Bakery Bingo – Page 105 – Crawl your way through the best bakeries of Portland and beyond!

Third Time’s a Charm: PB&J Scones

April 9, 2012Filed in: Recipes

The other day I got a wonderful email from one of my favorite places in Portland, Lovejoy Bakers, featuring a recipe for their PB&J Scones. I was determined to make them this weekend. And I mean it. I was so determined that I had to go to the grocery store, not once, not twice but THREE times!

Why you might ask? Well, a) turns out I’m not so good at reading the recipe and remembering all the ingredients and b) there are apparently quite a few items in my pantry that are a tad too old.

First up, after my initial trip to the store, I realized that I didn’t have jam which is pretty important considering the whole J part of the PB&J name. So I ran across the street, picked up some tasty raspberry preserves and headed back home, threw on my apron and got to work. As soon as I started mixing the dry ingredients which includes oats, I happened to glance at the bottom of the Quaker box and sure enough, “Best Before August 2011.” Yeah… that was 8 months ago…FAIL. Continue Reading...

New Potato, Green Bean, Basil and Pine Nut Salad

March 30, 2012Filed in: Recipes

Monika from HipCooks graciously allowed me to post the recipe for the delicious potato salad we made in our cooking class last weekend.

So give it a whirl, it tastes great, is super quick and easy to make but is definitely a crowd pleaser!

New Potato, Green Bean, Basil and Pine Nut salad

This salad is a perfect for barbecues and potlucks. Plus it is simple and quick to make!

Serves 6

Ingredients:

8 new potatoes, multicolored – use baby red potatoes, Peruvian purple and young yellow potatoes; unpeeled and quartered

1/2 pound green beans, frozen or fresh, cut into 1″ segments

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch basil, chiffonaded

1/4C pine nuts, toasted (about 4-5 minutes in the oven)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt (I suggest Jacobsen Salt)

Be Hip, Take a Cooking Class

March 30, 2012Filed in: Events

Whoo hoo- a new blog post! Life has gotten a bit busy hence the long delay between posts.

I joined my good friend Lauren at HipCooks, a cooking school out in N Portland last Saturday night for an awesome class called “Healthy, Fresh and Zingy 2.” The class featured a great menu of a potato, green bean, basil salad, an entree of scallops, and finishing with a raspberry walnut cake. Based off that menu alone, I was definitely excited. And sure enough, like almost every cooking class I’ve attended, it was a great time with a great meal at the end.

The class was taught by HipCooks owner, Monika who is super spunky and energetic. She certainly made class entertaining with her fun stories and comedic voices, but it was still informative.

First we learned some knife skills. Since Lauren was introduced as the cardiac surgery PA that she is, she was the first one asked how to properly hold a knife. Monika didn’t really know what to do when Lauren corrected her that no, that wasn’t how you hold a scalpel… but fortunately Monika definitely knows how to hold a kitchen knife! She demonstrated all sorts of techniques of chopping, mincing and slicing. Continue Reading...