Recipe: One-banana Banana Bread

Sometimes you only have one over-ripe banana, and luckily with Google, I was able to find this recipe from the Baking Mischief blog for a banana bread mini-loaf that calls for just one ripe banana!

Ingredients

• ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
• ½ cup (60g) all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt (¼ if using unsalted butter)
• 1 medium overripe banana
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons (42g) butter melted

Cinnamon Sugar Crust

• 1 teaspoon (4g) granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a mini loaf pan, line with parchment paper sling (optional), and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate medium bowl, mash the banana and whisk in the egg until well-combined. Pour banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just-combined.
4. Add melted butter, and mix until butter is incorporated into the batter. Don’t over mix, but there should not be pools of butter remaining around the edges of the batter.
5. Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan, leaving ¾ inch of space from the top of the pan (discard extra batter if there is too much).

Optional Cinnamon Sugar Crust

• In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.

        6. Bake for 30 to 38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

        7. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes before removing and slicing. Then serve! 

I was baking at my parents' home in New Hampshire, so I didn't know where everything was. I found measuring cups but not measuring spoons, and I found cinnamon very quickly, so I used that without even bothering to look for the nutmeg (I did not make the cinnamon sugar crust. Why add an extra step?). So the measurements were estimated. Also, the house has a small oven with uneven heat, so I only baked my loaf for 25 minutes and that was perfect (at 20 it was still jiggly in the middle, but at 25 it had a browned top and the toothpick came out clean). It smelled so good coming out of the oven! This cake is so moist and delicious. I will definitely be making this one again!

Recipe: ANOTHER Orzo Chicken Dish

The spinach looks quite wilted, but it still tastes good!

This was another Instagram recipe I found online, this time from Neill, the "in vs. out" nutritionist. Again, very easy to make since you just put everything together in a casserole dish and mix!

Ingredients:

▪️200g orzo - 1.5 cups

▪️500g raw chicken - I did three large chicken thighs

▪️300ml chicken stock - 10 fl. oz

▪️1 diced red pepper

▪️190g reduced fat red pesto - I used green pesto from Aldi

▪️1 handful chopped spinach

▪️1 diced onion

▪️100g sundried tomatoes

▪️200g light Philadelphia cream cheese - 7 ounces (I used a full brick; why leave over 1 ounce?)

▪️Salt - pepper - paprika - oregano

Directions

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a 13x9" casserole dish. 
2. Cover and bake for 45 mins at 350˚ F. 

Seriously, that's it! I tried to do the conversions for you to make it easier. I didn't have everything (I had two tiny peppers that I used, and I used regular cream cheese), and I probably could have used a second jar of pesto. But even then, I was really happy with how this dish came out, and even happier about how easy it was to make! You really can't beat it!

(I think this recipe is better than the previous orzo chicken dish I made, but that's probably because of all the cream cheese!)

Recipe: Zucchini Lasagna

I had one cup of cottage cheese left over after making cottage cheese ice cream (that recipe here). So I looked up recipes that only needed one cup, and I found this one on the Taste of Home website. So I went to Aldi, bought all the other ingredients I didn't already have at home, and I tried it!

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup 2% cottage cheese
• 4 medium zucchini (about 1-3/4 pounds)
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (additional cheese optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. In large skillet, cook and crumble beef with onion over medium-high heat until meat is no longer pink, 5-7 minutes. Stir in seasonings and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. In a bowl, mix egg and cottage cheese.
2. Trim ends of zucchini; cut lengthwise into 1/4-in.-thick slices. Toss zucchini with the flour. Layer half the slices in a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Top with cottage cheese mixture and half the meat sauce. Add remaining zucchini slices; sprinkle with any remaining flour. Spread with remaining meat sauce; sprinkle with 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
3. Bake, uncovered, until heated through, about 40 minutes. If desired, sprinkle with additional cheese. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

I have two main concerns with this recipe. The first is the flour: what is it for? For the first batch of zucchini, the recipe says to "toss" the veggies in the flour, but for the second layer, it just says to sprinkle them. So I wasn't sure how covered the zucchini truly needed to be. In the end, I just sprinkled all of them. I wonder if the flour was supposed to absorb some of the wetness of the vegetables? If that is the intended purpose, I think salt would work better, like when you are making eggplant parmesan: you cover them eggplant discs in salt to dry them out. In the end, the dish was quite wet, so I did something wrong.

My second concern was that the last step says to bake the casserole uncovered the whole time. But the cheese on top got burnt! I would recommend covering with aluminum foil for the last 10-15 minutes so this doesn't happen. It just doesn't look good when there's a burnt layer of cheese on top :(

I think this recipe is okay, but I have made many other meat-and-veggie casseroles that have Italian inspiration that are better than this one. I'd recommend this eggplant casserole or this chicken alfredo casserole instead!

Recipe: Easy Breakfast Egg Muffins

 

I love these reusable silicone muffin tin liners I found on Amazon!

My husband had tried making these previously (without spraying the muffin tins or using liners, so THAT was fun to clean up...), so I tried making them myself. As soon as I googled "egg muffins," this is the first recipe that showed up. And since it had the word "easy" in the title, I knew it was meant for me.

Ingredients

• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 8 large eggs
• 2 ¾ ounces fully-cooked bacon pieces (such as Oscar Mayer®)
• ¼ cup whole milk
• 1 pinch garlic powder, or to taste
• 1 pinch onion powder, or to taste
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• ½ (8 ounce) package shredded mild cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. Place bell peppers and green onions into a large bowl.
3. Add eggs, bacon, milk, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
4. Sprinkle cheddar cheese into the bowl and whisk until incorporated.
5. Pour mixture equally into the prepared muffin cups.
6. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

I left a lot of this out. I only used one bell pepper (orange, for that matter), I don't eat bacon, and I didn't bother with the garlic powder/onion powder/salt. I also have 2% milk at home, so that's what I used. I did have green onion, but I also had some white onion that I added in, too. 

This really IS an easy recipe: mix everything together, pour it into muffin tins, and bake! I love the convenience both for making these but also for eating/packing to-go. Now I'll be set for a while when I need to pack breakfast for work! (yes, I get into the office before 7:30am, so I eat my first meal of the day at my desk...). 

Recipe: Chocolate Banana Applesauce Cake

 

It looks red, but that's just the lighting! These really just look like brownies.

I had two ripe bananas that were starting to go brown, so I knew I had to bake something with them. I had found this recipe a while back (I'm not sure where I saw it) from the Mom on Timeout blog. I already had the rest of the ingredients, and it sounded delicious, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Ingredients

• 2 bananas (very ripe)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup applesauce (no sugar added)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray 8x8-inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Mash bananas in a medium size bowl.
4. Stir in sugars, applesauce, water, and vinegar until thoroughly combined.
5. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt just until combined.
6. Fold in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips.
7. Pour batter into prepared dish.
8. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top.
9. Bake for 33-37 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
10. Let cool, slice and serve.

I didn't think about it while I was making it, but as long as the cocoa powder and chocolate chips don't have any milk in them, this recipe is vegan! So that's good to know for future reference. I think my only complaint with this recipe is that it doesn't state whether or not the brown sugar should be packed. I'm guessing not because the recipe doesn't list it (so I didn't), but I'm not sure if that's right. But I baked mine for 33 minutes and it was DONE. 

This cake tastes like chocolate banana bread (which I've made before), just with a hint of apple flavor thrown in. It's an easy recipe, which I love, but I guess I was hoping it might taste more like cake. Maybe it's because there's no icing? I don't dislike it, but I also wasn't blown away. And it was kind of dry... Meh, there's better out there.

Recipe: Chicken Broccoli Skillet Dinner

 

I love the Crazy for Crust e-newsletter: Dorothy Kern has so many great recipes! While I mostly look at her desserts, I thought this recipe for a chicken broccoli skillet meal looked good. So I thought I'd try it!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces whole wheat egg noodles or any pasta
• 3 cups broccoli florets or more, if desired
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ medium yellow onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 10.5 ounce can cream of mushroom soup (see note)
• ½ cup nonfat milk
• ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese use fresh not from the green canister
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• Salt and more pepper to taste
• 2 cups cooked chicken see note

Instructions

• Bring water to boil in large skillet (you can also do this in a separate saucepan). Cook noodles according to package directions adding the broccoli to the pan when there is about 3 minutes of cooking time left for the noodles. Cook until both are cooked, drain and set aside.
• Using the same pan, heat the olive oil. Cook the onion and garlic until onions are translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the soup, milk, parmesan, and pepper. Whisk or stir to combine. Add the chicken to the pan to heat it through then add the noodles and broccoli to the pot. Stir to combine.
• Add more shredded parmesan for serving, if desired.

Notes

1. I used Campbell’s Healthy Request condensed soup, use what you prefer. You can also use cream of chicken or cream of potato soup in place of the cream of mushroom.
2. You can also use rotisserie chicken in this recipe in place of my instant pot shredded chicken.
3. If you are using FRESH chicken that is not already cooked: dice chicken into small bite sized pieces. After the noodles and broccoli have been removed from the pan, add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan. Add the chicken and cook, searing on both sides, for about 5-10 minutes (depending on size of chicken pieces) then remove to a plate. You want the chicken almost cooked at that point. Continue the recipe to make the sauce then return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan and let finish cooking in the sauce.

I appreciate the details and notes Dorothy puts in her recipes. I did cook the pasta in a different pot (I used Banza, a chickpea pasta, to be healthy, but the texture leaves something to be desired.), and I cut chicken breasts into smaller pieces and cooked them in the air fryer first. I also used cream of chicken soup as she suggests for an alternative, since Steve doesn't like mushrooms. 

I eye-balled the measurements for the broccoli and chicken, and I probably had too much of both, because I could barely fit everything in my largest walled pan! Or maybe that just means I need to get a proper wok :)

While the recipe is easy to make, I didn't find it very flavorful or saucy (and again, that could have been because of the proportions of my ingredients). If I made it a second time, I might use TWO cans of the soup, and perhaps some more cheese (Can you ever have too much cheese? I think not.). Certainly worth a try!

Recipe: Orzo Chicken Dish

 

I feel like I am finding all my recipes from Instagram these days. I had this one on my list for a long time, and I finally made it!

Recipe (4 servings):

🍝 200g Orzo
🐔 320g Cooked chicken (420g raw)
🧀 150g Boursin cheese
🧀 50g Parmesan cheese
🍅 500g Cherry tomatoes
🥬 200g Spinach
🫗 400ml stock
🧂 Salt, pepper

1. Boursin in the middle, combine and mix everything except the Parmesan.

2. Cover and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for ~35 mins.

3. Remove foil, add Parmesan and bake for a further 5-10 mins uncovered

4. Leave 5 mins to cool

Now, of course the first thing I had to do was convert grams to cups, since I don't have a kitchen scale (who has time to weigh their food before they eat it?). But after that, this is a pretty easy recipe, since you just put everything together in one casserole dish.

My only issue is that the recipe isn't totally clear on whether you should mix the Boursin cheese in or leave it in the middle. After trying it, I should have mixed the Boursin in more, because that was the yummiest part! And instead of Parmesan on top, I used shredded mozzarella, which I think made the dish a little creamier. 

This is an easy dish to make using ingredients I always have in the house. I will definitely make this again!

Day 3 in Portland

Our last day in Portland was rainy, which was too bad, but we still made the most of it! Since we couldn't exercise outside with a nature walk (I originally had planned for us to walk in , the largest urban park in the US), I took an Orangetheory class instead. Then it was back to trying new drinks!

Is this not the prettiest flight of beer you've ever seen?

Because of the morning start to our day drinking, we went to Great Notion Brewing first, which was on my list and also came recommended by our bartender during our first night in the city. They have lots of fruity beers ("tart ales"), and since I don't like beer, I thought I'd try a flight of their unique flavors. They were so cool! Some were quite sour, but I especially liked the Smoothies and the Tiger's Blood. Maybe I can find a beer out there that I like!

Then we were to Aviation Gin. We had actually stopped there the day before, but we didn't know they would be closed for Juneteenth. This time they were open, but they unfortunately have one of those weird rules that only lets them serve up to two ounces of alcohol per day per person (i.e. that is enough for one cocktail). And I didn't realize they only have one product: they have no flavors of the Aviation Gin, just the OG, so the only flights available are mini-cocktail flights.

The one on the far left, the "Uncle Gari," was the best, probably because it's made with orange soda!

They had a special one for Father's Day (including one they called "the vasectomy"), so we tried that. They were okay, but since such little gin was in each one, they almost tasted like mocktails, to be honest. Maybe if we had taken the tour we would have had a better experience, but at $35 a person for the tour, I'm kind of glad we didn't drop $70 for a tour and some "meh" cocktails. 

The vegan peanut butter brittle flavor was so good!

After all the drinking, we needed to find some lunch! We went back into the Nob Hill area where we had been previously, and we had a fish and chips special at the Nob Hill Bar & Grill. It's a very casual place, but for $15, this meal (which came with clam chowder, too!) was a deal. For dessert, we checked out Salt & Straw for more ice cream. This one was already on my radar as a good place to try in Portland, but it just so happened that one this one day they were serving double scoops for the price of singletons. Winning! But normally I order a kid's cup at ice cream shops, so needless to say, I was so full after that big lunch plus the sweet treat at the end. 

They took photos as you got on the boat, but why would we pay for that when we can take our own for free?

Then we raced toward the river for a happy hour boat tour on the Portland Spirit, which I had pre-booked before we knew what the weather was going to be like (at the recommendation of one of Steve's friends who used to live in Portland). If we hadn't already paid for it, we wouldn't have gone, but since it was a sunk cost, we figured we'd still try to have fun. There was plenty of indoor seating, so we didn't have to worry about being out in the rain; while you could barely hear the audio recording, there was an online brochure to read along, so we still learned a few things (mainly that there are so many bridges across the Willamette River that "Bridgetown" is one of Portland's nicknames!). The ride was only about 90 minutes, but with our full bellies, it was nice to get off our feet for a little bit. 

Before dinner, we took a moment to stop into Powell's Books, another place that is included in all the "must-see" lists for Portland. The place is HUGE! And because it's so big, each book section is enormous. I had no idea so many cookbooks even existed! And there were so many self-help books, a big poetry section... They have everything. I probably could have spent all night there, so it's a good thing we had dinner reservations. 

Complete with a tiny crawfish on top!

Originally we were going to have dinner at Il Terrazzo, a nice Italian restaurant. But since we had such a big lunch, and the weather was still wet, we thought we'd stay closer to the hotel and try a different Jake's restaurant (the crawfish location is much older, which was founded in the late 1800's). The hotel had given us a coupon for a free appetizer, and even though we were already pretty full, we still took advantage of that and enjoyed some calamari before splitting the étouffée (we had to have the crawfish while there!). We also split the bottle of wine we had purchased at Carlo & Julian Winery earlier in the week, and the restaurant gave us a tiny sliver of flourless chocolate cake, which was perfect after having so much food all day. 

Even with the rain, this was a great last day of our anniversary vacation. I can't wait for our second anniversary trip!

Day 2 in Portland

You can see not one but two reservoirs from Mt. Tabor.

Another beautiful day in the Pacifici Northwest! After working out at the gym and eating our free breakfast at the Hampton Inn, we took a short drive to Mount Tabor, an extinct volcano just outside of the downtown area. Now that we live in Florida, we never see any elevation changes, so it was fun to get some real hiking in!

Can you spy the Great Horned Owl?

After our walk, several of the distilleries I wanted to visit weren't open yet, so we went over to Misssissippi Avenue, which I heard was a cool part of town. There are a lot of restaurants and cute shops, and of course I had to try Kate's ice cream!

Then we drove back across the river to the Slabtown neighborhood, where we had drinks and lunch at Brujos, a local brewery that came recommended. From there were could walk to several distilleries, but two of the three were closed for Juneteenth. So we ended up at Freeland Spirits. Their gin was very good!

"Brujos" means "witches," so there was a spooky theme with cocktail "spells."

Inside the brewery is a taco place, and we were not disappointed.

Freeland was really leaning into Pride, and they have all different colored bottles/spirits!

After all that, we took a little break in the room before heading out again for the evening. We had heard that Portland has a big food cart scene, so we went to the Hawthorne Asylum food carts pod for dinner. There is one main bar, but there are lots of carts to choose from of many different cuisines. I ended up getting a chicken platter from Oh Yum; the photo made it look Mexican with half an avocado, roasted corn, and black beans, but it wasn't like that at all. It was more like a Greek shawarma platter. Still yummy, but I wouldn't have paid $17 had I known it didn't actually come with half an avocado! Steve waited in the longest line for jambalaya, but he was happy with his choice.

There was a large fire pit (not lit that day) where you could sit among all the food trucks.

Right around the corner was the Helium Comedy Club, and I had bought tickets to see Ted Alexandro there before we even left for the trip. We had seen him open for Jim Gaffigan in Savannah, so we already were familiar with his material. It was a fun show, even with some rocky jokes in the beginning, and the venue is so small that there are no bad seats in the house. It was a fun way to spend the evening before going back to the hotel for the night. 

Day 1 in Portland

Well, we weren't in the city proper for our first day in Portland. Since we were coming up from McMinnville, we had about an hour's drive back north. We started off with some exercise: another long nature walk, this time at Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. One of the paths is open year-round, but the longer route is open in the summer, so we went with that choice. The first part of the walk is near a wetland, and we immediately saw great blue heron, Canada geese, ducks, and nutria! Steve had never heard of nutria before, so that was extra-cool for him. But after that part of the walk, we didn't see many animals (we did see a small snake cross our path), but we did hear more birds. If only we had binoculars with us!

This is a nutria. He was so calm, just munching away.

After our good long walk, we got back in the car to continue our trip north, this time to the Oregon Zoo. I mainly wanted to go to the zoo because I have been following their new baby elephant, Tula Tu, on Instagram. She is just so cute, and I had to see her in person! (Much like I had to see baby hippo Fritz at the Cincinatti Zoo a few years ago. Check out that blog post here.)

We saw so many cool animals, and not just those in owned by the zoo! We heard pileated woodpeckers, and we saw an Anna's hummingbird flitting from flower to flower for lunch. So cool! Here are some fun animal pics:

This monkey had a toy mirror, and he certainly enjoyed his reflection!

This young puma had to work for her lunch!

Once we were done at the zoo, we still had about an hour on the meter left (you have to pay for parking at the zoo, boo!). Since the Hoyt Arboretum is right across from the zoo, we thought we'd take a short walk there. We mainly checked out the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was special. 57,000 people from Oregon went to Vietnam during the conflict. That's a lot of people from just one state. 

We finally headed to our hotel after that, quickly cleaned up, and headed out for happy hour. Several places didn't offer happy hour, or it had already ended by the time we got there (one place has happy hour from 2-4pm. How does anyone with a job make it there?). We ended up trying a couple things at Beer O'Clock (Tommy the bartender was very helpful with recommendations for the rest of our trip) before going to Jake's Grill for dinner. Jake's was recommended to us previously, and with the coupon for a free appetizer that the hotel gave us, it was a no-brainer. And because we had already made the reservation noting our one-year anniversary, we got a free dessert, too! Not a bad way to close out a busy day.

Jake's personalized our menus!

Steve had seen this chocolate cake pass by earlier, and we had to try it! Best part of the meal!

Day 3 in Willamette Valley

Our last day in the Willamette Valley was our anniversary! The whole trip is to celebrate the milestone, but June 17 is the actual date. We were excited to try a few more wineries before heading back to Portland for some city exploring. 

Since most of the wineries do not open until later in the morning, we took a LONG walk inside the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Well, longer than expected because we ended up walking the smaller, inner loop at well as half of the main loop, so we were out there for nearly two hours. But the landscape was beautiful! I knew to expect large, old growth forests in Oregon, but I didn't think about the prairie-like areas in the valleys between the mountains (even though that's where the vineyards are, so you'd think I would have known that!). We found a wild cherry tree (which held us over for the second half of our walk), and we heard so many birds. I am noticing the Oregon is a great place for birders!

I found this skull while we were walking! With those huge front teeth, it must be some sort of gopher or ground squirrel.

Steve kept commenting on how the land at Bethel Heights reminded him of Napa.

Since our walk went much longer than I expected, we skipped Van Duzer Vineyards and headed directly to Bethel Heights Vineyard. They are truly an "estate" winery, meaning all of their grapes are grown within their own vineyard and the entire wine-making process takes place on their property. The view was fantastic, and we ended up buying a bottle of their rosé, which is amazing, since Steve doesn't usually like pink wine!

Bryn Mawr Vineyards might have had the most picturesque views of all the wineries we visited.

Just down the road is Bryn Mawr Vineyards, which also had an amazing view. I think the landscape was better than the wine, although their tempranillo definitely had a peppery nose that I liked! 

Our last winery was father down a long gravel road at Björnson Vineyard. They have a tasting room in downtown McMinnville, but we wanted to have the full experience at the winery itself, and we're so glad we stopped in! The building itself has a French chateau feel about it, but the name is historically Icelandic. We tasted several nice wines, and because it was our anniversary, they gave us (and the whole patio!) tastes of their sparkling wine on the house! We also enjoyed our wine with mini Snickers and Almond Joy bars, so of course I was happy as a camper. As we were leaving, we saw a group of women from one of the wineries earlier, but they were stepping out of a limousine! One of them was turning 80 years old. What a fun way to celebrate a birthday!

Björnson had the prettiest label, and the rosé made the red in the label really stand out. 

French restaurants are always the cutest, aren't they?

After cleaning up and relaxing at the AirBNB for a little bit, we walked into McMinnville for the last time for dinner. Steve had made reservations at Bistro Maison weeks ago; French restaurants are always fitting for special occasions! We brought the bottle of rosé with us so we could continue our wine journey over dinner. And the food was delicious! I started with French onion soup, which I usually can't eat because it's made with beef stock, but this restaurant uses vegetable stock instead. And the duck was excellent; so tender and flavorful. And for dessert, Steve had profiteroles with vanilla ice cream (served in a mug like hot chocolate), and I had a strawberry pavlova. Of course I have the photos so you can "taste" them vicariously:

They served not one but TWO duck thighs. I gave one to Steve; that's just so much!

The pavlova was layered with raspberry and strawberry ice creams, and the bits of basil brought out all the other flavors. 

So decadent! It was the perfect end to a lovely first anniversary. 

Day 2 in Willamette Valley

For our second full day in Oregon, we headed up to the Dundee/Newberg area to check out some more wineries. We started off with a very short nature walk at Crabtree Park before starting our day drinking bright and early at 10:00 AM!

I am so glad I reached out to Hyland Estates Winery, because they gave us such a great experience! I told them we were visiting for our anniversary, and they helped us celebrate so nicely!

Twyla made this cute little sign and spread for us (with mini macarons!)

These young vines were labeled by type of grape for each row.

It never occurred to me that wine barrels needed to be washed, and I had never heard of lees, which are the dead yeast cells left over after the whole aging process. So here they are washing the lees out of the barrels (although sometimes the lees are saved).

Brian, their winemaker, showed us ALL the barrels they have, and we even had tastes straight from the barrels!

They had these very large barrels, and because of the wood-to-wine ratio, the oak has less of an impact on the taste of the wine.

So not only did we have a wine tasting, but we got our own private tour of the facilities, too! We learned a lot, and their pinot noirs were exceptional. Such a great way to start the day!

Originally I had thought about visiting Furioso Vineyards next, but because our first tasting lasted nearly three hours (!), I pushed our schedule so we went to Knudsen Vineyards, where they allow picnic lunches. Unfortunately their wines were not good, and the pours were so small! We joked that we paid $35 for less than the equivalent of one glass of mediocre wine. 

At least the scenery was pretty at Knudsen!

But the day was not over! We finished our tastings with some Ransom spirits at Duck Pond Cellars, where we tried their Old Tom gin, some bourbon and brandy, and discovered génépi, an herbal liqueur, which is quite delicious!

The landscaping at Duck Pond was so pretty. The flowers were amazing! Here are a few:

After our tastings, we went back into McMinnville for the evening. We started off with ice cream from Serendipity, drinks on the rooftop of 1882 Grille, and dinner at Taste of India #1.

Just one more full day in wine country before we head up to Portland. But we're loving the cooler weather and countrysides out here in Willamette for now!