In a culinary sense, Portland has recently become known as one of the United States’ most cutting-edge cities. Of course, we Northwesterners have known that all along.

In late April, our neighbors to the south proved their expertise to the rest of the world when they pulled out all their food, wine, and hospitality stops as they welcomed the International Association of Culinary Professionals 32nd Annual Conference.

Among many memorable moments was a tour of biodynamic and sustainable vineyards in the Willamette Valley. The vines were just undergoing bud break (pictured above) and the air was full of fresh scent of the earth reawakening after a long winter.

The wines we sampled–Oregon’s famed Pinot Gris, Blanc, and Noir, as well as Dijon-clone Chardonnay–were all drinking exceptionally well even in spite of negative early-on reports by national wine writers about the 2007 vintage. The photo above shows the dried herbs (such as stinging nettle and valerian) as well as the cow’s horns filled with compost that biodynamic farmers plant in the fields during certain times of the year (depending on the moon’s cycles) to create healthy soil.

In addition to outstanding wines from Soter Vineyards, Montinore Estate, and Anne Amie Vineyards, we were treated to a “snout-to-tail lunch” offered up by Thistle restaurant located in nearby McMinnville. This über-local “Modern American resto” (which sources most everything it serves from within a 35-mile radius and changes its menu daily) was a delight for some, while somewhat of a nightmare for non-pork eaters in the crowd (including yours truly).

Here is the poor animal’s head just waiting to be devoured.

And here’s its heart, blithely draped over the most beautiful farm-fresh local eggs (I ate two of those sans the pork!).

Luckily, in addition to the carefully coddled eggs, there were slabs of a nummy triple-cream cheese on the table, as well as a perfectly dressed salad of baby greens and a platter of pickled veggies and cornichons, so the more faint of heart of us among didn’t go hungry.

Here’s a shot of the complete groaning board, which one of the hosts described as a spread “like something from King Henry the VIII’s table.” You can see all my fellow foodies scurrying around the table trying to find the best camera angles. No doubt some of them, like Spencer, had been in Delores Custer’s food-styling class earlier in the week.

Dessert was the coup de grace for all to enjoy. . .a dense almond polenta cake with a crown of unsweetened whipped cream. Wish I’d saved enough room for two slices of that.

As of today, March 1, I have started a new section of my blog entitled, A View From My Office.

This is a total rip-off from my darling and brilliant Web-site designer, Christopher Prouty, principal at Studio 99 Creative. Chris, along with his wife, Amy, and their super-talented staff, produce award-winning Web sites around the globe.

Anyway, here’s a photo from my office in early-February, when things were still normal (above).

And here’s one about a week before the construction crew came in (notice there are no photos on the walls and nothing on the granite countertops!).

Here’s the condo with wooden floor and granite countertops all covered.

Sawhorses and tall ladders are our new accent pieces. LOL.

And here’s the job manager, Rick, checking his drawings one last time.

Here’s a view looking into my office (where the light is coming from) after Rick and Ronnie built a “door” and put up Zip Walls (like giant pogo sticks) with Painter’s Plastic attached to keep out the construction dust.

And from inside my office. . .just call me “Bubble Girl.”

A darling friend of mine calls these “uptown problems,” when we lucky types _itch and moan about our therapists or psychoanalysts or remodels while other less-fortunate people in the world are starving or in the Chilean earthquake.

And this is all long overdue. . .we bought our condo in 1992 and have remodeled it twice since. . . in 1992 and 1997. In this go-round we are adding ceiling beams and new lighting, wine storage, and painting the entire unit stark white.

Nonetheless, this is my rather stark reality for now. . .as a writer who craves solitude and quiet, I want to share it with all of you. . .and I totally appreciate your understanding and good, positive thoughts moving forward. And if I don’t answer your e-mails as quickly as usual, you’ll know the reason why!

A heads up that “KCTS 9 Cooks: Northwest Favorites” will rebroadcast tomorrow (Saturday, February 13), from noon to 4 p.m. So if you missed watching me cook up Alaskan Spot Prawns with Saffron Couscous the first time and in subsequent rebroadcasts, you’ll have another chance to view my segment (first in the show) and buy a copy of the companion cookbook.

During the holidays, our thoughts often turn to the dear departed. On our recent trip to the Olympic Peninsula, I was phondly reminded of a member of our phamily, Phish, who passed to the great beyond earlier this year.

Here’s a little lookalike from Fins (or should I say, Phins?) Coastal Cuisine, a lovely waterfront restaurant in Port Townsend. If we hadn’t watched Phish’s tiny coffin float into Shilshole Bay, we would have sworn our Phish-y phriend had been reincarnated.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize I’ve been writing about Northwest food and wine for close to 20 years now. I’ve watched the publishing industry move from a plethora of bricks-and-mortar bookstores to gigantic online presences; bluelines shift to four-color galleys; and 900-page manuscripts sent to editors in cardboard boxes via the United States post office morph into totally online submissions.

Here’s an excellent article on the “good-old” days of publishing sent along by my literary agent, Lisa Ekus of The Lisa Ekus Group. It brought back many fond memories and reminded me how much has changed in close to two decades!

A new (at least new to me) product that I discovered in our local downtown Seattle grocery store, the IGA/Kress Supermarket, makes baking a lot easier.

Land O’Lakes Butter now comes packaged in a convenient 1/2-pound size, with four half sticks of 1/4 cup each. At our store, I only (sadly) found the butter in the salted variety. I prefer unsalted for baking and most other uses so I can control the salt myself. Still, this is a good start for infrequent bakers such as me!

It hardly seems possible that it’s been five years since our fabulous feline friend, Beauregard (Bo-Bo) Johnson passed on at 4:35 p.m. on August 10.

And to this day, every time we drink a glass of wine, we clink our glasses twice in his honor. So here’s thinking of you, Sweetheart. You are in our hearts forever and always!

Bo-Bo Johnson, November 22, 1988-August 10, 2004

Some of you may remember the (now) funny story of how Spencer and I became “parents” again after swearing off pets after the death of our beloved feline–Bo-Bo–in 2004.

A local public-relations agency delivered a live betta fish to our doorstep just about eight months ago. Unannounced and in an aquarium the size of a baseball, the poor neon-blue and maroon-striped fish seemed on his last legs. I triaged him and nursed him back to health, and he lived to see another day.

After a quick trip to PETCO for all the appropriate fish supplies, we named the creature “Phish.” I reasoned that if he died, I would be much less invested than if his name were Calvin or Jody or Dick.

I always thought that goldfish and their ilk were dumb animals. To my surprise and delight, Phish provided countless hours of pleasure. He seemed to sense when I’d arrive each morning to pheed him, rising to the top of his little tank to greet me and greedily snapping away at his blood worms or special betta phish phood.

Alas, about two weeks ago, his good-natured antics stopped and he spent most of his time on the bottom of his tank, not in his phavorite plastic tree. One morning, I called Spencer over to say goodbye to Phish, for I knew this would be his day of reckoning.

And sure enough, as Spencer and I watched, he started swimming frenetically around his pond. He surged to the top for a gulp of air, darted to the bottom, then back up again.

Worried that he might need phresh water, I drew some filtered water from the tap, put in some bowl conditioner, and transpherred the now almost lifeless animal to phresh water.

I went to phold some clothes, and when I came back our Phish was gone. Not knowing what else to do with his little body, I got a black cardboard box (that had once held jewelry). It was lined with cotton, which seemed phitting. So I carefully laid Phish between the plush layers and deposited him in a safe place in the phreezer.

That weekend we gave Phish a proper send-off at Golden Gardens. It seemed he came from the sea, so should go back to the sea.

So we pushed the little black box off the Pier at Golden Gardens, and watched it float toward the open waters of Puget Sound. Or, at least we hoped it phinally phloated away.

Here’s the last we saw of Phish phloating away in the black box. RIP and smooth sailing, little phriend!

P.S. If you are a member of PETA, please don’t write me a letter. Absolutely no phish were killed in the writing of this blog entry, and Phish was already gone when we put him into the phreezer and, ultimately, the waters of Puget Sound.

Those of us who live in the great Pacific Northwest have experienced one of the roughest winters ever recorded, with six (or seven?!?!) snowfalls, much lower-than-average temperatures, much higher-than-average precipitation levels, and high winds. April Fools’ Day played a trick on us all when snow fell in downtown Seattle (briefly) and the suburbs (where is actually accumulated). The sun finally appeared on April 7, and we are keeping fingers crossed that it will hang around for at least awhile.

Meanwhile, for intrepid Pike Place Market-goers such as myself, the first signs of spring have (thankfully) at last finally begun to appear. Here’s some of the first-of-the-year fresh halibut from Pure Food Fish that I simply grilled with sea salt, shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven-spice), and Tom Douglas Seattle Kitchen Seafood Rub.

And here are some fragrant cherry blossoms, fresh from my favorite flower farmer in the Pike Place Market, Lita Mendez, co-owner with her husband John, of John & Lita’s Produce and Flowers.

Just yesterday I found out I have been awarded a scholarship to the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley!!!

This is similar to the merit-based scholarship I got way back in 1998 for the Symposium for Professional Food Writers at the Greenbrier, and I am just so thrilled and happy.

I am also the only person ever to win scholarships to both symposia, so I am truly over the moon with happiness!

Terlato Family Vineyards is the Napa Valley winery that is sponsoring me. Quite a big company, and the really neat thing is that the patriarch, Tony Terlato, has a book called “Taste: A Life in Wine” that includes lots of recipes and info on food-and-wine pairing, so we are a good fit.

I’ll take lots of photos and bring back lots of stories, I’m sure. Speakers include wine-world luminaries such as Eric Asimov, Frank Prial, and Karen MacNeil.