Sunday brunch

It was a dreary Sunday morning, cold and drizzling. I woke before 7am and came downstairs to start prepping for brunch. I've invited Lisa and Cecilia to come over at 10am. Lisa works with Jose, and she's extremely nice and likable. We just discovered Cecilia, another IDer/IITer in Portland, about two weeks ago. She has an infectious laughter.

For brunch, I had three things on the menu: chard/gruyere strata, cinnamon rolls and home fries. I had started on the first two the night before. All I needed to do this morning for the cinnamon rolls was to roll them out and let them rise for another hour or so. For home fries, I wanted to do a mix of potatoes and sweet potatoes. The strata looks fabulous this morning. All the ingredients have been soaking in the egg/milk/cream mixture overnight. All I had to do is top with more cheese and pop it in the oven for an hour.

Home fries with potatoes, sweet potatoes and green peppers

For recipes of chard/gruyere strata and cinnamon rolls, you can find them on Serious Eats blog. I substituted rainbow chard for spinach in the strata.

After raising in a warm oven for an hour, the cinnamon rolls looked so adorable.

Luckily both the strata and the cinnamon rolls would bake at 325 degree. So half way through baking the strata, I threw in the cinnamon rolls. They'd be finished at the same time.
Even though I specifically asked Lisa not to bring anything, she brought over treats from her favorite French-y bakery from her neighborhood. Cecilia also brought her home-made bread pudding and strawberry salad. We ended up with enough food to feed an army of ten.

Baked goods from St. Honore Boulangerie

Cecilia's two-in-one bread pudding

The strata was very tender and so were the cinnamon rolls.

The strata's got a nice crust and a warm and gooey center

With pots of freshly pressed coffee, we sat by the table and devoured all the yummy food, determined not to let the dreary weather get to us.
It's gotta be one of my favorite things to do, Sunday brunch at home with wonderful friends.

Roasted artichokes

I think it's the artichoke season, because all grocery stores are advertising deals on artichokes lately.
Traditionally we would simply boil them in salt and lemony water. But I wanted to try roasting them for once.

I cut them in half lengthwise after trimming off sharp pricks, immediately brush the cut sides generously with lemon juice/olive oil/salt mixture. Then I'd place them cut side down on a roasting pan, roast them at 400 degree for about 35-40 minutes, rotating the pan half way through.

I have to say I wouldn't go back to boiling them now that I've tried roasting. The cut sides of the artichokes are caramelized and take on an even sweeter note. And they look beautiful too.

Jamison park

This has to be one of our favorite parks in all Portland residential neighborhoods. It's just four blocks away from our apartment in Pearl district. It's a great place for kids/parents and adults to hang out on a warm sunny day.

 Jamison park's main attraction is a half circle fountain. On the "flat" side of the half circle there's a short wall built with large slates. This wall is where the water comes out. The ground within the half circle is slanted towards the center of the circle, where a big piece of draining plate resides. The draining plate stays shut off until the fountain is filled with water. Kids of all ages love playing in the water, which at the deepest end measures about a foot. At certain point, the drain plate would open and "drains away" all the water. I love watching the puzzled look on little kids' faces when all the water is gone. In another minute or two the fountain would come alive and water will rush out from between the slates and fill the half circle fountain with water again. It's such a clever and engaging idea. No wonder it draws so many people from the neighborhood, even on weekdays.

One more thing that makes Portland a great city to live in.

Goat cheese brownies

This is another recipe from Serious Eats. They're heavily featuring recipes from a book on all things goats recently. This was one of them.

We are fans of goat cheese. It's hard to imagine that I didn't like cheese just ten years ago when I first came to this country. I thought they all smelled and tasted like stinky socks. But I'm glad I learned to like cheese over the years, as there's so much wonder in the world of cheese.

I like buying cheese from Trader Joe's. They carry a variety of cheeses at very low prices. I can not see myself going back to WholeFoods for cheese unless we are throwing a fancy party. TJ carries this fresh Chevre that comes in an 8-oz log. That's what I used for making the brownies.

The resulting brownies have a distinctive goat cheese aroma, but a very subtle tang when you taste it. The crumbs are very moist. I also cut the sugar by 1/2 cup from the original recipe, as I don't like overly sweet things. It was just the right level of sweetness for me.

Hiking Marquam trail

After a nice brunch at Petite Provence, we headed over to SW hills of Portland for a 3.5-mile hike. That's one of the wonderful things about Portland. It's surrounded by nature. You can enjoy a hike without having to drive out of the city.
We started out at the top of the hill, where you can look out to see the mountains surrounding the city on both the west and east side. The day was perfectly sunny and warm.

Mt. St. Helen in the distance

Mt. Hood

The hike started down hill for the first leg and it loops back up. The entire second half is mostly uphills. Overall it's quite a leisure hike. Though it's been somewhat sunny for the past two days, parts of the trails were still muddy from months of rain fall. Along the trail you'd see wild lilies, spring bloom, mushrooms and moss covered plants. The trail also runs through "residential" area. People built houses along the roads that wind up and down the hill. Occasionally you see houses in the midst of the overgrowth.

We found this little hairy guy basting in the sun. For a second we thought about keeping it as our pet. It would've been an ideal pet for us. =)

Left: me hanging from a tree.                                       Right: our pet candidate

La Petite Provence

I have heard so much about La Petite Provence and their amazing pastries. Today we finally got to try it. We met up with Maya and Michael, a cute couple who's about to get married, at the Alberta location. There's also another one in the city on Division street.

The place is very French. But I heard that the Division one is more so. Before you walk in the restaurant, you'd be enticed by all the breads lining the rack by the window. Once inside, things get a little overwhelming. We got there a few minutes before 9am. The entire side of the restaurant is lined with display cases full of freshly made pastry, cakes, cookies and more.

The line hasn't started forming. It's rare for popular Portland brunch places to not have a long line by 9am. It might have something to do with the fact that Petite Provence opens at 7am on weekends. We were seated promptly. Most dishes comes with either a toast or a butter croissant. Somehow everyone at the table chose croissant. This place is known for their french style pastries. It's surprisingly light, crusty on the outside and amazingly soft on the inside. It's not overwhelmingly buttery (so it must be healthier, my brain is trying to justify it). Each croissant came with a small cup of berry jam. Not sure what kind of jam it was. But it took the croissant to another level.

The food came quickly. We had three egg dishes at the table. Jose order a smoke salmon hash topped with a egg. Maya and Michael both got fresh fruit on the side, while Jose and I went with heavier stuff. You start to care less once you're married. My La Petite Provence omelet was light but full of flavor. There's bacon, spinach and mushroom stuff inside the egg. The potato and butternut squash side was very nicely cooked as well. I had a couple bites of Jose's salmon hash and it was very well done.

La Petite Provence omelet

Salmon hash

We didn't eat anything ground breaking, except for maybe the croissant. Everything was well executed for what it is. Meeting friends for a pleasant brunch at a spacious Frenchy restaurant without having to wait for two hours makes for a great weekend.

Screen Door Restaurant

As far as all meals go, Portlanders seem to take breakfast/brunch the most serious. This town is not known for its night life because there isn't much of it. Most business closes around 9pm. People get up early on weekends to catch breakfast or brunch.

There are quite a few popular brunch places in town. Almost all of them have the characteristic long line coming out their door after 9am. Screen Door is no exception. In fact at Screen Door the line starts forming around 8:30am, while the restaurant doesn't open till 9am.

We were meeting our friends Lenka and Chris for brunch on a Saturday at 9am, wanting to check out this popular southern eatery. We got there a few minutes before 9am. There was already a 60-person line by the door. We missed the first seating and had to wait more, first outside in the cold for 30-40 min, then inside for another 30-40 min. They do have free coffee while you wait. By the time we were seated, everyone at the table was sufficiently starved to appreciate anything. But wait, you guessed, we had to wait another half an hour for our food to arrive.

Okay, so far it doesn't sound like a good experience, you'd say. We knew what we were getting into. Screen door's wait is well published on most review sites. But this was beyond what we had imagined. However when the food did arrive, most of the negative thoughts are out of the window. Every single dish was delicious.

Praline bacon - heaven that comes in strips

My veggie dish with eggs and biscuit; very delicious

I was good and ordered a veggie scramble topped with two eggs and a buttermilk biscuit on the side. I couldn't pass up the famous praline bacon that everyone was raving about. So I got one of those on the side as well. Jose got a chicken waffle dish, even though just the day before he swore to loose 15 pounds in four months. He's probably thinking about starting that after this meal. Lenka had the friend oyster benedict, while Chris got something like biscuit and gravy with friend chicken. The food tasted as good as it looked. My veggie scramble - not sure about the exact name as it's a special that day - was lightly coated with fresh basil pesto and very well cooked. The biscuit was nice and fluffy and had a good buttermilk tang. The eggs were cooked just right. When you break it with a fork, the yolk oozes out and coats whatever is underneath it.

Jose's chicken waffle

Chris' fried chicken biscuit and gravy

Lenka got the fried oyster benedict

The praline bacon was heavenly. It's very hard to stop eating it. It's bacon coated in syrup and chopped pecan. I was formulating plans on how to work off these calorie bombs afterwards, as I took another bite of the salty sweet treat.

So you'd ask whether it's worth the almost 2-hr wait, I'd say no. However I would try to get here at 8:30am to get in the first seating next time.