Beautiful day. Fresh chive pesto. Succulent guanciale. Spring bliss.

Have you tried guanciale before? It’s like a more delicious, fattier bacon, with herbs and spices. You’ve just never tasted anything quite so magical.

Bite-sized chunks of guanciale rendered enough fat to sautée onions. I added pesto and cream and finished cooking the pasta in the cream sauce with a couple of cups of pasta water. With the last addition of frozen peas, I had my lunch.

Punctuated with fatty bits of goodness, the chive pesto pasta really shouted SPRING.

On Facebook the other night, I was contemplating what to do with the quail eggs, chicken eggs and duck eggs that have been residing in my fridge.  I thought about making something like Turducken, but with eggs.  Christina piped up and said “Quailchucken, with a side of pumpkin.”  It was postively inspired!

Thursday nights I use up my produce before I go to the market on Saturday again, so tonight was the right night for a cooking experiment.  I simmered fresh tomatoes, red pepper, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes and a little water for a couple of hours in a small saucepan and pureed it.  While that was working, I attacked my Quailchucken.  I made a potato pancake crust in my cast iron skillet, with my last Russet potato. 

In my other cast iron skillet, I sauteed bacon, onion, red pepper, chard stems and chard leaves.  I added in a spoonful of pesto that I just made with the rest of my parsley, chives, chard, sunflower seeds, parmesan and the last of my olive oil.  In a bowl, I mixed together 3 duck eggs, 4 chicken eggs, 1/4 cup of cream.  1 1/2 cups cottage cheese, 1 cup Romano cheese, salt and pepper.  I stirred in my sauteed vegetables and bacon. 

Since my potato crust looked crispy, after I baked it in the oven for about 30 minutes, I poured the egg mixture into the potato crust.  I popped it back in the oven at 400 for about 35 minutes.   Once it was firm to the touch, I pulled it out and let it cool.  I cut a piece, and sauced it with my tomato and red pepper sauce.  Then.  I fried two quail eggs – and one of them turned out to be a lucky double yolk!    Served them up on top of the sauced chucken, and wa la!  Quailchucken, with tomato and red pepper sauce.  Whaddyathink?

*Please note: these ingredients and the measurements were based solely on what I had in my fridge.  No science or planning was involved.  Try at your own risk.  Remarkably, mine turned out to be very tasty!

The Potato-Crusted Chucken, before the Quail

I know I’ve preached it before, but the PSU Farmers Market is simply delightful.  My weekends are not complete without it.  The first few weeks of the market are full of kale and chard and mushrooms, fresh pasta, meat. 

I fiddled around a bit today when I got home and made this pasta dish.  Fresh tagliatelle, chicken meatballs, chard.  It was delicious.  Why don’t I use fresh pasta more often?

One night, talking to Luke, the subject of Corned Beef Hash came up.  He said something about loving Corned Beef Hash and that Hormel had the best.  What?  I said.  In a can?  I had never heard of it.  I suddenly had a brilliant idea.  With St. Patricks day coming up, we should do a Corned Beef Hash taste test.  I would make some homemade hash and then I would dislodge the canned hash from the metal entrapment and heat it up.  Surely my hash would win, because, hello.  How could it not beat a can?

So.  On St. Patrick’s day, I bought corned beef from Kenny and Zuke’s and bought Hormel Corned Beef Hash.  Saturday night, I went to work, while Luke watched March Madness.  After about 45 minutes, I was ready.  I would tell you which one is which, but come on.  You can tell, right? 

So who was the winner?  Me?  Or Hormel? 

My hash: what I would get in a nice restaurant.  Very good.  Hormel: I’ve been conditioned to believe that this is corned beef hash.  Dog food compared to yours.  Still good, though.

It’s true that sometimes what we are familiar with and what we connect with as comfort food is what we crave.  It’s why I like Totino’s pizza and Tostino’s nacho cheese.  We just do.  One time I made beef stroganoff for my family with creme fraiche and really good beef.  Everyone said it was good, but not as good as the kind we grew up with, which was made with cream of mushroom soup and ground beef.  It’s the familiarity and comfort factors.  We can still appreciate good things, but we will always hold a fond place in our hearts for the maybe not quite as excellent food of our past.

So let’s just say, Lizzy and Hormel are not to be compared.  We are too different.  Separate but equal.  Or something.  Maybe not QUITE equal in my book.  But you get the idea.

Lizzy’s Corned Beef Hash

2 T. olive oil

1 large Russet potato, diced

2 shallots, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 large red pepper, diced

1 cup of beef broth

1 T. creamy horseradish sauce

1/2 lb. corned beef, chopped into bite sized pieces

2 T. butter

1/4 c. heavy cream

2 T. fresh parsley, finely chopped

Heat a oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Add potatoes, shallots, garlic and red pepper.  Sautee until lightly browned.  Add beef broth, and continue cooking over medium high heat until potatoes are tender and liquid is absorbed.  Add the horseradish sauce, the corned beef, the butter and the cream.  Stir to combine.  Cook, stirring occasionally over medium high heat until the corned beef is slightly browned, the butter is melted and incorporated and the cream is absorbed, about 7 minutes.  Add the parsley.  Enjoy!

I’m lucky.  I get to work in Salem a few days a week.  I know, I know.  You are thinking: Riiiiiiggggggghhhhhht!  But it’s true.  Two of my co-workers and I went to Andaluz, which is right around the corner from the owner’s other fabulous restaurant in Salem, La Capitale.  It was paella night.  And oh.  What a treat!

Chorizo croquettes, potatoes brava with aioli, sangria. You should be jealous, if you are not already.

I like paella.  But I only just discovered that tonight.  The beautiful saffron rice and the perfectly succulent prawns and mussels, tender chicken, spicy chorizo.  So full! 

See what I mean? Gorgeous.

Last year’s Oscar party was ridiculous.  I cooked for two days, invited 20 people and rented out a room.  This year, it was me and a few friends, and I didn’t spend more than an hour cooking.  I made popcorn, seasoned with olive oil and sea salt; beef and sausage meatballs with a tomato and olive sauce; and open faced mini-sandwiches with white bean puree and white wine braised red onions.  Nothing better than a Sunday night with friends, good conversations and good food.  Cheers!

On January 11th, you can watch a pasta making demo with Jenn Louis of Lincoln, eat dinner and support a great cause.  ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  How, you ask?  Let me tell you:

Enjoy a cooking demonstration led by James Beard Award Nominee and Lincoln Restaurant owner, Jenn Louis. The demonstration will be followed by a sit-down dinner showcasing the dishes Jenn demos for us. Each meal includes an hors d’oeuvre, entree, dessert and wine pairing.

$125 per person, limit of 20 people.

The demonstration will be held at Lincoln Restaurant at 3808 N Williams Ave on Wednesday, January 11 starting at 5:30pm.

Write Around Portland changes lives by bringing free creative writing workshops to hospitals, homeless youth shelters, senior centers, prisons, treatment facilities and other places where adults and young people tend to have limited access to the power of writing.

Generally at this time of year, I’m ready to say farewell to the current year without looking back.  I’m not one to look regretfully on time passed and wish for something different.  I’m a proponent of looking forward and savoring anticipation as it approaches.  This year didn’t start out well – I was rather depressed about my upcoming 38th birthday and I seemed to be tired all the time.  I started to think that I was going to need some drastic changes in order to be happy.  So right around April, after my birthday, things started to change.

As I worked on a new life plan, things started falling into place.  I focused more at work, lost a bunch of weight, and decided that my new life plan was to be happy with myself and to live with joy, no matter where I was or who I was with or not with. (I’m glossing over the gory details, which are banal and uninteresting, generally speaking) And then!  Then.  I decided that you know what?  I like where I am and what I am doing.  I like who I am.  And even if my life situation never changes, that is okay, because I am happy.  Just like this! 

Two weeks later, I made a peanut butter pie and long story short, I met this really wonderful, amazing person!  BAM.  It happened kind of suddenly and completely unexpectedly and totally knocked me off my feet, to be honest.     But what a pleasant surprise!

So for me, 2011 is going to be a year that I remember forever as being the year that I found true happiness in myself, and then was so fortunate to share that happiness with someone else.  I’m looking back on it, not with regret, but to savor the good moments.  I’ve never quite had a year so wonderful as 2011.  But if your 2011 was not wonderful, don’t sweat it.  Your year is coming up.  I promise. 

Whether you will remember 2011 with fondness or with chagrin, I wish you all a very happy new start in the new year!  Eat well, friends!

Last night, my boyfriend and I went for pizza at *Via Tribunali, the new pizzeria in Old Town a la Bruce Carey.  We were seated by the brick pizza oven, which made our stay nice and toasty. It’s a nice cozy space.

We started off with the caprese salad, made with Buffalo Mozzarella and roasted tomatoes from Naples, Italy.  I spent a chunk of time yesterday afternoon roasting some roma tomatoes from Mexico.  The Italian tomatoes were better.  Soft, juicy, slightly charred, they embraced the mozzarella with vigor.

My blood orange cocktail was nice and sweet and strong, but not so strong that a few pieces of pizza didn’t soak it right up.  Speaking of pizza, we ordered the Porchetta and the house specialty pizza.  The Porchetta had red peppers, oven roasted onions and thin slices of porchetta on a thin crust doused ever so perfectly in a simple tomato sauce made from those same tomatoes from Naples.  The Via Tribunali pizza was also thin crust, but the edges were rolled up to encase house made ricotta cheese, whilst showcasing cherry tomatoes and arugula in the center.

The Tiramisu, which we had to try because hello.  Who doesn’t like Tiramisu.  And the waitress said that it came straight from Italy.  The whole dessert.  Now they must get some deal on shipping that Tiramisu from Italy, because it’s only $6.  I went to cut it in half so that we could split it and it was just like warm buttah.  It was quite delightful and not too coffee-ish, which I dislike so.  We loved it.   They also had a Nutella calzone on the menu for dessert which sounded quite tantalizing.  Alas, though, I was too full to order it!

So everything in this joint comes from Italy I was told.  The forks are special pizza forks.  The pizza boxes display a busty Italian woman.  The beer.  The wine.  Not the music, though.  The music was of a high quality easy listening type.  Better than the John Tesh show.  I know you’ll think I’m talking crazy talk, but I’m not.  It was good easy listening music!  I wanted to sing along, but I decided to spare my boyfriend the embarrassment.

Anyhow, go check it out.  They have a bunch of different pizzas to try and someone should order that Nutella calzone.

*This meal was provided at no cost to me or my guest.  As I have said before, I do not write posts about complimentary meals that I don’t like.  So I genuinely enjoyed my meal at Via Tribunali.  I hope you do, too!

**Pictures by Luke!  Thanks. 

Every Thursday afternoon for the past few weeks, I’ve been facilitating a writing workshop for Write Around Portland.  It has been a while since I’ve volunteered in that capacity and it has reminded me how important Write Around Portland is.

I want to say something eloquent about how many lives it has changed and how volunteering for them has changed me completely into a different person – a better person.  Because all of that is true.  I am on the fourth day of a really killer cold, though and am having a hard time finding eloquent words in my head.  So here’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to tell you about this event where you go and eat good food at an awesome restaurant  to benefit my favorite cause.  And then I’m going to link to my other posts I’ve written, both about Write Around Portland and Lincoln.  Together?  Whoa.  Magic.  Please join me in celebrating respect, writing, community and good food.

The Info:

Need another reason to head to one of Portland’s favorite restaurants? Well, we’ve got one: Lincoln Restaurant will donate 10% of the proceeds on Thursday, Oct 20 to Write Around Portland. Enjoy their seasonal fare and help change lives through the power of writing! 

Thursday, Oct 20 

Lincoln Restaurant – 10% for Write Around Portland

3808 N Williams Ave, Suite 127
Portland, OR 97227
503-288-6200
info@lincolnpdx.com

Dinner: 5:30-10pm

Happy Hour: 5:30-7pm

Lincoln Restaurant takes reservations for parties of all sizes. 

Write Around Portland changes lives through the power of writing. We bring creative writing workshops to homeless youth shelters, senior centers, schools, hospitals, prisons and treatment facilities. By providing journals and pens, bus tickets, snacks, childcare and all workshop materials free of charge we remove obstacles to writing in community. Our writing workshops culminate in community readings and three beautifully designed books annually.

Lizzy and Write Around Portland

Enlightening Conclusions

A Reading

Lizzy and Lincoln

Cheating on My Blind Date with Lincoln

Returning to the Scene of the Affair