Can I first just say that my post on the Galway Spirit One Spa somehow made it to the Galway City Guide page?! Even if no one ever reads it, just having my post on a Galway page is enough to make me smile for the rest of the day! Its almost like ME being there đ đ Soon enough! Now back to my regularly scheduled post. . . Sunday was a good reminder of why I do not bake. My âplanâ was to spend part of this unseasonably cold, SNOWY, Sunday baking almond butter pumpkin cookies. Of course I completely forgot to pick up necessary ingredients such as baking powder and more eggs, so my cookies quickly turned into shortbread, and a very healthy shortbread at that. I started with a jar of Blue Diamond almond butter, this time the ready spread honey almond butter. If you like Barney Butter, you will definitely like this. Best eaten out of the jar đ it is also very good for baking. 
I could not get a good picture without flash or with flash. đ I started with an amazing chocolate chip shortbread recipe that I always make for parties and holidays, and I made quite a few changes.
My recipe: 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup canned pumpkin mixed with a dash of cinnamon and some freshly ground nutmeg 1/2 cup Blue Diamond honey ready spread almond butter 2 TSP organic maple syrup Preheat oven to 375 Mix all of the ingredients together until a ball of dough is formed. If you need to, sprinkle a tiny bit of water into the bowl, then using your hands shape into a ball, making sure to get all of the flour blended in. Place ball of dough on a cookie sheet or in a baking dish and roll or press out with your hands. Once the dough is on the cookie sheet/baking dish, place in the oven for 12-15 minutes. You want to make sure that the shortbread is cooked through so that it is dry and crunchy/crumbly. Once out of the oven, score the shortbread with a knife so that it is in the pieces that you want it to be in after it cools. This makes it MUCH easier to get apart once it is cool.
My shortbread was a little too crumbly. I would bake it for another 3-4 minutes next time. Other than that, I really liked it. There was no sugar or butter added, so this is not a sweet, buttery shortbread like I usually make. However, the tastes of the pumpkin, almond butter, and maple syrup give this a complex, nutty flavor that is perfect for breakfast, with tea or for a not to sweet dessert. I would definitely make this recipe again. It is a versatile, feel-good snack, the kind of baking that I can definitely get behind!
You are currently browsing traveleatlove’s articles.
Tags: almond butter, baking, pumpkin
Our visit to the Brix Wine Shop Oregon wine tasting on Friday got me thinking about my very brief trip to Oregon wine country last summer. I was in Portland for our National Sales Meeting, and while I did not get to see too much of the city, we were treated to some fabulous meals and a half day trip into the Willamette Valley wine region. On a cool and cloudy summer day, we boarded vans from Portland and drove out to the Willamette Valley. While there were some similarities to California wine country, this region had a feel all its own. The climate is definitely different, more rainy, creating more of a lush green valley, a contrast to the very dry Napa and Sonoma we saw this past summer! ![DSC01600[1]](http://traveleatlove.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/dsc016001.jpg "DSC01600[1]")
![DSC01592[1]](http://traveleatlove.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/dsc015921.jpg "DSC01592[1]")
Throughout the course of the day, we visited 3 wineries, Sokol Blosser, Erath, and Domaine Drouhin. We tried about 15 wines over the course of the day, just tasting sips. There was a lot of variety, but of course the name of the game here in Oregon was my love, Pinot Noir. This tasting was awhile back, but the wines that stand out the most were the Erath Gewurtztraminer, Erath Oregon Pinot Noir, Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills Pinot Noirt, and Domaine Drouhin Laurène Pinot Noir. For tasting notes, please visit the wineriesâ sites as it has been a very long time. I will have to try these wines again to remember more details and to see if I still like them, but I definitely know that you can not go wrong with any of these wineries. Last summer, I purchased 6 bottles at Erath, 4 Pinot Noir and 2 Gewurtztraminer. Let me tell you that trying to get a half case of wine home on a cross country, 6 am flight when you were out at a work dinner until about midnight the night before is not fun. Picture me, laden down with luggage, and pushing a box of wine with my foot across the airport floor. Then imagine me, who thought for some reason that Erath wine could only be purchased at the vineyard, when I found it at Trader Joeâs the following week. Live and learn. ![DSC01573[1]](http://traveleatlove.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/dsc015731.jpg "DSC01573[1]")
![DSC01575[1]](http://traveleatlove.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/dsc015751.jpg "DSC01575[1]")
You can also visit the wineriesâ websites for more photos. This region is absolutely stunning with my idea of perfect weather. It was nice to leave the hot Boston summer and to be able to feel really chilly nights and just warm enough days. Though my visit to the Willamette Valley was just a taste of what this region has to offer, I already know that I love it and want to return to the Pacific Northwest to visit more wineries and to write about the uniqueness of the wines that this area has to offer. Portland also seems like a great city with some really good restaurants. I can recommend the Hotel Monaco, a Kimpton Hotel in Pioneer Square and Vino Paradiso for group events. If you have ever been to or live in Portland or the Willamette Valley wine region, I would love to hear some of your favorites. I am not sure when I will go back, but its always nice to have recommendations! By the way, my absolute favorite Pinot Noir at the moment is Belle VallĂŠe 2008 whole cluster Pinot Noir. It is delicious, but I am working my way through a variety of Pinots. I think they may call for a separate post altogether. . . Do you have a favorite wine right now? If you have any recommendations let me know!
Tags: Oregon, Pinot Noir, wine
This is what I came home to on Friday night: 
Lindsay from POM Wonderful contacted me about a week ago to see if I was interested in receiving some POM to try and review. Absolutely! I didnât expect that she would send me 8 great bottles, so I was quite surprised when I saw all of this! They are so cute, like a little row of POM people đ POM recently launched a really cool new POM community website. As you know by now, I love brands that go that extra step to engage customers rather than just pushing the product, and the POM community is an amazing way to find new recipes and to learn about the health benefits of POM products. Challenged to come up with unique and delicious POM recipes, I got thinking and decided that my first POM recipe would be a pizza. My pizza was actually inspired by a trip to Todd Englishâs Figs where we had a fig and gorgonzola pizza with a balsamic reduction. Only this time, the reduction was POM. Please note that the pizza did not come out very pretty, but it tasted amazing. I started with a ball of whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joeâs, Salem blue cheese, Trader Joeâs chicken apple sausage, and 1/2 bottle of POM Wonderful.
I wanted to add chopped figs to this, but did not find them until after I was done eating. Next time. I rolled out the dough on the counter.
Added the cheese and sausage 
And put the pizza in the oven for about 8 minutes at 425. While it was baking, I was reducing POM in a small pan. Yes, we definitely need new pans.
I took the pizza out and drizzled POM reduction all over it. 
Then put it back in the oven for another 4 minutes. The POM reduction baked into the dough and mixed with the melted blue cheese. This created a sweet and salty combination that was just delicious. I served the pizza with a salad of radicchio, butter lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, and an old throwback, Good Seasons zesty Italian dressing.
And a glass of Trader Joeâs Central Coast Zinfandel, which at $4 a bottle, is an amazing deal, a big, fruit forward wine comparable to $12-15 bottles we have purchased. All in all, a great meal and an excellent way to use POM Wonderful! Reducing it really concentrates the flavor and makes it all yummy and syrupy. I am looking forward to more POM cooking and drinking this week. Thanks, Lindsay!
Savor Healdsburg Food Tours
Travel, Wine, and Dine on Fox 25
