Tag Archives: pdx

This week we’ve been having outrageously beautiful weather in Portland.  The sun is shining, the temperatures are warming, birds are singing, and there’s that distinct smell of spring in the air.  I decided to bake a batch of cookies that reflect the cheeriness I feel with this gorgeous weather, and the lingering sun (thanks to the time change).

Last year I had stumbled on this lemon cookie recipe while randomly searching for cookie recipes on Pinterest.  They sounded pretty good to me, so I decided to make them.  Guys, I cannot even begin to describe how amazing these cookies are.  They are SO buttery and soft, and have the perfect amount of lemon flavor.  They are addictive.  Daniel and I seriously can’t hold back when these are in the house.

So in honor of spring (hopefully) being around the corner, here is the Lemon Cookies with Icing Recipe!

Here’s what you need:

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together softened butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy.  About 2-3 minutes.  I used an electric hand mixer for this, but an electric stand mixer would also work well.

Add in the egg and egg yolk.  Then add in the lemon juice and vanilla extract.

Slowly add in thirds of the flour mixture until just combined.

Drop large tablespoons of cookie dough on lightly greased baking sheet (or lined with parchment paper) about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 9-11 minutes.  I baked mine until they had just set up and were lightly brown on the bottom.

Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, and then GENTLY (as they will still be very soft) transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Once cookies are completely cooled it is time to ice!  I just made a simple sugar icing by whisking the powdered sugar with just enough milk to make it spreadable, while still being quite thick.  You’ll want it to be thick so it doesn’t drip off the sides.

Once the icing hardened, I stored by cookies in airtight containers with wax paper separating each layer of cookies.  For me, this recipe made 18 cookies.

The original recipe was just for plain cookies, but I thought adding a little sugar icing would create the perfect balance between zest and sweet.  Boy, was I right!  This is one of my absolute favorite cookies to make and, of course, eat!  And now I hope it will be one of your favorites too!

Be sure to let me know in the comments section if you try out the recipe!  Enjoy!

After visiting Peacock Lane in Portland, we found another fun Christmas lights attraction… Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo!

We had been to the Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago a few years back.   It was so magical to see, and a great opportunity to see nocturnal animals awake and active!  I was super excited to learn we had another opportunity to see Zoo Lights, and in our own city no less!

As with Peacock Lane, we went to see the Zoo Lights after Christmas, so despite going on a Sunday it was fairly easy to find parking.

If you plan to go in 2014 and it’s before the holiday has passed, public transportation may be your best friend in getting there.  I’d imagine the parking lot would be somewhat of a nightmare.  You also get a discount on your tickets if you take the MAX!

It was still pretty crowded inside for us though, so it was a little hard to get decent pictures.  Here are a few that I managed to get!

While it was nowhere near as cold as it was in Chicago during the winter, we still found it to be uncomfortably chilly.  I would highly recommend bundling up when you go!

Luckily, anywhere you turn there is hot chocolate and other hot beverages being sold throughout the zoo.  Unluckily, there are impossibly long lines at each and every one of them!  I think next time we’ll bring a couple of thermoses with us and avoid the crowds!

Even though we went after Christmas, the zoo itself was very congested, which we were a little surprised at.  I can only imagine if you go before Christmas that it would be a lot worse.  I’d personally try to go during the week, since I’m sure the weekends are crazy.  Despite the crowds, we still had a great time seeing all the beautiful lights – here are a few more pictures!

Other than traditional Christmas lights, they also had an impressive array of displays that incorporated movement (not that you can tell from pictures).

This African river scene was particularly impressive, as just about everything moved.

There were also a lot of displays with classic movie characters as well!

My absolute favorite place at the zoo was The Kaleidoscope, which was basically a big tunnel of lights.  Check it out!

It was pretty congested at the entrance of the tunnel, because obviously it’s a great photo opportunity.  I don’t think people realized how big it was though, because if you just walked a few steps through, there was way more room to take pictures.  I’d recommended squeezing through the crowds as quickly as you can, to get to the middle of the tunnel.  Then you can take your time and take as many photos as you want, without people constantly walking in your shot!

While the lights are the main attraction, another advantage of being at the zoo at night is seeing the nocturnal animals.  Two highlights for us were seeing the tigers up and about, and being able to spend time at the bat exhibit.

If you go during dinnertime, you can bring your own food in, but I would highly recommend eating at the Cascade Grill if you can.  The food is delicious and healthy, and they use a lot of local ingredients.  They also serve local beer and wine!

We had a great time at the Zoo Lights, and I can’t wait to go again!  I hope I’ve piqued your interest as well, but even if you can’t make it during the holiday season, the Oregon Zoo is a wonderful place to visit.  So if you’re planning a trip or in the area, definitely add it to your activity list while staying in Portland!

Since moving to Portland 6 months ago, Daniel and I have been having fun eating and seeing what the city has to offer.  Thanks to Instagram and Portland hashtags, I discovered a street called Peacock Lane during this past holiday season.

Located in Southeast between Stark and Belmont, this cute little street is transformed during Christmas time with a spectacle of lights.  Since the 1920s, every house is decorated from mid-December through New Year’s Eve.  I was really excited when I learned about Peacock Lane, because I never got to visit Candy Cane Lane when I lived in Los Angeles, which is very similar (but on a much bigger scale).

Here are some of my favorite houses and decorations from 2013!

I loved seeing how creative some people got and their use of beloved Christmas characters.  Can you spot them all?

These last few displays were my favorite… I guess you can say I’m a little nerdy!

Don’t blink!  The lights were off at this house, so it was hard to get a good picture, but I can’t resist sharing this Doctor Who display!

The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my favorite Christmas movies, so I was pretty happy when I saw this!

Daniel and I tried going before Christmas, but the crowds and traffic were pretty nuts!  We did go on a Sunday at around 6pm, so that may have had something to do with it.  We ended up leaving because we weren’t really in the mood to deal with crowds.  We returned after Christmas and practically had the whole street to ourselves!  If you want to go before Christmas, which is understandable, I would suggest trying to go during the week and later at night (when all the kiddos are asleep).

While the homes of Peacock Lane have taken down their lights for this season, be sure to add it to your Christmas to do list for next year!

I am so excited to finally say that Daniel and I have our Christmas tree up, and our house is all decorated for the holiday!  It finally feels like Christmas time!  We usually get our trees from a lot near our house, but this year we decided to go to a Christmas tree farm.  I mean, we are in Oregon after all!  I did some quick research and found three farms, all about 20-30 minutes outside of Portland.

One I found was the Sauvie Island Farms, which we decided not to go to because we went to a pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island durin the fall.  We figured it would be fun to go somewhere we haven’t been before.  Our other two options were Quail Creek Ranch and Plumber Pumpkin Patch and Tree Farm.

We chose to go to Quail Creek Ranch because it looked beautiful.  Take a look!

Unlike Plumber Farms, basically everything was free at Quail Creek Ranch (except the trees, of course)!  They provide saws if you want to cut your own tree, but they will also cut them down for you free of charge too.  They also shake, bail, twine, and help tie your tree to your car for free as well!  That was all I really needed to hear to make my decision.  I guess I’m a sucker for the word free!

They also serve complimentary hot chocolate and cider by a big, warm bonfire!

We decided to cut our own tree, since I had never done that before, and Daniel hadn’t in a really long time (ok, maybe Daniel did the cutting).  Plus, now that we’re Oregonians, we wanted to do it the lumberjack way!  There was even some snow on the ground, so it really felt legit!

Quail Creek Ranch has a variety of trees – Douglas Firs ranging from $15-$25, Grand Firs ranging from $20-$35, and Nobles ranging from $50-$100.  We found our tree after searching the farm for about 30 minutes, and we chose a douglas fir this year.  Ours was over 4 feet tall, so it was $25 – not too shabby!  Way better than the $80 we always had to spend in Hollywood!

Everyone at the farm was very friendly and helpful.  All the little complimentary touches really added in making our experience wonderful.  If you haven’t gotten your tree yet, I highly recommend visiting Quail Creek Ranch!  And don’t forget to grab a candy cane on your way out!

Tip:  They don’t really have much of a selection of tree stands, so you will want to pick one up before you go.  We got ours at our local Fred Meyer!

Here’s our tree all decorated!

We have a tradition of buying a new ornament each year, and this year it was a donut!  What are some of your traditions?

If you read my romantic getaway post about Rockaway Beach, you know I had searched long and hard to find things to do in the area.  Since we went in the off-season, beach activities (which is the main attraction in the summer) were kind of limited.  While we loved enjoying the awesome vacation home we were staying in, I still thought it would be nice to have some outside activities during our stay.  We had already stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory on our way there, so that didn’t leave much more to do unless we wanted to drive up to Seaside.

Luckily, I came across an article about the Rockaway Beach Old-Growth Cedar Wetlands Preserve.  It is a 45-acre home to some of the remaining giant red cedar trees in Oregon – how lucky that it’s right in town!  It is somewhat of a hidden gem, mostly only known by the locals.

Makes sense, as it was pretty hard to find any information about it, even just how to get to there!  The article I found was written in 2009, and unfortunately it seems the trail has changed a lot since then.  By following the directions from the article, we ended up entering a trailhead that you really don’t want to go through.

Very overgrown and fallen trees everywhere, it would be very easy to get turned around, as the trail is no longer a clear path.

One upside of going the wrong way was that we got to see this humongous trunk and all of its roots!

After taking pictures, we were about to give up since we really weren’t sure where the actual trail was.  Fortunately, we heard a couple coming towards us!  They told us how to stay on the path and where the real trailhead was!  The trail you want to take is on Washington and Island.  Directions:  Take Washington St., which is right off the 101 freeway.  You want to take Washington away from the ocean and towards Island St.  Turn left on Island, and there you will find the trailhead.

It’s a very easy and beautiful hike, and it’s only about 1-mile.  Tip:  There are some flat stones on the path that, what I believe, are meant to be stepping-stones.  Be very careful if you step on them, as they are incredibly slippery.  I would also advise dressing in layers, and in shoes you don’t mind getting muddy.

When you get to end of the trail, you will find one of the biggest trees in Oregon, with a circumference of 49 feet!  Take a look at these photos!

So hard to get the scale of this tree in pictures, it really needs to be seen in person.  As you can see from some of the photos, there is a boardwalk surrounding the tree for viewing, and there are benches on the boardwalk as well (not shown).  It was such a beautiful, quiet, and peaceful spot – it would make a great place to eat lunch.  We are definitely going to pack some sandwiches next time we go!  This tree, as well as others in the Wetland Preserve, were truly amazing to see.  If you are in Rockaway Beach, I hope you get the chance to visit this spot.  It is worth it!