Pumpkin Bread

Happy (almost) Halloween! I have a confession to make: I have not had a Halloween costume or attended a Halloween party since college. I always forget to think about costume ideas until the very last minute, and by that point it just seems like too much time, effort, and money to pull something off. So, Stuart and I have "boycotted" Halloween festivities yet again this year - and by that I mean we bought a big bag of Halloween candy, watched the movies E.T. and Pirates of the Caribbean, and are crossing our fingers for at least one cute little trick-or-treater to show up on our doorstep this Wednesday.

While I may not get into Halloween mode, I am definitely jumping on the pumpkin baking craze that happens every fall. Hence, I could not resist posting the obligatory fall recipe: pumpkin bread! 

The problem with most pumpkin bread recipes is that they make two loaves, when I only want one. So I adapted the recipe from My Baking Addiction to make only one delicious loaf. I also like to add a scattering of pumpkin seeds on top for some extra crunch.

Ingredients:

1/2 can pumpkin puree (7.5 ounces)
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Pumpkin sees (optional for garnish) 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pan.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, vanilla and sugar until well blended.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Portland Part II: Foodie Paradise

Ok folks, drumroll please! It's time for the rundown of our foodie weekend in Portland, Oregon. As mentioned in my last post, Stuart and I went for a quick one-night trip to celebrate my birthday, and had a fantastic time sampling a few of the things Portland has to offer. 

Our trip included delicious Thai fusion, Spanish tapas, local artisinal ice cream, Stumptown coffee, and more. As my aunt mentioned to me in an email, calories don't count on your birthday! Let's hope she was right :)

 

We started off our trip with Lunch at Pok Pok, aThai fusion restaurant that is well known in Portland, has several locations, and over 1,000 Yelp reviews. 

We ate: Ike's Vietnamese fish sauce wings, Khao Soi (Thai curry noodle soup) and  Khao Man Som Tam (green papaya salad with sweet shredded pork). Every dish was so unique and tasty.

  

 

 For dinner, we ate at Toro Bravo, a Spanish tapas restaurant that was my favorite meal of the trip. 

We ate: bacon wrapped dates, Brussels sprouts with bacon sherry cream, squash dumplings with braised lamb, stewed butternut squash with sheep's cheese, and baked polenta with roast beef. Each dish was to-die-for delicious.

  

For dessert, we discovered the best ice cream we have ever had at Salt and Straw. It was so good that we went twice: once on Friday and again of Saturday before we left town. Both times I got a scoop of the sea salt with caramel ice cream in a waffle cone, pictured above. It was so good that we were discussing how we could get this shipped to us by the pint (news flash: you CAN! But it costs $$).

For breakfast the next morning we went to Tasty n Sons, which I only then discovered was owned by the same chefs that run Toro Bravo, where we had dinner! 

We ate: biscuits with venison gravy, Baked apple with cheddar and bacon, and the English breakfast.

 For an afternoon pick-me-up, we stopped at the iconic Stumptown Coffee Roasters for a local Portland cup of joe.

 We wrapped up the trip with lunch at Kenny and Zuke's, a lovely delicatessen with an amazing potato salad and house made bagels. We took the bagels to go to enjoy a taste of Portland back home in Seattle. I hope you have a chance to travel to Portland and try these or other top notch eateries!

Portland Part I

Well hello blog world, guess what? Today is my birthday! It has been a great day of opening cards and packages, making a delicious breakfast at home, and a surprise Seattle hailstorm. Oh yes...and recovering from my foodie birthday trip to Portland!

Stuart and I made the 3 hour drive down to Portland on Friday morning, and got back late Saturday night. We always like to try and do mini getaways to celebrate special occasions, rather than focus on what "stuff" we think the other person wants. We had a whirlwind trip and I will post in two batches: the basics & the city pictures (posted here today) and the food that we ate (to be posted tomorrow). I need to sift through my many food pictures and decide which to share!

 MORE free champagne in honor of my birthday, thanks to the wonderful Hotel Modera (we had lots during our honeymoon last month in Hawaii)

 Our view from our hotel room of the courtyard

 Powell's City of Books = Best. Bookstore. Ever.

 We visited the Portland Saturday Market...and drank lots of coffee and beer!

More photos and foodie tips to come soon...

Weekend Dinner Party

Well, the rain has finally arrived full force in Seattle! It's been a busy weekend of grading student papers, presenting at my first academic conference, and grading some more! We also got our Halloween pumpkin today, and it is now adding some much-needed bright decoration our drizzly front door.

On Saturday, Stuart and I were invited by a family friend for a lovely dinner at his home north of Seattle. Paul cooked up an an amazing (and seemingly effortless!) feast of farmers' market goodies. I just had to share the photos, because everything was so fresh, local, and delicious!

 Pork shoulder bacon

 Turnip greens

 Farmers' market pork chops

 Our cooking companion, Zoey!

 The bacon went in with some fresh-off-the-stalk Brussel sprouts...

 Potatoes and baby turnips, baked with olive oil

 Cherry tomatoes with basil and olive oil started off our meal

 The main event came together as this beautiful dish!

Let's just say I'm hoping we get invited back soon, if it means we get treated to such delicious food! ;)

Red Mill Burgers

Ok, get ready to either have found your new favorite burger joint, or to be very jealous that you don't live in Seattle. Even as I'm posting this I am craving my favorite chicken bacon burger and peanut butter milkshake!! 

Red Mill Burgers is an icon burger establishment in Seattle, and has won all sorts of awards and honorable mentions for their grilled-up goodness. I really like this burger joint because of the reasonable prices and consistently tasty food. Like I said above, I have my favorite meal and I order it every single time! For some reason Red Mill is most famous for the pile of bacon that they always have ready on the grill. You can even get a T-shirt featuring the bacon pile! 

If you go (which you should), note that they only take cash. You may also have to act like a vulture while you wait for someone to give up their seat.

The Wisdom Tooth Diet

Happy Saturday everyone! It's still an incredible 72 degrees and sunny fall day in Seattle today. The only not-so-sunny thing about this weekend is that Stuart had his wisdom teeth out yesterday morning...ouch! I remember back to when I had mine taken out in high school - I felt like a groggy chipmunk for a couple of days, due to my numbed up mouth and puffy cheeks.

In preparation for his surgery, we stocked up on lots of foods suitable for a liquid diet that does not require much chewing. This list includes applesauce, yogurt, soup, pudding, ice cream, and smoothie ingredients. Stuart joked this morning that he feel like a baby because of all the soft foods (I mean, when was the last time you ate chocolate pudding??)

Thankfully the hardest part is the first few hours post-surgery, and he is now recovering wonderfully! You would never guess he had oral surgery just about 24 hours ago. I swear I could not have gone out in public the day after mine were taken out, but he has - what a champ!

Mango Salsa

When I visited California over the summer, my friend Adrian made the most delicious mango salsa that is one of his family’s secret recipes. It’s a “secret” because there is really no set amount of each ingredient that must be included – you just combine everything in a haphazard and magical way, adding lemon and salt to suit your personal taste. 

I tried to re-create this salsa on my own last weekend, and the results were very tasty (although admittedly not as tasty as Adrian’s version!). The mango I bought was ripe and delicious, although I never realized how difficult mangoes are to cut, as you cannot eat the hard “core” that runs through the middle. I didn’t have jalapeno on hand, but I think it would have added a nice extra kick, to balance out the sweet taste of the mango. 

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango

1 large tomato

Red onion

Cilantro

Jalapeno

Lemon or lime