Portland Brew-ha Tooo-ur

My work schedule has been extremely hectic these past few weeks, some days last 20+ hours.  Marie traveled to Portland last week for work so I thought maybe I could sneak away for two days and visit her and do some brewpub touring.  If you didn't know, Portland has more micro-breweries than any other city in the US.  Also, Portland being in the Northwest these micro-breweries always have a big hop presence in their beirs. Marie's hotel was in the Llyod District which is East Portland.

I arrived Wednesday evening just in time to take Marie out to dinner.  We looked at a map from the hotel and Bridgeport Brewery jumped out at us.  It was yummy; for an appetizer we had fried chicken wontons.  Marie is a pretzel lover so she had the baked pretzels and I had a Hungarian pork goulash for dinner.  Oh, and we sampled some of their fine beers.  
Summer Squeeze
King Pin (cask style)
IPA

While at Bridgeport they had a brew tour map, I snagged one and mapped out my walking quest Thursday morning.  I was just going to tour places while Marie was at work, they only bummer was that the earliest place opened at 11am.

Lucky Labrador Brewpub (solar powered brewery)
Superdog (flagship IPA)

Cascade Barrel House
Cascade IPA  5.7% 60 IBU
Kriek 8oz  7.1%

Green Dragon (Rouge brewpub and distillery)
Brutal IPA

Migration
Luscious Lupulin IPA 6.5% 77 IBU

Coalition
2 Dogs IPA  5.8% 77IBU

Hair of the Dog
Dot IPA  7%

I was able to visit these 6 brewpubs from 11am -5 pm.  I walked to all of them and I calculated the travels later when I was at a computer and it totaled to 7.8 miles.  At least I was getting a little exercise while quaffing great beers.  My favorite was the last one, Dot.  It was their Imperial IPA

Friday
Descutes Brewery
White IPA

To say the least it was an IPA tour.  If you know me you understand!  Gotta Love the HOPS!!!!! If anyone want to come out and visit and they like beer, then I know a few places to check in on.

Cheers!

When the sun comes out...so do the WA Tuckers.

February greeted us with some absolutely gorgeous days.  We took advantage by going on a nice long hike on Saturday.

See Mt. Rainier in the distance?

The Chehalis Valley

Check out this huge Red Cedar...

 And Connor went out for a fishing trip on Blue Creek on Sunday morning (Marie went to a more traditional church to commune with God...but the river probably would have been better!).  He came home with an empty stringer but he had lots of fun.

We have been cooking up a storm too.  Last weekend, Connor made these delicious Puff Pastry Pot Pies (a Jamie Oliver recipe similar to this) -using his own stout. Marie made dessert - a Swedish Cookie Bar - she used homemade apricot preserves instead of raspberry.

On a sweet/funny note, we keep close tabs on our little nephews in Dallas, Texas.  Looks like little Alex is learning to potty train and he has already figured out the ideal position for the commode.

And here is a breathtaking shot of our gorgeous Leigh Ann with our new nephew, William Samuel Chekanovskiy.

Marie was inspired to make a simple "comfort" food meal on Saturday evening... Consisting of oven-barbequed chicken, baked macaroni and cheese (similar to this recipe), and sauteed asparagus with mushrooms and tomatoes.  Lefty was absolutely howling as she worked in the kitchen... He knew there was chicken on the way.

For SuperBowl Sunday, we (accidentally) got in the spirit of both of the teams playing.  Connor whipped up a traditional New England clam chowder - using razor clams from WA.  Marie made New York style Pretzel Dogs.  (Lefty was clearly interested in our culinary adventures...) For dessert, we have Almond Blondies.

Too much good food... luckily, the weather is fantastic for outdoor adventures.  Our kitties are loving the outdoor days...but they get cozy on their furniture at night... Here they are sweetly sharing the saucer on their new piece of fancy USA-made cat furniture
... Normally they fight for king position. 

Stay tuned... the Tucker House Brewmaster plans to brew a Czech Pilsner next weekend. Lord knows we need it... save us from the Bud Light Platinum sample that Connor brought home from one of his distributors.

Curiosity Hurt the Cat!!!

Yep... that's Eno's busted cat-tail in your face... he is just getting a little drink of water from the faucet.  After the day he had...he is thirsty.
Did you want to see that sweet little kitteh face with his busted booty??? Ok. Here he is...

Now for the fun story...
Yet again, Eno made a surprise visit to Dr. Giffey's office today.  Tuesday night Connor let Eno out to do his wandering and potty business around 5pm.....Marie came home at 5:30pm and let the little bugger in and he was yowling and crying in pain.   We noticed he couldn't hold his tail up and that he didn't want us to touch it.
Marie thought it was "cold" tail - which she only knew about because her (Margaret's) sweet Honey-dog used to get it.  After some internet searching, she decided that must be what it was -though she didn't have a clue how he got it - and thought it would be better in a few days.
On Wednesday, Connor was able to investigate a bit more and thought he felt a large splinter or thorn sticking out.... Marie did a second opinion check and, sure enough, agreed.
So, Thursday, it was off to the vet for an emergency visit... The vet said it looked like he had been attacked or bitten by something and they needed to do surgery to alleviate the abscess and insert a drainage tube.

He is feeling a bit better tonight... even getting in some good scratches/stretches... and being very affectionate.

Our poor little baby kitteh.  He is only 2 years old and he has a laundry list of (expensive) vet visits:
January2010: adopted Eno from the local shelter/feed store
February2010: eye surgery (his inner eye lids were not properly developed in utero and never fully opened- see how screwy they look in the pic below?...but surgery could repair that)

March 2010: fleas take over our house (they had been a problem since we brought Eno home, but clearly his medicine didn't kill the eggs because more kept coming!)...spend a small fortune bombing house and treating cats.
September 2010: Eno broke his leg (something to do with a big planter falling on him...we don't really know)

January 2011: Eno has incontinence problems... pees in house a few times... Marie wants to kill, but spends a few hundred at the vet to investigate instead... only to learn that he has no infections or anything, he just needs his own litter box. Geesh.
Summer 2011: Eno has several minor incidents...busted/bloody noses... swollen paws...  Witness the "club paw" below...

Which brings us to today... and an expensive tail. 
We realize that we have a "special" cat.  He is accident prone. He rides the short bus.  His brother, Lefty, drives the short bus.  Lefty has also had his fair share of expensive incidents. The example below is from the summer of 2009...

The joys of owning "free" cats.  haha.

Back to normal...

We are not exactly what you would call "good" bloggers... We post our blogs when we have time.  Who cares if it is a week or more after the fact? Certainly not these guys...

So... for the most part, things are back to normal this week...including sweet flowers and long days at work. 

He even cut a bloom to put on my dresser. How sweet is that?!?

We still have ugly, dirty piles of snow piled up all over the place.  The roads are still a bit slick in the wee morning hours.  Connor's employees are still a bunch of worthless, miserly, bickering pains in the butt (seriously, he has worked from 8am all the way through to 3am several days recently!). But, as Sugarland sings, it happens.

We are still squeezing in time for the fun stuff... Like waffles on Sunday morning... And pizza on a Grey's Anatomy date night...

And saying prayers of thanksgiving for all of our loved ones... including prayers of healing for some... and prayers of patience and strength for others.  Hope you know that we are praying for you, and sending you so much love EVERYDAY.  <3

Baby, It's Coooold Outside!

Well... the pacific northwest got a taste of winter last week. A big taste. It was beautiful and scary and annoying all at the same time.  We went to bed on Tuesday evening not even worried about the "Pineapple Express" that everyone was talking about... and woke up to more than a foot of snow Wednesday morning at 5:30am.  (eventually our totals were somewhere around 2 feet!) Because Marie is so new to her job, she wasn't allowed any time off - which was crazy because there was no way for her to physically get to her office.  And Connor's businesses also took a hit - it is hard to get employees to come out in the middle of a severe winter storm.  See Marie's excuse above. :)

But, as always, we made the best of the time.  Those of you who have visited know that we live on the ridge of a fairly steep hill... so we weren't about to see any plows come up our way.  Without 4-wheel drive, we were stuck.  So, we decided to walk into town!  It was a good 5-6 mile hike, and it felt GREAT! 

That's Connor with our sweet neighbor, Beau.  And here is Connor doing a Tebo as we get ready to head down the hill...

Marie was wishing for the old days in Moon Township... where are the snowpants when you need them???  And a Martha Sue to clean up all the soggy clothes afterwards??

We also took advantage of the extra time to make cinnamon rolls - from a fundraiser kit that Connor had purchased.

Check out little Lefty begging for a taste... He is so STOUT!

Connor also tried to rack our fruit beers.  Unfortunately, they smell more like fruit vinegar than fruit beer.  We're not sure they will turn out...We'll have to keep you posted on that one.

Marie's friend Susan gave her an early Valentine's Day gift - because she knows how Marie loves hearts... It was perfect for sipping on hot tea during these cold and windy days.

Ummm. No. We don't let our filthy felines lounge on our table... What makes you even think that???  Silly people...

Some Chehalis Kitchen Therapy

I (Marie) was in the mood to do some serious cooking this weekend... and my meal plan for the week looks totally delicious.  
Here is a little taste of our weekend:
We had skillet-grilled burritos for a quick dinner on Saturday night... along with some of our homemade heirloom salsa. Yum!

Chicken Pot Pie with an Herbed-Biscuit topping for lunch on Sunday...

 Beer Note: Daryl had a Scottish Ale... Connor had a Vanilla Boubon Porter.

And a sweet chocolate meringue pie for dessert. Personally, I never saw the appeal of meringue pies... but my Connor-Crush requested it and I was up for the challenge. It actually was a lot of fun to make the homemade pudding and test my hand with a meringue... Not too time consuming...and the taste was excellent if I do say so myself!

After a nice long walk (on a rare sunny 50-degree day!) Connor and Lefty ended up on the couch with full-bellies and happy hearts.  Don't you want to join us?