Nanny's Feast

St. Patrick's Day marks Granny Nanny's birthday (as well as Oliver's half birthday). Sooo...Graham decided to make his Mom a 5 course dinner, complete with a menu.

He prepped everything Friday and Saturday morning and then we packed up in our cars and headed down to Corvallis for the weekend.

Rolling the pasta

 cutting the pasta

 placing the filling

Rabbit filling

one Agnolotti

 several Agnolotti

  Broccoli Soup (minus the soup)

carmelized florets, bacon, & lemon creme fraice

 My first successful attempt at sourdough. This one is French.

 It turned out really well, just needs a LOT more salt...

 Beet Risotto

ruby beets, parmigiano reggiano & bulls blood (baby beet sprouts...)

Braised Rabbit Agnolotti

fennel, castelveltrano olives, orange, king trumpet mushrooms

 Pearl Ruby Snapper

braised leeks, shitake mushrooms, scallions & panchetta dashi

Culotte Steak

maitake mushrooms, confit yukon potatoes & brussel sprouts

 and you can't forget dessert!

I made some lovely little Brownie cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles...

Wine & Tacos

Last weekend we took a little trip to Carlton and the Scott Paul tasting room for a little wine tasting followed by the best tacos so far in Oregon...

 Scott Wright, co-owner and Winemaker of Scott Paul Wines.

 Poppa Rick talking about wine..

 Poppa Rick tasting the wine...

Henri - 10 1/2 months.

 After wine tasting, we drove back to Newberg for the BEST tacos yet since moving back to Oregon...

(these are carnitas, after I already inhaled 1, i ended up ordering 2 more Carne Asada!)

 Oliver loving his rice n' beans...

Baby brother does too!

New Direction

As I told you a few weeks ago, there have been many changes with Graham's job. Aaron was let go and the focus of the restaurant has been drastically changed along with Lunch starting last Tuesday.

Graham is now the lunch Sous Chef and got to work last week at 7am. Most days he was home before 8 and one day even 6:30! That might all be changing this week as a Kitchen Manager was hired who also has a family. They will be getting together to decide who will be working when. It was so nice and great having him home early though it did throw a kink in our day to day schedule. It would be nice to be able to get used to the new schedule but I am not crossing my fingers.

I didn't mention much before so as to not ruffle any feathers or tell of Graham's real feelings of the situation so as to not put his job in jeopardy. He was really unhappy about how things went down and the direction the restaurant was going. The staff moped about for at least a week, some people even cried, many started looking for new work. Graham started to look for new work and even went on an interview but decided it was best to stay put. He is still keeping his eyes open and being prepared for the possibility of getting laid off, something that we think could be possible but not sure, there isn't the security feeling that he once had.

Aaron has been talking about opening his own place for awhile now and is taking this opportunity and advantage of the economy to start his own little place. Many people think "Really?! in this economy?" but in Portland, people flock to the new, now who knows if they will stay...but usually they become the darlings of the town. Another great thing is there is a lot of space available at better rates and labor costs are down since people need work. There are no set dates or location, but the idea is about and the planning getting under way. 

So we look to the future and keep our fingers crossed...

Crispy Striped Bass

Graham just got a Call from the Chef Man. There has been a new write up in the PDX Magazine that is worth taking a look at. Scroll down to Crispy Striped Bass for the review.

http://www.pdxmagazine.com/pdxpo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1295&Itemid=80

Or go pick up a copy of the January issue.

Hate to say "I Told you so"

Last Spring or Summer, Graham went through 5 interviews with multiple people for a position at Lucier and eventually decided that since he wasn't going to work there he didn't need to keep up the charade. They told him they were willing to offer him a position but still wanted another interview, plus a paper he had to write. Who makes you write a paper? Any way, they didn't want to pay much but also wanted to have an absurd amount of people in the kitchen, French Brigade style. We have heard reports of friends who ate there and counted more people in the kitchen than in the restaurant itself. Portland does need true fine dining, but now is not going to be the time. If a place like 23Hoyt that has amazing food and moderate prices is noticing the change in the economy, at high end Fine Dining place charging a minimum of $50 a person is going to do well...


We predicted it wouldn't do well and Graham actually told me this bit of news last night...


I hate to say it (well not really)
We told you so.

Dinner and Drinking

**** UPDATE*****
I found more pictures that I didn't realize I had...

 

  

  

  

(There were a few more but I felt they were too blurry...)

A few weeks ago Aaron (Chef) and Andrea (also known as the A Team) invited us over for dinner. Also invited were Joel and Jenna(J Team) who were fortunate enough to leave their little girl Elliott with Grandma for the evening. It was decided by the end of the night that Elliott and Olvier would be perfect for each other and play date needs to be arranged. The Sommelier from Clarklewis, Kurt also came to dinner loaded with armfuls of wine and boxes of glasses. Two other women ended up showing up right before dinner as well, 1 a friend of Kurt's who turned out to be from Domine Serene and her friend who is the Sommelier at Fenoil and Joel's boss (from 1 of his jobs). Immediately after Kurt arrived, magnums of champagne were opened and poured. Unfortunately I couldn't partake in the drinking except for a couple small sips and was the one left to baby wrangle. We had a great meal and conversation (along with a pretty bad spill for Oliver). Graham thought that it would be nice to take pictures of what was opened for those members of our family that are wine geeks...I am pretty sure we didn't get pictures of all the wine and Champagne as more and more bottles were pulled out during the night. Here is just the beginning of the night before Graham had too much to drink to think of taking pictures.

 Our contribution.

 

  

  

  

  

  

Oliver also had his first experience with a piano and we were delighted to see that he really took to it. You would expect a baby to bang on the keys but he very thoughtfully and purposefully pressed the keys.

 

 Maestro age 13 months.

Daddy's Dinner

Last Thursday was the beginning of our whirlwind week. Granma and Poppa Rick came up for a visit, a haircut with the FABULOUS Karen Miles, a little shopping and dinner at Olea.

We tried to not be the first ticket of the night, due to Graham's wishes, but alas, we had good luck catching the Street Car and got there almost on time for dinner service to start. We were the only ones in the restaurant and there were a few customers outside enjoying Happy Hour.

We started off the evening with drinks.

The Mojito. mmmm.....with a hint of basil, so tasty!

Oliver chowin' on some cheerios and making a mess.

After we ordered drinks the boys sent out an amazing Roasted Sweet Corn Soup. The bowls came out with a tasty little relish in the center, some little tomatoes sliced in half and chili oil. The waiter then poured the soup for each of us one at a time.

The next course was a Romaine, Corn & Quinoa Salad for Mom, Graham's new mussel dish for Poppa Rick (who couldn't stop talking about how good it was!) and a Grilled Peach & Arugula Salad for myself. ( I forgot to take pictures until half way through dinner!)

Dinner was next.

Granma had the Scallops.

Poppa Rick had the Chicken.

I had Graham's Pappardelle dish, with Morels and English Peas but forgot to take a picture!

Granma's new do.

Daddy got Ollie some peas, he LOVED them!

After Dinner we were each given our own dessert, just when we thought we couldn't eat another bite!

Poppa Rick got Peach Creme Brulee.

Granma's cold Cantaloupe Soup with Strawberry Sorbet and Melon balls.My Panna Cotta with Blueberry Compote.The Pastry Chef Kristy made Oliver his very own animal cookies out of pie crust. She had never done them before and just happen to have little animal cutters.

He ate every last one...


After dinner, Oliver and I headed down to Lebanon to start the next leg of our journey to Southern Oregon the next day.