Acadia a New Orleans Bistro - Portland, OR

Acadia restaurant was such a pleasant surprise. It's a New Orleans/Cajun restaurant on Fremont Street. During Portland's dining month we decided to try some new restaurants and Acadia was the 1st one we tried. They offered a 3 course meal for $30 and because it was Monday night they also offered a 3 course meal for $20. Monday's are definitely the most affordable night to eat there.

Everything we ate here was outstanding. This is hands down the best meal we've eaten in Portland so far!

In the photo you will see the following dishes: 

• Fried Soft Shell Crab and Crawfish Etouffee with popcorn rice and jalapeño tartar sauce $26
• Rhubarb salad with fresh strawberries, spice toasted oats, Portland Creamery goat cheese and tarragon – mint vinaigrette with arugula and chicories $10

• Gulf Shrimp, Blue Crab and Crawfish Gumbo with house andouille sausage and white rice $9 
• Vanilla Bean Bread Pudding With salted caramel sauce, whipped cream and toasted pecans $6

Share Your Best Linkup #2

Once again it's time for the Share Your Best Linkup where you share your best post for the last month with us.

Do you have a post that your particularly proud of you wrote within the last month? Each month Mommy Travels and Two Kids and a Map will be hosting the Share Your Best link up. You link up once and show up on both blogs.

Your challenge is to pick out your best post of the month and share it with us. It does not matter what the topic is. Mommy Travels and Two Kids and a Map  are both family travel blogs, but we also write about many other things. Some of the posts I'm the most proud of have nothing to do with family travel.

That's especially true for this month. I put together a couple of posts that I feel are truly helpful for fellow bloggers. The first one is a linkup round up with 30 linkups broken down by day. The second one is a how to tutorial for Creating Collages for Pinterest.

Two other posts I enjoyed where getting to share my Great Aunt Katie's Sweet Potato Casserole recipe and my post about The Color Run, because it was my first 5k and I actually ran part of it!

The Bent Brick - Portland, Oregon

The Bent Brick over in Northwest Portland, just north of the Pearl District hosted us the other night for Urban Hour. An event put on with UrbanSpoon.com where contributors to Urbanspoon have a chance to meet each other and enjoy great food.

Bent Brick's atmosphere is awesome, they have done a great job with their space. There entry way was really neat, but I didn't get a picture of it.

While we were there the bartender gave us a demonstration of one of their signature cocktails made with rhubarb. 

To make their signature drink On The Veranda you first have to make a rhubarb cordial.

Rhubarb Cordial

2lb rhubarb cleaned and cut into 1 in pieces

1 cup sugar

1liter vodka

Combine ingredients and shake to incorporate. Keep chilled. Let sit one month and shake daily. Strain and enjoy.

On The Veranda cocktail

2 sprigs mint

1 strawberry

1/4 oz simple syrup

Muddle well.

1 oz rhubarb cordial

1/2 oz sage liquor

1/2 oz white verjus

2 oz gin

1 dash angostura bitters

Shake well, double strain into chilled glass and garnish with a mint sprig.

We had the chance to sample everything on their happy hour menu. They have an extensive happy hour menu that they offer everyday from 4 - 6 PM and 9 - 10 PM.

smoked salmon chips $2

Popped Beans $2

Country ham plate $6

duck fat jojos

smashed chickpeas $4

Tea sandwiches $6

GRILLED SQUID SALAD with Mendocino seaweed & potatoes

My husbands favorite was their hotdogs. They've done some interesting things with their hotdogs. 

THE HAMBURGER DOG with cheese, bent brick sauce, relish 12

TBB Hotdog $6

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The Color Run

What is the Color Run?

The Color Run is a five-kilometer, un-timed race in which thousands of participants are doused from head to toe in different colors of powder at each kilometer: blue, yellow, pink, and orange. The fun continues at the finish line with a gigantic “Color Festival,” using more colored powder to create happiness and lasting memories, not to mention millions of vivid color combinations.

 Here are the before and after shots of us at the color run.

Everyone that participates is given a bag of color to throw around at the end of the race party. They have a dj out there and everyone's having a lot of fun.

Should you run The Color Run with your Kids?

So, I can't say yes do it without telling you the truth about the clean up. It was tons of fun and the kids will hopefully remember it forever, but it was hard to clean up. If you need to push your kid in a stroller then don't do it. Your stroller will be ruined. The site says that it doesn't stain and it washes out and that is half true. It will eventually wash out. It took dawn detergent to get it off our skin. I had to wash our clothes twice. I had to wipe down the car and seat belts. 

If you are going to do it take towels and wipes. If you can take a change of clothes. As you are leaving the run there will be people using leaf blowers to blow the color off. Get in line and get the color blown off, because it will save you a lot of clean up later.

Disclosure - I received free entries for two of us in exchange for a review and then Will Run for Pasta was gracious enough to give us some entries.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potato casserole is the perfect side dish, if it's done right. I got this recipe for sweet potato casserole 17 years ago from my great aunt Katie.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Casserole ingredients
2 cups sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1cup milk
2 eggs

Topping ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup pecans - chopped
3/4 cup corn flakes - crushed
1/3 cup brown sugar

For the casserole mix all ingredients with an electric mixer. Place the mixture in a greased casserole dish. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until firm.

For the topping melt butter and add pecans, corn flakes, and brown sugar. Mix well and pour over the top of the casserole. Bake 10 more minutes at 400 degrees.

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