The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread...Unsliced Bread!

For those of you still hanging on and coming around every once and a while to see what I’ve been up to, thank you. I’m glad you’re still here, and I appreciate you. Hugs and kisses all around! I know I haven’t been leaving many comments on your blogs lately (though I have checked in on many of you from time to time) and I haven’t done much on this blog the last month or two aside from frantically posting my Heart of the Matter entries (at the last possible moment), and I’m even more sad to report that I haven’t done much of anything the last month or two aside from working. Not even go to the beach – a sad feat when it is a mere mile (or less) from your doorstep. The crazy hours and non-stop sitting in front of my computer to prepare lectures and assignments for my students left me without the least bit of desire to sit in front of my computer a bit more and come up with something interesting to say.

That isn’t to say that I haven’t been in the kitchen though. One does have to eat, after all. Granted, the last week of classes - now thankfully a week past – LB was back to being my house-husband as we had our very first house guests (yay!) and I had three tests to write, about 50 assignments to grade and no time to do anything else. Taking a break from blogging for a month gave me the time to settle into my teaching, but also gave me the time to try new recipes of yours I’ve spied. While I love blogging, spending an entire month just reading and not worrying about coming up with a new recipe to try or modify every few days in order to have something I want to blog about was actually quite nice.

I’ve made Tanna’s Panzanella, Katie's Beetroot and Chevre Salad, Ann's Strawberry Shortcake with Buttermilk Biscuits and many of my own old standbys. All of them were delicious – tailored to include what was on hand or available here for a reasonable price. But while checking in on my namesake (well, almost my namesake) Michele at Oswego Tea, I came across this Soda Bread – a recipe from Alice Water’s latest cookbook, The Art of Simple Food - and the cutest heading by Michele: "I baked it myself." Now, as Tanna will tell you, I’ve been enviously reading about her exploits in bread baking, as well as the rest of the BBBs (Bread Baking Babes) for quite some time now, yearning to try baking bread from scratch. There have been so many beautiful breads I’ve wanted to make, recipes I’ve bookmarked and gorgeous photos I’ve drooled over, each one calling out to me that THAT would be my first bread...but it was Alice’s recipe and Michele’s coaxing that got me in the kitchen one day when we were out of bread.

I think I’ve mentioned that bread is a bit expensive here (like everything else) and while I’ve gotten used to paying $4 for a loaf of bread (hey, I paid $3.94 in Eugene anyway), it would sure be nice not to have to buy bread and be able to put that $4 a week into say, a bar of nice dark chocolate to snack on or some mango curd, or something. And while this isn’t a yeast bread, and thus requires no rising, I think it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship and I hope to be baking bread more often (next up: yeast, baby!).

This bread is dense and has a chewy, crunchy crust. It’s got a great crumb and a lovely rustic look and heft to it that makes you take a step back and say – holy crap! I made that! And it wasn’t even that hard! It’s missing that yeasty smell and goodness that only breads that require a rise can have, but it makes great buttered toast for dipping into soft boiled eggs, hunks of it make perfect sops for soups and sauces, and it’s absolutely perfect for LB and my favorite summer breakfast of tomatoes and cream cheese on toast. But of course it’s good, it’s Alice Water’s recipe.

Like Michele, there’s no way I’m posting the recipe for this, as Alice Water’s is one of my heroes and you don’t mess with a woman (er, goddess) like that. But you can follow the same link that Michele gave if you’d like to find it and try it yourself: Alice Water’s Soda Bread.

I followed the recipe exactly – except I used half whole wheat pastry flour (I didn’t have bread flour, but that might have yielded even better results) and half all-purpose flour. While this works well, I wouldn’t use all whole wheat flour because it’s already such a dense bread. Also, be sure to add a tsp. or tbsp. of corn meal on your buttered baking sheet (or use parchment paper - something oddly difficult to find here) to prevent it from sticking - because it will stick, like cement, if you don’t.

While the “thumping” and the hollow sound you’re supposed to get eludes me, I’ve found if I give it about 35 minutes instead of 30 at 400F, until the crust is a deep, darkened brown – but not too brown – and when you can thump the top crust instead of the bottom (which is difficult to do with really hot bread!) and it truly feels like a hardened “crust,” then the inside will be thoroughly cooked. Don’t forget to cut the cross into it either, we made that mistake too – and while it still seems to rise properly, it didn’t finish cooking in the middle of the bread, leaving it doughy and uncooked and well, just not as nice as it could be. Until next time then, my friends - I'll see you in the kitchen.

The Worry Wort

LB, as well as some others in my life who shall remain nameless, have often told me I'm a "worry wort." LB tells me constantly that he worries that if we have children, that my worrying will turn them into crazy kids. Then he realizes that my worrying has already (obviously) rubbed off on him because he is worrying about such things. It's true. I do worry a lot. I worry about our dogs. Our bird. Our friends. I worry about our health. About getting older. About being a good teacher. About being a good scientist. About not getting my post in on time for HotM even when I am the host (some worries are grounded).

In fact, LB and I were just talking over breakfast this morning about one of my worries. One day shortly after we had gotten our dog Samson as a puppy, I had my back turned to him as I was cleaning and he started drinking out the mop bucket (I only use biodegradable, earth-friendly cleaners in my house, but still). When I saw what he was doing, I snatched him up, carried him outside to LB in a flurry and started worrying that he was going to get horribly sick. At this point, Samson started squirming around in my arms and biting them with his sharp little puppy teeth (he was a little nippy when he was little!), and so I dropped him. Oh lord, I started crying. First, I worried I had damaged him by dropping him (I dropped my baby!), then I worried that he didn't like me!! I was a little emotional at that time, which probably didn't help. It was after this conversation this morning that LB once again brought up his own worry about my worrying. Our kids really will be crazy if we have them.

I am in an endless struggle to eat healthier. My worry of the heart disease that runs rampant in my family helps fuel this. Some time ago, in an effort to get more greens into our diets - because I was worrying about our health, I instituted "Salad Days" at our house. This was back when I was enamored with the Food Network Show by Ellie Krieger because all of her food was healthy, and many of her dishes were salads. Even though it began as a household fad and has at times disappeared from our cooking repertoire we are still very likely to have a big salad as one of our meals during the week. The latest installment of this was the Grilled Sweet Potato Salad you see above. I used local ingredients, but you can improvise with what you have available. Better still? It's super healthy - far more so than any regular mayonnaise-based potato salad anyhow (though I do love my mom's potato salad I have to say. Even better is that the theme for this month's Heart of the Matter is "Heart Healthy Salads." The always lovely and inventive cook Ilva is our host this month - go check out the round-up for lots of delicious salads to get you through these days when vegetables are a plenty!

Grilled Sweet Potato Salad
Serves 2

Salad:
2 small Okinawan sweet potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick lengthwise
a handful of sunflower sprouts
2-3 handfuls mixed baby lettuce
a big handful of green beans
a very small red onion, thinly sliced
2 medium-sized slices whole wheat baguette
olive oil
toasted sesame seeds

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 inch knob of ginger root
2 tsp. honey
salt and pepper to taste

Ready your outdoor grill or grill pan on medium. Lightly brush the sweet potatoes and bread with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper (you can even do the beans on the grill too if you'd like - I blanched these) and grill them until they get nice grill marks (by this time your potatoes will be cooked through, or at least ours were). As these are cooking, you can blanch the beans and mix together the sprouts, lettuces and onions.

To make the dressing, put everything together in a small jar with a lid, close it and shake until it becomes emulsified (you could also add everything except for the oil, mix and then whisk in the oil slowly, but this is just easier and faster. When your potatoes and bread are finished, cut the bread into small squares for croûtons, add them to the lettuce mixture and toss everything with the dressing. Then you have a healthy, filling salad with lots of fresh ingredients and a bit of an Asian flare!

Rosemary Limeade and The Forgotten Post

Being a host for The Heart of the Matter, or any event for that matter, is a lot of responsibility. There are things that hosts are supposed to do. Like be on top of things, get their own entries done and up, make a decent round-up. People are expecting good things from you!

But sometimes you forget. You get wrapped up in your own life and doing your own things and let yourself get busy. Sometimes you choose your recipe and make something lovely in the beginning of the month, so that you won't have to remember in the midst of all the rest of the things going on to come up with something spectacular. It's not that you don't love being a host, or love the adventure of cooking around a theme, it's just that sometimes, life is busy. You take your pictures, edit them, come up with ideas for what you'll post about it.

And you feel proud of yourself and proud that you've done your duty and can just get focused on getting the rest of the entries together and up on the web site for the round-up. You go through the rest of the month thinking things are going great and you did what you needed to do, and then the round-up comes and you're putting it all together and posting pictures and doing small write-ups about all of the lovely people that joined in and participated in your event, and then as you that very last entry up, you realize... you forgot to post your entry.

Oops. I made a refreshing Rosemary Limeade for this month's Heart of the Matter, centered around the theme of dishes with herbs as a main ingredient. I took my pictures, I thought up a post (but I've forgotten it now...it's a shame), and I put it away to do a bit later on in the month. I thought I had lots of time - a whole month is quite a bit of time, right? Not always. Sometimes time flies by and you don't even realize that things have passed. I'm teaching now and the first time you teach a course (Introductory Biology, in my case), it is always crazy and you are always only a day or two ahead of your students, writing your lectures, grading their homework. Bet you thought teachers always knew all about what they were teaching, eh? I'll let you in on a little secret: Not when they haven't taught it before (or taken it for over 10 years - I think I'm studying harder than most of my students!).

Well, friends, and fellow heart-healthy eaters - I'm going to try not to let that happen again! See you at the round-up next month, and hopefully once teaching slows down (it'll be over the middle of July), I'll be able to write posts about all the pictures and dishes I've been storing up - of course I'm still cooking, one has to eat!

This could also be made with a bit of mint, basil or lemon verbena perhaps instead of rosemary, but the rosemary gives it an earthy, almost extra vibrancy. The only change I made was to add more rosemary and decrease the simple syrup because the way the recipe was written there was quite a bit of extra syrup and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it but add it to iced tea since I didn't have any more limes! I'm going to try the limeade base with a bit of coconut juice next time to add a different flavor, as this is definitely going to be a mainstay at our house through the "dog" days of summer. Make a whole batch - I promise it won't last long!

Rosemary Limeade, makes 1 gallon
Altered slightly from the great cookbook, With a Measure of Grace (more on this cookbook and the amazing women who wrote it, soon)

4 cups simple syrup:
3 cups water
3 cups sugar
2 stems fresh rosemary

4 cups fresh lime juice
10 cups water

Make the simple syrup. Combine water and sugar in a sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar dissolves, and then boil, undisturbed and uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the rosemary stems. Cover, and let steep for 1 hour. Add 4 cups of the simple syrup to the lime juice and water, stir and serve over ice. Delicious!

HotM 15: Herbal Essence (Round-up)

Here's the round-up for Heart of the Matter 15: Herbal Essence - heart-healthy dishes that include herbs as a main ingredient! There were lots of inspiring entries from all over the world that blessed my inbox this month, including several new participants and many of you that have joined us every month to help keep this great event going! I hope you all find something to last you through the season - be it winter or summer in your neck of the woods - and we'll see you next month when Ilva hosts!

Without further adieu:

Labelga at Leafy Cooking offered her recipe for Tabouleh with Quinoa and Fresh Herbs. It looks like it's simply bursting with fresh, herbal flavor!

In her inaugural HotM entry, Another Outspoken Female from Melbourne, Australia, shared her recipe for Whole Kingfish with Turmeric and Ginger on her blog, Confessions from a Food Nazi. She's got tips for taking the plunge at baking a whole fish (something I've always wanted to try) using fresh turmeric and ginger - what a great resource!


Bee and Jai, often offering new and unusual ingredients on their blog Jugalbandi, shared their recipe for a beautiful Tarragon-scented Upma with Tomatoes, Olives and Lotus Seeds. As an added bonus, they even offer recipe for Mango Coconut Chutney to go with it!

It's great to have something new to do with green beans (I always end up blanching them) and Laurie, from her blog Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, has just the things with her recipe for Braised Green Beans (Fasolakia) with Lemon.

My co-cost Joanna, from Joanna's Food, made a lovely Lavender Syrup. That would make a positively wonderful housewarming gift, but it looks so good it might be hard to give it away!

Ali and Jon from Things We Ate For Dinner shared their recipe for a Pineapple-Basil Granita. Considering that I live in Hawaii and am surrounded by pineapples (and am lucky to have a patch of basil) I think that this recipe is going to grace our table this summer!


At Fun and Food, a vegetarian Tofu and Basil Thai Soup fit the bill for a heart-healthy herbal dish. There's even a recipe for home-made green curry paste included! Yum!

From South Africa, Cook Sister sent in her recipe for an amazing looking Garlicky Roasted Aubergine Dip. I bet there will be a great summer BBQ where I could show off this recipe!
The lovely Victoria at Oooh!Cake shared a fabulous sounding recipe for Not-Just-For-Breakfast Fish Cakes! I've never had fish for breakfast, but I think I'm going to have to change that!

Tasty Palettes offered up her beautiful and healthy Melon Salad with Mint and Buddha's Hand. I can't believe I had never heard of Buddha's hand citron before, but you can bet I'll be reading up on her blog at the rest of her recipes for it to learn more!
Katie, at Thyme for Cooking, shared her Creamy Herb Dressing with Yogurt and a delicious salad combination to eat it on. Now, who doesn't need a heart-healthy version of a creamy salad dressing to add to their repertoire? (I do! I do!) Check out her lovely herb pictures too...

My co-host and prolific blogger, Ilva from Lucullian Delights in Italy, shared two entries for this month's theme - the first was her aptly named (and very cute!) Herby Eggplant Cream/Soup:
Ilva's second entry was her innovative take on a heart-healthy and vegan Strawberry Smoothie with Mint and Oats. I never would have thought of that!

I think we finally picked a theme that the amazing Tanna just couldn't ignore! She's been unable to participate in HotM for quite some time, but the herbs called her in! (wink and hugs to you dear Tanna!) Check out Tanna's blog, My Kitchen In Half Cups for her take on a summery Panzanella.

Kopiaste, to Greek Hospitality shared her recipe for one of my favorite foods - white anchovies! She tells us how to marinate them and make them even more delicious in her first entry for HotM, Marinated Anchovies (Gavaros Marinatos).

Lastly, my own entry for...oh my gosh! I've been so busy I forgot to post it! Will have to do that...I made a cooling Rosemary Limeade. Have to get that up tomorrow as it is getting late here! Thanks everyone for participating and we'll see you next month! (It's up now!)

Tofu Home Run

Tofu is one of those things that people seem to either love or hate. LB and I happen to be on the love side of the tofu fence, and even if you only think it's an okay source of protein, you might just give this a try anyway and see what you think.

Back in "the day," before my tofu loving days (yikes, I just turned 30, so what day would that be?), I had eaten it strictly with Asian dishes, mostly at Chinese restaurants, and would never have dreamed of cooking it myself. In fact, I didn't cook much back then anyway. Thus, being a tofu-cooking virgin and all, when I first began my forays into the realms of this mysterious yet desirable food, I started out buying baked tofu. The texture was somewhat more appealing than the cold and mushy stuff that came packed in water (and I'll be the first to admit that even the extra-firm tofu is still a bit soft). I think I cut it up and put it in pasta salads with chunks of mozzarella, torn basil and fresh cherry tomatoes or some such thing. I really tested the limits here when I tried mixing up the flavors - from Italian- to Thai-flavored baked tofu. Ohhhh...I felt so daring! This bumbling attempt at first base, as it tends to be sometimes, was only mildly satisfying and soon I had visions of pushing the boundaries and going a bit further.

When I finally got up the nerve to try and reach second base, opening up one of those watery packages and letting my fingers caress one of those big juicy white blocks, I was well on my way to tofu love. I added big chunks of the fluffy stuff to stir fries - mixing it in with snow peas, carrots, water chesnuts, bean sprouts - all the good stir-fry stuff. Because that's what you use tofu for, right? "Asian" food and health food (and I didn't know how to make weird health food dishes, so those I bought pre-made), and that's about the extent of my affair with it.


I rounded third base when I learned to drain and then gently fry the tofu in a small amount of oil. This gave the little cubes and rectangles I had cut from the big block a nice, almost crispy texture that held up better in stir fries and in my favorite udon noodle soup. These experiments led to things like grilled tofu and tofu larb (another favorite). This was a whole new level of experience for me! I'd spend my time flipping through cookbooks, looking for new ways to satisfy my tofu cravings. By this time, there was no turning back. I had to go all the way.

And there's nothing quite like crossing home plate, baby. I discovered this tofu recipe in an old Martha Stewart cookbook I picked up from our local independent book store in Eugene (Smith Family Books), and it's been a favorite ever since. We've modified it on occasion, adding different garnishes, etc. but it's so simple that you really don't even need a recipe (though the sauce is good). And it's not only a favorite recipe, but the best way to eat tofu that I've found. It's tofu, in it's purest, naked form - it's birthday suit, really - raw. When I first saw the recipe: Cold Tofu Salad with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce, I wasn't too sure about raw tofu, but I thought, what the heck? I was in love with tofu already...might as well try it once. Even if it's not everything I hoped for, it would probably still be good anyway, right? And it might even elevate my relationship with tofu to a whole different level. So I did it. I tried it. And it was good. Really good. Raw and primal and delicious. So good, in fact, that I even told my friends about it. So good that I'm posting it here and trying to convince you that you should try it too...like I said, it's a home run, baby. Next inning, please...


Cold Tofu Salad with Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce, serves 4
recipe originally from Martha Steward Healthy Quick Cook

1 block extra firm tofu (preferably organic)
4 scallions, white and light green parts thinly sliced lengthwise into strips
2 tsps black sesame seeds
garnishes - bean sprouts, a cherry tomato, anything you'd like really
2 cups crushed ice, for serving

Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 inch of ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 scallion, thinly sliced crosswise

Slice a block of extra firm tofu into thin slices - thick enough that you can pick them up with chopsticks, but thin enough that you can enjoy the flavor without thinking to yourself, "crap, I've got a big bunch of raw tofu in my mouth!" Put crushed ice in bowls so that there is a mound on the bottom of each bowl, and lay the slices on top of the ice so that there are equal numbers in each bowl (trust me, I'm not usually one to worry about how something is served, but the ice actually makes this better). Garnish the top with the black sesame seeds (or toasted white ones would work too, but the black is a great contrast), and any other garnishes you want to add. Aliquot out the dipping sauce so that there is a small bowl for each person. Dip, eat and fall in love.

Herbal Essence: HotM 15

Herbs are quite possibly some of the most versatile ingredients out there when it comes to cooking. They can deepen and enrich the flavor of whatever you might be cooking, turn a bland dish into one that *pops,* and even serve as a main ingredient in many recipes (traditional pesto made from basil, for instance). Herbs transcend borders and show up in all types of ethnic dishes, many of which are essential for regional cuisines and even drinks - think Insalata Caprese with bountiful leaves of freshly torn basil, Greek salads sprinkled with lemony oregano, chanterelles tossed in butter with tiny leaves of earthy thyme, and mojitos with fresh mint. And there is no season like Spring to capitalize on these little bundles of flavor, when fresh herbs start shooting up out of the ground and are ready to grace our tables for the next several months. Even better, they're one of the easiest things to grow and can be grown anywhere from tiny pots in the kitchen windowsill or massive fragrant herb gardens.

For healthy cooking, herbs are a cook's best friend. The scent and fresh taste of herbs can transform any dish from boring to spectacular without the use of lots of oil, heavy creams, cheeses or other flavorings that are typically not a (large) part of a healthy diet. This month for Heart of the Matter, we want to see the kinds of dishes you love to make with herbs. Choose a heart-healthy recipe where your favorite dried or fresh herb is an prominent ingredient and share it with the community of bloggers devoted to caring for your heart who participate in and read about this event. If you've participated in the popular Weekend Herb Blogging event over at Kalyn's Kitchen, then you've got the gist of this theme already - if you haven't, feel free to browse over there to get some ideas for how bloggers have incorporated herbs into healthy dishes - just make sure that your dish for the HotM event is heart-healthy. As always we ask that this please be a single event entry (please don’t use your post for other events, like Weekend Herb Blogging, that way we can keep things centered on healthy heart awareness - although please don't hesitate to submit different recipes to both)!

The rules: If you’ve participated before, you already know the basics. If you haven’t, check here, here and here for ideas on what “heart-healthy” means, and we hope that you’ll join us! Just send your entry to me via email (phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com) by midnight on Friday, May 30th and link to my site, The Accidental Scientist (and to the HotM blog if you’d like) and I’ll post the round-up on the following Monday or Tuesday on both sites. Thanks ahead of time for your participation - I'm already looking forward to using many of your recipes this spring and summer!

Diet for a Small Bird

Say hello to Tweety. Tweety is a Myna bird.

Let me tell you a little story...

LB and I were taking our dogs for a walk last Thursday and came upon a nest that had fallen out of a tree.

"Oh, look at the baby bird!" -LB
"Look at how cute he is." - MP
"Yeah, he's really cute." -LB

At this point, Tweety extended his spindly little neck, tweeting, and opened his enormously wide mouth, shaking it and tweeting.

"Oh, look how hungry he is." -LB
"Poor baby bird." - MP

At this point, Tweety extended his spindly little neck, tweeting, and opened his enormously wide mouth, shaking it and tweeting.

"He's kind of cute." - MP
"Yeah, he's really cute." - LB
"Should we take him home?" - LB
"oh, I don't know if that's a good idea..." - MP

At this point, Tweety extended his spindly little neck, tweeting, and opened his enormously wide mouth, shaking it and tweeting.

"He's really hungry." - LB
"Yeah, he looks hungry." - MP
"He sure is cute..." - LB
"Yeah, he's really cute." -MP
"What if he dies out here?" - LB
"He probably will. Poor baby bird." - MP

At this point, Tweety extended his spindly little neck, tweeting, and opened his enormously wide mouth, shaking it and tweeting. So, LB picked up the nest that Tweety was in, and started carrying him home.

"Wait a sec, what are you doing?" - MP
"Taking him home. You said he was cute and he's really hungry and would die if we didn't help him. So I know you, and you want to take him home and help him." - LB
"NO. I said he was cute, and he is, but I don't want a baby bird! What are we going to do with a baby bird?" -MP
"Well, it's too late now, we've got a baby bird." - LB

So, somehow, we are the proud parents of Tweety.
Tweety has to be fed once an hour all day long. (Guess who gets to feed Tweety. Hint: Not the one who brought him home.)
Tweety lives in an empty Corona box with an old towel as a nest.
Our dogs want to eat Tweety (we won't let them).
Tweety poos all over the place every time he eats. (Guess who gets to clean Tweety too)

But he is cute. Especially when he extends his spindly little neck, tweeting, and opens his enormous little mouth and begs for food. It's especially cute because he does it now if we whistle at him.

Tweety is an invasive species, as are many of the birds here (couldn't get lucky and find some kind of an endemic pretty parrot-looking thing, could we?). And while he might have died in the wild (which I would have been fine with - that's nature, right?), I don't want him to die now that he's with us. We'll most likely release him as soon as he fledges and can eat on his own - supposedly, after 29-35 days. Stupid cute bird. Stupid soft heart. I'll keep you updated on Tweety's progress - he's much stronger now than when we found him. He opened his eyes the day after we brought him home and gets more feathers every day (ie. gets cuter too). Btw, we're not sure Tweety is a he or she, but for whatever reason, we decided he looks like a he, so there you go.

My brother and I actually raised 3 baby magpies in Colorado on dog food when I was a kid because their mother was killed (I won't go into the details of how, but suffice it to say we knew it was their mother). They all successfully fledged and hung around the farm where I grew up for quite a while. I'm definitely NOT condoning raising baby birds (nor taking them or any other wild animal out of the wild and into your home to raise them - especially marine animals!! Do as I say and not as I do!), but sometimes it just so happens that you end up with a baby bird (ahem, like when your husbands decides to bring one home), and well, I guess if you find yourself with one, here's what you can feed them:

Diet for a Small Bird (specifically, a baby Myna bird), serves 1

Soak several pieces of dry dog kibble in warm water until soft, then smash with a fork or a mortar and pestle. Feed the equivalent of 3 kibble pieces to the baby bird using blunt plastic tweezers, per hour while you are awake and until it gets dark in the evening. Occasionally, mix it up with small pieces of apple bananas or papaya, as Myna's are omnivorous. After feeding, give him a few drops of water via a plastic dropper. Try not to fall in love, and hope he fledges quickly.

Stepping into the Ring

The first time you use an unfamiliar kitchen, and especially an unfamiliar oven, it can be quite a challenge. You don't know how that oven or stove is going to act...will it pull tricks on you? Burn everything you put in it? Have even heating? Become your nemesis? Pulling out my pots and pans for the first time in my new Hawaiian kitchen felt like stepping into a boxing ring, and I was not sure if I was ready to face my opponent...the new oven. To make matters worse, the first time I used it, I took on a real challenge: baking a tart for my 30th birthday. If it didn't come out, if I burned the crap out of it (or alternatively, if it ended up coming out looking like a sad, sorry, unevenly baked doughy little thing), I was sure going to be disappointed...

It's the main event, folks!

In this corner, wearing the blue and white apron and hailing from Eugene, Oregon, we have our first contender: Michelle "Hawaii 5-O." Weighing in at 100 lbs and 5'0" tall, Hawaii 5-O is new to the islands and is attempting to defend her title as the Lightweight Champion of the Kitchen against the undisputed Hawaiian champion, the heavyweight Kenmore "Smoothtop" Electric Oven. While fairly diminutive in height at a not-so-impressive 3'8", Smoothtop outweighs Hawaii-5-O by several hundred pounds. Smoothtop has reigned supreme in this here kitchen for many years now, and is not going to be easily unseated. This is the first meeting of these two fighters, and we're anxious to see who will prevail as the winner.

Now for a little background...Smoothtop, our resident champion, is known for a move Hawaii-5-O hasn't come up against in a quite a long time. It's called, "the broiler." In her last fight against the GE 5000, this little move was almost the end of Hawaii-5-O's love of baking! With nearly 100 degrees of extra heat under normal fight conditions, when the GE 5000 used "the broiler," it would short out the entire house, set off the fire alarms, burn the hell out of whatever was in the oven and end the fight. It took a fair amount of time before Hawaii-5-O figured out how to stop the GE 5000 from pulling that one on her, allowing her to finally take the lead and secure her Oregon title. Now that she's moved to the Islands though, she's got to win this fight or hang her head, give up the oven, and go back to the grill and the saute' pan if she lets Smoothtop best her.


And just what's at stake, you ask? Why nothing less than a year's worth of either burned or perfectly roasted meats and vegetables, and a whole lot of blackened or golden-brown baked goods, of course! The winner of this first round reigns supreme for the remainder of the time these two fighters are in the kitchen together, and there's no real second chance on this one. It's a fight to the "death" of a 30th birthday tart, and as you all know, you only get one 30th birthday. Beware folks - it may not be pretty. Parents should be advised that this fight could contain images of blackened crust, resulting in much cursing and language from one of our contenders (namely, Hawaii-5-O) that isn't appropriate for youngsters or maybe even the rest of the blogosphere.

But enough of this jabbering! Let's get this fight started! There's the bell -

Our fighters are facing off now...

Hawaii-5-O nimbly moves in towards Smoothtop,
tightening her apron as she goes...
She turns to the left,
quickly grabs the Cuisinart food processor and...
pulverizes a bunch of white nuts
(since this is Hawaii, they're probably macadamia nuts)!
This is obviously a move to unnerve Smoothtop
from his stoic stance on the far side of the kitchen.
But Smoothtop is still holding steady...
Hawaii-5-O turns and faces him, sneers...
She reaches up...
And she snaps Smoothtop's dial, turning it to a raging 350F!
That's pretty hot! These fighters aren't just playing around!
Smoothtop's face turns bright red with heat -
it looks like Hawaii-5-O has really pissed him off!
Hawaii-5-O returns to the far side of the kitchen,
even turning her back on Smoothtop (she's pretty brave to do that).
Will he turn on "the broiler" while she's not looking?
Now she's pressing those nuts into a tart pan,
and turning back to face Smoothtop -
he just let out a little whelp...
She quickly runs up to him, opens his door
and faces that red heat without even blinking.
Before old Smoothtop can even do a thing,
she's thrown the tart in, and closed the door!
Now she's back at the counter,
mixing, beating and folding -
all the while watching Smoothtop out of the corner of her eye.
In just 12 minutes, Hawaii 5'0"turns back around to face our champion,
approaches him slowly, and whips the tart out of the oven.
and...
Whew...golden edges.
It looks like the fight is over and we have our winner, folks:
Hawaii-5-O reigns supreme!
She's the champion of this Hawaiian kitchen and
it looks like we can be expecting to see a fair amount of
oven-cooked and oven-baked recipes coming from this blog then.

Having prevailed at my first attempt at baking in this new oven, I felt it was time to celebrate (not only the baking, but surviving my 3rd decade and coming out with only a few gray hairs and wrinkles too - hey! you take what you can get at this age, right?) and LB and I opened up a bottle of Moet and Chandon champagne, a Christmas present from my sister and brother-in-law, which we brought all the way from Colorado to Eugene to Hawaii for this very occasion (the birthday), and toasted to my successes. I can't think of any better way than to celebrate...except maybe heading for the most amazing sushi restaurant that I've ever been to, but that's for LB's 30th, in a little over a week (we decided to split up the indulgences - I got the champagne on mine, he gets the amazing dinner on his, and we both benefit from each), and I'll fill you in on that when the time comes.


This recipe is extremely versatile and delicious. It garnered rave reviews (as did the champagne) and stories about it have even been shared (always a good sign, no?). I got the original recipe from a friend, who had modified it, and I further modified it by changing the crust and the topping. Make it with whatever you have in your neck of the woods or whatever is seasonal right now. I used a locally made Mango and Peach curd with Rose Petals from Planted by the River (see source info below), and it's smooth, gently sweetened taste went perfect with the slight tang of the mascarpone and cream cheese mix. The rose petals added a whole extra dimension of complexity to the curd and it all worked together perfectly.

Were I still in Eugene (yep - still occasionally dreaming), I'd make the crust with hazelnuts and do some kind of a berry jam or curd on top it. How about a hazelnut crust with huckleberry jam? Maybe an almond crust and meyer lemon curd on top? Oh, or thin slices in early spring strawberries would be just amazing too. Even here in Hawaii, I could have used lilikoi (passionfruit) or guava curd or jam, which was my original intent but the store was out, or even overlapping slices of fresh mango slices or another fruit nestled together (whole raspberries?) would have been both delicious and beautiful. I would have loved to have garnished the top with a few mango slices this time too, but alas, no mangos in the house this week. Maybe next time!



Sources:
Planted by the River
Mililani, HI
http://www.plantedbytheriver.com/

You can order these delicious curds online, or there are several local sources listed on the website. Some time in the future, I may try and contact the entrepreneurs, Randy and Donna Nakamoto, directly to see if they would let me come see them make their beautiful exotic curds. And these curds are some of the best I have ever tasted. When doing the search for their website, I found that even Heidi, from 101 Cookbooks, agrees.

Might as well have a cocktail.

After spending the first few weeks of my time here freaking out about how expensive everything is in Hawaii (I blame living on student wages for the last 10 years), I've finally come to my senses and accepted the fact that the high cost of food is partly due to the expense of getting the food to an island that is something like 3,000 miles away from the mainland coast (only partly, mind you, because there is some talk that some of the costs involved are only because people expect the prices to be unreasonably high and so, the grocery stores, always the capitalists, follow suite). As such, the carbon footprint for most of the food available here must be astronomical. Thus, ever the Eugene liberal tree-hugger (even if my environs have changed), it's even more important to eat locally and seasonally here.

For the most part, many of the items that can grow here can be grown all year long, but supposedly the longer you are here the more you can recognize the seasons, and I am excited to be able to add this keen skill to my repertoire someday in the future. Strangely enough, however, locally grown food is not necessarily cheaper than a tomato grown in Mexico and carried by boat or airplane to get here (and that looks a tad...um, ruffled after its journey), especially in the grocery stores. Ah, but here's where the farmer's markets come in and save the day...not exactly cheaper (though some things are), but way less travel, much higher quality, and actually more variety too (limes are oddly difficult to find here in grocery stores, and probably simply because they are hard to find I have been craving them like nobody's business). We're checking out the last of the markets this evening and I'll have a post up on that soon. Joyfully, many months before our actual arrival in Oahu, I also sought out - with my fingers and toes crossed - a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group and lo and behold there is one on Oahu and lucky for me, they happen to have a drop-off box in my neighborhood. Yay! And the cherry on top? It's even organic produce. Double yippy yay!! I'll keep you updated on when that begins too - just what does one get in a Hawaiian CSA box?


And so, to celebrate, I figured I might as well run out and get some local produce and make myself a cocktail with it. Breakfast/brunch cocktail that is (although I do see many fruity, tropical - and let's not forget alcoholic - drinks in my future here too). You see, it's time again for another installment of that happy, heart-healthy event that I'm lucky enough to help my friends Ilva and Joanna host every month: Heart of the Matter, or HotM. I missed the party last month with the big move in full swing, so I wasn't about to miss this month, where Joanne is hosting a round-up of Brunch recipes (check her blog, or the HotM blog, for the round-up sometime after the 27th).

I love brunch. I especially love brunch with lots of food, lots of friends, and lots of champagne or cocktails. I also think that brunch should occasionally be enjoyed in pajamas, and so to honor this thought, I ate these nice little breakfast "cocktails" in my PJs and am writing this up sitting in them (ah, yes, there are sometimes great things about not being officially employed). So, I present to you my entry for this month's HotM: Lemony Fruit and Yogurt Cocktails. Now, these little numbers could probably be considered more of a "parfait" than a cocktail, but since I am sitting here, in my PJs, thinking of real fruity (alcoholic) cocktails, and because I served it in a fruity cocktail drink glass (otherwise known as a "big freakin' margarita glass"), I think I'll call them just that. Besides, I enjoyed it out on the lanai (porch) too - where all fruity cocktails, drinkable or otherwise, should be enjoyed.

I've long had dreams of incorporating quinoa into breakfast (don't ask me why), but here I went with whole wheat couscous for the texture. These are hearty enough to be breakfast (easy enough too) or you could put them in small, little cocktail glasses (martini anyone?) and they would be a perfect addition to brunch. It's very healthy, low in fat, and filling. I used non-fat yogurt and cooked the couscous in soy milk to keep the cholesterol down and give it a little sweetness. We used fruit that we had available, and that grows here (pineapple and 2 different kinds of papaya - see the picture above, and more on those later), but depending on where you are and the season, this would be great with any berries or citrus. If I'd had limes, I'd have put lime juice and zest in the yogurt instead of lemon to go with the tropical fruit, but maybe stick with the lemon for berries? Garnish with mint too, if you've got it!

Lemony Fruit and Yogurt Cocktails
serves 2 for breakfast, 4 for brunch with other brunch-able goodies, and obviously could easily be scaled up for more

3/4 cup soymilk (you could even use low-fat)
1/2 cup whole wheat couscous
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt, drained overnight in cheesecloth
1 lemon, zested and juiced
sliced fresh fruit - at least 2 different kinds
mint, for garnish (optional)

Bring the soymilk almost to a boil over low heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add the couscous, stir, cover the pot and remove it from the heat, letting it sit while you prepare the rest of the parfait ingredients (This could easily be made ahead and chilled, and I recommend it actually, because I had to make these twice - and let the couscous sit and cool - to get a pretty picture because the glasses kept steaming up. I might bring it to room temp before serving though).

In a small bowl, combine the drained yogurt ("yogurt cheese") with the lemon juice and lemon zest. Next, pick out your favorite cocktail glass, and fill the bottom with a large spoonful (or two, depending on your glass and how many you're feeding) of couscous. Layer one type of fruit atop the couscous, then add a layer of yogurt. Layer another type or two of fruit on top of the yogurt, garnish with mint (if you've got it - we didn't), and serve.

Welcome to the Islands

Ginger, flowering in our front yard

Aloha! Well, we've arrived in our new home on the island of Oahu and are finally beginning to settle in. It's been nearly two weeks of continually running the various errands that are required when you move to a new place and have nothing but the two bags you checked and the two you carried with you on the airplane (and, thankfully, your two dogs...who were so enormous and heavy that they were required to be "air cargo" - making them the most expensive part of your move - and that, to your dismay, have already have caught Hawaiian fleas even though you treated them for Oregon fleas just 10 days ago as part of the quarantine requirements for your new home state - arg!).

We've figured out how to get to the grocery store and the beach (the two most important places of course), gotten ourselves a contingent of simple food to get us through the first few weeks, learned to make our way to the big city of Honolulu (about 25 minutes away, when there is no traffic), bought ourselves a car, opened new bank accounts (who knew there were no "mainland" banks on the Islands?), met our lovely neighbors and learned to pronounce the name of the street we live on and a few of the highways (for instance, the Likelike Highway is not pronounced "like - like," but "lee-kay-lee-kay," unless of course you want to be immediately identified as a haole ("how-lee"), the not so endearing term for one who lives here but is not from here. But then again, one shouldn't worry too much about mispronouncing something, if one has pasty-white Eugene, Oregon winter skin that going to give you away anyway!).

Over-all, the move went very smoothly and we are now in the process of trying to find some sort of a semi-normal routine. The dogs and all of the items we shipped arrived safely and unharmed (including my KitchenAid mixer and my computer - one reason why it took me two weeks to begin blogging again). LB began his job on Monday and he thinks he's really going to love it, and I've decided to take the month off and prepare for the freshman biology course I'll be teaching at a small private university here beginning in the middle of May (and indulge in the time off to get organized and blog and...whatever else my heart desires). The house is great and our landlord is great, and just to give you a teaser, this is where we can eat breakfast or dinner now (although don't be too jealous - wait until I tell you how much breakfast and dinner groceries cost!):

The Lanai

Ah yes, the groceries. My worst nightmare - groceries are ridiculously expensive. I knew they would be more expensive than Eugene, I just didn't know by how much. On our first trip to the Safeway chain store that is a few blocks away, we discovered that a dozen eggs cost nearly $7, milk was $4.99+ for a half-gallon (and that's with the "Safeway club card" savings), a jar of peanut butter was $8, and a small bottle of lotion was nearly $10...and that's not the foofy organic stuff we're used to eating, either (ha ha, not including the lotion). We have since run the gamut of grocery stores here and found a local, vegetarian, natural foods store called Down to Earth (and they even carry some organic and local produce and products!), which is fairly close and surprisingly, has far better prices than Safeway (and the sale prices are even better!). The farmer's markets (yes, I've already sought all of them out on the entire island) have pretty good prices and produce that is far more enticing than any of the grocery stores (most of them have very sad looking produce - poor lettuce, I want to cry for them too), and Costco is a lifesaver, where prices for 6 cans of beans in bulk nearly equals the sale price of 2 at any of the grocery stores (we signed up, and stocked up, this last weekend).

I called my mom and told her to "send lotion, send food!" and while LB was aghast when I unpacked the spices I had brought and the jar of Dagoba cocoa powder that I'd sneaked into the boxes, I'm certainly happy I have them now and don't have to pay to replace them (damn, why didn't I bring the bay leaves? And about 50 cans of beans??!)! It's definitely going to change the way I cook, because there will be no more looking for inspiration and going to get the groceries I want... something more along the lines of finding a sale and going forward from there: 3 day old bread loaf for $0.99? When a loaf of flimsy, sliced bread is normally $5.50? It's hard as a rock, but once the knives get here I could cut the crusts off...grab some free basil from the yard and tomatoes at the farmer's market for almost half-price? Panzanella! We'll just have to live without the parmesan on it until that goes on sale too. Maybe we could call it poor man's panzanella - panzanella missing all the ingredients that cost too much that week? ;)

Truly, it's beautiful here and there are many things to love (the beach is nice - and we're going snorkeling on Thursday). The weather has been rainy, actually - almost like home in Eugene. Especially this week, but apparently, we are on the rainy side of the island and it's a warm rain, which is a welcome respite from the chilly rain of Oregon (which is something I don't miss). I miss my friends, I miss the places I knew I would, but I know that this will begin to feel more and more like home as time goes on. Now, on to unpack those kitchen boxes...it's time to get cooking!

Moving.

My life is in boxes. My house has been slowly emptying, room-by-room, and box-by-box. My roommate (not LB, my other roommate!) has moved out most of his things. My parents came and went, taking with them all of the pictures and memories and fragile things that we could not take to Hawaii but couldn’t bear to part with. One of the couches is gone and the other is leaving in a day or so, leaving us with only the floor to sit on as the chairs have already been moved out. Even my plants have found new homes, all except for the one that I’ve had for over 10 years – the one I bought for my college dorm room – that one goes to my dear friend Kristin, for safekeeping. The woman who was going to buy our bed neglected to call this weekend and so, thankfully, we still have a mattress to sleep on until we leave - the extra fifty dollars suddenly taking a backseat to the comfort we seek in our sheets after long evenings of packing and separating, separating and packing...this to Hawaii, that to storage, this to donate, that to toss in the recycling bin or the garbage can...twenty-nine years of accumulation being pared down to only the most important of material things.

My kitchen is packed away, bundled in bubble wrap, coddled by tissue paper and Styrofoam, and taped up - ready to be shipped to Hawaii. Most of my bakeware, my pots and pans and kitchen gadgets, unless exorbantly expensive or very high quality, were given away or sold at our yard sale a week ago. The rest was stored with my parents or went into the 6 uniform cardboard boxes with the U-Haul logo printed on the outside in dark green ink. After our final round of packing tonight, LB will rent a mini-van and haul the boxes to Portland tomorrow to be shipped as freight, arriving a week after we get to the Island. Then, we’ll start the process of cleaning the house, hoping to retrieve as much of our rental deposit as possible, to put towards helping us afford this vastly expensive endeavor. Next weekend, we’ll rent another car (ours will be gone by then – it already belongs to someone else who has graciously offered to let us use it the rest of this week), we'll drive down to San Francisco, California, put our dogs on a plane as “cargo,” and hop on separate flights trekking halfway across the Pacific Ocean to Honolulu, Hawaii.

I hope it all goes well.

Moving is so hard. People keep telling me it is one of the most stressful things we humans go through. I don’t necessarily feel stressed out (more exhausted really), but I know that the increasing ease with which my tears come as I slowly say goodbye to friends that I won’t see again for an indeterminate amount of time is a sure sign that I’m feeling the impact of leaving and this chapter of my life coming to a close.

I know that this is an adventure; a unique experience that will be good for me and open up new opportunities that I never knew existed. It’s a chance to begin again and see what the world has to offer. And, though I haven't said it before on this blog, it’s my last attempt at a job in science – academia anyway. And if I find it isn’t what I want, that it doesn’t enrich my soul or make me excited like it once did, then I know that it will be time to move on to something else. Who knows, perhaps I will no longer be an “accidental” scientist or maybe not even a scientist at all...my forays could lead me to seek a job in the food world. Or, I could fall back in love with science – that complicated companion that has led me through so many ups and downs during graduate school, almost on the verge of quitting more than once. And yet, having given nearly 12 years of my life to it, is so difficult to let go of.

I imagine that I could love coral reefs and the scientific inquiries to be explored within them – that was what I originally set out to do in graduate school, after all. But that remains to be seen – my funding for the job I have there has yet to come through, meaning that the road is wide open and I will have to find a temporary job in the meantime (shhh...I’ve been looking at bakeries and restaurants). I will miss Eugene. I will sorely miss the people here and the community. And of course: the food. This is the town where I found my passion, my love of all things culinary. This is where I fell in love with Pinot Noir, with chanterelles and sweet black truffles, hazelnuts and oysters. This is where I really started cooking (I had only really dabbled before), it’s where I began trying new things in the kitchen and where I started up this little blog (nearly two and a half years ago!). The excitement I feel for a new beginning in Hawaii is tinged with bittersweet sadness. Still, my bags are packed, and the plane leaves in a little less than a week. There’s no turning back now, so I’m trying to face forward with an open mind and an open heart to what Hawaii has to offer.

I know that in a few weeks I’ll be sitting in my new kitchen, opening boxes instead of closing them. I know that my closest friends will be carried with me in my heart and are only a phone call away, and that I will meet new people and make new friends, and that comforts me. And I know you’ll be here, dropping by to say hello and offer support, to see what sort of new culinary adventures Hawaii holds for me – and I’m excited to be able to take you along as I explore my new home.

For those of you in this area, or interested in this area, I leave you in the very capable hands of Culinaria Eugenius – a new food blog here. Go and visit and read about her adventures in her kitchen; she’s sure to keep you entertained and coming back for more about Oregon’s culinary offerings. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I hope you’ll come with me too. The next time I post here will be from Kaneohe, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu – I’m not sure when it will be, but hopefully within a week or two...we’re hoping we have internet access at the house we’ll be renting (just imagine – weekend posts!!).

So, my friends, until then? I’ll see you in Hawaii...

Face It Boys: There are No Panty Tickle Fights

LB has this hair-brained idea that whenever women get together in a group with just the ladies, they have themselves a panty tickle fight, ie. they attempt to tickle each other, sans pants (not sans panties, mind you, just pants). I’ve tried repeatedly to convince him that this doesn’t actually occur, but he’ll hear none of it, preferring instead to live happily in his ignorance, imagining such an event occurring in its half-naked splendor. At first, I assumed this was purely an LB thing. I learned quickly, however, after being introduced to several of LB’s friends and catching snippets of conversation among other men when told my girls and I were about to have a “Girl’s Nite Out,” that this (or some variation on it) is actually a somewhat widespread phenomenon. In fact, it either came from, or at least is widespread enough to have garnished its very own Seinfeld episode:

"What else did you two do?"

"Oh, you know, girly stuff."

"So, uh, flower shows, shopping for pretty bows, then back to her place, strip down to bra and panties for a tickle fight."

"That's really what you think girls do, isn't it?"

"Yes, I do."

- Jerry and Elaine, in "The Pool Guy"

Needless to say, I was shocked! Do men really believe we women run around in our panties tickling our best girl friends (braless cleavage struggling against tiny shirts, no doubt)? Oh, dear. And why am I talking about panty tickle fights on a food blog, you might ask? You see, the Ladies and I just recently returned from an overnight Girl’s Weekend Away. We headed up north to the beautiful McMinnville - right in the heart of Oregon wine country. We spent the night there at the lovely McMenamins’ Hotel Oregon. Together. In the same room. The same bed, actually, because the McMenamins only has single bed rooms. A big, king-sized bed. All three of us. To be honest, we didn’t sleep well – it’s just hard to sleep when you have two bodies in bed next to you, but we saved some money and we’re all small ladies so we fit just fine. LB, of course, was in imaginary heaven at the mere thought of all of this (all that time and proximity for panty tickle fights no doubt), and I am writing here to set him straight.

So, dear LB, let me just say that while I could possibly envision walking across a room wearing my panties and a t-shirt at some point during a weekend away with my Girls, “hanging out” like that is an entirely different story! And quite frankly my dear, the very thought of approaching my incredibly educated friends and trying to tickle them while I am not wearing any pants sounds just about like the most abnormal thing I can imagine!

Instead, here's what really occurred:

Being the fine, upstanding women that we are, my Girlfriends and I converged upon Willamette Valley wine country and got drunk off perfectly fermented grape juice instead. We gorged ourselves on lots of great vittles afterward. Then, we went shopping in the big city of Portland, just as any good women should do. So, sorry LB, instead of running around chasing each other in our panties, we were drinking, eating and shopping. And let me tell you, that was far better than any panty tickle fight you can imagine.

So here then, is where the food comes in and how I can justify flirting with a risqué post on my blog. You see, not only is this particular region of the Willamette Valley a veritable treasure trove of good wine, such notable and infamous Oregon restaurants that have pioneered local food movements in this region, notably The Painted Lady and Wildwood, are plentiful. We made our way to, count ‘em seven wineries during our trip. Thankfully, for the sake of our wallets, our figures and our wine tolerances, we learned quickly that the purchase of a single taste (usually $10) was plenty enough for three Girls to be able to have a few sips to taste the wine, talk about it and not get completely sh!t-faced by the seventh winery.

Ah, but the food. We had dinner at a lovely spot in downtown McMinnville called La Rambla, a tapas restaurant chosen because it was recommended by one of the tasting room pourers at Archery Summit Winery, which had the best Pinot Noir flight of the trip over-all. The food was delicious, especially the ham and manchego cheese croquetas with a smoked paprika sauce. The grilled artichoke hearts with lemon aoli (I full on plan on reproducing this at home! Someday when I have my pots and pans unpacked, perhaps, but still someday!) and the arugula, d'anjou pear, manchego and walnut salad with a Jerez vinaigrette (the “ensalada de arugala con peras”) were also excellent. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on this trip, so I only have a single picture from the entire trip, borrowed from my friend...


Dinner was great, but breakfast was the real winner. When we asked the waitress at La Rambla where to eat breakfast, she didn’t even hesitate and said with a definitive nod, The Crescent Café. She quickly followed this recommendation up by saying, “they get in there at 2:00 AM to make their homemade bread and they even make their corned beef hash from scratch!!” Needless to say, I was sold, and so were my friends.

We ambled in there the next morning after a short 15 minute wait (considering that this was also a restaurant recommended in the February 2008 Gourmet magazine) and were pleasantly surprised at the cozy, homey nature of the place. There were probably 15 tables and all of the waiters and waitresses were cheery and helpful. The man that showed us our table informed us that the orange juice was freshly squeezed, that it was blood orange juice, and that it was the sweetest and most wonderful of the entire season that very day (so, we of course, ordered it, and it was true – a gorgeous ruby-colored little drink as sweet as it could be). He also said that if we liked eggs benedict, we were in luck because today the chef had decided to make it and his lemon hollandaise was absolutely fabulous (yeah, I ordered that too, and a side of house-made pork sausage). The Crescent Café sources all of their ingredients from local area farms and makes as much as possible from scratch using fresh ingredients whenever possible. All of the food was delicious, and the restaurant comes highly recommended from this food blogger.

I've listed my favorite wines from each of the wineries we visited below, should you end up in the area, wanting to have your own panty tickle figh...ahem...I mean, your own Girl’s (or otherwise) Weekend Away, in Willamette Valley wine country.

Lange Estate – 2005 Yamhill Vineyards Pinot Noir (this wine was my fave from the trip, and the view from the grounds is stunning - we had a picnic lunch, wine in hand)
Torii Mor – 2005 Temperance Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir (decent wine, but the service left much to be desired, and I'm not the only one who has noticed this)
Sokol Blosser – 2006 Rose' of Pinot Noir (beautiful grounds and friendly service abounds at this organic winery)
Archery Summit – 2005 Premier Cuvee Pinot Noir (excellent wines - almost all of them were delicious!)
Domaine Drouhin Oregon – 2004 Pinot Noir Laurene (run by the fourth generation of Drouhins - Robert Drouhin came over from France and helped begin the Pinot Noir revolution in Oregon)
Vista Hills – 2005 Treehouse Pinot Noir (cute boutique winery featuring wines made by two different winemakers from their family run vineyards)
De Ponte – 2006 Rose (small winery, features wines from one of the same winemakers as Vista Hills)