McIntosh Love: Portland Apple Tasting!

You know what's a great idea? Going to the Portland Nursery's Annual Apple Tasting Festival!

Not such a smart move? Going to Paradox Cafe for brunch directly beforehand.

Sleeping in, meeting my friends Maeve and Jeff, drinking a mug of Stumptown and eating a 4-grain pancake for the first time in years and heading to an outdoor event just seemed like such a swell turn of events for my Saturday.

I had the #3 with vegan pancake, tofu and vegan sausage. The pancake was near divine with maple syrup and earth balance and SE Portland love, though I wasn't a fan of the sausage. I dug the bit of fennel, the grittiness and the switch to homemade sausages vs. Gardenburger or whatever they used to use, but I'd pass in the future. I ended up giving half of mine away.

Onwards to apples!!

This was my fourth Apple Tasting, and although I passed on tasting every single apple and pear variety available - there were over 60, I did take notes and came home with 4 pounds of tart, sweet apples and 4 pounds of Asian pears. It was exactly what I wanted, and I like to think I greatly impressed the woman who weighed my fruit with my equivalence.

My apple of choice? Always the McIntosh. The first apple I ever bothered to learn the name of when I was younger, besides the craptastic Red Delicious. That one is red. It's government sanctioned. That's about it.

The ideal McIntosh is creamy, crisp, slightly sweet and tangy. I have a fond memory of picking them in upstate New York as a young adolescent. Nearly 3 lbs of my 4 are all beautiful McIntosh, the others including Cox's Orange Pippin and Cortland. My pears were the 20th Century, juicy Olympic and Hosui.

I said, onwards to the tasting!

(and things I remember from our chat down the row)

First, you're faced with deciding which line. Maeve and I opted for the second.

I had my check lists, my descriptions, my mini pencil, toothpick and camera ready.

So. Fall.

Then you have teases like this.

Seriously, why did I eat a pancake before this?

Apple tasting is hard work.

I'm sick of apples, Maeve!

Maeve, aren't you sick of apples?!?

This one just looks boring...

Don't you wish we had a jar of peanut butter?

This is when I broke down crying tears of relief and happiness - McIntosh was in the house!

This is when Maeve and I were still debating over my love for McIntosh, and turned to the history of Granny Smith in America.

Pears! Pears! We made it to the end of the row!

This was either:

Isn't this a cute pear baby?

or

Do you think I could hit the scarecrow in the eye with this?

We were both stoked to get to our favorite pears.

We had made it so far.

An epic adventure, for sure.

The end. Please note I cut out about 20 minutes and 20 bad apple jokes from this post. I think I'm maturing, I also skipped on painting a mini pumpkin and glitter-i-zing it with children.

And what was the first thing I did with my loot? Don't be silly, I don't eat one as is.

Roasted Apple-Pear sauce,

lightly sweetened with agave nectar and a touch of cinnamon.

Pureed in the Vita-Mix I love dearly.

Psst, Portlanders - There's one more weekend left!

Tomato Rice Soup & Vegan Holiday Fest Freebies

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the Portland's Vegan Holiday Festival. I walked around with friends, visiting each booth, watching food demos by Blossoming Lotus & Julie Hasson and slyly promoting Stumptown Vegans. As one of the first 100 people through the door, I even received a free giftbag that included a $10 gift certificate to Blossoming Lotus - rock on. I'm looking forward to hitting them up for a lunch of live pasta and vegan soft serve this week.

I did partake in my share of free samples, but being that I was not only breaking a fast but these festivals are getting to be regular, I simply didn't see the need to try everything in sight. I have some shots of exhibitor tables below - and my favorites were the sampling of Field Roast and the freebie packets of Parma. On my blog I've mentioned how I make my own 'parmesans' based on the uncheese book recipe (almonds, nutrional yeast, miso, sea salt), but the 'Chipotle Cayenne' packets called my name. As for field roast, we actually had a friend bring a celebration loaf over for dinner once, and it was alright - but never as good as at the sampling today. I think they sprinkle it with crack.

Later on in the day, after a bike and errand running, I came home with the intention of making Veganomicon's Tomato, Rice, Roasted Garlic & White Bean soup. I had read that Joanna of Yellow Rose Recipes had made it, and it felt like a year since I had, so it was time. This is one of the test recipes I had made several times, and is a definitive colder weather soup. Plus, it will feed you for days. This soup making became a mental exercise, as I had forgotten, or rather, been in denial that the PPK forums were still down. I still haven't received my tester copy (sob), and as a tester used a 'secret testing room' on the forums - so I told myself 'tomatoes, marjoram, beans, rice, roasted garlic, go!'. Some other things went in as well, but somehow, I seem to have successfully recreated it from memory, and soup was for dinner. And lunch tomorrow, etc.

From VegFest:

This table had luna bars, field roast, parma! and bumble bars.

The cracky field roast.

From the Herbivore table.

A smiling Julie Hasson, from her demo. I want to be Julie when I grow up! She even makes her own homemade pan greasing mix. At her demo she made lovely pumpkin cake with chocolate ganache and fanatastic pumpkin hummus with candied pumpkin seeds.