I am not such a huge fan of pizza, but Daniel and the boys just love it.  So they were really happy to hear about Eater PDX first-ever Pizza week in Portland.  What this means is that for all the restaurants in the region that have never served pizza, they now have a chance to concoct and serve up a special Eater Pizza to be accessible to restaurant-goers for that entire week.  Every day for a week, a new item will be highlighted and reviewed at Eater PDX, with the first one being Greg Perrault’s June restaurant at 2215 East Burnside Street. 

Our friends checked it out.  They were thrilled with the entire flatbread concept of a clam pizza.  We asked them if they knew how it was made.  So apparently, it’s all down to Perrault’s techniques.  His dough is where it’s at – the ingredients include: whole-wheat flour locally milled from Greenwillow Farms; and sprouted radish seeds.  Then, he does something quite unusual with it. Instead of baking, he actually grills the dough on a medium heat. The dough is sautéed and then flipped on its other side.  Perrault put on the leaves, cheese, clams pickled ramp steams and coppa in layers and then the whole thing goes on a rack in a hot oven until the clams pop open.  At that point, Perrault drizzles the dish with a cream flavored anise seed.

Portland is famous for a whole lot of things and I guess its bathroom facilities are probably quite high on the list.  However, when you start comparing the public facilities to others throughout the nation, the Portland Loo doesn’t have all that much competition.  So now it seems the city might be cashing in on its invention.

I always remember my mom complaining that there were no facilities along the road when she was pregnant with my siblings.  It drove her – and my poor father who was trying to take us on a road trip – nuts.  So when I got to Portland discovered the Portland Loo, I remember telling my mom all about it.  “Oh,” she said, “things still haven’t changed all that much here back in Cincinnati,” she bemoaned. 

Even if one can find such a facility, they often smell worse than where a vagabond has been sleeping for more than a night or two.  And the vandalism is insane. So unless you happen to be close to a popular restaurant chain, then you’re pretty stuck.  And it sure isn’t fun when you’re pregnant, as when you have to go, you really have to go.

It seems though that now the country’s big cities are trying to do something similar, which is ending up to be a costly – and not so effective – poor alternative. Large cities around the nation are purchasing very high-tech self-cleaning automatic loos that aren’t quite doing the job.  Like in Seattle, five were installed, costing the city a staggering $5million but due to them being used for drugs and prostitution, they were sold on eBay in 2008!

Clearly the Portland Loo is the way to go.  I mean, if it anyway already has its own FB page and more than 200 Twitter followers, what more can one ask for?

It seems that while I originally thought that Oregon was one of the best, safest states in America to cycle, I have now heard something to the contrary.  But apparently the jury is still out on whether the roads are safe in Portland for cycling and walking.  So here’s the latest scoop. 

Recently, the Portland Bureau of Transportation was questioned on its budget, expenditure and financial spending and how well the roads are improving, or – as the case more seems to be – deteriorating.  The study found that roads are somewhat pock marked (not great news), but in general, the streets are pretty safe.  According to our Mayor (Sam Adams), the priority has been to keep drivers “alive [rather] than totally comfortable on side streets.” It has been that which has been priority.  And, that does make me happy.

Adams also argued that he has put this strategy into place because it makes sense.  The result has been a huge reduction in traffic fatalities (great news) while at the same time, there has been quite an increase in the population of Portland.  The conclusion was thus, “you are more likely to stay alive biking, walking and driving around Portland than you were before.”

Daniel has been reading these blogs recently in the hope of finding new eateries that we both might enjoy.  So he discovered one on all the great things in the world – aka Portland – and found a really funny-named restaurant Shut Up and Eat that he said we have to try. After I’d stopped chuckling at the title, I took a brief look at the menu and thought how me and the boys could devour one of the meatball subs – which is Pan-fried beef, veal and pork meatballs with red gravy and provolone.  Daniel said he could eat one of those alone!  There’s a lot of variety on the menu but the general idea seems to be very hearty meals. The prices look reasonable as well so we’re for sure going to try it – as a family – sometime soon.

So of course I was hoping for something nice for Valentine’s Day.  And Daniel kept telling me (like he does every year) that he doesn’t buy into all this commercial stuff and if he wants to show me he loves me he can do so any day of the year.  Normally we don’t do much (although the first year we were together – during our engagement – he did buy me chocolate hearts and take me out to a hotel for hot chocolate and cookies) but this year he surprised me.

He organized a babysitter, and booked a table at Shigezo which is a sushi restaurant in the neighborhood.  We both love sushi and what’s good about this place is that it offered a special for Valentine’s Day that was not nearly as expensive as all the other restaurants which are totally milking the opportunity as Daniel says.

It turned out to be really lovely actually.  We ended up not going cheap and getting the holiday special – because we both love sushi so much we just ordered a ton of that to share.  And then Daniel ordered a fun sweet sparkling wine for me, just to get us both in the holiday mood a bit without admitting to the fact that we were celebrating Valentine’s Day!  He is so very cute though and we both had a great time.

So, since Jayden really happens to like string music, we are considering going to the Mousai Remix concert – which is free (always more tempting) at the Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant.  I’d never heard of this ensemble and then I read that it is very new.  The musicians are Emily Cole and Shin-young Kwon who have played violin with the Oregon Symphony as well as another violinist and a cellist.  They are to play Beethoven’s F Major Quartet, Op. 59, No.1 and Brahms C minor Quartet Op. 51, No. 1 – truthfully I’m not so familiar with these works and nor is anyone else in my family, but I know that as soon as Daniel’s dad puts on some classical music, he seems to really relax…

They are asking for donations (which is fine as it goes towards the Oregon Symphony Kinderjibzert fund which is used to try and have additional outreach performances in schools in the Portland area – so in a way, that will be benefiting us directly too.  Anyway I guess we’ll see how the day goes; it starts at 7 which isn’t too late for Jayden and my babysitter did say she’s available, so we’ll just how tired Jayden gets later on.

Anyway, because I love Amanda so much and I’m really so excited for her and her hubby, I started looking into different professional photographers in the area and I came across Toor Photo and I really liked what I saw, so I bought her a gift card so that she can go with her husband and get a really fun photo shoot before her little one arrives and she wonders why she ever wanted to get pregnant so badly!

I wish the weather would improve a bit already. I mean, I know this is what we should be expecting for this time of year and it isn’t exactly a surprise but that doesn’t stop me from wishing it would be a bit drier and warmer outside so that I could get out a bit more with the kids.  So today I checked the weather forecast and it seems that there is a relatively low expectation for rain so I’m going to have to use that to my advantage.  Friday doesn’t look as good but then Saturday seems like it’s going to improve again so if we don’t get around to doing much today (I always prefer to do stuff over the weekends as then we can do it as a family as neither Daniel nor I work), then at least we’ll have that.

Still, Michelle may come by with her two little girls and while it will probably be a tad too cold to play outside, at least she won’t get drenched coming over.  I know Jayden usually likes boys coming over but after a while complaining about Sarah they usually end up playing nicely.  And Ethan is just delighted there is extra company in the house – he’s such a playful little soul, despite me finding him a handful.  So, let’s hope the weather does something nice for us on Saturday and we can go to the park or something as a family.  Maybe even the Portland Saturday Market that we’ve never done yet altogether; we’ll have to see.

So when I discovered the online section on some tried and tested ideas for kids on rainy days, I knew that would be perfect for me, as it would be something new to keep my kids busy (and out of trouble)!  One of the ideas was preparing food with the kids.  Now, of course Ethan is a little young (they suggested the youngest age being two) but Jayden is for sure old enough.  He started by cleaning the veggies (and eating some cucumbers along the way – it’s always been his favorite food!) and also measuring the dry ingredients (although much of the flour spilled on the floor but I didn’t make a big deal out of that).  And then, once we’d made a quiche (with zucchinis by the way, not cucumbers!) he was so excited to eat it.  I think he ate more at that one sitting than ever before.  Clearly the advice on Montopia about getting kids involved in food preparation is a good one.

I’m looking forward to learning more about how to take care of my kids – and myself – through Momtopia; another great gift from the mall, this time one that didn’t burn a hole in the credit card!

It’s set to start in a couple of days’ time and run until February 25^th.  Featured films will be from 36 countries and there will be 140 films on show – 93 features and 46 shorts – so there has to be something for everyone.  The trick is, to find something that both Daniel and I will be able to enjoy as a couple; that’s always a bit tough!  But you never know, with all those movies, there must be something!  I’ll keep you posted!  And in the meantime, I’m for sure going to see Breathing (the one that got the Canes Best European Film award).