Portland/Corvallis/Eugene trip

I went to Portland and Northern Oregon to visit my sister and some family. We laughed, we ate, we played Karaoke, it was good times!



This picture of my friend Dan and the chef of DiPrima Dolci, sums up my whole trip, good food and friends and some really nice people.


She usually puts hard boiled eggs on this pizza that has ham, artichoke and yummy marinara sauce, but she didn't have any ready to go, so she made half of it with fried egg and came to see if we liked it. It was super delicious and I want it again!





PokPok with Noel and James...




Little Big Burger...

Downtown Portland, a block away from Powell's bookstore, cute and juicy burgers.

Voodoo doughnuts, bacon maple bar! I really was craving this doughnut in particular because I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain of him in Portland the night before, while I was in Portland, to see what he had eaten. This doughnut was super delicious. And coffee from Stumptown...




Had dinner with my sister and her neighbors at Nearly Normals in Corvallis...



Had a Portobello chili while in Eugene. Note to self: find recipe.



Had a lot of fun, ate really well, can't wait to be back!

It's Pizza and I Helped

P-I-Z-Z-A!!!

Another America's Test Kitchen win for my tummy! Along with being obsessed with America's Test Kitchen, I watch A LOT of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. He's made me want to eat charcuterie. My mouth wants yummy cured meats with cheese and bread. Living in such a foodie city one would think that one could find such delicious foods as these, but alas, it's been difficult, unless you want to spend loads of money at a fancy restaurant, which I don't at the moment. But there's a glimmer of hope and tastiness in the deli section of Whole Foods. That's where Moni and I purchased four thinly sliced $17.99 per lb Prosciutto di Parma with the intent of combining meat and pizza to make awesome P-I-Z-Z-A! Homemade sauce, homemade dough, toppings of your choice...






We made a salad too, but who wants to see that when you have yummy meat pizza to look at.

Musings on green pastes

A while back I got Paris this book, which I read before I gave him (as I do with all books that I buy as gifts.) However, back to the point- this author, Robert Wolke, says that outside of Japan what passes as wasabi is in fact regular HORSERADISH, dyed green. Apparently, wasabi is tricky to grow, and thusly more pricey. He also says though, that true wasabi is a delicate and nuanced taste, perhaps less suited to the american habit of excessive condiment slathering.
Of course, this sort of language makes me crazed with the desire to have some true wasabi. (Perhaps not quite as crazed as Paris gets when it comes to tortas, but I may be prone to hyperbole.) So when this earth-shattering book of culinary secrets mentioned how a wasabi farm can now be found in Florence, Oregon, I was like, hellz YEAH.

Pacific Farms
"Back in 1992, we took up the difficult challenge to grow authentic wasabi in North America. Along the central Oregon coast we found the perfect weather that matched the premier wasabi growing regions in Japan. Here we began our journey. By 1995, we were growing the finest varieties of Japanese wasabi right here in Florence Oregon." 6x small tubes = $20.75

On a different note, this umami paste has me intrigued as well. A heavenly description by Dean de Luca has me salivating: "Rich, deep and intensely savory, umami exists in a number of foods, many of which are blended into this mouthwatering puree of tomato, garlic, anchovy paste, black olives, balsamic vinegar, porcini mushrooms, parmesan cheese, olive oil and just a touch of sugar and salt."
On the Dean de Luca website, check out the customer reviews below the product pricing for evidence of how crazed the rest of the world is; one woman claims her sister dabbed it behind her ears and received compliments. 
13.95 for a 3 pack on Amazon



 And last but not least: an NPR story, including tasting reviews, about the many flavors of KitKat candy bars in Japan, including soy sauce and "Intense Roasted Soy Bean."

Revelations and a slew of crappy pics

It's been so long ago that this actually happened; I think I can only talk about the major points here:

1. Tara had some savory tarts while in Spain that inspired us creatively. We created flat ones, cup-shaped and pop-tart style tarts, filled with amazing things.

2. Actual caramelized onion and/or fruit is delicious. Previously, I believe anything I've ever had that claimed to be caramelized was truly only greased up and warmed. Don't get me wrong: warm and greasy can be just what I need sometimes- but these pears! They were something else.

3. Regular pie crust dough can be used for tarts but must be rolled as thin as you can possibly stand it.

4. I can drink the crappiest champagne in the world as long as I have raspberries to muddle.

5. My phone takes the crappiest photos in the world. Especially when you have food smeared across the lens and don't realize until the end of the night.

2011: “One of these days I am going to get organezized”

I decided to organize my cupboards for this new year. I added to my collection of containers, and put everything in my cupboards in one! I am so proud! I need to do some baking now.

The bottom right container is some organic blue corn masa I bought. It smells really good and really fresh! I can’t wait to make some blue tortillas tomorrow.

March is for Macaroons

Not a surprise this is another America's Test Kitchen recipe. They give great results.

I like to make cookies! I've never made these kind before, and the recipe was interesting. It was the first time I used Almond Flour; and the second time since receiving my new standing mixer for Christmas that I used it. It's a lot of fun and when the recipe calls for mixer slowly, I have to resist the urge to go faster and faster! I only needed to make a half portion of the butter-cream filling. Upon tasting it, all I could taste was butter, and not in a good way. When I used it to fill the moist cookies, it all had the same flavor. It just wasn't right. So I decided to add a little orange extract, and it was just thing to lighten up the cookie! Now these buggers are in my house and every time I start snacking on one, I think TEA TIME!, and brew a cup of tea to have with the second one! Yummy!