What's cooking?

[Jenise]

Today we're heading north for an afternoon of bocce and wine, a pot luck. For that, last night I mixed a batch of lamb 'sausage', which I cut with 1/3 ground turkey, and seasoned with lots of rosemary, cumin, half-sharp paprika, cilantro, white pepper, garlic and onion. They're quite spicy. This morning I formed them into ping-pong sized balls and fried them off. I'll reheat them at the event where guests will line a cooling lettuce leaf with a gingery carrot-mint-glass noodle 'salad', top it with a meatball and eat them out of hand.

No cooking for me tonight. We are heading out to Anslemo Vineyards to celebrate our 49th anniversary. Anselmo's has built a chapel and added a permanent event center since we were there. A local lady, formally a Gold Digger who opened for Dean
Martin, is performing. Should be a great evening.

[Robin Garr]

Spaghetti alla salsa cruda with fresh Italian oxheart heirloom tomatoes, green onions, loads of garlic and ample Barracha olive oil. (And, of course, plenty of fresh basil!)

[Jenise]

No cooking for me tonight. We are heading out to Anslemo Vineyards to celebrate our 49th anniversary. Anselmo's has built a chapel and added a permanent event center since we were there. A local lady, formally a Gold Digger who opened for Dean
Martin, is performing. Should be a great evening.

Happy anniversary!

I met one of the Gold Diggers once. She was playing the piano in a little hotel piano bar in Orange County, and pregnant with her seventh or eighth child. We didn't know she was a Gold Digger, but we had taken my grandmother there and Grammy asked to hear the only song she could ever remember having liked a whole lot, Dean's hit Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime. So the piano player told us her history, and apologized because she didn't know the actual lyrics, only the doo-wop parts that the girls sang. So that night the world saw my one and only Dean Martin impression, much to Grammy's delight.

No cooking for me tonight. We are heading out to Anslemo Vineyards to celebrate our 49th anniversary. Anselmo's has built a chapel and added a permanent event center since we were there. A local lady, formally a Gold Digger who opened for Dean
Martin, is performing. Should be a great evening.

Congrats on the anniversary, Karen!!

[Robin Garr]

... to celebrate our 49th anniversary....

Oops, this almost slipped by me. Happiest of happies, Karen!

Happy anniversary!

I met one of the Gold Diggers once. She was playing the piano in a little hotel piano bar in Orange County, and pregnant with her seventh or eighth child. We didn't know she was a Gold Digger, but we had taken my grandmother there and Grammy asked to hear the only song she could ever remember having liked a whole lot, Dean's hit Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime. So the piano player told us her history, and apologized because she didn't know the actual lyrics, only the door-wop parts that the girls sang. So that night the world saw my one and only Dean Martin impression, much to Grammy's delight.

Former Gold Digger Linda Snook Bott( also sang "Everbody Loves Somebody" last night) was the last and youngest girl to join the Gold Diggers. She has performed all over the world and lived in many places. She and husband Carl, (a retired Lt. Colonel) a former Marine, now own a local radio station. Linda performs all over town. A very well liked couple. She was performing at Anselmo's last night with a three piece band.
If any of you get to Redding and have time for a lay over, visit Anslemo Vineyards. Owned by Reverge Anslemo, who is quite well known in his world. He is doing great things out there.
They raise their beef right on the property. Very happy animals who spend the day roaming the irrigated, green pastures, drinking fresh, clean water out of the ponds and an occasional dripping sprinkler head. The menu warns that the chef will not cook past medium rare, which is what I always order. However, last night it was rare, still very good, but I would have like it a little warmer. Their food has always been excellent when we have been there. Last night was no exception to that. Towards the end of dinner, the front door to the music room was opened to allow for the cooler evening mountain breezes to come in. It was magical with the breeze, looking out to an open pasture with a beautiful horse looking right back at us. Anslemos has it all,an elegant flair, very well appointed, yet keeping with a country feel. The grounds are stunning. A new addition we noticed last night was a huge garden planted just off the main drive into the property.....wish my garden looked like that! A trio of baby carrots, pulled from their garden that morning dressed our plates. Colors were orange, gold and purple. They were beautiful. Also, small round baby potatoes, dressed with nothing that I could see, but they had such a wonderful taste. I was impressed with the simplicity of my dinner, and yet how good it was. We shared a Ceasar salad prior to dinner with grilled homemade sourdough bread. It had a lovely smoke flavor. We also shared a bottle of their own Cabernet Sauvignon - excellent. Oh did I mention they also grow the grapes just up the hill from the Catholic chapel he built on the property.

We picked up a bag of about thirty squash blossoms for $1 today at the farmers' market, so dinner was pizza with squash blossoms and various combinations of sausage, burrata, and mozzarella. Made corn soup from a James Peterson recipe to go with it. The soup had a wonderful flavor but the corn didn't fully puree into it, so the texture was a little chunky. That wasn't too terrible a thing, and it would have been a pain to strain the stuff, so I was happy with it overall. Dessert was Thai basil ice cream with sliced peaches.

With the string of 90+ degree days we've been having lately in New Hampshire, I've been enjoying stir-frying outdoors on the patio with my 100,000 BTU Thai-made wok ring. Dinner the last two nights were pad prik gai bai grapow (Thai stir-fried chicken with chiles and holy basil) and pork lo mein. Tonight will be kung pao chicken.

-Paul W.

Thanks for the anniversary wishes....it's been a great journey!

[Robin Garr]

My version of Kung Pao chicken from an old, purportedly authentic Chinese recipe, chik'n (Gardein) stir-fried with tiny chile peppers, lots of garlic, hoisin and hot brown bean sauces and a shot of Sriracha "rooster" sauce. 

Oh my, those peppers are hot!

[Robin Garr]

Oh my, those peppers are hot!

If you're talking about the ones in my last picture, Bill, those are definitely flavoring peppers and not eating peppers.

[Robin Garr]

Caprese again, this time made in a different style than the other day, with bite-size cubes of fresh Italian Oxheart tomatoes and fresh mozzarella marinated in olive oil, a little lemon juice, kosher salt and Tellicherry pepper, garnished at service with fresh basil chiffonade. 

Spaghetti alla salsa cruda with fresh Italian oxheart heirloom tomatoes, green onions, loads of garlic and ample Barracha olive oil.

Robin, did you mean Brachia olive oil ?

Drew

[Robin Garr]

Spaghetti alla salsa cruda with fresh Italian oxheart heirloom tomatoes, green onions, loads of garlic and ample Barracha olive oil.

Robin, did you mean Brachia olive oil ?

Drew

No, but I did spell it wrong. It's Baracchi, a ripe green Tuscan extra-virgin that California Wine Club sends out as an extra when it picks up a release of Baracchi Tuscan wines. This link talks about the olive oil, but the $1 shipping offer attached to it is most likely out of date:

http://www.cawineclub.com/Azienda-Agric ... D1183.html

http://www.cawineclub.com/Azienda-Agric ... D1183.html

Interesting outfit. They don't even tell you how much oil is in the bottle. Just send $28 and find out!

[Robin Garr]

http://www.cawineclub.com/Azienda-Agricola-Baracchi-2010-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Oil_PD1183.html

Interesting outfit. They don't even tell you how much oil is in the bottle. Just send $28 and find out!

It's sort of like J.P. Morgan's yacht: If you have to ask, it probably isn't really for you anyway.

But seriously now, folks. It's a half-liter. The bulk of it went out as a free extra in a package of two Baracchi Tuscan wines. I guess they had some left over that they're selling club members at cost.

"Interesting outfit" it may be, but we've worked with California Wine Club since the late '90s and have been consistently impressed with their quality and good character, something that's desirable but not universal in the wine business.

[Robin Garr]

Gazpacho! Cool, spicy and delicious, and uses up a lot of garden produce. Great summer lunch ...

Chicken & dumplings, adapted for the slowcooker from Andrea Reusing's recipe Hen and Dumplings. Chicken was one of our Dark Brahma heritage birds who 'volunteered' to contribute to the cause this past weekend.
Turned out quite well, although it's hard to get the thickness correct in a slow cooker.

chicken dumplings.jpg

[Jenise]

Chicken & dumplings, adapted for the slowcooker from Andrea Reusing's recipe Hen and Dumplings. Chicken was one of our Dark Brahma heritage birds who 'volunteered' to contribute to the cause this past weekend.
Turned out quite well, although it's hard to get the thickness correct in a slow cooker.

chicken dumplings.jpg

I'd eat that! Though I agree, a little thickness would be desirable.

Last night's dinner was healthy vegetarian: bowls of summer squash followed by a tomato, basil, parlsey, onion and bell pepper salad with slices of mutli-grain toast from the best local bakery, The Breadfarm.

On the stove right now, an Amatriciana sauce (fresh tomatoes, bacon, onion, thyme and basil).

And tonight I'm not cooking; we're going to Incognito for a meal prepared by a visiting New York chef of some note, Dan Kluger.

[Robin Garr]

Okra is coming on strong In the garden now. Tonight, Indian bhindi curry with okra, onions, garlic, ginger and tomatoes, and plenty of fiery and complex Indian spice. A good beer might seem called for, but it actually went very well with Chateau des Cleons 2010 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie.

Best non-cow pizza yet: Shell from local bakery, tablespoon EVOO brushed on, one cup freshly made Italian tomato sauce, one half cup grated Pecorino Romano, eight onces shredded goat Mozzarella, thinly sliced farm fresh tomato, and our own basil jullianed. Baked on stone. Fantastic. Found the goat Mozzarella at Whole Foods last Monday.

Second in a row: Tonight it was "ends" of a fillet roast tonight cleaned carefully and grilled over charcoal and mesquite chips (nice ones), along with corn on the cob, and sliced beefsteak tomato over crisp leaves of lettuce. Washed it all down with an '08 Knapp Finger Lakes Merlot. Also had raspberry and peach pie from a Meninite lady at the farmer's market today. Excellante'.