Leaves of Grape

Perfect Summer Activity: Making Stuffed Grape Leaves

Grape Leaves, Rice, Ground Beef, Allspice, Cinnamon, Salt and Lemon Juice; Made while drinking a glass of Kinton Syrah and listening to The Splendid Table on NPR. What could be better?

1 1/4 lb Beef or Lamb
1 cup basmati rice
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon salt
100 grape leaves (blanch fresh ones or buy in a jar)
Juice from one lemon

Put a plate in the bottom of a sauce pan to keep the grape leaves from burning.
Combine Beef, Rice (rinsed, not cooked), Spices and salt and mix
Set a leaf vein side up and place 1 tablespoon of the mixture onto a leaf and roll
Place into a sauce pan (repeat until the beef mixture is gone)
Place several plates on top of the grape leaves to hold everything together
Fill with water and bring to a boil.
Cover and simmer for 1 hour
Add the lemon juice and let simmer for 10 minutes
Drain and eat.

EWE not EW

photo credit: Ben

Sheep's Milk Cheeses are incredibly earthy, creamy and mouth-coatingly rich. They set the perfect stage for Syrah. Especially Santa Barbara Syrah, in all its bold, bright purple gem beauty.

Lambchopper, by Cypress Grove

Born to be mild, this sheep milk cheese is buttery in color and flavor with a long, complex finish. The texture is smooth and soft-firm, making Lamb Chopper™ an enchanting table or cooking cheese. The wheel is finished in natural wax. Made in Europe exclusively for Cypress Grove.

Situated where the giant redwoods kiss the Pacific Ocean in the rugged northernmost reaches of Humboldt County, California, Cypress Grove Creamery gets unique inspiration from the salt-etched voluminous fog that coolly rolls in nearly every day.

In Holland, Mary discovered a gouda maker who works with sheep milk and Cypress Grove Lamb Chopper was born. This sheep milk gouda is a smooth, almost buttery, organic cheese with a light and fruity aroma. One taste will not satisfy you as the surprising sweetness of this cheese lingers on your palate. Though it might be mild in intensity, this thoroughly addicting cheese has great depth of flavor.

Be Bold

Jasmine Rae deLong is an artisanal baker in Potrero Hill in San Francisco. She combines savory herbs and spicy components into her cupcakes, breads and cakes. She likes surprising people with her illicit combinations like wasabi frosting or raspberry basil filling.

I really enjoyed meeting her in a warehouse space on Bryant Street. She showed me these aprons she makes by hand with leftover fabric from an old upholstry company.

When I asked her how she gauges success she replied "By being as bold as I can be everyday."

Stay tuned for her Culinary Profiles interview, next month. In the meantime her website is: www.jasmineraebakery.com

You're the rhone that i want, ooh ooh ooh

Paso Robles, California
Hospice Du Rhone



Hospice is the wine festival celebrating Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Roussanne, Viognier and the other 17 varietals from the Rhone. Whole cluster fermentation, de-stemming completely, barrel programs, vineyard designates and vineyard block designates, cheese pairings, swirling, aromatics, terroir expression.



The key take aways are endless, and surely Winemaker Pete will have more technical information for you.



My take away? What did I learn?

I learned that I need to travel with secret weapon Ginger more often. She's 4 years old and is already planning to be a "scary minnie mouse" for halloween. She is sassy and gorgeously cute. She's also the daughter of one of the wine wizards behind the curtain. She's pretty much a mini-wizard. Pure magic.

She loves to dance. We danced to fast songs, slow songs, 50s songs and hip hop. And she owns a dancefloor like a supreme Vegas Showgirl meets Burlesque Pussy Cat. Her signature dance move is the floor slap and she means it. When she slaps the floor you best move out of her way. She is about to unleash a hurricane of twirls that generate enough wind to make your bouffant blow.



She helped me sniper all the pop rocks, pixie sticks, candy lipgloss and candy matchsticks from all the tables. And she did it with sashay style.

Wine events come and go. Vintages wow and disapoint.

But I am pretty sure this Hospice Du Rhone was my most favorite and will stand out for years to come.

Violet! violet

Purple is a general term for the range of shades of color occurring between red and blue.

The word 'purple' comes from the Old English word purpul which originates from the Latin purpura. This in turn is derived from the Koine Greek πορφύρα (porphyra), name of the dye manufactured in Classical antiquity from the mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a marine snail known as the Murex brandaris or the spiny dye-murex.[5]

The first recorded use of the word 'purple' in English was in the year AD 975.[6]


What shades of Purple are your favorite?

Cerulean?
Indigo?
Red-Violet?
Magenta?
Heliotrope?

Ewe not EW

photo credit: Ben

Sheep's Milk Cheeses are incredibly earthy, creamy and mouth-coatingly rich. They set the perfect stage for Syrah. Especially Santa Barbara Syrah, in all its bold, bright purple gem beauty.

TODAYS RECOMMENDATION: Torta del Casar is a cheese made from sheep's milk in the Extremadura region of Spain. It is named after Casar de Cáceres, its city of origin. The milk is curdled using a coagulant found in the pistils of the cardoon, a wild thistle. This ingredient lends a subtle bitterness to the otherwise rich and slightly salty tasting cheese. It is aged for at least sixty days. The fully ripe cheese has a creamy consistency in the center, and is traditionally eaten by slicing off the top and scooping out the inside.

In 1999, the cheese was given protected-origin status, regulations that stipulate not only where it can be produced, but also that it can only be made with the milk of Merino and Entrefina sheep. These breeds have a low yield of milk, and it takes the milk of 20 sheep to make a 2.2-pound wheel of Torta del Casar.

Torta del Casar is produced commercially today by eight family-run dairies. Only about 10 percent of the production is exported from Spain.

Happy Saint Paddy's Day!

Nothing matches the salty, briny, greasy deliciousness of a corned beef sandwich quite like a glass of Kinton Syrah!

Wine Tip of the Day

Once you put a bottle of wine into the fridge and chilled it down (or ice chest or wine ice bucket) make sure you maintain its temperature. Once its cold it should never return to being warm.

Otherwise the wine's very texture, flavors and consistency will morph with the change in its temperature.




With all this sunshine we're enjoying on the West Coast, it made me think of outdoor grilling and picnics and I just thought I'd warn you all.