Image from Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm’s Website

I have been putting off calling the farm where we are purchasing bulk tulips for a crazy-awesomely low price, as I was scared all of the tulips had been killed off in our Freak April snow and 20 degree lows. I wanted to call and ask how the tulips were doing but I was kind of scared to know.

But after a quick check of their field report, it seems the tulips are alive! And the tulip fest has even been extended, as the flowers are in such good shape still! Hooray!

It seems tulips are tough little buggers.

This was the best sandwich. Personally (and I know I am probably crazy) but I’m not a huge fan of corned beef or pastrami. I’m much happier with turkey or in this case, turkey pastrami.

So, this is kind of like a Ruben in that there is tasty bread (pumpernickel instead of rye), the earlier-mentioned turkey pastrami, swiss cheese and instead of sauerkraut, coleslaw. Oh and not just any coleslaw, fennel-herby coleslaw with orange zest.

It’s kind of like a Tyler Florence recipe I recently saw on Tyler’s Ultimate, except different (I went for cilantro and orange while he used lemon and tarragon). But, man, this was good. Throw in a grill pan for tasty grill marks and it’s like heaven on a plate. Oh and I just know I will be making this coleslaw all Summer long, with or without Turkey Rubens in mind.

Fennel-Herb Slaw:
1 large fennel bulb, fronds removed and halved
1/2 orange, juiced
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
1 bag coleslaw mix
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp chopped chives
zest of 1/2 and orange
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Finely slice fennel using a mandoline (again, not the instrument), or the grater attachment on your food processor or just a knife (I went the knife route).

In a food processor, combine the orange juice, mayonnaise, sour cream, herbs and olive oil. Process until combined.

Add the dressing to the fennel and coleslaw mix and add the orange zest. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Make the Sandwiches
Slices of pumpernickel or rye bread
Turkey pastrami (or regular sliced turkey will work)
Dijon Mustard
Swiss Cheese
Tomato slices
Fennel-Herb Coleslaw
Olive oil

Lay the bread out and cover with the cheese and the turkey. Generously apply coleslaw.

Top with tomato slices and spread a little Dijon mustard on the other bread slices before bringing the sandwich together.

Heat a grill pan and add a little olive oil. Cook each side for about 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Covering will help the cheese meltage. You’re not really trying to heat it completely all the way through, just get good grill marks and melt the cheese. That is all.

Let sit about 2 minutes before slicing in half.

Holy crap that was tasty!

***
And now, it’s Wedding Stuff:

Oh look, I figured out the beverage menu stands (for the reception table). Four wine corks, tied together make a great stand for dinner menus or wine menus. I would love to take credit for this idea but I’ve seen it many places online…whoever came up with this? You are a genius!

I made three of these tonight…only 5 more to go.

Look…it’s a wedding post

So, it looks like this wedding thing is actually happening. Eek! About 2 1/2 months to go. Let’s see, I have a dress (first fitting scheduled for the beginning of March), I have shoes, and jwa has assured me he has a plan that will result in him having an outfit to wear. Oh! And we got our rings the other day too. Hooray!

We’re going to Astoria tomorrow to meet with the Hotel and the caterer to finalize all the little details. Invitations will go out 2/29 (ha! Leap Year!) and I have finally decided on what to put in the favor boxes I bought over six months ago.

Do we really need favors? Probably not, but the boxes were just so damn cute. Oh and it’s funny, it seems as I read wedding message boards, that the indie kids* are all, “oh, we’re not doing favors”…. but you know what? Too bad. We’re having favors because I like the boxes. And I love what I’ve decided to put in them. Oh, and we’re also having fun, bonus, place setting favors too. Yeah. Two favors, people.

Oh and I made it through designing maps for the invitations without throwing my printer out the window…hooray for wine! Now I just need to get more ink this weekend and we’ll be all set.

Here’s a food question for Victorians (or people who’ve been to Victoria, BC recently) — what restaurants are worth checking out? Tofino, Sooke and Parksville too, please. Recommendations, anyone? Halp!

Specifically, I am curious about the Smokin’ Tuna Cafe in Sooke (I hope this place is still open — their website seems to be down) or the Inn at Tough City Sushi Bar in Tofino. Also, since we have a kitchen in the place we’re staying in Victoria, any recs on markets or the like in the area?

That is all. The wedding post is done. We made it through the update no worse for wear. And, the plan is to make chicken pot pie on Sunday, so hopefully a food post Monday. Excellent.

* And I completely realize that I am no longer in this demographic at all. In any way. Was I ever? Hmmmm…Oh, I wonder what’s on right NPR now?

Just a bit lazy. Look at my ring!

I need to get some actual food posts up but in the meantime, check out these cute little robots I made for wedding-related-stuff. jwa likes the robots…

groom-robot

bride-robot

Food-wise I am trying to finalize the Christmas Dinner plan. So far it’s —

And bag. Which was something that I wasn’t going to get but then I changed my mind when I saw this bag at Zappos. Besides, what if I want to bring the camera? Or Lipstick? The room key? See, I need a bag! Especially when it is an awesome light green bag. I really had no choice.

The shoes are a citron-y green (Zappos called them yellow but I call them citron-y green) and the purse is celadon but pretty much matches the shoes. Perfect! Oh and the shoes are so comfy! Hooray! Shoes are J Shoes and the bag is by Inge Christopher. I have no idea why the picture has keys in it. The bags did not come with keys…

And I still love the brown pumps, but I can wear those normally, so I’ll still get use out of them. Okay, I’m going to try really hard to get my WCC post up tomorrow.

Country Cat Dinnerhouse
7937 SE Stark
Portland, OR 97215

Finally, jwa and I made it to the Country Cat on Sunday night. I know it’s been open for quite a while, but this is actually ahead of schedule for us. Typically, we seem to not get to a new place until it has been open for a year or two. (Okay, no one burst my bubble and tell me CC has been open for like the past three years..)

Going in, I kind of knew I would be having the skillet fried chicken. Specifically, the Cast Iron Skillet Fried Chicken, with a sweet cream biscuit & bacon braised collard greens. jwa went back and forth and finally decided on the Heritage Burger on a French onion bun with cheddar cheese, garlic mayonnaise & onion rings.

Mmmm! Okay, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We got there right around 5:15 and got a nice big booth by the open kitchen. jwa saw the pretzels and mustard written by the bar and ordered that first thing while we were still looking at the menu — he has a fondness for soft pretzels and mustard. I thought they were very good, even though I gave jwa about half of my pretzel. Even then, I knew I was saving myself for the chicken.

We each got salads (huge!) and then settled in for the entrees — the chicken and jwa’s burger. We traded bites and enjoyed our meal quite a bit. We will definitely be back. The chicken was boneless and crispy and completely non-greasy. The greens had a smokey and sweet taste to them and I fell in love with my biscuit.

Next, I want to try the Grilled Leg of Lamb on scalloped potatoes with parmesan bread crumbs. Or maybe the Red Wine Braised Strawberry Mountain Beef on sour cream mashed potatoes with chanterelles, & chestnuts. Huh, the Cornmeal Fried Dover Sole on a chopped vegetable salad with a chunky olive & caper sauce sounds good too. This may be difficult.

Oh, and I love the t-shirts. I want one. We ended the meal with some chocolate and coconut sorbet. I ate the macaroon while jwa was away from the table washing his hands. Too bad for him. Ma ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Afterwards, we went to Home Depot and bought lightbulbs and cleaning supplies. It was a good night.

***

Battle of the Toppers

We have two wedding cake toppers and I can’t decide which couple I like better. I think we will use them both at the wedding — one set as toppers and the other as something else you might need a small bride and groom for. Sure, I know we could do flowers on top of the cake but I want to do the little bride and groom cake toppers. I don’t know why — I just like them. Maybe it’s because everyone does flowers on their cakes now, maybe it’s because I just want little plastic people standing on our cake.

The first set is a bit big and they sit on the edge of a tier on the cake. They are a bit awkward and dorky looking. Perfect for us! You’ll notice that I have also outfitted the groom with some big glasses for that touch of realism. My only concern here is that they might be a bit big for our size cake and they might fall off and plop onto the floor and end up covered in frosting and floor fuzz. Certainly not the end of the world but something to think about.

Set number two is smaller and stands on the top of the cake. They are a bit more sophisticated in appearance. They are designed after a retro set and produced by Martha Stewart but they are new and made of resin (instead of actually vintage and made of lead paint and asbestos). The glasses look a little big here but I think that makes it just the right amount of awesome. Currently, both sets are on our fireplace mantle looking spiffy and prepared to duke it out. We’ll see which couple reigns supreme…

Bridgewater Bistro
20 Basin Street
Astoria, Oregon
503-325-6777

So, jwa and I headed out to Astoria this weekend (such a pretty drive along highway 30 with the leaves and the sun and all) to have dinner at Bridgewater Bistro. It’s the new restaurant by Ann and Tony Kischner of the Shoalwater Restaurant in Seaview, WA. Not to put any pressure on the meal or anything, but they are catering our wedding at the Hotel Elliott in May and we wanted to go there and eat as many things on our menu as we could. Oh and we did.

First off, the space at Bridgewater is Beautiful. It’s a big, red barn-like building right on the waterfront. There’s a downstairs seating room, an upstairs mezzanine, tons of windows and multiple fireplaces. So warm and inviting. And one thing that I really like is that the space is not over-crowded with too many tables crammed into the space. There’s a nice amount of space between each table.

To start the meal we had a little complimentary glass of crisp fries and ketchup. I would have taken a pictures of these but we ate them too quickly.

One of the appetizers on our menu is halibut cakes with green apple and avocado salsa. While this was not on the current bridgewater menu, they did have fish cakes (halibut, salmon & cod) with a mango-ginger sauce. We tried the two-cake version of this as an appetizer to our meal. Really good — lots of fish. As the bride, I will be demanding extra halibut cakes and green salsa at the wedding. So you know, you’ve been warned. I can come by and steal your halibut cake. Back off — I’m the bride.

Next, jwa did the salad with salalberry vinaigrette and I did the French mushroom soup. Excellent all around. I loved the salad and the soup was really mushroom-y and good. We were trying to decide between a tomato soup and a mushroom soup as the second course and I think we’ll be going with the mushroom. And the salad (the fourth course) will be a great transition between the entree and the wedding cake.

Now, for our main meals — jwa had the salmon (served here with a cranberry-mustard sauce, a side of rice pilaf and sautéed swiss chard) and I had the Moroccan chicken. The salmon on our menu will be grilled (we love grill marks) and finished in the oven with a dill sauce and a side asparagus. That said, the salmon at this meal was very good. And jwa especially loved the rice.

My Moroccan chicken was the surprise hit of the meal. Not that I didn’t think it wouldn’t be good, just that I had already decided that I would get the salmon at the wedding. And we were kind of going back and forth between the Moroccan chicken and coq au vin. Not anymore. Moroccan chicken all the way, baby. So tasty. If I get this at the wedding, I will have to fashion some sort of bridal bib as the sauce is very red and my dress is very ivory and that sort of set up pretty much has disaster written all over it.

Desserts were a pear-fig-honey cobbler with vanilla ice cream and a bourbon-chocolate-pecan tart with vanilla ice cream. They were both delicious.

Price-wise jwa and I were trying to guess (before the check came) if this meal would be over or under what we just spent at Iorio for the Harvest Dinner we attended. And…Bridgewater was about $20 cheaper. We were both kind of surprised as we got a soup, a salad, three entrees (the fish cakes were an entree, not an appetizer) a bottle of wine and two desserts at Bridgewater.

Also, while we were at the restaurant, they were having a wedding reception in the upstairs private dining room! That makes me super happy too — that they can handle a full house of regular diners and also be catering a wedding at the same time. Awesome.

I’m just so happy we chose to go with them for our wedding catering. On top of the food, they’re just so nice to work with while planning a reception meal culinary extranvganza — friendly, calm, knowledgeable and skilled with northwest ingredients. The whole wedding planning can all be so stressful it’s a huge relief to have faith that the meal will be delicious and go smoothly. Hooray for Bridgewater Bistro!

At work last Friday, there was a stack of seaweed packages for people to take home if they wanted to and do something seaweed-y with. Grabbing a package, I thought it might be fun for jwa and I to attempt to make sushi. After some contemplation, we decided to start simply, with just rice, cucumber, avocado and crab — a little like California Rolls.

We already had a day planned — breakfast at the Detour Cafe, a walk to OMSI and then I figured we’d hit New Seasons on the walk back home for rice and crab. Everything went perfectly to plan, except New Seasons was out of crab and we had to get that at Zupans. Bastards!

jwa outside omsi

Once at home and rice, veggies and crab prepped, we timidly began. The sushi mats were a little challenging to get the hang of and these were not the most attractive sushi rolls ever but they were good. I think we will be practicing our mad sushi rolling skillz this Fall and Winter and will, come Spring, make beautiful and lovely sushi together. Oh, just you wait….

Avocado and Crab-meat Sushi (for the timid but hoppeful)
This recipe is from Epicurius.com.
For the rice:
1 cup white short-grain rice*
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dry Sherry
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 avocado
fresh lemon juice for rubbing the avocado
3 pieces of toasted nori
1/2 cucumber, peeled and cut lengthwise into 8- by 1/4-inch strips
1/4 pound fresh King crab meat picked over and drained well
wasabi paste to taste for the sushi plus additional as an accompaniment if desired
soy sauce as an accompaniment
pickled ginger as an accompaniment if desired

Rice:
In a large fine sieve rinse the rice under running cold water until the water runs clear with no milky residue and drain it well. In a large heavy saucepan combine the rice with 1 1/4 cups water, bring the water to a boil, and simmer the rice, covered tightly, for 15 minutes, or until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.

Remove the pan from the heat, let the rice stand, covered tightly, for 10 minutes, and transfer it to a jelly-roll pan, spreading it in an even layer. Keep the rice warm, covered.

In a saucepan whisk together the vinegar, the sugar, the sherry, and the salt. Simmer the mixture until the sugar is dissolved, and let it cool. Sprinkle the rice with as much of the vinegar mixture as necessary to moisten it lightly, tossing it carefully, and cover it with a dampened cloth. (Do not chill the rice.) The rice may be made 3 hours in advance and kept, covered with the dampened cloth, at room temperature.

Now for the rest…
Peel and pit the avocado, rubbing it with the lemon juice, and cut it into 1/4-inch-thick strips.

Working with one sheet of nori at a time and with a long side facing you, spread about 3/4 cup of the rice in an even layer on each sheet, leaving a 1/2-inch border on the long sides. Arrange some of the avocado strips horizontally across the middle of the rice and arrange some of the cucumber strips and the crab meat on top of the avocado.

Dab the crab meat with the wasabi and beginning with a long side roll up the nori tightly jelly-roll fashion. This is a lot easier if you have a sushi rolling mat. Very inexpensive and a good kitchen investment.

Cut each roll with a sharp knife into 3/4-inch-thick slices and serve the rolls with the soy sauce, the additional wasabi, and the ginger.

Divy up, eat and enjoy!

A Few Unrelated Words on Shoes…
I have been thinking about shoes lately. Although I have a fond place in my heart for most footwear, I’ve been thinking about wedding shoes specifically. I called a bridal place by work to ask if they had shoes. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hi. I was wondering about your bridal shoe collection.

Her: Silence.

Me: Uh, I mean, you have shoes, right?

Her: Yes.

Me: Is there a large selection? Or at least, are there different sizes available?

Her: Well, we have sizes between 6-8 and then you have to special order everything.

Me: Huh. Um, how does that work if you don’t wear a 6, 7 or 8? How do I know if the shoe fits?

Her: Pause. Well, I guess you don’t for sure. You just have to order it.

Me: Okay. Thanks.

WTF? Seriously? A dress I understand. You try on what they have and then order one in the closest size based on your measurements and then you have alterations as needed. But hello? They don’t alter a shoe. Would it kill them to just have like a variety of sizes available to at least see how different brands fit?

I was so irritated that I decided to just order shoes online. Free shipping and I can return them for free if they don’t fit. Take that, bridal shop industry.

Possibility #1 — on sale for $49.00 — matches the wedding colors of green and brown — bonus points for not being white or ivory. Ha!

Possibility #2 — $54 — white but dyeable. I’ll probably dye it with green tea, going for an off-white, pale, pale green color.

We’ll see which fits best and which is the cutest. Hopefully it’ll be the same shoe. In either case, I have to guess at sizing but at least I get free shipping, better pricing, free returns and less stupidity.

A while ago (okay, like 1999), I remembered seeing a recipe in Sunset magazine for lavender-blueberry margaritas. I recently spent some time searching for it, found it, and then was like, huh. Coconut milk? In margaritas? Besides adding fat and making it kind of like a marga-colada, I wasn’t quite sure what the coconut milk did for the drink. So, anyway, I futzed around with the recipe a bit and came up with this one. jwa and I both thought they were really good. Plus, if you make extra lavender syrup, I’m sure there are many other lavender cocktails that you could make with it.

Lavender-Blueberry Margaritas
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried lavender
1/2 cup tequila
1/3 cup triple sec
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
ice

sugar for rimming glasses
lime wedge
sprigs of fresh lavender

Add the water, dried lavender and sugar to a small pan. Heat and bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat and let the lavender steep about 10 minutes, then strain, discarding the lavender and keeping the lavender flavored syrup.

In a blender, add the lavender syrup, tequila, triple sec, lime juice, frozen blueberries and ice. Blend. *whir* *whir* *whir* Taste to make sure the lime juice/tequila/triple sec ratios are good. Adjust if needed.

Meanwhile, go around each glass with a lime wedge to wet it, then press the rim down in a saucer of sugar. Pour the margaritas into the sugar rimmed glasses and enjoy. If you’re feeling hoitey toitey, pop a lavender sprig into the drink. We had the margaritas with some black bean salad and cheddar cheese and avocado quesadillas.

If that were not enough excitement, earlier in the day I received my custom cocktail napkin order from the Stationary Studio. So cute! I think the design really captures jwa’s hair and fondness for wine. The napkins are a sage green and the printing is espresso brown — the same colors that the invitations will be — I’ve been playing around at MyGatsby lately and I think I have the invitations designed.

As for the napkins, we’re having an hour or so of appetizers directly following the ceremony on the rooftop, so we got these to use during that part of the reception. Woo! Guests won’t have to wipe any caramelized onion and sweet red pepper tartlet crumbs on their pants!

First off, I’ll just say that Astoria has somewhat limited catering choices. It was a little frustrating at first but it has come together just fine — better than fine, actually. We have been in discussions with our caterer over our wedding reception dinner menu and I think we have come up with a great and tasty celebratory spread. jwa and I are both very, very pleased. The menu has a kind of Asian-Swedish-Italian-Moroccan-Greek-French fusion thing happening. Mmmm….tasty, tasty fusion.

The gluttony feast will begin after the ceremony, on the rooftop, where there will be snacks (or as the fancy-pants are apt to call them, Hors d’ oeuvres) that will consist of the following:

* Halibut Cakes with Green Salsa (avocado, lime, cilantro, green apple)
* Seared Black-Sesame Encrusted Ahi Nigiri Sushi
* Caramelized Onion and Sweet Red Pepper Tartlet (vegetarian)
* Middle Eastern Sesame-Lamb Meatballs with Yogurt-Mint Sauce
* Chevre Spanakopita with Lemon-Honey (vegetarian)
* Rogue River Creamery Blue Cheese with Hot Pepper Jelly on Walnut Crostini (vegetarian)

It is also at this point that the wine and champagne will begin to flow. After a little while — when the snacks are gone or the guests get restless — we will head downstairs to the hotel’s wine bar and have dinner.

Course One:
Dungeness Crab Cocktail

Course Two:
Wild Mushroom Soup

Course Three: (A choice of one, although, jwa has already decided that he is having all three. What the hell, it’s his wedding too, I suppose).

* Grilled Wild King Salmon with Swedish Dill-Mustard Sauce; with jasmine rice & baby garbanzo bean pilaf and oven roasted asparagus

* Moroccan Chicken (boneless dark meat chicken with Middle Eastern spices, Kalamata olives, onions & garlic) — or possibly coq au vin — served with soft polenta and oven roasted asparagus

* Wild Mushroom & Spring Vegetable Ragout with soft cheese polenta for our vegetarian guests and oven roasted asparagus

Course Four: (How European!)
* Small Salad of Seasonal Baby Organic Greens with Salalberry Vinaigrette, Toasted Hazelnuts & Radish Sprouts

Course Five — The Final Course — this is where it gets awesome:
Wedding cake, coffee, tea, port.

It looks like the cake will be petite yet three-tiered, with the bottom and mini top tier being an almond cake with a bittersweet chocolate-espresso ganache filling. The middle tier will be a citrus-infused cheesecake. The whole thing will be slathered in vanilla-orange buttercream. Oh yeah, there will also be bittersweet chocolate drizzle cascading down the sides of the cake, as in the title picture.

Catering Choice
We looked at three places for catering: a well-known restaurant in Astoria that we were super-super-unimpressed with at a recent lunch, Voila Catering in Portland and the Shoalwater Restaurant in Seaview, WA. We really liked Voila but, you know, they’re in Portland and the wedding is in Astoria. Very expensive travel fees but, if you are getting married in Portland, you should check them out!

No comment on the Astoria place. *sigh*

Finally, Ann at the Shoalwater (and soon to be in Astoria at the Bridgewater) is awesome. So nice and calm and dedicated to using local, fresh, in-season ingredients. Also, she has such a calming presence and stress-free way about describing how everything at the reception will work. It was such an easy choice to go with them for the catering. I have the feeling this may actually come together!