Lisa's Culinary Atrocities

     I cannot believe it took me this long to finally waffle a grilled cheese sandwich, but today was the day: Buttered Demi Miche, Dalmati Fig Spread, oven caramelized onions and Tintern Welsch Cheddar with chives and shallots.

The Demi Miche is dense, rustic and a bit sour.  The Tintern Welsch Cheddar with chives and shallots (found at Trader Joe’s) is semi-firm like Feta, sharp yet aromatic, and very rich.  Cast iron oven-caramelized onions add a sweet tang, yet have that certain deep caramel flavor that only comes from cast iron.  The Dalmati Fig Spread is…figgy and sweet, so I only used enough to taste the fig without over-doing the sweet.  Overall, the balance of these flavors was a fantastic combination. This waffle lab has given me oodles of ideas!

Oh, and I am happy. :)

     Time for Waffle Lab!  Mmm, what’s on the menu?  How about homemade pesto, roasted asparagus with Salish smoked sea salt and waffled polenta? Polentffles? Excellent…  P.S. Life is awesome. Yep.

As always, the dandy divots served their purpose: sauce receptacles of joy.  Waffling the polenta made it lightly crunchy on the outside yet retained the soft center.  The pesto, made with an asiago/fontina/parmesan blend, added a nice flavor variation to the pesto.  This was made again last night but with fried polenta and the addition of a really lovely piece of salmon cooked in olive oil and pesto.  While the outside of the polenta was not crispy, it was still certainly good and the pesto tied all of the textures and flavors together. I’d like to figure out how to make the polenta crispy as the texture would really add to the entire experience.  …Alrighty then.

In other news:

I’ve been kinda at a loss for words the past few weeks and even my camera has taken a short hiatus, which is very unusual.  I’ve been focused on living outside of my camera.  You read correctly.

This is nothing to be alarmed about :).  I am happy, doing many things I’ve wanted to do, living a sudden bounty of life that I was not expecting and gratefully appreciating each and every moment.

I feel like I am floating… with a slowly melting piece of the world’s most exquisite chocolate in my mouth.  Yeah.  And the softest blanket ever is carrying me along perfect 72 degree F winds that smell lightly of lilac and chocolate chip cookies.  Something like that.  And I have a cup of authentic slow-poured Italian espresso in my hand…and it’s a good hair day and everyone is in a festive and light mood.  And these new and not-so-welcome pimples have vanished.  Yeah. And there’s bubbles all around like at the end of the Lawrence Welk show.  And a unicorn is winking at me from behind the curtain.  Okok…so, I feel nice n stuff. 

Um, so anyway, I took at trip to the coast three weeks ago starting at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  It was crazy crowded so I popped in for the sharpest grilled cheese of my life, snapped a few photos of the factory at work and went along my way.   I saw a LOT of cheese…

From there I continued west towards Three Capes Scenic Drive.  This is a gloriously beautiful drive if you ever get the chance—it’s one of those those drives you want to take everyone you know and love.

One of the most memorable spots for me was at the beach at Cape Lookout State Park, which I came across quite accidentally.  I spent a long time there, slowly walking up the foggy beach toward even thicker fog blanketing a tall cliff, listening to the crashing winter-like waves and thoroughly enjoying being the only person there.  It was very meditative, albeit chilly, but I like that.

Driving further south, up Three Capes Scenic Drive, there was a small scenic overlook that displays a breathtaking view of the same beach. The photograph does not capture the magnificence of this span of beauty.

A bit farther along the same road, at I believe the highest point, I found the center of the seemingly ever-present fog.  I drove into what seemed like a movie-like rain and wind storm in a thick forest of angled trees.  It was nearly 20 degrees F difference on each side of this point and 40 degrees different from Portland!  I laughed with pure joy as my hair blew and whipped about in the storm and the rain licked at my face.  The absurdity of stumbling across such an unusual occurrence on a warm summer day tickled me.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Oregon?  I love love LOVE Oregon.  Wanna see it all.

…I just said “dude” and up-nodded at my little meow who chirped in camaraderie.