, 20,000 screaming fans led by the rabid Timbers Army, waving scarves, continuously chanting songs for our team or yelling obscenities at the blind refs, makes for an event that everyone must experience at least once. The Timbers Army, once a rag tag band of hooligans, has progressed and grown through the years into a well-oiled non-profit that is credited with, in part, helping influence Major Legue Soccer to expand and bring a team home to Portland. Because of that, the Army was given the honor on Thursday's opening night with the singing of of the National Anthem. For any fan of soccer, it was truly a special event. Check it out here via ESPN and watch the highlights of the amazing opening night where the rain, the joy, and the goals, never ended. 

So when you hear us clap our hands and sing out, "When I Root, I Root For The Timbers!" you will know that we are #Rose City Till I Die. 

Words to Shoot By: Down

For awhile now, we both have been participants of the great blog project, Words to Shoot By. Curated by Steph Parke, the editor of Light Leaks Magazine, every couple of weeks we are given a word and instructed to take three photos of our interpretation of that word. It is a fun (and sometimes nerve racking) experience for us both to really think about how photography relates to specific words and ideas, and it forces us to slow down and be a bit more conscious of how, and of what, we shoot. 

Go check out Dave's submission of this week's word, Down at Words to Shoot By. Enjoy!

Tom Kha Gai: Homemade Thai Soup

During these cold winter months, Whitney really likes soup. Me, I don't really like soup. It's just, you know, eh. Except the Thai classic, Tom Kha Gai. This soup is amazing. Not even a soup, it's more like a flavor explosion. And if you add the Thai chilies the recipe calls for, explosion is the key word. Like face melting explosion. (I even burned my eye balls taking out my contacts hours later. Had to wear my glasses for two days. Yikes.)  Anyway, I came across this recipe in one of the dozens of daily foodie newsletters that somehow get delivered to my email inbox every morning. It popped out. I love this soup. And knowing Whitney likes soup, I decided that Sunday was the perfect day for homemade Tom Kah Gai. Plus, she had never had it before! Which is a bonus as she had no idea what it really tastes like in case I screwed it up. So off to Fubon Asian Supermarket we went to procure supplies. Lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce (nam pla), kaffir lime leaves and coconut milk, mmmmm. All the ingredients home and 20 minutes later we had amazing soup! (Ok, ok, Whitney would like to point out here that I had a couple beers while chopping up the ingredients and studying the recipe before actually making it. Details, details.) But the point is, it can be made in 20 minutes. Super easy too! 

I hope you all give it a whirl. It's awesome and delicious. Finding the ingredients might be the hardest part, but tracking them down is half the fun! We also made a delicious cucumber salad with rice wine vinegar, cilantro and a touch of sugar that thankfully cooled down our palates from the spicy chilies. 

Here's the recipe I found from Fine Cooking. Enjoy! Or as they say in Thailand, เพลิดเพลิน!

January.

A few more hours January and you will be leaving us for another year. You've been good to us up here in the Pacific NW. Your weather has held and while cold, you've remained fairly dry (except of course for that flooding that happened a couple weeks ago). You brought us new recipes, mini road trips laden with fog, time with family and friends and cold lazy winter days cuddled under blankets perusing cookbooks and foodie magazines with the slow cooker puttering in the background. Most importantly though January, you helped us find a new apartment, full of light and promise. A new start to our lives together. While your waning days leave us surrounded by moving boxes and bags destined for Goodwill, we thank you January, for being good to us and look forward to seeing you again next year.

Here are just a few things that caught our eyes in January:

Baggu bags - stylish and eco friendly grocery bags.
Mid-century modern furniture - yet another reason to road trip to San Francisco (with a pickup truck).
DIY headboard - I love the wood and the industrial look of this.
Bedding - who doesn't love stripes?
Quilts - comfy and feminine, in a masculine dark gray color (she says we'll accent it with some mustard yellow)
Table lamps - any one of these would look great in our new apartment.
Another take on lighting - I love this idea for a lamp/bookshelf. A 2 in 1 project!
Turning drawers into a credenza - brilliant.

Places we are looking forward to (close-in):
Olympic Provisions in the NW - I'm already salivating
(and far away:)
A getaway destination. 


We hope that your January was as good to you as it was to us.
What are some of your favorite things from January?

(beautiful polaroid calendar by our friend Azuree Wiitala)