Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night

On March 21st, Alma Chocolates hosted Alberta St.’s The Cheese Plate Food Cart in the Alma Kitchen to create a dinner of inventive grilled cheese bites. The Alma Kitchen is separate from their shop on NE 28th- instead this is a special event room in the newly renovated 105 year old American Brush Building, a former candy factory and grocery distribution center and then American Brush company (and thus the name- the sign for this still is painted on in white letters on the red bricks on one side of the building as you approach from Burnside) and which is supposedly haunted. Thankfully, although the building is rather quiet, when I pulled open one of the two bathroom doors at the end of the hall (not marked- you just have to look for the sliding lock that switches from In Use to Vacant) that said Vacant and saw just a bunch of janitorial and construction tools, I quickly closed it but nothing was moving and I noticed no shadows.

The event was set up as a casual cocktail party with rustic charm using burlap sacks to cover tables and the glow of lots of white candles: it would not have surprised me to hear there were 100 candles throughout the room.

There were a few wooden chairs set up at small tables along the walls around the rectangular space. This was a bit of a surprise to me as most cocktail events I know use lots of tall cocktail tables so that people may not be sitting, but they can anchor themselves by putting food and drink there, and those are throughout the space, including the middle. I got there close to when the doors opened at 6 and my friends and I snagged chairs by a good sized table, but more chairs must have been brought in as additional people sat in a row behind us. Most people ended up being able to sit as the staff brought out the wooden cutting boards to pass out bites of the grilled cheeses, although a few were left leaning against a wall. In the corner, musicians with a guitar and saxophone provided background music.

Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen

The first half hour included snacking from a table with plates of cheese and Alma chocolate- preview of individual bites of all of the cheeses that were being used in the sandwiches we would soon enjoy: River’s Edge “Up in Smoke” Chèvre, Portland Creamery “Sweet Fire” chèvre, Willamette Valley French Prairie Brie, Briar Rose Creamery Feta, Rogue Creamery “Crater Lake” Blue, La Mariposa Five Corners cheese, and Briar Rose Creamery “Madrona” (tallegio style) cheese.

When you first entered the room and saw this table, you couldn’t help but be really impressed by the selection and quality of artisan goods here. The accompaniment here of popcorn rather than the expected vehicle of crackers or baguettes was surprising (especially given 2 of the 5 cheeses were chèvres and how awesome the PDX Cheese Cart’s homemade crackers which I sampled at Wedge 2012 are) but that didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the cheeses, and kept our appetite ready for the grilled cheese bites.

Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Briar Rose Creamery "Madrona" (tallegio style) cheese Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Portland Creamery "Sweet Fire" chèvre Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Rogue Creamery "Crater Lake" Blue Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen La Mariposa Five Corners cheese Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Briar Rose Creamery Feta Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Willamette Valley French Prairie Brie Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Meyer Lemon Bourbon chocolate truffle Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Coconut Mexican and Habanero Caramel chocolate truffles Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen

The Menu of Oregon Cheese & Alma Chocolate included

  • Briar Rose Creamery “Madrona” with pear chutney, toasted and sandwiched with salted peanut butter cup cookies. A great start and end salty and savory and sweet “grilled cheese” course.
    Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Briar Rose Creamery Madrona salted peanut butter cup cookie sandwich Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Briar Rose Creamery Madrona salted peanut butter cup cookie sandwich
  • Rogue Creamery “Crater Lake Blue” with mocha almond nibby bark, toasted on cranberry bread. Warming up the blue cheese really brought out more of the flavor
    Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Rogue Creamery Crater Lake Blue with mocha almond nibby bark, toasted on cranberry bread Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Rogue Creamery Crater Lake Blue with mocha almond nibby bark, toasted on cranberry bread
  • Willamette Valley “French Prairie Brie,” habanero caramel, toasted on warm moist banana bread, I may have had 3 of these and taken 4 bites home in one of the pink boxes they offered at the end…
    Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Willamette Valley French Prairie Brie, habanero caramel, banana bread
  • La Mariposa “Five Corners” cheese and Briar Rose Creamery Feta, Mexican chocolate mole sauce, toasted on corn bread. Although this was tasty, since I was able to enjoy larger chunks of the feta earlier during the first half hour (which is mild and not as salty as you might assume with feta), I would say I liked it earlier than here because there just wasn’t enough of it and although I could see the Five Corners cheese it got a little lost with the corn bread and mole.
    Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen La Mariposa Five Corners cheese and Briar Rose Creamery Feta, Mexican chocolate mole sauce, corn bread Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen La Mariposa Five Corners cheese and Briar Rose Creamery Feta, Mexican chocolate mole sauce, corn bread
  • Portland Creamery “Sweet Fire Chèvre,” shaved dark chocolate truffle, toasted on buttery soft almond brioche was a spicy sweet soft bite
    Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen Portland Creamery Sweet Fire Chèvre shaved dark chocolate truffle, almond brioche
  • River’s Edge “Up in Smoke” Chèvre, lavender caramel sauce, toasted on pretzel bread. This was my favorite cheese of the night with its strong smoky flavor
    Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen River’s Edge Up in Smoke Chèvre, lavender caramel sauce,pretzel bread

The event was BYOB, although DRY’s sodas were also available in vanilla bean or lavender or you could mix the two! I really liked the vanilla bean soda- and although we also enjoyed a bubbly sparkling wine I had brought along, the soda also was a lovely refreshing pairing. The April F+P birthday party is coming up in April, and I am intrigued with the idea of including a couple cases of DRY soda with a bar for DIY mixers: if you visit the website they offer several cocktail mix recipes.
Alma Dinner Series: Grilled Cheese Night at the Alma Kitchen DRY soda vanilla bean

The next event in the Alma Dinner series is An Evening of Beer + Chocolate featuring five local breweries (Alameda, pFriem, Hopworks, The Commons Brewery, and Double Mountain) and five local chocolatiers (Alma Chocolate, Cacao, Cocanu, Woodblock, and Xocolatl de David) pairing their chocolate and beer together on April 4th, again at the Alma Studio.

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Sunday Supper at Meriwethers with Portland Creamery

Meriwether’s Restaurant is one of those restaurants I like to recommend for showcasing northwest farm to table cuisine. This is taken quite literally here at Meriwether’s- the owners have 5 acres of farm aka Skyline Farm that they use as a source. The fact that Meriwether’s also has its own parking lot makes it convenient for out of town visitors, and during nice weather their outdoor garden patio with stone paths and a gazebo with firepit are a nice alfresco dining escape.  The restaurant is within a historic building on the entrance location of the World’s Fair 1905, and the exterior of the building is pretty much the same as from that time- check out the photos inside and see for yourself!
exterior of Meriwether's restaurant in Portland exterior of Meriwether's restaurant in Portland exterior of Meriwether's restaurant in Portland interior of Meriwether's restaurant in Portland- bar area, viewed from by the host stand interior of Meriwether's restaurant in Portland

I’ve only been to Meriwether’s for brunch so far, but, they are open for lunch, dinner, and happy hour of course as well, and this would be my first dinner. But… it’s a special dinner. Meriwether’s has Sunday Supper, which is a farm to table dining series they have had for a few month to highlight their local purveyors.  This past Sunday, they featured a 4 course menu for $38 inspired from Portland Creamery artisan goat cheese while also utilizing produce harvested from their own Skyline Farm and products from other Oregon artisans. Liz Alvis, Owner and Cheesemaker of Portland Creamery, also attended and discussed and answered questions about how they produce their handcrafted goat cheese.
Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery, the menu Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery, the pics of the goats by Meriwether's fireplace

The first 30 minutes was people arriving and being seated at the communal tables, where the meal would be served family style. Most people took this opportunity to order cocktails or bottle(s) of wine. I stuck with something simple to refresh me from my fast paced walk from my house to Morrison and from 23rd St and Thurman to the restaurant (exercise! So I can eat all this cheese!). I also wanted to keep my palate relatively clean for the cheese to come. So I opted for the Lewis Lemonade with Indio Marionberry vodka, housemade marionberry puree, and hand squeezed lemonade. Unfortunately it didn’t have much flavor: perhaps all the better lemons and the bulk of the puree already got used up at the earlier brunch.

They did offer wine pairing suggestions for every course, but since they were full glasses it was more than I could hope to handle, and at the same prices as buying wine by the glass, it made sense for groups to just opt for a bottle(s) instead.
Meriwether's cocktail menu in March 2013 Meriwether's cocktail drink Lewis Lemonade with Indio Marionberry vodka, housemade marionberry puree, and hand squeezed lemonade

Executive Chefs Peter Kuhlman and Joshua Steiner started out the meal by describing how they incorporated cheese into all of the dishes. Later, as dessert was being served, Liz Alvis stood up and told us a few tales from the farm about her “girls” (the goats). Liz comes from a family that loves cheese- her mother and brother are running Mackenzie Creamery and source their goats milk from the Amish country in Ohio. So, even though Portland Creamery only started in fall of 2011, she has a great background of experience to reference.

Liz is fortunate to have her goat herd source be that of a long fine lineage (30+ year I think?), and in particular told us about how the genetics of the goats are critical in producing superior milk to then make superior cheese. One of the goats in the herd, Tetra (apparently short for Tetrazzini), is an award winning goat, in fact best in the nation, per the American Dairy Goat Association. They use some specific list of 95 points I think Liz said, and yes, there is a time just like with dog shows where the goat walks around in a ring to get shown and inspected!

You could definitely tell the care and affection she has for the goats as she explained how those ladies get the best quality grains, and just that morning as she was ladling curds she would just look out the window and smile and giggle as she watched them butt heads and be silly.
Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Executive Chefs Peter Kuhlman and Joshua Steiner Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Liz Alvis, Owner and Cheesemaker of Portland Creamery

And then, it was time to see and eat the proof. Serve the cheese! We started with an appetizer of Oregon Chevre Crostini with red wine poached pear, honey, and Skyline Farm greens. There was a thick generous smear of the chevre, which is exactly the right amount.
Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Oregon Chevre Crostini with red wine poached pear, honey, and Skyline Farm greens

The salad of Early Spring Greens from Skyline Farms of delicata squash, hazelnut crusted chevre, balsamico came so green and vibrant, and with a big hazelnut crusted chevre ball for each person at the table. The salad was delicious in that it let the flavors from the freshness of the robust mixed greens and of that squash speak for itself.

Each of these communal dishes was for half the table, so plenty for 4 people! I didn’t know that the big individual plate they just gave me was going to be taken away and replaced with an even bigger plate for the main course, so I had stacked my helping all nice to try to keep a cleaner plate: believe me it was a nice portion. That salad plate is the size of my normal dinner plates at home!
Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Early Spring Greens from Skyline Farms of delicata squash, hazelnut crusted chevre, balsamico Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Early Spring Greens from Skyline Farms of delicata squash, hazelnut crusted chevre, balsamico

They also were very generous with the soft doughy focaccia bread, bringing out a couple plates so that everyone could not resist taking 2 or 3 servings of the bread. They were SO GOOD.
Meriwether's  focaccia bread

The main course was Anderson Ranch roasted leg of lamb with farm leeks and mustard cream (with Portland Creamery contributing to the mustard cream). This was served along with an almond and cranberry couscous (I didn’t take a photo of that serving dish, but you can see it on my plate). This was again prepared so that we could taste and appreciate the original wholesome ingredients. Although I was shocked at the size of the lamb cuts when they first arrived on the table, I had no problem eating that whoooole thing. My plate was clean.
Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Anderson Ranch roasted leg of lamb with farm leeks and mustard cream Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Anderson Ranch roasted leg of lamb with farm leeks and mustard cream and almond and cranberry couscous Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Anderson Ranch roasted leg of lamb with farm leeks and mustard cream and almond and cranberry couscous

The dessert course was Apple Tart Tatin with Portland Creamery cajeta and apple mousse. The cajeta, which is a traditional Mexican goat’s milk caramel that thanks to the low slow process with milk and not just using sugar to caramelize, has an extra gooey richness to it.

Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Apple Tart Tatin with Portland Creamery cajeta and apple mousse Meriwether's Sunday Supper series with Portland Creamery Apple Tart Tatin with Portland Creamery cajeta and apple mousse

Liz also hopes to start producing aged cheeses this year, and opening an urban location with a few ambassador goats, in addition to continuing creating fresh cheeses.  And, similar to her, it’s hard for me to believe that all this delicious cheese which we had today was just 6 days ago, fresh milk from her goats. Overall, it was an amazing meal showcasing just how delicious local Northwest cuisine is.

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Photos from The Wedge: Portland Celebrates Cheese Festival

The Wedge comes to Portland every other year to celebrate Northwest cheese. The block in front of Green Dragon was blocked off so that you could sip a beer with your tastings as well at this farmer’s market-style event that let you sample at various cheesemaker artisan booths.  Overall, I believe there were 18 cheesemakers present along with a few other booths related to cheese (such as smoked salmon or Olympic Provision meats to go with your cheese plate, or educational via the Oregon State University or Urban Cheesecraft or  Dairy Farmers of Oregon).

The Wedge Portland Celebrates Cheese banner 2011 The Wedge Portland Cheese Fairview Farm Goat Dairy

We came home with eight cheeses, so that naturally illustrates what worked with both our palates and rated high. These included Beehive Cheese Company’s Habanero Apple Walnut Promontory and also their Barely Buzzed which is rolled in espresso and lavender; Willamette Valley Cheese Company tempted us with many cheeses but the cumin gouda made the cut; Fairview Farm Goat Dairy bringing the Icelandic Skyr style in with cranberry and one with strawberry made the biggest impression on me; Rollingstone Chevre (traveling in from Idaho so not quite Northwest but hey welcome) tempted us with a jar of Basil Pepper Provencal and a 3 Pepper Chevre log (as well as other chevres varying from orange + almond and sundried tomato pesto to cranberry walnut or basil pistachio tortas); and Fern’s Edge Dairy with a fig walnut sweet chevre (other tempting chevres included Chantarelle garlic, Pear Anise, Apricot Honey, Blueberry Ginger! And, the signature Mt Zion also was quite a treat).

The Wedge Portland Cheese offerings of Willamette Valley CheeseThe Wedge Portland Cheese Willamette Valley Cheese Herb de Provence HavartiThe Wedge Portland Cheese Willamette Valley Cheese  Brindisi Aged FontinaThe Wedge Portland Cheese Willamette Valley Cheese Aged GoudaThe Wedge Portland Cheese Willamette Valley Cheese Cumin GoudaThe Wedge Portland Cheese Willamette Valley Cheese Cumin GoudaThe Wedge Portland Cheese Willamette Valley Cheese borenkaas gouda Wedge Portland Cheese Rollingstone Chevre Wedge Portland Cheese Rollingstone Chevre Bail Pepper ProvencalWedge Portland Cheese Rollingstone Chevre Wedge Portland Cheese Rollingstone Chevre

Runner ups included La Mariposa’s Cinco Esquinas and Chubut, Golden Glen Creamery dill & garlic packed a flavorful punch, Samish Bay Cheese with their unique and impressive lineup with Ladysmith (a fresh cheese) that included one with arugula and another that had a rind with cocoa + chipotle (on the left in one of the photos), Portland Creamery’s new entrance to the market with a Pumpkin Stout chevre and Sweet Fire chevre, and Black Sheep Creamery Basque Style Cheese and Tin Willow Tomme.

Wedge Portland Cheese La MariposaWedge Portland Cheese La Mariposa Wedge Portland Cheese Samish Bay Ladysmith Wedge Portland Cheese Samish Bay Black Mambazo LadysmithWedge Portland Cheese Samish Bay Ladysmith

Tillamook, one of the main sponsors, brought their little orange car (Loafy) and all these buttons and cheese. I’m a big fan of the vintage white extra sharp cheddar and smoked black pepper and white cheddar. They were handing out stacks of coupons for all their products- cheese, butter, ice cream… Enjoy these cheese photos and those from other wonderful cheesemakers.

Wedge Portland Cheese TillamookWedge Portland Cheese Tillamook Wedge Portland Cheese Briar Rose CreameryWedge Portland Cheese Briar Rose Creamery Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles Wedge Portland Cheese Wilapa Hills Two Faced Blue cheese Wedge Portland Cheese Golden Glen Creamery Wedge Portland Cheese Mt Townsend Creamery Wedge Portland Cheese Fern's Edge DairyWedge Portland Cheese Fern's Edge DairyWedge Portland Cheese Fern's Edge DairyWedge Portland Cheese Fern's Edge Dairy Wedge Portland Cheese Fern's Edge Dairy

Overall, it was a great way to get introduced to more cheesemakers and their offerings- I liked everyone in a different way, and I’m glad to see cultivate more recognition when I go visit the cheese cases. There are incredible offerings right here in the Northwest that  deserves a Cheese Trail map that would compete head to head Vermont’s Cheese Trail.

 

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