Cooking With Michele® » Wine

Barrel Tasting at The Infinite Monkey Theorem Urban Winery

Michele — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:36:10 +0000

Did you ever bid on something at a silent auction, not really knowing what it would be like, only to be disappointed later? This story is the opposite of that. I purchased a wine lab with barrel tasting for 10 people from The Infinite Monkey Theorem winery, and all I can say is wow – what a great night we had!The Infinite Monkey Theorem winery is the brainchild of this guy, Ben Parsons.
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Peach Sangria

Michele — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:04:42 +0000

My idea for serving peach sangria for a party of the women in my neighborhood all started when I found this great summer beverage dispenser at Costco. It holds a full 3 gallons, it’s lightweight acrylic so you can easily move it around, and it seemed like it was just calling for a summer sangria. I’m not sure if there is any special authentic recipe for sangria – I tend to just start mixing things until it tastes right. But my combo this time was so delicious that I felt it’s worth capturing the recipe to share.
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Lost Notes…Found Again

Michele — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:14:03 +0000

I was cleaning out my purse the other day and came across a tiny scrap of paper, merely 2 inches wide and less than 4 inches tall, quite worn and crumbled. On one side it has this listed:

- crostini
- sheep’s ricotta w/ chive, EVOO, S/P
- fallone (pizza dough with greens)
- braseola con ruchetta
- potato flan
- speck (Alto Adige)
- garlic crostini w/ oil
- cacio o’chiato (Calabria)
- parm reg
- fontina val d’osta
- pecorino r

I was stumped for a moment trying to figure out why I had written this list down. While it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s a list of Italian foods – including alot of great cheeses I might add – I couldn’t recall what it was. Here’s a bit of a clue: I did find these photos on my computer:

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Welcome to 2010…and Corn Chowder Recipe

Michele — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:00:36 +0000

Welcome to the new year! It doesn’t seem possible that 10 years ago we were ringing in the new millenium and wondering if the world would come to a crash with Y2K concerns. But yes, here we are 10 years later.
I rang in 2010 with my ten-course dinner for 16 of my best friends last night with a menu called Global Cuisine from Local Ingredients. I’ll run down the courses (including wine pairings) with a nod to all of the Colorado farmers, ranchers and producers who supplied product for each course.
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Colorado Mountain Winefest 2009

Michele — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:33:52 +0000

I’ve been delinquent for some time in posting about our trip to the Colorado Mountain Winefest weekend back in September, but better late than never! I arranged for about 25 of my friends, many who have toured wine regions in many countries around the world, to join me for a taste of our own local Colorado wines – oh yea – and to celebrate a big birthday that ends in a zero with me!

I like to arrive in a place early if there are planned activities or touring. It gives you a chance to unwind, adjust to any time zone changes, and generally settle in before the festivities begin. In this case we settled into the very lovely Wine Country Inn in Palisade, Colorado for the weekend.

It sits right up against the mesas on the western slope of Colorado, nestled in vineyards, and you’d never know you are only 100 feet off of the interstate.

On Friday morning, before the full crowd had arrived, the few of us who made it in early checked out these very fun cruiser bikes from Rapid Creek Cycles on Main St.

You can probably tell from looking at me that I’m more of a wine drinker than a bike rider, but combining the two on the easier of the mapped out wine routes (at the store owner’s suggestion) seemed like the perfect way to spend a gorgeous fall day.

So off we set, riding out of the small town (really just a block long) and into the vineyards…

…and thankfully we didn’t have to ride long before coming to our very first winery.

Doesn’t my husband look happy? That’s how we all felt after sipping a few CO wines at Canyon Wind, discovering that indeed we liked them, ordering some to be picked up later in the weekend, and re-boarding our bikes for the next leg of our ride.

If you’re not from Colorado, you might not be aware that the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, and Palisade in particular, are famous for growing the best peaches you can imagine. September is actually a little late in the season, but we still saw some gorgeous specimens at the farmers’ stands along the back roads of the area.

Stop two on our bike trip landed us at Garfield Estates Winery – named for that bluff in the rear that’s called Garfield Mesa. The guy running this place is a former tech guy who sold out, invested in some land on the western slope, and decided to get into the wine business. He’s passionate about wine, explained a great deal to us about why the Colorado climate is superb for growing grapes (hot and sunny days, cool nights, low moisure so little chance of rot, and very few pests), and speculated about where the region is going in terms of its wine making future (think syrah). We made our way back to the bike shop, back to the hotel to get cleaned up, and met up with the group for the scheduled Winemaker’s Dinner at Red Rose Cafe in Palisade.

Palisade isn’t exactly a dining hot spot, but I have to tell you that the Italian American-Vietnamese couple who own this place went all out for the meal. Marinated vegetables with goat cheese, mushroom soup, linguine with lobster…

…quail, pork tenderloin, and a cheesecake for dessert with Colorado peaches. And they couldn’t have been nicer welcoming us with a long “birthday table” in the center of the restaurant. Canyon Wind and Garfield happened to have been the winemakers who were there participating in the dinner, so we felt happy about our touring earlier in the day and felt more knowledgeable about what we were drinking.

Saturday morning is the traditional Winefest festival in the park, where you can see and participate in a crush, hang out in the park and listen to live music while sipping wine, and make your way around to all of the food and wine booths for tastings. The VIP ticket is probably the cheapest VIP ticket you’ll get for any event – $175 gets you into the special tent that has unlimited reserved wine tastings and top notch food prepared by a local culinary school, not to mention shade and water.

In between stops into the tent, we all just hung out under the trees enjoying each other’s company.

Back at the hotel, after cleaning up for the evening, it was time to celebrate the big birthday. We had the hotel cater the dinner for our group so we could stay local, enjoy our wines, and unwind together.

I had checked out Colorado wines in advance so the hotel could order in what I wanted to serve, but stopped short after finding not a single decent sparkling wine. Laurent Perrier Brut is a favorite of mine ever since touring the Champagne region of France – it’s pricey, but worth it for special occasions!

I wouldn’t call the fare at the hotel gourmet per se, but they put out a decent prosciutto wrapped shrimp appetizer followed by braised short ribs with whipped potatoes and green beans.

Not a bad way to celebrate a birthday!

On Sunday, most of us wandered down to the Palisade Farmers’ Market that runs down Main Street on Sundays. There’s live music, food, and stands full of local produce, and we managed to get back to the hotel just as the skies opened up and it began hailing and pouring rain.

But as it only seems to do in Colorado, an hour later when we boarded our charter mini-bus to tour a few of the wineries, the clouds had passed, the sun was out, and all was right in the world again.

Many of the vineyards had already been harvested, but some still had grapes hanging on them, waiting for that perfect moment when the sugar reaches the optimal level to meet the winemaker’s targets for his winemaking plans.

If you visit the Colorado wine country, Two Rivers over in Grand Junction actually has one of the few “wine estates” like you see so much in Napa or Sonoma. It’s a great setting for a wedding or a romantic get away, and it was the perfect last spot for us to taste our last few wines.

That’s my gang there – all bellied up to the bar and hanging on every word the guy from Two Rivers is saying. Or were they actually numb at this point to absorbing any more info about growing and making wine in Colorado and instead faking the listening while they just happily sipped whatever someone poured them? Hmmm…I know my guess!

As we left for Denver the next day, we encountered what fall in the Rocky Mountains is all about. It had been in the 80s on Friday and Saturday (sunbathing weather by the hotel pool), cool and crisp but pleasant on Sunday, and by Monday morning…

…here comes winter with the first snow storm of the year!

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Sangria

Michele — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:43:00 +0000

I promised you my sangria recipes from my party last week. Now you may think Sangria is a great summer drink, and it is. But it also works well with many tummy warming, rib sticking tapas dishes so I think you can serve it in the spring and fall also.You can vary the fruit according to your personal tastes – for white wine sangria I eliminate the oranges and strawberries and substitute green apples and green grapes.
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Izakaya Den for Dinner

Michele — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:50:00 +0000

I had the great pleasure of dining at Izakaya Den on Pearl Street in Denver this weekend. Opened by the same folks of the famed Sushi Den, I like the fact that they actually let you make reservations at this spot instead of waiting outside in line for one to two hours like you do at Sushi Den on most nights. I also like the variety of dishes they offer – from traditional sushi to a very eclectic east meets west fusion sort of thing.
I always start with edamame…
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Winefest Weekend

Michele — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:49:00 +0000

I just got back from a four day weekend at the Colorado Mountain Winefest Weekend – a first for me and most of the 20 friends who joined me there for a little wine (OK, a little more than a little) and a little birthday celebration.
I’ll post all about the event, our travels, our winery visits and the restaurants we went to on my Travel Journal later this week, but I thought you might like to know what were my favorite Colorado wines from the weekend full of tasting.

There are more wineries in Colorado than I had envisioned, and biking through them for a tasting tour was fun – you can’t get to everything that way so a wine shuttle tour like we took on Sunday is also a good way to get around. If you’re willing to spit when tasting, you can also easily drive yourself.

Here are my favorites from the weekend:

Whites

Leroux Creek Vineyards, Chardonnay, 2005

Canyon Wind, 47-Ten, White Table Wine, 2006

Two Rivers, Chateau Deux Fleuves Vineyards, Reisling, 2007

Reds

Garfield Estates, Cabernet Franc, 2007

Garfield Estates, Syrah, 2006

Canyon Wind, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004

Two Rivers, Chateau Deux Fleuves Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007

Two Rivers, Chateau Deux Fleuves Vineyards, Vintner’s Blend, 2006

Check back later in the week on the travel journal for more info on the weekend of wine!

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Taste of the Nation Vail – A Share Our Strength Benefit

Michele — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:42:00 +0000

I can’t tell you how excited I was when Foodbuzz asked me to represent them at the Taste of the Nation fundraising event in Vail to support Share Our Strength. SOS is the parent organization to Operation Frontline, the organization I volunteer with as a Chef Educator, teaching nutrition and cooking on a budget to various social services organizations serving low income households. I’ve just completed my seventh six-week class with them this year and am signed up for at least two more this fall – and I love every minute of my work with them!

Taste of the Nation is a national fundraiser for SOS, with events held in cities all around the country. The Denver event was held earlier this year, but if you’re in another city, you might just be able to find one near you still to be held this year.
The Vail dinner was held at the Westin Riverfront Hotel & Spa in Beaver Creek – and you can see from the views out of my hotel window, they couldn’t have picked a more serene location. The evening started with cocktails and appetizers on the patio just as the sun was setting behind the mountains with a nice band playing…lovely!

Taste of the Nation events spotlight some of the best and the brightest chefs within a given area, and the Vail Valley, fortunately, is home to many. Each chef created an appetizer as well as an entree or dessert course. First up was Kelly Liken of Kelly Liken & Rick and Kelly’s American Bistro with this Heirloom Tomato Ceviche in a Parmesan Filo Cup. A perfect morsel to whet the appetite at the beginning of the evening.

Paul Ferzacca of La Tour Restaurant & Bar in Vail presented this Organic Sugar Snap Pea with Cold Country Ham Consomme on Rye Toast with Whole grain Mustard Butter. I know it looks a tad bit weird, but it was really a tasty little bite of goodness.

I didn’t have a chance to really dig into the Vichyssoise with Larkspur House Cured Smoked Salmon, offered by Armando Navarro of Larkspur Restaurant, but the couple of sips I did have convinced me I could have eaten a bowl of this and called it an evening!

Sometimes the simplest bites of food are the most comforting. Jeremy Kittelson of Avondale Restaurant (inside the Westin) presented this wonderful Tomato and Basil Chicken Sausage on a skewer with a tomato, a piece of Parmesan cheese, and a leaf of basil. The menu said it also featured Anson Mills Polenta, but I couldn’t seem to locate that part of the dish! There was a fifth appetizer offered by Kevin Nelson of Terra Bistro – Baked Littleneck Clams with Spicy Olive and Tomato Tapenade and Toasted Pastina Dressing – but I just can’t seem to stomach (or even swallow) clams, so I passed on that. Must have been good though, because I couldn’t even find one around to snap a photo!

We were seated for dinner a little after 7pm and, since I was solo, I somehow ended up at the table with the band, the photographers, and some other 20 and 30 something kids. Although I felt like the grandmother of the group, I enjoyed their conversations, taught them a few things about wine selection and food pairings, and picked up some tips myself. Do you understand that in the whole Twitter world there are leaders and followers? Meaning there are people who tweet all day but don’t necessarily read anyone’s, and there are people who read other people’s tweets all the time but don’t tweet themselves. Do you know that seomoz.org offers a free tool called Trifecta to measure the strength of web pages, blogs and entire domains based on factors inherent to popularity, influence and ranking ability and see your impact compared against others in your industry? Do you care?! But I digress… The first seated course offered by Chef Jeremy was a Sea Scallop Ceviche with Melon, Avocado and Cilantro. I don’t like either scallops or melon, but I LOVED this dish! The chef explained that by “sous-viding” (is that a verb?) the melon with a honey lime vinaigrette that it totally changes the texture of it. I’m sold! I don’t think anything goes better with ceviche than a sauvignon blanc wine, and fortunately we were served Kenwood Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc to accompany the scallops.

Next up was Chef Kelly’s Pan Seared Colorado Striped Bass with Roasted Colorado Beets and a Shaved Fennel Salad, topped with Fresh Dill and a golden Beet Vinaigrette. The sommelier paired this with Paul Dolan Vineyards Chardonnay (organically grown, they pointed out) and I found this to be one of the few chardonnays that I liked. Paired with the fish? Heaven on a plate.

By the time the third course arrived, the sun had fully set outside and someone decided to dim the lights inside, so I apologize for the quality of my photos from this point on! That treat you see above is Honey-Glazed Roasted Quail over Olathe White corn and Wild Chanterelle Mushrooms, presented by Chef Paul. Thank goodness for Olathe sweet corn – otherwise I’d be considering a move closer to New Jersey. One of my favorite pinot noirs was served with the quail, Van Duzer Homestead Block Pinot Noir. That thing above the quail is a wild rice tuille – simple, but the crunch was a nice offset to the creaminess of the corn.

For the final entree, Chef Armando served up a Duo of Dry Aged Black Angus Beef – Bacon Wrapped NY Strip and Braised Short Rib on some Creamy Potatoes with Peas, Heirloom Carrots and a Bordelaise Sauce. Beef – if that’s what’s for dinner, then it seems a cabernet is what’s served with it. In this case, Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. It went well with the beef, but personally I could have stuck with the Pinot Noir.

I must confess that by this point, although all of the portions were small and the wines were just a tasting size pour, I was running out of room. But put down some fresh Colorado peaches and a glass of anything sparkling in front of me, and I can rally! Chef Kevin’s Colorado Peach Spring Roll Tempura with Honey-Ginger Ice Cream and Melted Sesame Candy paired beautifully with the off dry palate of Gloria Ferrer Sparkling Wine. The addition of basil inside the spring roll was a welcome surprise and made me think of making basil ice cream, since I’ve already tackled rosemary and tarragon ice cream this summer. Stay tuned for that… I cannot emphasize enough that $100 is a bargain for an event that features five fabulous appetizers and five mouthwatering courses created by five talented chefs, all paired with wines. Did I mention each chef personally appeared at the front of the dining room to present his dish and explain exactly how he/she made it? And of course, the most important thing is these dinners are helping to make Share Our Strength’s goal of “No Kid Hungry” a reality by 2015. Find a dinner near you and join in the fun!

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Fried Shoestring Zucchini

Michele — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:54:00 +0000

This will be my final post of recipes from last month’s Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 event. You can find my tabbouleh recipe already on this blog, so I won’t include it here, but instead, will go right to my favorite dish from the event, fried shoestring zucchini. Maybe I was just depressed, or maybe just craving fried food, but this stuff was delicious and addictive. I actually ate it for breakfast the morning I shot this photo!

Start by shredding zucchini on the fine setting of a mandoline. I have not tried making this using a grater, but I’m thinking if you don’t have a mandoline you could use a grater box, just making sure to grate the zucchini lengthwise so you get long ribbons.

Heat a saucepan of canola oil (about 2-3 inches deep) over medium high heat. You know it’s ready (about 350 degrees) when you dangle in a zucchini strip and it sizzles. Don’t put the zucchini into cold or cool oil or it will just absorb all of the oil. When the oil is hot, carefully add a good handful of the shredded zucchini to the oil – it will bubble fiercely because of the water in the zucchini, so just let it go awhile.

When the water has started cooking out (which takes a surprising amount of time, like 5 minutes or more), the bubbles will die down a bit and you will see the zucchini start to turn brown. Keep cooking it until it’s mostly browned, but not burning. Remove with a spider or slotted spoon and drain on paper towels while you cook the next batch. Make sure to salt the fried shoestring zucchini while it’s still hot – and since salty foods are a perfect pairing with Champagne, why not enjoy this as an appetizer with a glass of bubbly the next time you have friends over?

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