Adiós Brad

Over our time in Bend, we have gravitated to Viaggio, a favorite wine bar, and we have come to know many of the regulars. So it was with Brad, with whom we struck up an easy acquaintance. Sadly for us, he decided to relocate to Florida. He let us know in the Thanksgiving time frame that he would be gone by mid-December. Naturally, we needed to host a farewell dinner to wish him on his way.

A dinner for three people is truly an odd number, both as in not an even number and a slightly bizarre number for a dinner, but three it was. I just so happened to have a package of three beautiful center-cut veal shanks in the freezer waiting for just such a dinner. Three people and three portions of ossobuco, perfect!

As Brad was packing and trying to avoid schlepping a lot of wine across the country, he volunteered to bring the wine. And when he learned the meal was ossobuco milanese, he brought two bottles of Barolo, the quintessential pairing for this classic dish.

Almonds and Olives to Start

Barolo. What Else to Pair with Ossobuco?

Ossobuco Milanese

The Guest of Honor

1989 Trockenbeerenauslese

After dinner, in lieu of dessert, I opened a 1989 trockenbeerenauslese that I bought in Germany at Kloster Eberbach in Eltville just up the Rhine from Wiesbaden and Mainz. The once-amber Riesling had turned the color of raisins, oxidizing heavily over the years. The nose was of Madeira, Sherry, and raisins, but the acid was still screaming.

Brad, best wishes on a new life in Florida!

Thanksgiving 2025

Yet another Thanksgiving is in the books, a quiet one involving just us and Rob and Dyce, an affair that ran from just after noon until well after dark, not that dark comes particularly late at this time of year. We had thought that we would celebrate at our house this year, but the guys just finished renovating the kitchen in their new house. They wanted us to come over for Thanksgiving to christen the kitchen, and so we did.

Post-Thanksgiving Scrabble with Willamette Pinot
Ed and Dyce Getting Killed by the Pros

I had already made plans to make my Thanksgiving Lasagne yet again this year (for details and recipes, click through the link). By this, I mean that Ann asked me to make it again as Thanksgiving is her show. As a perfectly portable dish, the pan of lasagne was easy to assemble in our kitchen (over 5 days) and bake in their kitchen. Turkey neck rillettes are always a happy by-product of making the lasagne, so we brought those along too as well as a container of cranberry-orange relish.

Rob and Dyce contributed a green bean casserole, deviled eggs, a warm artichoke dip, and a delightful charcuterie board. It seems hard to believe that Ann made it this far in life without ever having green bean casserole, de rigueur at every potluck! I also have to mention that they opened their final bottle of 2015 Cristom Pinot Noir Hirschy Vineyard, a spectacular wine that is drinking so phenomenally right now.

Way Too Many Appetizers

Rob's Spinach-Artichoke Dip

Turkey Rillettes with Cranberry Relish

You Had Me at Speck!

Dyce's Deviled Eggs

Tukey Lasagna and Green Bean Casserole Finished Baking

Tukey Lasagna, Cranberry Relish, Green Bean Casserole

One Food Porn Shot: Roasted Turkey Thighs for the Lasagna

Fall on the DRT, Dillon to Benham

Each fall, I love to go out to the section of river just upstream from our house to photograph the fall colors, such as they are here in Central Oregon. Today, I walked upstream on the Deschutes River Trail from Dillon Falls to Benham Falls and back, with a plan to continue walking downstream to Lava Island or below. I was not feeling well once I had returned to Dillon Falls where my truck awaited me, so I packed it in for the day.

There is no rhyme or reason to the order of the photos below.

Broadleaf Cattail, Typha latifolia
Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta

Early Snow on Mt. Bachelor

Woods' Rose Leaf Cluster, Rosa woodsii

Grouse Whortleberry, Vaccinium scoparium
Short Blueberry, Turning Red

Love the Layers in Front of and Behind the
Red Osier Dogwood, Cornus sericea

Terribly Late Bloom on Rubber Rabbitbrush, Ericameria nauseosa

Kinnikinnick, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Green
Woods' Rose, Yellow, and Grouse Whortleberry, Red

Male Hairy Woodpecker Against Quaking Aspen, Populus tremuloides
Second Most Common Woodpecker After Northern Flicker

Aspen Doing What It Does Best

Fireweed Seedpods, Chamaenerion angustifolium

Sun Spotlighting Bracken, Pteridium aquilinum

Another Male Hairy Woodpecker

Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus, Highlighted Against Red Osier Dogwood

Aspen Colony

Common Snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus

"Eye" of Aspen

Woods' Rose Hips

Highly Prickly Lodgepole Pine Cone

Rubber Rabbitbrush Against Dillon Falls

Sticky Cinquefoil, Drymocallis glandulosa

Golden Pholiota, Pholiota sp.

Dusky Horkelia, Potentilla douglasii