Tag: Oregon

Restaurant Review: Eb & Bean

Review: Eb & Bean | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler

Review: Eb & Bean | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Review: Eb & Bean | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler

Portland is into dessert. This has been made exceedingly clear with the success of places like Salt & StrawThe Sugar CubeMaurice, and Pix Patisserie. A few years ago, when Jonah and I lived in Sellwood, we occasionally visited a frozen yogurt spot called Nectar, a local “by the ounce” chain with flavors like red velvet, coconut, and peach. I was always surprised when we moved farther north that there weren’t really any frozen yogurt bars in Portland.

I remember the first time I went to a DIY frozen yogurt place, in Tucson with my cousin Lia. My sisters and I were in awe at all the flavors (taro root?!), that it was all right there to taste, and that we could design our own creations – fudge sauce, gummy bears, strawberries, sprinkles…the list goes on and on. At a certain point though, those cups piled high with sweetness became excessive, and I’d always wish I’d had a little more restraint and been satisfied with two toppings instead of seven.

Enter Eb & Bean, the best of both worlds: the frozen yogurt that I crave, but a more delicious, natural option, perfect for conscious Portland eaters and farm-to-table followers. It’s also not self-serve and it’s priced per topping, which is probably for the best – it keeps you from going too crazy! Flavors include the standard tart, chocolate, and vanilla, with three rotating flavors, one of which is always dairy-free (when I visited there was a super creamy delicious cashew rocky road). Owner Elizabeth Nathan studied dessert and pastry in Paris, and her knowledge of ingredients and flavor shows in her creatively curated toppings selection. Some of the most intriguing and tempting toppings included Fleur de Lis cinnamon sugar donuts, Pinkleton’s salted vanilla caramel corn, and Bakeshop marshmallow sauce.

After a picnic at a friend’s house last week, on a perfect 80 degree day, I convinced Jonah to stop at Eb & Bean for some dessert. It was on the way home, I swear. We decided to go a fairly traditional route for our first visit: vanilla frozen yogurt with hot fudge, Bakeshop peanut butter cookie, and toasted coconut. It was so perfectly sweet and refreshing, and felt that much more perfect because the sun was beating down outside.

I highly recommend a stop into Eb & Bean for a warm-weather treat. You’ll find the shop on NE Broadway at 1425, open from noon to 9:30 on weekdays, 10 on weekends.

Tillamookies are Here!

Tillamookies are here! | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler

My friend from college, Dylan, has a house on the Oregon coast (or rather, his family does). At various times throughout the school year, a bunch of friends would drive out to the house where we would spend the weekend playing bocce on the beach, cooking good food, drinking, playing games, and singing by the campfire.

But always one of the highlights of these trips was going to the Tillamook Cheese factory. Sometimes we’d stop on the way out to the house, sometimes we’d make a day trip, and sometimes we’d visit on our way back to Portland. We would head to the observation deck and watch them make and package those tasty bricks of cheese, then make a couple trips through the cheese tasting line, and end with a scoop of ice cream. I always really liked their flavors – they seem like the kind of flavors they might have at the neighborhood ice cream parlor I dreamed of having nearby growing up: Mudslide, Java Chip, Berry Cheesecake, and more.

Tillamookies are here! | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler

So when Soda Pop PR contacted me about Tillamook’s new ice cream sandwiches, called Tillamookies (the cutest name ever), it certainly tugged at my heart strings. And made my mouth water. I like ice cream sandwiches, but what I like about these is the cookie part. Rather than a dense cookie that, when frozen, is hard to bite through, these sandwiches have a circle of crispy, thin waffle cone, coated with dark chocolate on one side. It lends the sensation of eating a waffle cone filled with sweet creamy dessert. I love it.

And now you can try them yourself. They’ll be available in stores soon, but you can also enter below (there are a few different ways) to win some Tillamookies of your own! Enter before next Friday for a chance to enjoy these sweet treats!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feast 2014 Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting

Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust
Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust
Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust
Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust

Please tell me you’ve heard of Feast. The three-year-old food festival that now takes over Portland for a weekend in late September? The one with so many incredibly opportunities to eat, drink, and be merry? The one where you can easily spot your 5 favorite foodie celebrities in a single day?

This was my first year attending Feast, and I was (unfortunately) only able to hit up one event due to some scheduling conflicts with the band. But the event I did get to go to, the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting, was 5 hours of tastebud extravaganza, meeting lots of people, and watching cooking demos. My dad and Darla came down for the weekend (they drove out to our gig with us over the weekend), and the three of us went to Pioneer Square to enjoy all that Oregon has to offer.

We made it to the tents in time to grab a couple wine pours and food samples before sitting down to watch Chef Naomi Pomeroy whip up a pork loin with romesco sauce (which, after sampling, inspired me to finally make some romesco sauce of my own). Afterwards, as we moved from some pâté panna cotta with Oregon berries and a parmesan tuile from Uptown Billiards Club, to Eliot’s Adult Nut Butters, to kale salad with smoked salmon (from I’m not every sure who), to crazy delicious bites from Three Little Figs, to some awesome bloody mary shooters from Face Rock Creamery, to tomatoes sprinkled with varied salts from Jacobsen Salt, to of course incredible ice cream from Salt & Straw (served by the one and only Jon Wash), and possibly my favorite dessert: Salt & Straw Olive Oil ice cream topped with Cacao drinking chocolate and candied cocoa nibs. I realized something. I am so unvelievably lucky to live in a city that not only has food like this at every turn, but to live in a city that creates a festival like this, that brings all these artisans and chefs and wineries and breweries together, and has this community around food. I think it’s pretty cool, don’t you?

Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust
Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust
Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust
Feast 2014 Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting // Serious Crust

Let it be known that we also enjoyed some beautiful wines poured by some beautiful people. The wineries that were pouring were some of the best in Oregon, and they were pouring wines that range from $20-70 a bottle. It was a chance for me to try some wines that, let’s face it, I would otherwise not have been able to. Some favorite wineries included Elk CoveAdelsheim VineyardsChehalem, and Penner-Ash Wine Cellars.

Overall, it was a beautiful day spent eating and drinking with some of my favorite people. I met some new friends (like Ian and Mike from Pfriem Brewery), bumped into some old ones (Erin from Bakery Bingo, Rachel from Love, Rachel, and, from afar, Bee from The Spicy Bee), and truly enjoyed discovering all the wonderful food and drink coming from the wonderful Pacific Northwest. Lucky girl, indeed.

Berry and Buttermilk Scones

Berry and Buttermilk Scones // Serious Crust

Berry and Buttermilk Scones // Serious Crust
Berry and Buttermilk Scones // Serious Crust

Tis the berry season. I feel like everywhere I go, I’m seeing piles of raspberries, blackberries, even some late season strawberries. I baked these scones about a month ago, but I haven’t quite had time to post it. The time is now! Amongst all the food my mom sent home with us from the beach, were a pint of marionberries and some buttermilk.

The weekend we came home, we had a three hour band practice, and I knew I was going to need some sustenance. And who can resist warm, freshly baked, delicious scones? No one. So I whipped some up in the morning, and brought them to band practice.

I feel like my bandmates are still not used to my bringing baked goods. When I bring them, they’re there to share. Why would I bring a basked of a dozen scones all for myself? I wouldn’t. With a little nudging, I finally got the guys to snack on some. They were still warm, and smelled like sugar and berries. They were really delicious. I only wish I’d had some lemon curd to slather on them.

Berry and Buttermilk Scones

Ingredients

3/4 – 1 cup fresh berries (I used marionberry, but raspberry or blackberry would work well too)
4 3/4 cups flour
1 Tbl baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon zest
1 cup plus 1 Tbl cold, unsalted butter, cut into chunks.
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons melted butter
brown or turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Using a pastry knife or a fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients. You want the butter to be evenly mixed into the dry ingredients, in about pea-sized chunks.

Add the buttermilk and the berries, and mix the dough gently with a wooden spoon until it holds together well. If it seems a little dry, add a little more buttermilk to the dough, a couple tablespoons at a time. Flour a cutting board or countertop, and turn the dough out onto it. Pat the dough into a rectangle about an inch and a half thick. Using a circular cookie cutter (or a water glass, if you don’t have a cutter), cut out as many circles as you can, gather together the scraps, pat them out, and repeat. Place on the lined pan, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with sugar (brown or turbinado).

Bake scones for 20-35 minutes, until the tops are golden brown at the edges. Transfer to a cooling rack, and allow to cool for a few minutes until they’re nice and warm, but won’t scald your mouth. Serve with butter, lemon curd, jam, or any other toppings you like.