Happy Anniversary Blog: Two years and counting

It's been two years since I started this blog as a sort of companion piece to my book Food Lover's Guide to Portland. Since the beginning I've aimed to keep my posts short and sweet and informative for Portland food folks and visitors. I hope it's been helpful. This time last year I celebrated one year of blogging with a sort of year-in-review. It was a nice way to take stock so I'm doing it again for the two-year marker. Thanks for stopping by now and again. Thanks for chiming in now and again. Thanks to each and every one of you out there who celebrate our local food scene in Portland and beyond. Here are some blog highlights from the past year...

I started off February 2010 with our semi-annual Cincinnati chili feed. Can't beat Gartner's dogs, spicy Cincy chili and finely grated Tillamook cheddar...

Sometimes 3-ways are sloppy. Cincinnati chili 3-ways that is...

Portland International Film Festival followed shortly after. PIFF is my favorite local film fest and we always do PIFF + Pizza. Was going to giveaway some tickets here for this year's now in its final week but unfortunately got too busy. Go to PIFF while you still can!

Cheese followed by egg...

I won an Excalibur Food Dehydrator and made my first batch of spicy beef jerky late March. It was amazing and I've made it many times since...

Thin sliced tri-tip ready to marinate and dry...

In May I had my first interview in The Sun Magazine with one of my favorite people -- Sandor Ellix Katz...

I never thought this day would come...

Several weeks later I had a kick-ass book launch party for Food Lover's Guide to Portland the day it came out -- July 1st, 2010...

The best celebration I could have hoped for. So much fun.

At the end of summer my boyfriend and I went on a magical 10-day sailing trip around the San Juan Islands and I blogged about our DIY galley cooking in three installments...

We have a stainless grill too but most of what we cooked on the boat happened here.

In the fall we put together a filled-to-the-gills second annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust...

Biwa's rocking kimchi with big chunks of daikon and lots of fire.

Late December I got to press hard cider with our friend Nat and he gave me a carboy of the stuff to take home and ferment myself...

Nat sorting through one of the last Newtown Pippin apple bins.

And just in time for the new year I made miso for the first time. In a month or so I'll be checking on it...

After mashing the soybeans you mix that with the koji...

THANKS FOR ANOTHER GREAT YEAR!

Eat, drink and be hairy!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2010 Revisited

Another year and another briny, stinky, lovely and amazing Portland Fermentation Festival! Thanks to everyone who came out and thanks to all of you who made it happen -- especially those who generously sampled their fermented food and drink. You're amazing.

Thanks also to awesome coverage in Willamette Week, Laura McCandlish's KBOO Food Show and thanks to all the other publications that helped get the word out! Thank you so much Ecotrust for putting up with us (we're stinky) for yet another year. We couldn't have done it without you.

For now, I'm just going to post some photos from last night. I'll probably follow that up soon enough with even more words, thoughts and photos. (It was an amazing event so it deserves a lot of show and tell.) For now a fermenty feast for your eyes...

Even though we had Mr. President to contend with the crowd was thick.

Peg Butler with her sour pickles and home captured sourdough starter rye bread.

PFF co-organizer extraordinaire George Winborn demo'ing kraut.

PFF co-organizer (also extraordinaire) David Barber and Bonesaw Wilson serving up crunchy delicious Picklopolis pickles.

A lot of people's favorite of the night was Kate Patterson's awesome fermented salmon.

Linda Swanson-Davies' puckery delicious fruit kefir.

orrie and Anna Gordon's fermented goat cheese, goat butter and then some.

Biwa chef-owner Gabe Rosen and sous chef Ed Ross sampling kimchi.

Anne Berblinger's spicy delicious fermented chiles.

Dan MacDonald serving up his sour radishes and whole cabbage kraut. His radishes were kick ass.

A close-up because Dan's ferments were picture perfect.

I guess I just like butts.

The lovely Tressa Yelig of Salt, Fire & Time shared rocking pumpkin yogurt, green tea kombucha and cortido.

Tressa's super yummy cortido.

Heidi Nestler chopping up garlic for kraut.

Krista Arias and Jeanne sampling cortido.

I'm sad that when I was photographing I didn't catch Chris Musser of Lost Arts Kitchen. These were her supplies for homemade fermented chock-full-of-clove ketchup, mayonnaise and more.

This year we even had merch!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2010

Last year's first annual Portland Fermentation Festival in late August at Ecotrust was a screaming success. More than 500 people turned out to sample everything from natto, kefir and potato cheese to hard cider, kimchi and kombucha.

A big draw last year was the Mr. Sandorkraut himself -- special guest Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. I had interviewed Sandor several months prior for the May 2010 issue of The Sun and it was an honor to have him visit Portland for the inaugural PFF.

Although Sandor won't be at this year's PFF we hope you will. Event details can be found below but all you really need to know if you love fermented food and drink is when and where. We're honored that Ecotrust has agreed to host the funky fest again this year because let me tell you that a room full of fresh ferments is, how do I put it, well, a little ripe. We're very grateful that they're willing to put up with the stink.

So if you don't love the smell of dill and garlic slapped sour pickles, tart and punchy kombucha, sweet and sour fruit kimchi, or mild and tart kefir don't come. There will be more to sample for the rest of us. That's what the event is all about -- sampling ferments, talking with those who made them and skill sharing.

If you didn't get a chance to sign up as a presenter don't worry. You can still bring your ferments to share. You won't have a table and set-up but that's ok. The more the merrier. So, please, come out for the wild, funky, stinky and delicious Portland Fermentation Festival 2010!

Second Annual Portland Fermentation Festival When: Wed., October 20th 6-8pm Where: Ecotrust, 721 NW 9th Ave., #200, Portland, OR What: Sample and learn about all sorts of food and drink ferments Cost: $5 at the door