Chili Cookoff

Friday our ward had a chili cook off. I made Taco Soup and called it "Southwest Chili." I won most original and I got honorable mention for the "heartiest."

Menu

Here is the actual Menu

Salad
Yellowfin Tuna Carpaccio, Watercress & Basil Salad, Blood Orange Puree, Filet Mignon Carpaccio, Aged Balsamic, and Pecorino Romano

Intermezzo
Blood Orange Sorbetto

Entree
Grilled Swordfish, Arugula & Shaved Red Beet Salad, Champagne Pomegranate Vinaigrette over Crispy Yukon Gold Potatoes
-or-
Seared Lamb Chops, Dijon Buerre Blanc, Basil Tarragon Verde, Strawberries, over Crushed Fingerlings and Artichokes

Dolce
~Duet of Chocolate~
Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Truffle, Pistachio Chocolate Torte

Valentine’s Day

For Valentine’s Day, I got reservations at Porto Terra. It is one of the restaurants in the Hilton in Downtown Portland. I tried 3 other restaurants before that but they were booked. We had to make our reservation at 8pm.

The restaurant was fancy but our table was uncomfortably close to the people on either side of us. We could easily follow their conversations unless we really tried to tune them out. We got the Valentine’s special which was a 4 course meal. I don’t remember all the fancy verbiage they used in the descriptions but we started with a salad that had a paper thin slice of tuna and beef with it. It was different but it was good. We then had some sorbet as sort of a palate cleanser. Up to this point I was slightly disappointed. The salad was very small and the sorbet was like a grape size drop in a small bowl. Then the main course came. I ordered sword fish with yellow potatoes and beets. It was amazing. Megan had lamb chops with mashed potatoes which sounds pretty normal but the lamb and the mashed potatoes were pretty spectacular. Dessert was chocolate cake with pistachio flavoring and a chocolate covered caramel. At the end of the meal, we both felt good and not stuffed but had the perfect amount to eat.

Afterwards, we decided to check out a Valentine’s Dance that Beaverton Stake always has. My parents and my brother were there. We also saw a handful of old friends we haven’t seen in a while. We danced a few times and it was a nice end to the evening.

Megan got an Ipod for Valentine’s Day. She’s not a huge fan of surprises so I told her I was going to get it for her. That way she could pick what was engraved on it. She took a while trying to come up with the perfect motivating phrase so by the time I ordered it, it wasn’t going to make it here on time. It is actually supposed to be here today.