There's A Difference Between Psalms & Proverbs

I haven't written this story yet - think I was a little concerned about the possible family backlash.  But -- tonite I'm in a "what the heck" kind of mood. So here goes:

A while ago we had a special day,,,,it was my baby granddaughter's dedication day at my daughter and her husband's church.  A very special time, and many family and friends joined together to celebrate this beautiful little baby's dedication to our Lord.

Afterwards, a group of us, friends, and family, gathered together at a local restaurant where we were able to get a nice banquet style room and relax and enjoy fellowship and food together. My older daughter brought a lovely gift and a beautiful card for the baby as a remembrance of the day.  She is like that, my older daughter; she is so thoughtful that way, and really goes the extra mile, every time, to make things special.  I remember the card really caught my eye, a beautiful graphic on the front with a mother and daughter, as I recall, and I picked it up to read it.  She had included a Scripture reference at the bottom, Psalms 22:6, but she didn't include the words.

Well, what happened next is now a "family story" surely to be told at many a gathering from here to eternity...without a doubt!!

And....as the story was told today, my other daughter, mother of the now 18 mo old baby girl that got dedicated that day, started the story out, saying, "And mom, you know, she grabs her smart phone,,," -- my daughter holding her hands up in the air and swiping the face of the imaginary smart phone she was "holding" -- and says, "...and she's looking up the scripture,,,," (naturally I have at least 5 Bible apps on my phone in half a dozen translations, so.....)...."and then she goes, 'Oh NO!' and puts the phone down."

Now, mind you, my daughter who gave the gift and the card,.., her boyfriend was sitting next to me at the table, and he looked over my shoulder when this actually happened and asked to see the scripture -- the one I had just looked up -- the one located at Psalms 22:6.  At a glance, he shook his head, rolled his eyes, and frowned in disbelief.

You see ---- THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PSALMS AND PROVERBS!

Now ---- on that note,,,,,I'll let YOU have all the fun.

Floods and God

I have a phenomenal 6 yo grandson. 

We've been having a seemingly enormous amount of rain just lately and when it rains like this here in the Portland area, it produces rivers and lakes in no time.  Believe me! I've driven through a few of them....unwittingly of course.....and been surely thankful that "through" turned out to be the operative word !!

My grandson was riding in the car with his dad one of these nights, and as the story goes, his dad was exclaiming to him about the rain,,,,and the flooding.  "Look, Paulie, look at the flood!!" His dad remarked as they drove along.

To which Paulie adamantly replied, "Dad, it isn't supposed to be flooding!!. God said He wouldn't do that again!  Did Jesus forget?"

Yet Another Pickle

Last week a couple of things happened.  Both were in my favor. One - my car finally passed DEQ – the problem was the computer after all, and the part alone to fix it was $450.  Good news is I had the money to pay for it.  Better news is my beloved son was able to install it and everything works now!  The second thing that happened was gas suddenly dropped to $1.95 a gallon, and just as suddenly, a fill-up was about $25 !!!!!

I hollered “ROAD TRIP!”

So, let’s back up a bit and see where this story takes us. 

Recently, I watched an episode of “The Chew” featuring the likes of Mario Batali and Michael Simon to name a few – yep – another cooking show. :o) I love cooking shows.  Michael Simon was making a savory bread pudding (he called it -and it actually sounded and looked quite yummy – his idea was kind of a deconstructed everything-on-it-hamburger with egg included in a casserole dish baked with an egg custard – thus “savory bread pudding.”  When it was baked, he said, “Gotta have a pickle, you know!”  And with that the segment went out of the studio to visit a place in NYC called “Brooklyn Brine.”  

It’s only right at this point to put the link for “Brooklyn Brine” in here….so:

Brooklyn Brine

Brooklyn Brine is what I would call “a pickle boutique.”  Never have I seen the like, but then I’m not from New York City.  Who knows? There may be a whole niche market for boutique pickles that awaits, there.  :o)  I was, for sure, fascinated with the process at Brooklyn Brine.  There was no sense of a manufacturing plant there. No….just a stainless steel table with a myriad of Mason-type jars set out, and workers faithful to the pickle, dropping wonderful aromatics, pickling cukes and such into the jars at lightning speed.  Filled, they were capped, set carefully in the canning pots and Voila! Amazing pickles!  I, too, cruised the website after viewing the segment, and as I did so, I noticed a side bar that listed WHERE these pickles could be purchased.  Aha!  I scrolled carefully down through the list and don’t cha know I found Oregon,,,,and finding Oregon,,,,I found Brooklyn Brine pickles were sold at one of Portland’s all time fav and finest deli’s – Elephants Deli.  

Now you need to know I have a daughter who is, and has been for as long as I can remember,,,,a pickle-freak.  She does NOT approve of restaurants who specialize in burgers and serve NO pickles.  Pretty much a walk-out and never-return kind of deal.  Uhhhh, that and catsup.  Please be sure and bring a brand-new full bottle of catsup to the table if you are preparing to serve my daughter.  And, as for pickles, I bought her a whole gallon of Mrs. Neushin’s pickles one year for her birthday. She argues the size point, but I can still see that jar in the lower cupboard in the blue house – her pickles and hers alone!

Thus, it is pretty much a no-brainer for me to make a plan to go buy some Brooklyn Brine pickles for my daughter….especially with Valentine’s Day coming up and my wanting to do something special for her this particular Valentine’s Day.  But that’s another story.

Back to the pickle.

After a phone call to Elephants Deli, I confirmed they indeed had Brooklyn Brine pickles on the shelf – two kinds, one called the New York Deli, and another called the Whiskey Sour Pickle.

Last Sunday, in my now legal, working car, my “Road Trip” consisted of a drive from my home in east county to the Elephants Deli on “upper Burnside” to get some Brooklyn Brine pickles.

I had forgotten what it might be like at the Elephants Deli.  The place was packed to the rafters.  I believe every yuppie in Portland was there.  I walked in, up to the cash register, and inquired, “Uh, can you tell me where the pickles might be?” The young lady replied, “Oh sure, they are all the way in the back there on those shelves,” pointing to the ultimate rear of the establishment.  I looked at the throng, and at the destination point, assessed my need to go to the ladie’s room, and said to the cashier, “Hmmmm, I think I would like to use the ladie’s room first.”  She was more than obliging.  She offered to go get the pickles, (we agreed on two jars, one of each kind) while I took care of my personal matter, and said I could just come right back up to the cash register and she would have them ready for me.

Good plan, thought I. :o)

I made my way to and back from the uhhh matter at hand, and when I got back to the cash register, she said, “I have your pickles, right here, ready to go.”  I looked, and sure enough, there they were, one of each kind, Brooklyn Brine pickles.  I was tickled with the pickle.  Then she said, “That will be $33.00”  I flinched.  Kept my mouth closed for fear my teeth would drop to the floor.  But,,,,I had come this far…and by golly, I was going to COMPLETE MY QUEST!  “Allright,” I replied. Then she said, “Would you like me to put them in a gift bag?”  I looked and she was gathering up a little black bag with “Elephants Deli” imprinted on it, and I said, “Sure, that would be lovely.”  She tucked a bit of white and red into the top, and said, “That will be $34.00.”  By now I am cracking up inside.  I asked for it.  Hey.  Ok.  Let’s just get this over with.  Pulled out my debit card, finished the transaction, and made my way out the door, back to my car, and, about an hour later, back at home, my “Road Trip” was over.

Until, of course, I brought the pickles to my daughter.  Upon which I told her the Michael Simon story, the Elephants Deli story, with a detail or two left out,,,,,and simply said,,,,”believe me, honey…..those are very, very special pickles!!”

I think she liked the Whiskey Sour pickles best. :o) 

Lostine Tavern - Lostine, Oregon

This is all about the Beet Chocolate Cake I saw the other day on my Recipes Tile on my Windows 8.1.....and lost it.

I sent this email to my kids.  And it was a cool enough story to blog.  So here you go!
___________________________________________________
Dear Family,

OK, this is a trip.....

Literally....

Ok...first you have to know that I had just been reading about how beets have both anti-inflammatory AND antioxidant properties.  I had a flare up I guess it was, of "sciatica" -- and it was B A D.....wincing, yelping bad....went on for days and days.....and I was looking for R E L I E F (and it was not Alka-Seltzer) .....so when I saw that I thought - man I gotta get some beets.  Beets are ok.  And of course I should eat them in their pristine form........but then.....

I was looking at recipes on my Recipes Tile on Windows 8.1 the other day,,,,and there was this cool recipe for a chocolate beet cake ( you could call it an authentic Red Velvet Cake - which, if you want MHO, most Red Velvet Cakes are way too dry - so I was interested in this "version" - kind of a spin on a carrot/spice cake - but chocolate - with beets instead of carrots - interesting!) ..... with what looked like an awesome chocolate frosting.

AHA! Beets ! Why that makes every kind of sense in the world to someone my departed husband would say to, "You can't go by a bakery any more than I can go by a tavern..."

But....

Alas.......

I didn't think about saving it.

Mistake.  #1

Soooooo, naturally, I have been trying to find that identical cake ever since.  I remembered it had 2 1/2 cups pureed beets and it mentioned that it was a menu item at a tavern in the heart of Oregon's cattle country (which was a "LINK" btw and I didn't follow it either!) Mistake #2

I found every other beet cake there is - with my "I'm not giving up till I find that cotton-pickin' cake, doggone it!" googling.  But not a one of them was THE recipe I had seen on that first day.  

Tonite I just googled the key ingredient like this:  "2 1/2 cups beets pureed"

and started a new search...
and found....

http://zesterdaily.com/cooking/beets-dessert-cake-will-wow-crowd/

yep! that was IT....I was pretty stoked....then once again I saw the "tavern in the heart of Oregon's cattle country" link - and this time ---- I followed it....and found this:

http://lostine-tavern.com/

Pretty non-descript website - that's for sure ! Not much help here...

So I tried "yelp" ----

and found this:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/lostine-tavern-lostine

ok there are only 6 reviews but ......... but - the food looks A M A Z I N G

one of them even mentions THE CAKE :o)

https://www.google.com/search?q=125+Highway+82+Lostine+OR&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

it's been decades since I have been to eastern Oregon.....but this place is now on my bucket list ! :o)

And in the meantime----- I WILL make that cake and we can totally check it out!

:o)

Mom
p.s. the "My 5 yo Grandson" story is pretty good too :o)