The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree...

(and I'm not just saying that because I grew up in Washington state!)

Well folks, August has arrived. I considered extending my blog-cation (yes that’s the love child of blogging and vacation) European-style and not writing again till September, but I couldn’t in good conscience do that to my ever-devoted readers. My delinquent behavior is not one that should be easily forgotten, but I do hope you will find it in your (hungry?) hearts to forgive my distracted mind and busy schedule to keep reading. Plenty of happenings have been cooking in the kitchen, although admittedly so not so much in my own. This past weekend was my big family reunion. Before we cue the moaning from the audience, turns out what should have been that dreaded, obligatory familial duty one must endure at least once in his or her life really wasn’t dreadful at all. Folks from my mother’s side of the family flocked from many pockets around the U.S. to gather nowhere else but the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon to celebrate our Lebanese heritage.

While I’m sure you’re dying to have me rehash every detail of my sixth degrees of separation from every last one of my ancestors from Lebanon, tell you the story of how my great-grandmother and great-grandfather met (even if it is a good one), or present side-to-side photo comparisons of the freaky, uncanny resemblances between my siblings and me with my relatives from many generations preceding us (we have now put to rest any rumors of adoption), I’ll cut right to the chase: I’ll talk about the food. Wipe that shocked look off your face! I wish I could take some credit for what was eaten this weekend, but I was merely an innocent bystander, as we kicked off the weekend with an event that was entitled something along the lines of “Flavors of the Pacific Northwest.”

If there’s ever a time to show off how truly great the Pacific Northwest is, we’re in the thick of it. Ask anyone who lives here and they’ll tell you that the summer months make putting up with the rest of the year worth it. That’s almost true, until you remind them of that eight week stretch in the spring when we didn’t see the sun once. Even so, the summers are pretty damn great if I may say so myself, and that crappy weather on either side of these months really only makes us appreciate them more. There are so many things that make this place superb, and as a cook and enthusiastic eater, I believe it all begins with what's in our backyards. It’s no big surprise that Portland and Seattle in recent years have become two of the most important hubs for young, innovative chefs wanting to use only the freshest, most local, organic, sustainable ingredients they can get their hands on. In fact, I had a conversation with my brother-in-law the other day about how many new (and old) restaurants there are in Portland that I still haven’t tried. While Fenouil, Paley’s Place, and Wildwood all top my wish list, my brother-in-law (a Portland restaurateur himself) and I both laughed about how many of these restaurants all take such a similar approach that it’s hard to tell them apart – they boast their style to be something like "new American cuisine with a French twist, using only the freshest, most local, organic, sustainable ingredients”. We can laugh, but really, why would they create a delicious plate of food and dining experience in any other way? It’s no big surprise this is the approach they take – heck, if I was starting a restaurant here, I’d probably be doing the exact same thing. When you have to work with what you’ve got, and what you’ve got is vibrant produce from your local farms or fresh seafood from the coast, you’d be a fool not to take advantage.

And so with that long-winded paragraph now behind us, I return to the Flavors of the Pacific Northwest. My parents hosted the event at their house, and they couldn’t have shown off the best of the Northwest summer better than they did. Not only did my parents drive up to the Gorge to buy a Chinook salmon caught earlier that day in the Columbia (look for a Native American man in a parking lot in Cascade Locks next time you need one) as the main event, but their menu was also jammed packed with the best of the locals: green beans from the garden, homegrown blueberries, neighborhood blackberries, Lapin cherries, Oregon Pinot Noir and microbrews, etc. etc. etc. It was a feast, and one that I’m sure many of my out-of-town relatives will not soon forget. I live here, and even I felt a little stuffed by the end of the evening because I just couldn’t get enough. At Saturday night’s event we enjoyed traditional Lebanese fare which was great, but personally, Friday night’s meal was the one that had me swooning – with every bite, I fell in love with the Pacific Northwest all over again.

After the weekend was over and the relatives trickled back to their homes around the country, my parents asked me if I was going to report the weekend on clatter. I promised them I would (my mom's response: "You better!!"), but I still wasn’t sure which angle I wanted to take. It didn’t take long before we all agreed that the key to their successful event on Friday night was simply letting the ingredients speak for themselves. As my dad explained, even someone who doesn’t know anything about cooking (him) could prepare fresh salmon on the grill with only lemon, salt and pepper and never screw it up. While my mom vehemently disagreed with his assessment (“Oh you’ve screwed it up before!”), he did have a point (and for the record, his salmon on Friday night was perfection). It takes very low maintenance to highlight the Northwest’s best, and the ingredients offered during the summer make that even easier. You don’t need heavy dressings or sauces and you don’t need to take complex steps to prepare a meal. By all means, take the backseat approach when you’re cooking in the summer, because those ingredients will do all the talking for you. And let me tell you - they’re going to make you look good, whether you deserve it or not.