I was trying to delete some blog spam the other night and I got distracted (I know, so rare!) by looking through my iphoto annals. It got me to thinking, “hey! I should go through all my pictures from 2011 and pick my favorite two (or three) from each month and put them in a blog post.”

So, that’s what I’ve done here. It was a lot more fun than deleting spam comments from the moderation queue. Although, you have to admit, this one has a certain charm:

I beloved as much as you’ll receive carried out proper here. The caricature is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an nervousness over that you want be delivering the following. unwell surely come further previously once more since exactly the similar just about very regularly within case you defend this hike.

It’s weird. It always seems . . . → Read More: 2011 in Pictures]]>

I was trying to delete some blog spam the other night and I got distracted (I know, so rare!) by looking through my iphoto annals. It got me to thinking, “hey! I should go through all my pictures from 2011 and pick my favorite two (or three) from each month and put them in a blog post.”

So, that’s what I’ve done here. It was a lot more fun than deleting spam comments from the moderation queue. Although, you have to admit, this one has a certain charm:

I beloved as much as you’ll receive carried out proper here. The caricature is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an nervousness over that you want be delivering the following. unwell surely come further previously once more since exactly the similar just about very regularly within case you defend this hike.

It’s weird. It always seems like the year went by very fast, but then looking at all these pictures, I guess we did do a lot of fun stuff. I also still think that on the whole, 2011 was a pretty bad year, but this exercise definitely reminded me of some very nice moments that it had going for it.

As I’m starting to plan another epic Southwest road trip for next Spring, I thought I’d take the time to do a post and an overview of last Spring’s trip. I can’t believe I never did a recap, but then a lot of bad crap happened after we got back and I think I just sort of lost track of many things that I meant to do. Summer 2011 – The Summer Where a lot of Stuff Really Sucked…*

Anyway, we had a super, wonderful time on our journey and here’s where we stayed, what we did and what we ate. I’m kind of surprised I didn’t take more pictures of food.

This HUGE post took more than a week to put together, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Stop #1: Pendleton, OR We stayed at the Oxford Suites (the only “chain . . . → Read More: The Great Southwest Roadtrip of 2011]]>

As I’m starting to plan another epic Southwest road trip for next Spring, I thought I’d take the time to do a post and an overview of last Spring’s trip. I can’t believe I never did a recap, but then a lot of bad crap happened after we got back and I think I just sort of lost track of many things that I meant to do. Summer 2011 – The Summer Where a lot of Stuff Really Sucked…*

Anyway, we had a super, wonderful time on our journey and here’s where we stayed, what we did and what we ate. I’m kind of surprised I didn’t take more pictures of food.

This HUGE post took more than a week to put together, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Stop #1: Pendleton, OR
We stayed at the Oxford Suites (the only “chain hotel” we stayed in the whole trip). We’d stayed at one in Spokane, WA a couple of years ago that was nice, so I was expecting that here. Um, not really. It was okay. The hot breakfast bar in the AM was kind of sad. The Spokane one was much better. Also, Pendleton? Not really much going on…we ate okay Mexican food there that night (I can’t even remember the name of the restaurant). Next time we’re definitely driving through Pendleton and just waving.

View from our hotel window in Ogden, UT.

Stop #2: Ogden, UT
This was just an “on the way” stop but I liked it. We stayed at Ben Lomond Suites. The room was a little plain, but quite big (separate living area with a bedroom, free parking, free breakfast). The buffet in the AM was fine. Nothing fancy but much better than Pendleton. The town (historic 25th area) was cute but really no one around.

Sidewalk statuary in the Historic 25th district in Ogden.

We ate at Rooster’s on 25th brewpub the night we got there for dinner, which I liked but jwa was kind of ambivalent about. Oh and we got a certificate through the hotel for a free appetizer at Rooster’s, which was pretty nice. I invoked my calamari clause and we got that. I loved their “Louisiana” dipping sauce. I emailed them asking for the recipe but I never heard back. Oh, and also it must be so sad to be a micro brewery brewmaster in Utah, always having to keep your beer low in alcohol.

Old trains in Ogden.

There’s kind of a neat little train museum at Union Station in Ogden that’s worth checking out if you’re there.

Mmmm…Beehive Cheese! The Barely Buzzed is especially delicious! And, you can find it in Seattle at Beecher’s Cheese!

On the way out of town, we stopped at Beehive Cheese and loaded up on car snacks!

Stop #3: Moab, UT
Moab! The first real “destination” stop of the trip to go to Arches National Park and also just to hang in Moab, as I’ve been there before and really liked it. We stayed at 3 Dogs & A Moose Cottages (Bogie’s Bungalow), which was $165 a night for a small studio cottage with a loft.

Cute little kitchen in Bogie’s Bungalow.

It was very, very cute. There was also a tiny kitchen and a nice back courtyard. Honestly, while I really appreciated the ambiance of the space, when we visit Moab again, I’ll probably want to stay somewhere with a bit more room. jwa didn’t mind the size but I found it a bit cramped.

Outside of Three Dogs & a Moose.

Moab Restaurants:
Nothing blew me away. We ate at Pasta Jay’s (I liked my meal but I asked to take the rest home and our server accidentally tossed it out, that kind of pissed me off) and a pizza place (just okay). Next time, I’ll definitely want to stay somewhere with a kitchen and cook meals.

Arches National Park
In Arches, we did the Wall Street hike (so awesome) and drove through the park, stopping at each area to do the short hike to the arch. If you just have a day to spend there, that’s a pretty good way to spend it.

Arches National Park

I love the desert foreground with the snowy mountain background.

The sky about to storm.

Driving towards Arizona.

We drove from Moab through Monument Valley which was beautiful. It was not the most direct route to Flagstaff, (there’s a shorter way to do it) but it was worth it.

Stop #4: Flagstaff, AZ
Oh, Flagstaff! How I have pined for you the last 15 years. Your hacky sack playing hippies, your what-I-thought-was-good-coffee, your fresh mountain air, your Southwest location yet temperate, Alpine climate without scary southwest bugs. It was interesting to be back. It’s grown but also stayed pretty much the same.

A cute adobe-looking house near where we stayed.

Funny, as we were driving around I said to jwa, “hmmm, it’s a little more redneck-y than I remember.” I think I blame Portland for that. When I moved to Flag, I was coming there from Indiana. Which made Flagstaff seem like the granola capital of the world to me. Now, not so much. Anyway, we still had a very nice time. We rented a cute little house and got a GREAT deal as we stayed for 5 nights and got a price break.

Our rental house from the back.

The colorful exterior of Cafe Ole.

La Bellavia for breakfast.

Latte at Macy’s…almost like being back home in Portland.

From Flagstaff we took a day trip down to the valley and I went to the Heard Museum in Phoenix (totally awesome) while jwa met up with an old friend.

Heard Museum in Scottsdale, Indian School exhibit.

Heard Museum, near the entry.

Stop #5: Bryce Canyon, UT
On the way to Bryce Canyon from Flagstaff, we went through Lee’s Ferry and spent a little time driving through the Navajo reservation. Our soundtrack for all of this was The Decemberists The King is Dead, which seemed to fit the trip quite well.

Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry.

The Navajo reservation — actually we were leaving it.

I spent some time doing fieldwork at Bryce Canyon when I lived in Flagstaff and worked at a cooperative NBS (now part of USGS)/NAU research office. It was a park I really loved and have wanted to get back to all these years. So glad I finally did and was able to show the area to jwa.

An arch at Bryce Canyon National Park.

Chipmunk at Bryce. Hamming it up for snacks? We didn’t feed him!

If you ever get the chance to go you really should, it’s just stunning. They also have an in-park lodge there that’s pretty nice. We stayed in one of the Western Cabins (if you want one, they go super fast. You can book a year in advance…that’s what I did). There are ranger programs and trails and lots of stuff to do in the park. Also, European tourists just LOVE the southwest, you will hear a lot of German and French accents in Arizona and Utah parks, that can be kind of fun and interesting.

Our Western Cabin at Bryce.

The lodge dining room was actually really good! If I sound surprised, it’s because they are pretty much the only place in the park to buy a meal and they could definitely just phone it in. But it was very nice. All of our meals were quite good and the head waiter looked like Conan O’Brien. He always wore black and we started calling him Evil Conan and trying to take covert camera pics of him during our meals. He was so fast! And sneaky! And all Evil Conan-y. I think the wine might have been an influence on all of this.

It’s Evil Conan! He’s sneaky. Like a ninja.

Late Spring snow storm at Bryce.

Stop #6: Park City, UT.
Starting back to pdx and I thought this may be a fun stop. So, so wrong. Park City, you kind of sucked. You may be all cool in February during Sundance but in May you are just expensive, closed up and kind of lame. Next time, Salt Lake City without a doubt! There was really no bad part of the trip at all but if I was forced to pick one, it would definitely be Park City.

Park City…meh.

We stayed at the Marriott Summit Watch which was okay but pretty generic overall. Oh, before leaving we did find a decent coffee house: Alpine Internet/Park City Coffee Roaster. There was an art gallery there too that was kind of nice. After a quick breakfast we were driving out through the snow, towards our last stop.

Stop #7: Baker City, OR
Baker City and the Geiser Grand Hotel, the surprise hit of the journey! Just supposed to be an overnight pit stop but it was a lot of fun.

The Geiser Grand Hotel…supposedly haunted. We didn’t see anything suspect, though.

Perhaps this could also have been due to the footloose and fancy free Oregon liquor laws after days and days in Utah. Oh, blessed gin and tonics with dinner. Keep ‘em coming, Oregon — Even when I still have the previous one ON THE TABLE!@!#! The restaurant was very good and our possibly-haunted corner room was super nice and Baker City is, well, very damn cute for middle-of-nowhere Eastern Oregon. This is definitely how we will end all Southwest roadtrips in the future.

Baker City at twilight.

We went to the Baker City Cafe for breakfast in the morning and I definitely recommended that as well. Tasty egg dish, a latte and then 5 hours til home.

Baker City Cafe for breakfast before heading home to pdx.

If you want to see more of my Southwest pictures, you can find them here (along with a bunch of pictures of other things).

* Although, I did get a new job last Summer that I really like, so it wasn’t a totally horrible time. That fact right there was enough to make my day-to-day existence much more pleasant, so that was definitely a good thing!

Hello! Yes, I am back from hiatus, otherwise known as Big-Spring-SW Roadtrip! So, come back blog traffic, come back… Um, hello?

Yes, well, anyway. The other day I was leafing through an old Cooking Light magazine (from 2007, I think) and I came across this recipe. I was intrigued. Cornflakes…on fish? Sure! Why not. I am a big believer in crusting stuff with stuff. And hey, this was really good! I’ll also quote the twitter here — @genoapdx — “looks like Halibut is not just for breakfast anymore!!” Indeed.

Using salmon here is also pretty tasty. I made that just three days later using the same preparation. Why not? That box of cornflakes is not going to eat itself. The only difference in making each fish variety, was that my salmon was not skinned, so I just coated the fleshy side and crisped up the skin . . . → Read More: Cornflake-Crusted Halibut (or Salmon) with Chile-Cilantro Aioli]]>

Hello! Yes, I am back from hiatus, otherwise known as Big-Spring-SW Roadtrip! So, come back blog traffic, come back… Um, hello?

Yes, well, anyway. The other day I was leafing through an old Cooking Light magazine (from 2007, I think) and I came across this recipe. I was intrigued. Cornflakes…on fish? Sure! Why not. I am a big believer in crusting stuff with stuff. And hey, this was really good! I’ll also quote the twitter here — @genoapdx — “looks like Halibut is not just for breakfast anymore!!” Indeed.

Using salmon here is also pretty tasty. I made that just three days later using the same preparation. Why not? That box of cornflakes is not going to eat itself. The only difference in making each fish variety, was that my salmon was not skinned, so I just coated the fleshy side and crisped up the skin in the hot pan. I think I liked the halibut a bit better, but both made a great, relatively quick meal.

I forgot to take many pictures of the halibut version, so the images are mostly with the salmon. Again, the only differences being that the halibut was skinless and coated on both sides and it cooked a bit longer, as it was thicker.

A few changes I made — doubled the garlic in the aioli, decreased both the jalapeno in the aioli and the milk with the egg a little bit and added cilantro to the coating. My changes are reflected in the write up below.

We had each kind of fish with rice pilaf and some sauteed green beans and both meals were delicious!

Cornflake-Crusted Halibut (or Salmon) with Chile-Cilantro Aioli
Adapted from a recipe in Cooking Light Magazine
Aioli:
1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
2 tbsp low-fat, olive oil mayonnaise
1/4 – 1/2 jalapeno chile, seeded and minced
1 garlic clove, minced

Fish:
2 tbsp fat-free milk
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
1 cup cornflakes
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt + more for fish sprinkling
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
olive oil for the skillet
2 (6-ounce) halibut fillets
Lemon wedges

For the aioli: combine first 4 ingredients, stirring well. I made mine about 4 hours ahead of time and just stored it in the fridge.

For the fish: Combine milk and egg white in a shallow dish, stirring well. Combine cornflakes, flour, salt, cilantro and black pepper in a food processor and pulse to crush into a uniform coating.

Heat oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pan) in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Dip fish in egg/milk mixture; dredge in cornflake mixture. I let my fish sit for about 2 minutes after dredging because I feel like it helps the crust adhere to the fish. I’m not sure there’s any science behind that though. It just feels like it should make a difference, you know?

Sprinkle with more salt and add fish to pan, salted side down.

Cook 3-5 minutes on each side (lightly salting the other side before flipping) depending on the thickness of your fish.

Fish is done when it flakes easily when tested with a fork. Honestly, I hardly ever bother to test with a fork. If you’ve cooked it for a total of 6-10 minutes or so, you should be fine. Serve with aioli and lemon wedges.

Here’s the halibut, from the previous night’s dinner.

What’s better than fudgey, chocolately, crinkley-topped, walnut-filled brownies? Brownies made with browned butter so they are even nuttier and tastier.

These are good for a weekend because you have two whole days to eat a lot of them before you decide you really should take them into work Monday, so you don’t eat them all.

Or something like that…

Browned Butter Brownies with Walnuts From Bon Appétit Magazine Nonstick vegetable oil spray 10 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 1/4 cups sugar 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled) 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 large eggs, chilled 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour 1 cup walnut pieces

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325 degrees F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray.

. . . → Read More: Weekend Browned Butter Brownies]]>

What’s better than fudgey, chocolately, crinkley-topped, walnut-filled brownies? Brownies made with browned butter so they are even nuttier and tastier.

These are good for a weekend because you have two whole days to eat a lot of them before you decide you really should take them into work Monday, so you don’t eat them all.

Or something like that…

Browned Butter Brownies with Walnuts
From Bon Appétit Magazine
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
10 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, chilled
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup walnut pieces

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325 degrees F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray.

Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat.

Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot) and transfer to either a stand mixer or a bowl you can use a hand-held mixer with.

Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended.

Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake brownies until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 30-40 minutes (mine took 40 minutes). Make sure you start checking for doneness after 25 minutes and go from there if needed. Cool in pan on rack. Good luck with the waiting-to-cool thing.

Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 4 brownies.

Oh, these are so good! You may start cutting little pieces off before they are even out of the pan. That’s okay. It’s the weekend…that’s the kind of thing you do on the weekends.

In other news, I think it’s finally Spring here! We have blooms the beginnings of blossoms on our apple tree and it was actually sunny all day today.

Looking out into the backyard. Little frog things for garden pots. Right now they are all just stacked up in a pot. I should probably plant something in there instead, maybe. Perhaps my container eggplant or some chard.

]]> http://www.jemangelaville.com/2011/04/17/weekend-browned-butter-brownies/feed/ 2 http://www.jemangelaville.com/2011/04/07/asparagus-tart-with-roasted-garlic-and-parmesan-chips/ http://www.jemangelaville.com/2011/04/07/asparagus-tart-with-roasted-garlic-and-parmesan-chips/#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:34:42 +0000 mlb http://www.jemangelaville.com/?p=1832

Ah, Spring! Rain, freak hail storms with thunder, mud…asparagus! This was a tart that I was very happy to make because I was super excited to try out my new, skinny, rectangular tart pan and also because I love asparagus. My expectations were met as this was a very good tart and honestly, it could be a much simpler meal if you used pre-made pie crust and skipped the roasted garlic and Parmesan chips.

But, if you want to go all out and you have some time, make your own crust and do the garlic and Parmesan! You won’t be sorry.

Asparagus Tart with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Chips Adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine 1 ready-to-use pie crust (or your favorite pie crust recipe made and ready to go. Mine is this one by Dorie Greenspan. When I use it for a savory pie or tart, I replace the 1/4 . . . → Read More: Asparagus Tart with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Chips]]>

Ah, Spring! Rain, freak hail storms with thunder, mud…asparagus! This was a tart that I was very happy to make because I was super excited to try out my new, skinny, rectangular tart pan and also because I love asparagus. My expectations were met as this was a very good tart and honestly, it could be a much simpler meal if you used pre-made pie crust and skipped the roasted garlic and Parmesan chips.

But, if you want to go all out and you have some time, make your own crust and do the garlic and Parmesan! You won’t be sorry.

Asparagus Tart with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Chips
Adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine
1 ready-to-use pie crust (or your favorite pie crust recipe made and ready to go. Mine is this one by Dorie Greenspan. When I use it for a savory pie or tart, I replace the 1/4 cup sugar with that amount of Parmesan cheese)
1 head garlic, some of the outer papery part removed (but not all)
14 ounces asparagus, each spear trimmed to the half-width of your tart pan if doing a spoke design, the full width if using a rectangular pan
2/3 cup half and half
2 eggs
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried tarragon (or 1 tbsp chopped fresh)
1/2 tsp salt
Parmesan Chips (see below)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wrap your garlic head in aluminum foil and roast until soft, about 40 minutes. Set aside and cool. If you’re really organized, you can also make the Parmesan Chips at this time while you have the oven at 400.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Open crust on work surface. Press out any cracks. Arrange dough in 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Press dough into pan. You can also use a smaller rectangular-shaped tart pan but you will have extra dough and other ingredients leftover, so be prepared with another smaller baking dish that you can make a bonus tart in. Bonus tart!

Pierce dough all over with fork. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Cool on rack. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

Cook asparagus in pot of boiling salted water until just crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain well and place on paper towels. Mix half and half, eggs, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, tarragon, pepper and salt in bowl.

Squeeze out the roasted garlic and mix that in as well. Now you are ready to put it all together!

Arrange asparagus in spoke-of-wheel fashion in crust, tips toward edge and ends meeting in center. Or, like I did above, arrange horizontally in the pan, depending on what shape tart pan you are using.

Pour custard over. Bake until tart puffs and top browns, about 35 minutes. Cool slightly. If you haven’t already, you can make the Parmesan Chips now.

For the Parmesan Chips, I pretty much followed this recipe, breaking up the crisps after they had cooled a little bit (and snacking on a few).

Parmesan Crisps
Recipe by Giada De Laurentiis

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Pour a heaping tablespoon of Parmesan onto a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet and lightly pat down.

A silicone baking sheet is highly recommended. Repeat with the remaining cheese, spacing the spoonfuls about a 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden and crisp. Cool. Mine turned out more dense than lacey. I think I should have flattened them more, pre-baking. For my use though, it didn’t really matter.

I also used one extra tablespoon of cheese for 5 total crisps. The fifth one was for snacking… Anyway, break up the crisps and sprinkle along the top of your tart in an eye-pleasing pattern. Since my pan was a rectangle, I just placed them in a path down the center.

Check out that flakey crust! Okay, slice tart into the desired number of pieces and eat. Hello Spring! Brrrrrr…..

]]> http://www.jemangelaville.com/2011/04/07/asparagus-tart-with-roasted-garlic-and-parmesan-chips/feed/ 5