Oregon Culinary Institute

My husband and I celebrated our anniversary this year at the Oregon Culinary Institute's restaurant in Portland. It is a really modern and unique place, where students cook and serve food.

They offer 3 course meals for lunch ($9) and 4 course meals for dinner ($18.) Their menu is always changing. We like going there, because they serve good food and we always have a new experience.

They've become more popular overtime and require a reservation. I noticed that they've added more tables and that the noise level was a little higher this time too. 

I ordered...
1.) Battered fennel with dipping sauce
2.) Salad with bacon, cheese, nuts, balsamic
3.) Braised pork shoulder, cauliflower puree, apricot, beans
4.) Chocolate brownie, ice cream, raspberry sauce

My husband ordered...
1.) cucumber soup
2.) Salad with creamy dressing, croutons, cucumber
3.) Salmon with veggies
4.) Chocolate brownie, ice cream, raspberry sauce
When they first brought out my main dish, we both thought there was an egg on it, but it turned out to be a warmed apricot. The fruit was a little out of place, but I still enjoyed it.

You'll notice that we both ordered the brownies with ice cream for dessert. Who could say no to that? We thought there was a frozen leaf on our plate at first, but it turned out to be a candied mint leaf! Cool, huh? Only one of us liked it's bold flavor though.

Overall, we both really enjoyed our meals and left feeling full. I would definitely recommend this place. It's a lot of fun.

Greek Food & Father's Day

My husband and I are fans of stuffed grape leaves. We first tried them at a work party, then found them at a grocery store, and now we make our own at home. Lately I've been thinking about how it would be fun to try a more authentic version from a restaurant. Then the opportunity came.

We decided to celebrate father's day early for a number of reasons, so I surprised my husband with stuffed grape leaves for dinner from the Macedonia Greek Restaurant.

The grape leaves were filled with equal parts of shredded beef and rice. The two dipping sauces on the side were baba ghanoush (creamy roasted eggplant dip) and taziki (cucumber yogurt sauce.)  We both really enjoyed our meal, but thought the stuffed grape leaves were a little oily. 

I also wanted my husband to try the famous dessert, baklava. I ended up ordering it from a different restaurant (The Downtown Market & Alsham Mediterranean Restaurant) because the description sounded more authentic.

The baklava was a little pricey, but it was totally worth it. It reminded me of pecan pie in a way, only much, much flakier and more delicious.

After dinner I gave my husband a few small father's day gifts. The first was a container I put together with dried fruit and nuts from the bulk section at Winco.

The second gift was a cinnamon white chocolate biscotti from this cute little shop called the Little Cannoli Bakery. My husband was nice enough to share his biscotti with me and I have to say that it was the best biscotti I have ever had. Another trip to that bakery is definitely in my future.

Strawberry Picking

It's hard to beat the fresh, sweet, flavorful strawberries that grow in Oregon. My husband and I have been wanting to pick strawberries at a u-pick farm for ages, but we've never got around to it. The problem is that they only grow for about 3 weeks in June. It seems like every year we blink our eyes and they're gone, but not this year.

There are many strawberry farms in the Willamette Valley. We decided to check out Daum's Produce Farm. The reason I wanted to go there, was because I learned that they also have u-pick flowers. The flowers weren't ready while we were there, but when they are, they will sell for 25 cents each. How fun would it be to bring kids there and let them pick flowers?

I was surprised to see how narrow the strawberry patch was at Daum's Produce Farm, but it's length seemed endless.

 The strawberries cost $1 per pound. I thought they were delicious and they made wonderful freezer jam.

Iris Garden & Dessert

We went to Schreiners iris garden for the first time today. The garden is only open to the public for a short time during May & June and it is FREE to get in. We picked a beautiful sunshiny day to go. The garden was very well kept with rows speckled with all different colors of irises and other flowers. We walked around and took in the beauty and tranquility of the place. I would recommend this garden to anyone. I've heard that it is pretty popular around Mothers day. Their price for irises are $6 a dozen. They sell the actual plants too, but they're more expensive.

Before our date, I let my husband know that we were going to the iris garden and out for a dessert. He wanted the dessert to be a surprise. So, after we finished walking through the iris garden I asked him to guess where he thought I would be taking him for dessert. He said "Dairy Queen?" I gave no answer, but in my mind I thought "no, we are going somewhere much more unique than that."

As we were driving I turned onto hazel road in the valley. That is when he guessed that we were going to E.Z. Orchards. To give you a little history, we had been to the E.Z. Orchard store before. The store is open year round and they sell produce and food gift items. They are popular for their homemade pumpkin doughnuts sold in the fall, and for their monster shortcakes sold during the summer months.

My husband didn't know that E.Z. Orchards had a shortcake stand in the summer. When we pulled up I let him know that we would be going over to the stand. He read off the sign that was mounted onto it "shortcakes." That's when I told him that we were there to try their strawberry shortcakes.

The fruit on the shortcakes changes during the summer months at E.Z. Orchards. Their strawberry shortcakes are sold in June, when they can get fresh strawberries from local farmers. In July they have mixed berry shortcakes and in August they have peach shortcakes.  The shortcakes include a biscuit or angel food cake, vanilla ice cream, fruit & whip cream. A large costs $5.25. The small is 50 cents cheaper, but it is half the size.

Overall we enjoyed our dessert experience. We sat in the shade, which was cold, but we wanted to keep our baby out of the sun. I was surprised by the tartness of the strawberries, but they were balanced out well enough with the sweet ice cream and whip topping.