Rich and I saw Julie and Julia friday night. It inspired me to do my blog more. Then I was trying to think of something I could write about, and I thought it would be fun to try to go to every restaurant in Yamhill County and write a review. You know, sort of like cooking every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook, but not quite so hard. Although going to some of the restaurants would be hard. Haven't decided all the rules yet. Like I know fast food is out, but how about all the little dives? But who knows, we might discover something wonderful. But there are lots of restaurants to eat our way through before we have to decide about the dives. Although I wouldn't want to save them all for last. Hmm.
So last night Sue offered to take Rich and me out for my birthday. I have been driving past this hideous building in Dundee for about a year now as they built it, too close to the road, and then that awful ugly style with fake looking stone and wood and you can't tell if they are going for the italian villa look or english tudor. All mixed up. And this one seems especially ugly. Everytime I drive by it I notice it and feel almost offended at it's ugliness. A realtor office opened at one end of it, and it looks like a bank is opening at the other end. I figured it must have been the realtors that built it. Then, maybe a month or so ago, a little sandwich board sign appeared on the sidewalk in front of it, announcing the Farm to Fork restaurant and the Red Hills Inn. Intriguing. So I looked them up on the internet. Even more intriguing. So I suggested to Sue that we go there.
The wine list is fantastic. We had the 2005 Domaine Trouvere Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. Fabulous. Tannic and fruity. I had this wonderful little dungeoness crab stuffed home made pasta thing. With buerre blanc. Rich had the duck, and he wants to go back every day for a year and have duck. And Sue had melt in your mouth scallops. The salads were delicious as well. And the desser
ts.I had the Espresso Soaked Vanilla Bean Cake. More like a cake/pudding. Yum. I wanted to lick the plate. Rich had the Vanilla Bean-Mascarpone Cheesecake, and Sue had the Raspberry Napoleon “Dynamite”. What can I say? This place is going to be hot. It doesn't even matter anymore that the building is so ugly. They don't take reservations for parties of less than 6 unless you're staying at the hotel. They told us when we called that there would be no problem getting in at 6:30 or so. We got there at about 6:15 and were the last ones to get seated. They do have a wine bar also, so I suppose if you had to wait for a table you could sit and drink wine. But it is a leisurely dining experience, so you might have to drink lots of wine. My recommendation is to get there early. I'm going to want to go back there before I go to all the other restaurants in Yamhill County.
Sue told me that Hope went to Amherst with Julie Powell. They were friends, even.
Today we did the usual working in the yard attempting to make a small dent in the amount of work that needs doing. Then we went kayaking. First time this year that we have used our kayaks. We put in at the dock in Champoeg,
kayaked down to Buttville, and back. The dock at Champoeg is very high off the water and it was really hard for me to get in. Rich had to have his boat outside my boat and stabilize me. I couldn't reach down far enough to get a good grip to balance myself. Then, when we got back, getting out was not even possible. I had to go over to the muddy bank and get out there. Fortunately there was sort of a worn trail so I could climb up to the dock ramp. Steep and muddy, but possible! I had to toss my rope up to Rich so he could pull the boat over to the dock and get out. A nice paddle though, but lots of power boats. Everyone was out skiing and tubing.
