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Join me for the month of April as I participate in the A-Z Blogging Challenge and share some (I couldn't share all) of my favorite noshing joints in western Oregon!  Hopefully you'll leave the blog a little hungrier than when you arrived...or at least with a new culinary destination on your travel list! Eola Hills Wine Cellars With two locations in the near vicinity (Rickreall and Salem), Eola Hills has a lot to offer its patrons.  While the majority of their offerings are wine (obviously), they do hold a few events that include food.  One of my favorite things that Eola does is Yoga and Wine evenings on the first Monday of the month (1st and 3rd when the weather is nicer).  They have paired with Yoga+Beer , a PNW company that hosts yoga and beer/wine/cider sessions at various breweries/wineries throughout Oregon and Washington, and the event draws dozens of people to the locations. EH Legacy Estates via Made in Oregon Recommendation:  2015 Oregon Pi...

February 18th...National Drink Wine Day...yum!   How do I take my wine?  Great question! To be honest, it took me quite a while to enjoy wine.  I started off, as most do, with the whites...a Reisling...a Pinot Gris...a Gewuertztraminer.  All were pretty tasty, though I did prefer the slightly sweet, not too-dry options.  Sweet wines have never been my thing.  Between 2006 and 2007 I was living in Vienna, Austria teaching English at a high school just outside of the city, in Klosterneuburg.  The region is HUGE in the wine business and the school I worked at was actually a boarding school for students whose families were in the fruit growing or wine industry.  These students would eventually be taking over the family business or starting wineries of their own.  Needless to say, I learned a LOT about wine that year.  I also learned that you don't have to drink every single taster that is put in front of your face. ...

There are only a few more days left in this year's edition of the A-Z Blogging Challenge; this makes me happy and sad at the same time.  Happy that I can take a break from posting everyday (except Sundays, of course) and sad that this wonderful event will be over for an entire year.  Alas.  Today's letter is the glorious W...here's an Oregon W... Willamette Valley The most populated region in the state, the Willamette Valley is surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges and is located in the northwestern part of Oregon.  It is the most fertile region of the entire state and produces many of the local crops.  In accordance with the abundant ability to produce crops and other necessities, it's fitting that the largest population of the state in located within the valley; also, most of the largest/principle cities are located here.       Largely inhabited by the Kalapuya Native American tribe in the 19th century, the area ...