It Finally Came!

Okay I am a bit late in telling you guys about the saga of the wine. Part of being a featured publisher with food buzz means that I get to try cool products from time to time. So I let no moss grow under my feet when they offered up free wine. Yep you heard me, free wine. Free. Wine.

This offer was months ago and thanks to the joys of living in the fine state of Virginia and ABC laws aimed at…. Oh hold up… that is another blog all together. Lets just say getting the wine to me, because of the craziness that is Virginia ABC law, proved to be a long arduous process. Sadly when FedEx came to deliver said wine, we were out of town. Finally, through hoops and hoopla, we were finally permitted to have my husband drive to the FedEx depot to get it. Only to find out they sent it out for delivery again. Sigh… I got it.

The wine was Black Box, Sauvignon Blanc. My understanding about the company is that they are trying to reinvent the perception of the box o’ wine and target a…hmmm… lets say, more discerning clientele. Let me say, I have no problem with the concept of the box of wine. Really, it prevents air from getting to the wine, thus prolonging shelf life, yadda, yadda,. I have even had a decent box o’wine (I think my friend go it at Target). So I was pretty psyched about it all. Plus I like Sauvignon Blac, so we were in business. The day it came I put in the fridge to chill. The next day I made carbonara for dinner to go with my fancy dancy box o’ wine.

Pour….sip…. Huh??? Sad. Sad Vanessa. I love Sauvignon Blanc. If I were to have one complaint with them over the past…3 years or so is they have gotten bit homogonous. Homogony would not have been bad for this wine. It was watery. It did have nice acidy to it, but it was watery, and flat and…well sad. It retails for $20 a box and a box is 4 bottles. So not expensive. However, Trader Joes has some far better wines for the same price or less (in particular a vino verde that is 3.99 a bottle).

So my over take…

Would I get it again? No.

Was I glad it was free? You betcha.

Was it at least the effort to get it? Very questionable.


Sigh. Free Wine, since when is that not all it is cracked up to be?????

Bistro 27 Deal

Hey, for all of you in Richmond...

If you are on Twitter go find Bistro 27 and follow them, you will get 50% off an entree. If you are not on twitter...might want to get on there.

Offer ends on October 15th.

http://twitter.com/Bistro27

On Vacation!

Okay, we are down here in Rodanthe, NC. I can go to a place where I , literally, buy the fish off the boat. That said, there is nothing recipe inducing about super fresh fish. The best thing, I think, is not to mess with it too much. So I thought, while here, I would share some picts instead.....


Rough times getting Daddy to paint your toes....can you say wrapped around his little finger????



Loving our lovey



Ready for the beach...


One awesome sunset



And at the end of the day what it is all about...pure and simple....

Holy Shiitake Batman

As most of you know, we have a place up in West Virginia. We co-own that place with my parents. My parents have made friends with a couple Brian and Ocea and besides supplying us with free range eggs, raspberries, squash and other goods, they apparently had a bumper crop of Shiitake mushrooms that they generously shared. This was a hard decision for me. What to do with them.?? I also had a terrible time deciding on a picture. I never realized quite how lovely these little guys were before. So you are getting a few. As for how to prepare it, I decided this time, simple was best and to do something I thought would let the tender flavor of the shiitake shine. It doesn’t get much simpler than the below. Typically, I would have thrown in some white wine but we didn’t have any open and I didn’t feel like any so didn’t want to open a bottle. Again, typically I would rely then on dry vermouth, however for some reason when I opened the liquor cabinet to grab it the sweet vermouth called me. I am glad it did, the light sweetness and heavier herbal- ness (is that a word??) of the sweet vermouth was outstanding.





2 tbs butter
1 small onion
1 small clove of garlic grated or one large minced
2 cup sliced shiitake
3 tbs sweet vermouth
1 cup of milk, half-n- half or mix
1 tbs of flour
Salt
Pepper




Melt butter in a skillet and add onions and garlic and cook over medium low to sweat the onions. Add shiitake and cook covered for about 3 minutes. The mushrooms should have thrown off some water. Add about a tablespoon of flour, just enough to thicken but not form a roux. Add sweet vermouth (if you don’t have this vermouth or brandy could be nice) and milk (I used half skim and half -n-half and half, and it was great, however the more milk fat you have the richer and thicker it will be), cook until thickened.

Season to taste, toss with pasta and serve.

Just Another Plug

Okay, I have fallen off the blog wagon. However, October I should be back on. Tristan will be in preschool and that will free up 2 hours a day for me. Also, it will be getting cooler which means more cooking. We planted a fairly big garden this year, which meant a lot of fresh veggies… and not a lot of cooking.

That said, let me get to the point of this post. I have said it before and I will say it again….Bistro 27 is one of my favorite restaurants in Richmond. We went there last night for my mom’s birthday and yet again it did not disappoint. Last night we tried the escargot. The sauce had a touch of Pernod. Incredible. Unexpected. Unbelievable. The waiter tried to take the plate away and my father just about stabbed him with is fork and ordered…no demanded …more bread to sop the sauce up with. Fantastic. We all had the carrot soup, it a was a cold soup that had a great ginger flavor and a bit of heat. It was amazing as well. Everyone except me had the ravioli. Joel and my mom had the ravioli on the menu, my father had the special which was a seafood ravioli. They all cleaned their plates, all the while grunting…pigs. I had the Linguini with pesto and scallops. I am not quite sure how they did it but it was buttery. It was amazing. I ,however, have some waiting in the fridge for lunch for me…or maybe breakfast!!!

It was perfect. Really . Except one major, major hitch. When we arrived on the table was a announcement that they are having a wine tasting tonight (Thursday). They have brought in this vintner from Uruguay and are pairing the different wines with the most amazing courses. I believe there were 5-6 courses in all, all for $70. Nothing like starting you meal mad! Think it would be too much to go again tonight???? Sigh.

Also Richmonder’s go check them out on Twitter, they are offering an amazing deal. If you have never been it is good incentive!! I swear I don’t work there…but I would if they would feed me J