food

Hey, man- I could post restaurant reviews on here all day long and be happy. I love eating out in Portland. The food scene here is FANTASTIC. You can get any type of cuisine- super authentic Mexican food, Italian, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, African, South American, Hawaiian, basically whatever your little heart desires. Portland loves to eat out. My husband and I are no exception, and though we are limited by time and budget constraints, (who isn't, with a toddler at home?) we try to get out on a fancy date at least once every few weeks or so. We usually default to well-known, established joints like Toro Bravo, Castagna, or Ken's Pizza, but of course, we love to try new places. We are lucky to have a leg up on the restaurant scene here, since my husband is a service tech for a large coffee company here in Portland- he installs a lot of the equipment in the places that serve his coffee. So tonight, when I suggested East Burn, he agreed, mentioning...

Tonight was probably not the best night for us to have risotto. My sister lives a couple miles away from us, and we've arranged to do some baby-trading on the weekends. Tonight we took her 2 kids, a first for us since she had her newest son 3 months ago. While I attempted to wrangle a chunky lump of newborn deliciousness and two cranky toddlers (who like to stake out territory), my husband managed to whip out this ABSOLUTELY TO DIE FOR risotto- a huge accomplishment, in my book. Now, a disclaimer. I've never cooked risotto before! This is all second-hand, guys. (Although, now that my husband has shared with me his secrets, I feel ready to give it a go for next time.) That said, here's my husband's "recipe" (he won't admit to having a recipe for anything) for risotto: You'll need: 4 cloves garlic 1 large shallot 2 big handfuls of chopped fresh tarragon & basil 1 bay leaf White pepper Saffron 1 cup grated parmesan 3 small portobello mushrooms...

Today was a dreary, drizzly spring day in Portland. The sky never brightened, the crisp air smelled like homey fireplaces, and I spent the whole day wishing I could curl up in a fuzzy blanket with a mug of hot cocoa. Alas, stuck in the house with a toddler, I had to spend my day entertaining him, but I wanted to make something satisfying and easy for dinner. My husband was in Seattle on business again, so I knew I'd be having dinner alone. Despite my foodie tendencies, I tend to opt for bachelor food when my husband is out of town- frozen pizza (the shame!), macaroni and cheese, anything easy. I just hate cooking for myself, and my son doesn't care WHAT we eat, as long as it's some kind of noodle, cheese, or chunky mess. Most of my enjoyment of food comes from sharing it with people I care about, so when I am stuck eating alone, I'm always uninspired. This morning, though- maybe it was the weather, maybe it was just knowing I hadn't blogged in awhile (haha) b...

It is surprising to me that this blog has been up a month now and I have yet to blog cupcakes. As all my friends and family know, I have some sort of a cupcake obsession. It isn't even that I think they are an amazing tasting dessert, but there is just something so comforting and appealing about looking at them or having one in your hand. Plus, baking them is just about one of my favorite things to do. Really, what is it about the cupcake that is so very wonderful? Is it the small size? The swirls of sugary-sweet frosting piled on top? The adorable look of them? Whatever it is, we all love them. On our way home from getting coffee, I realized it had been way too long since I last baked some (I used to do it on an almost daily basis!). So I went for some simple vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream on top. This recipe hails from one of my favorite comedic minds, Miss Amy Sedaris . Because among being a hilarious female comedian, her cupcakes were voted the second best in Ne...

As I have mentioned before, I am a chocoholic. The funny thing about it is that throughout my life, besides the occasional Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, I really didn't like chocolate. It wasn't until 2004, when I was pregnant with my first child, that I truly discovered it. Hormones steered me to it and I haven't been the same since. This morning I chose to make a flourless chocolate cake, and let me tell you, this is a cake for major chocolate lovers. It is gooey and decadent and so very chocolatey . Just like a chocolate cake should be. Flourless Chocolate Cake : Ingredients: 7 tablespoons unsalted butter 8 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate 5 large eggs, room temperature, separated 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon salt Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9" springform pan. In a double boiler (or a metal bowl over simmering water), melt together butter and chocolate. Remove from heat. Use an electric mixer to be...

One of my favorite things about going to the farmer's market is purchasing food that I have never eaten or cooked with before. It is quite exciting to buy something random and then go home and find a way to use it. This weekend I picked up a bunch of sorrel from Spring Valley Farm's booth. I had read about it previously in the Spring issue of Martha Stewart Living and it sounded interesting to me, so I thought I would give it a try. I found a delicious sounding recipe for Sorrel Potato Gratin, so I headed out to the store for some new potatoes and started my market-inspired meal. The sorrel was wonderful- it has an amazing lemony taste and soft texture when cooked. It is something I will probably end up buying again and again. My husband had been mentioning his craving for roasted carrots, so I threw together some that were so very simple, but absolutely scrumptious. I prepared them the French way, tossing them with olive oil, coarse salt, pepper, and honey. We ate them along...

I love rhubarb. I've just checked my Flickr photostream and it seems that I've made no less than seven rhubarb cakes, six different rhubarb puddings, one type of jam and one drink during the last few weeks alone. But I was determined to try something savoury as well, so I combined this BBC Good Food recipe and this Delicious magazine recipe (they're remarkably similar, aren't they?), and made this Persian lamb stew. Not sure this is my favourite new way of serving lamb, but it's definitely a nice and different recipe for using rhubarb. Frying of the herbs in butter is essential for the success of this recipe, as the flavour and aroma of fried parsley and mint is rather special, so no skipping of that part! Persian Lamb and Rhubarb Stew ( Pärsia lambahautis rabarbriga ) Serves 4 to 5 75 g butter, divided 1 Tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil 2 large onions, halved and sliced 750 g lamb, chopped into cubes (I used the leg) 2 tsp ground coriander seeds 1 litre vegetable ...

Oh, how I love my cookie press. I have to admit that I had it for quite some time without using it for shaping cookies- for some reason it intimidated me. I just used it as a fabulous frosting piping tool, at least until I saw an article in a holiday issue of the late Blueprint Magazine (which was one of my favorite publications) with a recipe and short tutorial for baking spritz sugar cookies. So I went for it and with a few mess ups, I made some darn pretty cookies. I have made this recipe a couple times since then. It makes some nice classic sugar cookies with a thin glassy glaze. If you don't have a cookie press, you are more than welcome to roll it out and use cookie cutters, just make sure you chill your dough in the fridge for about thirty minutes before rolling it out and cutting your shapes. Sugar Cookies: from Blueprint Magazine Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 large egg 1 teaspoon pure vanilla ex...

May I preface this by saying two things? Number one: I have lived my whole life saying SHERBE R T. My auto spell check feature tells me that "sherbert" isn't even a word. You know what IS a word? Sherbet. I find this mind blowing. It's as if someone took me aside and said, "actually, Alice- they're called HANDburgers." Anyway, I've actually looked up the difference well before I ever made any, and I found it all very interesting. I guess it's just a regional thing. Check out the wikipedia page if you're bored enough. I still can't say "sherbet" out loud, I have to say it "sherbert" because it messes with my reality too much. Number two! Two whole days ago, Summer and I made some adorable little cookies, but since she's the baker and also has the recipe, she was supposed to blog about them. She's promised me that she'll do so tonight, and it's HURTING MY BRAIN to blog things out of the ord...

Photo by K. Not related to the blog post :) I've been to the Americas before ( Mexico in October 2005 ), but next Wednesday I'm flying over to the USA for the first time. I'll be in three different places, first at a conference in Bloomington, Indiana, then visiting the very lovely Alanna in St Louis, MO, and finally explore New York for a few days. Here's the plan at the moment (post-conference, that is): June 1st - food blog lunch with Christine and Alanna in Bloomingon , then drive to St Louis June 2nd - a St Louis food blogger party @ Alanna's place June 4th - arrive in New York June 5th - food blogger potluck dinner in New York (very kindly organised by Danielle of Habeas Brulee) June 8th - Sunday brunch with my friends Priit & Pirjo in East Village June 9th - fly back to Tallinn I'm hoping to visit moma , do some food & clothes shopping (thanks, David , for your food-shopping tips!), see a good stand-up comedy show (any ideas/volunteers?), a...

I have been thinking about making an olive oil cake for awhile now. I had never tasted one and was intrigued by the idea of not using butter or a butter substitute for a cake (plus, I like cakes that aren't required to have frosting on top). So when I was out of butter today, Alice suggested that I bake one. I peeked into Apples for Jam (my recent go-to cookbook) at one I had been eyeing for awhile and was happy to see that I had all of the ingredients needed. Since Alice adores miniature versions of baked goods, she wanted me to make tiny cakes. I used my mini loaf pan, which actually turned out quite nicely. Aren't they adorable? The cakes themselves turned out to be quite yummy. Simple, not too sweet, a great orange taste, and so nice with the toasted pine nuts on the tops. Note: the recipe is made to make two 9" cakes, so feel free to half it. Orange Juice and Olive Oil Cake with Pine Nuts: from Apples for Jam cookbook Ingredients: 4 eggs, separated 1 teaspoon vanil...

Wild garlic season is almost over, but I wanted to share another simple recipe for that wild plant. Need something zesty on your grilled steak? Want to lend garlicky flavour to your steamed spring vegetables? Fancy some toasted garlic (rye) bread? Well, what about this wild garlic butter? Wild Garlic Butter ( Karulauguvõi ) Yields 150 g 150 g butter, at room temperature 30 g wild garlic (about 20 leaves) grated zest of 1 lemon a generous pinch of Maldon sea salt Wash and dry the wild garlic leaves, then chop very finely. Mix with soft butter and grated lemon zest, until combined. Season with salt. Keeps in the fridge for a few days (can be successfully frozen).

Alice's words and recipe... Every summer, it seems like Portland goes through almost a month of muggy, grey days that are warm, but not sunny. Okay, I know- everyone tells me that I don't know what "muggy" is until I've experienced an East Coast summer. If it's as bad as everyone says it is, I don't think I want to find out. But on a gross day, all you want to eat is something chilled and tasty. Sometimes at my house, that means salad rolls or sushi, but I don't always find those to be particularly filling or satisfying. Summer invited us over for dinner yesterday, and while we sat around trying to think of something to cook that would go with her homemade focaccia bread and white bean salad, I flipped through the new issue of Bon Appetit . It had a bunch of really amazing looking noodle dishes and I started thinking about pasta. Summer dug around her kitchen for a minute trying to locate necessary items and they just weren't there, so we lef...