Wine & Bree

Not brie the cheese, but Bree, our lovely friend from San Diego.  But first about the wine!  I didn't have any fun plans to occupy my time while Eddie was at work today so I was thrilled when my cousin, Chris, invited me to join him for a little wine tasting expedition today.  We met up in the afternoon and headed to Quailhurst in Sherwood.  Chris had seen the owner advertising for the event in the morning and heard they had horses on site so he thought it would be fun to do.  We were both impressed with the beautiful grounds and all the horses & stables on site.  Though we were a little taken aback at the steep $20 tasting fee, we decided to go for it.  They had about 15 wines they were pouring - two roses, three port-style pinot noirs, one future pinot, and 8 or 9 pinots.  The $20 fee didn't seem so bad once we realized that (not that we actually had the time to sit there and try all those, but we put a good dent in the list).  They also had a beautiful snack spread that included about a dozen different block cheeses to try.  And homemade brownies.  Mmmm...  My little cousins had fun petting the horses and playing with the croquet course they had set up on one of the fields.  It's too bad Quailhurst is only open to the public for major holiday weekends like this one.

I got home just a few minutes before Eddie and we had about two hours to chill at the apartment before heading to the train station to pick up Bree.  We had to make an emergency trip to Powell's so Bree could replace her book that was stolen earlier today while she was in Washington.  Then we headed over to the infamous Voodoo Doughnut.  We all agreed the line was way too long so we took a quick drive to NE Portland to the Voodoo Doughnut Too location.  Another long line was awaiting us but at least this one appeared to be moving.  Armed with five doughnuts and two cartons of milk, we piled into a tiny photo booth and took a strip of four pictures.  I'll have to borrow it from Bree to scan and share with you.    I was worried that my Loop doughnut (yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting and Froot Loops) would tear up the roof of my mouth.  Somehow I managed to avoid that nasty scenario and found myself really enjoying my colorful treat.

Today's media mention will be a bit of a shout-out to Eddie's Sokol Blosser winery.  We have been following the newest season of Top Chef all summer and were thrilled to see Sokol Blosser's wine featured as part of this week's quickfire challenge.  Angelo made the winning dish which he paired with SB's evolution wine.  This season is winding down and we're about to head into the finale.  Normally at this point in the season I would have one or two favorites that I'd love to see take it home.  Unfortunately I feel this season has been a bit of a dud.  I can't even name the remaining contestants and I don't have any clear favorite.  I guess Tiffany would have been at the top of my board, but she was sent home this week so now I really don't know who I want to win.  Last season was so much more fun with the Voltaggio brothers.