Monday Food

Food:

1. Egguritos with Ranchero Sauce and Green Chile Hollandaise
   Reprise of last week's "kitchen challenge" dinner. No regular onion this time, but
   did have garlic & some green onion. To steam the tortillas & cheese, stretched plastic
   wrap very tight over plates, but not sealed all the way around. Microwaved for about 25 seconds, stopping half-way through for a few seconds to keep wrap from sealing & sucking down as it cools.
   

Wine:

1. Tablas Creek Vineyard 2003 Vermentino
   Pretty good...a little simple, but no flaws.


2. Sofia Blanc de Blanc
   Champagne in a can is a cute concept, but please put real wine in the can next time.


3. Martin Ray 2001 Mariage
   Mouth bandage--needed something to rinse with after the Sofia.

Sunday Food

Food:

1. Grilled Pork Chops with Blackberry-Grapefruit Sauce
   Season chops with salt, pepper, chimayo, and olive oil. Juice & strain blackberries (2 bunches), add to sauce pan & cook with chicken stock, grapefruit juice, brandy, bay leaf, true cinnamon, cayena, season to taste with salt.


2. Salad of Baby Greens with Hazelnuts

Wine:

1. Domaine des Coteaux des Travers 2003 Raseau Cotes Du Rhone Villages

Saturday Food

Food:

1. Rib-eye steaks with Dijon-demiglase sauce
   Defrost chicken stock, add demi-glase goo & bay leaf. Bring to a boil in microwave. Brown steaks in pan & remove to roasting pan. Roast @425 for 3 mins. Deglaze pan with stock.


2. Roasted tomatoes


3. Broccoli with Garlic

Wine:

1. Tablas Creek Vineyard 1999 reserve Cuvee
   Last one before they started calling it Esprit de Beucastel. Still tannic, but good. Tom loves the nose, my nose must be broken today. (Antihistamines?).


2. Tanbark Hill 2002 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
   Philip Togni's "second" label. Subtle, pretty mellow tannins for an '02.
   

Thursday Food

Food:

1. Chili! Used just one can of chiltomate this time, instead of adding a plain tomato sauce, too (8 oz cans).

Wine:

1. Fire Block 2002 Old Vine Grenache
   A little unbalanced--a little acidic & hot for the fruit, but there is lots of fruit & it's pretty yummy. This is an Aussie Clare Valley wine--starting to see how they vinify everything like Shiraz. (Last night's zin was even more obvious. We actually liked the zin a little better than this grenache--but it was very different from California zins.)

Wednesday Food

Food:

1. Dinner at PF Changs in San Jose. Very high quality ingredients, a bit carb-ey, even without rice, but yummy.

Wine:

1. J Pinot Gris by the glass.


2. Santa Barbara White Rhone Blend by the glass


3. Schulz 2001 Johanne Zinfandel
   A Barossa Valley Zinfandel--could easily mistake for a Shiraz by the nose. Very different from a California zin, but this is seriously yummy wine. Gotta love screw caps, too.

Tuesday Food

Food:

1. Pollo al Ajillo
   Don't forget to saute the chicken skin first! (I mistakenly threw it away this time. :-()
   Roughly cube & season chicken breast with salt, pepper, olive oil. Saute & add chopped garlic, cayena chile peppers (seeded), pimenton, a little cayenne. Deglaze with brandy, add white wine, sherry wine vinegar. Add stock & cover, simmer. Finish with a little more garlic & garnish with chopped parsley
   


2. Sauteed Baby Swiss Chard with cumin, mustard seed, tumeric, and chopped garlic

Wine:

1. Vizcarra 2002 Senda del Oro
   Not bad--a little CRW/funky on the nose, fairly acidic, but there's some
   good red fruit. A decent tapa-wine, but not the best example. 100% Tempranillo.

Monday Food

Food:

1. Scrambled Egg Burritos "Poquitos" with Green Chile Hollandaise and Ranchero Sauce
   This was a cupboard-food challenge--what to do with the ingredients on hand. The kitchen was fairly well-stocked--except for garlic! Fortunately, Tom prevailed and made scrambled egg "burritos poquitos" with green chile hollandaise and ranchero sauce. The eggs were scrambled with canadian bacon, onion, green chile, and peas. Steamed low-carb tortillas with grated colby jack cheese on top, served the eggs over the cheese, and dressed the eggs with the two sauces, keeping the sauces separate. Finally, they were garnished with fresh cilantro. The ranchero sauce was made with chimayo chile powder, granulated garlic, a "wee tad" of oregano, salt, pepper, and crystal sauce with chicken broth and a little water. Pretty cool for a "simple" dinner composed of what we could scrounge up in the cupboard and fridge. :-)

Wine:

1. Vinedos de Nieva 2003 Blanco Nieva

Sunday Food

Food:

1. Paella!
   The usual...clams, mussels, shrimp, chicken legs, peas with bomba rice.
   Whole Foods seafood was really good--gotta love those Georgia White Shrimp. The organic chicken legs were super-fresh, too--noticeably better than the usual chicken.

Wine:

1. Abadia Retuerta 1996 Cuvee El Palomar

Saturday Food

Food:

1. Crab!


2. Mascarpone Cream with Black & Red Raspberries

Wine:

1. Mumm Napa Brut Prestige


2. Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut

The Roederer is definitely the better of the two--the u isn't bad, but it's
not as refined as the Roederer. Even without the glass jewelry, the Roederer is a better deal.

Friday Food

Food:

1. Creamed chicken & peas over cheese
   Okay, sounds wierd, but it's good. Saute garlic & jalapeno, add a little chicken broth, shredded chicken

Wednesday Food

Food:

1. Raw Cauliflower & ranch dip


2. Hot Legs!
   Tom's version of buffalo wings, but with chicken legs. Deep fry legs in oil (canola/peanut combo works great). Toss in sauce made with Crystal Sauce, Soy (tiny bit), Worcestshire (little bit), honey, garlic powder, (low carb) ketchup, butter/margerine.
   

Wine:

1. Spencer Roloson 1999 Palaterra
   Past it's prime, but still tasty. At $14, might be worth a repeat as a tapa wine. Good, but not great.


2. Lucca 2001 Central Coast Red Wine
   Another Martin Ray "negociant" wine. A little CRW on the nose, nice fruit, a little tannic--but for $7 dollars a bottle, not bad at all.

Tuesday Food

Food:

1. Reprise on the shirataki noodles--this time with chicken, re-hydrated dried shitake, bamboo shoots, snow peas, green onion & cabbage, with lime juice and chile sauce.

Wine:

1. Pezzi King 2001 Maple Vineyard Zinfandel
   This could sit up to another year or so, but has lots of dense fruit & is a great example of Dry Creek zinfandel. A little "hot".

Monday Food

Food:

1. Shirataki "noodles" stir-fried with shrimp, water chestnuts, button mushrooms, and cabbage
   These tofu noodles are a great low-carb noodle fix. Tossed with a bit of hoisin & soy sauce.
   

Wine:

1. Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut


2. Pat Greene 2002 Oregon Pinot Noir

Tuesday Food

Food:

1. Chicken in a Pot with Chantrelles
   Typical "bad bird in a pot" with chorizo & piquillos, but with fresh chantrelle mushrooms. Generally use four leg & thigh pieces, but this time used a quartered "fryer" chicken.
   

Wine:

1. Linne Calodo 2003 Problem Child
   Very, very yummy. Concentrated "zingy" fruit, a little spicy--nutmeg, cedar? Hard to describe,
   but as usual incredibly good.

Sunday Food

Food:

1. Asian Soup
   
   
   
   1. 1 quart chicken broth
   
   
   2. Bamboo shoot chunks
   
   
   3. Baby corn
   
   
   4. 1/2 can whole water chestnuts
   
   
   5. Small fresh chantrelles
   
   
   6. Snow peas
   
   
   7. Sliced green onion
   
   
   8. Minced ginger & garlic
   
   
   
   Bring broth to a simmer, add ginger & garlic, bamboo shoots, corn, water chestnuts, & salt. Just before serving, add snow peas and green onion. Finish with a drizzle of peanut oil & serve.
   


2. Shitake Beef
   
   
   
   1. Re-hydrate Dried Shitake
   
   
   2. Marinate beef in sambal, mushroom soy, ginger, garlic, sesame oil
   
   
   3. Grill trimmed green onions
   
   
   4. Trim stems from shitake
   
   
   5. Halve/quarter shitake & toss with soy, peanut oil, sesame oil, green onion, sesame seeds.
   
   
   6. Grill steak, rest, & slice
   
   
   7. Border plates with 2 green onions
   
   
   8. Plate shitake between onions on one side of plate
   
   
   9. Plate steak on remaining portion of plate
   
   
   
   

Wine:

1. 
   


2. 
   

Friday Food

Tapas:

1. Mushrooms a ajillo


2. Radish & apple salad


3. White beans & chorizo

First attempt on the salad. Blanch a handful of fresh peas. Slice fuji apple, white and red radishes & stack slices. Slice additional apple & radish into matchsticks. Make vinagrette with olive oile, cider vinegar, cilantro. Toss matchsticks in vinagrette. Mix wasabi powder with lemon-flavored oil and apple cider vinegar, season with salt. Plate matchsticks alongside stacks. Garnish stacks with peas. Drizzle wasabi sauce over slices & serve. (The lemon oil is cool, but a little bit goes a *long* way--it actually overpowered the wasabi.)

Wine:

1. Domain Jean Deydier et Fils 2000 Chateaneuf du Pape