Art y Pico Award

I have my friend Foodycat to thank for giving me the Art y Pico Award. Apparently sometime in the past six months I have shown at least a hint of creativity and provided some material to the blogosphere that a least one of my readers felt deserved recognition. Thank Foodycat!

Okay so now I get to nominate 5 people whose blogs I can't go without. First off, I would nominate my friend Heather at Gild The Voodoolily but she already received the award and I don't want her getting a big head and all.

Here are my fav five (in no particular order)

Bruce Bauer over at Eat. Dring. Think. Bruce happens to live in Portland so his perspective hits home even harder as we seem to frequent some of the same places. He also a friend and the owner of one of the coolest wine shops in the U.S.A (says Imbibe Magazine). Bruce's shop Vino His motto is: "Making the world a better place, one bottle at a time-Wine, not brain surgery".

Brittany at The Pie Lady is my next must read. She is a professional pastry chef in Seattle and what she cooks at home is awe inspiring. She has personally been responsible for me dusting off my ice cream maker this Summer.

Gina at Doña Lupe’s Kitchen is a favorite as well. She cooks a huge variety of Mexican influenced food. Her writing is very touching and the story of her grandmother (Doña Lupe) is one of the best pieces I have come across on the internet.

Foodbuzz introduced me to Zen over at Chefs Gone Wild. He is a fabulous chef and his writing is very funny and I love his outsider perspective (he is French) on American culture (or lack there of).

My final blog for mention is Alejandra Ramos at Always Order Dessert . Her blog was one of the first really "serious" food blogs I happened across. I remember thinking that "There are other people out there who really take their food seriously".

Congrats to all-

Lavash Crackers

Lavash Crackers

Saturday morning and I am making coffee (Since it's Portland I am drinking Stumptown...Italian Roast, hmmm...maybe I will write about this amazing shop and it's owner Duane Sorenson, but that is another story).
Anyway, I am having a dinner party tomorrow and I want to have some special nibbles for my guest. I have a sh*tload of stuff going on today so I didn't have a ton of time, but I did have 20 minutes to spare.
I had some Lavash (traditional Jewish flatbread) in the refrigerator and so pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees and got down to business.
This is a recipe that you can easily make your own by what you toss on the flatbread before you bake it. Here is my take on Lavash Crackers.

Lavash Crackers
Ingredients
2 Sheets Lavash
Olive Oil
Seasame Seeds (black and white)
Caraway Seeds
Poppy Seeds
Kosher Salt

Directions:

Lightly brush the Lavash with Olive Oil (really lightly),

Toss any of the above seeds or those you want to add to the mix on top of the oiled Lavash.

Cut the Lavash to the desired size and pop into a 350 degree oven for 9-10 minutes.

Can you say crispy, savory, & delightful?

Charcuterie

Dinner?

Sometimes I actually don't feel like cooking, but the last thing I want is to go out for fast food.
Tonight I was in a funk and decided see what was in my refrigerator. Hmmm, some leftover Flat Iron Steak, some Hard Italian Salami, Rustic Pate, Goat Gouda, an Aged Gouda a bit of Brie and some of my favorite Cornichon pickles. Damn, put this on a nice plate and you would feel good about someone only charging you $16 dollars (not including service).

"House Olives"

Throw in some of my "House Olives" and you would think you were eating out. I love to buy a variety of brined olives and then toss them together with olive oil, bay leaves, corriander, peppercorns (green, black, white), fennel and red pepper flakes. I keep a jar of these around at all times since they go with virtually anything I am cooking for dinner.

Buon Appetito!

Oven Dried Tomatoes

Here it is Wednesday and I am starting preparation for a dinner party I am hosting on Sunday. My fellow food blog friend Heather Arndt Anderson and her husband Scott (and Scott's Mom Linda) are coming to my house for dinner. Probably one of the coolest things that has happened since I started writing this blog is the correspondence I have received about the food I like to cook. The actual "coolest" thing is having met Heather and Scott through my blog. These two are a fun young couple and together we have been to a gnarly beer event, a dinner at their house and the coup de grâce, the pig roast that Heather threw for Scott's birthday.
This weekend I am having them over and I get to cook for them. I am planning to cook a leg of lamb and one of the vegetables I like to do this time of year is a tomato dish.
that I call:

Oven Dried Tomatoes
Ingredients:
20 Ripe Plum Tomatoes-halved and seeded
2 Garlic Cloves-minced
1 Tsp Fresh Thyme
2 Shallots-minced
Olive Oil
Salt
Black Pepper

-Before-

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the plum tomatoes with the olive oil, shallots, garlic and thyme and season generously with salt and pepper. Turn the tomatoes cut side up and roast them for about 3½ hours, or until they are somewhat dry but still plump.

Yields: 40 halves

This only sounds like alot of Tomatoes. Once you make these you will want to boost the recipe the next time you dig this recipe out. If I lived in Tuscany instead of Portland, Oregon I would be partially drying these in the sun. Since I am in Oregon and I want to get these tomatoes dried before Halloween I am going to tossing them in a very low oven. I will post the menu for my dinner on Friday-Ciao!

Rose

From time to time I write a little about wine. Wine I drink, wine I collect, what mailing lists I am on, blah....blah....blah...blah! After all, this blog did start out with a wine focus and since the world of wine geeks is an inch wide and a mile deep this blog gives me a small platform to share my humble opinion.
I am sure many of you are looking at the above photo and thinking (WTF?). A pink wine and a screw top? Let me tell you this, there has been a huge paradigm shift with alternative wine closures such as screw tops (actually Stelvin Caps) making huge inroads into with wine industry. Where these closures were once the indication of a "cheap" bottle, today if you know anything about wine you will know that a large number of $20-40 wines are using these Stelvin Caps.
The above wine is a Rose made from Merlot grapes grown at the Celilo Vineyard in Washington State.

As a quick primer, I want to explain in rudimentary terms that Rose wines can be made three different ways.

1. Red wine and white wine are fermented separately and then blended together to create a Rose.

2. The winemaker may decide that in the course of making a red wine that they want to concentrate the juice to skin ration (less juice to more skins) to boost the flavor profile. What the winemaker will do is actually do what the French refer to as a Saignée. This process involves the draining off of a small percent of the grape juice. Since the unfermented juice has had little skin contact the color will be may range from a light pink to a deep Salmon or even Copper color.

3. Rose may be made intentionally by crushing the red grapes and treating the wine as though it were a white wine. White wines are lightly crushed as they are brought in from harvest and see little skin contact. Red wine on the other hand will have extended skin contact (two weeks or so). The Rose wine is then fermented in either stainless steel tanks or neutral oak barrels.

Personally I love Rose and some of the finest Champagnes in the world are technically Rose wines. If you grew up drinking White Zinfandel then these wines will be a suprise to you. Most of them are bone dry, with a hint of red fruit (think Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry, Cranberry) and a big dose of crisp acidity. They are perfect chilled as an alternative to a cocktail and they go well with almost all poultry.

2007-Phelps Creek- Ceililo Vineyard Rose

2007 Phelps Creek-Celilo Vineyard Rose-Dark for a Rose, almost a Copper color (the skins had 4 days contact on the juice). The wine is made from Merlot grapes and shows bright ripe strawberries on the nose. Good fruit on the palate that is balanced with a crisp acidity and a clean finish. While the wine is fermented almost completely dry, the fruit is big enough to give the slightest hint of sweetness. This is about as far away from a White Zinfandel as you can get. I love this wine!