Mind Your Own Biscuits

One of my best friends is finally visiting Portland, and I always take her out to somewhere new when she is in town. Since she has dietary restrictions, it can be a little more tricky to find a place we can go to. BUT I always find somewhere, and this time we ventured to Jam on Hawthorne. Ever since the first time I came across this glorious place, I look forward to each time I am able to go back. The funny thing is, I get the same thing every time, and that would be biscuits and gravy. Finding a place with good vegetarian biscuits and gravy is hard, but Jam on Hawthorne does a great job on theirs, and it doesn't leave me with a stomach ache afterwards. Another plus to it, is the leftovers still taste so great, and that is another rarity, is finding somewhere that has good food that makes good leftovers. My brother claimed it was too early to start having cocktails (it was 10am, but I really wanted a Bloody Mary) so I opted out on having one this time. Just a disclaimer, I am currently eating my leftovers from this morning. But here is a picture so you all can drool while I sit here and eat it.

Goodbye Summer Celebration

In Portland, it appears that summer is coming to an end, since the rain is back along with the grey skies. I can't say I am complaining about it since I am fully ready to embrace the fall season. As an end of summer celebration, my friends and I decided to do a little beach getaway, so we could all enjoy the last little bit of summer. Being Oregon, our beaches are different from the beaches you are probably imagining; ours are filled with grey skies, crisp ocean air, and the highest the temperature will ever get there is 65 degrees. Layers are your best friend at the Oregon Coast, since you can never be too sure about the weather. Back in May, I came up with the idea to have an end of the summer weekend getaway with my girlfriends in Lincoln City. I knew we would all need a little break before fall started, and this seemed like the perfect way to do so! My family has always rented houses for our little in state vacations, so I thought that would be a fun idea to do. We always go through to rent houses, so after looking through tons of houses for about two weeks, I finally found one that would accommodate everyone! After booking the house, it was then time to wait for the weekend to come. Since I knew none of us wanted to spend a ton of money on our getaway (we got a great deal on the house), I suggested that everyone pitch in money for food and drinks, then I would grocery shop the morning we planned to head down to the beach, and we could just cook our own meals! Breakfasts would be easy (they had muffins, while I had overnight oats), and lunch would be sandwiches or salads. Dinner would be the main event, and I definitely make a big deal out of it. The first night was Italian, which consisted of pasta, salad and one of the best baguettes I have ever had, rosemary and sea salt from New Seasons. That night after dinner, we just relaxed and played at lot of heads up (I highly recommend this app, especially with a cocktail in hand).

On our second day at the beach, we started our day with breakfast (stated above what we ate), and got ready for the day. On the agenda was going to the beach, and going to the outlet stores, since they are in Lincoln City. At the outlets, it is hard to keep a group of six people all together, so we split up into groups, which were determined by which stores we all wanted to go to. I did not end up buying anything because I am stocking up on fall items, and they were having end of summer sales. The beach on the other hand, was the same as usual, cloudy, cold, and there was tons of mist in the air. But it was exactly what we all needed, since back in Portland it was 90 degrees still. Of course, there were tons of pictures taken on the beach, because we are millennials and girls, so we have to document everything.

Our Saturday night dinner was of course, Mexican, because that is my favorite big meal to do and is the most fun themed meal in my opinion. I made the full spread; taco bar, rice, beans and margaritas. We all devoured that dinner, and rightfully so since we are a group of girls who love food. It was also entertaining having me cook the dinner since I don't eat meat, yet cooked ground turkey for the tacos. So I had to keep asking my best friend to taste it and let me know if I needed to add anything to it. Unfortunately we did not take any pictures of this spread, only a snapchat video. But just imagine Spanish rice, black beans, refried beans, ground turkey with taco seasoning, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, tortillas, sour cream, chips and salsa! Aka there was a ton of food that night. The next morning, we just relaxed (I worked out that morning, since I can't miss a workout), and had a full breakfast. I cooked hash browns, eggs, sausages, and toast, for a classic American breakfast for us all. On the way back to Portland, we stopped at Mo's, since it is a cliche restaurant to go to when at the Oregon Coast. I was the boring one and ate a grilled cheese there since there was literally nothing else that was vegetarian on the menu, which was expected. All in all, it was a successful last weekend of summer for us all! While my mother still insists on rejecting the idea of fall being here, I am fully on board with it!