My week in food

The octopus at S & I. 

Repurposing S & I fries by making omelette hash for brunch. 

Omelette hash brunch, plated with Greek yogurt, cucumber, carrots, and slices of Tillamook pepper jack.

I surprised myself with this one! Organic grassfed seasoned lamb from Umpqua Valley in roasted garlic marinara sauce and red wine, with farfalline zebra bowtie pasta (squid-ink sripes) imported from Italy. Also organic.

I'm supposed to be packing, not blogging, but I so want to share what I've been eating and some of that inspiration behind what I've made, so I'll just post a bunch of pics with short descriptions. I swear, I'm usually not this lazy.

What inspires me when I cook? Well, cooking is a stress reliever. I have a technical occupation where I must follow rules, standards, guidelines, protocol, and deadlines, so when I am off the clock, the creativity shines. I used to think that to be an artist, one would have to paint or sculpt, maybe even do music performance or performance art. Acrobatics. Parkour. Stunt driving? (Hehehe rambling) But no. I realize that I can be creative in the kitchen. Cooking combines creativity with sensibility, and for this I've got both. I like getting my favorite things, throwing in something new to challenge myself, and then making something completely new from these ingredients. So what that means is that I combine what I have around the house with stuff I go out of the way to buy from the store. For example, for the pasta dish, it was important that I purchase freshly grated parmesan instead of getting that powdered stuff in a can. It makes a huge difference in terms of flavor and texture. Plus, it's fun to eat the slivers while the sauce cooks. I also had some red wine that was sitting on the counter that I knew I wasn't going to be drinking, so of course, I throw that into the sauce. I throw other things into the sauce, into the meat, and well, there I have it, something palatable that I would like to replicate again. To be concise, dinner tonight was a success.

By the way, I'm supposed to be packing because I'm going to visit the neighbors up north, where I'll definitely be checking out the eats! :D And the sights. Oh yes, the sights. Them, too.

Bon voyage.