Cooking Time

Since I haven't been keeping up on this 'wine' blog, I decided I might throw down a couple recipes I have been cooking up lately. I've been trying to eat healthier, making stuff from scratch and all that. Here are two little dishes I did the last two nights.

Ribeye Steak with bourbon cream sauce and mushrooms

Ribeye steak
salt & pepper
slice of minced onion
two cloves garlic
big splash of whiskey/bourbon
1/4 cup chicken stock
tablespoon of butter
big splash of cream
8 oz cremini mushrooms

Sear the steak in a cast iron skillet after rubbing with salt and pepper for about 3-4 minutes or until a crust has formed. Toss into a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes. When done, remove from pan. Now, add the miced onions to the pan and cook 'til soft. Add the splash of bourbon and watch out for flames! Cook it down then add the mushrooms. After a few minutes add the chicken stock and butter. Reduce to half then whisk in cream. Serve over steak with a baked potato. Yum!

Baconized green beans with onions

This side dish will steal the show. Bacon, green beans in a lovely sauce.

2 slices bacon
1/3 lb. fresh green beans
two cloves garlic
chicken stock
1 tablespoon butter
salt & pepper
two slices onion
big splash of white wine

cook the two pieces of bacon. remove and add the sliced onion and green beans. Cook for a few minutes or until onion starts to get a bit soft. Add two cloves of minced garlic, then shortly after add chicken stock (not too much, maybe 1/4 cup). Cook down then add white wine. Reduce a bit more, crumble cooked bacon and add to the mix. Throw in the tablespoon of butter and work into the sauce. Enjoy!

A few things I did during work at Thanksgiving week

- Started replacing the word "now" with "meow", ala Supertroopers, when interacting with customers.

- Decided to use the word "schnozberries" when describing a wine this holiday season.

- Sang Bruce Springsteen songs an entire 8 hour shift.

- Sold a ton of wine.

The End

First Wine?

You always hear that wine takes some getting used to. People always say that you have to work your way into it, starting with something like white zin and eventually "graduating" to dark, muscular reds. So my question to you is, what was the first wine you tried?

I distinctly remember having Carlo Rossi Old World Chablis out of the box in my buddies hot tub back in highschool. That's in addition to your Yellow Tail and Duck Pond. Your turn!

Non-wine post no. 3

Anytime someone says "Go for it" are you overwhelmed by the need to say "connect four!" aloud? No matter who is around?

Yeah, me neither...

A few pinots

The tasting yesterday was all about the NW and here are a few pinots that caught my eye.

- Cana's Feast Bricco 2006 Pinot Noir (plus 2006 reserve)

Bricco/Cuneo/Cana's Feast, whatever they are going by these days, always make fun wines. In my mind they always make very ripe wines, more aggressive and fruity than other producers. This was my first time trying their pinot noirs and they defintely brought the thunder! Lots of extraction, deep color and a really rich mouthfeel. These two wines (reserve and non-reserve) had lots of layers and a richness that I don't find in a lot of pinots, especially from OR. Now, with all their richness and opulence they managed to stay true and balanced, unlike some pinots from other areas like California that can get some of those same elements but end up with an artificial aspect to them. I think I saw on a info sheet that the non-reserve 2006 just got 92 points from Robert Parker, but I'm not sure. I could defintely see it though. Good stuff!

- Bethel-heights Eola Amity Estate Grown Pinot Noir 2006

Now this pinot, while compared to the Bricco wines, is not as much as a blockbuster it's a truer representation of what OR pinots are. It has a solid nose filled with all of those Oregon features, some earth and a mushroom quality. The nice thing about this wine is that it has a beam of fruit (almost blueberries?) that shoots right through the earthy aspects and keeps it interesting. the midpalate is fairly lively and there's enough on the finish to keep it interesting. If you're looking for something new in this price range (~$29?) it's worth a shot.

Food and Halloween Pumpkin Patch Trip

I was recently recounting a horror story of sorts to coworkers about a trip to a "pumpkin patch". This patch was certainly not a pumpkin patch, but a hodge podge of picked pumpkins placed on someones lawn, a haunted house, carny-esque folk and caged animals. This farm/patch had all sorts of animals caged up that were outside of your normal animals-in-cages viewing pleasure. Patagonian curvies, two tigers, camels, sugarbear, lynx and other things. This is not a professional zoo. This is some caca flavored farm in Canby, OR. They had a sign up declaring that many of the animals had been abondoned and that they were acting as a sort of refuge camp. It just didn't feel right, and the lady with no chin eating a hot dog and telling us we could buy one of her hogs didn't help.

But to the meat of the story, as I was telling people at work about all the different animals they got excited, even though I was making an effort to express the creapiness of it all. Now, you that know me know that I really have nothing against caged animals. There are lots of arguments to be made for more humane conditions and against factory farms, but all in all I think there is enough human suffering that we should be worrying about, even in our own back yard.

So I came to this conclusion: I'm not against animals being caged up, I just want the opportunity to eat them when they are. At least then if they are being caged they are being raised for a purpose. But a tiger? Patagonian curvy? Lynx? I can't eat you, let's get you out of that cage!

Two pinots, two pizzas

I tried two different pinots this week (so far), so I should probably report on them. And I made lots of yummy pizza! Three different ones in two days. For the record, one was cheese with marinara, one was sausage and onion on pesto base and the last was sauteed mushrooms on a pesto base. Good stuff all around, but let's talk about the vino!

Tyee Cellars pinot noir 2005:

- picked this up on a really good sale. It's one of the few 2005's that are still hanging around (there are even some 2007's). I hear that they tend to make more robust pinots, bigger in style and such. I wanted to give it a shot because I tend to go for the bigger wines myself. It was certainly aged in oak a bit more with medium tannins. The fruit was ok, but even on a great sale of $17/btl I wanted a bit more. Pass.

Foris Rogue Valley Pinot Noir 2006:

- So I was recently turned on to this wine by a customer who brought in an article from the WSJ. This article listed three different wines that I carry (Ponzi pinot noir 2006, King Estate pinot 2006, and this wine) that were suggested as ones to check out. I had tried the 2005 pinot from Foris and wasn't blown away. It was OK be all measures but that was about it. The 2006 is defintely worth checking out. It is solid value for the money in Oregon pinot land, where a bottle of wine can easily reach over $20. Do yourself a favor, pick one up this weekend. Good fruit, solid tannins that give it nice structure (which differentiate it from the cheap OR pinots that to me taste like raspberry iced tea), overall it is a really solid made wine for the price. This is one I'll be picking up for the holidays and knowing my family we'll tear through a couple cases before I even get off of work!