Excellent Portland Food/Drink

1. Mulled cider drink thing at the Shanghai Tunnels

2. Supposedly the best Indian food cart in PDX. It's downtown and a bit misleading since there are two carts by the same name (apparently one was started by a husband-wife duo, but after the divorce they split into two carts, kept the same names, and set up next to each other...) but the one farthest from the corner is supposed to be the best. This is the $5 lunch special (plus you get chai)

3. Biwa ramen bowl. Major yum.

4. Bacon-infused bloody mary at Genies

5. Scorpian Bowl Thing at Gold Dust Meridian

Butternut Squash Pastas

My mom really loves butternut squash so I discovered it at a fairly young age when she tried to convince my brother and I that it was different from other squash and tasted like candy. Nice try mom! However, I do like it quite a bit more now. The other day I decided to make dinner with some friends and they put me on shopping duty. I wanted something different--not tomato sauce or Alfredo sauce based so I found some recipe for roasted butternut squash+Parmesan. I decided to toss in some peas as well, and my friend decided she just had to have chorizo, so we rolled with it.

Pasta Numero Uno:
Butternut Squash, Peas, Chorizo, Plus Cheese Pasta:
*feeds at least 5
-1 large package whole wheat pasta
-1/2 a small butternut squash, peeled and chopped
-1/2 a package frozen peas
-3 or 4 links of chorizo, chopped
-shaved Parmesan (I think we actually used a Parmesan/pecorino blend)
-onion and garlic to taste (I think we used maybe 1/2 an onion and a few cloves of garlic)

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the squash (I had never seen it cooked this way, so thanks to Lindsey for teaching), cook until tender
2. Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the onions and chorizo, then the garlic, and cook until chorizo is cooked through
3. Boil more water for pasta and cook until al dente or however you prefer pasta
4. Once the chorizo is cooked through, add the peas and cook until warmed through
5. Once pasta and squash are cooked and drained, mix everything together in a large pot (reserving a little of the cooking liquids as needed), and top with shaved Parmesan or pecorino or whatever cheese you like and let the heat melt the cheese. Enjoy!

Pasta Numero Dos:
As you might have noticed from the first post, you only use half of the butternut squash, so I had to figure out what to do with it. I also had the rest of the frozen peas, some baby spinach,

-1/2 a butternut squash, grated (I also recently discovered my grating blade on my food processor and was super excited to use it)
-1/2 a bag of frozen peas
-3/4 of a bag of baby spinach, chopped
-half an onion, diced
-a few cloves of garlic, diced
-a few links of chorizo if you have them on hand (which I did)
-a bag of your favorite kind of pasta
-grated cheese of whatever kind you like

-Heat olive oil in a large, deep pan, add onions and chorizo if using
-Add garlic and squash
-Once they soften, add peas
-Once peas are cooked through add spinach
-Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes or whatever seasoning you feel like
-As soon as the pasta is done, add everything else and cheese on top!

*Note: This is not only a really nice, light pasta (I know there's chorizo, but not much. It's really like 3 or 4 lengths between 5 or 6 servings which isn't so bad), but it's unusual and super cheap. For the first pasta I bought 1 butternut squash, 1 bag of frozen peas, 1 bag of pasta, 1 package of cheese, 1 bag of spinach, and 2 bottles of wine for about $17. I already had the onions, garlic, spices, and oil, plus one bag of pasta, so if you factor those prices in, it would maybe be $25 for two hearty, healthy dinners for 5 or so people. Not bad!

SPICY Chili

I had non vegetarian chili for the first time (that I can remember) a few weeks ago at a friends. It was surprisingly good. Lately it's been super cold here, low 40s!, so I needed something cozy to make and figured I'd give chili a shot. For whatever reason I always thought chili was a mixture of beans and ground meat and maybe tomatoes...upon investigating recipes I quickly learned that it was usually meat or beans but rarely both. Too bad! I made my own version. It turned out very well in my opinion but I somehow made it super spicy. And don't believe me (since I'm a spice wimp), my roommate and neighbors both agreed and shoveled it down.

CHILI:
-3/4 medium/large onion, finely chopped
-4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
-olive oil
-1/2 lb ground turkey, broken up
-2 chorizo sausage links, cut into small pieces
-about 14 oz canned whole tomatoes (half of one of those really big cans), including liquid
-2 tomatoes, chopped
-1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped (*)
-1 or 2 chipotles in adobo, chopped (as needed)
-1/2 a red bell pepper (or more if you actually like them...I don't, I just wanted the texture)
-2 medium yellow squash, chopped
-1 can pinto beans (or whatever kind you like)
-3/4-1 can of another type of bean...I used dark red kidney beans)* As needed if it's too hot or too thin--in my case, too spicy
-1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
-salt n pepper to taste
-thyme and basil to taste (I only had dried and used a few tsps of each)

1. Heat a deep, heavy pan on medium heat, add oil to coat.
2. When oil is hot, add onions, cook until they begin to soften, add turkey and sausage.
3. As everything starts to cook add garlic.
4. As turkey begins to brown add canned tomatoes and regular tomatoes, and bring to a simmer.
5. Add 1st can of beans, peppers, and squash.
6. Keep mixture simmering, add spices, chocolate, salt, and pepper.
7.Simmer over low heat until liquid thickens up quite a lot and takes on your desired consistency. Taste frequently and adjust heat as needed (adding more beans or more peppers as needed).
8. Once chili thickens nicely, devour with cheddar, jalapeño, beer bread (coming soon!)

*I, for whatever reason, happen to be an expert at finding the hottest jalapeños...I am not good with spicy food (I like them but they really hurt my mouth...). No idea how I do this since I know nothing about spicy peppers, but the few times I've used them I only have to use one when most people would use several. Weird. Anyway, if you chili doesn't have any heat after one pepper, add as needed since I seem to be gifted/cursed...Enjoy!

Brussel Sprouts

While we grilled the salmon, we also threw some brussel sprouts that had been halved on the grill. I had a few left over and have been meaning to try other ways to cook them.

When grilling: half brussel sprouts, sprinkle with olive oil and sprinkle a little sugar on top

Another way (adapted from Cooking Lite)
-4 or 5 brussel sprouts, sliced into quarters
-olive oil
-salt n pepper
-1/2 a shallot, thinly sliced
-1 clove garlic, minced
-balsamic to taste

1. Heat pan, add oil and shallot, cook until shallot gets soft
2. Add brussel sprouts.
3. Add garlic.
4. Cook until brussel sprouts soften, but still have a crunch.
5. Remove from heat, drizzle with balsamic. Enjoy with a glass of chardonnay.

Things To Do WIth Extra Salmon

The other day I got a 12 lb salmon. Yes, 12 pounds. My friend lives near a bunch of Russian immigrants and I guess one of them goes out and catches salmon and then sells it for $1/lb. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for my friends) you have to buy a whole fish. My friend took a few lbs off for herself (it was originally 14 lbs I guess), and gave me the rest. It came gutted but not scaled or filleted so that was an interesting and messy experience that I'm not eager to relive...I ended up grilling the salmon with a bunch of people. We went through a lot of it but 12 lbs is quite a lot of fish so we had leftovers. We did rosemary, garlic, and lemon, an asiany marinade with pineapple on skewers, and a maple syrup glaze too.

Salmon-Potato Salad (note: we had the most of the rosemary, lemon, garlic marinaded salmon left over, so that helped me come up with this idea)
-about 5 little potatoes (fingerling or whichever kind you prefer)
-1 T mayo*
-1 T spicy mustard*
-juice of 1/2 a lemon
-1 T german mustard*
-salt n pepper
-1 large stalk celery, finely diced
-1/3 small onion, finely diced
-1 T or so of canola oil
-salmon to taste*

1. Cook the potatoes in boiling water until tender, cool completely (or they'll get mushy when you try to cut them).
2. Dice celery, cut onion, place in large bowl.
3. Mix mustards, mayo, oil, salt n pepper, lemon juice in a small bowl.
4. Chop potatoes, add to larger bowl.
5. Add dressing to everything else.
6. Add salmon in and mix all together!

*No idea how much of all of these things I actually added, so my proportions might be kind of off...feel free to adapt as needed, with more mustard than mayo, and as much salmon as you like.

Baked Eggs

This is a 2-for-1 post. So a while ago at this point (yes, I'm delayed at keeping up with this) I came across a recipe for eggs baked with asparagus here . I love both eggs and asparagus so I was instantly intrigued. The other day I was in the mood for brunch but since it was just me, I didn't wanna go too crazy cooking up a lot of food. I remembered that asparagus-egg dish but then realized I didn't have any asparagus. Fail! Luckily I did happen to have some spinach on hand so i figured I could play around with the baked egg thing and use my cute little ramekins that I got for my birthday: win-win! This was a good idea on my part. I ended up making the asparagus one too later, so I'm including both.

Eggs Baked In Spinach
-1 egg
-3/4 c chopped spinach or more (I think that's about all I had, so more wouldn't hurt)
-1 T finely chopped onion
-1/2 garlic clove, smashed and finely chopped
-salt n pepper to taste
-olive oil
-1 T milk
-grated cheese to taste (any kind works, I would suggest cheddar or jack though)--maybe 1 T or so
-baguette, sliced on the diagonal, toasted and buttered (to eat with the egg)

1. Heat a heavy pan, add oil and onion and cook until onion becomes soft and translucent.
2. Add spinach and garlic and cook until spinach is done to your liking.
3. Remove from heat and put into a buttered ramekin
4. Grate cheese, preheat oven to about 450.
5. Carefully crack egg onto the spinach in the ramekin, add milk around it and salt n pepper.
6. Bake until whites begin to set (I still haven't mastered this step, I tend to overcook my eggs a bit), according to Shutter Bean, 5-7 min. Toast the toast.
7. Top with cheese and cook until cheese is bubbly.
8. Eat with the toast.

Egg Baked With Asparagus
1. Roast asparagus with olive oil, salt n lemon pepper (or however you like)
2. Follow steps 3-8.

Cocktails

I was at the Vern, my neighborhood bar, the other night and was in the mood for something other than beer or whiskey-ginger (my go-to well drink). I asked the bartender if she had any suggestions and she told me that lately after work she's been having raspberry kamikazes. For some reason I never think of kamikazes as a drink to get, not because I don't like them, but more because I always forget about them. A few days later I remembered that I had raspberry vodka, regular vodka, and limes lying around, so I figured I'd make one myself. If you're really feeling fancy, top with champagne and garnish with a lime wheel (I did).

Raspberry Kamikaze, but better:

-1 1/2 oz raspberry vodka or liqueur
-1 oz vodka
-1 oz lime juice
-1/2 oz triple sec
-champagne to taste

-Shake first 4 ingredients with ice, strain into a martini glass, top with champagne and a lime wheel.

*Note: for a less potent drink, leave out the regular vodka, I like both types because it cuts the sweetness of the raspberry liqueur a bit.