Bates Family Reunion 2012

 Mike's family (minus 2 sisters, a sister in-law, a brother-in-law, and one nephew) came to Oregon for a visit this month.  I didn't get pictures of everything we did, but these are the shots I got. 

At Hug Point Beach

In downtown Portland

Vintage shop out of a bus

Restaurant out of a bus (double-decker, no less.)

 

Street festival

Bananagrams!

In-laws new dog they got while in Oregon 

Pool day at the hotel

Rockaway Beach and Manhattan Beach

I think, out of all the places we have lived, Oregon is my favorite.  One of the reasons I love it is the ability to drive to the coast whenever I feel like it.  I love being close to the ocean.  Maybe it has something to do with being a Pisces.  At any rate, we took a day trip to the beach today because it was supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far this summer.  Unfortunately we weren't the only ones with the great beach day idea because traffic heading to the coast was insane!  Oddly enough, we saw that a couple had parked their car on the frontage road and set up their lawn chairs to watch the traffic go by.  Really. Weird.  But at least we got to see awesome festival signs as we slowly traveled along highway 26.  Sadly, I didn't get a shot of the "Jews Harp Festival" sign.  It would've been sweet.   

We were initially going to head to Canon beach, because it's famous and we'd never been there before.  But because EVERYONE and their dog wanted to go to the beach that day, we opted for something less populated and settled on Rockaway Beach.  Rockaway is a cute little coastal town that made me happy. 

  

 This was the first time Haven actually enjoyed the beach.  He just crawled around and played with the sand toys.  He seemed to love every second of it. 

Jacob LOVES digging in the dirt/sand.  It's pretty much his favorite outdoor pastime.  

He tends to get sand from head to toe whenever we go to the beach.  It's fun for him, but doesn't make for a pretty diaper change. 

Mike and I got into a wrestling match over something silly and well, let's just say I won.  

A pit to throw naughty kids in!  

Jacob and Vessel climbing out of the pit.  

Haven's first time touching the ocean.  He wasn't too thrilled with the temperature of it.  

We also decided to check out Manhattan Beach.  It was seriously the weirdest beach I had ever seen.  It is completely covered in huge pieces of driftwood.  

Oh My, it's Pie!

For our Relief Society activity last month we had an "Iron Chef" competition where we had to create a dish with a secret ingredient, depending our on birth month.  My secret ingredient happened to be nuts.  I was a bit disappointed since I've never really been a big fan of nuts and I had no idea what kind of food to make using my ingredient.  I finally decided to attempt making a pecan pie.  

I looked for recipes online, but every single one I found called for corn syrup, which is something I've been trying to stay away from lately.  And then, at last I stumbled upon a recipe that didn't call for corn syrup, so I was pretty excited and got to work.  I used the recipe as a foundation and then made adjustments as I saw fit (like adding chocolate chips, for example.)  Unfortunately I overbaked the pie, so it didn't turn out at lovely as I would've liked.  It was still good, just not GREAT.  

Then yesterday I attempted to make another pecan pie since I still had an unused pie crust in my freezer.  I promised myself I wouldn't over bake this time.  

Here is a picture of the beautiful toasted pecans.  I have found that pecan pie turns out MUCH better if you slightly toast the nuts until they are nice and aromatic.  It brings out the flavor more.     

Here is the finished pie.  It developed a crack in it towards the end of baking, so still not perfect. 

To be honest, I went a little crazy with the nuts and added more than I should've.  The last time it didn't seem like one cup of nuts was enough and I really wanted those pecans to steal the show I guess, so I used 2 cups this go around.  It turned out to be a bit much, but at least I'll know for next time.  Plus, I didn't over bake it and despite the excessively nutty texture, the flavor was incredible.  Don't underestimate the deliciousness a little chocolate will add to just about anything.  

Homemade pecan chocolate pie with fresh whipped cream  

Raspberry Pickin'

 Last week the kids and I, along with a couple of our friends, went berry picking at Rowell Bros. Farm in Hillsboro.  Have I mentioned how much I love Oregon yet?  This berry farm was huge and offered a plethora of berries to choose from.  I was in the market for raspberries, so we got our buckets and headed down the rows until we reached the raspberry patch.  

Picking raspberries brought back so many good memories of picking through my great granny's raspberry patch when I was younger.  It's awesome how the smell and the taste of the berries will always and forever remind me of my granny.  

My boys showing off their buckets.  They had fun picking their own berries.  Jake appreciated when the older kids kindly plopped some of their berries into his bucket.  I saw him sneaking plenty of those berries into his mouth as we walked. 

We got a large bucket of raspberries for $5!  I was amazed that all the berries were only .99/lb.  I got enough berries to freeze 2 quart sized bags for smoothies and homemade milkshakes, a bowl to keep in the fridge for topping yogurt or waffles, and even enough to make a few pints of freezer jam. 

Freezer jam is an easy alternative to making cooked jam.  My granny always made several batches of cooked jam every year.  And as delicious as it was, freezer jam tastes fresher, plus its sooooo much easier.  Here is my helper Vessel mashing some berries for making jam.  

Stirring the sugar and the pectin together.  

 

 

Mmmmmm!  Nothing tastes better than homemade jam!