Day 273: Mulled Apple Cider

Since we had bowling tonight, I prepared the mulled apple cider in the crockpot. 1 bottle Martinelli's apple cider + 1 cinnamon stick + cloves + allspice + 3 thin orange slices= KIACK. Kick, but better. KIACK!

This is Alex trying to cool the mulled apple cider. He likes it. He likes the KIACK! I'm not one for a cider. How about a wassail?

Day 272: Coffee

I made Alex a lovely french press of Stumptown Hairbender blend, and it's a shame that it's too late to drink it.

Even though it was in his favorite mug, he took one tiiinnnyy sip and grimaced. He said it tasted burnt. I'm glad I only made two cups!

Day 271: Strawberry Cream Pie Day

Another pie made by me. Another recipe from recipe.com. I took a little liberties though. The recipe called for strawberry glaze which I couldn't find. I made something like it with strawberries, sugar, and cornstarch.

It tasted great, but it didn't hold together well. I think this could have used twice the cream cheese to give it more substance. Also, I may have wanted to boil down the "glaze" a bit more. Live and learn, huh?

Day 270: Chocolate Milk

Liz picked up some chocolate milk during our stop at New Seasons. She got the classic glass bottle.

After drink it I was reminded of my elementary school days. We always had a choice between regular milk or skim milk. I don't think I ever chose regular. They weren't serving cereal. And even if they work I wouldn't have passed up the opportunity.

Day 269: Pancakes

Liz was able to find Slappy Cakes for today. It's nearby place where you can make you own pancakes. Liz, my dad, and I went in on the fun. We all got buttermilk, but Liz was a bit more adventurous and decided to get bacon bits to throw in the mix.

My dad was a little annoyed that we could turn up the heat on the Japanese skillets. They had a rule about only going up past 180. The first few took a while to get cookin', but it was worth the wait. It was very tasty and not too heavy as I find pancakes can sometimes get. So glad we went there.

Day 268: Crab Meat Newburg

My family is now in town, so I was able to get them to make me this one for me. My brother worked the pan, my mom was the sous chef, and I measured things out.

If I didn't hate crab so much I'm sure I would have love it. My brother is a good cook. The rest of my family loves it.

Day 267: Cherries Jubilee

Yep, we're boozing it up in the morning. Alex's family is currently en route to Portland, so we wanted to get this done before they arrived. I looked up Paula Deen's recipe for Cherries Jubilee, which seemed easy enough. It was quite simple until we got to the Flambé step. Our brandy, she would not light! Alex tried many things, including adding more brandy, attempting to light the brandy in a separate vessel and adding even more brandy. A quick search on Flambé revealed that alcohol must be heated prior to lighting because of flash points and such.

That's about as big as the flame got. We wanted a big WHOOSH that singed our eyebrows, but no such luck. The dessert was pretty good, until Alex got to the bottom and discovered the extra brandy. We may have added a little too much.

Cherries Jubilee was created by Auguste Escoffier for one of Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations, although it's unclear if it was in 1887 or 1897. If you're a regular reader of this blog (anyone?), you may recall Escoffier from the Peach Melba entry. He was certainly a badass dessert chef.

Day 266: White Chocolate

I walked over to the Plaid Pantry to see what options I had for white chocolate. I found two: Kit Kat White and White Reese's. I got both.

I'm okay with white chocolate, but will always prefer the other chocolates. Both treats were good. I think it works better with the Reese's. The creaminess just meshes with the peanut butter in ways that it doesn't with wafers.

Day 265: Ice Cream Cone

I went to Salt & Straw again for this day. I have been passing by there a lot more since construction has cause me to change my bike route. Each time I get an onslaught of smells. I was destined to go there today.

My curiosity was peaked by the pear and blue cheese flavor (with sugar cone).  I love pear and I wasn't disappointed. The cheese was only prominent once. The rest of the time is was a background compliment. That place knows there shit.

Day 264: Pecan Cookie

I didn't want this to be anything like the pecan sandies I had before, so I made pecan cookie balls. This may have been easiest this I've bake so far on this food expedition. I would use less sugar next time. only because a lot when to waste for the outside coating.

They are pretty good. Much better than the sandies. I'd consider making these again. For a party or something.

Day 263: Rum Punch

Pineapple orange banana juice, ginger ale, lime, and Sailor Jerry rum.

Day 262: Butterscotch Pudding

I went with instant Jell-O. I got a number of people giving me the "Ughck!" when they heard this one. I, on the other hand, loved it. Ate the whole bowl! And I'll do it again... when your back is turned.

Day 261: Cheeseburger

I really wanted to go to Stanich's for this. They have one hell of a burger. Unfortunately, I don't have the time. I did get a suggestion from a Clubhouse regular though: Burgerville. The are the first place I've been to that was celebrating the food holiday I was working toward. They had a buy one get one free deal on their pepper bacon cheeseburger. With me just being me, I didn't need two. I also didn't want to pay the extra for a burger when I just needed a regular cheeseburger.

The cheeseburger I got was lovely. just the right combo of mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes. Sometimes simpler is better.

Day 260: Apple Dumpling

I always hate recipes like this. I look at a jumble of words and have to check back in the middle of stirring, but I never know exactly where I left off. Occasionally they tell you to mix something in, but only part of it. I wish they looked more like origami instructions. Something like this:

I could follow this, no problem. If I needed to get back to the recipe, I know exactly where to look. If only I enjoyed cooking, I might try making a cook book like this.

I'm not sure I've ever had apple dumplings before. I'd rather waste my time turning the apples into a crisp. Mmmmm apple crisp!

Anyway, this was pretty good. It's a little like an apple pie deconstructed. The raisins were a nice touch. If I were ever to try this again I would get smaller apples or at least shave them down more. I'd also wear an apron. That syrup got everywhere.

Day 259: Guacamole

Alex despises guacamole, also avocados in general. He says it's a texture thing. To mask the discomfort caused by texture issues, I purchased True Nature Spicy Guacamole at New Seasons Market (dot com!).

He said he appreciated the spiciness, but he didn't want anymore. Lunch tomorrow for me!

Day 258: Linguine

We rarely have any thing thicker than standard spaghetti around here, so linguine is a change. I prepared a batch of fresh linguine (not made, mind you) with fresh oregano and rosemary, garlic and parmesan cheese. A squeeze of lemon juice and salt and pepper topped it off nicely.

Alex loved it and the broccoli. It's finally cooled down enough for cooking! Hooray, Fall!

Day 257: Cream Filled Donut

We went to Sesame Donuts for this. We were headed in that direction anyway. We actually picked up an assortment of 6 donuts, but only one cream filled: The Boston Cream.

It was good. It was better than the others. I don't usually get cream filled. I tend to go with the cakier donuts. This was a good choice.

Day 256: Peanut

In hindsight, I probably should have gotten shelled nuts. There is just something classic about it. It's also very tactilely pleasing. Unfortunately, it's hella messy. It's best in a bar that serves them. Maybe I should have gone to the Lucky Lab.

Anyway, I got some Planters dry roasted peanuts at Safeway when I got milkshake fixin's. They are nice treat to have on hand. Not super salty like chips and not something I'll gorge on either also like chips. It's almost the perfect "I've got nothing better to do" snack.

Day 255: Chocolate Milkshake

Yum! This is the best thing about a Vitamix. Really thick milkshakes.

Day 254: Hot Cross Bun

This is apparently more of an Easter treat. A bit off timelinewise.

Liz spent a number of hours making this for me yesterday. It is an extremely multi-step process. I thank her greatly.  I always assumed the cross was cut into the dough. I was surprised to learn it was a topping added before baking.

They make the apartment smell great, but aren't super tasty. It was mostly blah with raisins and raisins don't really improve things for me. It's possible they are better right out of the oven rather than a day later. It was better than the date nut bread.

Day 253: TV Dinner

I think I was in high school the last time I had one of these. I picked two Hungry-Man meals. I had boneless pork rib (shaped patties) with mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, and a brownie. Liz had classic fried chicken strips with mashed potatoes, mixed veggies and an apple dessert.

They were okay. Certainly not disgusting by any means. The mashed potatoes in these things are always weird. They have sort of a film. The brownie seemed a little burnt. I liked Liz's dessert better.
Oh, what did we watch: Face Off. The show. Not the movie.

Day 252: Weinerschnitzel

Where else to go but Otto and Anita's for Weinerschnitzel? It is the cutest little authentic German restaurant in Multnimah Village AND they have Dill Pickle Soup!

I got the standard Weinerschnitzel and Alex got the Weinerschnitzel sandwich. I guess such a thing does really exist.

It was delicious, old world German food. Yum!

Day 251: Date Nut Bread

I bet this bread would be just fine without the nuts. I would love to go on yet another tirade about nuts in baked goods here, but I'm too busy cleaning the walnut chunks out of my teeth after ONE bite of this bread. Yecchhh. It turned out lovely (looking).

Chopping the dates was a pain...so sticky. The bread itself is nice and moist (shudder) and I bet if you could find a bite without nuts it would be delicious. Alex feels the same way.

So...anybody out there want an almost full loaf of date nut bread? Please eat it because we most certainly won't.

Day 250: Acorn Squash

This was actually one of the answers to Liz's crossword today. A little weird. Which is exactly how I'd describe the taste.

Darrin grilled it for part of dinner. I don't think anyone is partaking in the rest of it. He said he should have grilled it longer and added more butter. I think that would have made it worse.

I had a small chunk that I spit out. It wasn't horrible and I probably could have swallowed it, but I really enjoyed the other food Darrin made. I didn't want to have that ugly thing join my stomach party.

Day 249: Coffee Ice Cream

I picked up a pint of Sweet Ol' Joe ice cream from 2nd Street Creamery, which is made by Wells Enterprises, the 'largest privately held, family-owned ice cream and frozen treat manufacturer in the United States.' Well all right. Alex awoke from a disco nap and had a bite.

He hates coffee, and I think this is the highest form of effrontery (for him)- lovely ice cream tainted with gross old coffee. Poor boy. At least he finished off the ice cream sandwiches this morning.

Day 248: Cheese Pizza

It's been a very long time since I've had a pizza with no toppings. I still love it. Pizza only gets bad when there are too many toppings. I made this one myself. I mean, it's my number one food. Of course I make it. I added some garlic salt and oregano this time. It was lovely. and I have leftovers.

Day 247: Macadamia Nut

We've had this bag laying around for a number of month. Neither Liz nor I are that keen on them. I only eat them when there is nothing left in the house to eat with convenience. I'm curious how long the bag will last. The sea salt does make them better.

Day 246: Welsh Rarebit

So it has come to this: Welsh Rarebit. Summer is truly over. The summer of food, that is. I fully realize that summer only ends after the autumnal equinox for some. For others it's the start of school. And still for others it's when the leaves begin to change. Yet for me, the transition from sweet delights to hearty gruel is a clear sign that the blissful merriment of summer has come to an end. An what a stark inflection point it is.

Liz found another recipe from allrecipes again. She also got all the ingredients I needed to make it. The beer used has chickens on the label, as far as I know. I did a little "research" and found the name to be New Belgium Trippel. I'm not sure if Liz got a good beer or if it's a beer that has been around for a while and this was just the opportunity to make room for something better.  The dish was easy enough to make. I wasn't sure how I'd take it.

You'd think with that much cheese in there it would taste less like beer and mustard. I feel a little sad for the cheese. It could have made some lovely nachos. If you like the taste of beer you'd probably enjoy this. I'll pass.

Day 245: Blueberry Popsicle

This is not something you see in the freezer section. I had to make this myself. Liz found the recipe and I made it yesterday so it would be ready today.I only made one and it's huge.

How is it? Not as good as it sounds, but as good as it looks. It's a bit too... sweet? It just seems to concentrated to be a good popsicle. Maybe I should have watered it down a bit.  The weirdest part is the consistency. It's not quite solid. It feels like what I imagine eating Pizza the Hutt would feel like.

Day 244: Cherry Popover

What is the deal with popovers? Does anybody actually eat them? This time it's cherry popovers. Right as cherry season is over, the food overlords have demanded cherry popovers. Really? So we got canned cherries.

Meh. Eggy, weird and really confounding. We don't get it.

Let's hope this is the last popover of the year...