Brunch in Bridgetown: Salty’s on the Columbia

For Lauren’s birthday we went to Salty’s. Ahh Salty’s. How I love thee.

The thing about Salty’s is that you need a reason to go there. It is not only expensive, but if you ate that much for no reason it would feel wrong. Just wrong. I left there feeling so incredibly full. It wasn’t like holiday full. I don’t even go all out on Thanksgiving or Christmas like I do at Salty’s. I think it is because you are 1) consuming obscene amounts of champagne and 2) because you are acutely aware of the cost/ you are desperately trying to get your moneys worth.

Salty’s is SO GOOD. We went back at least 4 or 5 times. Our courses were as follows:

1. Mounding plates of crab legs

2. Mounding plates of crab legs, made to order crepes

3. Salmon, clams, Benedicts, prime rib

4. More crab legs, clams, mac and cheese, salads

5. Desserts

Don’t forget that there are bottomless mimosas/ champy during the entire meal. There was no better way to celebrate the kick-off of Lauren’s 24^th year!

Birthday Girl! 

In line for crepes

Check out that pile of crab meat! I am a long term investor when it comes to cracking crab. Everyone else was all about instant gratification. 

Pretty lady and a clean plate! 

Too hard to eat... but it looked good on Cam's plate! Plus the eyes freak me out. 

Our server kept clearing our spots and removing the shell bowl…. Until we came back and he would awkwardly say, “Oh, I guess I’ll get you another shell bowl.” This happened a few times. He was especially surprised when we continued to eat crab after he had already brought us our hot towels. Haha! When there are endless crab legs what are you supposed to do about it!? I am practically a pro when it comes to getting out claw meat. nbd.

Not only was the breakfast delish, but it was amazing to be with my people. There was a lot of laughter. The kind where you laugh until it hurts. I really love that. 

CRAB LEGS!

Very full! Nap time. 

Salty’s only serves brunch on Sunday and they fill up fast, so make sure to call for a reservation. (Make sure you call the right one… they are a chain) Also, buffet food isn’t that good no matter where you are. Really take advantage of the crab legs. It is the whole point. If you decide to go, just make sure you are really ready to eat! 

Portland on Dwellable

A Spooktacular Saturday.

So Saturday was the day we celebrated All Hallows Eve. We went to a par-tay that my friend Justin was a part of throwing. My only request was that I could do some dancing. My wish was granted. The party wasn’t the best part of the day though. I had a wonderful Saturday. I hung out with my mom during some gym time (we can’t get enough Zumba!) Then Marina and I wandered downtown for most of the afternoon. It was lovely. Somehow we ended up at Nordstrom… weird.

Below are some photos of the evening’s shenanigans. Guess who was in Portland on Saturday?

Ke$ha, Nicki Minaj, Leslie Knope, a human bumblebee, a lumberjack, Lt. Dangle (Reno 911) and pandas/ occupandas. (Did you know that 1% of pandas eat 99% of the bamboo on earth!?)

Ke$ha and Nicki

Nicki, Ke$ha and Panda

Leslie Knope was there! Straight from Pawnee! 

Logging is cool.

Vote Knope 2012. She befriends bees.

The law will win. Just ask Lindsay Lohan.

On the real Halloween I went to my parent’s house for our chili tradition. Every Halloween (as far as I can remember) we have had chili and cornbread. I know there were a few Halloweens when I was away at school. But still, without fail, I’m sure my parents had chili. Growing up, all of the parents and kids would come over for dinner. Then the Dads would take us out trick-or-treating. Wasn't it the worst when your Mom would make you wear tights with your costume? You know, due to her concern for your health in the cold… what was that!? OR even more horrific… she would make you wear a coat. Yuck! I mean, I understand why but it ruined the costume!

Anywho, Anne (our newest sibling), came over too. She is abandoning us in two weeks to move to Austin… so apparently she is just temporarily in our family. This makes me very sad. I am currently trying to confirm that our craziness didn't drive her to apply for a job in Austin.

Brandon, my brother in law, was in charge of passing out candy to the kiddos. He gave giant handfuls to every kid that came to the door. He claims that is was so there wouldn’t be candy left for us to eat. BUT I think he was subconsciously retrieving memories of his own chubby childhood by channeling the joy he would have felt with a giant handful from one house. I’m on to you Brandon.

Here are the photos from Monday!

My cute parents!!

Pumpkins and Sunflowers... and Brandon photo bombing.

Sister and Brandon

I hope you all had awesomely spooky Halloweens! 

Big news day!

So Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are getting divorced after only 2 months of marriage. Well, I think I speak for many when I say that this is the most shocking news I have heard in a long time! Almost as shocking as the announcement that Jessica Simpson is expecting!... NOT. Really people. 

We knew that the divorce was inevitable and J-Simps is at least 5 months preggo. Word is that she was waiting for a big magazine payout to announce said bun (in oven), but there weren’t any takers. That was probably a may-hor ego blow for the Simps. I have always loved her though. How awesome was Newlyweds!? I loved and still love watching it. Remember when she wouldn't sleep with Nick Lachey... Well, now she is having a love child! How much do you love the term love child? Apparently is is the 1950s again. 

She announced her pregnancy via her Halloween costume. "I'm a mummy!" Get it? Mommy / mummy. Duh.

Libby put it so eloquently in her tweet today. “Kim Kardashian files for divorce & Jessica Simpson announces she's preg. Today is the day if announcements WE ALREADY KNEW. Thanks, Hollywood.”

Well, we didn’t technically know about the divorce… but we sure weren’t surprised!

Clearly I had to bump my Halloween and brunch posts for this breaking news. Tune in later this week! 

Daydream of Rainbows, Butterflies and a Music Box.

Those are all Mariah Carey album names. Why? Because I am SO into my Mariah Carey Pandora station! (Not holiday. Not yet.) Do me a favor and just test out the station. I swear you will love it! I take that back. You will only love it if you like awesome 90s R&B. If you can confidently say that you fit into this category then go for it.  

You may be asking yourself this: “Laura, why don’t you listen to Spotify or Grooveshark or something else cooler than Pandora? Quit living in 2007!”

Well, my answer to this is as follows:

I don’t want to put in the playlist making effort! Also, I don’t want my Facebook friends on Spotify to creep on my music and judge me for busting out the occasional song by ‘Nsync for a little middle school throwback. It is easier to admit these things in the controlled environment of my blog. I also think it is annoying that Spotify (via Facebook) tells people what you are listening to. No Facebook, I don’t care that Sabrina Jorcutt (names have been changed to protect privacy) is listening to Nicki Minaj. I mean good call with the Nicki, but really Facebook?

Moral of the story is this: Listen to Mariah Carey radio and don’t hate on me for listening to Pandora.

Currently Playing: Boys II Men, End of the Road

Happy Halloween to all!! Have fun-filled weekends. 

#RosenfieldSkaarWedding

Wedding Weekend! I know it is Wednesday… just get over it. I am behind with my blog posting.

I was in central Oregon for a long weekend to celebrate in the union of my lady friend Erika and her hunky fireman Kasey. It was such a wonderful weekend full of love!

We started the weekend out right (as a bridal party) going out to an awesome dinner where people bought us drinks etc. When I arrived, my gurl Chelsii was explaining what a hash-tag is to some of the bridal party. It was hilarious to hear Chelsii explain what a hash-tag is and how we use it incorrectly in our attempts to be funny. Erika was stoked that she had her own wedding day hash-tag.

There were many high points to the weekend. I have a couple that stick out beyond the actual wedding part. The trip ended up being a cultural experience of sorts. The first cultural experience was when my beer was opened with a can of chewing tobacco and the second was doing some country dancing. I have seriously not had that much fun dancing ever! SO FUN! I was flipped over! Multiple times!... And I am not a petite girl. I freak-yeah love country dancing. I had no idea what I was doing, but with a good lead there is really nothing to it! The bad new is this: Where the hay-diddle-diddle am I going to find a cute guy in PDX who truly knows how to dance like that!? The people at the country themed bars in Portland are just city dwellers being posers for the night. Such a shame.

Now back to the LOVE. Erika is one of my first friends to get married. I can still count my married girlfriends on one hand. Well… one and a half hands… Jeez! Today I found out a different friend is preggers... I am having trouble with this growing up stuff. Anywho, the wedding day was perfect. Erika was calm cool and collected. Her hair was flawlessly coiffed and the dress fit just right. I’m not saying there weren’t a couple stressful moments leading up. There may or may not have been an emergency late night trip to the store after the rehearsal dinner…

Photo op in the backyard before the rehearsal dinner

Emergency trip to Walmart. Don't worry, the crisis was handled. 

Erika's wedding day breakfast of champions. Now you know what the BM mix was for!

Beautiful bride getting ready! 

Erika was clearly beyond excited to be married to the love of her life! Kasey is the greatest guy and I couldn’t help but shed a few salty tears as he read his vows to my friend. It is comforting to know that he is going to be the one there for her from now on. 

Erika looked regal on her big day. Just beautiful! Take a gander: 

Pre husband and wife

Married!!

Ahhh Love. Maybe we will meet again someday. In the meantime I am happy to celebrate the love of others. Congrats Kasey and Erika!

Best of the best: Bloody Mary Mix!

Within the past 6 months I started liking the bloody mary. I don’t love spicy things, but I love savory things. Having spicy tomato juice instead of orange juice suits me! OR save yourself some calories and money and make a “virgin mary!”

I have used a couple different recipes in the past. This time I took the best ideas from each. Now we have the best of the best!

2 lemons (all the juice you can get)

2 limes (all the juice you can get)

3 Tbsp olive jar juice (yes, the liquid from the jar of olives!)

3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

3 Tbsp dijon mustard (I prefer country Dijon because of the seeds)

2 Tbsp horseradish (from the jar, but not the creamy stuff!)

1 Tbsp hot sauce (any pepper kind or something similar to Tabasco)

1 Tbsp Sriracha hot chili sauce

1 tsp celery seed

1 tsp+ fresh ground black pepper (personal preference)

1 tsp+ salt (personal preference)

64oz of Low Sodium Tomato/Veggie juice

Mix all of the ingredients together. I go liquid first. It ends up being less messy that way. Once it is all whisked together, see how much there is and pour out that same amount from the Tomato juice jug. Now that there is spare room in the juice jug, pour the mix right into the jug and shake it up!

To serve:

Fill your glass with ice. Add vodka and mix! Garnish with a lemon slice and pickled veggies!

Tips/ reasons for my recipe choices:

The most important addition is the Sriracha sauce. You have the Tabasco for initial spice and the Sriracha gives you that after heat. I happened upon this by chance when I ran out of hot sauce once. It was my replacement sauce and it is now my favorite thing about the mix! I swear it makes all the difference. 

Also, I read a lot of recipes that said to use tomato vegetable juice. It is thicker and more flavorful/ makes a better base for your mix. I always go with low sodium because you are adding so much salt from the other ingredients! Plus, always tryna prevent being bloated. Am I right!? 

Try it out and tell me you like it! If your response is negative just don't tell me. Slater!

You’re so pretty and popular.

So I totally suck and have not been on top of the blog game this week. BUT I am a busy lady. Last weekend San Francisco, this weekend wedding in central Oregon. Yes folks, I will be walking down the aisle… Sadly, I am not the bride. Had you going for a minute though! Right? Not even a little? Whatevs.  I am a bridesmaid this weekend. Very exciting!

For great info and photos on the trip to San Francisco, please refer to the blog of my lovely BFF Anne.

Is this the laziest way to make a blog post ever? Just link to somebody else’s? Ha! Disclaimer: I did not actually run the half-marathon. I cheered them on.

Proof that I am a really great cheerleader. (Ignore how huge I look in this photo)

Sign reads: You're so pretty and popular!!

I know you can't tell from the picture, but the sign is covered in gold glitter. Just had to let you know since it was clearly the best part! I promise to be a better blogger in the near future.