Greens
I’m sitting in my office (aka The Agency Sports Bar across from PGE Park). By the way, they have a meltingly juicy Tillamook Cheeseburger for $4 on the Happy Hour menu. You’ll get to try them if you’re planning to join Scott and Michael Alberty, owner of Storyteller Wines, for the Soccer and Pinot event we are jointly hosting here at The Agency on May 27. See our events page for more info.
I’m loving this sunshine and heat and feel like I can hear my plants growing. If you’ve read past posts, you know that I’m an enthusiastic neophyte vegetable gardener. Last year brought some extremely tasty rewards and much fun with Pirrie. So we’ve looked forward all winter to getting back at it. I poured over the Territorial Seed catalog this past winter, with some intention of actually mapping out the whole garden, companion plants and all. But in the end, I grabbed what I could, when I could…some plants starts here, some seeds there, based on whim and recommendation.
Imagine my extreme delight three Saturdays ago when Pirrie and I spotted friends Susan and Chris Stubberfield in Carlton, just as they were about to duck into their greenhouse on Kutch Street in Carlton. They invited us in to their hot house oasis. A new-found interest in gardening has mushroomed from small hobby into big greenhouse teeming with hundreds of plants. On that particular day, they were transplanting dozens of seedlings to bigger pots. They also showed us the portion of their greenhouse that they offer to a Yamhill teenager, who grows peppers and sells them at area farmers markets. We walked out of there with basil, onions, cilantro, tomato and edamame. Earlier we had planted seeds for eggplant, sugar snap peas, nasturtium and radish. I’ve not had much luck growing from seed, so this is a new venture. The organic lettuce and kale starts that we picked up at Food Front Co-op in Portland are already yielding…big leafy plants with no pest problems whatsoever! The lettuce is so soft and buttery. I dressed the greens in a spicy New Orleans vinaigrette and topped that with seasoned, sautéed shrimp and sliced avocado. Delish! 
And last night, I put the homegrown kale on the menu. See recipe archives for the Kale Salad recipe. I topped that with some roasted fingerling potatoes and local salmon baked with a thin layer of sour cream on top. I picked that idea up from Molly Wizenberg (aka Orangette), in her new monthly column for Bon Appetit. 
She called for topping a 2-pound salmon fillet with salt and pepper and ¼ cup of sour cream or crème fraiche and baking at 425 for 12-14 minutes. I added a teaspoon of lemon zest when seasoning the fish. Why? Because Pirrie was looking for a kitchen job and I handed her a zester and bowl of lemons. And it was delicious. I’ll make it the same way again.
Looking forward to seeing some of you this weekend during our Memorial Day Weekend Open House! And if you’ve never been because you don’t like the sound of the crowd, come early for more time and attention (we open at 10 a.m.)! You’d be surprised how pleasant it is in our tasting room before the afternoon crush.
