HOW TO: Host a Wine Tasting (Featuring NAKED WINES!)

Some people are great at fixing things, or building things, and some people are even good at doing things. Painting, skiing, singing.... these things are called talents. I, too, have talents (which is the only way you know someone has talents, because they tell you.). Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, singing will never be my ticket to fame and I will never get to be a pop star. My talents are a little more focused on things that I can put in my stomach and, fortunately for those around me, include drinking wine and feeding people. You might be asking yourself... Drinking wine is a talent? And I will tell you that the answer is yes. Drinking wine is a talent. One that I am exceedingly good at and also one that pairs very well with feeding people. People say, "Sarah, I think you have a problem." And I say, "No, I have a hobby that I am very great at. Are you jealous?"

So, just as doctors and architects take continuing education courses to stay on their game and learn new things, people who love wine have wine clubs. Richard and I are members of a great wine club called Naked Wines. Naked wines is a unique club where you invest directly in independent wine makers and in turn get huge discounts on the wines those winemakers make. Your monthly $40 "investment" goes into your account and you get to use that money towards the wine you buy.  I'd explain it more but I don't really like math. What I do like is a lot of great wine for very little money. So, as you can imagine I was excited to use this as an excuse to host a party. To be fair though, for me a strong breeze is a good enough reason to host a party, but wine is even better. Luckily for Rich and I, Naked Wines was kind enough to give us the opportunity (and the wine) to host a tasting with some of their new wines that we hadn't tried yet.  And while I told them that Richard and I didn't need help and that we could taste the wines all by ourselves, they suggested we invite a few friends. 

Wines:

Matt Iaconis Margaret River Valley Sauvignon Blanc Semilon 2013

La Tapatia Pinot Noir Nappa Valley 2012

Sartirano Piemonte DOC Barbera 2011

Sin Fronteras Los Primos Red Wine 2012

S & A Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley 2012

Matt Iaconis Globetrotter Red CA USA 2012

We are a red wine loving group, so while we did try one great Sauvignon Blanc, we kept the tasting focused on a selection of red wines. 

Along with the wines, we prepared several small bites for our friends to nibble on during their tastings.  For a cocktail party, it is a good idea to serve your guests about 5 ounces of cheese and 4 ounces of per person. You always want to make sure there's more than enough to eat when you are serving alcohol (don't worry, it won't go to waste. You'll crawl out of bed and finish it off at 3am). If your party will include dinner and the charcuterie will be presented as an appetizer, 2-3 ounces of cheese and about 4 slices of meat per person should be enough. If not tell your friends to stop pigging out on your free food! 

Some great snacks to serve at a wine tasting or cocktail party:

Assorted cheese and charcuterie with an assortment of dried fruits, nuts, olives, and crackers

Some of my favorite cheeses to serve are manchego, brie, gouda, camemburt, stilton, & cotswald. I always chooses a few that I know everyone will like and then a couple new ones to experiment with. 

Cheeses are at their optimum flavor at room temperature, so remove them from the refrigerator about 60 minutes before serving. 

I also prepared a spread of cured italian meats including several different salamis, mortadella, prosciutto, and bresaola. 

Some other great things to serve with charcuterie:

Crackers, crsuty bread, flatbreads, and crostinis

Fruits: Figs, grapes, apples, pears, dried apricots, dried cherries

Nuts: Almonds walnuts, pistachios, pecans

Jams & Spreads: Fig jam, onion confit, pesto, olive tapenade, mustard

Other: Roasted peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, cornichons, assorted olives

When serving charcuterie, I aways accompany the meats with whole grain mustard, cornichons, and arugula. 

Assorted Crostinis

Heirloom tomato brushetta topped with buratta cheese

Figs with goat cheese, honey and thyme

Butternut squash with sage and crispy pancetta

Artisan Flatbreads  

Caramelized shallots and mushrooms

Mozzarella and fresh basil

Brie cheese, apples, and caramelized onions

And of course we had a spread of fancy baked treats from Three Dog Bakery for the pups. 

we really have the loveliest of friends.

If you live in LA, you know every friend that you invite over has a dog that they really are dying to bring to your house... And since we have a lot of dogs ourselves, I figured what better than to take a classy afternoon and turn it into a dog halloween party. We are clearly a very well rounded bunch! 

Octopuses, Donkeys, and Skeletons, Oh my!

Thank you again, Naked Wines, for sponsoring such a wonderful afternoon! For more information about what they do (and how to get them to send you wine) visit http://us.nakedwines.com/

Cheers!

Fried Chicken Southern Feast

I talk about a lot of things that I love on this blog. It's safe to say that I'm a pretty lovey- dovey person. (You should see me after a glass of wine...) But there are few things that give me butterflies more than a dinner party. (Except Rich, a glass of wine... or even better, Rich handing me a glass of wine). As I've gotten older, I've even found ways to tie all of the things that I love into a dinner party.  And with Michael's sister, Elizabeth, in town, it was the perfect time to tie all the people I love into a meal that was, if I must say so, to die for. And, if you've read my blog, you know that if I'm cooking dinner, people are gonna get fed... a lot.

Since Elizabeth is from North Carolina (she goes to college in Boone, the same little town Rich grew up in), and since I am trying to look as unattractive as possible before heading to our Palm Springs vacation, I decided that it was the perfect night for some fried chicken! I mean, when is it not the perfect time for fried chicken? Now, since I don't break out the deep frier very often (I care about my health and I would like my husband to still have three or four abs), when I do bust it out, IT'S ON! Like Donkey Kong. Which is about how big I felt after eating my way through this epic dinner. Who wants to go bikini shopping!?

Dinner Menu:

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Biscuits with Pimento Cheese

Fried Pickles

Marinated Heirloom Tomatoes

Cheddar Grits

Homemade Fresh Mint Ice Cream

Ingredients

3 pounds or so of chicken pieces. I used thighs and drumsticks. (If you buy happy, humanely raised, free range chickens, I will think you are a better person and so will the universe. Thanks.)

1 quart buttermilk 

4 cups unbleached flour
1 tbsp baking soda

3 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp hungarian paprika

2 tsp black pepper

3 tsp kosher salt

Canola oil for frying (Or peanut, or another high heat oil)

Special Equipment:

Deep Fryer or heavy dutch oven pan (think Cast Iron Le Crueset.) We have the Breville deep fryer from Williams Sonoma and I love it.... I just wish it was 4 times bigger!

Method:

Place chicken pieces in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk over them. Let marinate for as long as possible. I marinated for about 12 hours, but overnight would be ideal!

Set deep fryer to 320 degrees. If you are using a dutch oven, use a thermometer to regulate temperature. Mix flour and spices together in a large bowl. Remove chicken from buttermilk and coat with flour mixture. Fry chicken for about 12 minutes until golden brown, crispy, and 160 degrees in the center. I am OCD and temperature check every piece of chicken! Transfer to a drying rack to drip and then keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.

 

cheddar grits.

i spy....

 

and then Tuna joined us for dinner. 

*Note: We don't usually let Lucy (Tuna) sit at the head of the table,

but she hurt her paw so we wanted to make her feel better

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Dear loyal blog readers (Mom) and friends,  

You may have noticed my absence over the past 5 days. Your day probably wasn't the same without me, I know. But for this, there is a reason. It's not a good one, but it is indeed a reason. On Saturday we had a BBQ. Now, you may or may not have had the privilege of attending one of our summer fetes, but let's keep it vague (and PG) and just say that they are usually pretty epic. We cook (a lot) we drink (a whole lot) and sometimes we (I) end up twirling around my living room in my undies around 8pm. It happened and I am not sorry. (Except to my mother...) Needless to say, my dancing skivvies and I have needed a couple of days of recovery time before I was ready to share this absolutely, most delicious veggie burger recipe with you. 

Veggie burgers are something that I have a pretty hard time with. The frozen ones are nasty and I try to steer clear from tofu and fake meat. So, really my only option is to make them from scratch. I've tried quite a few recipes and this one is by far my absolute favorite. Super moist on the inside and perfectly crispy on the outside. They are packed with protein and tons of nutrition so that if you have a few (hundred) cocktails your body might hate you a little less. *Note: If you make them, but then do not eat any of them, or anything at all, your body will hate you more. A lot more. Welcome to my Monday.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes

1/2 cup quinoa, cooked

1 cup old fashioned oats 

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

2 teaspoons cumin powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon chipotle powder 

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Roast the sweet potatoes: Slice the sweet potatoes down the center lengthwise. Place the sweet potatoes cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until they yield to a gentle squeeze, 30 to 40 minutes or longer. Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove the skin (it should pull off easily) and roughly chop the insides. Set aside to cool completely.

Cook the quinoa. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of water to boil. Stir in the millet, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until tender (about 25 minutes). Drain off any remaining liquid and set aside to cool.

Grind the oats. Use a food processor or blender to grind the oats until the flakes are broken up, but not as fine as flour.

Mix the burgers. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your electric mixer, combine the cooled sweet potatoes and quinoa, black beans, onion, cilantro, cumin, chipotle, cayenne and salt and pepper. Use a potato masher, big mixing spoon or the paddle attachment of your mixer to mix really well. It’s ok if the black beans get smashed in the process.

Mix in the oats. Sprinkle the ground oats over the mixture and mix well with a big spoon until the mixture holds together when you shape a portion into a patty. If possible, cover and refrigerate the mixture for best results (the patties will hold together better during cooking if they are chilled first).

Shape the burgers: Measure out 1/2 cup of the mixture. Gently shape it into a patty. Use your hands to gently flatten the burgers and smooth out any jagged edges. Repeat the process for each patty; you should end up with 8.

Panfry the burgers: Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large cast iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, place several burgers in the pan, leaving enough room to flip them. Cook each patty until browned and heated through, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet for each pan of burgers you fry

Pan frying the burgers give them a crispy outside. Then I threw them on the grill for a few minutes so they tasted more like BBQ!

Enjoy!

(Recipe adapted from cookieandkate.com)

Fresh Pasta Sauce & First Kisses

So in case you've been wondering, I had my first kiss in Kindergarden. It was with a boy named Sage (awesome foreshadowing for a young chef; I bet if I was into ladies, her name would have been Rosemary). I was 5 at the time and was attending kindergarten at Sacred Hearts Catholic School in Toronto, Canada. I haven't talked to Sage since, maybe because my family moved to another country, maybe because he was intimidated by my charming ways, maybe because we were five and he went on to marry a lovely woman named Lavender... I guess we will never know.

I'm not sure when Richard had his first kiss.... if I had to guess, he was probably 4 because he always has to beat me and he's always been a bit slutty. Either way, I know for sure it was not with his friend Caitlin, who he went to elementary school with at St. Patrick's Catholic School in Charlotte, North Carolina. How do I know this you ask? Because tonight she and her husband came over for dinner and I asked her. It wasn't awkward at all.

I know. My mind is blown, too... the ONE GILR EVER that Rich hasn't kissed!!!

In case you are wondering, Richard and Caitlin hadn't seen each other since elementary school, so when we found out she and her husband, Tommy, were moving to Los Angeles it was quite an exciting surprise. And you know what happens when this ginger gets excited... DINNER PARTY!

Reunited and it feels so good!

With it being peak tomato season and our garden producing quite an abundance of San Marzano tomatoes, a pasta night was absolutely necessary... and when we throw around the term PASTA NIGHT  in this house, we are not effing around. I'm wearing the engagement ring of Rich's dead Italian grandma so I have a pretty high bar to live up to, lest I find my self resting eternally next to her. So when we say "pasta" we're talking homemade pasta and homemade marinara.... with all the ingredients from our garden!

Fresh Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 pounds of ripe San Marzano tomatoes, blanched and peeled (Roma will work great, too)
1/2 an onion, grated
1 stalk celery, minced
1 carrot, grated
3 cloves of garlic, minced
A splash of red wine
Lots of fresh basil
Lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
& lots of  FRESH PASTA (recipe here)

Method:
Begin by blanching the tomatoes. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Score the bottom of each tomato with a small "X" and then drop them into the boiling water for about 30 seconds and then put them into an ice bath to stop the cooking and let them cool. You will then be able to peel the skin off of them very easily. Do this with all of the tomatoes and then set them aside.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and sauté the grated onion, carrot, and celery. Sauté until starting to caramelize. Add the minced garlic and cook just a minute until fragrant. Add a splash of red wine. I do this because I think it tastes delicious.... and lord knows I am rarely in the kitchen without a glass of it already in hand. Once the wine is reduced, add the tomatoes and bring everything to a simmer. Turn the heat to LOW and let cook for at least an hour.

The longer you cook tomato sauce, the more caramelized and delicious it gets! Your tomatoes should pretty much break down from cooking, but if they are a little chunkier than you like, you can use an immersion blender to get your sauce smooth right before serving it. Season with salt and pepper, top with tons of fresh basil and parmesan cheese and serve!

One bowl, four hours of love, several hundred noodles of perfection

 Madness:

The dinner was amazing and tipsy. We even kept warm by a fire in our very own fire pit. Needless to say, we are so thrilled to have Caitlin and Tommy living in Los Angeles there will be many more amazing dinners to come! Cheers!!

Tommy: "Where's Caitlin!?"

Three Dog Night

Homemade Ricotta Cheese & Lemon Ricotta Pasta with Arugula

Can my titles get any longer? Jeeze. 

There are some mornings where I wake up and think "Do they deliver pizza at 10am?" (Translation: How do I keep from having to cook today. Alt translation: I am hungover.) Then there are other mornings where I wake up and think, "That laundry won't smell that much worse tomorrow. If a bill is already late what's one more day?" (Translation: I love cooking so much that you can't get me out of the kitchen today). Today is a "Let the mold grow on my old towels, I'm finding a home-made cheese recipe" day. 

Rich is playing dead on the couch with a tweaked back. This happens to him sometimes. He is old now. It could be worse. He could be actually dead on the couch. Not that I would know, today I'm busy being a cheesemonger. I kid. Usually I would feel bad for him, but this time I think his agonizing pain may have to do with karma and the location of his wedding band being somewhere in the middle of Melrose Avenue (read more here) but either way..... I take playing nurse very seriously and as the world's best nurse- I know that curing a man is just as easy as making him fall in love with me.... through his stomach, of course. 

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

We were at a friend's party a few months ago... you know, one of those super grown up, bring a dish to contribute, cook with your friends party. A party like that is usually my favorite kind because I can show off a bit,  but oh no. Not this time. Some girl walked in the door and announced that for her "party trick" she was going to make homemade ricotta cheese because "it's so much better to eat it fresh and warm." I bet she's an actress. I should give her some notes and make her say that again, but in a way that didn't make me want to gag. Who am I kidding, it wasn't how she said, it was what she said. I hated her instantly. I hate most people that show me up (I also hate other gingers for a similar reason. Except for Prince Harry. Rich, I dare you to lose another wedding band.) So, everyone gathered in the kitchen (I sulked in the back corner) and began ooh-ing and ah-ing at how much cooler this girl was than me. Even worse, they didn't even bother to compare her to me. Now, usually after such a traumatizing experience I would have gone home that night and made 6 batches of perfect ricotta just to repair my ginger ego... (which is as tender as ginger skin in the June sun) but this time was different. I needed a few months before I was ready to tackle this cheesy masterpiece... and today seemed like the perfect day. 

Now, had I known that ricotta cheese is literally one of the easiest things I have ever made, maybe I would have been a little bit less of an embarrassment to myself in the story above. But, alas, nobody is perfect... including Ms. Party Ricotta (worst Halloween costume ever.)


Ingredients:
4 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp kosher salt
3 tbsp organic white wine vinegar


Method:
Set a large strainer over a deep bowl. Dampen 2 layers of cheesecloth with water and line the strainer with the cheesecloth.

Combine the milk, cream and salt into a pot and bring to a full boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat and stir in the white wine vinegar. Allow the mixture to stand for a couple of minutes until it curdles. It will separate into thick parts (the curds) and milky parts (the whey).

Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth-lined strainer and allow it to drain into the bowl at room temperature for 20 to 25 minutes, occasionally discarding the liquid that collects in the bowl. The longer you let the mixture drain, the thicker the ricotta. Transfer the ricotta to a bowl, discarding the cheesecloth and any remaining whey.

That's it! So simple and it really makes such a difference to use fresh ricotta in a recipe..... like this one:

Lemon Ricotta Pasta with Arugula

I love pasta so much. I have said this 1000 times just today. My favorite pasta dishes are bright, hearty, and fresh tasting and this one is exactly that! Now, you do not have to use homemade ricotta cheese, though I do recommend it. If you MUST buy a store-bought cheese, try to find a whole milk ricotta so that you get a creamier texture. Not a vegetarian? Add some grilled chicken to this dish for a great dinner.

Ingredients:
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 lemons, juiced and zested
2 cups fresh ricotta cheese (the above recipe should yield about that)
A few big hand-fulls of arugula (I used both baby and wild)
A pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 cup reserved pasta water
Kosher Salt

Method:
Cook pasta in well salted water. Cook it to al dente- it's better that way.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil, sliced garlic, and red pepper flakes over low heat. You are just infusing the oil... do not brown the garlic or your pasta will taste bitter. Strain the garlic and pepper flakes from the oil. 

Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup or so of the water, and toss the pasta with the garlicky olive oil, ricotta cheese, lemon juice and zest, and arugula. The heat from the pasta should be just enough to wilt the arugula. If your pasta is a little dry, you can add the reserved pasta water a little at a time. 

Season with kosher salt and serve. 

Wine & Cheese. Happy Sunday

It's that day. The best day of the week. Happy Sunday everyone! Thank you DomaineLA for another fabulous tasting!

This post is worth 1000 words......

why yes, those are homemade pickles

advice.

domaineLA = the real deal.

rose for days

This bitch.....

the loves of my life (I am talking about their glasses, obviously....)

Cheers!

xx