Windows Are Rolled Down

31. January 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,

(I am humbled to admit that the Food Lovers Cleanse became an afterthought last week.  I didn’t have the time, energy, or money to keep up so I just put the kibosh on it.  So much for all the hype, huh?)

Let me paint a picture for you:

January.  Grey.  Wet.  Dark. MISERABLE.  Depressing.  Cold.  Least favorite month of the year.  I’ve been working on weekends, commuting into Portland 6 days a week, trying to find any reprieve I can and rest in the meantime.  Everyone in Oregon feels the weight on January and it shows.  I blame January for every Trail Blazers loss too.

Let me paint you another picture:

I live 10 minutes from the Dundee Hills of Oregon wine country.  It usually looks like this in January:

But on Saturday, it looked more like this:

It was just the sunny day we needed.  I had the south-facing windows open in my apartment with Amos Lee’s new song “Windows Are Rolled Down” stuck in my head and a smile on my face (that smile was partially due to the fact that I was vacuuming the baseboards and being instantly gratified.  I am SO my mother’s daughter).  I decided to take a short drive up to Erath Winery to pick up some Pinot Gris (for my recipe swap) and some Pinot Blanc (for my own enjoyment).  As I was driving through these hills, I turned on the radio and Amos Lee’s song went from being just a song stuck in my head to actually playing on the radio.  It was the perfect moment with the windows indeed rolled down driving through my Heaven on Earth.  If you live in the Portland area and have never been out to Dundee, get in your car this weekend and go up to Erath, visit my friends who work in the tasting room, enjoy the view, and drink damn good wine.  You’ll thank me…and yourself.

The rest of the day was filled with a cat nap in my big cozy chair with the sun on my face, two of my favorite girlfriends, Michelle and Julia , wine flights at R.Stuart on 3rd Street in McMinnville, flirting with the cute cook at Thistle, and a lovely dinner with them at my place.  I need to have more Saturday’s off.

Sunday was just as pleasant.  I love my day of rest and wish everyday were as great as Sundays.  Usually, it’s church, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Fred Meyer, then back home to cook and rest for the day.  But yesterday, I spend the bulk of my day in Lindsay’s kitchen.  We drank mimosas, ate beet and quinoa pancakes (I’m sure she’ll post those on her blog, but you can follow that link in the meantime), watched the E! red carpet interviews for the SAG Awards, and baked to our little heart’s content.  I can’t reveal too much of what we baked since it’s for our recipe swap that we’ll all post next Monday, but I can give you a little teaser:

And I have to show your our beet pancakes…since they were bright pink!

Food Lovers Cleanse: Day 4

21. January 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

More leftovers, and this:

Celery Root Salad With Apples, Walnuts, and a Mustard Vinaigrette (my rendition to follow):

It all started with this ugly root…

Pretty nasty looking huh?  Well, it turns out that this eye sore is actually quite delicious.  Some of the food blogs I’ve read recently have found Celery Root to be their new favorite veggie!  I’m not quite in that camp, but it turned into something quite lovely:

I’ll be enjoying this for lunch today with…more leftovers.  Cooking for one sure makes for a repetitive menu.  I’m sure I’ll be eating this until Sunday when Lindsay and Co. make some tasty eats at my house after our day of wine tasting.  I’ll be sure to fill you in!

Celery Root and Apple Salad with Walnuts and a Mustard Vinaigrette:

Salad:
1 medium Celery Root (aka celeraic)
1/2 tsp salt
Juice from 1/2 large lemon
2 apples, quartered, cored and cut into 1/8″ slices*
2 tsp minced parsley
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Vinaigrette (this will make more that enough for this salad so you’ll have some leftover for another day:
Juice from 1/2 lemon (about 4 tbsp)
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp mustard (or more to taste)
1 1/2 tbsp walnut oil
4 tbsp canola oil
salt, pepper, more lemon to taste

Peel celery root with knife, shave into 1/8″ thick slices.  Then cut crosswise making matchstick width strips.  Place in bowl and toss with lemon juice and salt.  Cover with parchment paper and put heavy bowl on top for 30 minutes or more.  This will tenderize the celeraic.

In the meantime, mix first 3 ingredients of dressing, then whisk in oil.  Salt, pepper, and add more lemon or mustard to taste.

After 30 minutes or so, drain celeraic or any excess water.  Combine with parsley, apples, and 4 tbsp of dressing, then top with walnuts and enjoy :)

*I used Granny Smith Apples since that’s what I had on hand.  I think a sweeter, red apple like Honeycrisp or Pink Lady would be perfect though.  The color will add visual appeal, and the sweetness will contrast the flavor or the celery root.

Food Lovers Cleanse: Day 3

21. January 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

All I have to say is: Leftovers.

Food Lover’s Cleanse: Day 2

19. January 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Does the title of this blog imply that there will be a day 3? 4, 5…12?  I’m not so sure about that.  This Food Lovers Cleanse is proving to be far more time consuming and expensive than I had anticipated.  And, to a fault, I like to enjoy people and wine while I dine; the latter of which might defeat the whole cleanse idea.

I have mixed feelings about the second day of the cleanse.  I had to rearrange the recipes a bit due to the leftovers I had in fridge that I didn’t want to go to waste.  Therefore, the dinner for day 1 became my dinner for day 2.  But let’s start with breakfast:

Warm and Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa

I woke up so excited to enjoy this bowl of warm goodness that I had been wanting to make long before I read about the cleanse.   I used plain almond milk instead of regular milk which gave it an even nuttier flavor.  And since it’s not berry season, I used a half of a banana instead (is there a banana season?  Not gonna find those at any local farmers markets).  Pecans, cinnamon, agave: delicious.  No complaints about this hearty bowl of breakfast deliciousness.  Until about 10:30, that is, when the hunger pangs started to hit.  Quinoa is a protein-rich grain, but it certainly didn’t hold me over until lunch.  And actually, I was pretty hungry for the rest of the day, even after lunch.

Nothing noteworthy to say about lunch.  I had dinner leftovers from a couple nights ago.

Dinner: The Ultimate Winter [Quinoa]

Lots of quinoa going on yesterday.  I should start experimenting with different grains.  The original recipe calls for Couscous but I used quinoa instead because its gluten-free, I had it on hand, and because this is a vegan recipe, I liked that it added extra protein.

This dish handed me some challenges, however.  My friends Michael and Crystal, and Crystal’s twin sister, Cheryl joined me for this meal and we all experienced these challenges together.  First of all, I discovered that my oven temperature is off: it’s not as hot as it says it is.  I’ve only lived in my new place less than 2 months and haven’t used the oven a ton so I’m just now finding this out.  The veggies took waaaaay longer to roast than the recipe said so our cocktail hour was, in turn, more than an hour  Since they brought over 3 bottles of wine to add to the bottle I had chilling, we just eat our green salad with a basic citrus-shallot vinaigrette and tasted through the wines. *  The veggies could have roasted for a bit longer, but it was 8:00 and we were hungry!

The other challenge came from using an ingredient that I had never used before: harissa; a Tunisian hot chili paste.   Lindsay warned me that it was spicy so I only used half of what the recipe called for.  But in combination with the red pepper flakes, we were sweating a little bit.  And let’s be honest, the chilled whites on the table soothed our palates so well, and we needed it!  Let’s just say there was no lack of laughter at the dinner table.

I made a coupe other substitutions in the recipe:
The quinoa called for a pinch of saffron but since I couldn’t find any that was less than $15.00 for a teeeeeeny weeny jar, the gal at New Seasons suggested I use turmeric instead (plus, it’s good for the liver she added.  This is a cleanse after all).  So instead of pouring the boiling veggie stock over the couscous and and letting that sit like the recipe called for, I just cooked the quinoa like usual, and it turned out to be the best part of the dish.  Not sure this will be a staple dish in my kitchen, but I’m glad I expanded my palate a bit.  And it really did fill us up!

I have lots of leftovers, so I’ll be eating this for the next day.  Stay tuned for the next food cleanse recipe!

*The wine selection for the evening:
2008 Anne Amie Prisme Pinot Noir Blanc (this way my favorite with the dish)
2009 K Viognier
Maryhill Viognier (not sure what vintage)
2008 Tribunal Red Wine (This was a best seller at Trader Joe’s and Crystal snagged one of the last bottles.  Unfortunately, this did not pair so well with our meal)

New Food Adventures

17. January 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I’m inspired.

Last week at work, I got lost for almost an entire day in food blogs.  (It’s our slow season so I didn’t feel too bad.) Here are some of my favorite:

Rosemarried: Lindsay is a close personal friend.  Our friendship is flourishing over our love for food, wine, and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Gluten-Free Girl: I’ve been eating (mostly) GF for the last year.  Shauna has some great recipes and is an excellent story teller.  Read her story in the “about” section…it’s beautiful. (Also check out her other blog Pork Knife and Spoon.)
Burwell General Store: Found her through Lindsay. She’s part of a recipe swap group (everyone involved makes a new interpretation of a common recipe) that I’m hoping to get on board with.
Boulder Locavore: She’s part of the same recipe swap group.  Her take on apples fritters were my favorite from the last swap.
The Tomato Tart: I could get lost for hours here.  Hello, any recipe with “Thai” and “Coconutty” in the title is an automatic win.
Smitten Kitchen: One of my staple recipes came from here.  Butternut Squash, tahini, and cilantro…LOVE!
101 Cookbooks: I’ve mentioned this blog on here before.  I love everything Heidi makes.  She uses fresh, seasonal ingredients, that are mostly vegetarian.  She even has a gluten-free section.
Cannelle et Vanille: Haven’t made anything from here yet, but she has a gluten-free olive oil cake.  Are you kidding me?!?

I could go on and I’m sure there are other great blogs that I forgot to mention.  Next time I guess :)

So you may be reading more about my culinary adventures on my blog.  I want to eat well and enjoy good food.  It may be the only art form that I get really good at.

So with that said, here’s my latest food adventure: The Bon Appetit Food Lover’s Cleanse.  I started this morning with the Mushroom Omelet with Caramelized Onions and Thyme.  It was tasty tasty.  Excited to go make the Vanilla and Date smoothie here in a couple minutes.  I probably won’t keep this cleanse religiously due to time and money.  But I will make many of the recipes and eat leftovers day to day.  What I do eat will be from this cleanse and I’ll make sure to keep you all filled in on how I’m feeling and what’s good…and what’s not as good.

Eat your heart out, my friends.  I hope you find inspiration to cook more for yourselves and have fun doing it.

(P.S. It’s a good thing I have a gym membership and a neighbor who loves to go on runs with me.  Gotta fit into the clothes I have!)

Turkey Black Bean Chili and Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

04. January 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

Since I didn’t get to make any food on Sunday night, I spent Monday night in the kitchen instead.  The only complaint I have about my kitchen and my apartment is the fact that the oven hood vent doesn’t work very well and my entire apartment ends up smelling like dinner for days.  Can’t wait til I can open the windows again!

I love many things, but two things that I especially love: Sunset Magazine and food blogs.  When I’m bored at work or need culinary inspiration, I read food blogs.  When I want to escape from my life, or find encouragement that I live in the right part of the country (and the right part of the state now that I live in wine country) I read Sunset.  I highly recommend picking it up next time you’re at the checkout stand at the grocery store.

The two recipes I made last night came from two of my loves: one from Sunset and one from a food blog: 101 Cookbooks.

Last week when I had some time to kill, I went over to my friend Crystal’s house and she was making this recipe for Turkey Black Bean Chili from Sunset and it was delish!  I love warm hearty stews that keep your belly all warm and cozy on cold winter days.  The recipe was really good on its own but I added a teaspoon or so of cinnamon just to give it more warmth and depth.  I topped it off with some cilantro, avo, and blue corn tortilla chips and chowed down.  SO good and scrumptious and healthy and filling.  I made enough to feel a small army so I brought some over to my neighbors Mandee and Ryan and we decided to do some recipe exchanges…but only if the recipes are accompanied by the finished product.  I’ll keep you posted on those.

The other recipe I made last night was for Baked Sweet Potato Falafel from 101 Cookbooks. I couldn’t resist anything in this recipe and the only things I did different were double it because it looked SO SO good, and added a dollop of Tahini Sauce on top of each before popping them in my mouth.  The sweetness of the potato, the spice of the cumin and coridander, the nuttiness of the tahini, and the freshness of the cilantro made it an instant favorite and the way to my heart.  Did I mention that both recipes are gluten and dairy free?  Well, they are…hooray!

Bon appetit!

Better than “Julia”

28. December 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

There’s no distraction in the middle of church like getting a text from my dad saying, “Since you and Andy are such good cooks, you are in charge of Christmas Eve dinner.”  My mind started piecing together a menu of foods that I love to eat all the time but might be foreign to my family.  This was my chance to open up a whole new culinary/dietary world to them!  I was so excited!  (My apologies to Pastor Rick…couldn’t tell you what your sermon was about that day.  Baby Jesus?)

My brother is the meat master so I put him in charge of that department.  His original idea was to do something easy like a glazed ham, but there are some ham-haters in my fam so I quickly vetoed that option.  Second (and much better) choice: Prime rib with a red wine tarragon jus.  It.was.delish.  Andy’s meat cooking abilities have shone for the last couple of holidays.  For Christmas last year, he grilled some big juicy slab of beef and my “cousin” Lindsay and I hid the bottle of Erath ’05 Southern Oregon Syrah at our end of the table.  Blissful! Well done on the rare Prime Rib this year, Andy!

It didn’t take me long to settle on 3 side dishes and a dessert for Christmas Eve.  I tried to be a seasonal as possible and use only fresh ingredients such as Butternut Squash, Pomegranates, Broccoli, Kale, Persimmons, and Pink Lady Apples.  I also wanted to add some ingredients that were somewhat foreign to my family, such as quinoa.

I was happy as a clam all afternoon in the kitchen cooking away.

Here’s what we ate (Clockwise from left):

  • Double Broccoli Quinoa.  This was so hearty and delicious!  I added pomegranate seeds because my mom always made this broccoli puree with pom seeds for Christmas so I wanted to add a little family tradition.  The “double” is attributed to the whole broccoli florets, but also the broccoli pesto mixed into the dish.  A generous garnish of avocado, toasted slivered almonds, and some crispy shallots (for my dad) polished it off. (recipe inspiration from 101 Cookbooks)
  • Raw Kale and Apple Salad with Pecorino and a lemon vinaigrette.  This one made me the most nervous because my family had never had kale and it isn’t for everyone pallet.  Raw kale is even more tricky to convince people to like, but they loved it!  My brother even asked for the recipe.  I incorporated some pomegranate seeds and toasted almonds on top to tie this in with the quinoa.  Inspired by my friend Lindsay.
  • Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad with tahini dressing.  I have been making this salad a lot lately because it is SO tasty and easy and pretty healthy.  The chickpeas give it a kick of protein so you can even put it on a bed of greens as a whole meal.  And the leftovers are pretty dang good cold.  Just drizzle a little more tahini dressing on it and you’re good to go.  (Recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

And of course, no dinner is complete without some seriously good wine.  To start, we opened a bottle of Wahluke Slope Pinot Gris produced by a friend/co-worker of my brother.  Not quite as bright and citrusy as an Oregon Gris, but it definitely had some pear and hazelnut going on.  His label is called Open Road, but I’m not sure where you can get it.  I was excited to raid my parents’  well-stocked wine collection to pick a wine to pair with dinner.  They’ve been collecting some great Oregon Pinot Noir since coming down to visit me a couple times a year and I knew my mom was sitting on a bottle of  Big Table Farm ’08 Willamette Valley Pinot.  BTF is one of my favorite producers in Oregon and the perfect wine for a special occasion such as Christmas Eve.

For dessert, I made a Steamed Persimmon Pudding Cake.  Unfortunately, it was pretty bland on it’s own, but we topped it with some creme fraiche, apricot preserves and toasted almonds.  I’m not much of a baker anymore so I can’t really boast about my dessert making skills.  I should have tried a gluten-free recipe…not sure why I didn’t.

We all ate and drank to our hearts content had a lovely time spending Christmas Eve together, just the 4 of us, which is rare since there are usually 15+ people gathered.  One of the “regulars” is my mom’s best friend and my “other mother” Julie.  She’s the Julia Child/Martha Stewart of the group and always makes something mouthwatering and tasty tasty!  At one point during dinner, my mom said, with her mouth full, “this is better than ‘Julia’!”

Safe to say, our dinner was a hit and we’ll be starting a new tradition: the kids are cooking for the adults.  Challenge accepted! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas of their own.

Crisp and Tart

28. September 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

That’s what I like in an apple:  Crisp, tart, fresh crop, and local.  Ginger Golds and Newtown Pippins are some of my favorites, to name a few.  One of the best Fall happenings in Portland is the the Portland Nursery Apple Festival (pears too).  Look at all the different varieties to taste through.  By the end of the line, you are so stuffed with apples and pears that they are coming out your ears!

The second weekend is October is usually one of the most beautiful weekends of the entire calendar year here.  The sun in shining beautifully, the trees are ablaze with oranges and reds, and it’s usually when I can finally pull out the chunky scarf and still wear sunglasses.  On that weekend, you’ll find me tasting apples, sitting on hay bales and eating some pulled pork with apple chutney.  Can’t wait!

On the Bottling Line.

20. September 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

I’ve been really wanting to learn different aspects of the wine industry.  I’m an old pro in the tasting room, and even though I love that line of work and could easily be happy with another tasting room job, I’m being proactive in trying out new sides of the wine biz.  This weekend, I had the opportunity to help one of my favorite wineries, Winderlea on their bottling line.  Bill Sweat (owner/proprietor), Cheney (assistant to the assistant wine maker) and Lydia (intern) are pictured below having a rowdy time packing boxes.

We took all their 09s from the barrel to the bottle.  It was hard work and my back and thumbs (weird, I know) are sore today, but I really had a blast and made some new friends.  I’m looking forward to working Crush (when the ripe grapes come in from off the vine and are essentially sorted, pressed, and put into fermentation tanks, then aging tanks or barrels) with them as well.

No matter what side of the wine industry you’re on, from wine drinker to wine maker, the weather is a key player in the vintage bounty.  September is usually one of the sunniest months of the year in Oregon which is what those vines count on to ripen the grapes that make fantastic wine. This September hasn’t quite cooperated…

On Saturday when we were bottling, we got a lot of this:

It continued to downpour when I got home that evening which made for an achy, cozy evening watching the Two Fat Ladies and Project Runway.  But it also means that the harvest is 3 weeks late and the yield is nearly 50% of what it could be.

But on Sunday when we were bottling, it looked more like this outside:

Wine maker, winery owner, bottling crew, assistant winemaker, vineyard owners, and grapes alike rejoiced in the sunshine! We all hustled (everyone except the grapes, that is) to get done by 1:00 to enjoy the rest of the sunny day before the rains came back that night.  Since we were in Carlton, a couple of us did a round of tastings at Seven of Hearts (this tasting rooms shares space with Honest Chocolates so they had home made Pinot truffles to pair with their wines!  And their Coupe’s Cuvee dessert Pinot Noir was to die for!), WildAire Cellars (Wine maker Matt Driscoll was watching football and playing his guitar when we walked in.  Sorry to interrupt!), Folin Cellars (some nice Southern Oregon wines), and Alexana (Dundee Hills will always have a soft spot in my heart).  I’m always a little torn having to leave and drive back into Portland.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I feel so at home in wine country.  I found 3 Oregon wine jobs on Winejobs.com so keep your palms together or your fingers crossed for me!

Back to School

02. September 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

I think it’s pretty obvious what excites me.

The people who know me or read my blog or tweets know what gives me a glow, spreads a unwavering grin across my face, lets me breathe a sigh of relief, and makes me straight up giddy.  Farmers Markets, seasonal cooking, great weather, the sun on my face in the morning, skies full of stars, Oregon bounty, good friends, Portland Trail Blazers, nature, and of course wine and wine country.

But there are certainly things that do not excite me: constant gray skies, working a desk job, staying up late, fast food, the state of this countries meat and agriculture industry, tardiness, being cold, flaky people, to name a few.  Another thing that steals my excitement and actually brings a heavy burden and anxiety on me is something that was in my recent past: school.

I’ve never been one to excel at academics.  I made it through high school without any major bumps or bruises (save the junior level algebra class that I barely passed 2 weeks before graduation.  any other math haters out there? woot woot!).  College was a different story all together.  5 colleges, 4 majors, and 6 years finally earned me a degree in a field that I had absolutely no interest or experience in.  I still cringe at the thought sitting in statistics and economics classes for 4 hours.  The moment I realized that I had finished editing my senior thesis,  a stream of joyful, proud, and exhausted tears rolled down my cheeks.  I rejoiced at the thought of  never having to write a paper, read a text book, do a group project, or give a Power Point presentation ever again.  I never thought I would go back to school.

Until now.

At the end of September, I’ll be a student in the Viticulture Program at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.  I’ve had plenty of experience in tasting rooms, but now I want to dabble in other areas of the wine industry.  I’m taking General Viticulture and Wine Marketing–Brand Development.  Who knows, maybe I will absolutely love the growing/vineyard side of things or find that I have a knack for making earthy, luscious Oregon Pinot Noir.  Or maybe I’m meant to be back in the tasting room or out at restaurants and grocery stores selling the wine someone else makes.  All I know is that  I can easily see myself in the wine industry for the rest of my career, so here I am pursuing it.

And I couldn’t be more excited.

It feels great to have something to look forward too and be giddy about.  I had Europe to look forward to all summer and now it’s a new season of life and I’m going to enjoy what is ahead.  And maybe I’ll be like some of the women in these photos!  Can’t you just see me in those playing in those vines??

I fell in love with this photo (to the left) the moment I saw it.  Sitting on a vineyard at sunset during harvest might be one of the most restful, peaceful, serene, magical images I could possibly imagine.  This is where my imagination goes when I need to get away.  When I  close my eyes and quiet my head and heart, this is where I end up and I could sit here for hours and hours.  Perhaps it won’t always be a dream…but a reality.

Oh PS…I’m trying to find creative ways to make money to help pay for classes.  I’d be happy to work some shifts in a tasting room, help out over Thanksgiving weekend,  help with crush, mow some lawns, weed some garden beds, housesit, dog-walk,  clean your house, ANYTHING!  If you have any odd jobs for me, I’m for hire!

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