A snowy day in Portland

A snowy day in Portland, rarely do we get them. A free day to do what ever you want: read a book, take a nap, pay a bill, but me, I’m going to make soup. Don’t want to go outside, don’t want to drive, so I scavenge in my fridge for a free meal. I stand with the door open, looking for a combination to fill a pot. I spy a two-pound bag of firm orange carrots, one and a half onions, a half-inch piece of ginger, two tangerines with skin like an old man, and a jar, almost empty, of my new favorite chicken bouillon. Watch me, stay with me in the kitchen and we’ll prep and transform this orange pile of goodness into a rich, warm, filling carrot soup.

I start by melting four tablespoons butter in a large stockpot, toss in the chopped onion over medium low heat, cook till tender and no longer opaque to keep their sweetness.



Measure 4 cups of warm water and stir in 4 teaspoons of the chicken bouillon. Pour this over the onions and raise the temperature to medium. Scott introduced me to Better Than Bouillon chicken base. It’s now an essential on my shopping list. The vegetable and beef bouillon are excellent also.



Add the sliced carrots and ginger to the stock and bring their bath to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the carrots are fork-tender.



Strain the soup, and puree the solids in a blender or food processor until smooth. I add a little of the hot broth as it processes.



Then return the puree to the pot, add the tangerine juice, and season with salt and pepper.





A white bowl filled with hot carrot-ginger soup sitting atop a red checkered cloth napkin and ak-mak crackers for dipping: hot goodness from the kindest orange vegetable grown -- the carrot.

When the grown daughter visits…

Ever wonder if they’ll grow up? Become responsible adults? Leave the blankie at home? Well, it comes all too rapidly.



Last week, my 27-year-old daughter, Kattie, arrived for a short four-day visit. Sure enough, food was the topic. Kattie is now gluten-free, or as her friend Pete calls her, GG (gluten girl). It's mind-blowing, discovering how much of the food we consume is filled with gluten! From jelly to soy sauce to bread to salad dressing to ice cream to hair products and make-up, wow! Banter started in the car (best place to hold your kid hostage) on an adventure to Bob’s Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon where she purchased a package of Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix.

Class began as Kattie adorned herself with Maggie, my favorite apron, then proceeded to mix the crust, let it rise 20 minutes, and place it carefully on a hot pizza stone, back in the oven, for 13 minutes. Hot bread goodness filled the air as she removed it from the oven, topped it with shredded mozzarella cheese, sliced black olives, marinated artichoke hearts, fresh sliced tomato and another sprinkling of cheese. Back to the oven for eighteen minutes, salad dressed and wine poured. Scrumptious!


We planned to spend the next day in downtown Portland. First on the agenda was to have lunch at Techniques, the student-run restaurant of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. It was exciting for me to share with Kattie the place where I had spent so many months learning the art of making and presenting French food. The restaurant, the kitchens, the faces of old friends, all came back to me as we waited for our meal.

We started with soup; I had the French onion gratin – not the traditional French onion soup, but a creamier variation (the traditional is more of a broth). Kattie had mulligatawny, a French vegetable soup based on Indian curry. We both had salad entrees: Kattie had poached shrimp with mango and radicchio, avocado, and asparagus in a light olive oil dressing, topped with slivered almonds. Mine was roasted chicken breast sliced on a Cobb-salad base including avocado, walnuts, blue cheese, sliced hardboiled egg and crumbled bacon on romaine lettuce.

But the highlight was dessert: poached pears, caramelized in butter, that left a crunch not only with the caramelization but with the al dente texture of the pears themselves. Drizzled with melted chocolate and accessorized with a scoop of butter-pecan ice cream, the contrast of cold and hot -- you don't know whether to let the hot stay on your tongue or the cold melt into a luscious cream.


When you can look at a photograph and taste its cold ice cream, its warm caramelized sugary pear, that’s the sign of a good food stylist. I’m drooling as I write this, remembering the textures on my tongue.

Valentine's Day: where all the senses come together

What happens when a food stylist and a food writer get together, not just for work but for romance? The results could turn out something like this. Here are some photos from last night's Valentine meal with my design partner and real-life boyfriend, Scott Fisher.

We're both dedicated to the practice of romance, so we knew that for Valentine's Day we would pull out all the stops. Scott started by bringing the ingredients for the main course: perfect 8-oz filets of natural Northwest beef, wrapped in Willamette Valley bacon. Then, while enjoying the holiday tasting at Argyle Winery in Dundee, Oregon, Scott was inspired to pick up a bottle of their 2007 Black Brut, a sparkling pinot noir, to pair with the bacon-wrapped filets. The filets had been brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and had come up to temperature before grilling.

We started with a simple salad of romaine lettuce, fresh tomatoes, and polenta croutons in a vinaigrette:



Then it was time for the more serious part of the meal. I seared the filets on both sides for four minutes, then crisped the bacon carefully before finishing them in the oven for an additional four minutes. This resulted, given these thick, luscious filets, in a steak that was more medium than medium-rare; if you (as does Scott) prefer a bit of pink in the middle, you can omit finishing them in the oven and let the carry-over heat make them just right.



Either way, the result was fabulous on the plate, especially once I placed the side dish, roasted cauliflower:



Then I sauced the filets with a reduction I'd been cooking all afternoon. The aroma of balsamic vinegar nearly overpowered my apartment while it was reducing; my window's mouth was open all day, but the result was fantastic. I reduced balsamic vinegar and an Argentinian malbec to about a fourth its original volume, while also simmering carrots, onions and thyme plus a little vegetable broth. When it had thickened, I pureed the vegetables (after removing the thyme) with an immersion blender, then set it on to reduce some more. It clung to the meat like molten glass:



Those baby beets received a light drizzle of horseradish cream sauce, just the thing to give their mellow earthiness some bite. But the filets simply disappeared, down to the very last bite:



Then, with the steak and balsamic reduction making happy waves of warmth in our tummies, it was back to work for the food stylist. I'd put together a simple dessert with some homemade blueberry ice cream and crumbled pieces of sachertorte, and after a meal like this I had to get the look just right:



I'd intentionally made both the ice cream and the sachertortes fairly low in sugar, keeping the taste subtle and letting the pungency of the fresh local blueberries jump out in every bite. The creamy consistency offset the bursting juiciness of the blueberries, and the chocolate cake gave the ideal counterpoint to the rest of this blueberry-chocolate trifle:



After that, there was really nothing else to do but open the final bottle of champagne. Scott had brought over a gem from his collection, a 1999 Argyle Extended Tirage. This wine rested on the yeast for ten years before being disgorged, and Scott had been storing it for some time, waiting for just the right occasion. We put it to good use. If there's anything more elegant than pearls and champagne, please write to me, we need to try it!



In a few days I'll post recipes for all the food I prepared here, but for now, the bubbles from two bottles of champagne are still doing battle in my head. So enjoy yourselves, and don't forget to practice romance!