Adventures in Portland: Take 5

Spa Day!!!!!!

This morning Annie and I decided to treat ourselves to some wonderful self-care through massages. We went to Elixir Day Spas, which is on 110th in Beaverton. The lady was super nice (Clarissa). Since she was the only one working, one of us got to sit in the tranquility room while the other got a massage. In the tranquility room there were super good clementines and almonds and water. We also got a box of chocolate!!!!! Now, here is where the story gets interesting....

So... as many of you may know (or maybe no one knows....) our dear friend Annie is allergic to red dye 40. Not red dye 6. Not red dye 33. Not red dye 7 (who knew there were so many numbers of red dye....). Only red dye 40. So turns out the super cute ladybug chocolates that Clarissa got us had some red dye 40 in them. She was really nice and called Moonstruck chocolate to check and they were, in fact, ladybugs of chocolate death. So, she let us go over to the chocolate place around the corner and pick out new ones!!!

Annie decided to get one that she thought was amazing. It was a chocolate truffle with cinnamon and almonds and all around goodness ground up on it. The other one had goat milk, and salt, and caramel (and we all know Annie loves her salt). I got one that was an "ice cream cone" that was cookies and cream and another one that was toffee flavored. Both super delicious.

What a wonderful way to start our day!

adventures in portland: take 4

cupcake review #3: bliss bake shop
4708 NW Bethany Blvd Suite E-5
Portland Oregon 97229

ambiance: 3 scoops of icing. bliss did the best they could, given that they are located in a strip mall next to a subway. we appreciated the children's toys and big bucket of marshmallows in the front of the store, and it also smelled magically delicious. lacking was some wall decor and perhaps a little more color... it is also important to add that bliss opened around 2 weeks ago, so we should cut them a little slack.

customer service: 5 scoops of icing. lexy and i appreciated the fact that although we each individually ordered 4 mini cupcakes a piece (yeah, i said it), the woman behind the glass was not judgy, pretty matter of fact (doesn't everyone eat four cupcakes at these places??!). also, after we finished our cupcakes, another nice lady took our plates and asked us if we enjoyed our treats. very nice.

flavor variety: 5 scoops of icing. as previously mentioned (see customer service) lexy and i each had to (had to) get four cupcakes each because it was too difficult to make up our minds on just one (or two.... or three) flavors to try. lexy got the strawberry with strawberry icing, smore, lemon with rasberry topping, and cookies and cream, and annie got smore, cookies and cream, vanilla, and mocha.

quality of cupcake: 4 scoops of icing. these were pretty awesome cupcakes. i mean, nothing extraordinary or off the charts, but absolutely satisfying with a magical flair. annie appreciated that there was a lot of icing on her cupcakes, and lexy took solace in the fact that although she ate four cupcakes, one of them contained fruit, thus making it healthy.

cupcake size: 3.5 scoops of icing. nothing special, but they should get credit for having both normal and mini sizes. thanks bliss.

overall impression: 4 scoops of icing. bliss was a little bit of a hike for us, but well worth the time and effort. it's good to see more cupcake stores opening in the portland area (for lexy) and we are excited to see what they do with the decor. good luck bliss baking!

adventures in portland take 3-- fiesta!

last night we decided to share our magical cooking skills with an elite group of friends.

unfortunately, we were so hungry, the food was not captured in film, only in our tummies.

here is a breakdown of the fabulous menu-- comment if you would like to see the recipes.

homemade salsa
gaucamole
nopales (yeah, that means cactus-- see previous posts)
mango black bean salad
annie's famous burritos
mexican pastries (we didn't make these, but they were authentic mexican-made!)

everything was yummy and served with some guiltless gourmet chips. after trying all 4 kinds of chips (black bean, black corn, yellow corn, and chili lime) we decided a few things:
1) these are a little pricey, given that half the bag is full of air.
2) chili lime-- not as good as it sounds. not enough chili, or lime. kind of like burnt cumin?
3) lexy feels they were a little salty, but given that annie could drink salt for breakfast, she kind of liked that. i should get a salt lick.

although no food pictures were taken, here are some pictures of our attractive faces wearing hats that were won while playing a serious game of loteria, otherwise known as a mexican face-off... or just bingo.

this evening earned 5 scoops of icing, although there were no cupcakes involved. mmmm...cupcakes.

love,
lexy and annie.

Adventures in Portland: Take 2

Cupcake Review #2: Sweet Pea Baking Co. (SE Stark and 12th)

For Annie and my second cupcake adventure we chose Sweet Peak Baking Co. Something special about Sweet Pea is that its a completely vegan bakery. They are pretty cool in that they will make special orders for people with food allergies, and they have lots of wheat-free stuff.

Ambiance: 2 scoops of icing. Although the outside table and fun green sandwich board sign are cute and luring, the inside of Sweet Pea is a little stark. Sort of the industrial type of look with exposed pipes and stuff like that. Definitely not magical or whimsical or any other fun word that should be used to describe a cupcake store.

Customer Service: 5 scoops of icing. The man who helped us was quite nice. Again, very willing to tell the cupcake experts (ie. us-annie and lexy) what each of the flavors were and patient while we tried to make up our mind and choose just one.

Flavor Variety: 3 scoops of icing. Sweet Pea did not have tons of the flavors, but the ones they had were solid. Annie got a mocha, complete with espresso beans on top, which was a cute touch. Lexy got a cocnut cupcake with raspberry icing. They do deserve a little extra credit because we feel that its probably hard to make lots of random flavors and keep with the vegan-ness. Also, about half of their cupcakes are wheat/gluten free and that's pretty cool.

Quality of Cupcake: 4 scoops of icing. Annie really enjoyed her icing--possibly better than st. cupcake. The icing is a little stiffer, so for those of you that like stiff frosting this is the where the icing party is at. The texture of the actual cake was a little denser than normal cupcakes, possibly due to being vegan, different, but still good.

Cupcake Size: 3 scoops of icing. Annie's cupcake was bigger than Lexy's, which made Lexy a little sad. They didn't have mini and normal (or even big) size cupcakes, just all their "general" size, however the size of our cupcakes were quite different. This is sad because maybe you really want a cupcake so you want to pick one of the bigger ones, but the flavor of one of the smaller ones is the one you want to get. I think we all see the problem in that. This is serious business, people.

Sweet Pea averaged a 3.something (again, not math majors). They could afford to hire a deorator to revamp the place and bring it up to cupcake selling standards, but if its nice outside and you can sit at one of the cute tables, its a pretty enjoyable time. So enjoyable in fact, that you can see Annie, Lexy, and Kevin (we brought him one at work... what nice people we are) with our cupcakes. All looking pretty darn excited to have such a yummy treat!

Lexy and Annie's Adventures in Portland: Take 1

CUPCAKE REVIEW #1: Saint Cupcake on NW 17th and Flanders

Ambiance: 5 (out of 5) scoops of icing. St. Cupcake has the mandatory aroma of baking cupcake-goodness right when you walk in. They also have fun paintings on the walls, including the story of St. Cupcake. And, if you're lucky you can sit at the "bar" and watch the bakers at work.

Customer Service: 5 scoops of icing. We were asked at least 3 times if we had been helped. The cupcake lady was nice enough to tell me (lexy) all of the day old cupcake flavors. And, they were patient while Annie tried to choose from the all of magical treats.

Flavor Variety: 4 scoops of icing. St. Cupcake has some great flavors, but you cant get all of them every day. Annie wished they had some weirder or more daring flavors, apple perhaps. And, Lexy feels sad that her favorite cupcake (fat elvis) is only available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays--both days that were not the day that we were there. However, the coconut that Lexy had is available every day and quite amazing, and Annie had a vanilla with vanilla icing that she found enjoyable....delectable even.

Quality of Cupcake: 4 scoops of icing. Annie wishes her cupcake would have had a little more icing on the top. The quality of the cake in St. Cupcake's cupcakes is quite good, not dry. No one likes a dry cupcake. Lexy's cupcake was really good and she feels like the cupcake to frosting ratio was good...but as Annie said, you can never have enough frosting.

Cupcake Size: 3 scoops of icing. St. Cupcake offers the standard size cupcake as well as the mini "dot" sizes. The dots are great for when you cant make up your mind, and you need to try two...or three... or maybe four...? Nothing extraordinary about the size of their cupcakes, but they meet the averages.

Overall Impression: 4 scoops of icing. (technically 4.something, but we're not math majors, people). Tasty, and looking forward to our next trip there when we can partake in more fun flavors.

Portland or Bust!

ANNIE IS IN PORTLAND!!!! In order to celebrate this glorious time in our lives we are going to do some joint blogging!

Here is a rough outline of what some of our adventures will entail. Stay tuned for lots of blogging and information about some of the wonders of the pacific northwest.

Thursday: Annie arrives!
St. Cupcake
Vegan Restaurant

Friday: Sweet Pea Baking (vegan cupcakes!)
Mexican Fiesta with Portland friends

Saturday: Beach picnic (weather permitting)
St. Cupcake (2nd location)

Sunday: Cupcake Jones
Saturday Market (its on Sunday too!)
Some sort of yummy dinner

Monday: hmm...we ran out of cupcake stores... we'll have to do some research to find one more.
Vegan restaurant one more time (we will review after this visit)
Annie leaves :( :( :( :(

As promised...

In the last blog I said that I would put up a yummy sandwich recipe that you can make with the hummus from the last entry. So, HERE IT IS!!!! yay!! This is super easy and makes a quick lunch for on the go.

Put about 2 tablespoons of the hummus on a tortilla (I use the basil/tomato ones from Smart and Delicious) add some thin slices bell pepper (any color) and then just a handful of lettuce! Roll up and enjoy!!

If I wasn't always running behind in the morning, i think grilling the pepper would be really good. Also, I think you could add any other sorts of veggies to this wrap. Annie really likes mushroooms, so for those of you that like fungus, that might be enjoyable.