Not Enough Time

    As much as people love having family and friends visit them, for many it can be stressful trying to accommodate picky needs and disgruntled travelers.  Fortunately, my parents and their best friends love to eat and drink and aren’t too picky.  Which means when they came to visit recently, I had a great excuse to eat a lot of good food and try new places that have been on my to-go list. 

    My parents have been to Portland before, but it was nice to be sharing the city with them now that I know it better.  It was the first time for their friends, and I was happy to see them realize why I love it here. 

    We traveled out to the coast one day and walked on the beach as the fog slowly lifted in the afternoon to reveal Haystack Rock.  I was just on vacation with the same group and they’re kids in Florida…pretty interesting to go from the white sand and dunes of the Gulf to the turbulent surf and stunning landscape of the Oregon coast.  It is so different from what we think of as a sunny beach experience, yet the sand in our toes and the crash of the waves had the same magical powers to calm and refresh our spirits.  

    That night was the big Parents Meet The Boyfriend Dinner.  We went to Irving Street Kitchen; it’s a great casual and up-beat atmosphere for that sort of potentially stressful event.  I’m happy to say it was stress-free.  We had a fun dinner, decent food, and enjoyed each other’s company enough to grab another drink at Clyde Common afterwards.  

    Our group of 6 played at the PSU Farmer’s Market before we loaded up to go to the biggest antique show I have ever seen. We returned exhausted and hungry for an early dinner at Castagna.  I was pleased with Portland’s choice for Restaurant of the Year.  The food was excellent, the plating/presentation was stunning, but we thought the service was really lacking considering all the hype.  Nevertheless, no one else in town creates food with such precision and delicacy, and I hope it encourages other chefs to take more risks.  

     We also had an awesome dinner at Andina.  Every dish was big and bold and wonderfully different from the next.  I tasted everything at the table and really liked every bit of it.  I appreciate cuisine that makes you sit up and notice what’s going on.  

    There were also stops for perfectly made drinks at Teardrop, cupcakes at Cupcake Jones, Two Tarts cookies, food cart feasts, ice cream at Cool Moon, breakfast and scones at Bakery Bar, and all the treats at the coast and farmer’s market.  What I’m saying is…we all gained 5 pounds.  No, what I’m really saying is- I feel very lucky to live in a beautiful city so abundant with food, drink, and entertainment that one weekend is just not enough. I’m so glad my parents celebrated their 50^th birthdays by traveling to see me, and I’m already anxious for their return. 

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream

        I’m pretty pleased with myself about this particular ice cream I made.  Granted, the recipe for the base belongs to David Lebovitz, but the final outcome is a big winner. I scaled back the amount of lemon zest he calls for and added another pinch of salt, and I used Neufchatel cream cheese instead of the big whammy full-fat variety.   I think the 1/3-less-fat option is still very rich in flavor and it doesn’t compromise the ice cream texture when frozen. 

    For add-ins, I cut my potted cherries (from previous post) in half and crumbled chocolate wafer cookies into small pieces. I wanted a portion of these bits to break apart, so I added them while the ice cream was still spinning.  I only let that go about 20 seconds. If you let the particles spin too long, they basically “dissolve” into the ice cream and become homogenous. I also drizzled in some of the juice from the cherries.  Once I removed the spinner, I mixed in the other half of cherries and chocolate wafers by hand.  

    This ice cream is dense and rich and the tangy cream cheese is perfectly balanced by the sweetness of the cherries and chocolate.  The flavor is absolutely improved by the depth of the potted cherries, thanks to the cherry balsamic vinegar and tarragon they’re steeped in.  The wafer cookies soften but still maintain a gentle bite I enjoy.  What I really love is the texture even once the ice cream has hardened in the freezer.  It remains incredibly creamy and soft straight out of the container.  

    It has not escaped my notice that July is National Ice Cream month.  In fact, today is National Ice Cream Day! I am an all too willing participant in the celebration. I’m beginning to think that I should be creating ice cream professionally.  At least then I would have an outlet for my ice cream fervor.  

With A Cherry On Top

      Northwest cherries are spilling over buckets and barrels these days. I have been eating them by giant bowlfuls and pulling out two, three, or seven every time I go by the fridge.  Considering there is some ungraceful sucking and spitting involved with eating them right off the stem, I’m not sure how they disappear so fast.  But maybe that’s part of the reason I like them so much…a little work for my food…a little accidental cherry stain here and there. 

Cherries make me think of my Papa and his cherry trees in the backyard.  I used to wait anxiously all year for the day the cherries were ready to be picked.  I’m across the country from those trees now, and I still get excited when I know it’s that time back home.  I loved finding all the best cherries, the pretty clusters buried further back in the branches, climbing a ladder to snatch the brightest, shiniest one.  Popping them in my mouth as we gathered our treasures on a sunny day. 

I loved heading inside where my Grammy covered me in aprons and old shirts against the threat of splattering juice stains.  We sat around the kitchen table pitting until we’d measured out enough cups for plenty of fresh cherry pies.  And then those pies…whether created by the expert hands of my mother or grandmother, other pies are never quite the same.  Watching them make the dough, waiting for it to rest, watching them roll the crust, fill the pie, and crimp the edges, waiting for the pie to bake and cool- well, many distractions are required for small children involved in pie-making.  But that moment when the pie is just cool enough to set up, yet still warm enough to melt homemade ice cream plopped on top into a pool of rich cream …is so completely worth the wait.  I crave the ping-pong bites of sweet and tart cherries, the bottom crust that softens as it soaks up the thickened filling, and the perfectly crunchy, buttery top crust to balance the soft fruit. 

This is not the project I took on this week; I fear not meeting my own expectations.  However, I did grab a half flat from the farmer’s market to make a spicy cherry pickle and I tried the Ad Hoc recipe for sweet potted cherries.  The pickle has a lot of fresh ginger and habanero pepper in the mix.  I can’t wait to try this one; I think they might be just right with a creamy baked cheese or mashed a bit in a grilled cheese sandwich.  The potted cherries require steeping the pits in balsamic vinegar, straining the liquid, and combining it with tarragon and black pepper.  I’d like to try these with a meat dish, but my first project will be to spin the sweet cherries into ice cream with a bit of very dark chocolate.  

My cherry adventures so far this year haven’t involved a perfect pie, but I did enjoy making the pickle with my boyfriend.  Plus, the half dozen jars of cherries I have will last much longer than any fresh cherry pie would in my kitchen.