WINE, FOOD, FUN! …A little more of my vacation

June 7, 2008 by 24 Comments
Since I took so many pictures of my recent trip I thought I would share a little more with you.
This was a tour we took in Sonoma of the Benziger family winery, they have been written up in Wine Spectator magazine because of their Green standards. Their estate is one of only a handful of vineyards in North America to be certified Biodynamic. Biodynamics is a holistic farming approach that goes a step beyond organic farming, it requires close attention to the varied forces of nature influencing the vine, along with the elimination of all chemicals.
We took a tram tour up into the vineyards where we learned how geography and weather influence their farming practices.

The Benzingers are leaders in Biodynamic and sustainable winegrowing.

Benzinger’s 28,000 square foot wine cave that stores around 4000 barrels. We learned how different types of oak influence the aging and flavors of wines.
When the tour was over we got to sample their Biodynamic and other award-winning wines.

A visit to DEAN & DELUCA in Napa. Epicurean excellence at it’s finest!!!

Chocolate anyone??

I’ve never knew or seen, so many different kinds of salts.

Parmigiano- Reggiano! the “Queen Mother”, …. I would have loved to tuck her in my suitcase!

Rows and rows of delectable olives!

Any kind of paste you would need, pistachio and almond, the smell was amazing!

Crepes with Nutella, who wouldn’t love that!

Add some fresh strawberries and banana, sheer bliss!!

I Picked these up at a beautiful farmers market set up right on pier 39 in San Francisco. Beautiful golden red Rainier cherries, if you haven’t tried these yet, and if they are available near you, please go out and get some!!

Ruby red, sweet and delicious Bing cherries

The most gorgeous strawberries not one of them blemished!


And finally, those are seals that were sleeping all at the same time, what a sight, what a day, what a trip!

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GRILLED VEGETABLE POLENTA TART

June 3, 2008 by 40 Comments

Polenta, you either love it or hate it! I love it, but I also realize that you have to flavor the heck out of it. Please don’t ever buy those round flavorless tubes, the ones that you can cut a slice off. And on the flip side you really don’t have to stir for hours and hours to make a good polenta. (although if you have the patience it’s delicious). Me,I don’t have patience, so I like using the instant kind, it’s readily available, it’s quick, it tastes great, and it comes out nice and creamy. It cooks up in no time, and right at the end you stir in all your herbs, cheese and other goodies.

In this case, I poured the creamy mixture that was flavored with fresh basil, grated Romano cheese, (lots!), pitted kalamata olives, some olive oil, salt and pepper, into a 10′ tart pan. When it cools it moulds perfectly. You can even add sun-dried tomatoes, it’s so good but I didn’t have any on hand at the time. The key is flavor it up!
This makes a great presentation on a cake stand, and is great as a lunch, appetizer or side dish.

The sky’s the limit on what kind of veggies to put on it, whatever you have on hand, or all of your favorites, I used zucchini ribbons, portabella mushrooms, onions, and red peppers. It cuts perfectly into wedges, just finish it off with shaved Pecorino and a drizzle of your favorite EV olive oil.

Buon Appetito!!!

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GRILLED ARTICHOKES WITH LEMON AIOLI!

May 30, 2008 by 33 Comments

I confess… I’m an artichoke lover! In fact my whole family is, we can’t resist them in any way shape or form!

Give us a pan of stuffed artichokes and we are all smiles, as we sit around the table scraping each leaf working are way down to the “heart”, by the time we are finished we each have a pile of scraped and discarded leaves on our plates! Now that’s some good eating!!
But now that it’s BBQ season we enjoy eating them grilled just as much. I think the hardest thing about cooking artichokes is the prep, to prepare them for the grill you have to cut the top off,discard some outer leaves and trim up the remaining ones.

You’ll want to cut them in quarters, and remove any fuzzy center and pull out all pointy and scratchy leaves. Immediately after cutting immerse them in lemon water until ready to cook.
Place them in a pot of salted water and cook till tender.

Drain well, and gently squeeze out excess water, set aside in a bowl.

A couple of hours before they are ready to be grilled, toss them in some extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and crushed garlic, salt and pepper.

The lemon aioli is whipped up very quickly with a good store bought mayonnaise, a little crushed garlic, fresh lemon juice, along with the rind, and salt and pepper to taste. Just make sure the consistency is good for dipping.

I actually like to grill these in my indoor grill pan, I feel have more control because they are a little fragile, and besides the marinade flavor seems to not burn off. But you absolutely can put them on your grill outside, just make sure your grill is super clean, you don’t want to take on any other flavors.
These are great appetizers to start off a meal, or to have as a nice side dish.

And last but not least, I want to thank my Florida house guests that were staying with us a couple of weeks ago, they gave me this beautiful blue oval platter ( for my blog!!) I don’t think the picture does it justice you can’t see how huge it is! I thought the green artichokes would look nice on it, what do you think?
Anyway, thanks again, Angie and Pat, Diane, Donny, and of course Lindsey and Lauren.

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