Rhubarb Cake

Well, since the last post, many important things have happened - we got married, we went on a short honeymoon, David started a new job, I got a new job, I went to a class in Arizona and I visited the Midwest for a couples weeks. But rather than discuss any of those things in detail, today I want to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart: Rhubarb.

Mom and Dad have had a rhubarb patch in the backyard in St Paul for as long as I can remember. Ever spring, they make a delicious rhubarb cake. It is tart, sweet and light. Today I made the cake for the first time. Yum!

The rhubarb patch

Piece of cake

Rhubarb Cake Recipe

Cake:

½ c shortning

1 ½ c white sugar

½ tsp salt

1 egg

1 tsp soda

1 c sour milk (milk + 1 tbsp vinegar, let set for five minutes)

2 c + 1 tbsp flour

3 c rhubarb cut fine

Topping:

1/3 c brown sugar

1/3 c nuts

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream shortening, add sugar and beat well. Add salt and beat in egg. Mix sour milk and soda. Add soda and milk mixture – add the flour alternating. Stir in rhubarb.

Pour in greased 9x13 pan.

Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle over batter.

Bake for 45 minutes. 

Portland in the Springtime!

In the last few weeks, Portland has been busting out with flowers, and the whole city is full of color and light green. And it smells great around here. Plus Ira is just getting cuter and cuter. 

Told you so - super cute!

Everyone has bulbs popping up in their yards. 

Pretty flowers. 

Millions of flowers all over the city. 

Even looks pretty in the rain!

Ira is drooling a lot. Must be my cooking. 

And Purple Rain is playing at the Bagdad!

Even the pizza comes with art.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific

Mom and I had a great time in Jupiter, Florida visiting grandma. We went to lots of yummy restaurants, walked along the beach everyday, ate tons of sweets, caught up on family feud, played bingo, and even kayaked with manatees! I had a great time visiting with grandma, hopefully I can go back soon - if she lets me, of course ;).

Grandma's lucky turtles at a bingo game. 

Mom knows how to relax in Florida - sun, beer and cookbooks. 

Grandma has lots of wonderful friends in Florida. Added bonus: one is a baker and cake decorator!

Grandma and I take a break from rummicube to pose for a picture. 

I hopped on a plane to San Francisco, where David and I got to see a good friend from Earlham, Bethany. We then headed to Point Reyes to go backpacking. We got great weather - sunny and warm with no rain! I was pleased to learn that the area is also famous for cheesemaking. My three days of hiking was rewarded with gourmet mac and cheese!

Looking west along the coast while hiking at Point Reyes.

Enjoying some delicious water. 

Pretty flower. 

Portland!

I'm headed to sunny Florida and California after an amazing month+ in (not so sunny) Portland. Since mid-January, I've been engaging in my traditional Portland standbys - drinking beer and coffee, studying at the library, and eating brunch. I've mostly been busy with my new favorite activity: hanging out with Leah, Chris and my adorable nephew Ira.

Leah, Ira and I.

Proud Uncle!

When he cries it sounds like a goat.

He likes napping. And yawning.

Yup. He's pretty cute.

Sunny Southwest

We've been poking around the southwest for the past week or so, soaking up the sun. We spent three days in Aravaipa Canyon, which is an awesome and rugged wilderness area in eastern Arizona. The hike follows a small stream and winds through miles of steep canyon walls. Lots of the hiking is spent walking in the actual stream, as the canyon is so narrow and there is no official trail. We saw a few groups the first day, but nobody after that.

Starting the hike.

Exploring a side canyon, almost sunset.

The stream was sometimes lined with sycamores and cottonwood, with the leaves turning fall colors.

Relaxing is an important aspect of every hike.

A group of javelinas.

The canyon walls were a thousand feet high or so.

After leaving Aravaipa, we bummed around the southwest for awhile longer, hiking around Arizona and southern California. We hung out in Mojave National Preserve for awhile, which is a huge area: 1.6 million acres, about twice the size of Yosemite. Climbing around the Kelso Dune Field was lots of fun - but sliding down was even funner. The sand makes an awesome squeaking noise as you slide down it. The dunes are really tall and extensive (about 600 feet tall - as tall as a 60 story skyscraper). There is really neat natural history here.  The dunes are essentially an ecological island.  There are seven species of insect found only on this particular dune field. We also explored around a huge pumice plain and climbed up one of about 20 cinder cones in the park. The volcanoes erupted here about 10,000 years ago.

Kelso Sand Dunes. Emily is the little dot on the right.

David stretches as the sun sets. 

Pumice field and the cinder cone that we climbed.

This is the tail end of the trip for us, but I think we'd like to return to every place we visited the past month!

Bye bye Baja

We spent the last of our time at Baja on the beach, sea kayaking and hiking around a really cool area with tons of boulders and huge cactus, Catavina. We had an amazing time in Baja, we really didn't know much about Baja or what to expect before we left. Traveling here has allowed us to really get a sense of a new place as well as meet lots of awesome people. We have had such a great time getting to know people, and everyone has been really nice to us. People we had just met let us use their kayaks, brought us thanksgiving dinner, invited us to campfires, and David even got a job offer! We'll definitely be back to Baja sometime, its a great combination of beach and hiking with so many great people.

Full moon rising over out beach campsite at Playa Coyote.

On one of our last days of the trip, just as we headed back to the beach after a morning of kayaking and were ready to pack up the tent and head north,we had a quite a surprise. We ended up running into Tim, our neighbor and friend from last summer in Yosemite, who had just pulled in to set up camp. Of course, we changed out plans to spend an awesome beach campfire with him, and also made friends with two guys riding across North America on motercycles.

The five amigos.

 We bid a fond farewell to the beach and headed up North for some hiking in Catavina.

Cardon cactus.

So many cool rock formations!

Cirio (aka boojum) plant.

 On the way north, we again passed by huge fields and greenhouses miles and miles long. If you're enjoying a delicious strawberry or tomato right now, this may be where it came from. The scale of the operations are astounding and more than a little eery.

Miles of huge greenhouse, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Border fence, Mexican side. The US side is much more boring, of course.

Camp Pufferfish

 Much of the last few days was spent at a place called Rattlesnake Beach, a long stretch of beach where quite a number of boondockers have set up residence for the winter.  This is a beach with no amenities, so it's a bit hardier bunch than some of the other beaches around Baja.  We found a nice secluded spot and quickly raised our aquatic standard: two dried up pufferfish.