Posted in out to eat, travel, wine on November 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Here are a few food photos from our stay in Rome last month.
Wings, caprese and pizza at Bir & Fud
Aperol spritzes in Le Trastevere.
Tiny wine jug!
This pizza had a cracker crust and was stuffed with arugula.
More spritz.
Happy hour treats.
Campari!
So much amazing mozzarella.
Best bruschetta.
We ate at this place twice. So good.
Posted in out to eat, travel, wine on October 29, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Ryan and I recently traveled to Switzerland and Italy. Here are some food highlights…
Breakfast salad at the Paris airport.
Fondue in Lauterbrunnen.
Amazing cheese shop in a woman’s house in Gimmelwald.
Alpine picnic.
Picnic view.
Amazing roasted veggies and mozzarella at the Obika Mozzarella Bar in Milan.
The most amazing tiny pizza with tons of arugula at MiPi Pizzeria in Milan.
Ryan’s breaded anchovy treat in Montessoro al Mare.
Chard and bitter greens tart on the beach in Montessoro al Mare.
Mussels and pasta.
Pesto pasta in Montessoro al Mare.
The most amazing soup I’ve ever eaten in Voleterra.
Wine and meats at La Vina di Vino in Voleterra.
Fondue with slices of meat instead of bread (pretty much the best idea, right?).
Amazing ricotta gnocchi with tons of truffles.
So much Campari in Pienza.
Brunello tasting in Montalcino.
Cutest buds at a little wine shop.
Best meat/cheese plate.
Local honey and sun-dried tomatoes.
Grape farmers at Altesino Winery.
Moscato grapes at Altesino.
Homemade bread, honey, and jams at Le Traverse in Pienza.
This post is getting long! I’ll post some more photos soon…
Posted in dinner, farming, garden, out to eat, portland on July 15, 2012 | 2 Comments »
On Saturday night, Ryan and I had the most wonderful dinner at The Side Yard Farm.
The Side Yard Farm is a small urban farm NE Portland that provides local restaurants with produce. The owner, Stacey Givens, is also an amazing chef, and hosts farm-to-table meals every now and then.
Before dinner, we got to poke around the farm.
It was really fun to see a professional urban farm – definitely inspiring for my own garden.
Hoop house for tomatoes, basil, and peppers.
And of course, chickens.
On to the food! This was a special Bastille Day dinner. 5 courses, with really incredible wine parings. Vive la France!
There was a lovely lavender lemon water on the table while we were getting settled.
Menu printed by Cumbersome Multiples.
French Breakfast Radish, with Nasturtium “Capers” and Butter
Halibut. Shaved Kohlrabi. Lil’ Peas & Carrots. Lemon Verbena Beurre Blanc.
Summer Greens. Flowers. Herbs. Plum Vinaigrette. Soft Sheep Cheese. Farm Egg.
Crispy Pork. Rubystreak Mustard Greens. Pickled Cherries. Tarragon
Salt n’ Pepper French Shortbread. Blueberries. Basil & Chevre Ice Cream (actually instead of shortbread, this is a soft gluten free raspberry cookie, which was amazing! So sweet that they accommodated me)
And the wine!
This was one of the best meals we have had in Portland. Everything was so fresh and bright. I can’t wait to go back!
Posted in exploregon, out to eat on March 1, 2012 | 1 Comment »
As part of our New Year’s Resolution to Explore Oregon (Exploregon!), Ryan and I went on a romantic weekend getaway to The Dalles. Lots people teased us, because The Dalles isn’t really a vacation destination, but we had a really awesome time!
We left after work on a Friday, and stopped at The Full Sail Tasting Room in Hood River for a quick dinner before heading to the hotel.
I had a really good burger.
We stayed at The Ceilio Inn, which is a fairly recently renovated mid-century model. I got a great deal on Living Social, which included a two night stay, two bottles of wine, two wine glasses, some chocolate, and a free tasting at The Sunshine Mill tasting room. It was pretty amazing.
When we got to the hotel, they had a really rad fire pit. It was about 20 degrees outside, so we stood around and drank some wine for about 10 minutes before going back inside.
The next morning we woke up and headed out to find some breakfast.
We found Momma Jane’s Pancake House!
They had a special mug for me.
Ryan made a silly joke.
And then he proceeded to order the most industrial small-towney breakfast he could think of.
That’s fried eggs, chicken fried steak, with gravy, with biscuits, and more gravy. Gross.
I had a really cheesy scramble.
This place is old school!
After breakfast, we set out to explore The Dalles a bit.
We found a creepy bridge.
And a pile of dirty snow (it was really cold outside!)
And ended up in a really great antique store, where we found some pretty amazing deals.
And then headed to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center.
It was beautiful!
We learned about prehistoric creatures,
heard some audio reenactments of pioneers on the Oregon Trail set to creepy mannequins,
got some new recipes,
learned about Great Horned Owls at the raptor show,
and got inspired about what to do with our basement.
It was really cold, but I’d like to go back and walk by the river sometime.
We were thirsty, so we went to the Sunshine Mill Tasting Room to redeem our wine tasting voucher.
It’s housed in an old mill, and is super rad.
Cheese plate!
Later that evening, we went to the historic Baldwin Saloon for dinner. It is supposedly haunted. I didn’t see any ghosts, but we did see the most amazing elderly woman playing the piano on a little alcove above the restaurant. She plays every weekend, and she uses a ladder to climb up and down from the alcove, which seems a little dangerous. Ha!
The food was good too.
The best part was definitely the music.
The next day, Ryan was determined to try one of Momma Jane’s pancakes, so back we went.
On the way home, we stopped at Multnomah Falls (for the first time!). It was really cold, and the falls were beautiful!
I totally loved The Dalles! Yay exploregon-ing!
Posted in dinner, family, garden, out to eat, travel on November 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
While we were in California, we finally got to eat at ad hoc, Thomas Keller’s more casual restaurant. Oh my goodness it as amazing.
My parents were so nice and drove us out to Yountville to meet up with Megan and John. On the way, we had to stop at Dean and Deluca. I can’t believe I’ve never been there before!
So many fancy sodas.
My mom is so wonderful. I miss her!
What a hottie!
We had some time before dinner, so we walked around the garden at the French Laundry. It was such a beautiful day!
<3 <3
It was a pretty lovely place.
Chicken coop!
On to the food! ad hoc serves a 4 course meal that is different each day. It’s served family style, which was really fun.
Amazing salad with smoked trout, haricots verts, cherry tomatoes, and creamy dill dressing. So good!
Braised pork ribs, apples and mushrooms, and broccolini. This might have been the best pork I have ever had.
Polenta with caramelized shallots. omg.
Cana de oveja – this is a really amazing creamy sheep’s milk cheese. We had a lot of this in Spain.
Served with a cherry and pistachio compote.
And dessert! Delicious little fig financiers .
And amazing hazelnut ice cream.
Best and cutest dinner companions.
Ah I can’t wait to go again someday!
Megan and John drove us to San Francisco, and we checked into the Phoenix Hotel.
We took a huge walk all around Union Square. San Francisco is a really beautiful city. We also walked over to where we had our first kiss (like 8 years ago!).
We stopped into the swanky hotel bar for a drink and a midnight snack before bedtime.
Bourbon and soda. Best.
Absurdly delicious mascarpone truffle dip with house chips.
Posted in family, organic, out to eat on August 18, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Last weekend I went home to visit my family and co-threw (with my mom) a bridal shower for my wonderful friend Ashley!
My mom and I did the flowers
There were cupcakes from Crumb Hither (which I am told were amazing – the frosting definitely was!).
“Scotch on the rocks” – Chocolate with butterscotch french butter cream with drizzled homemade caramel sauce
“Oh My Ganache”: Chocolate with cream filling and chocolate ganache
Key lime cake with lime curd and lime buttercream
Table setting
Quiche Lorraine and a delicious green salad
I think everyone had a great time. It was so fun to get together and celebrate Ashley! We have been friends for 23 years! That is a long time.
The rest of the weekend looked like this:
Huge cat
Steamed veggies at East West Cafe
Beet delite. OH lordy I need to figure this one out soon. Looks like a job for my food processor.
Oh and I should have taken a picture of a glass of wine because that is also what the weekend looked like. It was nice to be back in Santa Rosa, and I can’t wait to come back for the wedding in September.
Posted in out to eat, weather on January 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
It snowed in Portland! The day after my birthday! Ryan and I have never really been in snow before so it was super exciting!
Ryan was so happy! He ran around like a little kid.
We weren’t sure how much snow there would be, so he hurried to make a snowball.
I had to go meet with a client, which was fine, but driving back from my meeting was really scary and took forever. But the day was still young!
The chickens were not happy.
We just wanted to walk around and crunch our feet in the snow. So fun!
Our front steps
I LOVE snow! Everything was so quiet and peaceful.
We walked around the corner and went to Eat for beer and fried pickles.
Which were delicious.
Then we decided to walk over to Irving Park with our trash can lid to see if we could sled. A trash can lid is not a very good sled, but it was still a good time.
so beautiful
In the morning, we checked on the chickens. They were mostly unhappy that they couldn’t get out to look for worms.
Ryan really wanted all of this snow to fall on my head but I was smart and stood back.
Yay for snow!
Posted in coffee, love, out to eat, portland, vintage on January 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’m 27 now. Late twenties. It feels really nice actually. Ryan planned the perfect day for me. He is the sweetest.
He gave me a little camera for my birthday. I am super excited!
We started at the Fresh Pot for a perfect latte and a perfect pepper bagel. Then he took me to Powell’s for two hours of blissful browsing. I ended up with an embarrassingly large stack of books – mostly about urban farming and eating locally and sustainably. I also picked up Mastering the Art of French Cooking, because it’s high time I learned how to make aspic.
We went to the ACE Hotel to admire the terrariums.
And take photos at the photo booth.
Then! To Bread and Ink for a late brunch.
Ryan took this touching photo of the bread and butter basket.
Then we went to one of those crazy junk shops on Hawthorne where I scored some new yellow “glass” grapes.
And Ryan talked me into this righteous piece of furniture, promising to turn the TV case into an aquarium someday.
We napped and then got all dolled up for dinner at Ned Ludd. Actually, Ned Ludd was really busy and the guy was snobby so we decided to go to Farm, which is my favorite place in Portland so far.
Because it was my birthday, we got cheese instead of dessert. Mmm.
We came back and then walked over to Pix. It was Monday movie night and they were playing It’s a Wonderful Life. We split a bottle of champange and some delicious chocolate things (which came with a sparkler!), and stayed until the part where George and Mary get married. After that, it’s all downhill so we took off.
Pretty much the most fabulous birthday ever. I am lucky to have Ryan because he makes it so special. Xoxo.
