Pehli Raat - 2020/1442 Hijri

Aunty Umaima, despite all that is going on in her life with Uncle, cooked a delicious Pehli Raat meal and asked us to come pick it up.

This is my first Pehli Raat bohri meal in the US.

She made Kuddal Palidu, Chicken in yogurt, Bharta, Mitha Samosa, Tal Halwa, Pineapple Halwa, Cherry Pie, and papad.

Wallowas - Eastern Oregon - Days 1 & 2

Panorama of the Wallowas from the BnB

For spring break this year, instead of staying at home we decided to go somewhere. Tickets are always expensive and we really wanted to check out Eastern Oregon. I had heard about Rob Klavins' (from Oregon Wild) Bed 'n Breakfast in the Wallowas for a while and looked it up and made reservations for 3 nights for us to go away. 

View as we drove out of town to get to a hike.

What a brilliant plan, it turned out to be! 

It's about a 7.5 hour journey from Eugene and once you get off I5 and onto 84, driving through the Columbia Gorge, the drive is breathtaking! We had no idea how beautiful the gorge is! The steep rising rocks on both side of the river, the river meandering along, and because we were lucky, the mountain tops were blanketed in freshly fallen snow. It was our first time seeing snow still on the branches of the trees on the mountains. It looks so much prettier than the usual snow-capped peaks you see when you typically look at snow caps. 

We stopped at the one view point on this direction of I-84 and boy was it windy there! 

Viewpoint View

The Barking Mad Farm BnB is really cozy, inviting, and what a fantastic location! We settled in quickly and talked to Rob and Emily a bit, getting dinner suggestions. From the house, you look out at farms and see buffalo grazing and wild deer herd, against the backdrop of the magnificent Wallowas! Our window faced this view too. Waking up and having this beauty pour into your morning was a delight and immediately relaxing. 

Barking Mad Farm BnB

View from our room and our bed!

Rob and Emily mentioned that Terminal Gravity (a local Brewery that Rebecca had told Saurabh about, too) has really good buffalo burgers from the farm we were looking at. We miss our bison burgers from DC and we didn't need too many other dinner ideas to make up our mind. The burger was incredibly fresh tasting and definitely one of the better burgers we have had. The plan for the following two dinners was decided. We wouldn't get this back in Eugene...we were going to have it as many times as we could while we were there! :) 

Terminal Gravity

Breakfasts at Barking Mad were delicious. And while, I didn't take photos of all our breakfasts there, I did of the second breakfast. 

Polenta cakes with poached eggs (from their chicken) and avocado. Mmmmm

Our first hike there was near the Wallowa lake. Rob and Emily recommended stopping by a green gate along the lake, jumping the gate, and hiking up the moraine. There was snow/ice on the ground, but apart from the incline it was a fairly easy hike. The views of the lake and the Wallowas as we hiked up were spectacular and gave us a great reason to take a breath and stop. 

Woodpecker

Hiking up the moraine.

Partial view of the Wallowa Lake. One side is a bright blue...

...the other side is a darker blue! Storm approaching!

Getting to the top. The colour is still half and...

...and half.

Once at the top of the moraine, we could see the seven devils mountains on the other side, way in the distance. That where hells canyon is. We couldn't go there at this time of the year in our car. Too much snow and rough roads there. 

Photo-Hub

Seven Devils Mountains in the distance.

After the hike we went to Joseph, which we had driven through to get to the hike. We noticed the sculptures outside and wanted to check those out, even though it seemed like more of the art galleries wouldn't be open. 

Joseph

But, before the art, hot chocolate. We went into Arrowhead Chocolates planning on getting coffee, but Saurabh noticed that they have hot chocolate and had a feeling about it. Man, was he right! You can pick if you want your hot chocolate made with dark or milk chocolate, and of course we picked the dark. They melt chunks of chocolate in the melting machine thingy and take the chocolate out with a spoon. They add the chocolate to your cup, and then give you the "chocolate spoon" to lick clean. Aaaaah! 

Arrowhead Chocolates is in that building.

Chocolate-melting machine

Chocolate Spoon!

I got a small dollop of whipped cream on my hot chocolate. Everything was just perfect. We tried to go back the next day, but after our hike that day we got to Joseph just as it closed. But, no worries, we went back the last morning before we left for the Palouse area.

Hot Dark Chocolate, with a view!

After that deliciosity, we walked around looking at the sculptures, peering into closed galleries. The art work was different, interesting, and beautiful. We were impressed. We didn't expect it to be this good. After Thomas, we have become a tad snooty about art, and we found ourselves wishing that the galleries were open so we could have gone in and seen the work more closely. 

Chief Joseph

'Garden Walk'

Some old, almost abandoned buildings in Joseph. The building in front, however, is being re-purposed to be the Prairie Mountain Folk School for Traditional Craft

Later that evening we found out that Valley Bronze Gallery in Joseph had done the bronze sculpting work for the World War II Memorial in DC!!! This is the second connection we have found in Oregon to DC! It warms our heart and thrills us so much! (The first one being in Bandon, OR when we saw the Washed Ashore {which we had seen at the Zoo in DC for the first time} main headquarters). 

Valley Bronze Gallery - It was closed our entire time there.

We got back to the BnB early that evening. While Saurabh finished up his grading, I showered and went for a walk by the farms. I walked along the road and had maybe 2 cars pass by in the 40ish minutes that I was out. I did see an own! A Great Horned Owl, as Rob identified it.  

Walk Views

Walk Views

Empty Road!

Horse stable along my walk

Great Horned Owl

That night, we had dinner again at Terminal Gravity (duh!). But, Rob and Emily joined us and there was live music while we were there too. A fun evening! 

Christmas Dinner

Saurabh made a delicious meal of buttered scallops and peas risotto for Christmas. The shopping expedition a couple of days ago yielded delicious scallops. The meal capped a lovely Christmas day. :)

Christmas Eve Hot Chocolate

A perfect cup of hot chocolate brewed by Saurabh for a snug Christmas eve at home. 

Christmas Eve Dinner

After a wet and cold day at the coast, where we hiked around the dunes of Baker Beach, we found ourselves at trusty old High Street McMenamins. We were still wet from the hike, but a toasty fireplace and a delicious burger, made everything better. 

 

We love how snug their bar is. 

Shopping for Christmas Dinner

Saurabh will cook his famous Buttered Scallops and Peas Risotto. We picked up the scallops at Newman's Fish Market on Willamette. We heard they are really good, and apparently better than Fisherman's Market that we usually go to. However, Fisherman's Market seems to have more local fish, and at Newman's more seemed from further away and less local. We didn't pick up shrimp from Newman's for precisely that reason, it was from Mexico. 

Anyway, this post is mostly because I loved the little scene that was set up at Newman's and took photo, and needed a place to post it. :)

Dinner at Aunty Umaima's

In an act of stars aligning, when I went to Bombay in March for Dad, on my flight to LAX from EUG, I found myself sitting beside the only other Bohri lady in Eugene. A few days before, mom had mentioned a bohri family living in Eugene that Aunty Farida Chiba had told her about. But, there was no way I was randomly going to look them up. 

She sat next to me, on a flight she wasn't originally booked on, but was made to take since her original flight was cancelled. A few minutes into her sitting next to me, I had a strong suspicion she was Bohri, and so after the initial, "Hello. Do you live in Eugene?" pleasantries, I just decided to ask her, "This might seem weird, but, are you Bohri?" She was absolutely stunned by my question, I had to repeat it, and she said yes, with complete shock. Haha! 

Anyway, we got talking, and her parents had lived in Oman. Later, when she reached Houston to her mom's, she found out that her dad had worked for my dad! In Bombay, dad told me that he remembered her parents well. Her daughter, Sophie, works across the street from our apartment in Eugene. It's a crazy small world and I love that I found her. 

We have been to their place a few times now, and today, they had us over for her version of khao suey. She also made an absolutely delicious curried cauliflower soup, and homemade chickoo icecream. Oh, and when we got there, there were chaklis on the coffee table with jeera. She had made those at home too! 

Christmas 2016

Our first Christmas in Eugene! Nicole (Ngo) invited us over to her mother in law's (Rena) place for Christmas 'dinner'. Rena has a 52 acre farm in Pleasant Hill. She lives in a lovely blue home on the farm that begins at the end of the road. As you turn right to enter her drive way, the view of the corn flower blue house against the blue skies and open farmland that seems to stretch out to the mountains is grand. We rolled up to the house, parked, and Nicole came out to meet us and show us around the land a little. 

After that we went in, and were greeted by a friendly, warm family. We hung around the kitchen, talking, drinking, snacking, and getting the meal ready. Rena has made almost everything at home - turkey, stuffing (that was actually in the turkey), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, sweet pepper jelly, rolls, and finally pumpkin and pecan pies. We ate this delicious meal in the sun room that looked out to the fields. 

After the meal, we went with April and Tony and their boys (Quinn, Colin and Kiki[Keaton]), along with Nicole and Alex and their dogs River and Spencer, to the next farm to feed their horses and goat. It seemed like a Christmas out of a book :)