Breakfast In An Old Hotel

One morning, we walked off the street in downtown Baker City, Oregon into the Geiser Grand Hotel and had a surprisingly good breakfast there.

Instead of the “Gluten Free Oatmeal” from Oregon’s Bob’s Red Mill, I decided to try their “Stone Ground Ten Grain” hot cereal instead. Their menu claimed that this was the hot cereal standard of the whole-grain world, made in Oregon with century-old millstones.

The list of ingredients was impressive: high protein hard red wheat, rye, triticale, oat bran, oats, corn, barley, soy beans, brown rice, millet, and flaxseed. And the large bowl of hot cereal that they placed in front of me was also impressive. It tasted good!

The hotel was built 122 years ago in the gold-mining year 1889 by a Czechoslovakian architect named John Benes. It claimed to have the third elevator west of the Mississippi.

After many years of grandeur, the gold mines closed down and the building fell into disrepair. It closed shortly after the cast from the movie “Paint Your Wagon” stayed there in the summer of 1968. Then, during the years 1993 through 1998 the building was completely restored costing six to seven million dollars. Here are links to a case study done by the National Park Service of Baker City and the rehabilitation of the Geiser Grand Hotel: Baker City page 1, Baker City page 2, Baker City page 3.

Now that I’ve been there and seen the countryside around the Geiser Grand Hotel, I want to watch the movie “Paint Your Wagon” again!

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Wallowa Lake Lodge Restaurant

This old, historic, and freshly preserved Wallowa Lake Lodge is settled on the southern shore of the beautiful Wallowa Lake, near the town of Joseph, Oregon. A state park is nestled right next to it, with cabins and a campground, and the lodge has its own cabins too.

Evidently, they had to ship in all the materials via the lake to build the lodge, since at that time there were no access roads. According to the web site's history page, it was built in 1923. According to Wikipedia, that's about four years older than Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel in California.

We walked over to the lodge to take a look and decided to make reservations for dinner that night. It was very nice! Someone played the piano, lots of old timey music, while others waited on us like we were royalty traveling incognito. The diningroom was filled with interesting things to look at whenever we weren't looking out our window onto the beautiful grass lawn that rolled down to the lake.

The food was good too. Everything was fresh and beautifully plated, with lace doilies and colorful edible flowers. I had penne pasta primavera and Michael had a chicken salad. Here's a link to their sample menus for dinner and breakfast.


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Anthony's At The Old Mill

We had dinner one evening at Anthony’s At The Old Mill in Bend, Oregon. The restaurant is situated alongside the Deschutes river and is a delight to look at — both inside and out. Everywhere I looked I saw interesting snapshots of color, contrasts, and design, all picture-perfect.

Our waiter gave us really nice service. He brought me a kid’s plate of plain pasta with a thin white sauce and a generous side order of steamed broccoli cooked just right. I also had hot tea (with my own tea bag). Michael had their special Sockeye salmon with broccoli and a glass of wine.

After dinner we walked around the Old Mill District, enjoying the shops and the park on either side of the river, connected by a foot bridge with colorful flags.

Back in the year 1916, two lumber companies from Minnesota set up mills in this district upriver from Bend, which grew to become the largest pine saw mills in the country. As they grew, so did the town of Bend, and they remained in operation as the community’s largest employers for over 60 years.

As the needs for lumber changed in the country, the mills slowed down, consolidated, and eventually shut down. We could see a few of the buildings that are still standing (one has 3 smoke stacks) from the last mill that closed in 1993.

Here’s a link to Anthony’s dinner menu.

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Hamley Steakhouse

We left Hell's Canyon country and headed for Pendleton, Oregon, home of the famous Pendleton Woolen Mills and Hamley & Company (makers of horse saddles, cowboy hats, and other western wear).

Here we had a memorable dinner at the Hamley Steakhouse. The moment we stepped indoors out of the sweltering heat we were enveloped by gorgeous dark woods and sparkling lamps of colored light. The restaurant was really too dark to get any good photos without a tripod, but I did manage to take a few.

The food was of the highest quality and the service was very nice. I had their "Ranch Ravioli" appetizer — large egg-pasta cases stuffed with portabella mushrooms and served with sage butter, and Michael had their "Sunday Prime" steak with fresh green beans. I think this was his favorite restaurant meal on the entire trip! Here's a link to their dinner menu: Hamley Steakhouse menus.

After dinner, we had a nice walk around downtown, starting with the Hamley Western Store next door to the restaurant. They had some absolutely beautiful and expensive wares, including saddles for which they're famous. There's a link to their online Western store from the Hamley Steakhouse website or you can go directly to the Hamley & Company website. Check out their black beaver cowboy hat for only $999.95!

By the way, J.J. Hamley organized the first "Pendleton Round-Up" in 1910 and the rodeo has been a famous annual event ever since. (The Hamleys donated over 80 saddles for the winner's trophies.)

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Johnson's Steakhouse

One day on our trip, we had a nice quiet lunch at a golf course in Weaverville, California, before we visited the "Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park" in the main part of town.

Sitting at our lunch-table in "Johnson's Steakhouse," we could see glimpses of the Trinity Alps golf course through our window, which looked very pretty and inviting. Our menu seemed rather old-fashioned, which meant the choices were simple, the food was predictable, and everything tasted good. The service, on the other hand, was also good! I asked for a side of whole wheat toast, which wasn't on the menu, and our waitress was very accommodating.

Besides the whole wheat toast (unexpectedly, they used a good hearty whole-grain bread), I chose a green house salad, and steak fries (large pieces of potato) served with tomato ketchup. (Definitely not my usual fare!) I also ordered a pot of tea and substituted my own bag of kukicha tea. The water in the tea pot tasted really good even before any tea was added. (Good water.) Although I didn't eat everything that was placed in front of me, I was well-satisfied with my lunch and had a nice time.

Here's a link to their dinner menu.

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Logan's Roadhouse, Redding, California

The floor is covered with peanut shells. They serve you small buckets full of peanuts and they want you to drop the shells on the floor. I've been to a Logan's Roadhouse before (there are 150 restaurants across the country) and I still can't get used to it. I'll usually start a little pile of shells somewhere on the table instead. But, seeing as peanuts and peanut butter have been my favorite food since I was a toddler, I felt right at home!

The other food choices at Logan's Roadhouse are reliable, well-prepared, and taste pretty good. Besides the bucket of peanuts, they bring you a small plate of honey buns and butter to tide you over while you wait for your meal.

After eating a thermos of whole grains earlier in the day, I chose "Rockin' Onion Petals," "Grilled Vegetable Skewer," and "Steamed Broccoli" from their menu for my dinner. The battered, deep-fried onion petals is one of their appetizer options and the vegetable skewer (grilled bell peppers and mushrooms) and steamed broccoli are side dishes. Because of the size of the onion pieces, I could easily remove the fried batter if I wanted. I also ordered hot tea, substituted my own tea bag (Choice's Organic Kukicha), and reserved their bag of green tea for later.

Logan's has a nice, friendly family atmosphere and is very comfortable. That's been pretty consistent at every restaurant I've visited of theirs. This one in Redding was cool and dark inside, with lots of pretty wood furniture and neon lights. Nice place to get away from the summer heat.

Check out their extensive menu online, Logan's Roadhouse.


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In The Name Of Macrobiotics

Macrobiotics is all about balancing the yins and yangs in life. I think the easiest way to do that is to rely on nature, which has the art of balancing already mastered!

Whole, natural food is already balanced within itself. As soon as you start to deconstruct it and eat the food in parts, you are moving away from that balanced center, and probably introducing an imbalance to your body. Also, when you add preservatives, or grow the food using pesticides and other chemicals, you've added something unnatural and unwhole to the food.

I was so excited the first time I saw "MacroBars" on the grocery store shelf. Finally, a healthy organic snack food I could buy that would be balanced and contain whole ingredients! Alas, this was not to be entirely the case.

The list of ingredients gave me the first clue, telling me not only which were whole foods or not, but also how much of each ingredient there was compared to the others (listing the ones with the largest amounts first). What the list does not say, however, is what the actual amount is of each ingredient. And that's where the trouble begins.

Out of a total of ten different flavors of MacroBars, five of them begin with the ingredient brown rice syrup — obviously not a whole food, and not so obviously, way too much of it in proportion to the other ingredients. Most of the other five flavors contain either brown rice syrup or agave nectar as the second ingredient, with the first ingredient being either a nut butter, or in two cases, rolled oats.

MacroBars do have some good things going for them: The ingredients are organic (yay!). There are no artificial ingredients. Many of the ingredients are whole nuts, nut butters, seeds, and fruit. I chose the "Granola With Coconut" flavor because the first three ingredients were rolled oats, puffed brown rice, and walnuts, followed by brown rice syrup, coconut, raisins, dates, and almond butter. A pretty simple recipe — just unfortunately, much too sweet, too much yin. Sigh.

MacroBars are made by a company called GoMacro. They have lots of interesting information on their website about how they started the company and based it on macrobiotics. Somewhere along the way, however, they got detoured by someone's sweet tooth!

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Black Bean Cherry Brownies #3

I made these brownies on the day before we were going on our trip, placed them in the freezer to keep until we left, and then forgot to pack them! And so they were waiting for us when we returned. They tasted so good that I've made them several more times since then.

For this recipe, I used unsweetened cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate, which turned out to have a more delicious, intense flavor. I missed the opportunity to use fresh cherries this year, but next year I'll be ready to jump right on it! I think it would also be interesting to try different kinds of dried fruit, like raisins or currants, as well as different kinds of nuts. I did try about a teaspoon of cinnamon once, but its flavor was hidden by the other strong flavors. That's okay — it doesn't really need it.

Black Bean Cherry Brownies #3

325 degrees F. oven
22 minutes
oiled 8x8 glass baking dish

Step 1, mix together:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup black beans, cooked and pureed (including cooking liquid)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon agave nectar

Step 2, add and mix:
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole oat flour

Step 3, add and mix:
3/4 cup dried cherries, cut into tiny pieces
3/4 cup walnuts, cut into pieces and toasted

Place mixture in an oiled 8x8-inch glass baking dish and bake in a preheated 325-degree F. oven for 22 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before cutting.

It's a pretty simple recipe, easy enough to remember, and easy enough to make quickly. The brownies store well in the freezer. Cheers!

Note: I'm not claiming that any of my recipes for Black Bean Cherry Brownies are "macrobiotic" and they certainly are not "vegan"! I made them for my husband who wanted something chocolate with no sugar and very little sweetness to them. That's the beauty of making cookies — they're so easy to create according to the specific requests of the people you love!

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The Difference That Eating Healthy Makes

I've been on trips where I ate and drank with reckless abandon, anything that struck my fancy or was currently available at the time. This was before I knew anything about macrobiotics or the Unique Principles of Yin and Yang. Back then, I never made the connection between what I was eating and how I was feeling on the trip, but now it's so obvious!

Then, it was almost always guaranteed that I would get sick with some kind of flu bug or virus either during or after the trip, or maybe I'd get a bladder infection, or constipation, or "the runs." Other problems that occurred I would just chalk-up to being female and resign myself to their inevitability.

Well now, after this most recent trip, I know what a difference it truly makes to eat healthy. I had zero ailments, zero problems, high energy, and I was able to thoroughly enjoy the experience of everything around me! I made the following self-imposed rules and now I'll surely use them again for next time!

• Carry miso, gomasio, and kukicha teabags with me. Have a cup of miso broth once a day whenever possible.
• Do not eat anything with sugar in it.
• Do not drink any alcohol.
• Avoid coffee; especially don't drink it more than twice (two days) in a row.
• Never indulge in the same thing more than twice in a row.
• Chew every mouthful of food 100 to 200 times. (This is really important.)

I think that because I tried to eat healthy all the time that I was traveling, I was able to draw on my powers of intuition, make wiser decisions, and find more healthy food along the way. If a little voice in my head said "Don't eat/drink that!" or "Eat/drink that; it'll be good for you!" I not only was able to hear it, but I acted on the advice as well.

At first I thought that I'd feel deprived, unhappy, or unable to enjoy myself if I didn't indulge in the food and drink that I considered as pleasures, and then I was surprised that I actually enjoyed myself more than I would have, had I indulged. So there you have it. Every day is a new experience, something new to learn, something new to appreciate. I am just so grateful for the tools I have now that help me keep in balance during my travels through life!

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Adapting To The Road

Everything is constantly changing. I'm back now from two separate journeys: one was a road trip to seek out new places and to visit old friends; the other was a temporary move to the front part of the house while the back part was getting new floors. On both journeys I was able to have my "kitchen" with me and eat good, healthy food. But sometimes you can't always follow the original plan. You have to be flexible and willing to adapt to the situation.

I went on these journeys with the intent to be adaptable, flexible, and not to worry if I were to come across some unexpected food choices. I was prepared for the reality that I wouldn't always be able to find what I was looking for — food that was organic, for example — but I would be okay with that — I can adjust. With this in mind, I started out healthy and happy, ate and drank what I was able to cook or find along the way, and ended up today also healthy and happy! I relaxed and enjoyed myself — I was on an adventure, and had given myself permission to eat foods that I don't usually eat.

Over the years of traveling, I've developed a "basic food kit" that's easy to bring along with me and use in standard hotel rooms if necessary. I then supplement my diet with whatever I can find in restaurants and/or grocery stores. If I know that I'm going to be staying at a place with a kitchen, then I'll bring Part 2 of my basic food kit.

Basic Food Kit, Part 1:

• My wonderful Zojirushi traveling size (3-cup) rice cooker, with paddle and measuring cup (small enough to fit on a hotel room's bathroom counter)
  
• Rice-rinsing and soaking utensils (a bowl, wire-mesh strainer, and storage container)
• Packages of rice, quinoa, rolled oats, wakame, and kukicha tea
  
• Bottles of ume plum vinegar and Ohsawa soy sauce, wrapped inside zyploc plastic bags.
• Bowls, silverware, and mugs for two
  
• Kitchen towel(s), dish soap, and nylon scrub pad (Clorox S.O.S. Tuffy scrubbing pad)
• Duffle bag that holds everything listed above, including the rice cooker, perfectly
• Bottled water
• Wide-mouth hot thermos bottles (Cooked grains with a couple of ume salt plums will last all day long in a thermos, and then any leftovers can go right into the hotel room's refrigerator.)
  
• Package(s) of barley miso and whole ume salt plums, to go inside a small ice pack or ice chest and transfer to the hotel room's refrigerator when possible.
  

Basic Food Kit, Part 2 :

• Large ice chest with re-freezable ice bags for storing any perishable foods (If the hotel room has a refrigerator with an ice compartment, then I can re-freeze the ice bags in it.)
• Large frying pan, lid, and metal spatula
• Storage containers with lids (Glass containers make it easier to store the cooked grains if they're still hot.)
• Additional eating utensils and dishes
• Travel-size water filter and pitcher
  
• Can and bottle openers
• Box of strike-anywhere matches
  
• Knife and cutting board
• Extra dish towels, soap, scrub pads (I can always use the towels for wrapping things.)
• Box of organic food staples, including cooking oil, more tea, homemade muesli, crackers, seeds and nuts, peanut butter, dried fruit, applesauce

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