Cool pictures of a few Amador wineries and a dinner at Taste through the lens of one of our lovely customers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnjoh/sets/72157615499574673/

 

Worth looking at, this guy is good with his camera!

A great guide to the wineries of the Foothills

More Almost Fall Pics!

Almost Fall Gala Pictures!

Almost Fall Gala Dinner

Such a fun night! Not only did we have a guest from Bangor Maine. (HI TESS!) but, my entire family came for dinner. Buck and Karly, Mom and Larry, all my sisters Kerin, Lisa, Lynne and their hubbys Jim, Greg and Tim were all present.

The menu was simple and really good tasty ingredients made it just perfect. What a great time of year! I still had all the fresh garden herbs and ripe juicy tomatoes in the garden that made for exquisite garnishes and an amazing salad course. Dessert was simple and made with phenomenal local Figs. Yummy! I just have to add that this was a menu made up of my favorite childhood and young adult foods. The first time I ever had Chicken Cordon Bleu was at a dinner show at Harrahs Lake Tahoe. My dad took the family to go see the Carpenters. I was maybe 8 years old. The first thing I learned how to cook well was seared scallops and Karly introduced me to her amazing Bleu Cheese Flan when I was 18 years old. I truly believe that figs are one of the most under rated fruits grown this time of year. I simply love figs! Bon Appetite my friends!

Marching into Spring Gala Dinner March 27 2009

Here is the slide show of the March dinner, enjoy! Thanks to Ron Wulff for his stellar photography.

 

New Peeps Wines and Recipes

2006 Barbera, Rich and vibrant this wine will rock with the simple dessert below. It’s our second bottling of Barbera here at Bantam. The first won awards, guess where? You’ve got it! Italy! Consorzio Internazionale De Barbera to be exact. Yeah we’re proud!
Strawberries and Barbera
yield: Makes 6 servings
active time: 15 min
total time: 1 1/4 hr

Sweet early strawberries in their prime and a good bottle of fruit-forward red wine — you just can’t go wrong with the simple combination of these two stellar ingredients
1 cup Garth Cobb Barbera
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
About 1/2 cup sugar
1 lb strawberries (2 pt), trimmed, and halved if large

preparation: Stir together wine, lemon juice, and sugar (to taste) in a bowl. Stir in strawberries and let macerate at room temperature 1 hour, then chill until cold, up to 1 hour but no longer. (Fruit will become too soft if it steeps for more than 2 hours.)
Serve berries in small bowls with some of their juices.

Serve alone or over pound cake, sponge cake or ice cream, also good topped with fresh whipped cream.

2008 Vermentino, this citrus forward wine screams to be served with lemon inspired dishes. I love it with any kind of seafood and roasted chicken. But this club wine is dedicated to desserts. Try the simple cookie recipe that follows for a special treat and serve them with a nice cold glass of dry, lemony and crisp 2008 Bantam Cellars Vermentino. Don’t forget to use your heart cookie cutter. This Varietal hails from the island of Sardinia. In France they call this grape Rolle. It is so good on the porch on a warm day or next to a fire when it’s chilly out. Enjoy!

Lemon Almond Sugar Cookies
Cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or solid vegetable shortening, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt

Icing
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons (or more) milk
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
preparation: For cookies:
Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in large bowl until light. Beat in egg, lemon juice, lemon peel and almond extract. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Add to butter mixture and stir until well combined. Divide dough into 3 pieces. Flatten each into disk. Wrap each in plastic and chill 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out 1 dough piece on lightly floured surface to thickness of 1/8 inch. Using cookie cutter dipped into flour, cut out cookies. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheets, spacing evenly. Gather scraps, reroll and cut out additional cookies, chilling dough if necessary. Bake until cookie edges are golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool. Repeat rolling, cutting and baking with remaining dough pieces in batches. For icing
Place sugar in bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons milk and lemon juice. Add more milk if icing is too thick to pipe.
Spoon icing into a pastry bag fitted with small round tip or into parchment cones. Pipe icings decoratively onto cookies. Let stand until icing sets, about 2 hours. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Store cookies in single layers in airtight containers.)

Marching into spring 2009

Marching into Spring Gala Dinner

Friday March 27^th at 6:30 PM

It’s going to be spring soon and with new things in bloom we invite you to join us for a sumptuous repast full of the flavors of a bright new season on the horizon. This is a six-course meal with full service. Seating is limited. We suggest you get local lodging or have a designated driver as the wine freely flows. This dinner is $90.00 per person.

 

 

Starter Course

Mixed Antipasto and Ciabiatta

 

Imported olives, soppressata, marinated vegetables, pepperoncini and mozzarella served with fresh ciabiatta

Wine Pairing: 2006 Chanteclair 

 

Appetizer Course

Penne Pasta with Roasted Garlic, Tomato and mild Italian Sausage Ragu

 

Penne with a rich, meaty and savory sauce

Wine Pairing: 2006 Barbera 

 

Soup Course

Porcini Mushroom Soup with Parmesan crisps

 

Creamy rich soup with dry sherry accents and fresh chives

Wine Pairing: 2007 Vermentino

                                                                                                                                                                      

Salad Course

Classic Caesar with Baguette Croutons

 

Crisp Romaine hearts with traditional Caesar dressing and homemade butter and garlic Baguette Croutons

Wine Pairing: 2007 “Cock of the walk” Zinfandel

 

Main Course

Pesto Chicken with Zucchini and Red and Yellow Peppers. Served with Polenta and cheesy herbed Baked Tomatoes

 

Zucchini and Sweet Peppers mingle with moist Chicken topped with homemade Pesto Cream Sauce and Parmesan crumbs and baked to perfection.

Wine Pairing: 2006 Primitivo

 

Dessert Course

Biscotti with fresh seasonal fruit topped with Mascarpone cheese

Wine Pairing: 2007 Viognier

Happy New Year!

Here’s to a very happy, prosperous 2009.

What are ya’ll doing tonight?

Garth is driving our lovely daughter down to her love intrests family home in Modesto where she was invited to ring in the New Year with them. When he returns we will start with the champagne and other such goodies.

We’ll start with nibbles of Duck Liver Pate with truffles and Le Fromage D’affenois on fresh baguette.

I’m going to make grilled Mahi-Mahi tacos with chiople slaw and all the fixings. 

We plan on getting pretty sloppy and assembling photo albums of the years accumulation of sports photos. Then we’ll play board games with Ryder and hopefully it will be nearing the midnight hour by then. Every year it’s quite the challenge to make it to 12:00 am. Two bottles of champagne per person will do that.

Hap—Hap—Hap—Happy New Year!

In my South we move slowly because we can!

Wow…this was a fun one! Challenging but fun none the less! We were full to capacity and frying chicken for fifty people is much more of a challenge then I ever thought it could be. Thank you to my Peeps who were so very forgiving. (you know who you are!)

Next year I promise to check all my dinner dates against the football calendar for Amador High. Ryder is a senior next year, so, I’ll only be a coaches widow one more time. (that is if he can really walk away!)

Enjoy the slide show and the recipes…

 

 

Purple Parrot Corn and Crab Bisque

 

½ teaspoon Clarified Butter

1/3 cup yellow onion medium dice

¼ cup green bell peppers medium dice

¼ cup celery medium dice

1-teaspoon garlic minced

11/2 teaspoons dried basil

1-teaspoon white pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon thyme

11/2 quarts chicken stock

¼ cup white wine

1-tablespoon brandy

2 teaspoons Worcestershire

2 teaspoons Tabasco

3 cups fresh corn kernels scraped with pulp (or two cans whole kernel corn drained)

½ cup margarine

½ cup flour

3 cups heavy cream

1 cup half and half

1 tablespoon Crescent City grill Creole seasoning (recipe follows)

2 pounds jumbo lump crabmeat, picked of all shell

 

In an 8-quart saucepan sweat onion, bell pepper, and celery in clarified butter over medium heat until soft.  Add garlic, basil, pepper, cayenne and thyme. Stir well making sure that the spices are incorporated. Add stock, wine, brandy, Worcestershire and Hot Sauce. Cook on high 7-10 minutes and then reduce heat to Medium. While stock is boiling make a light peanut butter colored roux with the margarine and flour. Add the corn to the stock. Add the roux slowly to the hot stock whisking as it’s added. Add heavy cream, half and half, Creole seasoning and fold the crabmeat in. Serve hot and garnish with freshly chopped parsley.

1 gallon.

 

Creole Seasoning

½ cup Lawry’s seasoned salt

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons paprika

1-tablespoon cayenne pepper

1-tablespoon white pepper

1 tablespoon plus 1-teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried mustard

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1-teaspoon thyme

 

 

Pain au Chocolat Bread Pudding yield: Serves 6 to 8

ingredients

• 6 cups lightly packed bite-size pieces croissant (from about eight 5 1/2-inch croissants)
• 6 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

preparation

In a large baking pan dry bread, uncovered, at room temperature 12 hours. (Alternatively, dry bread in a 250°F oven 1 hour.)

Butter a 1 1/2-quart shallow baking dish.

Chop chocolate.  Arrange half of bread in one layer in baking dish and sprinkle evenly with the chocolate. Top mixture with remaining bread.

In a bowl whisk together eggs, sugar, milk, 1/2 cup cream, vanilla, and salt and pour slowly and evenly over bread. Cut butter into bits and dot pudding with it. Chill pudding, covered, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Bake pudding in middle of oven until slightly puffed and golden, about 40 minutes.

Serve with Bourbon Sauce.

 

ingredients

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons bourbon
• Pinch of salt

preparation

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Simmer until thickened, whisking often, about 3 minutes. Cool slightly. Pool onto plates and top with chocolate croissant bread pudding.