Willamette Valley Pinot Camp - Saturday, March 10, 2012
Three World Class Wineries in one room, just for you!
Pre-payment is required for the seminar and dinner to confirm your reservation. Our capacity for both events is extremely limited.
Wine Seminar:
Saturday 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm, $30 per person plus tax
Join us for a wine tasting featuring 12 Willamette Valley wines and an exclusive opportunity to learn about the wine making and land that have made Willamette Valley wines so well respected. Presenters include Adelsheim Vineyard Winemaker Dave Paige, Owners and Winemaker of Raptor Ridge Annie and Scott Schull, and Coeur de Terre Vineyard Owners and Winemakers Scott and Lisa Neal.
Wine Pairing Dinner:
Saturday at 6:30 pm, $120 per person *tax & gratuity included
Sumptuous five course wine pairing dinner with all three wineries and the culinary talent of New Leaf Executive Chef Steve Debaste and Special Event Chef Madden Surbaugh.
Retail Sales of wines from the weekend at exclusive pricing will be available and encouraged...you will want a tasty reminder of this fantastic event!
Room Specials
Book the seminar and dinner and receive some seriously "tipsy" pricing on your stay at the Inn:
Luxury Bay View Suites $129 per night (regular rate $199)
East Wing Standard $89 per night (regular rate $119)
Historic Main Building $69 per night (regular rate $89)
Raise your glass, school has never looked so good!
Three world class wineries, one fantastic day, with unbelievable room rates, 12 different wines, an exclusive seminar and the New Leaf Cafe's sumptuous food to encourage your good attendance.
Outlook University is underway with it's first educational "stay, play, and learn" event. Willamette Pinot Camp is the first of a series of events for our guests exploring some of our favorite things - food, wine, creativity and wellness. It could be argued that wine embodies all of them!
We are excited to offer a series of mini conferences during our Spring and Fall seasons exploring food, wine, wellness and creativity. It is a new facet of our business and one that encompasses one of the most important values of our organization: learning.
My husband and I took over our 123 year old 40 room hotel and full service restaurant 10 years ago at the age of 23. Learning is an understatement for what we have had to do over the years and the incredible thing is that we love it, because we haven't stopped learning and being passionate about improving.
Food and wine are two of our great passions, along with wellness and creativity. It can be argued that wine embodies all four. This is the opportunity to take your vacation to the next level...relaxed learning that is more in-depth than a traditional wine dinner, and unusual in the caliber of presenters.
We think you will find this topic and those to follow both interesting and delicious, so stay tuned!
On November 12-13, an extraordinary group of local and international talent will offer a workshop for professional audio producers at the Outlook Inn on Orcas Island. Audio professionals, musicians, songwriters and others passionate about creating and refining the art of sound will gather for two days of presentations, panel discussions and demos in sound engineering.
The group of Orcas Island presenters will include Garry Garritan on “Future Trends in Virtual Instrument Technology”. Garry is a pioneer in large sample libraries and his Garritan Personal Orchestra, released in 2004, has become course material in music colleges around the world.
Jake Perine, who for over a decade taught audio and video production at the Art Institute of Seattle and who was house engineer for Seattle’s prominent RFI mastering studio before moving to Orcas, will present “Bow to the Master”, how to get the most out of the mastering process.
Kevin Dickey and Rich Williams of Burl Audio will offer “The Zen of Signal Path”, an intimate conversation about soul, tone, electrons and electromagnetic fields. Burl Audio has recently found a global audience in the analog/digital converter market and has won a coveted endorsement from Eddie Kramer who has worked with some of the best, including Led Zeppelin and Cream.
The most recent new arrival to Orcas, Craig Russo, will be hosting “Vocal Tuning with Melodyne”. Craig has been involved in music production for over 15 years and in 2009 had a Global #1 song credit for a tune he co-wrote and produced for British artist Robbie Williams. Craig will offer before and after comparisons of an alternative approach to vocal tuning.
Rounding out the local talent will be Roger Sherman who has released over 100 performances from concert halls and other venues around the world. He will bring ideas for incorporating room sound and mic techniques when producing acoustical music in live spaces.
From Canada, Drew will present “The Power of Ableton and its Place in Your World”. His Ableton Live training videos are posted by some of the largest music blogs in the world as well as Mac Pro Video.
A panel discussion on the “Northwest Legacy in Musical History” will feature Bruce Pavitt, founder of SubPop Records, Jack Endino, legendary Seattle producer of Nirvana and Soundgarten and Cathy Faulkner, Seattle’s “Queen of Rock” of radio station KISW fame.
Special room rates for the weekend are available at The Outlook Inn @outlookinn.com and, with a 2 night booking, conference admission is free. For all others, admission is $100 for the weekend. For more information go to outlookinn.com or call (360) 376-2200 and ask for Adam.
I know...it makes me feel a little country bumpkinish to get so excited about seeing someone I know on TV, but local Chef Lisa Nakamura has brought an artful little restaurant to Orcas Island and when I found out she was on King 5 teaching how to make her Cinderella Pumpkin Soup, I was thrilled! Ok, so it helped that they were also going to be giving away a getaway to Orcas Island including a stay at the Outlook Inn and meals at both Lisa's Allium and the New Leaf Cafe. To plan your own fall getaway to the San Juan Islands check out the San Juan Visitor's Bureau for "Savor the San Juan" lodging and dining deals.
Lisa shared her recipe for Cinderella Pumpkin Soup, the perfect thing to warm your belly as the chill of fall starts to fill our dwindling evening light.
Cinderella Pumpkin Soup
Cinderella Pumpkin Soup with Homemade Ricotta and Pickled Apples
For the soup
Makes eight portions
2 lbs Cinderella pumpkin (these pumpkins can be around 20 lbs when mature, so see if your grocer will cut them into sections for you), skinned, seeded and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 sprig thyme
2 leaves sage
1 bay leaf
1 stick of cinnamon
1 cup white wine
1 T brown sugar
2 cups cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1 T butter
In a large heavy non-reactive pot, melt the butter. Add the onion slices and cook them slowly with the thyme, sage and bay leaves until translucent. (This step is key in producing good soup, it helps coax out more flavors.)
Add the pumpkin and white wine (use a dry white table wine for cooking, save your fancy white wine for drinking) and cook until the wine has evaporated. Add enough water to cover the pieces of pumpkin and season with salt and pepper. When the pumpkin pieces are tender, add the cream and the sugar. Bring up the boil, remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf, and then carefully puree in a blender until smooth. Strain the soup though a fine sieve. Correct the seasoning as needed.
If the soup is still too thick, thin it out with a little more water and adjust the seasonings as needed.
You may also use chicken or vegetable stock in place of water. I find it changes the taste a little, and takes away some of the pumpkin flavor intensity. If you use store-bought stock, make sure to purchase the low sodium version and watch how much salt you add as you cook the soup.
Homemade Ricotta
Make four cups ricotta
½ gallon whole milk
½ gallon cream
1/3 cup + 1 t distilled vinegar
¼ t salt
Instant read thermometer
cheesecloth
In a clean non-reactive pot, heat the milk and cream together until it reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stir in the salt and vinegar and bring the combination to 175 degrees (just under the boiling point). Let the mixture stand undisturbed for ten minutes. Carefully strain the curds into a cheesecloth-lined colander over the sink or a large bowl to catch the whey. Cover the curds and let them continue to drain in the colander overnight.
The next day, scrape the curds away from the cheesecloth and store in an air-tight container.
You may use this ricotta in savory or sweet applications.
Many recipes call for just whole milk. I like to use cream and milk, as it results in a richer finished product.
Pickled Apples
Yields approximately two cups
Use tart firm apples, such as Granny Smith, cut into 1’4 inch dice
1 cup rice wine vinegar
¾ cup sugar
2 T salt
½ vanilla bean
1 sprig of thyme
In a non-reactive pot, bring the vinegar, sugar, and salt to a boil. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla bean and thyme sprig. Cool to room temperature. Add the apple dice. Let the apples marinate in the pickling liquid at least overnight.
All recipes copyright by Lisa K Nakamura, Allium Restaurant
The Outlook Inn and New Leaf Cafe are truly a family business. We like to think we are charting a new course for this type of business, but it still can have it's bumps and challenges. So who is the "family" in family business? Here's the cast of characters, ala the children's book by Tove Jonasson "Finn Family Moomintroll" which are my daughters recent obsession.
Outlook Mama: Sara Farish. That's me! I married into this business in 2000 and have been working here since 2001. I coddle, prod, (but never cattle prod), encourage, and learn from this constantly changing and evolving team. I'm the softie of the bunch...and can often be found wiping tears and giving pep talks. I have also been known to invoke the "No Asshole Policy" when pushed too far (more on this another time).
The Head Honcho: Adam Farish. That's my husband. He's been working and living in this business since he was a child. Officiando of detail, financial seer, and the guy who created our incredible signature cocktails while repainting the buiding, producing an album, and being an all around fantastic husband and father. Bravo!
Gramcracker: Yuko Horikawa. That's my mom. She can be found in the dining room greeting our guests, scolding the bussers, and generally running a tip top ship. She also makes sure that the plants don't dry up and die and helps Adam and I care for our daughter. She can also make a mean latte. This is a busy woman!
The GM: Jon Kobayashi. My brother-in-law, married to my older sister Adina. They have three children, Sophia 9, and the twins Sachiko and Josh 5. Jon can be found all around. In retro Nike sneackers and jeans, the only man on the island under 50 who owns a collared shirt (and it's ironed) and actually wears it, he used to be a litigator and joined our team 3 years ago. He's the guy who books our weddings and events, oversees day to day operations, and obsesses about food, art, and jazz music.
Grandpabello: John Cunningham. My dad. Night watchman, maintenace engineer, non-violent communication specialist. Sometimes night maintenance engineer who is practicing the art of non-violent communication.
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 3:35PM 
Willamette Valley Pinot Camp - Saturday, March 10, 2012 
