Valentine’s Dinner Menu 2010

The trick to dining in courses is to keep it simple and time everything.  Set the table and decant the wine before you start cooking. Read the complete menu and recipes and have the timing set in your mind.

Hint: Keep the BBQ at a medium temperature. Put the Filet Mignon on about 10 minutes before dinner.  Turn it over right before you sit down and let it cook slowly while you eat your first course.

Another Hint: Serve a wine with a sexy name.

First Course

• Poached Lobster Tails
• Lemon Butter
• Cristalino Cava

Lobster should never be boiled, it should be poached.  Boiling causes it to cook too quickly on the outside and toughens the meat.  Put the lobster in cold water in a large pot and add high quality salt–salt it like the Mediterranean.  Once the water gets hot enough to create tiny bubbles, retain the temperature and poach for 20 minutes per pound. Microwave the butter in individual bowls, add fresh lemon juice before serving.  Serve the lobster tails on individual plates with lemon wedges. Serve with your favorite chilled bubbly.

Second Course

• Petite Filet Mignon
• Porcino Mushroom Risotto
• O’Brien Estate 2006 Seduction

Prime USDA Filet Mignon is wonderful with just salt & pepper.  Sauces are a good idea with Choice cuts (hint–Costco doesn’t carry Prime Filet Mignon.) It’s worth paying a few more bucks per pound every once in awhile. Risotto is fun to make and should be part of every good cook’s repertoire, but frankly, if you can get a good risotto from a local gourmet grocery store (Paradise Foods for me), it makes the 2nd course so much easier.

Third Course

• Breyer’s All Natural Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
• Banana Slices
• Vanilla Mini-Cupcakes
• Giana’s Natural Cookie
• Casa Nuestra 2008 Late Harvest French Colombard

This was a fun pairing.  The bananas and ice cream are wonderful with my new favorite dessert wine.  Bobby bought the mini cupcakes as a gift to me & I bought the cookies as a gift to him.

The best occasions are fun because we don’t take ourselves too seriously.  We enjoy our favorite foods and wines and we share in the preparation of the meal. Bon Appetit!

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My hubby and I have similar views about Valentine’s Day.  We see it as an opportunity to spoil each other a bit & be romantic. Yesterday I bought red Gladiolas and pink Tulips for the house.  Who cares who bought the flowers? The point is to enjoy them together.  (He did say, hey, I was going to buy you some flowers…and I said, so what’s stopping you?!)

This morning, I delivered this cookie with his coffee in bed. (Tulip ate it while B was watching Maverick’s Surf Competition on the laptop, so she got a present too.)

We’ll spend the whole weekend just doing whatever, but we’ll be together.  This is what it’s like when people are in love. I see this weekend as a time to be together, hold hands, sit close, and say I love you in lots of little ways.

* For other Valentine’s ideas, click here.

Stolen Cookie, Valentine's 2010

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I’ve been winery hopping again!  The first words out of my mouth right now, are you bottling yet?

Harvest ends in the fall, grapes do their magic in the winter and voilá! some whites are in the bottles as early as February.

So…if you visit wineries in the early Spring, you might get to taste newly bottled wine and you’ll get first dibs on purchasing small lot wine (meaning they don’t make much of it, so it will sell out quickly).

And when you ask the question, are you bottling yet, you’ll learn about wine and a winemaker’s style.

For instance, at Casa Nuestra*, they’ve just bottled a killer Chenin Blanc that has no hint of “bottle shock” which is quite a feat & wonderful to experience.  While, at Loxton*, you won’t be able to get a new vintage until probably April/May because Chris Loxton is making a rosé that takes longer in the barrel.  (Of course, wines that are aged in barrels for months can be bottled any time the winemaker deems it’s ready.)

It’s an exciting time of year to visit.  If you’d like a guide & tips, let me know!

*Links go to my posts about these wineries.

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Visiting the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone (St. Helena) makes me happy.  I love the old stone building and knowing that there are aspiring chefs on the 3rd floor while I dine in the restaurant.  I like the service, the decor, the reasonable wine mark ups and the artsy, interesting food.

When it was announced that the 17th annual Napa Valley Mustard Festival’s kick off party was going to be held at CIA, I immediately bought tickets.  I’ll be posting lots of pictures this week. Bobby and I had a fantastic time, but my absolute favorite part?  Eating in the chef’s kitchen.

Napa’s famous restaurants (Bouchon, Brix, etc) served small bites in the wine tasting room, but we headed straight for the kitchen.  Guests picked up a plate and went through a double-sided buffet flanked by chefs standing next to their stoves offering osso buco, polenta, mustard greens, Italian wedding soup, breaded shrimp with fruit dipping sauce, blood red orange salad, cioppino and more.  We sat family style at a long table in the middle of the kitchen.  For me, it was a once in a lifetime experience.  There are plenty of parties where I can walk around balancing a plate of small bites while drinking wine, but the opportunity to eat in the CIA kitchen…priceless!

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It’s rainy this winter.  My friend, Amanda, has come from North Carolina to visit her beloved wine country.  I believe this is her 23rd visit.  She’s not letting the rain get her down though.

Wine country (and California) is wonderful year-round.  Many wineries have fireplaces, the tasting rooms are quiet and staff is eager to bring out all kinds of wines for you to try.  You get in your rental car (or hire a driver), go to the places recommended in my guide (I’m telling you, you’ll love them) and then come back to cozy, welcoming luxury at the White House Inn & Spa (my favorite B&B in Napa).  Housed in an old mansion right around the corner from the trendy new Napa River Waterfront district, you’ll find great restaurants, Silo’s Jazz Club and tasting rooms close by for your evenings.  (No driving all the way to Yountville or St. Helena and back for dinner.)

Napa is close enough to Kenwood (Sonoma County) that you can easily stay in downtown Napa and spend a lazy afternoon in Kenwood.  I recommend starting at Kunde (wine & cheese in the Kinneybrook Room) then having lunch at The Vineyards Inn Bar & Grill.  (Enjoy a free seasonal Tapa named after me and a glass of owner’s Steve Rose’s vino.)  After lunch, go visit Chris Loxton, an Australian winemaker who makes suburb reds, whites and rosés.  He’s enthusiastic, welcoming (and his accent is lovely to listen to).  If it’s not raining, plan on doing a Walkabout With the Winemaker Tour.

Downtown Napa & Kenwood have a lot to offer. If you’ve “done up-valley Napa”, do something different next time.  It’s an insider’s secret, and now you’re in on it!

All the places and activities mentioned here are in my guide, purchase a guide and all tastings & tours will be free to you.

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All over Northern California, wild mustard starts to bloom in January. It’s such a wonderful thing to see that 17 years ago someone came up with the idea to turn it into the Napa Valley Mustard Festival.  There are lots of fun activities that come with a significant ticket price, but guess what?

You can see the wild mustard for free, get away from the crowds in Napa and the wineries are really quiet.  (There’s still lots of local nightlife too!)

I’d love to show you around. Or just pick up my guide and get going.  If you have any questions about visiting wine country, just ask!

PS: Did you know that most of the Dijon mustard in the USA is made from mustard seeds from Canada? (wikipedia)

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Taking down my Christmas decorations the first week of January.  What a fabulous holiday it was!  Hubby and I took the last two weeks of the year off–went to the zoo, took family walks, cooked, drank fine wine & bubbly, slept in every day, read books by the fire, went to my favorite jewelery store & picked out my gifts and just enjoyed each other.

**Bobby set up quite the little photo studio & took some pix. His Santa collection is a lot bigger then this!

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This holiday season has been topsy-turvy. Our Thanksgiving vacation was cut short by a call from the Sheriff notifying us that our house was burglarized.  Time usually spent decorating the house & making travel plans went to meetings with law enforcement stopping by daily to collect more evidence.  Then there was time spent viewing found items, discussions with the D.A. and buying new security systems.  We had no time to think about Christmas until December 20th.

I keep thinking about Little House on the Prairie, when people were working to survive and truly didn’t have extra time.  On Christmas Eve, the kids would wait anxiously for Pa to tell them it was time to go pick out a tree.  Pa would chop down a beauty, it was only 4′ tall because the cabin was small, but it seemed huge to the kids. They decorated with simple homemade ornaments and cranberry strings, laughed together and then went off to bed, thinking about whether it would snow on Christmas Day more than about presents.

We made our annual family trek to McGovern’s Christmas Tree farm on the 20th.  Even the visit was different this year.  I’ve always chosen a flocked tree because it’s a beautiful background to display decorations. Mr. McGovern is getting on in years, so he decided not to flock any trees.  Bobby thought I’d be disappointed but no, for whatever reason this year, I love the idea of a green tree.

With other stuff already scheduled, we have a tentative date to decorate the tree on the 23rd.  As my Mom says, change is good. And, a great opportunity to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

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Finally I brought my camera in to the kitchen.  What fun!  I hope you enjoy these pictures.  Setting up a video camera soon!

Steps/Timing

1. Preheat oven to 400° for bread.
2. Heat toaster oven to 400° for roasting potatoes.
3. Prepare the potatoes & onions and start roasting them (20 minutes total).
4. Start the chicken.
5. Open the wine to breathe.
6. Put the frozen bread in the oven.
7. Place the plates on top of the toaster oven (my plate warmer!)
8. Finish the chicken.
9. Ask Hubby to set the table including lighting a candle and pouring the wine.
10. Everything will be done about the same time!

Chicken in Wine for 2

• 3 strips chopped bacon
• 1 boneless chicken breast cut into 2 pieces
• 3/4 cups Merlot or similar red wine
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup chopped white onion
• 1/4 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 tbls thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbls butter

Fry the chopped bacon until it begins to crisp. Remove bacon. Pour out excess fat and add chicken to remaining hot drippings. Brown chicken 3-4 minutes and remove. Add onions and mushrooms and stir until slightly brown. Add wine, broth, thyme and bacon bits. Simmer until slightly reduced. (Sauce will not be thick.) Put chicken back in, cover and cook 4-5 minutes. Put chicken on warm plates. Finish the sauce by stirring in butter and adding salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the chicken.

Roasted Potatoes & Onions

Cut 5 small potatoes (white or new) in halves or quarters.  Chop a thick slice of white onion into good size chunks.  Place everything in a bowl and mix with olive oil.  Add thyme & salt & pepper to taste.

Roast at 400° for 10 minutes, turn and roast for another 10 minutes.

Freshly Baked Bread

Buy small sourdough bread from the frozen isle at the grocery store.  Place directly on oven rack for 10 minutes. When it’s done, let sit for 5 minutes.  Gently slice (don’t squish it and don’t slice all the way through it).  I use a small paté knife (pictured) to place butter into the slices. I always serve bread in a basket wrapped in a cloth napkin to keep it warm.

Add parsley to the chicken and potatoes for a touch of elegance before serving.

Pairing

Lots of rustic wine will go with this dish.  I served it with Kunde Merlot, 2005 Sonoma Valley

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I love dates but I prefer them in meals as opposed to desserts.

Here’s some ideas & tips:

• Buy the pitted ones in a bag. They’re still moist, not dried.
• Three little dates make a quick snack & for me, a great breakfast!
• Make a small slit, push in a sliver of dried Parmesan and a walnut piece. Serve alongside a pork dish or as an appetizer.
• Add to wild rice (chop in half & add dried apricots)
• Make a cheese plate for lunch.  Contrast the sweetness with Gorgonzola or a similar cheese. Add crisp apple slices.
• Your choice of wine depends on the other flavors you are serving with the dates.  If you are using them in a wild rice dish, try a Merlot or something similarly earthy with kicky fruit.  If you are involving blue cheese, try a Dry Riesling or Viogner.
• Keep your dates in the refrigerator after opening.  They’ll be fresh for a bout 2 weeks.

*Picture: It’s not a date tree, wish it was!

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