Sketchbook Inspirations

I went to the coast earlier this month, I dragged a whole bunch of art supplies with me.  I do this on every trip I take and usually the art supplies stay in the bag or suitcase untouched for the duration of the trip.  This time, however, I actually got some work done.  

Cutting Board Pesto

 When most people think about pesto, they think they have to buy it at the store or make it in a food processor.  The true pesto, originating from Genoa, consists of basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano and olive oil.  It is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle, not a food processor.

Fun etymology fact: The Genoese name is pesta, which means to pound or crush and led not only to the name of pesto, but pestle as well!  

When we were at the coast earlier this month, the kitchen at the cabin we stayed in was pretty well stocked with the basics but there was no food processor, of course.  So I improvised.

Washington Coast Getaway: Exploring Iron Springs Resort

When I think of going to the coast for a few nights to stay in a cabin, I usually think of cheap, uncomfortable rooms with paper thin walls, a musty smell, and mysterious stains on the bed linen.  So, as my husband was telling me he wanted to go to the coast for his birthday, I knew I needed to do some research and find something that would take dogs, have a nice kitchen for me to cook in, and comfortable furnishings or I wasn't going.  Looking online, I was completely stumped.  The whole coast of Washington to chose from: where to go? 

Luckily, some friends were over for dinner when I was complaining about my inability to find a nice vacation rental and stepped in with some advice: Iron Springs Resort.  We looked it up.  Recent updates in a rustic mid century modern style with lots of amenities and they allowed, even encouraged, dogs.  We were sold.

 

40 X 40: Visit Object Focus: The Bowl Exhibit

Visiting this exhibit as the Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft was a great way to start out my 40 X 40 list and get my creative juices mobilized.  This exhibit, Object Focus: The Bowl is really about trying to create a dialogue within the arts community.  They encourage you to write, draw, respond to what you see at the museum and make you reflect upon the humble bowl and how little it has changed over thousands of years.The second part of the exhibit, starting May 16th, is going to be more interactive with a bowl library and events with local chefs and the like.  I guess I will have to go back and see the exhibit again! 

 The day I went to the museum it was free to go in because they are in the middle of installing the second part of the bowl exhibit.  I bought a membership anyways because I have been wanting to support this museum for a long time.   I was the only visitor wandering around among the bowls and the docent was very enthusiastic about talking about my favorite bowl or answering any questions.

Above is a bowl made of plastic knives.  Below is a carved stone Native American mortar. 

I love all the variety of bowls but felt like they shied on the side of too few bowls and the 50's and 60's were entirely over-represented for my taste.  I would have preferred a few more made in the last year as well as some more that were over 100 years old.

The one below is a hand painted wooden bowl.  Little tiny dots.  Lovely.  The plexiglass case made it hard to get a good photo.

Scale, texture, color; when you stop to look at them abstractly, they are little tiny sculptural works of art.

Even though I like to go to this museum every year, I actually heard about the exhibit on the New York Times in a great article about the impetus to put together this show and a link to the tumblr page where you are encouraged to upload a photo of a bowl and explain why it is interesting/important to you.  You can spend a couple of hours just reading the stories and looking at all the beautiful bowls attached by readers. 

These little bowls caught my eye.

Finally, when pressed by the docent on what my favorite bowl was, I had to admit it was this little brushed silver bowl.  This surprised me a little as I came in thinking I would be drawn to an organic, hand sculpted one.  Probably made on a metal lathe, but also possibly hand forged, it is absolutely delicate and strong at the same time.  And so, so soft with that finish.  I wanted to hold it and run my hands along the inside of it.  

If you are anywhere near Portland, get thyself to the Museum of Contemporary Craft!  (But after May 16th so you can catch all the added interactive goodies!)

Roadtrip Portland: Part 2

 After our Mississippi Street dining and shop, we headed over to the Pearl District to visit the Museum of Contemporary Craft.  I was mostly interested in viewing what was on sale in their gift shop but when we saw the show was a retrospective of Oregon artist Betty Feves, we were intrigued and decided to see the show.

Not very knowledgeable on ceramics in general, I had no idea who Betty Feves was.  Turns out she was pretty interesting.  She created a large body of work, particularly in the 1950'2-1970's, and was important in several ways.

First, she experimented with creating large scale pieces.  And I mean large ceramic sculptures, taller than me.  She worked both figuratively and abstract.  Not many women were working large scale in ceramics at this time.  

Secondly, she worked and thrived in Eastern Oregon, a basic wasteland for art and ceramics, especially mid-century.

Third, she created her own glazes from natural materials.  It is very easy to see where her influences come from if you have ever seen the landscape in Pendleton.  

I appreciate retrospectives where the artist has dabbled and evolved their style through many mediums and designs.  They showed jewelery and paintings along with her ceramic sculptures and vessels.  Unfortunately the show's last day was the day we were there (lucky!) but the shows opening this month at MOCC make me think I need to schedule another trip down to Portland soon! 

Next up after the museum, we headed to Cacao, a chocolate boutique and drinking chocolate cafe.  And, no, I do not mean hot chocolate or Mexican hot chocolate, although it is similar.  I mean drinking chocolate.  Which means whole milk and rich, high cacao content chocolate with just a touch of sugar and spice added if desired.  Here I am drinking a 2 oz cup of the spicy drinking chocolate alongside a caffe macchiato (espresso with foam).  Heaven.

After Cacao and the Museum of Contemporary Craft, we hoofed it over to the Hawthorne District for shopping and drinks.  (Note: When I mention to people I am going or have been to Portland, most people ask if I went on the train.  The train is nice if you are going to stay downtown or have lots of cash to spend on taxis or lots of time to spend on mass transit.  Want to see the interesting parts of Portland in a weekend?  Drive.)

Lots of people love Powell's Books in the Pearl District but they don't realize that there are several different locations specializing in different themes.  On Hawthorne they have a Crafts and Garden and Cooking shop.  Talk about things to see and buy forever!  We spent a lot of time browsing and I ended up buying Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton.  I made my girlfriends each buy a copy of My Life in France by Julia Child.  I'm serious, I picked 2 copies off the shelf and said, "Here, you must buy and read this and if you don't we are no longer friends."  Not quite like that, but close.  It's a good book.

Next, we drove down to the end of Hawthorne to try out the Sapphire Hotel which is really just a bar, not a hotel.  And we could have walked, but it was warm out, and, hey, we had a busy itinerary.  A friend of mine has been recommending this place forever and wow, was it worth it.  They had a make-your-own Manhattan and Martini menu where you could pick out the bourbon or gin, respectively, along with which vermouth.  Classy. 

Then we had to hustle back to check in at our hotel and get ready for dinner.  We ate at Andina Peruvian in the Pearl district which I had gone to before but my friends had not.  Think loud and busy and delicious and it is amazing how sexy a chef can make qunioa or corn look on a plate!  My photos didn't turn out due to poor lighting so you'll just have to check it out for yourself. 

The next morning I needed a nice solid breakfast to tweak away the alcohol residues and fuel me for the drive home.  We headed back out to Mississippi to a breakfast place we had eyeballed the day before: Equinox. The service was lousy but it was worth it.  This is a "breakfast pillow."  Think puff pastry surrounding caramelized veggies topped with poached eggs and a pasilla cheese sauce.  Poached eggs are a popular breakfast menu item in Portland.  I wish Tacoma restaurants would take note. 

It's only been two weeks, but I am already thinking it is almost time to head back down there!  I need to make this at least a quarterly event. 

Road Trip: Portland Part 1

A couple weekends ago, I went with a couple girlfriends on an overnight road trip to Portland.  I can't get enough of Portland, which is probably a good thing, because if we lived there I would go broke in about 2 weeks with all the fabulous restaurants, gourmet shops, bookstores, etc.  We were only going to be there for about 24 hours and so we made a pretty tight itinerary.  I am not a huge fan of itineraries but they are certainly useful when you are short on time.

Portland Roadtrip:
-Leave 8:30 AM and Arrive by 11:00 AM.
-Explore Mississippi District (An area I had not been to.)  Have lunch.  Shop.
-Head to Pearl district, go to Museum of Craft and Cacao, a drinking chocolate cafe.
-Head back over river to Hawthorne Street.  Shop at Powell's craft and garden store.  Check out boutiques nearby.  Cocktails at Sapphire Hotel.
-Head back downtown to check into hotel and change for dinner.  Late dinner at Andina Peruvian in Pearl district.
-After dinner drinks at hotel bar.

Phew.  I am tired just writing that.  Well, we stuck to our itinerary like glue and hit all the places we wanted. 

First stop: Mississippi Street.  This is a fun arty street running north-south that is north of downtown Portland but you have to head east over the Willamette river to get there.  Endless jokes as I was driving and trying to park about all the bicyclists and the dangers of hitting one and how we could be in an episode of Portlandia.  If you have seen the show, but never been to Portland, trust me, it's a pretty good satire of the truth. 

 The main reason to hit up Mississippi street was to visit The Meadow.  This tiny shop, the sister store of a larger shop in New York, is tucked into a tiny corner space next to a comic book shop.  Their specialty is salt and chocolate.  I like to use flavored salts in my cooking and this place was recommended by three different people when I told them I was going to Portland for the weekend.  Now that is pretty good word of mouth right there.

What I didn't know was that along with chocolate and salt, The Meadow has a entire wall dedicated to bitters.  I promptly started sampling bitters and completely forgot to buy any salt or chocolate.  Bitters are a (mostly) alcoholic apertif flavored with fruits and herbs and are used in cocktails.  They were marketed as "medicines" during prohibition and now they are still found in the non-booze sections of stores and not subject to alcohol taxes.  Funny, huh?  Anyways, we love to mix up Manhattans and Old Fashioned but more recently I discovered the bliss of a few drops of bitters into sparkling water.  Refreshing perfection.

I ended up buying 4 types of bitters: rhubarb, celery, bitter orange, and a four citrus blend.  Happy.

 

 The Meadow also sells gadgets to grind your salts.  The top photo is of slabs of salt that you can use as serving platters or even to cook on to add flavor to your food. 

These roasted cocoa nibs were deliciously bitter.  

The wall of chocolate was impressive.  But after my tour of Theo's Chocolate factory, I admit I am a little bit over the thrill of chocolate.  Later when we went to have drinking chocolate, I only had a tiny 2 oz cup.

While in Mississippi we had lunch at Por Que No, a delightful taqueria with a location also on Hawthorne street which I had been to before.  It's a casual taco spot but with very strict rules on ordering before you sit down.  I love that for $3 you can get a plate of spicy cucumbers to start your meal with. 

All three of us ordered their brunch special of potato cakes with poached eggs, beans, veggies, and crema.  Cannot tell you how delicious this was.  I enjoyed iced hibiscus tea on the side.    

Also, I was so excited about one more shop on Mississippi that I didn't take any photos: Paxton Gate.  They are an awesome taxidermy/oddity shop where I bought some glass eyes for my felt sculptures and a carved claw necklace.  Very steampunk.

More posting soon about the rest of the trip! 

38 Things: Tour a Chocolate Factory

I've been wanting to tour the Theo's chocolate factory in Fremont for several years but it took adding it to my list of 38 Things I Want to do Before I Turn 39 to finally get it done.  Also, my niece is in town and I thought she would enjoy it as well.  It's $6 a person and I highly advise you to reserve a spot online as they fill up quickly, especially in the summer months. 

Theo's Chocolate is an organic/fair trade chocolate company that focuses on a bean to bar approach in their factory, meaning that they are involved in every step of the chocolate growing and making process.  A whopping 70% of the world's cacao comes from a part in West Africa where child labor and slave labor is rampant (does Hershey's guarantee that their chocolate is child/slave labor free?).

Theo's ensures that their workers are adults, paid a living wage, and not having to breathe in chemical fumes that come from conventional farming.   Which is of course why their chocolates are so expensive.  But they are awfully tasty.  The factory is totally set up for tours to come through; they definitely believe that the more educated consumer they have, the more successful they will be.

We started out in a room that allowed us to see the giant roaster that doesn't look too much different from a giant sized coffee roaster. 

The factory has an interesting color coded system.  Items/machinery that are transforming the cacao into something new (grinding it, tempering it, etc,) are painted green.  When the beans/chocolate are in transit to the next stage, they are yellow.  So these yellow buckets of beans are raw and ready to be roasted.  The red bins contain already roasted beans.  Easy way to keep track. 

While the factory is large, it is still hard to believe that they processed 800,000 pounds of chocolate last year and they are trying to double that amount this year!

This room is where the beans come in and are cleaned before going into the roasting room.  I guess they find all sorts of debris in the bags of beans. 

These three giant vats on the right are holding the chocolate once it has been refined small enough and mixed with sugar and milk powder (But that's only if they are making milk chocolate.  Dark chocolate just has sugar added.) 

I wasn't able to get good photos of where they make the specialty confections or how they make the bars and their wrapping room is a strictly off limits area.  But we were shown how in the smaller, specialty bars, all the added ingredients like mint or ginger or sea salt are done by hand.  It's a very labor intense process.  The larger bars just get dumped in big molds by a machine, but the smaller ones and the candies are made by hand.

Needless to say, the tour ends in the gift shop where we spent a lot of money on delicious chocolate.  I also bought a jar of cocoa nibs to use in baking.  

If you are interested in candy or chocolate at all, I would highly recommend this tour.  The tour guides are funny and knowledgeable and obviously love their jobs.  Also, I forgot to mention, they give you a ton of samples on the tour!

Learn more about Theo's tour here!

Making the Kanafe

Yesterday part of our family got together for breakfast at a diner fairly close to our house so we decided to walk.  It was lovely out and I just love the feel of Spring.  Anyways, we were walking home when we remembered there was this tiny little International Market & Deli we have been meaning to go to for the last 4 months right next to where we had breakfast.

We popped on it and were not disappointed.  It says International but they mainly specialize in Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean food.  They sell gyros at lunch time but have a little grocery section as well.  I was so excited to find Pomegranate Molasses less than a mile from my home!

But the most exciting part of the trip was that they carried all the ingredients to make Kanafe, a traditional Palestinian dessert.  The three ingredients in the center are crucial to Kanafe: Akkawi, a white brined cheese (Nabulsi cheese can also be used), food coloring, and shredded pastry dough. 

Basically the shredded pastry dough is mixed with melted butter.  The recipe I had called for clarified butter but I skipped that part since it wasn't cooking at an overly high temperature I didn't see the need.  Then you press part of that mixture into the bottom of a buttered baking dish prepped with the food coloring.  I think this would look and taste just fine without the food coloring; next time I might just skip it.  Next you put a layer of the crumbled Akkawi cheese blended with shredded mozzarella and a touch of sugar and orange blossom water. You are supposed to use rose water too, but I realized too late I don't have any but the orange blossom gave it plenty of flavor.  Finally you top it with more of the shredded pastry/butter mixture.  You bake it and then invert it onto a plate, drizzle copious amounts of orange blossom simple syrup over top, sprinkle with pistachios and there you have it!  It's rich but not too sweet (I cut way back on the amount of syrup and butter they said to use and thought it tasted just grand).

The gentleman at the shop looked totally shocked when I told him I was making Kanafe.  "How do you know the Kanafe?" he asked.  I can't wait to go back and tell him how well it turned out.  Also, the Akkawi cheese is going to be a staple in our fridge from now on.  I crumbled it over a salad last night and it is very similar to mozzarella so I want to try it on flat bread as well.  Even just slices of it paired up with a crisp apple sounds delicious. 

We ate this last year when we were at the Global Shopping Village in Dubai.  I know my version bends some rules of the traditional, but that's how I roll: I am unburdened by culinary rules!

Exploring Miami

After our cruise in the Caribbean, we had one full day to explore Miami.  After hours of pouring over hotel choices and neighborhoods, I had decided that South Beach would be the best place to see Miami in less than 24 hours.  Little did we know when we planned this adventure that the same day we were there was not only Spring Break happening but also a giant DJ conference.  Trying to catch a taxi at 6 am the next morning was an adventure I would soon like to forget.

While perhaps my timing was not so great, the neighborhood was a good choice because of all the cool architecture and fabulous eats.  For lunch we stumbled into a little pedestrian street called Espanola Way that I read about online.  It was touristy but nothing like Ocean Drive just a few blocks away.  It actually felt very European.

After walking down the street, stopping to check every menu, we settled upon Tapas & Tintos.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  Just check out those mojitos with at least 1/4 cup of mint in each one!  It was slightly warm but very, very humid, so these were refreshing.

Next, gazpacho.  I love gazpacho.  I make it quite frequently in the summer but this gazpacho tasted nothing like mine.  Orange in color, with a little more oil in it plus chunks of red peppers.  Flavor explosion in the mouth.

We also ordered a Manchego plate and this was like no Manchego I've ever had in Washington state.  So much earthier and creamier and melted in your mouth.  It must be nice to be on the east coast and have access to much more goodies from Europe.

Next we ate sauteed chickpeas with Chorizo.  Need I say more except that I wish this restaurant was in Tacoma?

Finished with espresso.

After lunch we walked down to a busy outdoor shopping mall and since it was a Sunday it was the farmer's market as well.  An antique sale was also going on at the market and we were sad about how expensive it would be to ship any of the cool furniture we saw for sale.  Lots of mid-century modern pieces that would have looked fantastic in our house.  We did find a cool Bakelite cork screw that I bought for our house sitter.  We don't see pineapples at our farmer's markets at home.

We found an Argentinian steak house at the outdoor mall and drank bubbly Rose with steak salads and people watched for a few hours and finished it off with more espresso.  Sigh.  I love food.  

While I adored the food and art deco architecture of Miami, I realized once again that I am definitely a west coast person.  All the super tan bodies with done up hair and big heels and gaudy clothing would be a little much for me on a daily basis.  When we left the hotel at 5:45 AM to find a taxi, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of people out on the street that had not gone to bed yet.  Trevor and I looked at each other and said, boy, are we getting old!

Cooking in Cozumel

We only took one of the paid Cruise excursions while we were on our trip.  Most of the excursions were things like snorkeling or day at the beach or ATVs and I wasn't interested in things like that.  What I was interested in was cooking.  The Mexican Cooking class in Cozumel sounded more my style. 

I was a little worried when they shuffled us onto these large Greyhound like buses and shuttled us to a very busy, very touristy looking resort.  Luckily, I was completely wrong in being worried.  Our class was a hoot, especially our instructor Luis.  Unfortunately the only shot I got of him was in the top photo, far left.

We had 4 students to each cooking station.  We made a chipotle shrimp sope appetizer, pan seared grouper with veggies for our main dish, and sauteed plantains with a chocolate sauce for dessert.  Sope is like an extra thick tortilla that you pinch the sides to make a little cup to put ingredients and sauce in.  I am going to experiment cooking some sope tonight. 

We all had to wear hairnets and chefs hats and were taught the correct way to wash our hands.  

Here's my sope before I sprinkled some paprika on top.  That's cream decorating the plate.  Yum!  Before I realized we had to share the chipotle for the shrimp with the other couple at our station, I dumped all of it in our saute pan.  Oops!  I had to sheepishly ask for more chipotle for the others to use.  The sauce was delectable!  

I tried to let Trevor do a lot of the cooking but I kept taking over without thinking about it.   I don't think he minded, though.  Note the cups of margaritas that we were continually served while we were cooking!   

The instructors served us all what we made and we had to put our names on our plates so they could keep track.   Makes me want to get some squeeze bottles and decorate our dinner plates at home. 

I highly recommend following Luis on both Facebook and Twitter.  His Facebook page is E-Z Cook 4 All and he posts lots of photos and easy, quick recipes.  Same goes for his Twitter, Chef Luis Esquivel.