When in Portland...Part One

This city likes to eat.
I freakin' love it here.
Here is our first installment of things we're eating in Portland, Oregon.

Voodoo Donut
I guess there is such a thing as a punk rock donut shop. A place where you can get married under a giant floating donut. No kidding. We didn't take the plunge, but we did enjoy some creative yeasty treats:



Mmmmm, voodoo-ey:

Green Tea Soba Noodle Salad

I love me some Ohio greens This cold green tea soba noodle salad features local collards, kale, kohlrabi greens, radish greens, scallions and scapes.

Jeni, girl... you know I still love you. But...

Meet the most perfect frozen yogurt on earth*



















Recipe from David Lebovitz, via 101 Cookbooks:

3 C Greek-style yogurt (I used half 0% fat and half 2% fat)
3/4 C Sugar

Optional:
1 t vanilla extract, or
zest of 1 lemon

Mix all ingredients together until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate one hour. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

I used my new (well..from eBay) Donvier hand-crank model, which worked perfectly and was hardly any work at all (not like the one you remember dragging out in the back yard ...and cranking and cranking and cranking... when you were a kid).

Makes 1 quart.

*I misread the label and thought I was buying full-fat instead of 0% fat. I am happy to say it turned out great anyway, although I can only assume the full fat version would've been insanely good...and slightly more perfect.

Fun in the vegetable garden

When I decided to grow fennel this year, I knew I'd be rewarded with some good food...but I had no idea I'd also get this:




















This little fella is one of about 6 black swallowtail caterpillars I found hanging out on my fennel yesterday. Apparently they love the stuff. It doesn't look like they're doing too much damage (yet?), and I'm only really interested in the below-ground portions of it, anyway. So I guess they're my new pets.

Now I want to plant all kinds of host plants for these critters. Which means I'll be planting pawpaws in the fall, not just because I've been dreaming about pawpaw ice cream, but also because it's the host for zebra swallowtail larvae. I mean, just look at him. What a handsome devil!

Hopefully, I'll get some shots of Jeff, Debra, Bob, Stripes, Nacho and Lucy when they do their butterfly thing (and maybe I'll be eating a nice fennel slaw by then, too).

Update: Here's a slideshow of Jeff's caterpillar week: