Todd's Farewell Tasting

In addition to Mom and I, fourteen of our friends showed up last Thursday night to say good bye to Todd and taste some of Oregon's finest wines.

Before we even tasted the first wine, Todd had us laughing with story from earlier that day ... he was training his replacement, it was her first day and they were riding in her car. Unknown to him, there was a welcoming committee to greet her ... an ant's nest lodged in the crease of the passenger seat. After she freaked out a little and got in her car, she called him with a humane way to get rid of the ants. His car now smells of an organic orange smelling ant repellant and they're hanging out in his Shop-Vac at home. Let's home they stay there!


While we cruised through seven wines, Todd had us cracking up with his unique brand of humor "Todd-ims". Here are a few that I wrote down in context of the conversations:

He's moving to Willamette Valley, which when properly pronounced rhymes with "damn it". It's also the home of "no flash, no trash" wines.

When opening one of the wines he warned us "this one will smack you around a little bit" and he described another as tasting like "wet forest floor".

He had only good things to say of the wine makers ... one was described as "a complete and utter wine dork" and another was "a pinot noir bad a$$".
As usual, the wines were good and the food was yummy but the company was the best. Here's a link of some of the photos from the tasting: http://www.gourmetontherun.com/images/Todd_s_Farewell_Tasting.pdf

We have a new rep and when asked about him and what's he's like, Todd said "he'll say stupid things too!"

Vegging Out

Our "Vegging Out" class started with a trip to the Davidson Farmer's market early yesterday morning. With a cup of coffee in hand and no menu in mind, Tracey, Emily and I did a brief walk through to get the lay of the land and survey our options.

Our first purchase was squash blossoms ... something none of us ever had but read much about. Then we picked up some fresh leeks and young garlic from the same farmer. We went over to the other end of the market and bought elongated beets, a couple pounds of patriotic potatoes (red, white and blue) and some mild onions. Our last stop was for hierloom tomatoes. Our menu was sketched out and we headed to the Fresh Market in Cornelius for the rest of our ingredients.

There we selected a loaf of rosemary focaccia bread, mushrooms, a vanilla poundcake, strawberries and chicken cutlets.

Now our menu was set ... bruschetta and roasted garlic with focaccia, frittata, chicken picatta, roasted potatoes, stuffed squash blossoms .... and for the grand finale ... chocolate bowls filled with poundcake, vanilla bean ice cream and flambed strawberries.

Our second course was an artichoke and leek frittata. I modified a recipe I found on-line at Williams Sonoma. It was yummy ... unlike other frittatas I've made, this one was cooked mostly on the stove top and then broiled at the end to add color to the top.

For the entree, we stuffed the squash blossoms with a sauteed mushrooms, panko bread crumbs, Parmesan and herbs. Tracey roasted the patriotic potatoes with the elongated beets, onions and herbs from her garden. I made chicken picatta but left out the lemon juice and capers since I thought it would clash with the Malbec we were drinking.

For dessert, we made chocolate bowls and filled them with the pound cake and ice cream. Then I sauteed the strawberries with Grand Marnier, lit it on fire and ladled the warm mixture into the bowls ... the heat from the strawberries melted the chocolate making it one, big, oozing chocolaty bite of goodness!

Here's a link to more photos: http://www.gourmetontherun.com/images/Vegging_OUt.pdf

World Cup Fever!

For months now the guys at work have been talking about World Cup ... I take that back ... it's been at least a couple of years that they've been scheming on how to get tickets and have been arguing if the stadiums and the country would be ready for the games.

As the official start gets closer, the conversations are longer and more frequent. Today at lunch, they were discussing which team is the favorite to win, and more importantly about the players that made the Brazilain squad.

Since I had nothing to contribute about the players and the game, I pulled the only piece of World Cup information I had readily available ... what Food and Wine Magazine suggests you drink to support your favorite team.

Here's a link to the article: http://foodandwine.com/articles/world-cup-wine-party

I have to say ... based on their suggestions, it's hard to support a favorite team.