summer must eats, vol. 2.

Can you say "slacker?" HA. I've been crazy busy, with lots of great stuff on the horizon and a great trip to New York under my belt, writing has fallen to the wayside. Well, at least writing I don't get paid for... Anyway, I will have to do a New York round up and get some photos posted, but the SLR stayed mostly packed away, so I don't have much to show.

Summer is winding down here in the Pacific Northwest. It's gray and cloudy today, and it's sucking my motivation to go for a run. So, to postpone any physical activity, I thought I'd post a summer must eat, only it's really a must drink. SANGRIA! I had a birthday party for the old man a few weeks ago, tapas style. I made a bunch of small finger foods and salads, and we washed them all down with a giant, soccer-camp style cooler of sangria. Let me tell you: This sangria is sneaky. I mean, the name says it all. Be sure to warn your guests to take it slow!

Two things I did that worked out great: 1) I froze about a two-cup block of good ginger ale to toss in as the guests arrived. This cooled the sangria and, we'll say, thinned it out. 2) I added a quart-size bag of frozen strawberries we had purchased at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. They were really delicious, and were sweet enough that I added no sugar to this recipe. Honestly, I probably wouldn't add sugar anyway, so unless you have a huge sweet tooth, it's not necessary.

The key to me is to get a wine that is full-bodied but not jammy or too fruit-forward. Obviously, Spanish tempranillo works great. I found a very decent sangria-quality wine at my local store for $6.99 a bottle. Just ask in any decent wine store, and someone should be able to guide you. Also, I use Don's Mix (linked below). There are recipes online to make your own, but I bought mine at a local quality liquor store.


Sneaky Summer Sangria
(approximately 30-40 servings - depending on your guests - you know what I mean)

3-4 bottles of tempranillo or other red wine
3/4 c. Applejack apple brandy
1/2 c. Don's Mix
Juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons
Juice of 1 orange
1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
2 limes, sliced
Other fruit if you choose

In your appropriately sized mixing vessel, muddle the Applejack and fruit slices. Pour in the wine, juices, and Don's Mix and stir. Let flavors combine for several hours. Add 3-4 cups of ginger ale or club soda right before serving (or in individual cups). Garnish with citrus wheels. Party!!

under pressure! and an awesome recipe.

We are going to NEW YORK in a few weeks, and I am feeling some pressure to pick JUST THE RIGHT PLACES for us to eat. For, like, 24 hours. I get pretty stressed out about these things, especially when there are a lot of options, because I live for fun, quality culinary experiences. I really, really do not fancy myself a foodie, nor do I think I have any kind of talent. But, I enjoy the heck out of it and it seems like food experiences are always so memorable and special to me. Whether traveling, entertaining, or just hanging with my man, I want everything to be Wonderful. And really, I know... first-world problems. Honestly, I enjoy this kind of "stress," except for the effect it has on my waistline. Tight pants are the pits.

Sigh, anyway, I've been slacking on writing and even taking pictures of my dinners because D is on vacation and we've been having too much fun. However, I did make an awesome recipe the other night that was a huge hit with both my brother, who came over for dinner, and D. No leftovers! Everything was devoured. I'm calling it Turkey Gyros, for lack of a better name.

I was craving gyros the other day, but they always make my stomach so upset, and I wanted a healthier alternative to the greasy, rotating meat you get in little storefronts. I was also craving falafel, but I wanted to avoid any kind of greasy frying. This came to mind, and it was spectacular. The gyro-esque flavors were spot-on, and fresh summer produce made it even better. Plus, no stove cooking! Everything went on the grill.

I can't wait to make it again! I used Greektown Billygoat seasoning from the Spice House, which is a family favorite for everything from kebabs to burgers to dips, but any spice blend should do.

Turkey Gyros (serves 4-6, depending on appetites)

1.25 pounds of ground turkey (I prefer the white and dark meat)
2 T. plain breadcrumbs
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon good Greek seasoning
Ground pepper
6 pitas, flatbreads, tortillas, pocket bread, etc.

Toppings:
Tomatoes, sliced
Cucumbers, sliced
Onions, sliced
Fresh parsley, chopped
Tzatziki sauce (here is a great recipe - I prefer to use Greek yogurt)
Feta or goat cheese (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)

Mix the turkey through the pepper and form into two-inch patties. Make an indention in the middle with your thumb to keep the shape. Grill or pan-fry patties until cooked, remove from heat and cover with foil. Grill pita/bread as needed. Have diners fill pita with the patties and toppings. Eat hot!

EDIT: I should note that if your spice blend doesn't contain salt, you may want to add some to the burger mix. I'm trying to cut back on the salt, so I didn't add any extra, but that spice blend does contain it.

dinner, 7/22/11.

I've said before that I "like" "Food & Wine" magazine on Facebook, and I get some of the best menu ideas from them. They just do it right. Great tone, great posts and recipes, great photos. I love it all.

Friday night, at the suggestion of F&W, I made David Burke's Grilled Skirt Steak with Peaches, only I used flank steak. The butcher we frequent usually only has frozen skirt steak, and I didn't want to deal with it, so I got the flank. I really enjoy cooking flank steak. It marinates quickly and is easy to cook, and as long as you cut it right, it's delicious.

The peaches were an awesome touch and even the husband commented how much he liked them. I was pleased, especially considering that grilled fruit is not really his jam. This recipe paired wonderfully with the Arbor Brook Pinot Noir we enjoyed before/with/after dinner. 

Also on the plate was some grilled corn and a spinach salad. I've discovered an interesting method for making an almost-wilted spinach salad without the hot bacon dressing. I toast some sliced almonds in a pan and in the meanwhile toss the spinach with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and some soft goat cheese. Then, when the almonds are hot, I throw them in the bowl and mix everything together. It almost melts the cheese and softens the spinach, and it is soooooooo tasty. Don't forget salt and pepper!

Last night, we used the leftover steak for some tacos. That marinade pulls some serious double duty. Two perfect summer dinners!

bounty. so much bounty.

Many Saturdays in Chicago we would leash up the dog and walk to the Green City Market early in the morning. Generally, we would get there right before the crowds hit but after the stroller brigade had invaded. We'd find some choice produce - usually squash, tomatoes, some herbs, mushrooms, whatever looked really great and in season - and enjoy our picks. It was a lovely experience and a great tradition of summer that I relish.

This Saturday, we made it to our first Portland Farmers Market at PSU downtown. Oh. My. Goodness. It put the Chicago market to shame, and the Green City market is nothing to sneeze at. Granted, Oregon is one of the top food-producing states in the U.S., but wow. Everything I saw was beautiful, with many organic purveyors and some fantastic food stands. I barely resisted the urge to buy a FOUR DOLLAR artichoke, just because it was so pretty. I don't even really LIKE artichokes that much! It just looked like the world's most beautiful, edible cactus.

I took the opportunity to play around with a Composer Pro and funky lens from Lensbaby and try to get some serious food porn.

Not technically food, but if you've ever eaten a Pine State Biscuit, you know it's the business. They have a stand at the market. Giant cast-iron pots of boiling oil with fried chicken in them = awesome.

Real seafood at the market. 

Garlic scapes! Now that I know what to do with these, I want to get some next week.

STRAWBERRIES. We bought a half-flat. On Saturday. There are two small boxes left. Nom.

 Sauteed veggies from Verde Cocina. More on this in a minute...

Some sort of pretty flowers. There were two people, pulling all kinds of beautiful flowers from buckets and hand-tying bouquets. Lovely.

This woman is hand-pressing and grilling corn tortillas for Verde Cocina. I watched her for 15 minutes and wanted to hug her. I could write a huge post on my love of Mexican food, especially fresh tortillas, but another time.

Chilaquiles. Fresh tortillas, scrambled eggs, white bean salad, kale, sauteed veggies, and kicky salsa with a little crumble of cheese. The. Perfect. Breakfast.

We ended up leaving with the aforementioned strawberries, a microscopic bag of morel mushrooms, a pound and a half of English peas, some zucchini, and a bunch of basil. I decided to give risotto a try for the first time. Wow. Something I learned about risotto: Your patience will be rewarded! It was perfect, and delicious, and the sweet, fat peas were amazing in it with some lightly sauteed morels. Like heaven. 

Heaven, right here...

We had a balsamic-strawberry and arugula salad and some grilled baguette to finish off the meal. It was magical. Oh Oregon. Just when I needed that boost! Can't wait to see what I discover next weekend. 

how I hike.

This is how you snack at the top of a strenuous hike. A little bit of Olympic Provisions Nola sausage on an everything bagel flat. There were also some strawberries. We were going to pack wine, but saved that for after the hike.

I know, you're thinking "what, no cheese?" Just seemed excessive.

visitors.

Yeesh! I have not posted for a while. I'm not so busy that I can't write, but I guess I haven't had anything that interesting to say. And we have had several guests (and more coming!)  the past few weeks to keep us busy.

One of my very, best, favorite things about Portland is the quality and quantity of awesome little dining establishments. Not just restaurants but also the food cart culture is amazing. Needless to say, we have a lot of options. Our dear friends who love food as much as we do visited for several days last week, and I knew I needed a fairly edited list of favorites from which to choose. I wanted to hit what I thought were most important to me but also fit their expectations and palates!

This post would be ridiculously long if I went through our entire weekend, but I want to highlight the places we were able to visit and express our love for them. There was a five-mile hike thrown in there, too, so don't think it was a weekend of total fatness!

Pine State Biscuits - Never disappoints. Though I don't know how fried chicken on a biscuit could let anyone down...

Olympic Provisions - Charcuterie. Pickles. Bread. Cheese. We are carnivores, so this was a no-brainer.

Bamboo Sushi - First certified, sustainable sushi restaurant in the world. Amazing food, ambiance (especially from our seat in the open front window), and drinks. Doesn't hurt that it's right next door to my favorite pizza place and you can smell wood-fired pizza while eating super-fresh salmon. A new favorite for me is the habanero masago smelt roll. My face was on FIRE, and I liked it.

Barista - Great coffee, great vibe, delightful people. Beer in a coffee shop! I love it all.

Hiking! - This is a great hike for almost anyone who doesn't mind breaking a sweat. Starting on the Wahkeena side is my preference. It was just gorgeous, and our guests loved it.

Double Mountain Brewery - Post-hike pizza and beers in adorable Hood River. A bike race to watch that day, too! Awesome all around.

Everybody's Brewing - Stopped in here for the view and a beer. Gorgeous look at Mt. Hood from the Washington side! And I recommend the Country Boy IPA.

Pok Pok Noi - It seems like everybody knows about Pok Pok, and with good reason! We just had a little snack of some fish sauce wings to go since our dinner wasn't until late. The papaya salad and sticky rice are my go-to here as well.

Beast - OK, this is one of the most regarded restaurants in Portland. I could write an entire post detailing our meal, but I won't. They offer a tasting menu and optional wine pairing. It was a good dinner at a great price, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the greatest meal of my life. Some of the pairings were huge misses for all of us, which was so disappointing. The soup, charcuterie, salad, and dessert were pretty out-of-this-world. I'm glad we went, but I can say now that I much prefer DOC, just half a block away. Those guys killed me with their food a couple months ago, and I cannot wait to go back.

Our friends' flight was mid-afternoon and it was another beautiful day, so we had time to get in a beer on the patio at Prost and sandwiches from Garden State/Burgatroyd. To quote our guest, "It's a good thing we came here last because I could sit here for an entire day." It's an addictive place to be!

This is the tip(-py top!) of the iceberg as far as my list of favorites in this city. If I sent this out and asked for opinions, I'd probably get a ton of criticism saying, "But what about Screen Door?" "You forgot Toro Bravo!" "How could you miss Apizza Scholls?" But, I can say with confidence, it was a successful weekend that left our friends wanting more... and this is good news, because they will come back!

new ideas.

I had an idea in my sleep last night that I'm actually going to see if I can bring to life. Continuing with a food theme, of course, I thought it would be fun to try and Tweet two recipes a day. One vegetarian and one non-vegetarian entree. Include a list of the most important ingredients and a link to the recipe, and people could have a shopping list and dinner idea in the palm of their hands or on their computer screen. Voila! Meals on the Fly is born.

Already I can tell that this could get tough with more complicated recipes, but I'm thinking of keeping it to simple, weeknight meals. Something you can put together either in advance or in an hour and have dinner ready. Today I posted our favorite manicotti recipe, which I'm making for dinner since I had a tray of frozen ones, and an oven-baked pork chop recipe. Because, well, I love pork chops.

Tell your friends! Follow me!

dinner, 4/29/11.

Decided I'd make a nice dinner since the husband had been out of town and I figured he was sick of eating in restaurants. I "like" "Food & Wine" magazine on Facebook, and the dinner suggestions they post are always great, so I went with Spaghetti with Escarole & Bacon and Mushroom Salad with Mint.

The only variations I made were that I (EGADS) microwaved the bacon for time's sake because it was 10:00 at night. Also, I used my preserved lemons in the salad instead of fresh lemon zest. YUM. The salad was awesome. I thought the mint would stand out more but really it gave the earthy mushrooms a subtle freshness and was great with the salty, preserved lemon. The pasta was great. I love, love, love Bionaturae pasta. The organic spaghetti cooked perfectly. For dried pasta, it's definitely my favorite product, and really hard to mess up and overcook.

We each had a glass of a Sicilian grillo that we bought a few weeks ago, and it was not right for this meal. Too mineral and seemingly acidic, but still tasty. Grillo is an odd grape, usually used in marsala and blends. It's gaining popularity as a standalone wine. I like it, but not with this.

Then we collapsed. I slept like a baby. This makes six days in a row I've eaten bacon. Relax, I only used four slices in the entire pasta dish. Hmm, wonder how I can get my bacon in today?

whirlwindy.

I'm wiped out. Why, you ask? Well, being in a crazy, three-day Indian wedding festival (I don't know how else to describe it), hanging out with my besties, flying halfway across the country and back, barely sleeping, and arriving to a very sick dog has taken all of my pep.

Did I mention the part about the sick dog? And that I haven't slept since Monday night because he was up, moving around and stretching, trying to get comfortable with a tummy ache? Also the fact that I picked him up from his boarding facility yesterday morning COVERED IN POOP, have given him two baths, and spent nearly $200 at the vet to get him some antibiotics. I'm a bit grouchy and exhausted.

Anyway, it was an awesome, fun, crazy, bittersweet, eye-opening-in-some-ways weekend. And, I got my first henna designs:

Should have taken a picture of it after it darkened, and now it's fading rapidly. Darn. It's pretty cool, but I've been self-conscious about it when outside of the wedding party. I got to wear a sari and a bindi, eat tons of food I've never tried before, and meet and see some awesome people. Plus, I got some:

Garrett Popcorn. Chicago mix. This stuff is the business. I remember the first time I had it. My mom was staying with me in Chicago, and I came home from work to find her on the couch, watching TV, gobbling popcorn and drinking champagne. (This explains so much about why I am who I am.) She said she had just been walking by a Garrett's store, saw the line, and thought she'd try it. The lady in front of her informed her she "got to get the mix." So with great trepidation she did, and we scarfed it like maniacs. Who knew that slightly soggy cheese popcorn and sweet, crunchy caramel corn could make such an awesome pair? 

These tiny bags were in our in-room gift bags, and oh my gosh, I've been rationing it. And not sharing. The hubs gets NONE.