Press!

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/11/it_worked_for_oregon_wine_now.html



The Oregon Olive Mill made the front page of Friday's Oregonian!

Maybe Oregon Olives aren't so awkward after all!

Christmas.....already?

Since when did it become ok to put up Christmas decorations before Halloween? Excuse me, people, what happened to the Fall? Why must we skip entirely over this delightful season? There are so many wonderful things about Autumn…. So why are people so fixated with Christmas? The only “holiday” gimmick I can get behind right now is the red holiday cups at Starbucks…. Lets be honest, who doesn’t love the red holiday cups? But I was appalled this week when I saw a giant tinsel covered Christmas tree at an outdoor mall.  Have we completely lost the ability to live in the present? I know it is great to have things to look forward too… but last time I checked there are plenty of things to anticipate before December rolls around. Granted, my list might be a bit different than others. November means graduate school applications, Olive Harvest, and Thanksgiving all have to take place before I’m ready to start thinking about Christmas.  I know it is only a matter of days before I stumble upon some Christmas music on the radio…. Can’t we just live in the moment people? Savor the fall… the taste of pumpkin, the gorgeous colors…. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about Christmas, but there is a time and place for everything, and I am going to argue that late October/ early November is not the place or the time for Christmas décor…. Give me bronze colored leaves, cornucopias… even left over candy corn…. But please can we just hold off a few weeks before we check into Christmas mode?

Pumpkins

October

I can’t seem to find my morning

the sun can’t seem to find my window

outside the air is crisp like celery

and I hide from the end of daylight savings

beneath my flannel sheets.

Post season baseball

and the idea of your touch

are the only thoughts allowed to linger

before coffee

To me the month of October is all about pumpkins, warm drinks, boots, and post season baseball. Sadly my team, The Boston Red Sox, didn’t make it very far in the Post Season this year, which left me in sort of a funk at the beginning of the month… (though to be perfectly honest it was one less thing distracting me from studying for the GRE.) As the World Series drew closer, so did Halloween and therefore pumpkin carving. Though my original plan was to carve my Red Sox pumpkin as a celebratory measure before the World Series, it turned into more of a “There’s always next year… and the Yankees can kiss my ass” pumpkin. The letters were tricky, and I definitely screwed up a couple of times, but in the long run, I was pleased with how it turned out. After much arm twisting and convincing, my brother, AKA Holiday Scrooge carved one as well. Though I wished he would have utilized one of the other designs in the Red Sox Pumpkin Carving Kit (and therefore a little creativity, as I chose my design first) he opted for the same design as me, which resulted in a little sibling rivalry. The end result: two stellar Red Sox pumpkins, and one irritated brother.

My next pumpkin adventure was culinary, inpsired by an interview I heard on NPR with Ruth Reichl: the food critic and editor of Gourmet Magazine.  I took a small pumpkin, gutted it, and filled the hollowed out portion with delicious ingrediants: onions, artisan bread, a medley of shredded cheese, chicken stock, and cream. I then put the top back on and popped the whole thing in the oven.  The product of this gastronomic adventure is a new Fall favorite of mine. The inside was rich an delicious with the heavy cream, the gooey melted cheese and the saturated bread and bits of pumpkin were scraped into every bite. The best part of the dish was the whole pumpkin, which served as multi-functiond ingrediant to the success of the meal. Not only did it add flavor, but it served as a fun and aesthetic tureen. I cannot wait to make a larger batch of this for guests!