Hot cocoa cake from the late, great Lazy Susan in Montavilla
The headline says it all—Bridgetown Bites is 7 years old! It has been quite the adventure in writing. We started strong in 2017, then I got breast cancer in 2018 (which put the kibosh on things), then came back with lots more energy in 2022. That was the first year of regular content on the website (it all tracks with progress of my cancer treatment).
Last night I had the pleasure to head over to Broadway Books, one of my favorite bookstores in Portland, and hear the authors of “Oregon Wine + Food: The Cookbook”—Danielle Centoni and Kerry Newberry—talk about the book, their process, and share memories of their time writing the book.
Hello everyone! I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks and I wanted to tell you why: I got married! Yes, after 17 years together we tied the knot.
Last week I had a chance to spend some time at Cully’s Three Fifty Cafe, and tried a handful of delicious items. If you haven’t been by, I recommend stopping in soon. From coffee to banh mi to salad rolls, the cafe is offering really good Vietnamese food that I look forward to eating again.
Note: I was invited by the owners who comped my meal, but observations are my own.
As I write this, it’s almost the end of 2022. And while I say it every year, I’ll say it again—I can hardly believe the year is over! It seemed to rush by, but at the same time January 2022 seems ages away. Personally, I’m looking forward to 2023, not because 2022 was so terrible, but more or less because I’m ready for a new year and that feeling of a “new start” it seems to bring.
As I think about the blog this year, I’m proud to say that this is the first time since I started this small outpost in the Portland food media world a handful of years ago, that I’ve written it for the entirety of a calendar year. There was something published every month. I’m really proud of that. The years that proceeded were full of interruptions: starting the blog halfway through 2017; breast cancer in 2018; recovering in 2019 from my mother’s death and finishing up her estate, plus a big move across town; overall weirdness in 2020 with COVID and its perpetual mutations; anemia and side effects associated with my cancer drugs in 2021, plus more COVID.
I got noticeably better, health-wise, in 2022, plus an increase in my work as an editor. It really was a better year.
I have plans to continue writing here in 2023, and look forward to it. Hoping to bring back Salad Week! And I have a few other ideas. I’ll do a roundup of 2022’s top posts and such at the start of the new year.
Many, many thanks to all of you for visiting and reading Bridgetown Bites. I’m grateful to each and every one of you! Happy New Year!