Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Blogger book Alert
A book I just finished is much more interesting than our last few dinners....so if you have a chance...Julia Childs: My Life in France by Julia Childs and Paul Prudhomme. It is very intersting on a few levels. Basically ,she tells how she got started cooking, and then talks about their ( Julia and her husband,Paul) years in France and what they ate and drank. They had some fabulous wines! I think you , all, will enjoy it!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Yum! Yuck! Gross! Yum!
First of all, we had a wonderful dinner with Thad and Lynn: a rice pilaf they call Jambalaya made with peppers and Andouille sausage but no shellfish, and let me tell you it was totally satisfying, and especially good today for lunch. Especially with the Nicolas Feuillete aperatif. Accompanied by a delicious green salad and Thad's excellent chocolate chip cookies ever so slightly warmed in the microwave. I thought the stack of cookies on the plate was way too many, but no! Home to bed through the 0F temperature and slept well.
Meanwhile.....
It turns out that our friend who shall go nameless came in SECOND in the Robbie Burns Haggis eating contest eating by eating 40 portions. The winner ate 51....
And another good friend tells us she is expecting a house guest for the weekend who is on a vegan purging diet. I don't EVEN want to know the details of this.
And John just made the best breaded cod for dinner, with fresh steamed carrots and bok choy, oven roasted potatoes, gorgonzola dressed green salad, kiwi and Cripps apples. A little Veramonte, but not too much, have to meet the airplane with the Moscow Circus on it tonight! There is nothing better than fresh fish.
Meanwhile.....
It turns out that our friend who shall go nameless came in SECOND in the Robbie Burns Haggis eating contest eating by eating 40 portions. The winner ate 51....
And another good friend tells us she is expecting a house guest for the weekend who is on a vegan purging diet. I don't EVEN want to know the details of this.
And John just made the best breaded cod for dinner, with fresh steamed carrots and bok choy, oven roasted potatoes, gorgonzola dressed green salad, kiwi and Cripps apples. A little Veramonte, but not too much, have to meet the airplane with the Moscow Circus on it tonight! There is nothing better than fresh fish.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sorry about the font size
Sorry about the Font size on the Glassware thing. It was cut and pasted from another computer. If you want me to e-mail it to you directly just let me know. Sorry.
JD
JD
Glassware
Since Alec asked about glassware I thought I would let him know what I found
out in Anchorage this week since our company is now the distributor for
Riedel glassware to restaurants in Alaska.
I have to admit that I was a bit of a skeptic coming into this. Now I might
not be a true believer but I have to say that I am convinced that different
shapes of glassware definitely can enhance the flavor of certain wines.
The first misconception that was cleared up for me was the pronunciation.
It is "REE-dull" as in "needle" and that is exactly what they told us at the
presentation. The Riedel family is Austrian and they have been in the glass
business for over 250 years although they did not start making wine glasses
until 1957. They do bring that Teutonic attention to detail to the
business.
Here is how the demonstration that they did for us worked:
We sat down with four different styles of glassware. There was a
Chardonnay/Meursault glass with Trefethen Chardonnay, a Riesling/Sauvignon
Blanc glass with Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc (and boy is that wine tasty), a
Burgundy glass with Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir and a Cabernet/Merlot glass
with Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon. There was also an average "restaurant"
wine glass in front of us.
We then proceeded to taste the wines in the Riedel glass first and then in
the "joker" glass and the difference is fairly dramatic. The shape of the
glass concentrates the more pleasing and most "varietal" aromas and flavors
to your nose and palate.
The next step was to pour the wines from their "correct" glasses into one of
the other shapes (i.e. put the Chardonnay in the Riesling glass) and taste
the difference.
The glasses are also designed so that the lip of the glass is very thin and
does not have any sort of roll on the lip that might prevent the wine from
going directly into your mouth. This may sound a little strange but if you
run your fingers over your average restaurant wine glass there will be just
the slightest bulge right at the rim and the Riedel folks trim every single
one of their glasses with a laser to eliminate that bulge.
The power of suggestion is pretty strong but I sat through this twice; once
with our staff and once with a group of customers and I believe that there
is something to the shape of the glass making the wine taste better.
A couple of other points...
The Reidel folks specifically state that their glassware will not make poor
wine taste better. What they say is that it will make good wine taste
better. It's a bit of a fine distinction but what they said is that if you
put crappy wine in one of their glasses not only will it not taste better
but it is more likely to bring out the flaws and it might even make it taste
worse.
Even if you think that all of this is smoke and mirrors you have to give the
family credit for being incredibly good at marketing. I doubt if anyone
reading this had to Google Riedel to see what I was talking about. They
have built a reputation as the premiere producer of wine glasses in the
world and they can back that reputation up. If you go into a restaurant and
find that they are taking the time (the glasses should be hand polished
before every use) and expense of using Riedel it does make a statement that
the restaurant is taking wine seriously.
And if you still can't taste the difference between wine out of a Reidel
glass and a Libby glass you have to admit that the Reidel glassware is
exceedingly well made and beautiful to look at.
They also produce a tumbler wine glass without a stem. Some see this an
anathema but guess what? It is now their second best selling product. I
would be more than happy to drink my wine in a glass without a stem if I
could stick it in the dishwasher later and be confident that I would break
less over the course of a couple of years.
Hopefully this answers the questions and if not put it on the blog.
out in Anchorage this week since our company is now the distributor for
Riedel glassware to restaurants in Alaska.
I have to admit that I was a bit of a skeptic coming into this. Now I might
not be a true believer but I have to say that I am convinced that different
shapes of glassware definitely can enhance the flavor of certain wines.
The first misconception that was cleared up for me was the pronunciation.
It is "REE-dull" as in "needle" and that is exactly what they told us at the
presentation. The Riedel family is Austrian and they have been in the glass
business for over 250 years although they did not start making wine glasses
until 1957. They do bring that Teutonic attention to detail to the
business.
Here is how the demonstration that they did for us worked:
We sat down with four different styles of glassware. There was a
Chardonnay/Meursault glass with Trefethen Chardonnay, a Riesling/Sauvignon
Blanc glass with Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc (and boy is that wine tasty), a
Burgundy glass with Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir and a Cabernet/Merlot glass
with Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon. There was also an average "restaurant"
wine glass in front of us.
We then proceeded to taste the wines in the Riedel glass first and then in
the "joker" glass and the difference is fairly dramatic. The shape of the
glass concentrates the more pleasing and most "varietal" aromas and flavors
to your nose and palate.
The next step was to pour the wines from their "correct" glasses into one of
the other shapes (i.e. put the Chardonnay in the Riesling glass) and taste
the difference.
The glasses are also designed so that the lip of the glass is very thin and
does not have any sort of roll on the lip that might prevent the wine from
going directly into your mouth. This may sound a little strange but if you
run your fingers over your average restaurant wine glass there will be just
the slightest bulge right at the rim and the Riedel folks trim every single
one of their glasses with a laser to eliminate that bulge.
The power of suggestion is pretty strong but I sat through this twice; once
with our staff and once with a group of customers and I believe that there
is something to the shape of the glass making the wine taste better.
A couple of other points...
The Reidel folks specifically state that their glassware will not make poor
wine taste better. What they say is that it will make good wine taste
better. It's a bit of a fine distinction but what they said is that if you
put crappy wine in one of their glasses not only will it not taste better
but it is more likely to bring out the flaws and it might even make it taste
worse.
Even if you think that all of this is smoke and mirrors you have to give the
family credit for being incredibly good at marketing. I doubt if anyone
reading this had to Google Riedel to see what I was talking about. They
have built a reputation as the premiere producer of wine glasses in the
world and they can back that reputation up. If you go into a restaurant and
find that they are taking the time (the glasses should be hand polished
before every use) and expense of using Riedel it does make a statement that
the restaurant is taking wine seriously.
And if you still can't taste the difference between wine out of a Reidel
glass and a Libby glass you have to admit that the Reidel glassware is
exceedingly well made and beautiful to look at.
They also produce a tumbler wine glass without a stem. Some see this an
anathema but guess what? It is now their second best selling product. I
would be more than happy to drink my wine in a glass without a stem if I
could stick it in the dishwasher later and be confident that I would break
less over the course of a couple of years.
Hopefully this answers the questions and if not put it on the blog.
Prime Rib
We were invited to celebrate three birthdays all at once at our good friends Tony & Lori (of the Yorba Wine discussion). they slaved over hot stoves all day to prepare a wonderful prime rib, using the slow cooking method, I think you sear it on the outside and then set it at 200 and let it cook slowly. It was moist and delicious. They also made a mushroom sauce with portabellos and others, garlic and smoked Gouda mashed potatoes, there was a real Caesar Salad which one of the other birthday girls made, and we finished with a delicious chocolate nut tortes that the OTHER birthday girl made. And all we had to do was bring wine. There was quite a spectrum of them, and I can't remember them all.....Such a good evening....
A Rainy Night in LALA
I guess I'm a full-fledged "LALA-in "... I'm determined not to go out in the rain unless it is a true emergency, so dinner had to be made from something in the house. In the morning, I anticipated the day's weather so I defrosted 2 cute little Cornish game Hens. When it was time to cook them, I basted them with melted butter and raspberry jam ( after the white pepper,etc). I usually use a dark cherry juice to baste and make a sauce with the dark cherries but I didn't have them in the house....HELLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOO, it's raining, so I made do with the jam and they were very tasty. Parmesan couscous and white asparagus completed the plate. I opened what I thought would be a good wine for this dish...a Woodbridge Zin,but this bottle was over the hill.
For dessert, we had some delicious pears that someone sent us...we thought of J & N who seem to eat a lot of fruit for dessert...and wondered why!
For dessert, we had some delicious pears that someone sent us...we thought of J & N who seem to eat a lot of fruit for dessert...and wondered why!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Just me and the dog and a flank steak
John made a flank steak the night before last, quite delicious of course, and we didn't eat it all up. He flew to Anchorage yesterday to learn about Reidel crystal (!) leaving two bottles of wine, the dog, and the left over flank steak. I can work with this.
Flank steak: Put it in the mushroom/parsley/garlic/breadcrumbs/wine tian thing. Hmmm, sunchokes....scrub them, slice them up, toss with oil, salt & pepper, and rosemary, and bake both dishes at 375 for 30 minutes. Make a tossed salad and slice up a Cripps apple. Eat entire apple immediately, it is so good. Glass of Palazzo della Torre Allegrini. Leave the dishes in the sink!
hoo ha.
Flank steak: Put it in the mushroom/parsley/garlic/breadcrumbs/wine tian thing. Hmmm, sunchokes....scrub them, slice them up, toss with oil, salt & pepper, and rosemary, and bake both dishes at 375 for 30 minutes. Make a tossed salad and slice up a Cripps apple. Eat entire apple immediately, it is so good. Glass of Palazzo della Torre Allegrini. Leave the dishes in the sink!
hoo ha.
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