Black Butte Ranch, nestled in Central Oregon near the town of Sisters, developed in the 1970s on the property of the former Black Butte cattle ranch. Although it sounds like a place straight out of a western movie, Black Butte Ranch offers amenities that secure it as a leading resort. Its eight square miles encompasses stables, golf courses, tennis courts, playgrounds, and outdoor basketball and volleyball courts. Swimming pools and hot tubs located both inside and outside offer views, slides, and water features. Additional indoor amenities include restaurants, stores, and a spa. Besides the quiet road system, miles of paved walking and biking paths deliver guests to every part of the ranch. They wind across expansive meadows, between rocky lava outcrops, and through Ponderosa Pine, Incense Cedar, and Quaking Aspen forests.
The privately owned homes and vacation rentals accommodate a range of budgets and groups from personal getaways to reunions, corporate retreats, and wedding parties. Black Butte Ranch supplies its own post office, police and fire stations. It allows public access to restaurants, stables, and golf courses, but restricts the rest for seasonal guests and residents. Black Butte Ranch is open all year. For more information, go to blackbutteranch.com.
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It’s almost un-American, but I couldn’t handle the taste of ketchup until I was a teenager. Even then, I only used ketchup for dipping my greasy, limp school cafeteria fries into just to make them palatable. The memory of the pairing still grosses me out. To this day, I can go without having general ketchup on anything, because I only tolerate its taste. Luckily for me, usually when ketchup is available, so is mustard—and I love mustard.
The cookbook From Portland’s Palate: A Collection of Recipes from the City of Roses by the Junior League of Portland, Oregon includes nearly 250 recipes that integrate local ingredients such as seafood from the Pacific Ocean, fruit from the Columbia River Gorge, and wine from the Willamette Valley. These recipes are both familiar and innovative. Each section begins with stunning artwork by Illustrator Jennifer Winship Mark along with a page of information and tips about a certain area or season. Not only is this a classic Pacific Northwest cookbook, but it’s also an entertaining read.
My favorite tea happens to be local, founded and headquartered in the Pacific Northwest! Stash Tea began in a Victorian house in Portland, Oregon in 1972 and expanded its headquarters just over the West Hills to Tigard, Oregon. Stash quickly grew to become a top specialty American tea company, selling products online, in a variety of stores, and around the world. Stash teas come in a variety of flavors and forms including loose, bulk, bagged, pods, sachet and iced. The company also sells treats and any kind of teaware imaginable.
The holidays coincide with birthdays in my home, so while everyone else plans holiday parties and menus, I focus on keeping my children’s birthdays separate and special. Rice cereal treats with a twist landed on one of our birthday menus, and fruity rainbow bars won over the many options of flavors and colors. This simple and economical treat can be changed to accommodate a variety of occasions and preferences. Here is the base recipe:
What does every engraving include on a headstone? The dash. The dash is that small line—or dash—between the dates of a person’s birth and death. The dash appears so insignificant on a grave marker, and although a person’s birth and death are notable, it’s the time in between those first and last days that define the individual. The dash is memorialized at funerals. The dash is our legacy, good or bad.