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Portland, Oregon food blog with over seven years worth of recipes, restaurant features and food photos. Dig in!

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Awesome Onion Goggles

I Lied About the Spaghetti…

Okay but there really will be a lavender shortbread post either tomorrow or Saturday. Spaghetti and meatballs will be next week, as will a recipe for cauliflower & . . . → Read More: I Lied About the Spaghetti…

Wedding Planning Update

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Image from the book, Simple Stunning Weddings.

So, we are currently trying to decide on a location. We are casting a wide net — Ashland. Astoria. Yachats. Dayton. The Long Beach area of Washington. So far we have scoped out Red Ridge Farms, Heceta Head Lighthouse and The Peerless Hotel.

Next we’ll be heading up to Astoria to check out Hotel Elliott and the Rosebriar Inn. Then it’s a bit farther north to see The Shelburne Inn and their restaurant. Hopefully, we’ll have a place decided on by the end of next month.

The plan is this — when we’re done looking at these six possible locations, we’ll each sit down with a piece of paper and rank the places. Then we’ll exchange lists and hopefully be pretty close on our number one or number two choices. At least, in theory, that’s the way it’ll work.

I’ve also started dress shopping, which is an odd experience. You stand there in your underwear in the dressing room with a mask over your face (so you don’t get makeup on the dress) and the store person puts the dress down over your head and sort of gets you into it. (You can . . . → Read More: Wedding Planning Update

Arugula, White Bean & Parmesan Salad with a Meyer Lemon-Shallot Vinaigrette

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The salad dressing here comes from a recipe by Emeril that used blood orange instead of Meyer lemon. I really liked the dressing with the lemon, although I’m sure it’s just fabulous with blood or any other orange. This makes a nice, light meal for when the weather’s warm.

Besides, you can feel good about eating a big salad. jwa and I can usually go through a whole bag of greens in one sitting without feeling guilty. For this salad, I decided to grill up about four shrimp each to top our salads. The tasty little shrimps worked very well with the citrus dressing.

This salad also reminds me of one of my most favorite salads ever — one I had last year at The Wild Coho in Port Townsend, WA. Hmmm, now I totally want to go back there again very soon.

Meyer Lemon & Shallot Vinaigrette
1 tsp olive oil
1 small shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 /2 tsp Meyer lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Champagne or white wine vinegar
pinch of salt
a few grinds black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Set a small pan over medium heat and add the teaspoon . . . → Read More: Arugula, White Bean & Parmesan Salad with a Meyer Lemon-Shallot Vinaigrette

Experimental Chicken Fauxmale Pie: It’s Good!

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Ah, the roll of polenta. So full of fun and possibilities. Slice it up and make a lasagna. Have it on the side of some pasta. Leave it in the cabinet and make polenta yourself. All of these options will work just fine. But what about using it in Mexican food? Oh hell, why not?

Like a lot of the recipes I’ve made lately, this one is based on something I saw recently from Bon Apetit (the Too Busy to Cook section). I’m not really too busy to cook of course, just easily intrigued by recipes that call for packaged polenta tubes in an unexpected genre. I saw this one and went, “huh…”. Polenta as a stand in for a tamale, you say? Moosh it all up and make it a tasty Mexican casserole topping, you say? Okay, I say. I’ll give it a try.

The result was actually pretty good. I would definitely make it again. I mean, sure, you could make your own corn meal topping (for a realmale), but if you had a packaged polenta tube on hand, this would be as good a thing to do with it as anything else. And sure, . . . → Read More: Experimental Chicken Fauxmale Pie: It’s Good!

My New Favorite Broccoli Soup

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I found this recipe while poking around epicurious.com. It’s based on a recipe originally from Bon Appétit, but I added a lot to it (basil, pine nuts, white wine), so I’m taking some of the credit! Ha!

The flavor turned out really, really well. Creamy from the cheese, a little wine taste, lots of broccoli flavor and the basil rounding it all out. It would make a great first course to a pasta meal or just on its own with some bread. I found marscapone easily but if you couldn’t, regular cream cheese would probably be fine.

Broccoli Marscapone Soup
About 6 servings
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 pound broccoli florets,
4 cups low-salt chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine (I used some open Sokol Blosser Evolution that was in the fridge)
8 oz mascarpone cheese (Italian cream cheese)
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
Salt & pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper

broccoli

Heat the oil in large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté about 3 minutes.

onions

Next, add the broccoli and sauté all of that another minute. Add the wine, stir about for a second, then add the broth.

soup . . . → Read More: My New Favorite Broccoli Soup