A Spectacular Failure

    

 Look.  Look at those pretty jars all lined up filled to the brim with pretty pink pickles.  These jars are filled with pickled watermelon rind and I canned them myself.
     I first had pickled watermelon rinds as a garnish to an amazing dinner at Imperial in southwest Portland (http://www.imperialpdx.com/#welcome).  My dinner consisted of fried rabbit (Think chicken fried rabbit.  This was the first time I've ever had rabbit and, let me tell you, I'm a fan) atop a semolina corn cake along with said watermelon rind pickles and big ol' chunks of some real good bacon.  It was served with a cute little pitcher of local honey and a teeny tiny bottle of housemade hot sauce to drizzle over the fried rabbit.  Dang, it was all good.  I may have licked the honey pitcher...  Accompanying my meal with seriously the one of the best cocktails I have ever had:  A Radish Walks into a Bar.  From their menu: Carpano Antica vermouth, Ransom Old Tom gin, radish gastrique, lemon, cracked pepper & salt.  What the heck?  I don't even like gin that much!  This cocktail was probably made with Voodoo magic, it was so good.  Many times, when I experience some delightful food or drink, I tell myself, "Hey, you need to try making this at home."  I don't think I can attempt this drink at home.  I don't even understand what all the words involved mean.  Something from that meaI I was determined to nail was those watermelon rind pickles.  They had a nice spiciness to them and were oh-so-crisp!  By chance, I had happened to pick up the America's Test Kitchen DIY cookbook from work.  I don't remember why I decided I needed this book.  Maybe I wanted to try their yogurt recipe or something.  Anyway, this book has a recipe for a crisp spiced watermelon rind pickle!  It even has cardamom in it!  I love cardamom.  It's a delicious sounding recipe.  I made the pickles and let them sit for the prescribed 10 days.  Maybe only 9.  I get impatient.  After a bunch of days, I cracked open my first jar of watermelon rind pickles and had a sample.  These pickles are, without a doubt, completely inedible.
     Where did I got wrong, you ask?  They look so lovely, after all, with their cute little labels and all.  Let me count the ways I totally messed up this recipe.

1.  I casually skimmed the recipe and then picked up supplies.  Oh, I need a watermelon you say?  Guess I'll pick out a big one.  After carefully paring this gigantic watermelon and salting the peeled rind, I take a look at the yield of this recipe.  Four pints, you say?  I filled up my largest bowl with watermelon rinds and still had leftover rind for days.  I check the recipe again.  I needed a 4-5 pound watermelon.  I estimate that the watermelon I had so carefully chosen and prepared weighed closer to 10 pounds.  No matter!  A quick run to the store for more jars and rice vinegar and I will soon have more pickles than I know what to do with.

2.  A key step after salting the rinds and letting them sit for a day is to then thoroughly rinse them.  This was my downfall.  This poorly executed step is what ruined my carefully made pickles.  That one bite I managed made my mouth pucker and my tongue burn for about 10 minutes afterward.  Too salty!  My fiance was standing behind me when I cracked the first jar and asked how they were.  "Try them," I managed with an almost straight face.  He did not care for the pickles.  I shared this story with a coworker.  Apparently saltiness is a big problem people run into when they first try pickling.  You can definitely call me a beginner pickler.  I shall rinse thoroughly in the future.  I will also cut off more of the watermelon flesh.  These pickles were a little mushy for me.  Nothing to do with the saltiness.  Just another observation of future improvements.

3.  I need canning tongs.  This lack of equipment had no effect on my pickles overall.  It was just a huge pain trying to lift jars in and out of boiling water first thing in the morning using regular metal tongs.  I will be acquiring canning tongs in the future.

     Overall, this was really only half a failure.  I had never canned anything before in my entire life and, frankly, was kind of nervous to do so.  Fears of busted jars and botulism have held me back far too long.  No longer!  Aside from splattering myself with boiling water, my canning efforts turned out just perfect.  Shortly after removing the jars from their processing bath, I could hear the pop!  pop!  of the lids fully sealing.  Six of the seven jars and still beautifully sealed on my shelves until I get around to popping open the lids and emptying them into the compost bin.  Yes, I will can again.  I will probably even try this recipe again.  Just be sure to rinse thoroughly.

This link is exactly the recipe I used.  http://www.wnyc.org/story/pickled-watermelon-rind/

*A note on my photography skills:  I'm not sure they will improve ever.  We'll see.

Catching Up

     It's been a while since I've posted here.  A heck of a long while.  Major things that have happened since last January:  I worked my way up at the kitchen shop from brand new sales associate all the way to Assistant Manager,  I gained over 200 hours of volunteer time as an intern for Oregon Fish and Wildlife Service, and both of my siblings got married.  One in Iowa last summer and one in Cape Cod this summer.  Oh, and the boyfriend I had just started seeing at the beginning of this blog proposed and we're getting married back in Iowa next September!  So yeah, it's been busy and this blog has not received any love at all.  So sorry, little blog and sorry to any readers.  (I know you're out there!  You've told me about yourselves!)
     The cool part is that, while ignoring this blog, I've had the opportunity to explore the amazing food (and beer) Portland has to offer.  Seriously, it's really hard to find bad or even mediocre food here.  The fiance's mother and sister visited last week and, to give you an idea of the kind of food I've been eating, here's everything that we ate in those two days:

-After airport drinks at Pepe-Le-Moko in downtown PDX (pepelemokopdx.com/).  I ordered the Hotel Nacional Special which was lovely, but my future sister-in-law's amaretto sour really stole the show.  We also ordered a charcuterie board.  Charcuterie boards are always good.

-A late not-quite-breakfast the next morning at Coco Donuts (www.cocodonuts.com/).  We live in Sullivan's Gulch in NE Portland and this place is a few blocks from us.  I think I had a glazed buttermilk donut and coffee.  Coffee in Portland is also usually delicious.  At Coco's  I also recommend the lavender glazed donuts and the old fashioned donuts.  Good stuff.

-We then visited the Japanese Garden and Rose Garden.  In the interest of time, I'm not getting into the gardens, but trust me that they are beautiful and you definitely need to visit them if you are ever in PDX.  However, after the gardens we all ordered pastrami on rye with Russian dressing from Kenny and Zuke's (http://www.kennyandzukes.com/).  Shut the front door.  This is the best pastrami I have ever had and it could possibly be the best pastrami the world even has to offer.  So smokey.  So tender.  Gah!  From the menu:  cured 7 days, smoked 10 hours, steamed 3 hours.  Pure bliss.  I want to someday try my hand at curing meats and maybe making my own pastrami.  I know I will never reach this level of pastrami, but it might be fun to try.

-A visit to the shops on Alberta means a visit to Salt & Straw for ice cream (saltandstraw.com/).  They've got tons of delicious and wacky flavors that change through the season.  My favorite thus far was a cheddar apple pie ice cream they had last fall.  This time I ordered bone marrow ice cream with smoked bourbon soaked cherries off their farmer's market menu.  I didn't really get much of the bone marrow flavor, but it was still good ice cream.  I'm a sucker for smokey and cherries so they worked for me.

-Dinner at Petisco's (www.petiscopdx.com/).  Also near our home.  This is a lovely hole in the wall.  They do this huge paella night every month.  We have yet to go, but they have their paella pan hanging on the wall and it is gigantic and well seasoned.  After my pastrami sandwich, I went for something light and ordered a salad with proscuitto, roasted figs, goat cheese, and a few baguette slices.  My fiance's mom got some sort of pureed pea ravioli.  I don't remember the details, but it was just lovely.  The table shared a pitcher of white wine sangria with mangos.  It's been hot here lately and that was a welcome cool beverage.

-After dinner drinks at Hale Pele authentic tiki bar (halepele.com/menu/).  This place is just a hoot!  Jungle sounds playing over speakers, bamboo and tiki paraphernalia everywhere, flaming drinks every time you turn around.  One of their bartenders comes into my work to pick stuff up for the bar from time to time and we're now at the point where we can be all "Oh hey!  How's it going?" when we see each other.  I like to think that this means I have an in at Hale Pele and can get a table whenever I want, but honestly they just have excellent service and always have room.  Anyway, the Missionary's Downfall is my favorite drink here.  Light and refreshing and they don't skimp on the mint!

-Day two!  Getting tired of food yet?  Too bad, because this day was a doozy!  The fiance and his family got breakfast at Lovejoy Bakery (lovejoybakers.com/) in the Pearl District.  I did not join them as I filled in a couple hours at work, but I assume that whatever they ate was delicious because everything there is delicious.  I can personally vouch for their macarons, pulled pork sandwiches, and lemon tarts.  I've been there a couple times.  Meanwhile, I grabbed a quick bite of coffee and a gluten-free blueberry muffin at Costello's Travel Cafe behind our apartment (www.costellostravelcaffe.com/).  I don't know how they got the texture of this gluten-free muffin so perfect, but they really just nailed it.  They also sprinkled some rapadura sugar on top before baking which I absolutely will do someday when it's not so hot and I feel like baking muffins.  This place is my go-to for quick breakfasts on my way to work.  I especially love their croissants.  I'm no croissant expert, but these things are buttery and flakey and oh-so-good.

-I joined the rest of the bunch for lunch at Piazza Italia downtown (http://www.piazzaportland.com/language/english/pages/menu.html).  All the workers are Italian.  When not speaking to customers, they are speaking Italian.  The place is hung with soccer jerseys.  It's the most Italian thing I've ever seen.  Complimentary bread and oil/balsamic are on each table.  I ate a lot of bread.  It's just so good!  Big air bubbles and super fluffy with a nice crust.  We actually attempted a dupe of Piazza Italia's Linguine Squarciarella for dinner tonight!  Basically, we made speghetti carbanara out of Silver Spoon with some small adjustments.  We swapped bacon for torn up proscuitto and added diced onions.  We also made homemade linguine using our Kitchenaid and pasta attachments!  This was a first for me and I must say that, for a first timer, this was some pretty good pasta.  Our efforts weren't quite as good as Piazza Italia's, but then again we're not Italian so it's all good as they say.

-We left downtown to peruse the shops in the Alphabet District.  These shops are fancy and fun.  We visited the vintage jewelry store we got my engagement ring from and checked out a house-turned-shop filled to the brim with Polish pottery and about a million other stores.  A snap decision to visit Papa Haydn for macarons turned into full on dessert (www.papahaydn.com/).  I again ordered from the seasonal local menu and ended up with a blackberry cheesecake.  You can't go wrong with this, seriously.  Others ordered a lemon macaron ice cream sandwich that also incorporated cherries and honey, a grasshopper cake (mint and chocolate is always good), and lemon chiffon cake.  The mix of honey and lemon in the macaron was my personal fav.

-More chocolate!  We stopped by Moonstruck from some truffles (http://www.moonstruckchocolate.com/category/portland-23rd-ave).  I got some sort of salted caramel truffle and a lemon macaron.  Seriously, if you've never tried a macaron, go out and do so.  Light but crisp outer shell, creamy filling, and I honestly can't describe the texture of the cookie after you bite into it.  Melt-in-your-mouth overall.

-Back to NE for dinner!  Shandong Northern China cuisine (http://www.shandongportland.com/menu/).  They have the best (and biggest) pot stickers I have ever had in my life.  Just amazing.  The fiance and I shared an order of pork belly fried rice and still had leftovers.  I just discovered pork belly in the last couple years and will order it almost any time I see it on a menu.  My goodness.  Thus ends day two of feasting.

-Breakfast at Costello's again before dropping family off at the airport and heading to work.  After two solid days of eating, I could really eat no more.  I got a light breakfast of Greek yogurt, a bunch of cut up fruit, and housemade granola.  They did not skimp on the granola.  I took some home and topped my breakfast yogurt with it for the next couple of days.  Good stuff.  The fiance got some sort of breakfast panini that included amazing multigrain bread and avocados.  His mom and sister both ordered strawberry waffles.  I tried those waffles and, man, they are on another level.  Seriously, Costello's is just one of my favorite breakfast places ever.  It really helps that I live behind it.

     So, there's that.  I knew we ate a ton, but I am seriously exhausted just from the effort of typing it all out!  Luckily, typing this blog post has given me some time to digest my delicious homemade Italian food and I might be ready for some dessert.  I melted some semi-sweet chocolate and stirred in vanilla (I use the good stuff now!  Like from Madagascar or Mexico or something!) and heavy cream.  It's setting up now in the fridge and will basically be a lazy mock pot-de-creme.  I've eaten some amazing things and have had some spectacular creations (and spectacular failures) in my own kitchen that I should probably write about and my wandering days are still going strong.  Thanks for reading!

*I want to add the disclaimer that I don't necessarily eat like this every day.  That would kill the Molly.  However, I am surrounded by amazing food places.  Petisco's had a mean happy hour special of $6 sandwiches which I often take advantage of if I fail to pack a lunch for work.  Only eat half the sandwich with the salad it comes with and then the next day pack a different side to have with the other half of the sandwich.  My cooking skills are also growing which means I eat better at home.  For example, we seared scallops for the first time last night.  We didn't really know what we were doing, but they turned out amazing!  I whipped up a light salad of shaved fennel and diced apple with a vinaigrette.  It sounds so fancy, but took only about 15 minutes.  So yeah, I definitely don't eat crazy all the time, but I do eat well.  Yay for me!