Given what you express here, you're in the ballpark of the Jamis Aurora, Salsa Casseroll, Kona Jake, and a couple of Surly bikes, the Cross-Check and the Long Haul Trucker. I'm partial to Surly's (I own an LHT)--each Surly makes for an excellent commuter, touring bike, and off-roader. Stock set-up is around $1,100 for each.

Regarding the Surlys, they are both extremely versatile bikes. Of the two, the bike you'd choose depends on your emphasis. Are you interested in a day riding/commuter bike that can handle the occasional fully-loaded tour (Cross-Check)? Or are you interested in a stellar touring bike that can also serve as a commuter/day rider (LHT)? The Cross-Check is great for commuting because it's durable and zippy. The LHT rides more like a cadillac, feels heavier and smoother. It's extremely stable fully-loaded. Both work great off-road (the Cross-Check because it's a cyclo-cross bike; the Surly because it's a very similar frame, geometry-wise and materials, to early mountain bikes). A key difference is in the length of the rear chain stays; shorter in the Cross-Check (hence more responsive or 'zippy'), longer in the LHT (more heel clearance when fully loaded with panniers in the rear, much more stable when loaded too). The LHT has lots of braze-ons for setting up racks and such, which the Cross-Check doesn't have (although this isn't necessarily a problem; racks exist that attach to forks, etc.).

If you want more perspectives on the utility of these bikes for your purposes, check out the commuter and touring lists here on bike forums--where oodles of folks have these bikes for these purposes--and also check out the Surly Long Haul Trucker and Cross Check Owner's Group: http://groups.google.com/group/SurlyLHT Before I bought my bike I found this owner's group to be a tremendously useful resource, and it became even more helpful when I was setting up the bike.