Moroccan Chickpea Barley Salad

I made this for the first time last night, and it was delicious, so I had to share!

Moroccan Chickpea Barley Salad

What I Ate and Drank on My Summer Vacation Part 4 – Seattle

To begin the final chapter of our trip to the Pacific Northwest, Ian and I headed to Seattle, where, of course, the first thing we consumed was coffee! It was overpriced iced coffee from the cafe in the Space Needle, but it was cold, thirst quenching, and good. They take their coffee quite seriously in Seattle, you know.

Upon returning to our hotel (the Maxwell Hotel), we were greeted with tiny cupcakes in the lobby. It was just white cake with a creamy frosting and a bit of dried pineapple, but a nice touch nevertheless.

For dinner, we visited Naked City Brewery and Taphouse (yes, another naked place, perhaps they are especially fond of nudity in this area of the country). I enjoyed a Boundary Bay Pilsner (good) and a Northern Lights Blueberry Cream Ale (fantastic). The menu had a number of vegetarian options, marked clearly with a “V” (which is always nice since, these days, bacon seems to show up where you least expect it). I started with a hot pretzel that came with a divine sauce of Tillamook cheddar, Dijon mustard, and porter. That was followed by a BBQ veggie sandwich. I’m not sure what  meat substitute was used in this (seitan perhaps), but it was very good. The sauce was great–not too sweet but not too spicy.

The next morning, a quick breakfast at Cafe Ladro consisted of coffee and an out-of-this world vegan oat square with rhubarb. After wandering around Pike’s Place Market for a while, it was time for more coffee at the original Starbucks, where the quest for world domination began.

After a little more wandering (and of course some purchasing) at Pike’s Place, it was time for a beer break! We settled in at the bar at The Pike Brewing Company, where I ordered a Naughty Nellie (yum!). Lunch later that day was at J&M Cafe, Seattle’s oldest bar (at least according to their signs). Apparently, it was closed for a while and reopened under new management. Everything there was fine, but with all the excellent food and beer I’d been having, I was kind of underwhelmed by my tempeh sandwich and fries. I appreciate a bar with tempeh on the menu, though, so solid effort! The on-draft beer list was surprisingly limited, but I did enjoy the Manny’s Pale Ale that I ordered.

We had a late dinner that night, so we appreciated the fact that Ten Mercer serves dinner until midnight (and cocktails until 2:00 AM). I hate walking into a restaurant half an hour before it closes and feeling like I’m annoying the staff by being there. Anyhow, that was not the case here. I had quinoa pasta primavera, which was quite good, along with a glass of Farm Boy Viognier (decent).

Our final morning in Seattle, we had a quick breakfast at Caffe Zingaro, a local coffee shop near our hotel. Of course, I had coffee, along with a marionberry muffin. I was unaware of the existence of the marionberry (a type of blackberry), and initially wondered what this muffin had to do with the former mayor of Washington D.C. The muffin was pretty good, but a bit sweet and cake-like for my taste (at least first thing in the morning).

And so, our drinking and dining adventures in the Pacific Northwest came to a close. Thankfully, the wine we had shipped home arrived the day after we returned home. 🙂

What I Ate and Drank on My Summer Vacation Part 3 – Columbia Gorge

Our first dining spot in the Columbia River Gorge area was the Trillium Cafe in Hood River. The menu of pub grub offered a few vegetarian options, and I selected the caprese sandwich with fries (shut up, I was on vacation). The sandwich was good, the service was friendly and prompt, so all in all, it was a good experience.

Later in the day, we took some long and winding roads (some of which were not paved) up to the Husum Highlands Bed and Breakfast. This is definitely not a place you just stumble upon without looking for it, but it was worth the drive, if only to relax on the deck with a beer and a view of the beautiful grounds and Mount Hood in the distance.

Shortly after our arrival at the B and B, we were presented with a delectable apple tart. Ian laughed when I felt the need to document it with a photograph, but it’s coming in handy now, isn’t it?

Breakfasts during our stay consisted of Belgian waffles, fresh fruit, veggie eggs, and Canadian bacon (day 1) and orange-croissant French toast, fresh fruit, rosemary eggs, and sausage (day 2). I noted that I was a vegetarian when I made the reservation online. Perhaps I should have reminded the proprietors when we checked in but didn’t think of it. Seeing as I don’t eat meat and am not a fan of eggs, I stuck to the fruit, waffles, and French toast, while Ian enjoyed my portions of bacon and sausage. Upon observing this on the second day of our stay, the proprietor said, “Oh, you should have told me!” Maybe I should have, but he should have paid attention to the reservation and/or asked about any dietary restrictions when we arrived. I did enjoy what I ate there, but I didn’t like being made to feel like I was the one who dropped the ball on this. Oh well.

While in the Gorge, on the recommendation of an employee at a winery we visited, we also visited Solstice in Bingen. Wood-fired pizzas are the specialty there, and although there were several vegetarian options on the main menu, I ordered one of the specials, a pizza with pesto, zucchini, yellow squash, sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, and feta. Oh, I enjoyed every tasty morsel of that pizza! There may not be a whole lot in Bingen, but Solstice is a gem!

And, of course, while in the area, we visited a number of wineries. Briefly…

Wind River Cellars: Lovely Riesling; opinionated, but generally friendly and entertaining, owner

Cascade Cliffs: Loved the Goat Head Red and the Symphony; friendly staff; beautiful scenery

Maryhill Winery: Although nothing here was bad, I wasn’t overly impressed by most of it, but perhaps my palate was a bit fatigued by the time we got here. Of the wines I tried here, I liked the Viognier most, but really, the best thing about this place is that I finally know where I can park my rhino if I should ever happen to acquire one.

Naked Winery: We visited a tasting room, not the actual winery. Yummy wines with a wink and a nod. Oh, the jokes are endless. Taste Naked. Shop Naked. To my complete lack of surprise, they stocked lots of T-shirts, hats, and other souvenirs with their name and logo on them.

Quinette Winery: Again, we only visited the tasting room for this one, and I don’t feel I can give it a fair assessment, as I was definitely getting wined out by the time we visited. They did have a lovely Grenache, though.

I take my fruit salad very seriously

I receive many accolades on my fruit salad, but my secret is very simple: No melon!
I’ve never been a melon fan, and I hate when fruit salad consists of three different types of melon and a couple of grapes!
Isn’t it pretty?

What I Ate (and Drank) on My Summer Vacation Part 2 – Willamette Valley Wine Tasting

Rex Hill was my first stop on my Willamette Valley wine tasting adventures. There, they offered a Rex Hill tasting flight ($10) and family brands (William Hatcher and Francis Tannahill) tasting flight ($12); Ian and I shared both and tried everything, of course. In my minds, the Francis Tannahill wines were the standouts, the 2006 Hermit Pinot Noir, 2006 Mason Dixon Syrah, and 2007 Dragonfly Gewurztraminer being my favorites.

Next stop was the Chehalem Tasting Room, where a core flight ($5) and a reserve flight ($12) were offered. Alas, I wasn’t taking good notes here. I liked everything I tried, but there were no real standouts in my mind.

Duck Pond Cellars was next. Upon arriving here, I asked if there was an actual duck pond on the grounds. My answer: “No, but there’s a koi pond with a fake duck in it.” Apparently, the proprietors of the winery live on Duck Pond Road, hence the name. With that out of the way, I made my way through their complimentary tasting (wines offered in this tasting rotate) and also tried a lovely dessert semillion off the reserve list ($2 per tasting).

On to Domain Drouhin I went. I spent more time here walking around an taking pictures of the beautiful grounds than I did actually tasting the wine, but nevertheless, the wine impressed me too. I’m not normally a big rose drinker, but the Oregon Edition Rose, which was available for sale only in the tasting room was delicious, so a bottle of that came home with me–well, to the hotel anyway. We didn’t actually make it home before drinking it.

Last, but not least, was Eyrie Vineyards, producers of the first American Pinot Noir to successfully compete with Pinot Noirs from the Burgundy region, turning the attention of the wine world to Oregon. The $5 tasting was to include 4 wines, but as we chatted with the highly informative and entertaining Jacques, he pulled out a couple more for us to try, and he regaled us with the history of the vineyard. The Chardonnay was excellent (my favorite of all Chardonnays I tried on the trip), and of course, the pinots were divine. Thankfully, Eyrie wines are fairly widely distributed, so I didn’t have to worry about ditching my clothes and bringing home a suitcase full of wine.

What I Ate (and Drank) on My Summer Vacation Part 1 – Portland

We began our vacation in Portland. Our first stop involving comestibles was Thirst Wine Bar, where I ordered a Daisy Duke (despite its name which was slightly cringeworthy). The drink was composed of blood orange vodka, passionfruit puree, cranberry and lime juices, and sparkling wine. Yum! We also ordered some bread with cheese and artichoke dip on which to nosh a bit before dinner. Alas, the artichoke dip had bacon in it (I didn’t think to ask), so that was all Ian’s. A complimentary wine tasting at the bar helped assuage my disappointment. Featured wines were from the Dalla Terra winery.

For dinner, we headed to McMenamins Market Street Pub, where I enjoyed my first ever pink beer (Ruby Ale), along with an Uptown Veggie Grill sandwich, which was good, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

The following day, beer tasting began in earnest at Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub. No food, just beer!

My favorites here were the Fresh-Squeezed IPA and the Twilight Ale.

Next stop: Bridgeport Brewpub, where I was pleased to find a number of vegetarian options on the menu. I went for the vegan bowl, which was composed of quinoa, grilled tofu, kale, black beans, red peppers, sugar snap peas, green onions, and a spicy cashew sauce. Um, yum! I also enjoyed a rather giant, delicious raspberry beer.

Ian got another sampler, and of course, I tasted them all too.

Dinner that night was at Ten 01, which was surprisingly empty for a Friday. The menu was relatively small, with a few token vegetarian items, but hey, I sometimes get flustered when faced with too many choices. I started with the tomato fennel soup–excellent, with just a hint of fennel, nothing overpowering. My entree pepper fettuccine with goat cheese, nicoise olives, sofrito, piquillo peppers, and capers. Delicious! I must try my hand at making sofrito some day. For dessert, Ian and I shared blueberry pie with white chocolate ice cream. The portion was surprisingly large (relative to the dinner portions, which were on the smaller side but certainly adequate), but that’s not a problem because, well, it was blueberry pie with ice cream, and we were on vacation!

Before heading out on our wine-tasting adventures on Saturday, we stopped at the well-known Portland Farmer’s Market on the PSU quad.

There were so many of breads, pastries, fruits, jellies, sodas, cheeses, and all things yummy, it pretty much served as our breakfast that morning. I would have liked to take a couple shopping carts of stuff home with me, but alas, we were limited to what we could eat soon, what would keep long term, and what would fit in our suitcases. Here’s what I couldn’t walk away without:

Blues bread from Dave’s Killer Bread (this served as a great snack during our wine-tasting adventures to be chronicled later)

Sizzlin’ Strawberry jelly and Double Dare jelly from Rose City Pepperheads

Hazelnut Chocolate Butter (think Nutella, but not so rich) and Cashew Nut Butter from Nut-Tritious Foods

After a long day of wine tasting, we decided beer was in order for dinner, and we headed to New Old Lompoc. The air conditioning seemed to be malfunctioning, but the beer was cold. I enjoyed a Fool’s Golden ale with our nachos (very good) and portabella mushroom sandwich (so-so). It was here I began to question what IBU values meant on many of the beer menus I had been seeing during the past few days. For all you inquiring minds out there who don’t know, the answer is the International Bitterness Units scale, which provides a measure of the bitterness of beer and is measured by using a spectrophotometer and solvent extraction. It’s science! It’s beer! Hooray!

Hello world!

I’ve been a vegetarian for 21 years. Over those years, it’s gotten easier to find vegetarian recipes and options in restaurants. It can still be a challenge, though. For one thing, when I encounter a new restaurant, my first thought is, “I wonder if they have anything I can eat?” Thankfully, these days, a lot of restaurants have online menus, which makes my life considerably easier. Additionally, although he enjoys a lot of vegetarian fare, my husband is not a vegetarian. We always like to find recipes that can be made with and without meat.

So then, I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a blog with restaurant reviews, cookbook reviews, recipes, etc. And well, here is the beginning of that blog. I’m not sure where it will ultimately go, but that’s part of the fun of it. Anyhow, I’ll start with something simple, a list of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks. Here they are, in no particular order.

• The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook: I’ve used this one so much that the binding is shot and large chunks of pages are detached. One of these days, I’ll have to buy a new edition.
• Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian: One of the things I like best about this one is that it gives total time and active time at the top of each recipe. It’s great for easy (often quick) meals.
• Jane Brody’s Good Food Book: This is an oldy but a goody. It’s not exclusively vegetarian, but a very large percentage of the recipes are meatless.
• The Vegetarian Grill: Yes, there’s much more to vegetarian grilling than kabobs! Of course, there are some great kabob recipes too! Watch the cooking times in this one, though. I find that, generally, things take longer to cook than the times stated in the book.
• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: It may not actually include everything vegetarian, but it sure seems pretty close! I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of fully appreciating this book. For almost every recipe, it gives multiple variations. If you get bored cooking from this book, you’re probably too hard to please!