An article I wrote is currently featured on the website Snooth as a part of their “Bloggers Itinerary Contest”. The editors of Snooth asked wine bloggers to write about their favorite wine country itinerary and submit it to their contest. My article is currently in the running. I’ve lived in Northern California, near Napa and…
Food and Recipes
Open That Bottle Night, part II: Even special wines are meant to be opened
This past Saturday I did something I’ve been putting off for a long time. Inspired by Open That Bottle Night (OTBN) I opened two bottles of wine that I never quite found the right occasion to do so. They were not my most expensive, rare, or oldest wines. They were just wines that had a…
From Wine Country to Apple Country
Fall is definitely here. I can tell because I wake up every morning and instantly throw on socks and my UGG boots and yearn for something warm to drink. This is my first fall living in New England and since everybody raves about New England falls I figured I had to go do something quintessentially…
Olympic Provisions: A review
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my goal to do, see, and eat certain things in Portland before the big move date. And with the date growing closer and closer everyday I’ve finally made plans to accomplish them all. This past Monday I checked the first of the four restaurants off the list…
WillaKenzie, Aquariva and a Great Food & Wine Pairing
Trying to explore as much Oregon as I can before moving to the Northeast, I accepted an invitation to a wine and food pairing lunch a couple weeks back hosted by WillaKenzie Estate Winery. Lunch consisted of a five-course food and wine pairing prepared by Chef Andy Arndt of Aquariva that turned out to be…
A Different Kind of Bubbles…
After the wettest and one of the coldest Junes on record for Portland I’ve been impatiently waiting for some real summer weather to come around… and it finally did, on July 6th. And boy, this week has been quite the scorcher with temperatures into the high 90’s. Finally! And though I can’t celebrate this fabulous…
Pairing Wine with Food: The Basics
While preparing for a recent Intro to Wine and Food pairing class I polled a few friends and family members from outside the area to ask what would they want to learn about if they took a class on wine and food paring. Their responses were quite humbling to me. I was prepared for them to…
Meeting Tom Mackey from St. Francis Winery…
… and a stroll down memory lane Most wine lovers have quite a few bottles of wine that they would categorize as “most memorable” wines. Some have many, others have one or two. I’d have to say I’ve had many great wines in my life, but few have left a mark on me that I…
Chef Mavro
… And one of my first major food epiphanies. I’ve had a couple of food epiphanies in my life, but none more memorable than my first experience at Chef Mavro in Honolulu. A few years ago while visiting the island of Oahu I quickly grew tired of the many overpriced mediocre dining options on Waikiki Beach where we…
Mumm Napa
Winter is apparently in full effect this week in Portland, with temperatures as low as the teens (brrr), and guess what’s in my glass… bubbles. Yes, bubbles indeed! Just because it’s cold that doesn’t keep me from drinking bubbly this time of the year. I am of the school of thought that bubbles are appropriate…
Finding My Muse: The Condado de Haza Ribera Del Duero
Wine Blogging Wednesday #63 This months Wine Blogging Wednesday topic, selected by Rob Bralow of Wine Post, was to choose a wine you know well and have enjoyed many times, but have never written about. In addition we were supposed to time how long we enjoyed the wine, and take double that amount of time…
Who’s Your Julia?
I woke up yesterday in a pretty crappy mood. After moping around the house for a while feeling sad, for no apparent reason, I decided I needed to cheer myself up so I treated myself to a movie, Julie & Julia, all by myself. It was “that” kind of day. I’ve been waiting for months…
Dinner at Beast
I dine out a lot. But in all honesty, I tend to go to some of the same restaurants over and over again. Call me a creature of habit. But last weekend I finally had the opportunity to go to one of Portland’s most talked about restaurants, Beast. Beast is certainly a restaurant all of…