Rooted in the Gorge, 5000 Discovery Drive, The Dalles, OR (2025)

05/17/2025

Who says cheese boards have to be on a board? 🧀 As a lover of girl dinner, especially when it involves cheese, I often enjoy taking a graze with me to a friends house, the park for a play date with my kiddo, or (in this case) camping. This portable pie plate graze is good for a meal for two or snacks for four, keeps beautifully in the cooler for a day or two, and I personally can’t wait to enjoy it after a hike tomorrow!

05/16/2025

If you ask me what elements make a good graze- my answer is always going to be DIVERSITY. All of the grazing boards I put together have several different styles of cheeses, charcuterie, nibbles of varying textures, and plenty of veggies and dips that are vegan and dairy free that way everyone present can find something they are sure to enjoy. I leave the crackers on the side to avoid cross contamination with gluten and gluten free crackers are always available by request. What makes the perfect bite for you? For me it’s a crunchy, salty cracker, creamy spreadable cheese, and some sort of spicy jam- maybe also with a piece of prosciutto on top for good measure. ✨ This board headed out to a Center on Rural Innovation mentorship meeting earlier this week! We got rave reviews about the inclusion of the Pork Pistachio Pâté!

05/15/2025

Individual mini charcuterie snack trays created to celebrate the hardworking nurses during Nurses Week at Adventist Health Columbia Gorge. 💙 Since packing up my chef coat and apron after stepping away from full time food service several years ago, I’ve been working alongside the most kind, competent, and compassionate team of nurse leaders as a Project Coordinator here at Adventist Health Columbia Gorge. Because of this, I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing first hand how the nurses in this organization love patients and care for them in a way that affirms their humanity. It was an honor to be able to contribute to celebrating them in this small way, plus getting into flow state during the repetitive task of filling these little trays scratched a good part of my brain. Thanks to all you nurses who care for our community, we appreciate all you do!

05/14/2025

Figured it was time to post an update or two. Spring is here and the wildflowers are in peak bloom! The rosemary and sage in my garden are also flowering, the overwintered kale has bolted and bloomed, and the mint is popping back up after its yearly rest through winter. With that, it’s time to festoon the boards with all the edible flowers and herbs I can tuck in between cheese and charcuterie. I know I’ve been quiet over here, but am slowly and steadily pushing out beautiful snacks for people to gather around and graze on behind the scenes when my 9-5, mom life, and hiking schedules allow. 💛 Now that I’m a few months into getting my hands back into the habit of folding salami into rivers, I’ll be putting out a more formal menu of offerings and online booking/order form soon (likely early June)!

01/10/2025

Still living that cheese and charcuterie side hustle life. ✨🤘🏻🧀 A few little platters for ’s January HubTalk at tonight. ✨

You’re invited to the January HubTalk: Everyday Innovation on Thu Jan 09 2025 at 5:30pm at The Ruins!

Join us for an evening of inspiring talks and discussions on how innovation can be a part of our daily lives. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just curious about new ideas, this event is perfect for anyone looking to spark their creativity. Come mingle with like-minded individuals and discover how small changes can lead to big innovations. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be inspired and network with others passionate about innovation!

HubTalks are a monthly networking and informational event hosted by Mid-Columbia Innovation Hub and Mid-Columbia Economic Development District. They occur every 2nd Thursday of the month at 5:30pm. HubTalks are free, open to the public, with no membership required.

12/18/2024

Back in action at with a board for Mid-Columbia Bar Association tonight! 🧀 Y’all really know how to make a girl feel appreciated, thanks for all the love and encouragement on my prior post as I come back to Rooted 2.0! ✨

12/14/2024

After years and years of making art with charcuterie and cheese it is still my absolute favorite thing to do. ✨ Taking on a couple smaller jobs in the past couple months and finding joy in creating again has helped me come to the decision to relaunch the grazing board and grazing table side of my business in 2025. I have learned so much about myself over the past couple years, and am excited to come back into this with solid boundaries, firm pricing, limited availability, and a newly discovered ability to say no to projects that don’t light me up. Hoping starting out right from the outset will help keep this creative outlet joyful, preserve the margin to co-create beautiful things with clients who become friends, and continue to do my best work more sustainably with the same attention to detail and quality Rooted has been known for previously. More info to come soon, friends!

10/19/2024

Spent the night at the Empty Bowls fundraiser for - Because no one should be hungry. Food is a basic human right. Thanks to all who are working hard to make sure as many people in our community as possible are fed- y’all are the real heroes. Shout out to for the quick photo snap. Mural by .

10/02/2023

In a world where capitalism drives us to monetize every moment, taking the time to cook a nourishing meal for ourselves and the ones we love is an act of radical self care. 💛🌱✨ My favorite way to eat vegetables these days is to “garlic bread” them. Easy loose recipe below for you to save if you need an easy idea to add some warm, comforting flavor to your next veg dish.

Needed:
Your choice of veg
2-3 tbs butter
Garlic (freshly minced or dried powder)
Flake salt
2-3 tbs bread crumbs
1/4 cup shredded/grated Parmesan
Fresh herbs/squeeze of citrus optional

In an oven safe skillet, melt a couple tablespoons of butter on medium to medium high. Add in whatever veg you like or have on hand (patty pan squash pictured here). Add a few pinches of coarse salt, and shake a bit of roasted garlic powder (if you have/prefer fresh garlic- use that by adding it into the butter from the getgo and keep the heat on the lower end so it doesn’t burn). Take this opportunity to preheat your oven broiler on low. Cook until veg is fork tender, stirring from time to time to get everything softened. Evenly distribute a couple tablespoons of bread crumbs and about 1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan on top of the veg and place directly under the broiler until the bread crumbs and Parmesan are crisp and browned- keep an eye out, this can happen really quickly! Pull it out, slide it onto a plate, top with any fresh herbs you love- culinary variegated micro basil from the garden pictured- and maybe a squeeze of lemon if you’ve got it. Enjoy!

07/23/2023

Friends, thanks for letting me step away for a little while. The update to that sabbatical is a bit overdue. Navigating the last several months has helped me realize my top priorities currently don’t include running a small business. Although I have loved being able to meet so many of you lovely humans, be a small part of feeding y’all through so many celebrations, reach goals I thought were beyond audacious as well as some I never would have dared to think up on my own, and come into my power as a female in the kitchen in a way I could have only dreamed because of this beautiful thing that is Rooted, I need to close this chapter of my life and move confidently into a new season.

In the future, I anticipate returning to this space to share more of what I continue to love about the people pulling our food from local earth, friends gathered around my table, and my philosophy of food and recipes/ideas that flow from that. Until then, I wish you well in your own journey, hold so much gratitude for how you have been a part of my own, and hope to connect in real life again soon.

02/17/2023

Here’s the deal. I am still offline, but this felt important enough for our community and the people in it to jump back on and share.

As a business owner who has operated in The Dalles for several years now, someone who tries to foster genuine connection and create beauty with my time, effort, and money - I feel the need to state I unequivocally believe people matter more than aesthetics.

There are some very loud, persistent voices that are setting up a false dichotomy between caring for people in our community and creating a beautiful/safe downtown. But here’s a cool thing about the project to turn the old Oregon Motor Motel into a temporary shelter for veterans, families, seniors, and people with disabilities that they aren’t telling you.

While it is an incredible project that will save lives and help our neighbors, it also represents one of the largest single private investments into the beautification of downtown The Dalles in many years. This project will not only get people off the streets and connected to services, it will also make downtown more attractive to the many visitors we have coming in on the cruise ships, safer to the downtown community, and demonstrate that our city cares for each other in a way that is more than just a hashtag to win a chance at being on an online web series.

If you are interested in learning more about the project:
https://www.mccac.com/project-turnkey

If you’re the kind of person who wants to put your boots on and take action:
Please consider sending an email in support of the project to Mayor Mays and The Dalles city councilors. It doesn't have to be long or overly detailed, just let them know you are in favor of the project. If you’re also a local business owner and feel comfortable, maybe throw that in your email too so they can see that there are many voices in our small biz community that are not represented by a very loud few.

Their email addresses:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Thank you for reading!

01/10/2023

Hey 👋🏻 I hope you had a restful holiday season. Reaching out to you here to let you know after several difficult personal and professional setbacks in 2022 culminating in receiving the blow that work beyond our expertise in the Baldwin Building would be necessary to maintain a licensed kitchen space there, I have reached the conclusion that what is best for myself and my family is to take a moment to process, breathe, and rethink work/life to fashion a more sustainable balance. For this reason, I've decided to take 2023 off from catering and unplug from online communication until July 1st to clear my mind. I’ve got a lot of feelings I’m currently working through, but please know all clients, vendors, and collaborators have been notified and taken care of on our end. I’m hoping that a few months of space will allow creativity and joy to take root here once again, but I have to acknowledge that right now those two things feel pretty elusive. I’ve always made it my mission to be honest in this space, and am thankful for all of you who have allowed me to show up as I am, met me in such a genuine way both online and in person. Thanks for your understanding and kindness in allowing me and my family the space to step away for a bit now. I hope to see you here and around our table sometime in the future. -Kristen

Rooted in the Gorge

05/17/2025

05/16/2025

05/15/2025

05/14/2025

01/10/2025

12/18/2024

12/14/2024

10/19/2024

10/02/2023

07/23/2023

02/17/2023

01/10/2023

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category