Food

RT @TolanFlorence: Happy 6th birthday to the sweetest little boy in our world @tylerflorence

Hello from the bottom (or more truthfully, from floundering near the top) of the samples pile. This is the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles of wine that have crossed my doorstep recently. I'm just getting back to the pile after some travel and craziness that has made it hard to find time to open boxes and taste things lately. This week we've got a pretty Riesling from Germany, with a lemon complexion and a hint of something deeper. The couple of biodynamic and mostly unsulfured wines from Ambyth Estate in Paso Robles were quite interesting, the Syrah being more successful than the table wine, but despite the slightly lower score on the table wine, I think it's quite unique and worth trying for those who appreciate the so called "natural" wine movement. The Acorn winery Syrah is an old favorite, from a parcel of older vines south of Healdsburg that are tended by a wonderful husband and wife team. Finally, a relative newcomer on the scene that started with Rhone varieties, Anaba Cellars, has branched out into Pinot Noir. This is the first of several bottles I've got in the pile, and its flavors, suggest good things to come. Enjoy! 2008 Acorn Winery "Alegria Vineyards - Axiom" Syrah, Russian River Valley, Sonoma, California Medium to dark ruby in color, this wine smells of dark chocolate and blackberry pie. In the mouth, flavors of brown sugar, blackberry pie, and hints of cocoa powder swirl underneath a gauze of faint tannins. Notes of cedar and earth linger in the finish with a raisiny quality and a hint of oak. Decent acidity. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $32. click to buy. 2011 Ridge Vineyards "Geyserville" Red Blend, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, California Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of chocolate, blackberry, leather and earth. In the mouth, cocoa powder, blackberry, and prunes mix with an earthier note and black sugar flavors that linger in the finish. Decent acidity, supple tannins, and a nice stoniness under everything. A blend of 78% Zinfandel, 16% Carignane, 4% Petite Sirah, 1% Alicante Bouschet, and 1% Mourvedre. 14% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $32. click to buy. 2010 Anaba Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma, California Medium garnet in color, this wine smells of cranberry and cherry fruit with a hint of cedar. In the mouth the wine is high-toned, with an alcoholic quality that delivers somewhat sharp flavors of cherry and raspberry. A bit of astringency lingers in the finish. Good acidity makes the fruit bright, but the heat of higher octane doesn't help. Nonetheless, a solid wine. 14.8% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $30. click to buy. 2010 Ambyth Estate Syrah, Paso Robles, Central Coast, California Medium purple in the glass, this wine smells of cocoa powder, mulberries, and wet earth. In the mouth it offers tangy huckleberry and black cherry flavors that burst with bright, even searing acidity. Very little tannic structure exists in the wine, leaving it fresh and juicy on the palate, but perhaps lacking some complexity. Not short in the dynamism department, and tasty. 13.13% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $38. click to buy. 2011 Ambyth Estate "Red Table Wine" Red Blend, Paso Robles, Central Coast, California Medium to dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of crushed nuts, dried fruit, and dusty earth. In the mouth, tangy sour cherry and redcurrrant flavors mix with caramel and a hint of wet sawdust. Searing acidity makes the tang of the wine quite sharp and mouth puckering. Moderate finish. An unusual blend of 20% Grenache Noir, 19% Mourvedre, 19% Sangiovese, 18% Tempranillo, 10% Grenache Blanc, 7% Cunoise, 5% Syrah, and 2% Marsanne. 13.14% alcohol. Score: between 8 and 8.5. Cost: $26. click to buy. 2010 Schloss Schönborn "Erbach Marcobrunn Kabinett" Riesling, Rheingau, Germany Palest greenish gold in the glass, this wine smells of mandarine oranges, lime zest and wet chalkboard. In the mouth flavors

Tyler Florence Fancy Box Subscription Shipping our second box this week!! Check it out .

Paris will always be a home away from home for Phil and I.  If we could, we’d fly back there more often, but unfortunately we go through several years of (switching briefly to Portuguese) “saudades de Paris”.  Saudade is a word from my native language that has no exact match is English. From Wikipedia: “Saudade describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or deeply melancholic longing for an absent something or someone who one loves”.  The word originated in Portugal to describe the feelings of family members of sailors who would see them leave shore on the glorious days of Portuguese expeditions, uncertain of their return.  And the exact same feeling hit the sailors themselves, as the distance between them and their beloved country would get bigger and bigger.  It’s been 3 years since we’ve last been to Paris, so the “saudade” is intensifying quite a bit.  How do I deal with it? I indulge in reading some wonderful French food blogs, like Du Miel et Du Sel, where I found this post about a chocolate mousse. It was described as  “légère comme une plumme“, or “light as a feather”.  It delivered exactly what it promised, a mousse without the cloying nature that often sends it over the top for my taste. The secret? No egg yolks and no butter!  Just pure chocolate deliciousness MOUSSE AU CHOCOLAT (from Marie Claire,  Du Miel et du Sel) * 8 servings* 200 g dark chocolate (I used 72% cocoa) 200 g heavy cream 200 g egg whites (6 egg whites) pinch of salt 60 g sugar Cut the chocolate in small pieces and place inside a large bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a gentle boil, then pour it over the chocolate, one-third of the volume at a time, mixing well after each addition.  After all the cream is added, the chocolate emulsion should be very smooth, without any lumps. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt for a few minutes until they start to get some body.  At this point, add the sugar slowly, a little at a time, always whipping the eggs.  Beat until they form firm peaks. Mix 1/3 of the beaten egg whites to the chocolate, no need to be gentle at this point, just mix it all well to lighten up the chocolate mixture.  Add the rest of the egg whites very gently, folding with a spatula, making sure not to deflate the egg whites too much.  Divide the mousse into 8 serving cups, refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. ENJOY! to print the recipe, click here We make desserts exclusively when we have guests over for dinner.  For this particular occasion, we had three very special guests at home, a Brazilian scientists who came over to give a talk, and two friends from KSU.   Our Brazilian guest not only is a great scientist and a dear friend, but once suffered through a tricky situation in our home in Oklahoma.  He came to give a talk in our former department (just like he did now at KSU), and on that evening we hosted a lab party that ended with a strawberry genoise cake.  By far the worst concoction I’ve ever made, one that my guests ate in silence, but not the “good” type of silence.  The bottom layer of my “masterpiece” had somehow turned into a solid rock, hard to cut even with a serrated knife!  I know, I know, how could anyone achieve that?  It was very embarrassing. I wanted to disappear from the face of the planet. Of course, once the initial shock was over,  we laughed about it, and everyone salvaged the top layer of the cake and left the concrete part untouched.   I’ve never attempted a genoise again, although my friend Gary, patissier extraordinaire, keeps telling me to go for it.  I will, once I get over that trauma (sigh). Anyway, I wanted to exorcise the demons of my past, and make a dessert that our guests would enjoy. A chocolate mousse light as a feather could not possibly turn into a rock, right?  Right.  This was the happy ending I was hoping for our pizza party.  You can make them big, you can make them s

Wham Bamboo Thank You Ma'ambooA true connoisseur must have a deep knowledge of proper wine/wood pairing.Oak? Too obvious. Mahogany? Too pompous. For a versatile, flavorful wood that goes with anything, you want bamboo. This wine rack and serving tray set is attractive, durable, sustainably produced, and most of all, delicious. You are a panda, right?

Brewers pick exclusive Miller Park beer's name - TODAY'S TMJ4 - #beer #logos

We’re not breaking news here, but just in case you still weren’t aware, the LES is f*cking done. Max Fish moving out was the proverbial nail in the coffin. Motor City, St. Jerome’s, Dark Room, and Welcome To The Johnson’s will likely all follow suit very soon, which is a sad state of affairs. We used to get hammered there in our 20′s, and restaurants like Tiny Fork moving in only kicks salt into the wound. Look, we’re all for an oyster and lobster roll joint with excellent beers on tap. In fact, places like that tend to be our favorite kind of dining establishments. But, it’s also important to take your surroundings into account. Tiny Fork legitimately feels like it was air lifted straight off a fancy block in Nantucket – Vineyard Vines, popped collars, and sweaters around the neck in tow. That sounds kind of awesome now that we think about it, but it unfortunately feels brutally out of place on the Lower East Side, regardless of how gentrified the neighborhood has become. The crowd here is hysterical. Did they open a country club inside The Ludlow we didn’t get a terrible press release about? If Tiny Fork were awesome, this whiny tangent about the Lower East Side probably wouldn’t have been nessecary. After all, good food has a way of making everything OK. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. The $25 lobster roll? Not good. Oysters? Questionable. And if you’re going to name yourself after a tiny shellfish forks, at least have the wherewithal to explain what oysters you’re serving. Don’t just plop a dozen in front of a customer without pointing out where they come from and why they’re awesome. We’re not saying you can’t have an oyster bar on the LES. It’s definitely possible to execute this type of place appropriately for downtown NYC. Just look at Upstate Beer & Oyster Bar. We love that spot because they know what they’re doing and they’re passionate about the product. Tiny Fork just misses the mark. Photo Credit: Urban Daddy Food Rundown OystersThey have a nice selection of oysters, but as we complained about above, the overall execution wasn’t great. We like to know what we’re eating when it comes to oysters, and just dropping off a dozen assorted oysters sans explanation is bush league. As is serving oysters that suck, which more than one of these did. Oyster SlidersWay. Too. Much. Bun. That is all. Lobster RollAs we declared above, this wasn’t our favorite roll. It was no where near the complete debacle of Claw, but it just wasn’t our favorite. It looks huge in the photo, but, for $25, it was actually not as big as we had hoped. The lobster salad had nice chunks of lobster in it, but for some reason it didn’t have much flavor at all. The lobster needs to steal the show and for whatever reason, it didn’t. Hand Cut FriesGreasy, soggy and pretty gross.

Food & Wine's Best Chocolate in the U.S. What a spotty list!  It's good that they have Askinosie, French Broad, Dandelion, and Woodblock on their list.  But other top quality b2b makers like Rogue, Fresco, Manoa, Ritual, and Dick Taylor are conspicuously absent while Lindt makes the list!  Makes one question the experience and the judgment of the editors. For me it is just another in a long string of examples showing why the "quest for the best" is doomed to failure.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry; beat yolks until thick. Combine yolks, soup, bread, chicken, cheese, almonds, onion, and herbs; gently fold in whites. Pour into 1 1/2-quart casserole. Bake at 325°F. for 1 hour.

Cut veal into 6 pieces (about 6x4 inches); pound. Place 1 slice proscuitto on each piece veal; top with cheese. Roll up; fasten with toothpicks. In skillet, brown roll-ups in butter; push to side and cook onion with garlic until tender. Stir in soup and milk. Cover; cook over low heat 45 minutes or until tender. Stir now and then. Meanwhile, mix 1 cup water, cornmeal, and salt; pour into 3...