Post-vacation fridge scenes can be pretty scary, but coming home to these was perhaps the best consolation for a long day of (cross-country air) travel.Dill pickled green (well, yellow, really) beansI spent the 48 hours leading up to my six-day Pacific Northwest vacay stashing food for longer-term storage. All in all, I was pretty impressed (if not completely taken aback) by my progress with food preservation. What better way to get a handle on all of these things than to try them out in a real life scenario.

Next time though, I think I’ll pack my suitcase before playing pioneer lady (or depression-era granny) in the kitchen. [Running out the door to catch our two trains to the plane with a half-packed suitcase was a bit stressful.] I might not wait until the last 48 hours next time, too. I’m preserving the stuff for the most part, so a few days between preserving everything in sight (aka the great dish-doing adventure) and plane travels could be a nice buffer for sanity purposes.

Before leaving town I made:

• Parsley simple syrup
• Roasted beet puree cubes (puree frozen in an ice cube tray)
• Dill pickled green beans (fridge pickled)
• Dehydrated dill fronds
• Dehydrated parsley
• Buttermilk from a starter culture
• Pear butter
• Pear halves in honey syrup
• blanched and then frozen chinese broccoli
• blanched and then frozen ong choy (relative of spinach)
• A loaf of my gluten free bread to share with friends in Seattle!

I returned to this calm, collected, ready-to eat (or ready-to-heat) fridge situation.Note: fridge photographing habit is becoming more of an addictionI’m a bit overwhelmed with the sheer volume of stashing that took place over here; if you’re dying for a recipe in this list, please do tell me and I’ll get on it with posting it.

And, in case you’re wondering, I’m completely enchanted by Seattle and the entire Pacific Northwest. Here are some photo highlights I want to share with you.I loved staying at Meg (of Grow and Resist blog) and family’s house.

Our hostesses treated us right! Gin & tonics in style.I hadn’t visited this pretty city since I was eight years old!The view of Pugot Sound from Alki Beach in West Seattle.The salmon were swimming upstream at the Chittendon Locks.Crazy beautiful flowers and fruits dangling randomly. This is a passion flower.We popped up to Canada and walked across my favorite scary suspension bridge, the Capilano suspension bridge in North Vancouver.We veered south to Portland. Can’t visit PDX and not pay homage to these guys. p.s. I’m totally getting one of these ceramic pour-overs, delicious low-tech coffee!More obscenely beautiful flowers. These are fuchsias.A dramatic view of the Columbia River Gorge, and the mystery Mount Hood hiding behind the clouds.