What's cooking this weekend, people ?

Opened a '03 Williams Selyem Sonoma Coast, but found myself really enjoying the salmon more with the leftover NV Tribaut Cuvee Rene.

Hi Traci,

How was the '03 W/S Sonoma Coast? I have a few slumbering in my cellar but have not woken one yet.

I know I'm late on this!

I made cheesesteak panini's for dinner tonight with french fries and roasted Brussels sprouts. I have a 10lb pork shoulder on my new kooker for tomorrow's lunch (mmmmm...pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans and cole slaw!). Tomorrow night is a traditional St. Patty's Day dinner (or should I say supper for some? ) at my Auntie's.

We have a 5 yr. old granddaughter visiting for the weekend. Last night it was grilled chicken from a local mom & pop grocery, oven fried French fries, and carrots (she would not eat because they were cooked) baked with butter, onion, brown sugar and mint.
Tonight it is leftovers but with broccoli (she eats cooked) and Anne's pasta with cheese sauce.
Tomorrow, we drive her halfway to Sacramento to meet the other grandparents, so it will be whatever I pick up at Trader Joe's. Monday, I will be doing some real cooking and making my St. Patrick's Day dinner.

Opened a '03 Williams Selyem Sonoma Coast, but found myself really enjoying the salmon more with the leftover NV Tribaut Cuvee Rene.

Hi Traci,

How was the '03 W/S Sonoma Coast? I have a few slumbering in my cellar but have not woken one yet.

Drinking beautifully, and surprisingly youthful. Not sure why, I'm surprised but...Just sipping it again now...It still has a little cranberry with lots of red fruits, and some secondary tea notes. Super clean and pure fruit. I was going to finish the bottle with dinner tonight, but a just-opened bottle of '05 Schrader "T6" Cab just walked in the door.....Can not resist...

Not sure about you, Dave, but I have some pinots I need to get opened. Jenise and I were just discussing the '00 St. Innocents. I pulled them out of my wine locker this weekend. I'll get to them this week. I'm worried, though....

Celia, if you are referring to my posts, our Cheers nights are when a group of friends get together at someone's house and bring wine and food. It's sort of like a pot luck, but it is mostly munchies and not a real meal. I took the salsa and "scoops" chips. I've taken things like brownies, honey bun cake, pinwheels made with puff pastry (like palmiers), quesadillas, pigs in blankets (little wieners wrapped in biscuits), artichoke dip, pasta salad. Sometimes we have a theme for the wine or food. One night it was Italian with pizza, lasagna, sausages, salads, etc. We get together every 2 weeks or so depending on holidays and folks' schedules.

This all started when the wine shop we all frequented decided to close. They sold wine by the glass and people started gathering on Friday nights to socialize. For the last month they were open, it was an official Friday night pot luck, and everyone brought something to eat. Over the Memorial Day weekend last year right before they closed, we had a cookout and decided to keep a good thing going and started meeting at people's houses. There are over 30 people in the group and you never know who is going to show up. We are quite a diverse bunch. One couple in our group are caterers, and they always bring good food.

The reason we call it Cheers is because it is like the TV show in that it's a group of strangers who became friends and "everyone knows your name".

Linda, Jo Ann made a Cheers reference too, so I thought perhaps they were running a Cheers marathon on cable or something. And I was bit jealous, because I loved Cheers !

Cheers night sound wonderful, as does the black bean and corn salsa !

Update on my weekend - didn't get the Easter chocolates made ( too hot to temper and mould chocolate), but I have a batch of Hot Cross buns rising. We've also made some hot chocolate mix, as well as Chocolate Guinness Cake for St Patrick's Day ! Tomorrow (Monday) I'm out to dinner, but I've promised the boys I'd make Irish Stew for them...

Celia

I'm cooking some whole wheat sourdough bread and have a bottle of Tablas Creek 04 Mourvèdre open. Celia I'll try to take pictures of the bread this time.

Chipotle Fudge with Candied Tomato Peel.

rwj

Brussels sprouts.

SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!
SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!
SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!
SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!

rwj

Opened a '03 Williams Selyem Sonoma Coast, but found myself really enjoying the salmon more with the leftover NV Tribaut Cuvee Rene.

Hi Traci,

How was the '03 W/S Sonoma Coast? I have a few slumbering in my cellar but have not woken one yet.

Drinking beautifully, and surprisingly youthful. Not sure why, I'm surprised but...Just sipping it again now...It still has a little cranberry with lots of red fruits, and some secondary tea notes. Super clean and pure fruit. I was going to finish the bottle with dinner tonight, but a just-opened bottle of '05 Schrader "T6" Cab just walked in the door.....Can not resist...

Not sure about you, Dave, but I have some pinots I need to get opened. Jenise and I were just discussing the '00 St. Innocents. I pulled them out of my wine locker this weekend. I'll get to them this week. I'm worried, though....

Thanks for the notes, Traci. Like you, I also have some Pinots that need to be opened.

Not sure if that Hoke Harden fellow is still around, but I recently opened up a bottle of Pinot he gave me many years ago and it was just singing.

I'm surprised to hear Jenise drinks St. Innocent! I always pictured her drinking DRC.

Made the pork lo mein tonight. The pork was shredded "boneless spareribs" from the local Chinese restaurant. The noodles were fresh Chinese egg noodles, boiled for a couple of minutes and then drained. Veggies were a large onion halved lenghwise and then cut crosswise into thin shreds, fresh shiitake mushrooms stems removed and then cut into thin shreds, snow pea pods stringed and then cut into thin shreds, and scallions cut into thin shreds. I stir-fried the onions in some oil until nearly soft, then added the mushrooms and stir-fried for a minute. In went the noodles and about 3 TBS each of thin soy sauce and oyster sauce. After stir-frying a minute or two, until the moisture was absorbed, in went the snow peas and scallions. I stir-fried another 2 minutes or so.

Very simple, and very delicious.

-Paul W.

Ok I finally took a picture of my whole wheat sourdough bread. It looks a little bit funny but tastes great.

It was a T-bone and homemade onion rings, washed down with Dos Equis. Yum. It's odd, but no matter the size of the steak, I could eat one twice as large.
My wife had sliced turkey breast with mole sauce (she doesn't like steaks; more for me!).

Brussels sprouts.

SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!
SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!
SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!
SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT! SHE SPELLED IT RIGHT!

rwj

Duane - WOW...That looks awesome! I bet it tasted delicious...I am so jealous!!

Turned out not to be in a funk after all ...while the cat's away, the mouse got to eat exactly what she wanted !
My druthers would be mostly vegetarian so I made a beautiful pot of vegetable stock with leeks/celery/carrot and a big bowl of spinach/pea/onion salad. Tonight I'm going to put some ginger/keffir lime/ lemon grass/fish sauce and rice in the soup and make a miso dressing for the salad. My challenge is to use these 2 different bases in ways that don't make me bored after the third meal . Hopefully I'll make it until " the boys" get back from their trip.
A quick pop to the grocery store after they left cured the funk immediately - not as cheap as an antidepressant but so much better for your health !

Friday night it was a traditional boiled corned beef and cabbage/potatoes/carrots/onions dinner, which my husband loves and I reluctantly fix for the family about once a year, since it's not my personal favorite. It turned out well though, the corned beef was tender and the veggies not overcooked. Interestingly, a mature NZ Sauvignon Blanc was the preferred wine match. Saturday night was dinner out at an upscale grill in Hollywood, where I had a perfectly done rare burger and shoestring fries. Hard to get a restaurant to serve a rare burger, but they did. Sunday was grilled chicken sausages and veggies on the dock, watching a spectacular sunset over the harbor, drinking mai-tai's. Very fun weekend particularly as I had an awful flu last week, which took days to get over.

Duane - WOW...That looks awesome! I bet it tasted delicious...I am so jealous!!

Maria that is what you have to look forward to with your Kooker. It was one of the best tasting batches of sourdough bread I have ever made.

Lovely bread, Duane ! Interesting how evenly brown it is - probably the result of the Kooker ? I know my oven's not nearly that even.

You know celia I never thought about how evenly browned the bread is maybe because I have never baked bread in an oven. I heat the cooker with pizza stone in it up to 460°. I do a little bit of steaming and stick the bread in for 40 to 45 mins. I guess the heat radiates from all sides in the cooker. This week I'll try making a different bread.

I guess the heat radiates from all sides in the cooker.

You guess correctly, sir.

rwj