Everett Street Bistro

After checking out the Monique Lhuillier Trunk Show today, which resulted us swaying our bride-to-be friend away from a dress that would have cost five times the amount of any average bride's gown, Allison, Lydia, Tram and I headed to Everett Street Bistro in the Pearl for some brunch.

Whether day or night, this European-style charcuterie always seems to have a nice comfy crowd of people who seem to really know how to enjoy their food.

Since Tram and I usually each order one sweet and one savory dish to share, we agreed on the Eggs Benedict and the Grand Marnier French Toast. But once we heard the Special of the Day - Danish Aebleskiver, we quickly reverted to these pancake balls from Denmark, topped with fresh fruit, powdered sugar and creme fraiche! The Grand Marnier French Toast will have to wait for another day :) Both Lydia and Allison ordered the breakfast panini, made up of fried eggs, Black Forest ham and Tillamook cheddar, served with a hashbrown casserole.

Everything was good except I thought the hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict was a bit too salty, but it was nothing a nice, spicy bloody mary wouldn't have taken care of. I'll have to order one next time - I secretly believe you can judge the quality of most brunches based on its bloody marys and mimosas :) Allison, a frequent guest at Everett Street Bistro, recommends the Wild Mushroom Scramble, which features roasted wild mushrooms, leeks and goat cheese. I didn't realize until after we'd eaten there that, that particular dish has been highly rated on countless reviews and as one girl from California on Yelp.com commented, it sent her on a "humming/moaning chair dancing taste bud orgasm."

Wow. That just might be enough reason for me to start eating mushrooms!

Turkey Day

Growing up, my folks always made an effort to ensure I had the experience of a turkey on Thanksgiving and even at times, on Christmas as well. But something happened as the years went on (I think everyone in my family would fighting over the turkey legs) and so one year, my aunt decided to just make turkey legs! A whole platter of turkey legs! Something about that practice turned me off of turkey from that moment on. Yech.

But that was probably a relief for my parents since they never had to worry about making me turkey ever again. And once I moved away, turkey was last thing I wanted to eat when I came home to visit. I didn't care what holiday it was - all I wanted was Vietnamese food! Vietnamese food for dinner. Vietnamese food for lunch. Vietnamese for breakfast! I had resolved that I was simply not a fan of turkey, no matter the occasion, no matter the form - I didn't even care for turkey deli meat... until I met Michael. He waits all year to eat his uncle's turkey and thought it was pretty ludicrous that my family didn't have turkey at all on Thanksgiving.

This year, I finally had my first taste of his family's renowned turkey... and man, it was deeeee-lish!!! Now I know why he rants and raves about it all the time! Not surprisingly, there were no leftovers. The meal was accompanied with a honey baked ham (from Chi Chau), stuffing, scalloped potatoes (from Kathy), mash potatoes (from Kim), gravy and variety of other side dishes, topped off with a pumpkin creme brulee (from Anh Minh). I looooooooooooove creme brulee - it's my favorite dessert!

Per Michael's request, I made spicy cheddar biscuits (from Martha's book) and non-spicy for the kids, which sadly, were not that spicy or cheesy :/ Everyone was nice enough to extend their compliments though :) At least they looked ok! haha I think it's time I steadily move on from looks to taste!

Pre-baked kids' cheddar biscuits.

We also made Rice Krispy treat turkey legs for the kiddies! I'd been planning to make something a little bit more special for them from my cousin My's book of recipes, but after running around town, I could not find all the ingredients for the finishing touches, so unfortunately, they will have to wait till next year!

Already, I am looking forward to my next turkey!

Julie & Julia

My friend Tram never ceases to amaze me at how she crafts and cooks so effortlessly.

FYI: There is a Tram and a Tran - it's not a typo - it's two different people. I know, gosh darn those Vietnamese people huh?! We all have either similar names (Tran & Tram), same names (Yen & Yen) or names that rhyme (Huong & Phuong) and we all have the same freakin two last name (Nguyen & Pham)! Trust me, I understand your confusion :)

For Tram, cooking is a stress reliever. For me, it's anything but!

So this past Tuesday, Tram invited me over for dinner and a movie. We watched Julie and Julia, a film based on two true stories about blogging and cooking! How fabulously appropriate! The night started off with some delectable olives and cheese, complimented with a bottle of pinot gris, which she picked up while wine tasting at Anne Amie Vineyards in Carlton, Oregon. I eat pretty much everything except for eggplants, mushrooms and until recently, olives. I know that sounds insane since everyone I've ever known loves mushrooms, but I can't stand the texture of the aforementioned. However, I believe it'll only be a matter of time before I start liking them since over the past few years, I have a acquired a taste for many other things I use to hate i.e. onions (where have you been all my life???), fresh mint, basil and cilantro in my pho (I use to eat pho like a 5 year old), tofu and as of two years ago, olives (while at a bar in Ibiza, Spain - there was nothing else to eat)! More recently, I discovered that I loved these bright green (see pic), Castelventrano olives, which were introduced to me by Tram.

So while I munched away and drank to my hearts content, she waltzed around her kitchen and made a Venetian squid linguine (that she bought from Pike's Place in Seattle), with smoked salmon and clams in a creamy vodka Sauce, served with a side salad and crab cake, topped off with some parsley which she plucked from her own garden!

Note to self: Start buying seeds to plant an herb garden (I already asked my Dad to section off a piece of land for me to garden in our back yard this Spring. He did a double-take, as I'm sure many of you would. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself wanting to dig in the dirt for "fun." Especially while living in New York, I thought I'd be perfectly content living in an 800 square foot apartment forever, with no yard work to ever worry about or cleaning to ever do (everyone had a cleaner - even if you lived in a studio and could barely afford rent, you had a cleaner :) But they say as you get older, you feel closer to the earth.

After dinner, Tram brought out dessert, which she picked up from the gourmet bakery at Freddy's on her way home from work (we can't expect her to hand make it all - the girl works too)! I've been reading up on how to take better food pictures. See me practice?

After finishing our bottle of wine, picking away the last of our desserts, and watching our flick, we ended the night in high spirits. Prior to the movie, all I had known of Julia Child was through re-runs of her show with Jacques Pepin (that French chef that doesn't seem to have very clean hands and spits in his foods all the time) and she never seemed to do anything besides hover over him and talk real high pitched. But Meryl Street did a wonderful interpretation of her. Who knew Julia Child was such a sanguine soul, with a certain liveliness to her that made her all the more interesting and a pioneer in French cooking for Americans?! She was nearly 40 years old when she went to cooking school in France, basically stumbling upon her talents and empire. That gives me and Tram some hope in our lives. Maybe someday I will start cooking! And like the other main character in the movie, Julie, maybe one day Tram will start blogging!

A New Hobby

My second cousin My in Texas, who is my age, is the mother of a toddler, works full time, attends grad school for her MBA, plays the piano, has 4+ dogs, takes photography classes, and runs an online bakery!

So it shouldn't be much of a wonder that I feel the need to pick up a new hobby :) Especially during these more boring winter months.

With the inspiration of My and after my faltered attempts of baking during Gourmet Dinner Club, I decided it was time I learned to properly bake. After all, with Michael quickly becoming quite the cook, what did I have to contribute in the kitchen (besides clean dishes)?

As a kid, I tried my hand at baking, if you call Jello's No-Bake Oreo Cream Pie "baking." I've also attempted to make brownies and cookies a few times, but always with the help of Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker. At the time, I didn't even know there was a difference between baking from scratch and baking with pre-mixed packages - wasn't adding an egg to them enough?!

So to begin my endeavor, I decided I needed a mixer. After hearing from Kathy that I'd need a stand up mixer, preferably the KitchenAid one, I thought, Shoot, I have to have it! For those of you that don't know, I feel the need to have any and all possible equipment before taking on new hobbies :) Take for instance...

Exhibit A: my snowboard
Exhibit B: my softball cleats
Exhibit C: my shin guards and soccer cleats
Exhibit D: my $500 golf clubs (and that does not include any woods)
Exhibit E: my $99/month gym membership in New York... to support my $80/hr personal trainer. Oiiiiii, I regretted that one.

So barring my snowboard (which I now no longer have an interest for) and maybe my golf clubs, everything else has gone virtually unused. So I can certainly understand as my friends and family looked at me with a hesitant eye when I exclaimed I wanted to spend $300 on a stand-up mixer! My friend Tram (bless her) wasn't even sure I should spend $40 on a hand-mixer, much less anything more!

But after I wouldn't shut up about it, Michael went and surprised me with one last week. Woohoo!!! He also bought me all the basic pans and this totally awesome Martha Stewart recipe book (corny I know), but it's great for beginners and experts alike and it has a super helpful section on basic baking techniques. I love it!

Thus, I'm gonna' bake at least one recipe out of that book every week! They say if you tell people about your goals, you are more likely to accomplish them (since you don't want to disappoint anyone). And already, I've used it twice yesterday - a simple oatmeal raisin cookie and pumpkin bread recipe. Sorry, no pictures since my next task is to learn to take better pictures of food :)

Sweet Treats

As my dental bill would prove, I have a major sweet tooth.

I'm not kidding about the dental bill either. A few weeks after I moved home this past summer, I had a toothache and ended up spending $1k on my teeth. Of course, I didn't have it taken care of while living in London where I had universal health care. Why would I do a sensible thing like that?! It's in my cards to spend ridiculous amounts of money on dental hygiene the second I become unemployed and uninsured. In fact, every time I move or am about to move somewhere, I end up spending obscene amounts of money on my health - circa February to April 2008 when I spent $1800 on a root canal and that's WITH dental insurance (goddamn NYC dentists), when I could have waited to get to London to have it taken care of for close to free. I swear I brush my teeth religiously at least twice a day and floss daily!!! I even use a prescription toothpaste! Why me???!!!

Macaroons at Two Tarts

But despite all that, I still think it's worthy to mention a few of Portland's sweet treats that I've discovered recently (especially since I wrote a whole long blog on savories), starting with my favorite boulangerie, St. Honoré, a lovely bakery & cafe where I went for the first time right when Autumn began when the air was crisp and sunny for some coffee. Michael and I sat outside reading US Weekly :) next to a group of stay-at-home moms and their BMW station wagons. Close by is Two Tarts Bakery, a hidden goodie on NW 23rd. My friend Tram took me and Michael there on a Saturday afternoon, right after we had just eaten, couldn't possibly eat anymore and were each on our way to various dinner parties to eat some more! Yet, we couldn't resist picking up a selection of bite sized treats! Then there's Bakery Bar where I got Michael's last birthday cake. They've got 2 locations (NE & SE) and are my favorite when it comes to clean and bold cake designs. With free wi-fi, I like chilling out at Bakery Bar (especially on sunny days when you can sit outside) with a cup of joe or some breakfast! For my own birthday, I got 3 treats! It's tradition in my family to get a Jamoca Almond Fudge ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (I'm not even gonna' bother hyperlinking that one :) but Michael also got me cupcakes from Cupcake Jones and Allison & Tram got me a super delicious chocolate cake from JaCiva! Yumm, so divine!!!

I think Cupcake Jones' cupcakes might slightly be more fluffier (although I can't say for sure since I've only had it twice), my favorite place for cupcakes is actually St. Cupcake. I discovered them years ago when I was looking for a creative Valentine's Day gift for Michael. At the time, he was still living in Portland and I was in New York. After a lot of Googling, I found St. Cupcake, who for the occasion, had a Valentine's Day special where if you ordered a certain amount of cupcakes, the owner himself (I think his name is Matt), would deliver the cupcakes straight to your Valentine (within various zip codes) and sing a song you chose from his list for like $30 (not including the cupcakes) or something totally worth it like that :) It's like a singing telegram, but with a sweet treat at the end! Matt sang "How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You" (I was tempted to choose Britney's "I'm a Slave for You," for the comedic factor but we all know that's not true :) and Michael later reported that Matt surprised him by showing up in a pink t-shirt, cupid wings, and entertained his entire (and usually quiet) office by singing at the top of his lungs in a capella! For his reaction, I would have paid that amount three times over! Not only does St. Cupcake hold a special place in our hearts for that particular occasion, but my best friend was proposed to earlier this year by her boyfriend, using six of their cupcakes (also her favorite) in the form of "Will You Marry Me?" Of course she said Yes! For your sentimental moments, go to St. Cupcake :)

And finally, in the midst the frozen yogurt craze (I love you Pink Berry), I recently discovered Tart, which serves a delightful frozen custard! But other than the neat take on this frozen treat, they don't have anything on Skinnidip. Skinnidip has an unbeatable selection of toppings, all of which are freshly cut (not frozen, ugh) (my favorites are pomagranate, cream puff and cookies n' cream) and they take great pride in making their yogurt from unadulterated products (not artificial flavors like those other guys - bleh). Eh, perhaps I'm biased since I know the owner, but hey, with or without my recommendation, they're still rapidly growing! Check out their third and newest location downtown (opening right before Christmas) by Nordstrom, across the street from the Max line!