Thanksgiving in Astoria

November 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Thursday: of the food contributions I had (I won't count the cheese plate or helping to tie the pork loin) which were the salad (making the ricotta and picking out the garden grape tomatoes) and stuffed squash, I think the ricotta was my favorite of what I made. I think the stuffed squash dried out a little as it was waiting for the pork loin to finish, as it took longer then anticipated.

Friday: of the food contributions, I really liked the gougeres I made: unlike my trial bake at home I kept a much closer eye on them and was able to pull them out before they were dried out. I should have been patient and let them cool 10 more minutes, as they get much fluffier after that, but even after 5 minutes I still liked their very light cheesy puffiness. And, it made the house smell wonderful.

I made the sausage apple stuffing with vegetarian apple sage sausage… and I really missed that I didn't get to use real meat. I used the vegetarian sausage because of one person (even though I had real sweet Italian sausage for the next morning for the hash brown with egg whites and cheddar casserole). If I had used real sausage it would have stood up to the rye bread I decided to use and spiced it up- the vegetarian sausage just couldn't. Stupid vegetarian only had a spoonful of it too.

The corn pudding was also a disappointment- it wasn't tall enough because I didn't have a 2 qt dish- only 1.5 and 2.5- and in choosing the 2.5 it spread it out too thin and did not have the right texture. Next year, I plan to try another take on corn but this time making spoonbread, which I first had at Poppy in Seattle last month.


Saturday = Beer Day, thanks to visits to Fort George and Astoria Brewing (at Wet Dog Cafe).

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A Taste of Thanksgiving

November 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Whole Foods: A Taste of Thanksgiving.

For the price of two donated canned goods to benefit a local non-profit, we were able to sample from a buffet of holiday menu items that they offer to help build your Thanksgiving menu. Here, from the bread and going clockwise you see

  • sauteed wild mushrooms appetizer;
  • a sample of classic cranberry relish with a dark meat helping of Organic Oven Roasted Diestel Turkey;
  • Wild Rice Stuffing that is available as part of their Vegan Holiday dinner;
  • Green Beans with Shallots and Herbs with Olive Oil;
  • Vegan Mashed Potatoes with Vegan Mushroom Gravy;
  • the surprisingly tastiest dish of the plate the Wild Rice, Yam and Pear Roast which is the main course for the Vegan Holiday Dinner!
  • On the small plate by the free sample of Bergstrom Wine are some cheeses and fancy crackers
  • not pictured is the sample of Salmon Roast stuffed with goat cheese and spinach
  • not pictured is the the mini Caramelized Cranberry and Walnut Tart dessert
  • we also each received a free Whole Body bar of soap
  • we departed sipping some Allegro Celebration Blend coffee as we then started our grocery shopping

Thanks Whole Foods for the sampling of what you are dishing up for the holidays while contributing to a good cause! It was a preview that made me excited for upcoming holiday.

Check out the Whole Foods online store to find a location near you and clicking on that location, then shop online to look at their various catering and holiday options and build or add to your Thanksgiving menu with prepared or semi-prepared options! Their holiday meal planning site also provides lots of helpful advice.

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Beer N Burgers 2011- Recap of Burgers x 7

August 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The event is hosted by Portland Monthly in partnership with Fred Meyer and benefits Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. For $17, attendees can try tastings of beer from 10 local breweries and sliders from 7 local brewhouse chefs competing for the title of Best Burger- which the audience gets to vote for (the cost is $12 if not partaking in beer).

The list of brewhouse participants:

  • Alameda Brewhouse
  • BridgePort Brewery
  • Buckman Brewery
  • Burnside Brewing Co
  • Deschutes Brewery
  • Full Sail Brewing Co
  • Henry's Tavern
  • Laurelwood Brewing Co
  • Ninkasi Brewing
  • Widmer Brothers Brewing

The burgers are slider sized, but not really. For the second year in a row, I brought home leftovers instead of throwing out the burgers just because I was too full to finish them/wanted to save room to try them all. I didn't want to be wasteful of my food, and this time I was more clever in that I brought several ziploc bags in my bag. Now onto the burger food photos…

Laurelwood Public House & Brewery, the winner last year, came this year with a TEXAS BBQ BURGER: Smoked brisket, horseradish coleslaw, crispy Walla Walla onions, and Laurelwood’s signature Free Range Red BBQ sauce. Laurelwood Public House & Brewery offered a choice of either the organic pale ale or the organic free range red- I chose the Red in my sample cup

Burnside Brewing Co had the most hype as you watched them prepare their BURNSIDE BURGER: Liquid nitrogen-dipped and duck fat fried beef patty with ketchup, grilled onion, bacon, and cheddar powders, served with dill pickle “caviar”. The condiments teased us as we watched the prep show- dehydrated and food science executed onion, ketchup, cheddar, and duck fat all in powder, along with that white tub of dill pickle caviar…Unfortunately, I think everyone was disappointed that the flavors from those toppings didn't come through, and the burger was slightly dry though I could taste the extra savoryness from the duck fat.


It turned out my favorite and the one I voted for would be BridgePort Brewing Company's BIG ISLAND LITTLE BURGER: Beef and pork belly grind, char siu glaze, house cured pork belly, spicy sambal slaw, cilantro chimichurri, and tangy pickled red onions served on a toasted BridgePort Bakery Portuguese Sweet roll. It was a lot going on, but the sweetness and the herby earthiness of the chimichurri (which seemed more like a pesto to me) and the umami of the pork belly also all individually were good. 

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I also really liked the beer they were serving- the citrusy lined ale of Summer Squeeze which has infusion of lemongrass and yuzu.

In a very respectable second place for me was the Widmer Brothers Brewing THE GASTHAUS BURGER: Local Oregon beef, butter lettuce, Inaba Farms tomatoes and caramelized onion topped with smoked blue cheese & Nelson IPA fondue, served on a toasted brioche bun. Messy, but I do love cheese.There were three beers you could choose from and I went with their Okto, a seasonal ale for the fall.

Also in the high mess to eat category was Deschutes Brewery's THE YELLOW BELLY BURGER: Spicy pesto, candied yellow pear tomatoes, whipped goat cheese, and Obsidian Stout braised pork belly perched atop Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub’s classic spent-grain fed Coleman Ranch beef patty and elegantly gift-wrapped with a whole-grain mustard ciabatta bun. Yeah, they can barely get the description to fit on their sign! From one of the photos, you can see from this angle you can almost imagine this looks like the tomatoes are two eyes, and it's a goofy burger face… Heh heh heh. I think I'm delirious from the heat and food.

I also really liked the beer Deschutes brought- they also had 3 options and I went with The Cyclist, a hefeweizen and lemonade brew. It was really refreshing with the tangy citrus really coming through to give a nice summer tartness to the Hefeweizen like a preinfused Shandy.

Just as competitive as all these delicious burgers above was the more simple and classic Alameda Brewhouse's TILLAMOOK CHEDDAR PEPPER BACON BURGER: Frank’s Choice free ground beef, Zenner’s thick cut pepper bacon, Tillamook cheddar cheese on a Kaiser bun. I liked how they didn't throw a boatload of condiments on top- they let the wonderful seasoning of the beef with just a bit of bacon and cheddar say all they needed. Their assembly line was efficient and showed they had thought carefully about the logistics of serving out food so there wouldn't be lines.

Finally, the 7th burger… Henry's Tavern brought the HENRY’S HITMAN BURGER: Brioche bun topped with a burger patty, pesto aioli, provolone cheese, mixed greens, pickled sweet pepper, and jalapeño stuffed olives. I skipped the Henry's Tavern beer for Buckman Brewing experiments of the Ginger and the Chamomile beers

I hope they continue to look for improving space to hold it in- this year I appreciated how it was more spread out in the Fred Meyer parking lot rather then on the streets outside the Whole Food (who was last year's co-sponsor), but it was also Portland's first past 90 degree day… in fact the recorded high temp I believe was 97. Everyone was baking as the heat reflected back up from the asphalt, even as we all tried to hide from the microwave of the sun in some of the shade they tried to provide but just didn't have enough of.

Overall though, this event was organized well with the red and white checkered tablecloths and jars of flowers and fanned out Portland Monthly's that made this event once again classy and beautiful to the eye as well as filling to the stomach, all for a good cause. 100% of net proceeds will go directly to the Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon Summer Meals Program that helps provide funds for organizations to serve meals to low-income children during the summer when school is not in session.

Beer 'N' Burgers 2011
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Oregon Brewer’s Festival 2011

July 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Starting tomorrow to Sunday… the annually held Oregon Brewer’s Festival. Located by the Waterfront to the river, the festival offers four days with several stages for music and this year 85 breweries each pouring a showcase beer in tastings for $1 or glasses for $4. Also, a Buzz Tent with 8 rarer experimental taps that will be kicking all weekend since they are smaller kegs so that tent will continually be refreshed with new offerings.

To avoid the crowds, I am with a small group that took Thursday(tomorrow) off and will be sitting by the Buzz Tent to keep an eye on the rare beers. Going earlier always means it is less crowded, especially if it is before the after work crowd or Saturday late afternoon/evening people.


Photo from last year’s OBF

You can find the regular beer list here (though I like this list at Portland Beer better since it has descriptions, although the one on the official site has #s for the locations so you can more efficiently plan your various tent visits). The Rare Tap List is overall listed here but Twitter #OBFBuzzTent will announce when new beers are ready to taste all weekend. Entry to the event is free, though you have to purchase tokens and a $6 tasting mug to drink that is reusable the whole weekend in lieu of any entrance cost. There is some food available at the festival thanks to six restaurants that will have booths, but you can also bring your own food. I have XXX Sharp Cheddar and Bergonost cheese from Yancey’s with crackers all ready.

Some beers I am particularly looking forward to that caught my eye from the taplists:

  • Burnside Brewing’s Gratzer, a smoked beer style which they just unveiled recently
  • Dogfish Head’s Black & Red, which is a Raspberry Mint Imperial Stout, I wonder if those flavors will work… “A velvety smooth “dry-minted” stout with a serious fruit problem! Heavily roasted grains brings forth a dry, chocolaty character that contrasts with the sweet, fruity full-bodied flavor. But it’s not really black – it’s a very deep red, and the foam has a pinkish hue. A hundred pounds of spearmint and peppermint in secondary fermentation help the beer finish sweet and smooth.”
  • Kona Brewing Co’s Sassy Grassy, a beer described as “Ginger Lemongrass Quencher”
  • Old Market Pub & Brewery is offering a beer named Berried Alive! which is a Belgian Boysenberry Ale. “336 pounds of Oregon boysenberries and 110 pounds of Oregon raspberries in the secondary fermenter on top of a six-grain malt bill weren’t sufficient to make this beer stand out for Old Market brewers. They then fermented the brew with Trappist high gravity yeast and aged it in Pinot Noir barrels. Low hop levels let you better taste the fruit and oaky, smoky notes.”
  • Also in the fruity style is Widmer Brothers Brewing Foggy Bog Cranberry Ale, which promises tartness in its ale profile
  • Three Creeks Brewing FivePine Chocolate Porter sounds just my style- I’m a stout and porter type of girl
  • Prodigal Son Brewery and their Bruce Lee Porter, ok maybe partially because of the name
  • On the other hand, despite the name, Boneyard Beer’s Girl Beer which is a Pilsner with “Eighty-eight pounds of sweet dark cherry puree in the secondary give the English Ale yeast something to do while this one waits to make up her mind”
  • Many things on the Buzz Tent List sound delicious, but I am most excited for Ale Industries’Dry Hogged Bacon Brown and Maui’s Imperial CoCoNuT Porter and Stone Brewing Co’s Stone Smoked Porter w/Vanilla Beans

Possible Faceoffs:

  • Ginger as an ingredient- Blue Frog Grog’s Ginger Meyer Ann (with lemon) VS Kona’s Sassy Grassy (with lemongrass) VS Black Diamond Brewin’gs Oranje World (with orange) VS New Belgium’s Somersault (with apricot)
  • Berry Bash- Dogfish’s Black & Red VS Old Market Pub’s Berried Alive VS Ram’s Berry White VS Cascade’s Razberry Wheat vs Vertigo’s Razz Wheat VS Boneyard’s Girl Beer
  • Porter Time- FiftyFifty’s Donner Party Porter VS Laughing Dog’s Anubis Imperial Porter VS Maui’s CoCoNut Porter VS Prodigal Son’s Bruce Lee Porter VS Three Creeks FivePine Chocolate Porter
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