This Year's X'mas Cake: Buche de Noel with Orange Butter Cream Cheese Frost

This holiday season has been with full of EVENTS and I'm feeling so edgy! But at least in a good way. I almost didn't make this cake, but it is my annual tradition. I managed to get over my week long cold finally and put all my energy into making this today to bring to the family dinner.  It's a quick post and I'll be updating the recipe later. Just wanted to say Happy X'mas and hope you are enjoying yourselves wherever you are and whatever you are doing!

Chanterelle Risotto with Seafood and Prosciutto

 

At the store the other day I unexpectedly bumped into a sale of local wild chanterelle mushrooms. They’re golden and gorgeous! They grow here in the Northwest, but I've never actually been foraging for wild mushrooms. I love hunting for food, so someday I'll make it out there. It'd be a fun thing to do with the kids. But of course the best mushroom-picking spots are closely-guarded secrets. If you know a good place around Seattle and don't mind sharing it with me, please shoot me an email.  I won't tell anyone ;)

This time I got mine from my local Whole Foods. I was so excited about these little munchkins that I also picked up some white truffle oil, to create something special and delicious.

 Back home, I looked into my pantry and fridge to see what I could cook. I settled on a risotto - Comfort Food No. 2. Sometimes I know when I'm going to make a fabulously successful dish - or not. It's probably to do with my excitement and attitude, and it’s just one of the things I'm learning about myself and cooking. With this risotto, I'm in to win.

First I oven roasted the mushrooms and a few cloves of garlic, with a sprinkling of salt, pepper, olive oil and rosemary. The smell in the kitchen was incredible already.  Then I pan-seared some sage leaves and prosciutto in olive oil, and some meaty scallops, for about five minutes. I like to eat scallops raw at sushi restaurants, but I don't usually cook them.  So I wanted to be careful not to mess up this part with my lack of scallop skill and experience. In the end, it went quite well. By this time, the rice was also cooking, and the soup stock was heated and ready to go.

I had all the right ingredients for this dish. I didn't even have to try hard to make it, which is something I really enjoy. Occasionally I have to try so hard to come up with something to make, not just for the blog, but also for dinner parties and kids’ meals. But sometimes, despite the effort, it doesn't always turn out so good. With this dish, though, I got a little taste of effortless success, even if I say so myself.

For the finishing touch, I drizzled a little white truffle oil and grated some fresh parmigiano reggiano - very satisfying. Definitely one of top five foods I've ever made. My hubby agrees. The kids don’t. They are 4 and 2, so they can't appreciate the sophistication of this dish, but your date or friends definitely will be entertained.

Fall Comfort Food - Pork and Bean Soup with Whole Wheat Bread

I LOVE FALL. My favorite time of the year when my inner bohemian soul gets rather hyper active. When fall comes around, I often take a long trip to some inspiring destination, to soak up the buzzy, artsy feeling inside me. Sadly, this year has been an exception, but I can still do tons of fun stuff at home, like cooking and photography!

At breakfast this morning, I grabbed a few cook books and magazines, trying to come up with a comfort food that the family would enjoy. There are thousands of them: Japanese, Norwegian, Italian, French, etc... I browsed through all kinds of fall and wintery recipes. But wherever it comes from at this time of year, a comfort food has got to be some kind of soup or stew, right?

I suddenly remembered a bag of beans I bought months ago, that I'd had no idea what to do with. For some reason, I've never been a big fan of beans, except edamame and gorgonzola beans. I do eat them here and there, but not often. Beans are sooooo good for you though, and my daughter is a big bean-eater. She loves munching on them. That's why I bought them, I remembered. Well, I had some left-over roasted pork in the fridge... voila! I made pork and bean soup - really, tasty, definitely nutritious, universal comfort food.

I love making soup. We have it almost every day. I also love making bread, but I haven't done it in a while. Now is the chance. I made a loaf of bread based on a recipe from this lovely cook book that I'm fond of browsing through. It's such a simple whole wheat bread that anyone can make. Feeling pretty good about the combo : )

Full on Oregon Weekend

A month ago, I was invited to join other food bloggers and journalists to experience all kinds of fun, crazy, exciting and exclusive events organized by Travel Oregon.  The point was to highlight the best of what Oregonians have to offer their visitors. It was quite an event to say the least. The whole 3 days were filled with excellent food, wine, nature activities, and cooking sessions with Oregon's culinary geniuses. This is how my personal experience went:

DAY 1: Checking into Hotel deLuxe / Dinner at the Little Bird Bistro

Travel Oregon flew me into Portland and put me in this gorgeous Hotel deLuxe in downtown Portland. This hotel is known for its tribute to classic Hollywood glamor and romance. You'll see the walls are decorated with numerous photos of Hollywood stars from the 1920's to 1950's.

As soon as I checked into my room, I found a lovely goodie bag and cards from the event organizers and hotel. Very nice touch. Nothing feels so luxurious and pampering than finding a bag of yummy gifts waiting for you at your hotel room!

After I examined the samples from the artisans, I had a little free time to wander around outside the hotel. As I was walking around, I realized that even though Portland now has some of the coolest food, people, stores and media companies, it still has the same playful, vintage, rustic feeling.  I got a lot of this from their architecture. There are still quite a few old signs and brick buildings, charming old things like that left in Portland. I can't help comparing Portland to Seattle, but Seattle seems to have lost such character in comparison.

The first event together with everyone was a dinner. Travel Oregon gave everyone a few restaurants to pick from before arriving and I chose Little Bird Bistro. The name itself is irresistible, don't you think?  It was exactly what I was hoping to experience - an authentic, sophisticated and laid-back french affair with fresh ingredients at a small intimate restaurant. I met and joined some of the food bloggers who chose the restaurants - Nicole, Linda, Debra , Susan and Ariana. Everything we ate and you see in the photos was cooked with fresh, local ingredients. I usually can only handle about 3 courses of food max, but this time we had 5 courses accompanied with wine and cocktails. I stuffed myself as much as I could!  I loved the pigeon they served me, but the little bird was not so little at the end of my meal. Then I also realized that I would probably be eating like this the next 2 days. Tough life.

DAY 2: Paddling / Burger+Beer Dinner

I ended up getting assigned and convinced to go on the paddling trip at Rogue River, with Andrew, Janelle, Susan, Nicole, Linda and Kevin. I can swim and have even taken a rowing class before, but I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of being pushed around the waves and hitting rocks in a rubber boat.  We took a little private jet from Portland to the Rogue River. (The pilot even let us take turns sitting next to him in the cockpit!)  The trip down the river turned out to be a walk-in-heaven.  It was really calm and relaxing.  A great activity if you are visiting Southern Oregon. I'm so sorry that I don't really have any photos from the paddling trip! I left my camera in the van. But I did get some shots with my phone which are shown at the bottom of the post.

We flew back to Portland at the end of the day and had a little time to get ready before dinner.  It was an amazing burger dinner prepared by Chef Greg Denton of Metrovino and Chef Chris Carriker of The Gilt Club at the Wieden+Kennedy rooftop. I was so full already that I didn't even know if I could eat anymore until I got there and saw and smelled the burgers. It turned out that I had room for not one but two burgers! I love my meat. Both the lamb and elk burgers were extremely lean and delicious. You can't say burgers aren't healthy when you eat ones like these. I'm not a big beer drinker, unlike my husband, whom I would've loved to have there with me for both the beer and burgers. You know Oregon and their beers. Here is a list of beer masters who were at the dinner - Prodigal Son Brewery, Mutiny Brewing Company, Beer Valley Brewing Company, Barley Brown's Brew Pub, Terminal Gravity Brewing and Mt. Emily Ale House. 

DAY 3: Chocolate Making Session / Lunch at Kitchen Cru / Charcuterie Session / Grand Finale Dinner with Chef Vitaly Paley.

I was really excited about Day 3. It was filled with you can't ask for better culinary activities featuring chocolate, meats, wine and an Iron Chef winner. The morning started with the chocolate making session with David Briggs of Xocolati de David and Erica and Bruce Reininger of Eastern Oregon's Arrowhead Chocolates. It was such an rare and amazing experience to learn about the chocolate, different ingredients and chocolatiers's vision and passion towards their products. I liked that David said he doesn't even like sweets and his approach to making his chocolates is a savory one. I say why not. I love this approach.  David's salted caramel chocolate bar is definitely one of the best chocolates I've ever had.

Our journey continued to the lunch prepared by several amazing chefs from different restaurants at Kitchen Cru. Everyone was gushing about the salad with frikeh, feta, cucumber and cherries by Chef Scott from Park Kitchen and the Bent Brick. (Email me if you want the recipe... because I have it!)

After lunch, my second session of the day was charcuterie. Nobody loves and knows his meat more than Eric Finley of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie. He is such an enthusiastic butcher. Eric and his business partner Paula with demonstrated how to make this unforgettable pâté. 

Day 3 was a busy day. After a full day of intriguing culinary sessions by these masters, it was time to have a final dinner.  This dinner was prepared at the beautiful Penner-Ash Wine Celler by Chef Vitaley Paley known to have won his Iron Chef match on FoodNetwork. This evening was nice since everyone who was invited or involved was there.

As you can imagine, there were so much going on during this trip. This post doesn't really do justice to all that I did and ate!  You can probably read more from posts by the other bloggers who were there (like the ones I mentioned earlier). Before this experience, I had an impression how much community-minded, passionate, artistic, authentic and playful Oregonians were, and now these attributes are even more highlighted in my mind. If you want to visit a place with excellent food, nature, people and attitude, Oregon is now officially on the top of my favorite destination list. AND... if you want to experience something crazy fund and similar to the Full on Oregon weekend I did, you can visit this link.

(The photos below were taken by my cell phone.)

Chawan-Mushi Lunch and Off to Portland

Chawan mushi... one of my favorite things to eat that reminds me of my childhood. This is a rather traditional appetizer in Japan that you tend to find at Ryokan restaurants, weddings and other formal occasions. I have been so silly thinking that I can't just make it and eat it on a normal day. I can! It's such an easy, laid-back, affordable dish to make and it's just so tasty. It's basically steamed egg soup with dashi. It's a savory soup version of egg pudding. You can have it hot or cold and top it with any veggie, meat or seafood you like. Try it. You'll like it!


I've been keeping myself busy today brewing wheat tea, making chawan-mushi for lunch and getting ready to fly to Portland tomorrow morning. I am one of the 20+ food bloggers and writers who are invited by Travel Oregon to this unique and exciting weekend event. I can hardly wait! They have organized a bunch of amazing events like rafting, fishing, learning how to make chocolate/tea from the masters, wine tasting, beer tasting, dining at local restaurants, etc... basically all kinds of fun things to do while you are visiting Oregon! I'll be sharing my 3-day experience after the trip, so make sure to visit me here again if you are interested in learning about fun activities and great food in Oregon.

Mugi Cha is an iced roasted barley tea that everyone loves in Japan. It's a tea made out of barley, which means it's caffeine-free.  It's a must-drink to survive the heat during summer. You should be able to find thing at any Asian grocery stores or special tea shops. Or make your own, which I didn't do myself for this post.

Norwegian Mini Buttermilk Pancakes: Lapper

We eat a lot of pancakes at home. These mini ones I made for this post are called lapper in Norwegian.  My husband's Norwegian grandma used to make them for him when he was little. I love this type of childhood memory food. Honestly it's important for me when I cook for or with the kids that I make what my grandma or mom made when I was growing up. That's right! I'm not a traditional person in any way, but when it comes to food, I can be.

Lapper are normal-sized pancakes for my husband.  They are no longer pancakes to him if I make them medium or big.  It's just exaggerating.  It took me a long time to realize that I was rather ignorant about the depth of making good pancakes. I finally decided it's time to put in real effort in making outstanding pancakes. When the kids, aka. extremely moody eaters, each ate 10 of these little lapper, I knew this would make a great post. Buttermilk is a must ingredient for these as most people would probably guess.

It is also that time of the year. Annual backyard blackberry picking month. Our blackberry bush started to produce quite a few juicy and delicious berries. I love these blackberry bushes. It gives the kids a positive task to help their mama with, keeps them full, healthy and BUSY. Although CK tends to eat them faster than I can pick them. She ate the first bowl full of berries like nothing.

By the way, I went out to grab some lunch with my friend Satoko this afternoon.  I can count on her with anything related to good foods.  We went to a restaurant called Boat Street Cafe in the Queen Anne /Belltown neighborhood in Seattle.  As soon as I walked in, it totally reminded me of those little hidden and heavenly neighborhood joints in France. The food, atmosphere, people, everything was just perfect. Relaxing, modest, authentic, natural, and yet very sophisticated. You'll know and feel it's a special place. I highly recommend this restaurant. We usually hang out with the kids together and make lunch for each other, but today was just us girls. A nice quiet grown up lunch. What a treat! Moms need this.

Afternoon Tea Time with Strawberry and Rhubarb Pudding

As much as I love spending time with my kids, I do need some alone time as well. And I got some for the first time in a long time one afternoon. Instead of hassling through my alone time with chores and work, I decided to relax and enjoy my quality time. Afternoon tea all by myself at home. This is luxury. (But of course, that's after getting props ready and taking all the photos for this posting...)

I am a self-certified Anglophile. I love fancy English style afternoon tea. I have to have it when I go to England. It might be touristy, tacky and girly, but I don't care what people say. I LOVE IT. I think about it all the time. This post is inspired by English afternoon tea. Someday, I'll attempt to make a proper one when I'm ready for it.

One, and I mean ONE sunny day, the kids and I went strawberry picking north of Seattle after the farm finally opened for picking. This summer the weather has been- rain, cloud, rain, cloud, rain, cloud, a bit of sun, more sun, no sun, rain, cloud, cloud, cloud, rain, rain, rain......

The strawberry field was filled with burning red delicious looking strawberries. The kids and I couldn't wait. I took a bite while picking. Delicious.

The kids were having fun, stuffing themselves with strawberries, getting juice all over themselves. They were little red-smeared clowns. Now we could make tons of jam with "some" added sugar at home. More fun!

My son and I smashed the strawberries and made a very tasty jam with them. I kept it simple and only added granulated sugar and lemon juice. Then I turned to my guru Jamie for a recipe inspiration. In his book, I found this plum pudding recipe and twisted it around a bit by using strawberries and rhubarb.

I love this kind of simple pie/pudding recipe. It really works and you can make it with many different kinds of fruit. It also can be savory. Great one to try with the kids too.