More in Portland

My niece Natalie and her girls took me to a fun restaurant called Slappy Cakes in Portland.  This restaurant has tables with a griddle in the middle of the table.  You pick the pancake flavor you like and they bring you a squeeze bottle of the batter of choice.  Natalie and I shared a bottle of buttermilk and the girls chose the gluten free version.
 
 

Next you choose your toppings, fruit, nuts, and a variety of chips.  Also there is a choice of syrup.  You can choose savory toppings, like sausage, but who would do that when you can get slices of fresh strawberries and chocolate chips?  NO ONE!  That's who!!

WELL, I might do that on the NEXT visit, but not the FIRST visit!

 

You squeeze out the batter on to the griddle and add whatever toppings you chose.  Flip when done on one side and then after cooking the other side, you enjoy your delicious pancake.  The girls liked making little pancakes in order to maximize the topping to pancake ratio.  And we still had left over chips!

If was fun and delicious.  There is always a line, but you can take a walk and they will text you when your table is ready. 

Someone needs to bring this restaurant to Roanoke. 

A Project In Portland

I wanted to do a craft project while visiting my niece in Portland.  She has two of the cutest girls and I thought we should spend some time doing something fun!

 

We made a trip to Michael's and found kits to make stepping stones.  Natalie is landscaping her backyard and this seemed like a fun thing for the girls to do. 

The glass pieces in the kit were not what we liked, too bright and small, so we bought some sea glass pieces from Michael's to make these special.

We cut out the patterns and placed the smooth and cloudy sea glass in a pleasing pattern. 

 

Then I mixed the cement while the girls waited their turn. 

 

     

They transferred the glass to the cement in the form and them pressed gently to get them flush. 

 

The hard part was waiting for the cement to dry sufficiently to write the words they had chosen.  Too soon and the writing fills in and isn't clear.  Too late and you can't make an impression.  The kit included 3D versions of the alphabet and the numbers 0 through 9.  Natalie chose to write hers by hand and the girls chose words using the enclosed letters.

 

The girls played on their scooters while they waited.  It took about an hour, but it was cool.  On a hot day it would dry faster.

They turned out pretty good and I can't wait to see where they place them in the finished backyard.

 

Portland

Haven't written anything for a while as I was visiting my niece in Portland.  The Portland in Oregon .  I took my iPad, but no matter what anybody tells me, I can't use it to write on my blog.  Or the ways are too complicated for my wee brain.  So I took a break!

Portland is a foodie paradise!  But Natalie's girls have some allergies, so we spent a lot of time finding gluten free, egg free, dairy free, soy free, corn free things they could eat.  Not easy, but WAY easier in Portland than it would be here in Roanoke.  We found a few recipes to make for kids, by kids and are talking about making a YouTube channel for the girls, starring the girls as chefs.  They like to cook and are VERY smart and cute, so I think it will be fun!  They are coming to visit this summer, so we will try to do something then.
 

Natalie and her girls visiting with my girls.  COUSINS!

The Cooking Channel has a show called Unique Sweets and they have a lot of places in Portland.  We tried Kyra's Bake Shop where EVERYTHING is gluten free.  You can't taste any difference from gluten costly...er, expensive?   Full 'o gluten?  It was so successful that Natalie took the girls there for a treat after I left.

Natalie took me to Powell's Books.  Here is the Yelp link.  They have more than one store, but the one she took me to is an entire city block. At least two floors.  Might have been more but we had already fed the parking meter.  TWICE!

It had new and used books all mixed together.  The staff is knowledgeable and there is also a café.  The main store has over a million books.  Plus gifts and maps and it is fabulous.  I grew up going to Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, so I KNOW fabulous bookstores.  Powell's is a fabulous bookstore!  Natalie and I bought a lot of books, but I had to leave before I was ready.  Only had one suitcase.