Pretending to be Scottish

Anyone who knows me and/or anyone who frequents "The Butt" (aka The Scuttlebutt)...

has probably figured out by now I like to go really random places.

I'm a nerd at heart, I love exploring, and I have a strange appreciation for people who like to "go all out".

What does that mean?

Well, you know the types...

these are the people who spend their weekends taking part in Civil War reenactments,

or go to the Renaissance Faire in full costume,

or recreate Colonial Williamsburg.

I'm not sure what I love about these things. Maybe it's just I appreciate the attention to detail.

And since I love reading historical fiction, some of the time it gives me a chance to pseudo-experience the books/time periods I've read all about.

Take for example this weekend.

Dani (a former Civil War reenactor) and I decided to head out to Gresham, OR for the annual Highland Games.

A giant, all-day Scottish Festival...featuring men in kilts, lots of plaid, bagpipes, and bangers and mash.

We had an absolute amazing time, and for anyone who has read the Outlander series (if you haven't you should)...clans Frasier and MacKenzie were out in full force.

I spent the festival scoping out the crowd for potential Jamie Frasiers.

I highly recommend visiting the Highland Games in your area.

Look it up. I promise you have one.

The dancing, music, food and atmosphere makes for an awesome day.

The man in the kilt who made our necklaces.(Don't mind my crazy hair!)

And if you happen to be lucky enough to have a friend who appreciates this kind of thing as much as Dani did, consider yourself lucky and get out there!

That's right...bff necklaces...we're that cool.

Where will your next adventure be?

Dear Summer,

I'm obsessed.

Please don't ever leave.

I don't care that we only get a few days of sunshine at a time, I'll take what I can get.

I savor every second of your warmth and endless days.

The long winter is a distant memory.

Everyday is filled with hikes, meals on the balcony overlooking the river, late nights, and barbecues.

Not to mention the s'mores

It's funny, summer.

As a child I never appreciated you. California sunshine overflowed year-round.

Honestly, I didn't really notice you.

But now everything has changed.

One 9 month winter in Portland and I finally have learned to appreciate you.

I feel like I need to get in all of my summer loving that I never did as a child.

So please don't leave.

At least not for a few more weeks.

I promise not to take you for granted.

Love,

Allison

Dear blog readers,

I'm sorry I've been gone so long.

I haven't found time for anything lately besides work and enjoying summer.

There has been precious time with an old friend.

Hikes.

Gorgeous views.

A beautiful wedding.

Wine tasting in the Oregon countryside.

A rodeo.

Enjoying Portland's many microbrews.

And plain old summertime.

I promise I will be back, but for now it may not be as soon as we all would like.

I'm just too busy enjoying my new found love of summer!

summertime.

Hello again!

I'm so sorry I haven't been blogging as regularly as I should.

Summer has arrived (thank goodness!) and we've been busy spending time on our balcony, playing softball, and seeing our family and friends.

This past weekend I had the chance to see Randy Travis in concert. My Mama and I headed over to the Emerald Queen Casino near Tacoma, and celebrated her birthday with a girls' night.

It was a blast and Randy's still got it!

This week is full of adventures.

One of my best friends in the whole world is flying all the way to Portland from New York for a visit. Maya and I met freshman year of college when we both joined the swim team.

Here is a tribute to our friendship.

From it's very beginning...

...until now...almost 6 years after we met!
We will definitely need to take some new pictures while Maya is here...we look approximately 15 in all of these.

Oh college, I miss you!
I can't wait to show her (and share with all of you!) everything the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Maya and I have been shooting emails back and forth with ideas for her trip and so far it looks like we will be doing a bit of hiking, heading out to the St. Paul rodeo, and eating and drinking our way through all of Portland's amazing restaurants and breweries.

If anyone has any Portland must do's leave me a comment!

With all the craziness the past couple of weeks I've had less time to share with you what I've been doing in the kitchen. The past week it seemed like we had friends over every night for dinner and there's just something a little odd about pulling out the camera and taking pictures of your guest's dinner before they're allowed to eat it.

But I promise I'll try to make it up to you with some great recipes this week!

Last night Jeremy and I had Chicken Pot Pie.

Not your typical chicken pot pie, but a delicious version I discovered on Joy the Baker.

This one was made in a long casserole dish and had homemade chive biscuits on top.

I've never had pot pie quite like this one and it turned out to be worth the time/effort...

Jeremy said it was Top 5 meals I've ever made material!

Chicken Pot Pie with Chive Biscuits
Inspired by Joy the Baker

What you'll need:

Biscuits--

2 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 T baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp granulated sugar

1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

4 ounces (half of a brick) cream cheese, cold

3/4 cup buttermilk, cold

Filling--

4 T unsalted butter

1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 C low-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 C whole milk

4 ounces (half of a brick) cream cheese

salt and pepper to taste

the juice from 1 lemon

1/8 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

3 C shredded chicken meat (from a rotisserie chicken)

2 T butter

1 small onion, diced

1 small garlic clove, minced

1 1/2 cup thinly diced carrots

1 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

What you'll need to do:

Biscuits first.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, black pepper, and chopped chives.

Add butter and cream cheese to the dry ingredients.  Use your fingers to combine butter, cheese, and flour. You want to keep mixing it together with your fingers until you have small pieces (pebble size or smaller).

Make a small well in the center of the dough and add the buttermilk.  

Using a fork, combine the wet and dry ingredients.

Dump the shaggy biscuit dough onto a lightly floured work surface.  Knead together until dough forms a disk about 1 1/2 inches thick.

Use a round, 1 1/2-inch biscuit cutter to cut biscuits (or use a 1/4 C measuring cup like I did). 

Place biscuits on a small cookie sheet and place in the fridge until ready to bake.

Now for the filling. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Dice onion, garlic, carrots, and thaw the frozen peas.  Set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour.  (Mixture will be very thick.)  Heat for 1 minute.  Turn flame to low and add the chicken stock.  Whisk until no flour bits remain.  Whisk in the milk and add the cream cheese.  Heat over medium low heat, stirring often, until cream cheese has melted.  

Add chicken, lemon, and nutmeg.  Stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste.   Remove mixture from heat and set aside.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt butter.  Add onions and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add minced garlic and saute for one minute more.  Add carrots and peas.  Cook for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add vegetable mixture to the creamy chicken mixture.  Stir to combine.

Spoon filling into a 9×13-inch pan.  Remove the biscuits from the fridge and place them on top of the filling.  Brush the tops of the biscuits with heavy cream, buttermilk, or egg wash.

Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until biscuits are puffed and golden, and the sides of the pot pie are bubbling.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Enjoy!

brussel sprouts.

Happy Wednesday!

I have a very special treat for you today.

I know I'm always experimenting with weird (disgusting to some) ingredients in the kitchen...but this time even I was shocked at the tasty outcome.

I did it.

I made and liked brussel sprouts.

I didn't think it could be done.

Let me share with you the brief history of my relationship with these little green demons.

Experience #1: circa 2003. I was in high school. Laura's mom, an amazing Italian woman who cooked for us kids non-stop, had us over for dinner. Zelyne, Laura, and I sat around the table excitedly awaiting the arrival of what we were sure would be a mountain of pasta and meatballs.

Enter the plate of brussel sprouts.

You might not believe it, but up until that point I had never had a single brussel sprout in my very long 15 years of life.

They smelled like a fart. I put one in my mouth.

Long story short...tasted like a fart too.

Experience #2: circa 2011. Earlier this year I went on a trip to Lake Tahoe with some friends. I had successfully avoided a recurrence of the brussel sprout episode of 2003 up until this point. But when our good friend Andrea offered to cook up dinner with her boyfriend Zeph, how could we resist?

Enter the bowl of brussel sprouts and bacon.

I don't know what she did to those little sprouts, but with the addition of bacon they suddenly became edible. Enjoyable even.

Experience #3: circa Monday. I'll admit...even after the successful brussel sprouts and bacon experience I was nervous. But I figured there's no time like the present to tackle the seemingly impossible. I gave myself a little pep talk, promised Jeremy if they turned out disgusting I'd never make him eat another brussel sprout again, and began cooking. I found this delicious recipe on The Little Red House blog and since nothing Sheena (author) writes about ever tastes anything but delicious...I gave it a go.

This was the result.

It was amazing and delicious and I didn't even need to add bacon.

Here's the really simply recipe:

Mix up brussel sprouts, 1 or 2 T olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. You want the sprouts to be a little brown.

Add roasted sprouts to salad greens. Put in a little avocado, onion, a fried egg on top and voila!

If you'd like to add some dressing. Mix up a honey mustard dressing or use your favorite store bought. I mixed honey, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and olive oil.
Plus some S & P.

Shake it up in a jar and pour over salad.

Yum.

Last but not least, serve it with whatever else you like. In our case...that happened to be steak with blue cheese crumbles on top!

Delish in a dish.

Hey Good Lookin'

Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin'?

How's about cookin' somethin' up with me?

Each week I assign myself the fun job of coming up with the week's grocery list.

Some people really can't stand grocery shopping, but honestly for some odd reason Jeremy and I love it.

We look forward to our weekly excursion...discussing which market to go to, what we need to pick up, and then carefully and slowly working our way through each aisle.

Maybe it's because we both love shopping and we both love food. So I guess it makes a bit of sense that this "chore" is one of our favorites!

For me, grocery shopping begins with the list. I rarely go into the store empty handed.

I like to be prepared.

Everyone has their own list making style, but I like to break mine down by day/meal.

For example:

Monday

Flank Steak and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

-flank steak

-mixed greens

-brussel sprouts

-avocado

-eggs

This helps me to plan out what I'm going to cook during the week ahead. And since I usually try out new recipes each night, I hold on to my list to remind me what I had planned as the week unfolds.

So what's on the menu this week?

You'll hear all about each recipe in the coming days, but so far this is what I have planned!

Monday: Flank Steak and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Tuesday: Dinner out for my Mama's birthday (mmm Podnah's Pit!)

Wednesday: Chicken Sandwiches, Sweet Potato Fries, and Heirloom Tomato Salad

Thursday: Fish Chowder and Soda Biscuits

Friday: Matzoh Ball Soup pre-softball game, something yummy and bad for us after!

I'll let you know how it all goes as I try out each recipe!

For now, I'd like to leave you with something we actually made up last week for dinner.

Greek Tuna Salad

(inspired by 5 Ingredient Fix on the Food Network)

What you'll need:

2 albacore tuna steaks (you can use Ahi, but it's much more expensive)

3 lemons

1 C red grapes, washed and halved

1 C plain Greek yogurt

1/2 C toasted walnuts

What you'll need to do:

First, toast your walnuts by placing them in a skillet over a medium-high heat, stirring until you can smell them.

Then, preheat oven to 350.

Thinly slice two lemons and lay out the slices so they overlap on a piece of parchment paper. You want to create a bed for your tuna steaks. Then salt/pepper the steaks and place them on top of the lemon slices. Zest your third lemon and sprinkle zest on top of the steaks.

Now, wrap up your steaks by folding the parchment around the tuna. Tucking the ends of the parchment under like an envelope. You are trying to create a little package for your tuna to bake inside.

Place in the oven and let bake until the tuna is no longer pink and you can flake the fish easily. (The original recipe said 18-22 minutes, but I found this took closer to 40 minutes--must depend on the thickness of your tuna.)

Remove from the oven and open the parchment. Let cool until you can handle it comfortably.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, including flaked tuna.

Add the juice of that third lemon and salt/pepper to taste.

We ate our tuna salad as a lettuce wrap for dinner, then on bread for lunch the next day.

This is a delicious and unusual alternative to traditional tuna salad.

The best part?

No mayonnaise or unhealthy ingredients!

Olé, Olé!

Ever since our salmon taco night a couple weeks ago I've been craving more.

More Mexican food.

More salsa.

More spicy deliciousness.

The other thing I love about cooking Mexican food...it can be pretty darn easy.

Take the quesadilla for example.

Too often people believe the quesadilla is nothing but a tortilla and some cheese.

Well, let me fill you in.

It can be so much more.

Stuffed and Grilled Quesadillas

What you need:

flour tortillas

grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

1 big heirloom tomato, chopped

1/2 red onion, diced

juice of 1 lime

1 jalapeno, deseeded and diced

1 avocado sliced

2 T cilantro, chopped

salt and pepper

Toppings:

guacamole

sour cream

the pico de gallo you prepared

What you'll need to do:

1. First make your pico de gallo. This will be used as a topping and as stuffing for your quesadillas. In a small bowl mix together your chopped onion, heirloom tomato, lime juice, jalapeno, cilantro, salt and pepper to taste.

2. Slice your avocado lengthwise.

3. Use two tortillas. Place one flat on a plate. Lay out the avocados, pico de gallo, and then top with grated cheese. Cover it up with a 2nd tortilla.

4. Place your quesadilla on the grill. When the cheese begins to melt flip it. This won't take very long...2-3 minutes on each side.

4. Enjoy! We served ours with the extra pico de gallo, fresh guacamole, sour cream, and some lime juice, plus some grilled corn on the cob.

Wednesday's Bonus Edition

I wasn't sure how to fit peanut butter in with the bachelorette party entry.

So, here's a bonus entry for today!

Last night I decided to make some peanut butter and I think you should try it too!

What you need:

3 cups peanuts*

food processor

*I bought bulk organic peanuts from Whole Foods, already deshelled and ready to go!

Can you believe that's all you need?!

Directions:

Put the peanuts in the food processor and turn it on! It'll need to run for a little over 5 minutes. But if you just let it work it's magic and have a bit of patience...you'll end up with your very own homemade peanut butter!

You can even add a little salt if you'd like.

Now you know how easy it is.

No more excuses for buying Skippy...and all that hydrogenated oil...