Much Ado About Ashland!

If you are crossing the border from Oregon to California on I-5 chances are you will probably see two exits for this little city, but since it is about three miles off of the freeway, chances are you probably haven't gone to the heart of this place. If you are a fan of Shakespeare you probably have heard about their annual festival. Here is an excerpt from their website, "Founded in 1935, the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is among the oldest and largest professional non-profit theatres in the nation. Each year OSF presents an eight-and-a-half-month season of eleven plays in three theatres plus numerous ancillary activities, and undertakes an extensive theatre education program. Operating on a budget exceeding $26 million, OSF presents more than 780 performances annually with attendance of approximately 400,000."

If you are into Shakespeare or not Ashland is a beautiful town with tons of charm and it is one of my favorite places in Oregon!

If you are looking for a place to lay your head there is the high priced luxury Ashland Springs Hotel located in the heart of Main Street this is a really beautiful hotel, but I found a couple of other choices, which I would suggest. The Peerless Hotel still close to Main Street shopping and the OSF, also about the same price range as the Ashland Springs Hotel, but its much smaller and located in Ashland's Historic Railroad and Gallery District. If this is out of your price range I would stay at the Columbia Hotel if you want to be on Main Street or my favorite The Palm, which is about a 5 minute drive (also very walkable) to Main Street. I stayed in a queen size room with a kitchenette. It was very affordable, very cute, and so comfortable. I felt like it was my own little apartment or like I was staying at a family member's house. This is a very rare and blessed experience when you travel as much as I do!

There are many shops and restaurants and cafes to enjoy on Main Street, for shopping I would suggest stopping into Fabric of Vision if you are at all into sewing or crafting. Nectar - Eco Boutique for cute clothes you can feel good about buying, and Paddington Station for unique gifts for you or for those on your Christmas list!

For places to eat Deep's Indian Cuisine, caught my eye as I drove past it earlier in the day. I thought it sounded good on a cold and rainy night. I heard it tends to be busy on the weekends, but went early on a Tuesday night and found it to be quite and cozy. I was surprised by how good the food was. I say this because I live in a small town and I know how international food in small towns can tend not translate well! Deep's went above and beyond my expectations. I had their Spinach Pakora for a starter, Chicken Vindaloo for my dinner entree, and Cheese Nan for a oh so satisfying side! After dinner I could have gone to Sikiyou Micro Pub, but I was craving something sweet. I walked back to Main Street and went to Mix Sweet Shop. They have lovely pastries and espresso to accompany. You should bring a date or a buddy to share one of their treats, because they tend to be on the large side, which is not a bad thing! I had a lemon bar (my favorite), but I was eyeing their cupcakes, which were very large and rich looking. I knew I didn't have room for it, but I will have to go back and try it next time!

If you want to stay and eat in or are looking for a place to find lovely breakfast items or groceries. Stop by The Ashland Food Co-op for local and organic food items. Checkout their deli for a wide array of choices for breakfast or lunch. Their cheese section has a basket of all of the small remnant pieces from their speciality cheeses, which I love buying to try selections I haven't had before without the heavy price tag. They also sell cute "Green Bags", which in their case are brown bags with a yellow logo for 25 cents. I bought four! If you are on the Southeast side of town then visit Market of Choice, also has an amazing selection of organics, specialty items, and make sure you visit their wine department. If you need help picking a wine talk to William the store wine/coffee buyer who will gladly share his knowledge and expertise with you.

Ashland is also in it's off season right now, which means you cannot catch a play, but you can experience all of the other attractions Ashland has to offer saving some money too! OSF season begins again in February, which means prices will rise on hotel rooms around then. If you are traveling by Ashland drive a couple extra miles off of the freeway and have a visit!

Rum Toddy

RUM TODDY CONCENTRATE

2 cups Dark Rum

1 cup Vanilla Rum

1 cup Lemon Juice

1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

1/2 cup Honey

6-10 Whole Cloves (optional flavor/decoration)

1 Cinnamon Stick (optional flavor/decoration)

1/2 Lemon cut into round slices (optional flavor/decoration)

Pour all ingredients into a medium sized sauce pan and heat gently on medium to dissolve sugar and honey. Stir occasionally until all sugar is blended (about 10 min). Do not boil. Remove from heat and let cool before pouring into containers or serving (see serving instructions below). The concentrate can be strained before pouring into containers so cloves, cinnamon stick, and lemon rings will be eliminated, which will create a longer shelf life, to keep flavor from being altered, and for a pure pulp free concentrate. If you are serving immediately then cloves, cinnamon, and lemon round can be left in for appearance purposes.

TO SERVE: Mix equal parts of Toddy concentrate with hot water or to taste. Enjoy!

Note: This concentrate probably could be stored in cool dry place, but I store it in fridge to keep it from spoiling (my mom's voice talking here). I am not sure how long it will last at room temperature or at fridge temperature. This is where more experimenting will have to happen. My guess is that it should be fine, because there is nothing in it that could spoil except for the lemons rounds, which is why they should be taken out or left out completely.

i CAN do it!

I have always thought canning was something my only Grandmas did or my mom, even though I don't ever remember my mom ever canning I know she knows how to do it. This is something I have always wanted to do, but I heard that it can be unsafe, which made me always afraid of learning how to do it. This was until I was shopping earlier this summer and bought the Ball Book of Preserving. I thought it might be a motivator and a helpful tool to get me started. I took it on our last camping trip this summer and read it while I was sitting next to the fire. I came to the conclusion that canning looked easier than my fears lead me to believe. I thought I would give it a try, because I was leaving for week's trip in Seattle and had apples and tomatoes coming out of my ears, which I was afraid would go to waste if I didn't try to preserve them.

I started by buying jars, extra lids, pectin (which I didn't use), and extra vegetables for Italian sauce. I cleaned the kitchen, the jars and lids, and my workspace. Then I pealed about 20 lbs. of apples from the garden. I decided to make apple sauce according to the book, even though I have made apple sauce before. I followed the recipe and directions, because I wasn't sure if the recipe was apart of the canning process or just a recipe. I pulled out our two large pots and started boiling water. I wasn't sure if I should use the smaller or the larger of the two pots for the sauce or the jars, so I went with the larger pot for the sauce and the smaller pot for the jars. I had to change this once I realized the smaller pot wouldn't hold enough jars, which was a stressful point of the process. I also had to keep the apple sauce boiling while filling the jars, which seems easy enough, but in reality the apple sauce was like hot lava spitting out of the pot up to the ceiling, stove, and me! I got burned by flying sauce, which only made me more stressed!

Through the stress I finally got all of the jars filled and in the hot water bath. This was the point where I also got directions wrong. You are supposed to tighten the lid ring until first sign of resistance, which means fit the ring on the jar and screw it on until it comes to a point where you would have to put more muscle into it to tighten it fully. I was too worried about the jar exploding that I left the ring much too loose. One of the lids came off completely in the hot water bath while it was boiling. This was frustrating, because I pulled out an empty jar and the bath water was full of my apple sauce! Disappointing. Almost all of my jars came out of their bath sealed. I was happy the first batch was completed, without too many burns or errors. I felt more liberated and educated to try my own apple sauce recipe for the next round and expanded to making Italian sauce to use up most of the tomatoes from the garden. These two batches went much easier. The only problem I had was running out of jars, which makes me think that you really do need to plan for how much you are making or have many more jars on hand just in case. All apart of the learning curve I guess you could say!

Overall I was happy with the process. I learned so much in one night and enjoyed every part of it. The final steps of making labels and giving some of the things I made away made me want to make this a regular project. I would say that if you have never tired canning you should definitely try it if you have any interest in it at all. It is not as hard or scary as it seems, there is a lot to learn, but it is very rewarding. I highly recommend buying the Ball Blue Book of Preserving and checking out their website here, which also has a lot of useful information.

New Favorite Treats

I recently tried Fran's Grey Salt Carmels and my world changed! I have always loved the combination of caramel and dark chocolate, but the added complexity of grey salt...O, my word! Fran's caramels are petite, powerful, and just one leaves you satisfied and thankful! They are pricey little gems, but it is well worth it, and would make a lovely gift for anyone who shares my palate.

My first choice is always for supporting independent artist, but I have noticed other more popular names are also getting on the salt, caramel, chocolate wagon. Word on the street is Starbuck's is launching a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate this fall, which I will most likely pass on. If you cannot find Fran's caramels, I would also highly recommend Haagen Dazs' new Fleur de Sel Caramel Ice cream. It is also quite amazing!