Pages

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Cooking with wine

Saturday I decided to actually cook with wine instead of just drink wine while cooking. I whipped up some Butternut Squash, Crimini Mushroom and Carlton Farms Canadian Bacon Risotto. Delicious! Here is the recipe in case you want to give it a try.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
6 cups chicken stock
6 tablespoons butter
Carlton Farms Canadian Bacon (diced into small pieces)
1 cup mushrooms (diced into small pieces)
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces)
1 cup dry white wine (I used Pinot Gris.)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into 3/4-inch cubes. You should have about 6 cups. Place the squash on a sheet pan and toss it with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing once, until very tender. Set aside or keep in oven to keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock in a small covered saucepan. Leave it on low heat to simmer.

In a heavy-bottomed pot or pan, melt the butter and saute the Canadian Bacon and mushrooms on medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains with butter. Add the wine and cook for 2-5 minutes. Add 2 full ladles of stock to the rice plus more salt and pepper if needed. Stir, and simmer until the stock is absorbed, 5 to 10 minutes. Continue to add the stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring every few minutes. Each time, cook until the mixture seems a little dry, then add more stock. Continue until the rice is cooked through, but still al dente, about 30 minutes total. Off the heat, add the roasted butternut squash cubes and Parmesan cheese. Mix well and serve.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Hello Oregon Harvest

Harvest is sort of, kind of, maybe starting tomorrow. I have been called in for two days of harvest work (Thursday and Friday). We will be processing Syrah and sampling the estate vineyard to forecast when the "real" harvest will begin. It has been two years since my last harvest in Tasmania and we all know how that adventure went!


I am excited to kick on my boots, put on my grubby clothes and get back to the cellar and vineyard. Stay tuned for more stories about my Oregon harvest 2011 adventures.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Cruising through life

Road not Taken 
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

On my most recent mountain bike trip, "I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference". On a recent mountain bike trip we came to a fork in the road, but we decided to forgo the path we had ridden up on and take the one less traveled on. Was it a good decision? No actually it was a great decision. The trail was filled with sweet up and downhills and fast corners.

As I continue on my journey in life and approach another road diverged, I will have to stop, reflect and make a decision on which way to go next. Life is like one big pick your own adventure book. How will you write your next chapter?

Home sweet home

Two and a half years later, I finally feel like I am getting settled at home in Oregon. "A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams."