Last year’s Oscar party was ridiculous.  I cooked for two days, invited 20 people and rented out a room.  This year, it was me and a few friends, and I didn’t spend more than an hour cooking.  I made popcorn, seasoned with olive oil and sea salt; beef and sausage meatballs with a tomato and olive sauce; and open faced mini-sandwiches with white bean puree and white wine braised red onions.  Nothing better than a Sunday night with friends, good conversations and good food.  Cheers!

On January 11th, you can watch a pasta making demo with Jenn Louis of Lincoln, eat dinner and support a great cause.  ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  How, you ask?  Let me tell you:

Enjoy a cooking demonstration led by James Beard Award Nominee and Lincoln Restaurant owner, Jenn Louis. The demonstration will be followed by a sit-down dinner showcasing the dishes Jenn demos for us. Each meal includes an hors d’oeuvre, entree, dessert and wine pairing.

$125 per person, limit of 20 people.

The demonstration will be held at Lincoln Restaurant at 3808 N Williams Ave on Wednesday, January 11 starting at 5:30pm.

Write Around Portland changes lives by bringing free creative writing workshops to hospitals, homeless youth shelters, senior centers, prisons, treatment facilities and other places where adults and young people tend to have limited access to the power of writing.

Generally at this time of year, I’m ready to say farewell to the current year without looking back.  I’m not one to look regretfully on time passed and wish for something different.  I’m a proponent of looking forward and savoring anticipation as it approaches.  This year didn’t start out well – I was rather depressed about my upcoming 38th birthday and I seemed to be tired all the time.  I started to think that I was going to need some drastic changes in order to be happy.  So right around April, after my birthday, things started to change.

As I worked on a new life plan, things started falling into place.  I focused more at work, lost a bunch of weight, and decided that my new life plan was to be happy with myself and to live with joy, no matter where I was or who I was with or not with. (I’m glossing over the gory details, which are banal and uninteresting, generally speaking) And then!  Then.  I decided that you know what?  I like where I am and what I am doing.  I like who I am.  And even if my life situation never changes, that is okay, because I am happy.  Just like this! 

Two weeks later, I made a peanut butter pie and long story short, I met this really wonderful, amazing person!  BAM.  It happened kind of suddenly and completely unexpectedly and totally knocked me off my feet, to be honest.     But what a pleasant surprise!

So for me, 2011 is going to be a year that I remember forever as being the year that I found true happiness in myself, and then was so fortunate to share that happiness with someone else.  I’m looking back on it, not with regret, but to savor the good moments.  I’ve never quite had a year so wonderful as 2011.  But if your 2011 was not wonderful, don’t sweat it.  Your year is coming up.  I promise. 

Whether you will remember 2011 with fondness or with chagrin, I wish you all a very happy new start in the new year!  Eat well, friends!

Last night, my boyfriend and I went for pizza at *Via Tribunali, the new pizzeria in Old Town a la Bruce Carey.  We were seated by the brick pizza oven, which made our stay nice and toasty. It’s a nice cozy space.

We started off with the caprese salad, made with Buffalo Mozzarella and roasted tomatoes from Naples, Italy.  I spent a chunk of time yesterday afternoon roasting some roma tomatoes from Mexico.  The Italian tomatoes were better.  Soft, juicy, slightly charred, they embraced the mozzarella with vigor.

My blood orange cocktail was nice and sweet and strong, but not so strong that a few pieces of pizza didn’t soak it right up.  Speaking of pizza, we ordered the Porchetta and the house specialty pizza.  The Porchetta had red peppers, oven roasted onions and thin slices of porchetta on a thin crust doused ever so perfectly in a simple tomato sauce made from those same tomatoes from Naples.  The Via Tribunali pizza was also thin crust, but the edges were rolled up to encase house made ricotta cheese, whilst showcasing cherry tomatoes and arugula in the center.

The Tiramisu, which we had to try because hello.  Who doesn’t like Tiramisu.  And the waitress said that it came straight from Italy.  The whole dessert.  Now they must get some deal on shipping that Tiramisu from Italy, because it’s only $6.  I went to cut it in half so that we could split it and it was just like warm buttah.  It was quite delightful and not too coffee-ish, which I dislike so.  We loved it.   They also had a Nutella calzone on the menu for dessert which sounded quite tantalizing.  Alas, though, I was too full to order it!

So everything in this joint comes from Italy I was told.  The forks are special pizza forks.  The pizza boxes display a busty Italian woman.  The beer.  The wine.  Not the music, though.  The music was of a high quality easy listening type.  Better than the John Tesh show.  I know you’ll think I’m talking crazy talk, but I’m not.  It was good easy listening music!  I wanted to sing along, but I decided to spare my boyfriend the embarrassment.

Anyhow, go check it out.  They have a bunch of different pizzas to try and someone should order that Nutella calzone.

*This meal was provided at no cost to me or my guest.  As I have said before, I do not write posts about complimentary meals that I don’t like.  So I genuinely enjoyed my meal at Via Tribunali.  I hope you do, too!

**Pictures by Luke!  Thanks. 

Every Thursday afternoon for the past few weeks, I’ve been facilitating a writing workshop for Write Around Portland.  It has been a while since I’ve volunteered in that capacity and it has reminded me how important Write Around Portland is.

I want to say something eloquent about how many lives it has changed and how volunteering for them has changed me completely into a different person – a better person.  Because all of that is true.  I am on the fourth day of a really killer cold, though and am having a hard time finding eloquent words in my head.  So here’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to tell you about this event where you go and eat good food at an awesome restaurant  to benefit my favorite cause.  And then I’m going to link to my other posts I’ve written, both about Write Around Portland and Lincoln.  Together?  Whoa.  Magic.  Please join me in celebrating respect, writing, community and good food.

The Info:

Need another reason to head to one of Portland’s favorite restaurants? Well, we’ve got one: Lincoln Restaurant will donate 10% of the proceeds on Thursday, Oct 20 to Write Around Portland. Enjoy their seasonal fare and help change lives through the power of writing! 

Thursday, Oct 20 

Lincoln Restaurant – 10% for Write Around Portland

3808 N Williams Ave, Suite 127
Portland, OR 97227
503-288-6200
info@lincolnpdx.com

Dinner: 5:30-10pm

Happy Hour: 5:30-7pm

Lincoln Restaurant takes reservations for parties of all sizes. 

Write Around Portland changes lives through the power of writing. We bring creative writing workshops to homeless youth shelters, senior centers, schools, hospitals, prisons and treatment facilities. By providing journals and pens, bus tickets, snacks, childcare and all workshop materials free of charge we remove obstacles to writing in community. Our writing workshops culminate in community readings and three beautifully designed books annually.

Lizzy and Write Around Portland

Enlightening Conclusions

A Reading

Lizzy and Lincoln

Cheating on My Blind Date with Lincoln

Returning to the Scene of the Affair

I know that I post about eggs a lot.  I love them so!  And this is one of my favorite dishes.  Baked Eggs – this time with pork garlic sausage, some caramelized onions, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese.  Of course drizzled with heavy cream, olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, baked at 400 for 9 minutes, and not a second more.  Served with an English muffin and a gorgeous, juicy orange.  Heaven.  Which is appropriate for a Sunday, I suppose.

You don’t need pasta with meatballs, you know.  Really good meatballs can stand on their own, without a starchy accompaniment (although I will never eat any kind of tomato sauce without a piece of good, crusty bread to sop up the traces of goodness on my plate.)  I’ve eaten these meatballs with creamy, cheesy risotto cakes, but you could serve them over pasta or in a sandwich.  Or, you could serve them on their own, with just the tomato sauce clinging to the pale exterior of the meatballs.  The smoky element comes from bacon, which is in both the meatballs and the sauce.

Smoky Chicken Meatballs in a Roasted Tomato Sauce

2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced into 1/2 inch slices

3 slices of bacon

1/2 small onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 4 or 5 pieces

1/2 c. breadcrumbs

1 egg

2 tsp. dried basil

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

2 c. water

1/2 cup mixed olives (green and Kalamata), sliced

Salt

Pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350.  Place the sliced tomatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven, set aside.

In a skillet, cook the bacon until crisp, about 5 minutes on each side.  Remove the bacon and set aside.  With the skillet over medium high heat, add the onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.  Turn the heat off.  Remove half of the onion/garlic mixture and set aside to cool.

Add the roasted tomatoes to the skillet and add in two slices of bacon, crumbled.  Add the water, 1 tsp of basil and 1/8 tsp of red pepper flakes.  Season with salt and pepper. Puree sauce either in a blender (while the ingredients are still cool) or with a stick blender.  Leave the sauce as chunky as you desire.  Turn the heat to low and let simmer without a cover for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, add the other half of the cooled onions and garlic to a food processor, with the remaining slice of crispy bacon.  Pulse for about 20 seconds.  Add the chicken and pulse until chicken is ground and mixed with the onion/garlic mixture.  Place mixture in a bowl.  Add the breadcrumbs, 1 tsp of basil and 1/8 tsp of red pepper flakes and the egg.  Add about 1/4 tsp salt and a sprinkle of pepper.  Mix everything together with your hands or with a spoon if you are squeamish, until well combined.  If you are not sure about the seasoning, cook a small chunk of the mixture in a skillet and taste, then adjust seasonings accordingly.

Form meatballs into desired size.  I use an ice cream scoop.  Place the meatballs in the skillet with the sauce in a single layer.  Gently scoop the sauce over the meatballs, then cover.  Let simmer over low heat for about 20-25 minutes.  Look in on the skillet occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid.  You may need to add water.  When the meatballs are completely firm, they are cooked.  Gently stir in the olives.  Enjoy!

Makes 2 servings.

In my youth, I hated tomatoes.  The pale, mealy slices that you see on fast food burgers and sandwiches really are awful.  That’s what I was used to.  Who knew that tomatoes could be so flavorful, juicy and colorful enough to brighten my soul just a little?

From the Farmers Market: tomatoes, basil, garlic, goat cheese.  Here’s what I made.

Spicy Garlic Spread

2 t. goat cheese

2 t. mayo

1 clove of garlic, grated

1 t. Hott Sauce

Stir all ingredients together until smooth.

Breakfast Sandwich

1 or 2 eggs (how hungry are you?)

1 biscuit, sliced in half and toasted

Spicy Garlic Spread

1 fresh, ripe tomato, sliced 1/4 inch thick

2-3 fresh basil leaves

Fry egg in a pan to desired level of doneness – I like mine a little runny.  Spread the garlic spread over the biscuit. Place a tomato slice on each biscuit half.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place egg(s) on the biscuit.  Drizzle Spicy Garlic Spread on top.  Tear up basil leaves and sprinkle over the sandwich.  Enjoy!

The Hott Sauce, from Portland chef Andrew Garrett, is available at Williams-Sonoma.  It’s a nice addition to my hot sauce collection.  Life will never be bland again.

Go out and get some tomatoes people.  Eat them like apples, eat them in slices, put them in the food processor and make salsa.  How ever you decide to eat them, enjoy our local bounty of tomatoes for the next few weeks.  They will be gone all too soon.

Hott Sauce provided by NW Elixers.  Thank you!

I’ve been reading more lately.  I love books.  I don’t know if I’ve told you how much.  One of the reasons I love books and the stories they hold is because they can transport you to a different world – you can experience things you otherwise wouldn’t.  I’m not just talking about fairy tales, where you can be a princess in a castle.  I’m talking about other worlds that exist in real life but don’t touch my life at all.  Worlds that aren’t entirely pleasant.  In fact sometimes they are downright disturbing.  But they are real.  People live in those worlds every day.

I just finished Portland author Nancy Rommelmann‘s novel, The Bad Mother, which transported me to the world of homeless teens in LA.  Even though it is less than 150 pages long, I have to admit that it took me two weeks to read it.  I could only read it in short spurts.  It was so raw, so real, it pained me – almost literally.  Which is not to say that it was bad – no, it was quite the opposite.  I loved it.  It is well written and gripping.  The sharp reality is not blurred for the reader.  There is no comic relief.  I’m glad – it rang true.  Reality is not soft.

I kept thinking about the homeless people that I’ve met and talked to and picturing them as the characters in the book. I kept wondering if this was the kind of stuff they lived through.  It made me uncomfortable to think about them so intimately – and it made me want to take care of them and it made me realize that I can’t solve all of their problems, no matter how much I want to.

I finished reading the book tonight, outside in the park, the wind fiercely blowing through my hair, and taking the edge off of the shrill shrieking in my head.  In the wind, I cried and came back to Portland.  Here I am, I thought, not homeless, looking out on a city that has so many homeless citizens, who are not crawling into a bed at this moment, wrapping up in a cotton blanket, writing a blog post on a laptop.

There is some kind of separation between me and them.  But we all started out the same, as little babies.  We have that common ground.  Maybe their parents took care of them like my parents took care of me, or maybe they didn’t.  Maybe they made good choices, or maybe they didn’t.  Maybe they lost their jobs, or left their spouse, or got evicted or maybe they are runaways.  Maybe they are drug addicts or maybe they aren’t.  Maybe they are mentally ill or maybe they aren’t.  Somewhere between birth and adulthood, something went wrong.  Why them?  Why not me?  The questions are endless and nauseating and impossible to answer.

I turned and watched the movie on the big screen in the park.  E.T. is easier to think about than how to help the homeless.  Tomorrow, though.  Tomorrow I am going to do something.

Market to Table, which is practically Farm to Table, happened in my kitchen on Sunday.  Well, to be accurate, it was Market to Kitchen to Table on the Rooftop, which isn’t exactly a farm setting, like all those cool dinners that are too out of my price range, but it is close enough.  There are rosemary bushes all over the place up there and native grasses or something.  It’s practically a farm. But whatever it is, I’m glad my rooftop is a place that I can go, just a short elevator ride away, to have a dinner party.  My studio apartment verges on uncomfortable if more than three people are in it. And that’s a little cramped for a dinner party.

Sunday’s sun got me sweating early as I headed to the Orenco Farmers Market in Hillsboro for a shopping trip.  Such produce: bunches of green onions, sweet onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, kale, cabbage, cilantro, cherries, blueberries.  And with such inspiration, my imagination ran a little wild and suddenly I had enough food for 30.  I really need to cut back on my cooking.

So friends came and we chatted and ate and laughed and plotted and empathized and caught up and basked in the sun and enjoyed the breeze for hours until people left because it was late and work was early.  Lovely night.

Gazpacho made from fresh tomatoes, peppers, onions and a bunch of fresh oregano, served in shot glasses.

Roasted sweet potatoes, cipollini onions and kale in a chile lime vinaigrette.

Drunken beans, milk-braised pork, roasted chicken, cabbage slaw, fresh salsa and Mexican rice with crunchy green onions rounded out the meal.

And dessert: vanilla ice cream with cherries and blueberries.

It really was the perfect day for it.  I quite enjoyed it.  Thanks to Rachelle and Ansley for helping out with food and to Chelsea for styling and taking pictures.  Such friends.  I am so lucky.

Produce for the dinner was provided by the Hillsboro Farmers Markets.  Thanks for inviting me out to the Orenco Market!

All photos by Chelsea Fuss.

Enjoying a few minutes off my feet.

The roof.