Hello, Goodbye!

I'm excited to announced that I've made a domain name of my very own! (It's about time!)

goodbye blogspot, hello zoeupsidedown.com! Up and running and complete with all new posts so please don't forget to bookmark, subscribe and show some love!

yours truly,

Zoe

See you there!

Sunday night supper!

It seems only appropriate to write about sunday supper on a sunday! Apologies for not posting this sooner,  this was from a couple of sundays ago when M. and I decided spontaneously that we wanted to cook dinner with some of our close friends at their place. We brought in simple ingredients and ended up making  a pretty impressive meal, if I do say so myself!

On the Menu:
Homemade caprese salad
Garlic and Truffle crostinis
Linguini with spicy heirloom tomatoes
Pan seared herb chicken
Nutella stuffed beignets

Everything we made super simple and almost fool-proof that I'm proud to say that we've made the pasta a couple times since!

Quick confession: Heirloom tomatoes are my favorite, in fact, I'm obsessed with them not only because of their color, but because they make for an amazing snack by themselves with a little bit of 'good' olive oil and sea salt! (or hummus!)

Bon appetite!

Portland, I'm Yours.. (part one!)

So, I'm getting a little bit more clever with this photo documenting on an iphone issue just in time because the Nikon was just too much of a hassle to carry around the city. (I didn't realize how bad the quality of the pictures were until right now, oops!)

Our trip to Portland started off with a rocky start. First, we missed our flight at 7am. because the 405 was under construction and additionally there was an accident that was just beginning to be cleared away. This led us to miss our tour at PSU and appointment with advisers, and the next flight wasn't until 4pm. Luckily, our friend Mark was just getting off of his shift (he's a nurse) and lived nearby so he picked us up and grabbed breakfast at jollibee (!!!)

MAX station 7 blocks from our hotel..that we walked to EVERY day

Anyway, our Monday was lost, but our trip was amazing none-the-less! We stayed at the Jupiter Hotel which was a retro motel renovated into a boutique hotel with the DougFir lounge on site.. The rooms were a little on the small side, but cozy and bright.. The hotel a little on the loud side, since, after all it was a "party hotel" but we didn't mind that because after a quick dinner, we saw Puro Instinct and John Maus at the Doug Fir  which had sort of a log cabin feel to it. Oh, and the doors at our hotel were painted with chalkboard paint, which was exceptionally amusing after having a good amount of wine!



DougFir Burger

a very blurry John Maus!



 Tuesday was a lot more productive. We managed to make it to the school just in time to grab a snack before our campus tour that should have been called a "walk-up-every-flight-of-stairs-in-the-school" tour. Our tour guide was apparently the president of the Running club, and with a warm iced tea in hand, M. and I wandered about the school and fell in love with it all over again.  My favorite part of the school were the park blocks, perfect for napping, studying and or lounging in between classes. I could definitely see myself spending a lot of time there..



After meeting with an advisor at PSU, we got lost trying to find the light rail and met a nice guy who must've felt bad for us and sort of took us under his wing.. haha. So, Josh if you're reading this, THANK YOU, we owe you a beer, or something. We found our way to Clyde Commons, where we had a light dinner and absinthe to wind down before heading back to the room to watch movies and have a "do-absolutely-nothing-but-drink-beer-and-eat-pizza" night courtesy of wholefoods and sizzlepie. (They will be opening another location at the old Rocco's pizza (RIP! glad to have stumbled upon their giant pizzas last time we were in town!) on the corner of W. Burnside across from powells for those of you in the Pearl..)

A french absinthe, appropriately named Lucid

cheese and local honey + rhubarb and walnut bread

Tagliatelle with peas, walnuts and asparagus

Framboise+ Cider

wake and bake: Eggs and pancetta /and half Pepperoni

The next day we decided to go into downtown and do some exploring-- powells is always a fun thing to do if you've never been to PDX, or if you just love books/stationery/magazines in general. I'm not going to lie, I purposely left extra room in my suitcase for books, and I still had to buy an extra tote bag to take onto the airplane! Also, no trip is complete in our books without checking out local food stands and/or food trucks. There's a spot on SW 10th and Alder that has a huge variety.. One of our favorites from our last trip was Savor Soup House, where they have homemade soups and create-your-own grilled cheese. I get the same thing every time, M. and I split a grilled cheese with Gruyere, caramelized onions and truffle oil, and a cup of potato leak soup. (we went again on our last day and ate it on the plane ride home...such a good idea) The owners are friendly and are happy to give samples of soup in little glass thimbles to people who are indecisive like yours truly. (I'm the type of person who asks for a million samples at the ice cream parlor before deciding on what flavor to get..regardless of how long the line is behind me..) Also, because my eyes are bigger than my stomach, food cart lunch calls for multiple courses of mismatched ethic smorgasbord goodness. We found Thai Food Factory, a small little stand that serves an amazing Panang curry, and a bomb satay. (Confession: we did this two days in a row, as well.. don't judge!)

I'm slowly realizing that my trip and my inability to cut out details requires a lengthy post.. Lack of time and laziness calls for me to save the best part of my trip for another installment. stayyyyy tuned!

zoeupsidedown's photostream on Flickr.

foodtrucks + coolhaus does oc!

Just a quick post before M. and I head to Portland next week.. We had been craving ice cream sandwiches from Coolhaus for quite some time and lucky for us, they happened to be in orange county tonight! I had no idea that there was even a food truck gathering in Westminster.. We sort of just jumped in the car without any expectations but everything we tried was amazing.

Beef rendang sloppy joe, asian slaw and taro chips from chompchomp

Natural cut fries with curry mayo and sriracha ketchup

Creamed corn from shortstop BBQ

Lobster Popsicles from Slapfish

Potato chip and skor bar + nutella ice cream sammy!

I'm not going to lie, the coolhaus was definitely the show stopper.. Especially because this LA based foodie heaven is owned and operated by architects that also happen to make amazing icecream... Oh and not to mention their build your own sammies that look like modern homes in the diagram. The edible wrapper is also a plus and they have dome architecture inspired sammies like the orange Julius schulman which is apparently a snickerdoodle cookie+ blood orange sorbet or you can opt for the ever so popular redvelvet. They arent in oc very often, so this was especially awesome but they are definitely worth the drive to LA! Be sure to follow them on twitter @coolhaus and snag one of these babies next time it's one million degrees outside, or if you're just in the mood for an icecream Sammy like we were..