Guess where I ate dinner after work on Friday? 3 Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th and Hawthorne

The cocktail--a New Old Fashioned with house-made dried maraschino cherries, muddled orange, angostura bitters, sugar and bourbon (Evan Williams Black Label). I took the photo in available light.


OK, so you know, my older son Lamont is sous chef at 3 Doors Down Cafe. He brought me this salad which is on the menu right now as accompaniment to pan-roasted King salmon and parsley red potatoes. It's made of julienne zucchini, arugula and lemon--very good taste and texture. I used the flash for this photo.


About half way through the salad, this appetizer appeared in front of me--grilled artichoke with lemon aioli. It was finger-lickin' good, let me tell you! This photo uses available light.


And here's my entree, sweet corn risotto with heirloom cherry tomato and basil salad. All I can say is, thank goodness I decided to forego the bread and bean spread, because that meant I could enjoy every bit of this dish fresh, as intended by the kitchen. Think about it, creamy parmesan-flavored risotto mixed with individual kernels of sweet corn that sort of snap as you chew. Mix that every now and then with a bite of sweet, juicy cherry tomato. My goodness! Used available light here, too.

Friday night entrées at 3 Doors Down Cafe

After a spectacular tour of The Allure of The Automobile, for free thanks to my having seen the Portland Art Museum's Facebook post about their Fourth Friday free tickets where I managed to score two for 5:30 p.m., my friend Sharon and I made our way to 3 Doors Down Cafe for dinner.


Sharon's entrée: sweet corn risotto with heirloom cherry tomato and basil salad.


My entrée, the special: linguini with prawns, heirloom tomatoes, shallots, smoked Nueske's bacon, basil. I like how the flash worked on the D5100. Do you?

We ate our fill and took the rest home in sweet little containers, all ready for Saturday.

Friday night at 3 Doors Down Cafe

The salad special: fresh cucumber, red onion, French radish, red wine vinaigrette, sweet onion, herbs. What can I say? If you read those words and think summertime, crunch and crispy, tender and savory, and refreshing, then you know how this tasted and felt in my mouth.


Entree: summer squash, basil, parmesan risotto. Perfect combination of textures and flavors.


Cocktail: Italian Lemon Drop--I completely forgot to get a list of the ingredients. Sorry! It tasted great, lemony tart which combined very well with the sugar around the rim.

Arancini, doing double duty at 3 Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th and Hawthorne

As an appetizer, served with tomato-butter sauce. As a Happy Hour item, served with aioli. Yummy, no matter what you serve them with.

This is an older photo of these creamy, lightly crusty, little balls of delight. Now the tomato-butter sauce is served on the side. I couldn't get a good enough photo when I was there recently, so I went to my photos on Flickr.

If you're new to my blog, in the interest of full disclosure, please know that my older son Lamont is sous chef at 3 Doors Down Cafe.

A lot of yummy appetizers at 3 Doors Down Cafe, 37th and Hawthorne

First, let me tell everyone how appreciative Mama is of all the birthday wishes sent her way! Happily she felt good enough to walk half a block to the car, then ride a block and a half to the beauty shop. A couple of hours later, with her newly cut and permed do, she rode home with me at the wheel. Later that night as we sat on the side of her bed for a minute or two, like we've been doing a lot lately right before she rests her head on the pillow and pulls the cover up to her neck, I said, "You got the best birthday present ever!" "A blood transfusion," she heartily agreed. Our next goal is to find out, if at all possible, what's causing the anemia, if it returns to debilitate her.

Please take a look at Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog for a way to help a blogger in need. Thanks!

Arancini, fried risotto balls, with a light, buttery tomato sauce


Dungeness crab cakes, satsuma mandarin orange & micro green salad, caper aioli


Potato gnocchi with Oregon black trumpet mushrooms, thyme, butter


Oregon Mushrooms, Madeira Cream Sauce, Goat Cheese Crouton

Three Doors Down Cafe, A Fine Food and Drink Series, No. 1

In honor of all that eatin' we'll be doin' down South--see the lengthy paragraph below--this is the first in a series of fine food photos I've taken lately at Three Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th and Hawthorne, in Southeast Portland. I took them right before I either ate or drank it all right up! I do want to point out that since the menu changes pretty often at 3DD, I might be sharing photos of food that is not currently on the menu. Suffice it to say that no matter what you order, you will be sufficiently satisfied. Are all those S-words superfluous? Yeah, but I don't care. As you well know, I'm a fan of going overboard to make a point.

Delicata squash, pancetta, green onion, chevre cheese risotto. I tell you what, if you needed some comfort food, you'd have been so pleased with your decision to dine on this hearty, smooth entree.


I had a glass of Gruner Veltliner, a white, that went very well with my entree.

The Lengthy Paragraph

First, let me explain that Mama and I are going on a two-week vacation, flying to New Orleans on Oct. 21, where we will be picked up by our BFF Kay. We're spending the night in the French Quarter, then heading to her home in Smithdale, Mississippi, where we will spend the night. On Friday we're going to have lunch at The Dinner Bell in McComb, Mississippi, with Kay and her husband Milton before heading to Jackson. We'll be with my brother Howard and his wife Vanessa--yippee!!--from Friday until Monday. They're the sweetest ever, concerned about Mama and the stairs to the upstairs guest bedroom and my allergies to cats, they're putting us up in a nearby Embassy Suites. Oh, I forgot. On Friday afternoon I have an appointment to tour Eudora Welty's house, a National Historic Landmark and one of the nation's most intact literary house museums, reflecting Welty's life there over seventy-six years. Saturday night we hope to gather with family and friends at Sal & Mookie's, a New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint in Jackson, Mississippi. On Monday we'll eat lunch at Hamil's Southern Cookin' and Bar B Que Buffet in Ridgeland, Mississippi, then we'll head to my Aunt Baker and Uncle JL's in Puckett, Mississippi--we'll eat mighty fine home-cookin' there, let me tell you! On Tuesday, Kay and Milton and their grandson Ian will pick me up on I-20, after Aunt Baker takes me to meet them at a service station, and we'll head to Talladega, Alabama, for NASCAR heaven at the Talladega Superspeedway for two races--on Halloween, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Mountain Dew 250 and on Nov.1, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Amp Energy 500. While we're camped out near in the speedway in Milton and Kay's RV, we'll eat Milton's grilled and fried good food--Kay'll probably cook some, too, 'cause she always does! Big time yummy! We're even going trick-or-treating around the campground on their golf cart--Kay's taking all sorts of decorations for it and the RV. I'll join Mama again at Aunt Baker and Uncle JL's on Monday at some time or other, depending on when we leave Talladega. Then on Tuesday Mama and I will go to spend the night at a hotel near the Jackson airport, resting up for our flight home on Nov. 4.

Whew!

All of that to say that I'm trying to put together some posts ahead of time--to save time, I'm discontinuing the daily dahlia, just for now. I don't know how many I'll get to complete nor do I know how much Internet I'll be around while we're on the trip. I do know that I will be taking photo after photo after photo.

Last Sunday evening's dinner at 3 Doors Down Cafe, yum-yum...

...as in, used to express pleasurable satisfaction especially in the taste of food.

And then some.

Appetizer, prepared for us by my first-born, Lamont: braised rabbit basted in duck fat, crisped duck skin a la sort-of-like crackling, carrots, pears, parsnips, Brussels sprout leaves. Leland, Mama and I did not waste a drop, pieces of bread in our fingers circled until the bowl was clean.

Leland's salad, prepared by the able Abraham: Bibb lettuce, chives, smoked bacon--Nueske by name, and creamy roasted garlic dressing.

Mama got an appetizer for her dinner, the pan-seared scallops on a bed of parsnip, pear puree, surrounded with a Prosecco, vanilla bean beurre blanc and sprinkled with chopped chives.

Leland's dinner, the risotto with rabbit, parsnips, carrots, Brussels sprout leaves, sprinkled with ricotta salatta. He asked Lamont to add Nueske bacon to it, and he did. He loves his little brother.

My dinner, the splendid meatballs and bucatinni, named Portland's best meatballs in August, 2007, by Portland Monthly magazine.

And here's Mama's favorite 3 Doors Down Cafe dessert, Creole Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce. She ate the whole thing!


3 Doors Down Cafe is at SE 37th and Hawthorne, diagonally across from the Bagdad.

Looking back at my birthday fun--a ride on the Holiday Express.

The SP 4449, as seen right after our 40-minute round trip train ride. Leland took this photo for me. I found this neat article about the engine and the hope for its future housing in Portland, along with more retired engines.

Mama and I had tickets for the 4 p.m., Dec. 12, 2008, train ride. Rain for days, as well as cold temperatures, convinced her to decide not to go, so we offered her ticket to Leland. He graciously agreed to go with me, and he decided to cook dinner for me afterwards! We found a parking space in a lot at Oaks Park, close to where the train waited on the track which was on a raised levy-type bed. We walked across the street in a light rain. Once we boarded, we made our way north towards what turned out to be a dining car. We took our seats at a table on the west side of the car, knowing we'd eventually be looking out over the Willamette River.
While we waited for the train to start moving, I took this photo. It's east of the track. Can you see the bird murals? I was so glad that it had quit raining. It didn't last for very long, though.

Leland, seated in the darkened rail car, across the table from me. The man in the darkness on the right of the photo told us interesting facts about the train car, for example, that we heat we felt came from the water heated in the engine, cycled throughout the train to provide warmth.

Looking from the area between two rail cars, south towards the train's engine, as we back northward along the Willamette River.

Santa entered our car, ho-ho-ho-ing and wringing his jingle bells. See the jingle bells tucked underneath his arm? He handed out candy canes to everyone and posed for photos with children.


On the way north, we went underneath the Ross Island Bridge.

When we neared that curve again on our return to Oaks Park, I stepped back to the area between the cars so that I could try again to get a good photo. I noticed a man and his two small children on the path and tried to get a shot of their joy. This is how that turned out. I think it's because the train was moving to the left and I was looking to the right, trying to get them in the photo before we moved too far. I like the result.

It was even harder to get a clear photo as we headed back to Oaks Park. Too much movement from the train. This one is the clearest of the lot.

My darling second-born son, Leland. They had turned on the lights as we pulled to a stop.

Here's a look at the dining car.

And here's another car, one with padded seats. Some of them faced each other, some lined up behind each other.

As we neared the exit, I noticed this plaque that contains information about our engine.

A close up of the engine

These two men in the engine said that I could take their picture for the blog. It's not tilting one bit; it's just so tall that when I had to look up to take their photo, the tilt-thing happened, like it does with buildings.

Leland beside the fence and the engine. It is 110'2.25" long, 10'0" wide, 16'4" tall. The wheels are 36" in diameter. It weights 475,000 pounds.

The front of the engine, just a part of it. Taken with the flash.

We quickly walked to the front of the train so that I could get some photos of the engine. It had started raining harder, so we had to be quick.

Leland took these next one for me, too. He's much taller and could get a much better perspective. I really like this one with the steam coming out both sides of the engine.

Leland drove us to his place where he cooked some mighty fine risotto with chicken, Brussels sprouts, onion, butternut squash, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.




Dinner is served! Don't they look cute? Leland and Kailey. The risotto was so doggone good, very memorable. Thanks, Leland, honey!

Look what they gave me for my birthday! I love it!

Mama and I played the new game on Saturday, Dec. 13. I stood on the kitchen step-stool to get this photo of it when we stopped to go to bed. The next day it started to snow.


A statement about this year's Holiday Express that I found at the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation Web site:

Holiday Express 2008
We thank everybody who came out to ride!

Event Canceled

On Sunday December 14th, the Holiday Express will NOT operate as scheduled.

While the train is still able to operate, we recognize that most of our riders are traveling from areas severely impacted by winter weather and don't want to encourage a risky drive to our event. The roads in SE Portland, especially the downhill one leading to Oaks Park have become icy and starting to see a fair share of cars out of control.

Tickets marked for Sunday the 14th are eligible for a full refund. Return your ticket to where you purchased them from, and request a full refund. Any tickets that are not returned for refunds will be considered as a donation to the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation. Thank you for supporting ORHF, and we hope you'll ride on our trains in the future!