deVine Table

Every year the hubby asks me if I want to go out to dinner for Valentine’s Day. Every year my answer is the same. “I’d rather stay home.” Wouldn’t you? I mean, really, any place you eat at is going to be charging a premium for a limited menu and wants to rush you out the door in order to turn your table. That’s not my idea of romance.

Why not take that money you would spend on dinner out and splurge on some really great wine and some decadent ingredients? Now, that is romantic! (more…)

Squash Fritters with Chimichurri Paired with Malbec

Trying to come up with of a way to reinvent some leftover spaghetti squash, I recalled a recipe for fritters in Greg Atkinson’s book, “At the Kitchen Table.” His version is based on parsnips, but I can’t get the hubby to eat those. Besides, we were in need of a side dish to pair with a Malbec.

So, after a few tweaks, this is what I came up with. When I asked the hubby what he thought of the Spaghetti Squash Fritters he replied, “There’s spaghetti squash in there? I couldn’t tell; they’re delicious.”

Makes 8 fritters

• 3/4 cup cooked spaghetti squash
• 1 tablespoon Cilantro Chimichurri, plus extra for serving
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons butter

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The food and wine pairing classes I’ve taken at Northwest Wine Academy have had an ongoing influence on me. In Varietals II where red wine is explored at great length, we were tasked with serving a dish to pair with Malbec. I’m now obsessed with pairing food with Malbec. All the time. Seriously. (more…)

Here’s a quick and dirty guide for throwing a party together when time and money are limited. We’ve culled together a couple of our favorite recipes, drink ideas, and party planning tips to help keep the merry in your merrymaking.

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Sure, there are those who might be stunned that anyone might have leftover wine from dinner. When it happens who can bear to let even a drop of our precious juice go to waste? The good news is, there’s no need to pour that wine down the drain!

1. Cook pasta in wine. I saw Mario Batali do this on The Chew and thought, “why the heck haven’t I done that before?”  If you’ve got some inexpensive wine in the house, using it to make Wine Stained Gemelli and Sausage Meatballs is well worth considering. (more…)

There are many advantages to eating in. For one thing, we can substitute anything we like! For another, we can open any bottle in the house without paying a 50% or greater markup. It’s also a heck of a lot cheaper overall than I imagined.

When the hubby and I eat out, he always makes comments about how inexpensive the raw cost of ingredients must be for foods like pizza or pasta. He is an accountant after all! So, I did a little experiment and broke down the cost of homemade pizza for the two of us and compared it to what we paid the last time we went out for pizza in Seattle. (more…)

AniChe Cellars at right pouring at Debuts and Discoveries

It’s hard to keep up with all the new wineries in Washington State these days. That’s why we like events like Debuts and Discoveries. An event dedicated to tasting wines from new players in the Washington wine scene helps us to taste a number of wines in one night.  I was lucky enough to be a judge at the event, so tasting as many wines as possible was honestly my duty!

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I had the good fortune to recently attend a dinner featuring Foster Farms chickens. As if it wasn’t enough that I got to spend an evening in good company while enjoying a fantastic meal, our hostess Anne Nisbet  generously sent each guest home with fresh chicken stock. This is how I put that stock to use.

This dish was inspired by a recipe from The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook. Authentic paella uses rice and takes longer to cook. This is one of those dishes I put together with ingredients in my pantry, hence the orzo. The end result is less time consuming and is still tasty.

Makes 4 servings

• 2 ½  cups  chicken stock
• ¼ teaspoon saffron threads
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 small chopped onion
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 cup orzo (I like to use whole wheat)
• 2 links fully cooked smoked sausage, sliced (I like to use chicken chorizo if I can find it; kielbasa is fine too)
• ½ lb smoked chicken, diced
• 1 pint roasted cherry tomatoes
• ½ c peas

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A table dressed for a chicken dinner

If you follow me on Twitter or are a fan on Facebook, you’ve been hearing me go on about my disbelief over how only 5% of consumers purchase whole chickens. During this tough economic time, even though we hear complaints and concerns about the rising cost of food, the consumer is not making economical food choices. The consumer is choosing to pay more for parts.

This is one of the interesting and surprising facts that I learned from Jamie Peha during a Seattle Food Community Dinner hosted at the home of the charming Anne Nesbit.  Anne, a true example of the gracious hostess, had spent the last day preparing a fantastic multi-course dinner for us featuring chicken. Why? I have to admit that when I first received the invitation I said to the hubby, “I wonder if the company that uses chicken puppets in its commercials is finding that consumers don’t take them seriously?” (more…)

Last quarter, my life as a student at the Northwest Wine Academy led me to the Food and Wine Pairing Varietals II class in which we studied the craft of pairing red wines with food. In this class our instructor, Chef Lenny Rede, challenged us with an assignment he titled Iron Chef:  Malbec.

What made this so challenging? Each team of students was randomly assigned a course to pair with a Malbec. Which Malbec? That’s the thing – we wouldn’t know ahead of time. Pairing a dish to a wine we haven’t yet tasted?  What a great opportunity to see if the food and wine pairing principles we’ve learned along the way will work!

Flavors in Malbec and Why They Matter

Before tackling this assignment, we took into account Chef Lenny’s tips for pairing food with Malbec. First, consider the flavors typically found in Malbec. These may include blackberry, blueberry, cocoa, citrus, black pepper, and a general smokiness. You can match the wine with food by selecting similar or contrasting flavors.

Ingredients That Work with Malbec

Then, select a base ingredient that is likely to partner well with the varietal. Recommended base ingredients to pair with Malbec include beef, lamb, veal, pork, smoked salmon, tuna, chicken, duck or sausage. When preparing these ingredients to pair with Malbec, the best cooking techniques include grilling, roasting, smoking, or barbecuing. (more…)