Happy With Fratelli

The food: tantalizing. Char grilled halibut, cooked to a flaky perfection––two hefty cuts stacked and parched atop a bed of pink rhubarb compote. A moat of olive oil casts out from beneath the pink isle, spanning out to the ridges of the plate’s brim. Roasted sprigs of asparagus drape over the white tower of halibut. This is an explosion of flavor in your mouth. The earthy asparagus and smoky halibut paired with the silky sweetness of rhubarb compote create the perfect balance between sweet and salty. And the textures lilting throughout your mouth… Oh! Your tongue will be such a happy camper!

Another great dish: House-made pappardelle cooked al dente, bathing in the juices of red wine braised beef and truffle oil; pieces of hazelnut laced throughout. A very pleasing dish. You wont regret this one, either.

Allow me to rewind back to a few of the appetizers. Order the crostini with chicken liver mouse. This is delicious. Three mouse shmeared crostinis are plated atop a uniquely flavored mix of pickled julienne vegetables. I can’t be sure of what they were, however. It might have been red bell pepper and parsnip. The flavoring reminded me of pho. My only nag would be the texture of the crostinis. They may have been a tad too toasted. They weren’t as hard as biscotti. But they were pretty darn hard. I would still recommend trying it, however. Then chicken liver mouse is wonderful. I wouldn’t order the couscous. Boring. But I would order, over any other appetizer, the nettles; braised in duck confit with plump chunks of pancetta, splashed with a balsamic-like vinegar called Saba, and sprinkled with pine nuts. Perfect-o.

Fratelli is little Italy in Portland. Simple Italian fare derived from locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. It’s farm to table. Delizioso!

But here’s what I really wanted to say about the whole experience: The space Fratelli occupies is very reminiscent of true Italian restaurants. And most European shops for that matter. It’s narrow from side to side and looong in length. Just like a shoebox. High ceilings. Cement walls. Exposed wood ceiling beams. Open kitchen. Wood burning oven. Rustic wooden tables. Floor to ceiling windows at the front of the restaurant creating just the right amount of airiness. And a few oriental rugs sprawled out across the cool cement floor. It’s sophisticatedly cozy.

The wait staff is great, too. Please, go!

Made in Oregon

I wrote last week about the impact of choosing local, this week I thought I’d share some local gems with you. These food makers all operate out of Portland area or at least in Oregon (a couple aren’t officially Oregon companies, but are produced here). With Oregon having the highest rate of unemployment in the entire nation, it’s worth choosing local brands when you can, success for these businesses means they can provide more jobs for people right here in our area.

Arico Natural Foods – gluten free and dairy free goodies from Beaverton

Bob’s Red Mill – based in Milwaukie, Bob’s line of more than 400 products includes whole grains flours, cereals, and mixes

Boyd Coffee

Carlton Farms – this pork producer buys from small, local farms and they have very high standards for humane treatment of their animals

Dave’s Killer Bread

Kettle Foods – delicious kettle fried potato chips and nut butters from Salem

Kobos Coffee

Mission – not an entirely local company, but their McMinnville plant is likely the producer of their tortilla products sold locally

Nice Cubes – maker of frozen organic baby food, products are not only produced locally but most are also locally grown, available in Whole Foods and New Season’s stores

Norpac – this Lake Oswego company offers an extensive line of frozen fruits and vegetables under the brand names Flav-R-Pac, Westpac, and Santiam

Oregon Chai

Ore-Ida – this Pittsburg, Pennsylvania company employs over 1,000 workers at it’s primary production facility in Ontario, Oregon

Organically Grown Company – the largest wholesaler of organic produce in the Portland area, use their Organic Food Finder to find their produce in your neighborhood http://www.organicgrown.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=finding

Pacific Natural Foods – this Tualatin company makes a complete line of broths, soups, and non dairy milks, among other things

Painted Hills Natural Beef

Stash Tea – if you haven’t visited their Tigard retail store, it’s a must for tea lovers

Stumptown Coffee

Tazo Tea

Tillamook Cheese – not just cheese, a full line of dairy products including sour cream, butter, and the best ice cream you can find anywhere

Yogi Tea

I haven’t even scratched the surface here, Oregon has TONS of great food companies, not to mention all the fantastic local wines and microbrews.

Next time you're in the grocery store, be on the lookout for these local brands!

The Best Cinco De Mayo Ever!

Today was amazing! It all started off with an 11:00am red wine mimosa and a couple hours of transplanting/ gardening. The weird day of weather brought me to doubt my planned walk to the 26th annual waterfront Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. Rain, steaming ground, then rain, then sun, a little thunder, oh my goodness what should I do? As I ate my, "day-off" chocolate chip pancakes and sipped my soy quad mocha I thought to myself, "should I really venture out to experience an amazing festival full of great food, a beautiful culture and amazing dancers?" After three thoughtful bites of my maple syrup drenched pancake and Jonathan saying,"you better belly up babe" as he cracked open a beer, I thought...why yes! I shall go! Not only will I attend the waterfront festivities, but I will also attend my hermanas(sister's) fiesta later on. Following some planting of beefsteak tomatoes and mesclun mix lettuce blend, we were off!
Walking along the water smelling the roasted corn and peppers mixed with a hint of cigarette smoke, I was immediately glad I chose to come to this occasion. I heard the Mariachi style guitar strumming and saw colorful dresses swirling about. Though the rain pelted my face continuously, I was sure I was in for a treat. Upon entry I was dumbfounded why a creperie or a pasta shack would dare show their face at a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. Then I saw the leashed children screaming, "spaghetti, spaghetti" and remembered where I was. Sure, we gotta keep it diverse, but really? After getting over that, I settled in with a mojito and a giant array of grilled veggies from Casa de Tamales. Local asparagus, potatoes, green and red bell peppers, button mushrooms, succulent spinach, sweet onions and even beets were handed to me by a smiling face and not to mention a true cook. She had a dirty apron, fast moves and an obvious true love of cooking. Who knew there would be a delicious vegan basket full of goodness at such a fiesta. As I mowed down on my veggies, my love, Jonathan enjoyed a Tecate and a grilled bell pepper quesedilla topped with an amazing smoked tomato salsa and a circle of sour cream. I knew he enjoyed it when I heard nothing until there was an empty plate, " That was f*^%ing good" he concluded. We were then joined by friends and more margaritas. I learned to love tequila today, despite past experiences. Looking at all the booths I found a new delicious candy, a mango sucker covered in spicy chili powder. I saw many people walking around enjoying fresh mangoes on a stick with chili powder on the outside. Apparently, this has been a favorite of many for quite some time, but I have just been out of the loop. After a trek through the well lit carnival it was time to head to the sis's party at her casa. Thank goodness for the failure of rain this afternoon for we would have been drenched with all of our walking. So we mosied on with our mango lollipops.
Our arrival was welcomed by yet another margarita, I must say a bit stronger then the festivals, and a wonderful spicy black bean dish served up with chopped cilantro, avocado and salty yellow corn chips. The best part was the filled pinata on the table ready for a beating! After a game of Cinco de Mayo trivia to see who would start the game, we went at the colorful donkey pinata with a broomstick and discovered godzilla like finger puppets, kazoos, dum dums and everyone's favorite, strawberry pop rocks. Which disappointedly enough have milk in them! Observing my finger puppet as I got a tequila scented kiss on the cheek, I realized I was very happy. What more do you need then friends, family, great food and excellent music. In 1862, the people of Mexico came together to fight for their country and now they invite us to celebrate their liberty with them. Let that be an honor to you all and take advantage of these kind of events. It is a lot of fun and a fabulous party. You will learn a lot and support what matters. If you didn't enjoy it this year then there is always next year. If you love Mexican food as much as I do then you will not regret it! I hope you all had a fantastic Cinco de Mayo and enjoy your night.

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

Personally, I have never been a 20-minute shower kind of person. Do you remember those surveys on MySpace you'd fill out when you were bored? One of the questions was always, "How long are your showers?" I was always appalled when people would reply with any number above 10. How in the world can you spend more than 10 minutes in the shower? I get bored. If I’ve gotten all my shampooing and conditioning done, and a quick graze of the razor over the pits, I’m out of there. So, long showers not being a faux-pas of mine, I thought of other ways to make my shower time as “green” as possible.

For years I’ve been using Dove Body Wash. For a product that claims it is a, “refreshingly light sensation that’s an uplifting moment for your skin” it sure does have a lot of hard-to-pronounce ingredients in it. There are 25 ingredients listed on the back of the bottle, one of them being ammonium laureth sulfate. This is used as a foaming agent and cleansing agent, but is also a skin irritant and a possible carcinogen. Considering I have extremely sensitive skin and I really don’t feel like getting cancer from soap, Dove had to go.

I went to the drugstore to find a new body wash, as well as new loofah. Out of all the products in the beauty aisle, I found EcoTools to be the best. I decided to purchase an EcoTools Loofah Bath Sponge, which is made out of natural loofah (a vegetable) and is condensed to conserve energy during shipping. I also purchased EcoTools Polished & Protected Body Scrub. There are 14 ingredients in the wash, which is substantially better than Dove. To exfoliate, there is walnut shell powder. To thicken the product, xanthan gum is used. Sunflower oil is used to nourish your skin with vitamins A, C, D and E, and is also a natural ingredient that relieves skin irritation like acne.

EcoTools does not test on animals, while there is a large debate as to whether or not Dove (part of the Unilever brand) does. In addition, EcoTools has joined an organization called 1% for the Planet, and donates 1% of their sales to environmental organizations.

Although EcoTools is a great company and their products smell yummy, they manufacture their stuff in China!? This kind of cancels out the whole organic/natural aspect of it. I’ve been looking at local companies for natural soaps, and I hope to make the switch as soon as the bottle runs out (I threw away my Dove bottle half-empty). Any suggestions?

Sources
http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Ltoxiccosmetics.htm
http://www.10acne.com/acne_treatment_article10.html

Do It Yourself

A couple years ago, I was baking and needed some regular granulated sugar. Of course with my luck and oversight, I only had Sugar in the Raw on hand. I suppose I could have made a quick run to the store, but that might have been too easy.

So, being the clever and resourceful one that I am, I figured Hey! I’ll just refine it a tad in the food processor, and it will work perfectly… Mm-hm. Long story short––I learned how powdered sugar is made! Really though. I always just kinda thought powdered sugar was its own special thing. Like it just existed as a powder in its natural form. Needless to say, though I had over-processed the large flecks of sugar into powdered sugar, I was quite amused by the outcome of my error.

Well, recently while baking my special Chocolate Chocolate Cake for my Dad’s birthday, it came time to make the frosting and, Oh guess what? I didn’t have any powdered sugar. I was in a major time crunch, but I thought, No biggy. I know just how to make powdered sugar! So, I went ahead and processed some fine granulated sugar. And… Presto! powdered sugar…

Yeah… almost. Basically, I learned this: the reason they sell powdered sugar in the store is because it’s not that easy to make. My first two batches of frosting flopped. This actually wasn’t because of the sugar. I had forgotten to add the cream. I realized this mistake on my second attempt and quickly added the cream. Appearance-wise, the second batch looked normal. Taste-wise… Yikes! Not only was the sugar itself horrible tasting (I used Wholesome Sweeteners brand; an organic, fair trade sugar), but it also felt super grainy on the tongue. The clock was ticking; I was broken out in a panic sweat. I realized I was either going to serve an embarrassing tasting cake, or I was going to have to be late and get some powdered sugar from the store.

I chose the latter. It was a good choice.

Here’s the moral of the story: be prepared when baking. Check to make sure you have all of your ingredients before hand. And for god’s sake… just buy powdered sugar.

Local and Seasonal

If you’re into food at all, you’ve probably heard some buzz about eating local and seasonal. What’s this all about?

Well, there are a lot of good reasons we should be eating local:

- Food is fresher, therefore tastes better and is more nutritious.

- It eliminates the nasty green house gases caused by all the fuel required to transport it to our plates from whatever far off place it is grown. These days it’s quite common for our food to travel upwards of 1000 miles to reach our plates. The US uses more fuel to move our food than we do to fuel our personal vehicles.

- It supports your local economy and farmers in your community.

Here’s where the seasonality comes in, the more we eat out of season the more we rely on food grown in different climates that has to be transported to our local grocery stores.

How good are those strawberries in December anyway? Probably pretty tasteless. They have to be picked before they ripen so they won’t spoil during transport, plus the varieties sold are chosen for their ability to hold up to travel conditions and their attractiveness, not taste.

I’m kind of a food romanticist, I guess you could say. When you eat seasonally you get that anticipation leading up to the first fresh fruits and vegetables of a new season and it just heightens the enjoyment of them when the time finally comes. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder, and you begin to really appreciate the seasons and what they bring. My mouth is already watering at the thought of fresh asparagus soon to come here in Oregon.

There are a bunch of great ways to get local food into you diet, but you’ll likely have to venture outside the grocery store. Small and locally owned stores offer better choices, but large chains usually only contract with large producers and distributors so finding local stuff can be tricky. Here are some great places to shop for your local goods:

- Food co-ops – these are member owned grocery stores set up, like all co-ops, to create a mutually beneficial relationship between suppliers, the co-op, and it’s members

- CSAs – short for Community Supported Agriculture, these are basically subscriptions to farms, you pay so much per year or season for a share of the harvest and at the stated intervals (weekly, biweekly, even monthly) you receive a collection of produce or other farm goodies (some include locally raised meat, eggs, etc., but most common is produce)

- Farmer’s Markets – we all pretty much known what farmers markets are, they vary in size and you can find them on just about all days of the week so if you work weekends, like I do, there’s a farmers market for you, too! Market season is just getting started, many open the first week of May. If you’re located in the Portland Metro area, this weeks issue of Food Day provided a listing of local markets, which they’ve made available on their website.

Local Harvest is a great website that allows you to find CSA’s, Co-ops, Farmer’s Markets, even restaurants specializing in local food. Go check it out!

The Plantae Kingdom

If you are anything like me you forget about many wonderful ingredients when planning a meal. For one, eggplant always slips my mind. Did you know eggplant is a fruit and that it is native to India? It is closely related to the tomato and potato, being in the nightshade family. Most specifically eggplant is a berry. I think it is the most giant berry I've ever seen! You might have seen all different types of eggplant, but here is the low down. Commonly seen are the Japanese and Italian eggplants which are normally purple and sometimes tethered in color. The white eggplant is where the name came from, in relation to it's egg like shape. So often this fruit is peeled, but really the skin has excellent flavor and texture when it is fresh. As the eggplant ages, the skin becomes tougher and achieves that nasty bitter taste that we tend to steer clear of. So when you're at the market choosing an eggplant here is what to look for. You want a glossy, smooth-skinned, firm and heavy eggplant. Stay away from those with brown spots or bruised skins. Also, the best eggplant can be purchased in season ranging from August to September. If you want an eggplant when it's out of season or if the skin feels a bit tough definitely peel it. Oh the possibilities of this vegetable that is a berry!


When you get your beautifully picked eggplant home, what to do? The most common and successful cooking methods are broiling, baking and frying. I'm sure many of you have had Eggplant Parmesan portraying the frying and baking method. Maybe you have been lucky enough to have some broiled eggplant on a sandwich? So delicious! Last but not least Babaganoush! This dish requires baking and grilling of the eggplant. All these are delicious, but lately my favorite way to prepare eggplant is just by adding it to sautes. As long as there is salt and liquid in your dish you will find much flavor present. Let the eggplant soak up the flavors of the dish. Recently, I made a tomato based eggplant soup of onion, garlic, roasted eggplant and fresh basil. It was very simple and hearty. I just sauteed the onions, garlic and basil with a bit of salt and pepper added in my tomato base and when it was bubbly hot, dropped in the cubed and baked eggplant. It was a big hit with the fam! Also try adding eggplant to pasta dishes. It's meaty texture and absorption qualities will amaze all. Pictured below is a bowl of quinoa linguine topped with an eggplant marinara, artichoke pesto and a chiffonade of basil. For another idea to utilize eggplant try eggplant rolls.