Recipe:
1 can garbanzo beans
1 whole egg
1 egg white
4 handfulls loose baby spinach
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, crushedd
1 small zucchini (approx 3/4 cup) julienned
1/3 cup diced onion
1/2 cup sliced olives
2 Tbs olive oil
1 cup mozzarella and parmasean cheeses, grated
salt
pepper
garlic powder
rosemary

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Open and drain a can of low-sodium garbanzo beans, put in a bowl with 1 whole egg and 1 egg white and some pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Crush and mix the beans with the egg and spices until relatively smooth (beans well-crushed -- I used a fork, but a handheld mixer would be faster). Once fully blended, I put it in a glass pie plate and baked it in the oven for 20 minutes @375 F.

Sautee the zucchini and onion in a small frying pan with the olive oil.

Crush the grape tomatoes until they are "coarsely blended" and add 2 tsp garlic powder and 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary. Then I sliced the olives and mixed them together.

Remove the "crust" from the oven (should be lightly browned).

Place spinach on crust, top with half the grated cheese, layer the zucchini mix and the tomato mix on top and then put the other half of grated cheese on top.

Lower oven temperature to 325 F. Bake for 30 minutes.
*Seasonings could be easily changed to taste and toppings could be modified as with regular "pizza." I would however avoid a "wet" sauce on the crust, as I think this would not work well (perhaps make beans soggy).
 

So after reading in the Eugene weekly a brief description of one of Eugene's newest restaurants, Belly, and reading Jennifer's review on her blog, boyfriend and I decided to venture out and give it a try.

The restaurant is located in the 5th St. Public Market area, inhabiting a spot that had been Penelope's Medditerranean (which I never did make it into, despite meaning to on numerous occasions). Outdoor seating is available, but with the temperature at 95, we chose to go indoors to the cool comfort of air conditioning. Once inside we immediately noticed the most prominent feature, the emergency water sprinkler system which is located near the front entrance. The drink specials were written on a large notepad -- a la a conference room pre-Power Point. The menu is limited, but serves a variety of "continental" options featuring pork and chicken and fresh vegetables.

To start, we ordered the Gougeres cheese puffs ($3).

We then opted to share the Pork confit with stone fruit and polenta ($8),

and the scallop salad with bacon-cognac dressing ($13).

For my main dish I ordered the Porcini mushroom pasta special and boyfriend ordered the house favorite, pork belly with lentils ($15). We each had a pint of Ninkasi IPA and then shared a pint of Ninkasi pale ale. Our total was $66. My guess is that the Pints were about $3.50 and the special was $15 or so.

The porcini pasta was pretty tasty -- I'm such a fan of mushroom pasta sauces that I make my own often, so it's pretty hard to really get me excited -- but it still sounded like the best thing on the menu. The seasoning was simple garlic and mushroom with subtle herbs and a wine base. But my favorite was the scallop salad. Although it came served with only four scallops (for $13, four is a little skimpy), they were perfectly seared and almost raw in the middle. Boyfriend was really pleased with it, telling me that the scallops, bacon, and citrus mixed for a perfect flavor combination. I wasn't as jazzed about the Pork confit (I must admit I'm not a total carnivore). To me, it reminded me of my grandma's Thanksgiving turkey -- the dark meat part which was always greasy from sitting in the juices while baking, and "meat flavored" without any other flavors. It was served with slightly sour (canned or previously frozen) cherries, and two nice bites of polenta.

The pork belly on lentils was just that. Boyfriend called it a "very manly meal." As I watched him consume what, in essance, was half-a-pound of uncured bacon, I thought that I really didn't need that much grease or fat in a single meal. He loved it, but became rather full afterward, and requested a bite of my bread to "clean the grease off the roof of his mouth."

For ambiance the place lacks a bit of romance, but has a certain amount of simple elegance (despite the water system). The food gets an A-, and the price is about $$$ 1/2 and the service was top notch -- friendly, not pushy, attentive, and timely. For a full meal with appetizer and drinks, $66 + tip wasn't a big outlay. Hopefully more people check them out and find out what good food actually can taste like.

So last night we headed out, and because it's almost our three year dating anniversary we decided to check out Davis' Restaurant and Bar, a one-year-old hot-spot in Eugene. We had no real notion of what to expect -- we had walked in once before but the restaurant was hosting a campaign party for the Mayor, so we skipped out.

The sparse and modern interior doesn't really give you an idea of what to expect, but boyfriend and I termed it "Ecclectic Gourmet Comfort Food." The menu features a variety of styles of food, from gouda mac & cheese or rib-eye with mashed potatoes, to Korean flank steak and lamb kabobs.

One exciting aspect is that nearly all of the dishes can be ordered as a half order (for between $5-8) or a whole order ($10-18). This is a plus, but it also means that it may take a bit of time to choose what you want, because you can sample the options by ordering a couple of half-orders of different things.

With this strategy in mind, boyfriend and I chose to start with the a half order of the Mezza platter appetizer -- $7 (hummus, baba ghanouj, and tzatziki). We were really suprised by the serving size of this dish, and are kind of afraid of what the whole size might look like:

To wash down our food, boyfriend chose to order a pint of Spaten pilsner and I ordered the Willamette amber. He thinks Spaten makes the best pilsner. I think that Willamette makes the best Amber I've tasted in a long time. I fell in love with the great flavor last week when I tried it for the first time at The Vintage. At $3 a glass or $3.50/pint, the draught beer is quite reasonable.

I ordered a half order of the spinach salad (spinach, pumpkin seeds, marinated red onion and chevre with a vinegrette) -- $7, and boyfriend ordered a half-order of the Caesar salad -- $5. The spinach salad was good, but I just had to ask about the goat cheese as it was quite "goaty" (dare I say, "billie goaty"). The waitress discovered that the cheese used on my salad was from the San Francisco Bay area and was not the usual brand used by the kitchen (they were out of their usual Cypress Grove Chevre, which hails from Arcata, CA). I think that the proprietors would do better to locally-source their goat cheese from one of Oregon's fine dairies.. including the one I spend quite a bit of time at: Fern's Edge Goat Dairy, which produces mildly and pleasantly flavored Chevre on the banks of Dexter Lake. The Caesar was described by boyfriend as being "authentic" and good.

For the meal, boyfriend ordered the Korean flank steak -- $16 -- served with a side of rice and their house-made Kimchi. Our server explained that the fermented dish is made in coolers in the basement of the establishment. This seemed to disappoint the boyfriend who was really hoping to find that they buried it somewhere in Eugene and that mold and dirt might be more closely associated with its manufacture. Alas, no such luck. But the house Kimchi was quite good and well seasoned (boyfriend said it could have been MUCH spicier, but I've seen what he eats and I don't think that the general palette is ready for that level of heat).

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I ordered a half-order of the pasta special -- $8 -- which was a farfalle pasta drenched in a creamy truffle sauce with roasted red peppers and peas. You can see from the photo that the oily richness of it was evident, and the result was a decadant main dish that I thoroughly enjoyed (with less guilt than if I had ordered the full order).

Last night we pondered our options for date night. Boyfriend had done a work dinner on Tuesday at Ambrosia, so he wasn't in the mood for more Italian... We ate at Cornucopia last week... and what we really wanted was to go sit outside and enjoy our meal. Of course, we thought of McMenamin's North Bank first, but after our last visit on a Friday afternoon (arriving at 5:15 PM) when we were told it would be an hour and a half wait, we decided to go to Waterfront Bar and Grill.

Waterfront Bar and Grill is tucked away in the back end of a Mercedes dealership parking lot off of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. The outdoor seating overlooks the water at Alton Baker Park, with a clear view of the canoe rental shack and the popular carp and bass fishing area. The interior of the restaurant is nicely decorated with modern fixtures, sandy tones, and an diners are walked past the open kitchen as you are walked to your seat.

The outdoor seating features molded plastic tables and comfortable chairs -- not uber-sophisticated, but not typical Eugene "funky" (like Cornucopia) either. We got a "front row" seat with unobscured views of the park as we arrived at about 5:00 PM. (Boyfriend hardly ever eats lunch...)

After we were seated we were brought four fingers of cheesy foccacia bread and an olive oil and balsamic dipping bowl. Our server seemed a bit "new," as she came to our table and asked if we were ready to order prior to asking if we would like drinks. I ordered a pint of Terminal Gravity IPA and boyfriend ordered the seasonal Czech Pilsner. At $3.75/pint, their beers don't break the bank (dare I say that they're less expensive than McMenamin's?).

The menu combines some of the favorites from the owner's other restaurant, Willie's on 7th. We had the mushroom and brie crostini appetizer ($5.95 -- six crostini) from that part of the menu. The restaurant also features a series of Lebanese offerings. On our last visit we both ordered from that part of the menu, but this time I was in the mood for something different. I ordered the Greek pizza ($10.95) and boyfriend tried the fish and chips ($19.95).

The pizza contained a bit of a surprise, as they used sheep feta (rather than goat) and the pie was distinctly "sheepy" to me. I am ultra-sensitive to this flavor due to my 18 years on a sheep farm and my intensely personal encounters with sheep and all their filthy lanolin (like spending a few hours in a wool sack, jumping on the fleeces to pack them down and getting entire fleeces dropped from above onto my head -- nice way to discover an allergy to lanolin). But it wasn't overwhelmingly sheepy (I can't eat lamb at all really),so I was able to enjoy it.

Our server failed to ask if we were interested in dessert -- and honestly, I could have been... but our bill totalled $52, so we got out without breaking the bank after having a nice, pleasant outdoor dining experience. As we were leaving the place was getting a bit busier, but it is my impression that it is a 'unknown' entity in town... often overlooked by people in favor of North Bank or the ghastly overpriced and overhyped Sweetwaters at Valley River Inn.

So overall, I give Waterfront 3.5 stars for ambiance, menu, and service and $$$ for price.

I reccommend it to anyone who wants to take people to a nice dinner in Eugene. You can also make reservations for large parties inside or outdoors.

If this isn't just freakin' obvious (Fox bias), then I don't know what is. Sign the petition to Fox at MoveOn.org to make them stop these "bitter" and underhanded attacks. Sign the petition.

h

Tonight we were ready to try Eugene's newest restaurant, Cafe Moroc. The north african restaurant is adjacent to Adam's Place between Willamette and Oak on Broadway. It replaces the Luna Jazz club, and was launched by Adam's Place owner, Adam Bernstein.

The ambiance was quite pleasant, with the option of seating in more traditional Moroccan furniture (low to the ground) or in standard table and chairs to half-booth nooks tucked along the western wall. We opted for the booth with cushy pillows.

Our server explained that we could order any of the standard Adam's Place specialties, or choose one of the three selected cocktails to pair with the meal, or one of three wines (a Moroccan white or red, or a California white). Wines were $6/glass.

The menu had the option of a full meal (in Indian food, think Thali style) referred to as the Palace Riad. This included a roasted red pepper hummus and cured olive starter (three cured olives with a wedge-cut piece of pita bread over a vibrant orange hummus in a small bowl), a Moroccan "chili" (medium temperature bean dish served with peasant bread), a small salad (grated carrot marinated in a vinegar in half the 5" serving dish with a minty onion and what I think was parsley pesto with diced tomato), choice of a main dish per customer, and dessert. This was offered at a base price of $23 per person. Boyfriend and I thought we couldn't go wrong -- the alternative being ordering ala carte.

After taking our drink orders (I had a Ketle One martini with olives and boyfriend got the Moroccan red), our server brought us warm wet unbleached cotton napkins to cleanse our hands and faces. She then asked what we would like, and asked if we would like silverware. Boyfriend and I decided that we were up for the "authentic" experience, and forewent the silverware.

The main dishes included an artichoke-based vegetarian option, three lamb options, three game hen options, and a beef option. The three lamb and game hen options are the same: carmelized onions with currant, preserved lemon with artichoke and olive, or saffron honey. I ordered the saffron honey game hen and boyfriend ordered the lemon, artichoke, and olive lamb.

We also noticed that optional to include in the meal was the Chicken b'stilla (the Americanized form of pigeon bastilla, one of the "glories of North African cooking"). This unexpected chicken, peas, and custard filled filo pastry topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar was a pleasant treat. At an additional cost of $4 per person at the table, it's an addition worth making.

So yesterday I realized that I am going to Las Vegas next week for a business trip (I'm sure you're totally jealous, right?), and I don't have any "business attire" for HOT weather! Most of my suits and outfits are long-sleeved and best for cool weather (like Boston in the Fall, or San Francisco in the Summer... ).

So I went to JC Penny's web site and saw this shirt. I really liked the style, and thought that the "Bayou Teal" would go well with my brown slacks that I currently have few tops to to pair with. So I went into the local store and happily found the shirt in my size and the teal color on the rack. I was further thrilled to discover that the shirt was $15. I promptly took it to the dressing room -- having long ago learned that just because a shirt says it will fit me, doesn't mean that the designers calculated my chest into their size equation.

This is where the title of this post fits in. I looked at the shirt, and then started to unwrap the fabric from itself so that I could try it on... big mistake. I didn't pay too close attention to the intricacy of how the thing was wrapped! So I'm standing in the dressing room with the awful overhead lights glinting off my shark-belly white skin, and trying to figure out how to get the shirt and all the belt fabric over my head. Then how do I get my arms into the sleeves without inadvertently snagging the wrap fabric?

Finally! I got it on, and tied it incorrectly, but well enough to determine that it would fit well. I made my way back to the rack and started examining the other shirts, trying to cement into my photographic memory exactly how the shirt was intended to be worn. I think I have it...

I came home and tried it on again in my bedroom and wore it into the kitchen to show Boyfriend. He looked at it, and in classic boy response to girlfriend who will be in Las Vegas, alone, he goes "That shirt is... Busty." (Cute, huh?)

I responded, "Ummm... no Honey, the shirt isn't busty. I am."

Well, with the line "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," I might try to get photographic proof of my succesful wearing of said shirt in Vegas -- in the spirit of violating that silly little phrase.

On another fashion note: What the hell is up with styles this summer?

These are my favorite new fashions I observed -- the ones that made me go "Oh, I've always wanted to be Cleopatra," or "Joy, the 70s makes a comeback!"

Bisou Bisou V-neck Cami with gaudy sequin straps, trust me when I say that the photo version does not do it justice. In person, this top SCREAMS glam... and Cleopatra.

a.n.a Print sundress (not to be confused with your grandmother's deck furniture covering. Though, now that I think about it, you could just blend in at Grandma's!