enjoy!

did you notice that i haven't posted for a while? sorry! things have gotten busy, and the blog has slipped down the list of priorities. tonight i cooked for the first time in days, and we had grilled cheese and tomato soup. yep. it's like that. the blog is offically going on haitus. this weekend is the first farmer's market, so i might be stirred to post. we'll see. enjoy some of my earlier posts.
whole wheat waffle recipe!
berries and more berries.
shelling beans.
my vegetarian 100.

Happy Birthday to Me! Celebrating PDX Style

boy, am i glad i was born. friday was my birthday, and it's been a non-stop celebration over in these parts. my sweetie was working on friday night, however, so we didn't get to celebrate together how we would have liked. instead, i took an hour-long bus ride to eat a slice of pizza with him before he had to go back to business. luckilly, on saturday, we had the chance to do things up right.

last night, we had dinner at higgins as part of foodbuzz's 24, 24, 24 event. why higgins? it's an old portland favorite, in tune with the food culture here that seeks out local, seasonal, and organic ingredients as the starting point for a quality meal. i mean, the owner has a quote from wendell berry in their philosophy statement that graces the back of the menus - this must be my kind of place. luckilly, on saturday, we had the chance to do things up right.

also, my friend saw john kerry eating there with samwise the brave once. so you know it's cool.

to start, brian had a red wine from tuscany, and i had a "greg" from hair of the dog. i ordered it because it was the only one that was from oregon that i hadn't tried before; i had no idea that the greg is named after greg higgins, and available only here and at the brewery. it's made from squash (!) of all things, from the restaurant. there's a local food loop for you. local farm sells squash to restaurant, which gives them to local brewery, which makes beer for the restaurant. the beer had no hops, and i love hops, so it wasn't my favorite. i got jealous of brian's wine, and ordered an oregon pinot for dinner.

squash as decoration by our table:

i suppose it's a good thing when you and your life partner have very similar tastes, though it doesn't always make the most exciting blog fodder when you end up ordering the same thing. we both got winter green salads with hazelnuts and blue cheese. just prior to the salad, we got kalamata olive bread. the salad was well-dressed, and the cheese was fantastic. over 98% of hazelnuts grown in the united states come from oregon, or more specifically, the willamette valley. yum.

thanks to higgins for having more than one vegetarian entree. it was either roasted winter squash cannelloni or risotto. i went with the risotto, with roasted root vegetables, chevre, and crispy onions. oh, those crispy onions. to be honest, the risotto by itself was kind of bland, and i wished the cheese was something a little more assertive. but with a little crispy onion in each bite, it was very good. didn't knock my socks off, but it was good. when was the last time you've had a risotto that knocked your socks off?

my sweetie was much more impressed with his steak. it was a flatiron steak from oregon country beef: grass-raised, grain-finished cattle from independent ranchers.

it came with kale, potatoes, and roasted beets. alas, the roasted beets were tried, but mostly left alone. the steak was really the star here - brian says it tasted "less chemically" than a grainfed steak, and that instead of taking bites of steak mixed with potatoes, he ate savored the steak by itself. he rated it as one of the best steaks he's ever eaten. here he is: a happy man with a good glass of wine and a good steak.

for dessert, we stayed in our classic patterns. for him, a rich chocolate mousse bombe with a peanut butter truffle center. it was incredible, with an intensely peanut butter-y sweet center, but too rich for me to have more than just a bite.

for me, an apple-cherry tart with brandy ice cream. i wished that the ice cream had a little more brandy flavor, but by that point i think i was making passionate speeches about how i was afraid of being mediocre in life, and how i want to be bold...so you know the pinot was doing its trick. and that maybe i wasn't paying as much attention to my dessert as i could have been.

we both had stumptown coffee, another local favorite. and after dinner wine: for him, a tawny port. for me, an apple dessert wine, or pommeau, from white oak cider in newberg, or. the waiter apparently was concerned that i wouldn't like it, so he brought out a taste of that and of a late-harvest gewürztraminer. or maybe it was something "like" a gewürztraminer. again, the pinot and conversation have blurred the details. this wine was delicious, to be sure, but the pommeau had a deeper, more interesting flavor, and complemented my dessert. i always enjoy dessert wines when i've been wine tasting, but it's hard to justify buying them. maybe i'll have to reverse that policy. just a little sip of a late-harvest riesling and a square of dark chocolate is a treat that should come a little more often as far as i'm concerned....

thanks, foodbuzz, for helping make this delicious meal possible. i think my favorite part (outside the fruity and balanced pinot noir) was spending a couple of quality hours with my main man here. and enjoying all these things this region has to offer: beer, wine, nuts, vegetables, talent...sometimes we need to take a couple of hours to savor what the world is offering to us.

when it was time to leave, it was snowing outside. beautiful portland snow - big, fat, fluffy flakes that don't really stick around. it was a chilly walk back to the car, but a happy one.

growth, garden and otherwise.

hi, i'm back! the awesomeness of 2009 is just blowing me straight out of the blogging water. just in the last two weeks: a new nephew, a new president, and a new job. not bad at all. and this weekend, i'll be blogging for foodbuzz's 24, 24, 24 event - meaning 24 bloggers all have awesome meals on the 24th (usually) and blog about it within 24 hours. just as a sneak peak, i'll be enjoying a meal at higgins with my dearest, the day after my birthday. and it's gonna be goooood.

my aerogarden is going bonkers. it's been planted for less than a month, and i'm already harvesting some basil. the thyme and mint shocked me today when i went in there to take these pictures - are you kidding me? i swear, between the time you leave in the morning and the time you get back, there's noticeable growth.

january 6th:

january 22nd:

out with the old!

happy new year! 2008 was quite a year for me - i started roller derby, which created a huge subset of new adventures and general lifestyle changes, i went to san diego, we went to new york, we moved back to portland, i've had two temporary jobs, barack obama was elected...yep. big year.

meeting michael pollan

my hand, shortly after a brief contact with barack obama's hand

back in portland - view from the eastbank esplanade

we've enjoyed a lot of good meals in the last few weeks - hooray for celebrations! dinner at pok pok, the farm, and por que no?. all so good. i heartily reccomend the vegetarian curry soup, baked brie, and margaritas, respectively.

i also got a new toy for christmas. check out my new growth!

i've had a dismal time growing herbs indoors, so here's hoping the aerogarden is the solution. sure, it's more energy-intensive (sigh), but everyone who has one seems to love them. any aerogardeners out there?

file under: why don't i make these more often?

let me set a scene for you: it's winter. you live in portland, or. since it so rarely snows, streets are not plowed well or often. there are 8 inches of snow on the ground (!) and freezing rain on top of it. you know what you need? a hot toddy.

from my internet research, i've found that a toddy can be as simple as whiskey, lemon, honey and hot water, or more nuanced with applejack, cinnamon sticks, tea, etc. we had the toned-down verson, and they were delicious. in this house, we prefer bourbon. just in general. must be our kentuckiana ties. what about you?

---

a few nights ago, i made brian's favorite soup: broccoli potato with cheese. it was getting late, and we didn't have any bread in the house, so quick bread seemed like the thing to do. i tend to mess up the rolling and cutting of biscuits, so it was nice to see that james beard had me covered with a variation for drop biscuits. and i added some oregano.

oh boy. so good. should have made a half batch, because i kind of (ahem) went through them quickly.

next time, i'll try adding some sharp cheddar cheese. as good as they were, i missed that aspect. maybe because my mom makes cheesy biscuits.

stay warm out there, friends!

say it ain't so: solstice market cancelled.

ah, mother nature. she giveth the vegetables, and she taketh them away. the last portland farmer's market of the season (tomorrow) was cancelled due to the threat of inclement weather. we've been experiencing what the local news media likes to refer to as an ARCTIC BLAST for the last week or so, but thing might actually be messy on saturday. sigh.

organica deluxe cookies

so, my blog sponsor, foodbuzz? they asked me if they should send me free cookies in exchange for a review. "uh, okay," i said. never having said no to a free cookie before, i wasn't about to start now. so, they sent me two ginger cookies from organica deluxe to try out.

in this big shoebox-looking thing. filled with peanut packing. now, apparently, this packing situation means that your cookies arrive intact, but it just seems like overkill. does the technology not exist to ship cookies without breakage in a small envelope? no? anyone? any cookie packaging engineers out there?

also, when packing peanuts are involved, that means i have to make an extra trip to a shipping store to have them re-used. even if they're cornstarch and bio degradable. that's my time that could be better used elsewhere.

oh, well.

anyways.

the cookies were good! to be honest, i'm never going to reach for a ginger cookie first. the ginger flavor wasn't too strong, which was a plus for me, but maybe not for ginger lovers. they're soft cookies, with a wonderful melt-in-your mouth consistency. i have the feeling that there isn't much flour in them, or that maybe they use cake flour. the flavor balance was spot on for my tastes - a little molasses, a little ginger, a little vanilla, and great quality organic ingredients.

so, in short, a great cookie, but the packaging? nice effort, but needs work.