The Last Big Walkabout. For Now.

When a grill was a grill. Hang on, there's more.

Sarah works at her food creation dream job in a four days on, three days off cycle (in case, like me, you have shockingly serious math deficiencies, that would constitute the traditional 7 day week). That has nothing to do with the truck photo next to these words.




Yesterday was the last day off she'll have until I return, so when the 'what shall we do?' question came along, one of my favorite Portland pastimes was again the answer. Because it really doesn't matter where you go around here, the architecture, shops, restaurants and bar/cafe/street places are unendingly interesting to me. Even the bad stuff is good, if you get that.

Did I have this in last year's Portland bits? Does it matter?
 I could see this place a lot more before tiring of it.

Like Benjamin's wall at home, this one is also a changing art scene. 

'da Vern' to locals, (aka Hanigan's) to probably nobody , with some of the best comments on funky barness ever written, is an old Portland standard for Sarah. I think I'm almost ready for it. 

I love this mural!

No wait, I love this truck! I love that mural and this truck. It is shiny, but not too shiny.
It looks truly like it is used on a regular basis and just kept up well .Obviously,
 it is the rest of the truck of the grill photo up top there. I really love this truck.

I think it would be fun to know how to weld, just because there are so many awesome
old rusty metal things that beg to be put together to make...oh say, a sign holder. 

One of the motivations for going this direction on this particular walk was to go to the Urban Farm Store. I've walked by when it was closed, forgotten to go there, or just went the other way for the last two visits. Determined to break the cycle and see what was in there, it was now the Designated Goal. While things that seem yuppified in many places are considered very way normal in Portland (are people still called yuppies? If not, you know, gentle reader, what I mean, even if you are one), most of it is for real. I was afraid this place might be a little over sincerely live in the country but in the city yuppified. It isn't. Go to the Hawthorne Powell's store for that (I passionately enjoy that store, by the way).

What if you just want the three  chickens you are allowed to have without a permit and don't have a clue what you are doing (you want more? the permit is cheap - yes, Culebra is different but this is a city and it's pretty damn cool!) There are Chicken Keeping classes, along with gardening and preserving classes as well. I really like this business.

Out back is a big run outside the coop and some very funky chickens. 

I had to cluck a few times to get FeatherHead's attention, but it worked. These chickens, ready to go home and lay eggs for you, are 25.00. Which is probably less than you'll spend feeding them for six months while waiting for the egg laying parts. 

Inside are all kinds of chick babies, as well as 5 week old chicks, 5 and 10 dollars respectively. There are shelves of feed for chickens, cats and dogs along with all sorts of natural stuff to keep pets healthy and happy. There are even chicken coop plans they will build for you out of recycled material. And if you get a rooster by mistake and don't want to keep it? On Sundays, just bring in old cockle-doodle-do and they will relocate him for you. For free. I would love to have a store like this (and it's family owned, just in case you don't read about it) on Culebra. 

Another cool old truck. Nothing fancy here, just a good ol' truck.
I saw two VW 4 wheel drive transporters since I've been here
 - which may be on top of the list -
along with some fabulous old Land Rovers.
Vehicle lust is not usually what drives me, but sometimes...it  can.

A quiet, well built resting spot. It even has a chimney.
Which is weird, but nice for long visits in winter. I guess.

Across from the cemetery, in a neighborhood with very classic homes, is this place. If you look closely through the fence, you might see the fire hydrant decor. For those blessed with vivid imaginations, have a good time! For the rest, or if you head starts exploding with visions of doggy dinner parties, you can sate your curiosity here.

If I lived here, I would do this. But not in winter. Obviously why I don't live here.

Cedars, oh my!

Another white bike memorial. I'm not sure if the tires are like the Jewish traditions of placing stones on graves or not, but that's all I could think about without getting too sad.

An intriguing sign I couldn't figure out. Until I looked here, where you will find the
 weirdest advert for a vacation place ever written. I mean it.

Yes, I'd love to have taken a photo of this beer and movie theatre all lit up at night.
Yes, I'm sure there are just such photos online.
But you'll have to go find them yourselves. I'm waiting for the real thing.

This was going to be a great shot of this van. But my particular phone camera is not exactly swift on the click. So while I should have tossed this, use your imagination anyway and enjoy.

This store looked...sort of like someone was moving in or out of it, but it was full of masks and lured me inside. The woman was very nice; it wasn't closed or closing, they were just moving things around. She kindly let me take photos of her and her partner's wonderful work. I took other photos but they were so confusing, I'm sticking with this one. You can find out more and see a lot more masks if you go to their Belfry site here.

I do not know what these are. They have an orange inside, like a genipe.
Sarah licked the inside and said it was sweetish. If you know, please tell me! Thank you. 

We carried one of these along with us just in case I needed to give it to the
EMT while they tried to save her life. Licking an unknown fruit? Sheesh!
Happily, that was no necessito.

The piano is immortal? It's a place for funeral home pianos? What?

Suddenly, about three blocks from home, we were both tired. Luckily, we were only three blocks from home. It was time to make some popcorn and watch a movie. Well, we munched popcorn and watched Stephen Fry check out America, as good as a movie and better than a lot of them. Until I fell asleep.

Have a theatrically talismanic Thursday. Do something transitional.

What's in that...Friday...Culebra time

Hey, I'm open sometimes closed others all the time, not just during business hours! Before we get to breakfast burritos, I thought I'd do a little SAL review. It's easy, living here and having a good majority of friends who also live on islands, to assume people know what I'm talking about concerning some weather terms that really, I'd never heard about before I got to the islands. One of them is SAL, which stands for Sahara Air Layer. It's what we call Sahara dust and that is literally dust from the Sahara desert in Africa. There's a lot more and it's pretty interesting, but if it bores you dusty, just don't click on the link.

This is the SAL satellite photo for this morning *cough*
(that's us, on the leading upper western edge)

And now, on to Breakfast Burritos, a la Island Woman, just in time for Saturday morning breakfast! See, I can be on time...in a manner of speaking.

This recipe makes 8 burritos. There are two reasons that 12 eggs make 8 burritos, especially because they are also stuffed with other ingredients. The first one is that I can't buy large eggs all the time here. In fact, hardly ever. And the medium eggs are really more like small eggs. So, I figure it's the equivalent of 10 or even 9 eggs. Another reason I need to get those chickens some day soon. These are 8 FAT burritos!

1/2 onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup sausage or bacon

1 T. butter or olive oil

12 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/4 t. cumin

salt / pepper to taste

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I also threw in some olive oil marinated feta - use the cheese you like best, or as many kinds as you like, totaling no more than a cup or so)

1 cup refried beans (I used vegetarian refried black beans, but any kind, even beans you cook and mash on your own are fine).

1/2 cup salsa (I made my own, it's easy and I know what's in it, recipe below)

8 large or extra large flour tortillas

The most important thing I know to tell anyone cooking is to have your ingredients together before you start doing anything. A couple of reasons are 1) you'll know if you have everything and either need to substitute or go to the store and 2) it's just easier to work. If your hands are covered with onion juice, it's messy to go hunting for salsa in the fridge. That sort of thing. I'm a firm believer in washing my hands a LOT while I'm cooking, but not between every move.



Salsa recipe:

2 fresh tomatoes or one 16 oz. can peeled tomatoes (whole, diced, doesn't matter) chopped fine

1 medium onion, finely minced

10 cloves garlic, finely minced (more or less; I think I've mentioned I like garlic - a lot)

hot peppers of choice, to taste (I used peppers out of my garden and some dried poblanos because I had them, you can use canned jalepenos or any other kind, but something with some smokiness in it would be good)

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro / 10 leaves racao finely minced

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Now, I know I keep writing finely minced. You can toss all of this in a food processor and avoid all of that mincing, but if you do that, just use the pulse feature to keep it rough. For some reason this makes a more full flavor salsa. That's what I think, anyway. And that's it. There are lots fancier salsas, but for a fast good salsa, this works. Put in a covered container and let it sit for a couple of hours minimum to get a better flavor. But if you can't wait, no one will complain.

Crack all the eggs into one bowl and whip, adding milk, cheese, salt, pepper and cumin as you whip. Set aside.

In a large skillet or wok, heat olive oil or butter. Add onions & garlic, saute until onions are barely browned and translucent.

Add bacon or sausage (sausage can be removed from casing or cut into 1/2 inch pieces) Cook until done - bacon shouldn't be *over crisp* though.

Add whipped egg mixture. Let the bottom set a bit and stir to turn bottom to top. Repeat that until egg is completely cooked. It's not a fast process, don't try to hurry. It will have a bit of a wet consistancy, but there will be no runny egg white.

While cooking the eggs, put the refried beans in another pan, along with the salsa. Stir to mix over gentle heat. Turn off heat. You can put this in a separate container or just keep it in the pan, your choice.

When heated, you're ready to build your burritos. Tortilla advice: warm tortillas are easier to work with than room temperature or cold. There are lots of ways to warm a tortilla, the point is that you only are aiming to warm it, not cook it. I put them in the oven one at a time as I'm making burritos. One tortilla being filled, one in a very low oven.

I use a slotted kitchen sized spoon for this. Take one spoonful (not heaping, just a regular spoonful) and place it in the middle of the tortilla, spreading the spoonful a little bit lengthwise, leaving an inch or so of tortilla uncovered on the sides.



Use one heaping tablespoon of the bean mixture and spoon it on top of the egg mixture. There is no way to make refried beans look pretty, but they sure taste good! Especially with the salsa added.


Fold in both sides of the tortilla to the edges of the egg and bean mixture. Fold the edge of the tortilla closest to you over the egg and bean mixture, holding those side in at the same time. Continue to fold the whole thing over the last part of the tortilla farthest from you. If the sides flop open, don't worry, just gently open it back up and tuck them in. Burrito folding is easy but practice helps keep it a nice package rather than a falling apart mess.


If you can serve right away, fine. If not, you can wrap in foil and these will keep warm for literally hours if wrapped in a warm kitchen towel. To freeze, you can wrap in waxed paper and then the foil.


Buen provecho!