joolz, in Bend Oregon

As you may know we are now in Bend OR. This is the town of my birthplace, where we bought the motor-home and where my mother, brother and sister currently reside. If you have never been to Bend you should definitely check it out http://www.visitbend.com/! If you are into food, shopping, skiing, boating, hiking, fishing, camping, and especially golf, Bend Oregon is a place you should add to your travel itinerary.
 We had dinner at Joolz http://www.joolzbend.com/ last night.  It's the kind of place you want to hang out all day and nibble on small plates and do wine parings with their extensive wine list. There are many local fresh ingredients done to perfection.  The food is best described as Mezza meets Mesa. The first plate we had was Hummus on the Range (hummus with pan seared local Elk) followed by Kibbe (lamb meat balls with roasted tomatoes and garlic) and the  Halloumi cheese sun kissed Tomato appetizer. Delicious oven roasted cauliflower was to follow and finally a date cake with warm caramel sauce that was simply out of this world good,good,good! I am by no means a baker but this cake really makes me wish I was and may even make me try. (again) My brother had the lamb and chicken kebabs. The lamb was tender, juicy and perfectly cooked.

We will for sure be back to Joolz before we leave town.  Anyplace with such a great happy hour is always on my list of places to frequent!

Roadshow in the sky!

RMS On-The-Road is flying the friendly sky's. This media interview will be on the Delta radio Executive Report on over 5600 flights reaching over 5.2 million passengers in November and December 2011.  Chris' interview with them will give you an idea of why we are on the road, trying to help small local business's compete in this big business world. I hope you will take a listen.

I will get back to the food part of this my next post! I just thought this was pretty cool so, I wanted to pass it along. 

Thanks!

http://server.rm-solutions.com/RoadShow\AltitudeMedia.mp3

New article on our trip!

Chris just had another article published about the RMS Roadshow (http://www.facebook.com/pages/RMS-On-The-Road/100903816656538).  The latest article was published in Computer Talk which is pharmacy trade magazine. The more people we touch and the more we continue to do well on the road, the longer we get to live this awesome dream life! So, I am very excited and proud of her/us. I have never been a big self promoter, but it is just really nice to see the risks we've taken to change our lives pay off.  We really wanted to make our life about living today and not waiting until we are retired to do it.  A lot of people thought we were nuts to do this.
Additionally, we are on our own little campaign to help these small local independent pharmacies stay in tune with the changes in technology, enabling them to compete with the huge corporate chains (Walgreen's Wal-Mart and CVS) that put them out of business daily. So, I guess for today, I am self promoting and giving her/us a little round of applause!  RMS roadshow is also on twitter!

 RMS Roadshow blog  http://www.rms-ontheroad.com/

 Computer talk link
 http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/90ffceeb#/90ffceeb/18

We are always about voting with our dollar and supporting small business' on our journey we hope you will join us in that.

Hey Eugene!

We made it to Eugene today.  Overall it wasn't a very noteworthy day. I was in the mood for soup, well Chris was really, she is a soup lover.  I really should make it for her more often.  So, I went for my first shot at Hungarian mushroom. It looks great and smells great which is usually a good sign; too bad I didn't write down what I did. If it is as good as it smells, I will try it again and make a note of it. Here are a couple of pictures of our new camp spot and my soup...Enjoy!

Hail to the hippies!

We are in Canyonville right now; it is a tiny little town in southern Oregon.  There isn't much here other than the Seven Feathers casino, which has a very nice brand new RV resort, and a quaint little main street with some local shops. I needed to grab a few things from the store. I was sort of dreading the grocery store I might find and then, to my surprise, I stumbled across the coolest little organic market! So, I thought I would share it. Promise Natural Foods is the type of local business I love to find and support in the small towns we visit. Most everything was organic and locally sourced.  They even had there own bakery and a very well stocked herb room. I really enjoyed  chatting with the owner and taking pictures of their store. She was excited that someone has taken an interest in their passion and is going to put it on a food blog. We head to Eugene tomorrow so we will see what new finds that will bring so stay tuned! 

Home in Portland 1st stop the Screen Door.

We drove up to Portland Saturday for a little surprise visit to some family and friends we haven't seen for the 6 months that we have been living on the road.  It was so nice to see everyone even if just for a quick trip.  Our very first stop was to have breakfast at the Screen Door. www.screendoorrestaurant.com

This is one of my most favorite places to eat in Portland and I have been missing it. This is saying a lot because there are a ton of really great restaurants! We started with the sticky buns. Wow! is all I can say about that bun of utter love. Honestly, I am not usually a sticky bun kinda gal, but something told be to give it a try and boy am I glad I did. Moist, sticky, gooey, so perfect I swear I could have eaten an entire pan of them. As if that wasn't enough caloric intake for the day, I ordered the corned beef hash with spinach and mushrooms drizzled with a light creole mustard cream sauce. The flavor was outstanding with the mustard sauce really bringing it all together.  Everything was very well balanced and cooked perfectly.  I love my corned beef to be cubed so it gets really caramelized on the grill. 

Chris had the fried chicken and waffles, so how can you go wrong? The chicken is very juicy and  has a crispy spicy crust. You get three HUGE boneless fried chicken breasts and a malted Belgian style waffle.  She dug in before I could get a picture of the presentation so the picture is of it deconstructed. If you order this you will for sure have left overs. The Screen Door is very good and very consistent which is one of the hardest things to find. Yes, there can be a long wait but I have found you either have to get there right when they open or wait until around 11:00 am when the morning rush is starting to thin out.

The food is Southern and the setting is casual. Everything is very fresh, mostly organic and locally sourced. The dinner menu is fantastic as well.  They always have a few really great specials as if what is on the menu is not enough.  They even have a seasonal sides menu (often vegetable dishes and salads) you can add to any of your other menu choices. It is also very vegetarian friendly.  I have been going here for years and the owner always remembers me and says hello even if I haven't been in for a while (6 months just recently). 
 Once you try the Screendoor, I'm sure you'll be a lifetime fan like me!

Rooster stew with frog leg dumplings?

Well I am blogging at 4:00am because I am wide, wide awake! Why you ask? Great question! Well because apparently I am unknowingly in an episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Vacaville CA style. To clarify, there is a rooster behind our campground that is obviously unaware that we are on Pacific Standard Time and is cock-a-doodle-doo’ing to the top of his very well developed lungs about every 5 minutes!  There is also a small pond on the resort and 2 bullfrogs that are having a croak as loud as you can contest or maybe their version of the Voice. Honestly, they must be the size of watermelons, and survived the last ice age with their prehistoric sounding throaty whales back and forth. So alas I am awake...WIDE awake! Normally being a very good, and very hard sleeper I sit here on the couch with envy that Chris (Who normally sleeps with one ear and eye open.) is resting peacefully like a little baby. Which is making me have visions of parading up and down the motor home shaking a tambourine until carpel tunnel sets in.  What does any of this have to do with a food blog? Another great question...Nothing really, just thinking up recipes and a way to incorporate a “Rooster stew with frog leg dumplings” into my cookbook!

Sangria Recipe!

Sangria

Fruit

1 Orange

1 Peach

1 Lime

3 or 4 strawberries (if you like)

Spice

1 chunk/1tsp Crystallized Ginger

Liquids

2 bottles cheap red wine (I use Gabbiano Chianti)

1 cup brandy (substitute bourbon if you like)

½ cup Pimms liqueur

¼ cup Triple sec

Soda (you can substitute ginger ale or 7up if you like it on the sweeter side)

Prepare

Quarter the lime, orange and peach (removing the pit) half the strawberries.

Use half of the lime and orange and save the others for garnish.  Squeeze the citrus juice into your container/pitcher and toss the remains in with it. Then add the entire peach, strawberries and crystallized ginger. Add the wine and other liquids and stir. Let sit for at least 3 hours (overnight is best).

Serve

Serve over ice in tall cooler style glass or mason jar with a “splash” of soda (or to your liking) garnish with orange and lime slices!  (A mint leaf makes it even prettier)  Enjoy!

Audition video for pie town productions for HGTV House Hunters RV edition.

Napa Valley/Update

We are staying in Vacaville CA just outside of Napa and its lovely but hot. Tomorrow we are heading to Napa for food and wine tasting and I am looking really forward to it! Generally things have been going really great and we have continued to get press.  We were told that we were 95% in on the HGTV House Hunters RV edition but haven't heard anything in the past two days but I am sure these things just take time.  I had a great interview/chat with a cookbook publishing company and it got me inspired to blog more. I have gotten in a bad habit of only writing when we get into a new town or leave it. So, I am turning over a new leaf as of today to blog daily!Also, I am going to post our videos of our audition for HGTV and a tour of our motor coach! So look for that in the video section.

Goodbye Salt Lake Hellooo California (again)

Well, we are pulling the anchor and heading back to Cali today! I am excited to get moving again.  Especially, because we are heading West which brings us closer to home.  I have missed you Portland Oregon home of Portlandia (well except for the rain). It will be nice to see my friends again I haven't been home in 6 months. I miss my favorite restaurants like the Screen Door, Country Cat, Lincoln and Pok Pok.
Salt Lake City is a lot cooler than I thought it would be, and has some really great restaurants.  It seems very local as far as community support.  You don't see a lot of chain restaurants or chain anything really. Sure you have your Target and Wal-Mart as an option, but small business is very much in charge here and it shows in their local economy.  I don't know if the Mormon presence plays a part in it or not.  I expect that it does because they are known to be a communally supportive organization. The parks are plentiful and well kept they have a great public transportation system and a lot of construction going on which are all indicators of a strong vibrant community. It just goes to show when you keep your dollar in your community your community benefits not overseas stock holders.  Not to mention it is absolutely beautiful here. If you visit SLC make sure you check out the Sugar House neighborhood, it reminded me a lot of home. We will be back for sure! Thanks Salt Lake!

Chris is getting some attention...

I am proud to announce that Chris has had two magazine articles released recently. I am very proud of her and very proud of us actually making this crazy idea work! It has been a long haul but it is starting to pay off. We made a decision that we wanted to live our lives differently, now we are and are having a blast doing it!

Road Warrior, Stores Magazine: http://www.stores.org/STORES%20Magazine%20June%202011/road-warrior

Living Life to the Fullest, RV Life: http://www.rvlife.com/Digital-Edition/rv-life-digital-edition.html