Sunday Night Dinners

Next week, we will re-institute the tradition of Sunday Night Dinner at the house. Back when Shawn worked Sundays-Wednesdays and I lived alone, I would have my neighbor Andy and my friend Michael over for dinner on Sundays. It was a great chance to test out new recipes and watch Gilmore Girls reruns with two great friends.

When Shawn got back to a normal schedule and we moved in together, it took a while, but eventually we started Sunday dinners up again. Only now, we watch football.

Yesterday, we took advantage of what I assume will be one of the last sunny Sundays and grilled. I have been dying to make this grilled butterflied chicken from the Test Kitchen cook book, so when I saw that whole fryers were on sale at New Seasons, I jumped on it. Since we had some beautiful heirloom tomatoes and crook neck squash from our friends' CSA, I thought our chicken should be Italian influenced, and made pesto to stuff under the skin.

Pesto
About a cup of fresh basil (1.5-2 oz.)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 - 3/4 cup parmagiano-reggiano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Throw all but the olive oil into the old Cuisinart, hit go, and slowly add the oil. Continue blending until smooth and thick.

Since the chicken recipe is copyrighted, I can't give it out. Basically, you just cut out the backbone, flatten it a bit, stuff some pesto under the skin, then put it on the grill (not right over the flame) for 30-45 minutes. Our 4.5 lbs. chicken took the full 45 minutes. While the chicken was resting, we put the squash on the grill, this time over the fire, and just let it get soft. All I do with it is put some olive oil and a little kosher salt and pepper on it. Let the natural flavors come out. I have to say, it was some of the best squash I've ever tasted.

As for the salad, I just cut up my tomatoes, tossed them with our delicious Rosa D'Oro olive oil from Kelseyvilla, California, and sprinkled liberally with fresh basil. I also threw on a little kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, for good measure. A few of the red ones are from my pathetically small tomato plant--not nearly as delicious as the yellow heirlooms, obviously. At least it provided a little color.

All together, it was a lovely end-of-summer meal.

Birthday Cake

Of course I had to make my own birthday cake! I wouldn't have it any other way. Since my birthday is at the end of August, I don't usually want to turn on the oven. The weather has been rather kooky this week with 80-degree days mixed in with cool days of rain. The day I planned to make my cake, it was 90, so I made a frozen dessert.

This is a pop art raspberry cake that I found on Epicurious.com. Wish I had a better dish for serving it.

Everyone loved it and it was really simple to make. The best part was cutting into it.

I don't like to make changes to recipes the first time I make them, but in this case, I made one small adjustment. The combination of the sugar and raspberries was a little too sweet for me; I like my raspberries on the tart side, so I added about a 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice to increase the tartness. Next time I try this, I will probably cut down on the sugar--3/4 cup is too much, in my opinion.

I would also label this a low-cost recipe...unless you have to buy gelatin. Before I realized I had a few packets in my baking drawer, I bought a box of it, for $7.89. Why would anyone need 32 packets of gelatin? Fred Meyer really needs to stock a small box.

Grilled pizza with Babbling Brook: the crossover blogisode

Yesterday I went over to my friend Stacey's house for a long-awaited sewing date. I haven't sewn on a machine in years (decades, actually) and she just added the hobby to her list of crafty endeavors. She showed me how to make a simple tote bag that I am gifting to a cousin, whose birthday I missed recently. I call it my punk rock bag. Besides the super cool fabric, it also has ragged lines...very punk rock. And I, uh...intended it that way. Right...

Cool bag

I've also been wanting to try grilled pizza. I've been reading a lot about it in FoodDay and in blogs lately. What a great way to avoid heating up the kitchen AND making pizza. I started the dough Sunday morning (whole wheat since I ran out of bread flour) and the 2 lbs I made was enough for 4 pizzas.

Our combinations:

• Fresh basil and fresh mozzarella (not quite margherita, but close)
• Tri-color peppers and mozzarella
• Artichoke hearts, mozzarella, and fresh basil

And the most decadent pizza award goes to...

• Gruyere and bacon (bought at farmers market), with a few sweet 100s tomatoes from Stacey's garden (pictured)
  

We learned some valuable lessons, too.

1. Don't set the porch on fire by allowing Shawn to use lighter fluid
2. Grill one side of the dough, take it off the heat for a few minutes before decorating it and let it rest before putting it back on the grill to finish cooking; makes for some outrageously delicious crust
3. We are pizza toppings geniuses (or, at least advanced)

Grilled steak tacos

After a busy day out with my friend Nicki and her two boys and newborn baby, I am ready for a lazy evening in. We spent the late morning/afternoon at Big Truck Day at Calistoga park. It was a fun, but exhausting, day. Luckily, I had already planned our meals and grocery shopping on New Seasons' Web site, so the shopping trip was easy.

Tonight's plan: grilled steak tacos. I've made a similar dinner before when our friend Jeremy was visiting. This time, I decided to spice up the marinade. Here's (more or less) a recipe:

• Juice from two limes
• Few tablespoons vegetable oil
• Couple tablespoons chili powder
• Dash (or two) of cayenne pepper
• Teaspoon of oregano

I whisked that together in a Tupperware container and threw in our nearly one pound cut of London Broil (seasoned with salt and pepper of course), a cut of meat that was on sale for $4.99/lb at New Seasons this week. I let that marinade on the counter for about a half hour.

We put the meat and couple thick slices of white onion over the grill until the meat was medium rare, then threw the corn tortillas on to get warm and a little chewy, so the juice from the meat wouldn't tear them. After pulling it from the grill, I squeezed a little more lime on the meat and let it rest for five minutes.

The result:

Not bad for $4.80 of meat, which will also give us another meal. Make sure to slice thin so it is tender.

A delicious way to start Saturday night.

Many colors make for a delicious dinner!

Lovely Hula Hands

Last week we hosted Shawn's parents, Norm and Karen, during their annual summer visit from upstate NY. Since Shawn, Karen, and I all celebrate birthdays in August, they were kind enough to treat us to a lovely dinner out. The original plan was to go to our neighborhood restaurant Roux, however, it closed about a month ago (sad). After some discussion, we decided to try out Lovely Hula Hands on North Mississippi.

After a week of intolerably hot temperatures, Portland finally started to cool down--enough to even sit on their lovely patio out back for a late supper. In fact, our table is pictured (photo care of their Web site).
I started with a cocktail, a fact I later regretted just a bit since it didn't fit very well with my meal. However, the drink was delightful, slightly tart, and nice for the weather. Shawn ordered these tasty little grilled padron peppers as an appetizer. They weren't spicy, but slightly sweet and given a generous sprinkling of sea salt.

I had to follow Karen's lead on ordering the rib eye. It's my favorite cut of meat, and it came with butter lettuce dressed in homemade ranch, and crispy onion rings. The onion rings could have really made this meal too heavy, but they did a nice job not drowning them in batter and grease. They complemented the meat very well.

Shawn opted for the chicken, which had a crispy skin and was served on polenta, asparagus, and mushrooms in a sauce. I wish I could remember what the sauce was exactly, but I didn't write it down, and the menu changes weekly.
For dessert, I had my eye set on the buttermilk panna cotta. I was slightly disappointed that they weren't serving it with fresh berries, like what I had seen on the menu the previous week, but the plum granita proved to be almost as delicious. My one (small) criticism is in regards to the service. It wasn't bad, per se, just frantic. For example, after tasting my steak in combination with the lemonade cocktail I had ordered, I decided I should probably get a glass of wine. Unfortunately, by the time our waitress even looked at us again, I was pretty much done. It wasn't the end of the world, and overall the service was ok, it was just too hard to get anyone's attention since they seemed to be scrambling. I'm not sure what the source of this problem was, maybe just an off night. That small factor won't stop me from going again, though.

Portland Pizza: Atomic Pizza, Apizza Scholls, and Vincente's

Over the past few weeks (and visits), I've eaten more pizza than I normally would. Which brings up a great debate: what's your favorite Portland pizza place? I've been to three (two new to me) in the last couple months. Let's review.

Atomic Pizza - www.atomic-pizza.com
I had high hopes for this place. It opened up on N. Killingsworth earlier this year, and from the looks of it, promised to be a cute neighborhood pizza place with delicious looking pies. We started with a house salad. It was presented well with lots of good toppings and a delicious dressing. A little pizza-parlouresque with the black olives and croutons, but a decent start.

Before moving on to the pizza, let me just state one thing--pizza toppings create a lot of disagreement in our house. Shawn hates the traditional pizza toppings, such as pepperoni and sausage. Since moving to Portland, though, he's more tolerant since many of the pizza places are
more upscale and a lot serve house made meats, or similar. However, that still doesn't prevent the usual argument over whether or not we get meat on our pizza. I like veggies, but I like more substance if I'm going to have toppings. We do agree on one thing: cheese pizza rules all. However, I almost never get it.

Anyway, we ordered the Arbor Lodge, which has tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, garlic, artichoke hearts, red peppers, red onion, mushrooms and black olives. The sauce was decent, although a little heavy on the oregano in my opinion, the toppings were plentiful and fresh, but the crust was lacking. It just wasn't there. My hope is that they are still figuring things out and will adjust the crust. Overall, the experience was not bad. I may try again later this year when I crave pizza and don't want to drive.

Update--found the picture!

Apizza Scholls - www.apizzascholls.com
It seems that every foodie in Portland has raved about this place since it opened. When my sister came to visit last month, she had it on a short list of restaurants left to try (well, the moderately priced ones at least). I saw a photo of one of their specialty pies in a magazine that had fresh clams (still in the shell!) on it and thought, "I must try this place." However, no fresh clams on the menu this time. No one else would've let me order it anyway.

We started with the antipasti, which was surprisingly big and very delicious. We couldn't agree on one of the menu pizzas, so we built our own. They have a rule that you can order no more than 3 items on a pizza, due to the thinness of the crust and how quickly they bake it. That was fine--made the decision much easier. We settled on mushrooms, olives, and canadian bacon (it's ham, Gina!). This was what was left by the time I remembered to take a shot:
While I might be dreaming of the crust and its crisp outer shell and tender, chewy core for the next few months, I found the whole thing to be your typical overhyped Portland restaurant. Let me say this, though: it's nothing against the restaurant. I think they do a wonderful job making a truly amazing crust. The toppings were good--it's just that sometimes in Portland, a place (person, thing, event...) gets so overhyped that it's almost impossible to fulfill expectations. I think what I'd do differently the next time I go is order the margherita pizza or with a topping that lets off less liquid than the mushrooms. The crust got a little soggy in the middle. Anyway, worth going back, but definitely not taking the title for my favorite pizza.

Vincente's - www.vincentesgourmetpizza.com
Call me old fashioned, but Vincente's on Hawthorne is still my favorite pizza in Portland. I've tried many of their pies and they've all been delicious. The crust is just right and the toppings complement each other perfectly. The atmosphere is gerat, but sitting outside isn't always pleasant as you're either right on Hawthorne or 20th (unless you really want car exhaust with your pizza). I'm willing to overlook that--at least it's shaded.

I also love the garden salad. I swear they put crack in the ranch (or maybe it's the poppy seeds...hmmm). I'm not always a fan of ranch, either, but it's different when it's made from scratch daily. I usually order the patate, lamb, n'ham pizza--besides being fun to say, there are freaking red potatoes on the pizza. And when it's accompanied with lamb sausage and prosciutto. Well, let's just say, we converted two more to the potato-on-pizza fan club this weekend when we took Shawn's parents there.

Suffice it to say, I love pizza. It's just good stuff.

Some other one-minute reviews...

Pizza Oasis
Pretty solid pizza, but there's not one pizza combination on their menu that I'm crazy about. It's always delicious, though. Only downside is that it gets really hot in the restaurant since it's an open kitchen on right on W. Burnside.

Flying Pie Pizzeria
An institution in Portland. Nice pizzas cooked very well (better calzones here than anything else, if you ask me). If it wasn't so far away now, I'd probably love it even more. Comes in a close second as my favorite. I used to live a mere 3 blocks away--that's dangerous. I really love the fact that they have an old school salad bar, too. Reminds me of Shakey's, or some place like that. Bonus: you can pick your desire crust size, if that's important.

Pizza A Go Go
What a disappointment. We ordered a cheese pizza for delivery once and by the time it got here, it was stone cold. Don't offer delivery if you can't get it here hot, or at least warm. Secondly, it was $16 and not that good. I stopped in there once during a lunch break from my CPR class at the Red Cross (a couple blocks away) and got a slice of pepperoni. It was really greasy. It tasted ok fresh from the oven, but not worth it. Best thing going for it: the kicky name and Web site.

Bellagio's
Eh. Bad sauce--too sweet.

Goose Hollow
It's like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, it's pizza, but it's different. Fresh from the oven, it's amazing. Cold, not so good. Although, pizza is not the reason you go to Goose Hollow, it is pretty delicious, and you can order a half pizza.

Old Town
I'm not crazy about their crust, but overall, it's a pleasant enough experience. We have one on NE MLK now and the new building is pretty nice, so we'll probably go again at some point since the weather is nice and they have a wall that opens.

Pizza Schmizza
Good in a pinch. Especially great if you want to play Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (only on NW 21st ave.)

Pizzicato
Same as above, omit the Moonwalker. Good salads, too.

Mississippi Pizza Pub
I like this place. It's always fresh and the crust is nice. The music venue is a nice touch, too.

Lucky Lab--Capitol Hill
Good beer, decent pizza.

HotLips
I like it, but Shawn doesn't. Nice, thin crust. I appreciate their sustainable efforts as well.

Still waiting to try...
Ken's Artisan Pizza
Dove Vivi

Man, I've eaten a lot of pizza. That's not even all of it.

Country Fair, camping, and more!

Three-day weekends always bring out the best in me. That extra day just seems to push me into full-relaxation mode. Two days is not enough. We also went on our first camping trip of the summer (sad, I know) and to the Oregon Country Fair. If you've never been to the fair, it's hard to explain, but trust me, there's more than just hippies there. It's fun for the average person. And I digress...

More importantly, it was also a weekend full of delicious food. Saturday we picked up our friend's tent and headed down past Eugene to a campground called Black Canyon in the Willamette National Forest. We took a chance and booked it online a couple months back without any knowledge of what it would be like, and very few pictures to base our decision on. Luckily, it worked out. After last year's 2-week mostly camping trip, we set up quickly and were able to enjoy most of the day relaxing. That evening's dinner was specially requested by Shawn--ham, potato, and cheese foil packets.

I made them 3 years ago on our first camping trip to Olallie Lake and he was in love. I learned a valuable lesson from that trip--don't overfill them! Otherwise the cheese and potato burn on the outside and you end up with spots of raw potato, no matter how long you cook it. They turned out perfectly! And with cooking our portions in shifts, kept us from devouring the contents and over stuffing ourselves. After a few beers and some nice conversation around the campfire, it was time for the piece de resistance...s'mores.

Shawn hadn't had a s'more in 20 years as of 3 years ago. He won't make that mistake again. I make the best s'mores--dark chocolate with perfectly toasted marshmallows. We bought a caramel filled chocolate bar, but never got to it. We were both too stuffed after our regular ones.

Sunday was the Country Fair. I knew we were supposed to have thunderstorms, but was hoping they would hold off until the evening. No such luck. We managed to get to the Fair only an hour after they started and it took a long time for them to stop! Nonetheless, we enjoyed stir fry noodles at our friend's booth, Stir Fried, and after tromping through the mud for a couple of hours, got our coconut ice cream, then left. Let me explain something about this ice cream, though. It's homemade and probably one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. I have literally been talking about this ice cream for a year. It comes from a place called Ring of Fire in Eugene. If you're near there, I recommend seeking it out. Un-freaking-believable.

Shawn enjoys his ice cream in the rain

Wet and muddy, we decided that we would head home rather than risk sleeping in a tent-lake. On our way home, after much traffic, we stopped in Salem at the first restaurant that we could stand that served beer (it was THAT kind of drive). We stopped at Applebee's. I normally can't stand most chain restaurants, and Applebee's is no exception. It was awful. Food was bad, drinks were expensive (my beer was flat), and we both felt bloated and sick all evening. I would say never again, but you never know...

Monday, we had the day off already, so we spent the day as if we were on vacation still (which I guess we were). We spent most of the day in the St. John's neighborhood of North Portland, ending our little excursion with a trip to Pattie's Diner and Soda Fountain. It really was a step back in time. Most everyone there knew each other, we sat at the counter, and I had a root beer float, Shawn a hand-dipped chocolate shake. Service was a little slow, but pleasant. We decided we had to take his folks there for a meal--I'll do a follow up.

After our decadent afternoon treat, I thought we should have something a little healthier for dinner. I sauteed some zucchini (fresh from the farm), mushrooms, fresh tomato, red onion and garlic in olive oil, then removed all the vegetables, added a little more olive oil and threw in some fresh oregano (from my coworker's garden) and red pepper flakes to taste.

I tossed all that together with whole wheat spaghetti and about 1/8 cup grated parmaggiano-reggiano cheese, little pasta water, and magically a delicious and healthy dinner appeared!

The next best thing, besides the flavor, was that we had 4 more servings leftover. Not a bad way to stretch the food dollar.