• Sunflowers with a view of Mt Hood
    Dinner,  Food,  Garden,  Oregon

    A Visit to The Grateful Vineyard in Hood River

    An early fall visit to The Grateful Vineyard yields fields of sunflowers with a stunning view of Mt Hood. The Grateful Vineyard has been open since 2019 and can be found on-site at Mt View Orchards in Hood River. Reservations at Grateful Vineyard fill up fast on the weekend. If you don’t mind a more casual dining experience, there are picnic tables set out so you can still enjoy your take-out with an amazing Mt Hood view. The staff was so friendly and explained all their seasonal offerings, including their delicious selection of hard ciders. Their cider menu includes peach, cranberry, blackberry and their house cider Golden Row Cider, made from…

  • birthday bundt cake with single candle
    Birthday,  Deals

    25 Great Birthday Discounts

    This year for my birthday, I turned 29 AGAIN! To celebrate, I made it my mission to take advantage of as many birthday discounts as I could! It was such a fun challenge! There were so many places to chose from that you can literally go out for breakfast, lunch, dinner AND dessert for free! I wasn’t able to check off all 25 Great Birthday Discounts, but I made a pretty good dent! 25 Birthday Deals Most of these deals require you to sign up for their “birthday club” which is just another way to get you on their email list. Quid pro quo, I guess. Although you will get…

  • Dinner,  Keto,  Lunch,  Recipes

    Spinach Artichoke Tart

    I found this amazing recipe when I was going through my hard core Paleo phase a few years back. Even now, I still eat pretty clean and would probably consider my diet somewhere between Paleo and Keto, however because this recipe does contain cheese, it would fall more in-line with Keto foods than strict Paleo. Regardless, it is a delicious way to satisfy your quiche cravings. Not that I really ever have “quiche cravings,” but this dish just feels really indulgent, like a comfort food, when in reality, you are benefiting from a pretty generous portion of spinach and artichokes…and well, cheese! The crust is made from almond flour, so…

  • Herb crusted salmon with lemons
    Dinner,  Recipes

    Herb Crusted Salmon

    Herb Crusted Salmon When you live in the Pacific Northwest as we do, salmon is part of our regional heritage. For generations, salmon have played an important role in the local Native American tribal religion, culture, and diet. Early explorers Lewis and Clark feasted on roasted and dried salmon and made detailed descriptions and drawings of the salmon they saw in the Columbia River, noting how abundant the fish were in the area. Today, we learn about the salmon life cycle in our schools. Students raise fingerlings and release them into local rivers. We visit fish hatcheries and count the salmon in the fall when they migrate up river. We name rivers and streets after…

  • These kid-approved Zucchini Fritters are perfect for those times when you have way too much Zucchini on your hands!
    Breakfast,  Dinner,  Garden,  Lunch,  Recipes

    Zucchini Fritters

    My kids can always tell when I’ve added zucchini into a recipe! No matter how sly I think I am, they know! Sometimes a recipe comes along and there is just no hiding the zucchini. This recipe for zucchini fritters is just such a recipe, but once they taste the zucchini fritters, they happily clean their plates…sometimes they even ask for seconds!