Everything nice.: Second trip to P-town.

As of today, I have been home from Oregon for 1 week.

It feels like muuuuuch longer than that.

I'm definitely back in the swing of things at work and whatnot, but I still miss everything about my trip. However, I am reminded of how much of a whirlwind it was by the fact that Nick and I are both sick with a cold and congested and all that good stuff, most likely due to our packed schedule while home, late nights hanging out with friends and family, and then being so tired and having defenses down on our flight back to Illinois. Boo that!

I'm reminiscing on my trip and all of the fun and thought I'd post some pics from our second trip up to Portland for our catering tasting and a trip to Bartini, a great little bar off of 21st. The catering tasting was PHENOMENAL. Seriously, some awesome food. We ate so much we were still full at 9 pm. No joke. Nick probably ate half of the prime rib that was prepared for us because Dave (the owner of the company) kept piling it on his plate! I had discussed menus with Dave beforehand over e-mail and picked a few things to try that I thought would work for our Italian/Northwest-inspired dinner we want to have. I picked the pasta, the NW cedar-plank salmon, prime rib (Nick's favorite!), an apple waldorf salad, Oregon pear salad, and some passed appetizers like mini spanikopita, seafood puffs, and bruschetta topped with tapenade, mango salsa, and smoked salmon spread. The dinner menus also come with a fresh fruit display and fresh veggie display, and they had that on a much smaller scale. We looked at pictures from events they've done, and it looks so awesome! The presentation is so well done. So basically we found our caterer and are so excited because we know people will be raving about the food. We sure couldn't stop raving about it for the entire rest of the week!

We walked around NW 23rd til Bartini opened at 4 for happy hour! Every day from 4-6:30 (sometimes later on other days) all of their martinis are half off! And they are so good. Any martini you can think of, they have it, including dessert martinis, spicy martinis, herb martinis..... anything. They also have a happy hour food menu that is half price as well. It is seriously one of my favorite spots now that I know about it and will go there probably every time I visit Oregon! I love me a good martini :)

Now for some pictures!!

Mini buffet line.

Passed appetizers are top left, apple waldorf is bottom left.

Homemade raspberry sauce for the salmon and horseradish sauce for the prime rib. I'm not a big red meat person, but that prime rib was amazing. It was cooked to perfection!