Portland

Photo courtesy of coco+kelley on Flickr

I’ve been on the road a lot the last few weeks.  In fact, I just returned from a wonderful eating and drinking trip to Portland, OR.  It was mostly for work, but we had lots of time to play.  The restaurant scene in Portland is pretty outstanding, and I wanted to make the most of my dining opportunities there.  I visited restaurants such as Pok Pok, Toro Bravo and Clyde Corner and tasted handcrafted cocktails with coconut water ice cubes at Beaker and Flask.  However, no trip to Portland is complete without making a home-cooked meal with my dear friend Kevin who lives in the area.

We had come up with our menu the night of a rainstorm and had hoped for similar weather as beef stew and homemade bread were on the menu.   Alas, we were blessed with a beautiful and dry day, but it did not deter us from cooking something comforting.

Kevin was in charge of our meal, which he started early in the day.  By the time I got there at 1 pm, his signature Provencal beef stew was cooking on the stove.  I was tasked with baking an apple pie, which I haven’t done in some time.  While I assembled the dough and sliced apples from a nearby farm, Kevin went to work on making focaccia from scratch.  We worked together in the small kitchen well, sidestepping, handing things off and not missing a beat.  To add to this meal, Kevin got a last minute craving for ice cream, which he began to assemble.  It was burnt orange to go with the pie.

As we waited for the pie to bake, the focaccia to rise, and the stew to simmer, we sipped Pinot Noir from the nearby Willamette Valley.  I felt lucky to have such great friends in a city with culinary excellence both in-home and out.