Yorba Wines

Some cousins of ours have a winery and this is the first year they have offered a wine for sale under their own label: Yorba, in honor of our common ancestor, a soldier in the army of the king of Spain who came to California in 1769. Lori ordered a case and it arrived yesterday. Not wanting to let it get dusty, we had a couple people over for dinner to try the Syrah and the Tempranillo. We didn't go all out on the meal- in fact, both of us were already so tired that the frozen diGiorno pizza was looking pretty good. I did lift a finger to thaw a Mortons marinated steak- those ones from Costco. I mean, how tough can it be to BBQ a pre-marinated steak with the Morton's moniker? Turns out, darn difficult if the BBQ is acting more like a blow torch than an even mannered cooking machine. I guess I have to admit- I should have listened to Lori's advice last summer when she pointed out that the burners were rusted out. Even at the lowest of low heat settings, Morton's finest was a grease ball of fire. I finally took it off the Q, brought it in and sliced it- it was more like steak Tartar. Always the optimist, I suggested that everyone liked very rare steak, right? I got a lot of blank stares. Andy came to the rescue- he suggested we take the slices and finish them in the same pan I had caramelized some onions in. I threw some rosemary and a little more olive oil in the pan with the nice caramelized onion residue- 20 or 30 seconds on a side and I had a great little steak dinner. Thanks, Andy!

Anybody know where you can get cast iron burners for those big Costco BBQ'a they were selling a few years ago?

The wine was a hit. Check out yorbawines.com. I am a big fan of those heavy meaty reds, and the Syrah I really enjoyed. It reminded me of the wines my dad used to serve in the 70's. The Tempranillo was really good too- like a spanish rioja, perfect way to honor our spanish ancestor.