Blackberry Picking

Blackberry picking is one of my favorite things about living in Oregon. The brambles grow like weeds in the Willamette valley. You don't have to go to the trouble of picking them at a u-pick farm, just simply pull off to the side of the road once you've spotted them and pick to your hearts content.

Recently, I noticed some brambles growing above our fence. I asked my husband if he would help me pick them. As we were picking, he discovered that there were lots more blackberry brambles on the other side of our fence. In no time we had gathered enough berries to make jam, cobbler, pie, etc.

It seems like blackberry picking always turns into a race for us, but it's part of the fun. My husband picks berries a lot faster than I do for some reason, so he usually wins. We had fun playing and joking around together. It was a spontaneous date that turned out to be a lot of fun.

Babka Themed Date

Babka is a marbled bread/cake that is popularly sold at bakeries. it is so popular, in fact, that they had it featured on a Seinfeld episode called "the dinner party."

I thought it would be fun to introduce my husband to the chocolate and cinnamon variations of babka before watching the Seinfeld episode.

I set the loaves out on the counter, after baking them, for him to discover.

Once he found them, I sliced each one open. We both were impressed by the marbled effect.

You'll notice that the chocolate loaf is bigger. That's because I let it rise longer.

I felt like I had died and gone to babka heaven while eating the bread. My husband really liked them too. I will definitely be making them again and I think they'd make wonderful gifts.

I also made a blackberry cream cheese version and put it in a circular baking dish. I liked the shape it baked into, but it didn't have a lot of filling, because most of it spilled out when I was trying to roll the dough.

My husband was curious how I shaped the loaves, so I showed him a quick clip from a youtube video that used the technique.

We watched the Seinfeld episode next. Here are a few video links to the part about babka - link one & link two.

I got the babka recipe online. It's actually from a bakery in Seattle. I was surprised by how easy it was to make. If you've ever made cinnamon rolls, you can easily make babka.

I've included the links to the babka video tutorials and recipes below...
Dough (makes 2 loaves) - link
Chocolate filling (for 2 loaves) - link
Streusel topping (enough for 4 loaves) - link
Cinnamon filling (for 1 loaf) - I used 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup reg sugar, 2 Tbsp cinnamon.

You can refrigerate and freeze babka too. Just thaw it out before baking.

I baked each loaf for 30 minutes at 325 degrees, then covered the loaves with foil on top and baked them at 350 degrees for an additional 20 minutes.

Sentimental Scavenger Hunt

Sometimes I feel like I just want to do something nice for my husband to show him how much I love and appreciate him. Usually I end up baking him something and then surprising him with it. This time, I decided to bake something, but I hid it and gave him a trail of sentimental clues to find it.

The clues that I used are listed below. He knew most of the answers.

 The sentimental scavenger hunt was a bigger hit than I expected. I watched my husband anxiously find clues, read them out loud and guess the answers.

He seemed so happy and surprised when he found the individual sized pie/tart that I made him at the end, hidden in the trunk of our car.

It felt good to do something nice for my husband and I think it made his day.

Blindfolded Food Tasting

Last night, my husband & I had the funnest and most creative date yet. It was inspired by the movie "no reservations" where the lady (chef) gets blindfolded by her date and is spoon fed sauces. She then, guesses what ingredients are in the sauces.

The picture to the right is from the European version of the movie "no reservations," not the one starring Catherine Zeta Jones.

We did a simpler version of the date. We bought regular food items at the store to fed each other, instead of using complex sauces. Our two rules for the game were -

 #1.) The food had to be something that we had tasted before, so that we could guess what it was.
#2.) We had to buy food items that the other person would like. Nothing gross, like a spoon full of ketchup.

We started out with $5 each to spend on food items for each other, but we both ended up spending a little over. We also had a week to buy the foods for each other.

Most of what we bought were inexpensive food items from the bulk at Winco & Roth's, but we also bought things from the deli counter, the bakery, produce, etc.

I bought these foods for my husband.
Cheetos
pop rocks
cashews
nutella (snack pack, cause it's cheaper)
One slice of Pepper jack cheese 
Kalamata olive (from Roth's olive bar)
Sour patch kids
Peanut butter filled pretzel bite
licorice jelly bean
Beef jerky
candied ginger
Caramel corn

My husband bought these foods for me.
radish
lemon yogurt
cherry/pomegranate yogurt
sour patch kids
peanut butter filled pretzel bit
One slice of swiss cheese
One slice of cheddar cheese
dried Mango slice
Whopper candy
Reeses peaces candies
Yogurt covered raisens
Cherry
cashew butter

We took turns being blindfolded and tasting food. I was blindfolded first and my husband fed me a bite of each food he had bought for me. After each bite I would guess what I was eating. If I couldn't guess right away, he would give me a few more bites. Then, it was my husbands turn and we played the game the same way for his food tasting.

I was surprised by some of the tastes (tart lemon yogurt for example,) textures, sizes, shapes, and temperatures of the foods I tasted while being blindfolded. That was part of the fun, but I also liked feeding my husband foods while he was blindfolded and watching his expressions.

There was a little bit of cross over with the foods we purchased for each other, but not too much. We did shop at some of the same places.

There were a couple food items that each of us couldn't guess that made the game a little challenging, which was fun.

After we had finished the game, we snacked on the food that was left over and visited. We both really enjoyed our date and agreed that we would have to do it again in the future. I think it would be a fun game for kids to play too.

Willamette Valley Fruit Co.

Today, we set out on another surprise date adventure. We visited the Willamette Valley Fruit Company for the first time and tried their pie.

One of the things that I really enjoy about our surprise dates is how my husband tries to unravel the mystery of where we are going beforehand. As we started to drive further out into the valley today, he asked me if we were going to a u-pick farm. Technically this company does have a u-pick farm, so I had to choose my words carefully, so that I wouldn't be lying. I responded by saying, "we will not be picking berries." Then, I told him that I was surprised that he didn't think we were going to a commercial area, lol. As we were driving by a field full of llamas. I guess he thought the chances of us going to the mall were pretty slim at that point.

When we got to the company's store, my husband recognized the brand, because some of our friends recently gave us raspberry jam from there.

I thought the store was pretty small, but I liked it. They sell unique food items and their freezer is full of fruit/berries, pies, cobbler, etc. It kind of reminded me of the Made in Oregon store.

They had an interesting light fixture on display too.

I also noticed that they had a window inside the store looking into the pie factory, so that customers could watch the pie making process.

We slowly made our way over to the small cafe like restaurant inside the store. Their display counter had pies, muffins, scones, and turnovers. 

A slice of pie sells for $1 on weekdays between 9am-11am and you can get a pile of ice cream on top for just .50 cents more.

I would not recommend going to this place on an empty stomach. There were two of us and four pieces of pie...I'll let you do the math. I just couldn't choose between the marionberry and the boysenberry.  My husband got the marionberry and rhubarb/raspberry.

The pies were pretty good, but my husband told me that he likes the pies I make better. What a compliment.

I'm sure we'll go back again. I think it would be fun to bring kids here for some fun, affordable, family time.

Picnic at the Rose Garden

I thought it would be fun to surprise my husband with a picnic at the brush park rose garden. The park was somewhere that I thought neither of us had been before. That's why I was surprised when I turned down mission street and my husband guessed where we were going.

Come to find out he drives by brush park sometimes, because it's near his work. I was relieved when I found out that he didn't know there was a rose garden within the park. It's kind of pushed off/hidden from the main road. All you can really see when driving down mission st. is a sign, a wooded area and a stadium.

The picnic basket was something that I found before our date at a thrift store. I love how it's heart shaped. Very fitting for the occasion...and it reminds me of my mom, who loves all things hearts.

I decided to fill the basket with homemade caprese sandwiches, grapes, doritos and strawberry trifles.

It's been hot here. So, we decided to have our date in the evening after it had cooled off outside. I was glad we went when we did, because we practically had the park to ourselves.

 The rose garden is kind of small compared to the one in Portland, but we both still really liked it and thought it was a nice thing to have in the area. I especially liked the gazebo. It really adds to the lovely setting of the garden.

Now when my husband drives by the park, he said, he will think about the happy memory we made there. That comment alone made this date totally worth it.