Happy Halloween

It was frightful evening as we opted for ghoulish instead of gourmet at our Haunting Halloween class last night. Here are some of the highlights from our menu:

Witches Brew

Dirty Little Devil's Cupcakes

Jello for Brains

Meringue Bones

Check out our website for more photos of the event!

Women and Wine Dinner at Fleming's

Every October, Fleming's hosts a Women and Wine dinner in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month featuring women wine makers. This Friday, they focused on three of the leading wine makers in Napa Valley: Cathy Corison of Corison, Kristin Belair or Honig and Janet Myers of Franciscan.

The wines were part of a delicious four course meal. The Corison Cabernet Sauvignon (2000) was served first with house cured salmon and citrus creme fraiche on a crispy wanton. It was a brave pairing (delicate salmon with a bold cab) but the end result was amazing. The richness of the creme fraiche was a great balance for the cab. I'm going to try this at home since they shared their recipe for creme fraiche with me.

The Honig Cabernet Sauvignon (2006/2007) was next and paired with butternut squash bisque served with what I will call a very large crouton (a toasted slice of their rosemary baguette topped with melted danish blue cheese and bacon). The soup was warm brown in color with a touch of sweetness ... Carolyn called it liquid pumkin pie. I think they drizzled some of the danish blue cheese fondue that was on the crouton in the soup which provided contrast in both color and taste. Overall, this was a nice combination of sweet, savory and salty! The amazing quality of the wine was that it cleansed the palatte from the last course and complemented this course.

The last wine was a Magnificat Napa Valley (2005/2006) and it was served with rosemary scented baby lambchops, Parmesan risotto, maple roasted parsnips and a red wine demi-glace. While everything on the plate was delicious, the lambchops (6 chops on my plate) and the parsnips were my favorites. The lambchops were cooked perfectly to medium on the inside and had a nice sear on the outside. The parnsips were cut uniformly into batonnets (1/2" x 1/2" x 2 1/2 - 3") and were crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and sweet all over. I need to try this at home too.

By the time dessert came, we were way too full for anything but a bite. This was probably the weakest part of the meal ... caramel pudding with what looked like pieces of Heath Bar and homemade shortbread (which was quite yummy).

My favorite wine of the evening was the Corison cab, rated 90 points by Wine Spectator. Check out the link for a description of the wine, as well as Wine Spectator's write up. I'm hoping the local distributor still has some of this left for sale ... I'm going to try to get a few bottles!

Baked Alaska!

I didn't realize I haven't posted anything July ... SORRY! I have been cooking (and eating and drinking) all summer ... trying new things like Baked Alaska which we did for our 60's Dinner Party (individual servings) and for a birthday party last night (traditional serving).

Baked Alaska is simply cake topped with ice cream and covered with meringue which is then browned. The trick is to freeze it as you build it. Here's how I did it ...

First, I made a devils food cake in a 9" round pan. Then I took a carton of pistachio almond ice-cream and pressed it into a plastic-wrap lined bowl (which also happened to be 9" in diameter) making sure the top was smooth and flat so that it would sit on top of the cake properly. I put the ice-cream back in the freezer to re-harden. Then I removed the ice-cream mold from the bowl, placed it on top of the cake and put them both back into the freezer.


I made a traditional meringue and then covered the frozen cake/ice cream and then stuck that back into the freezer.

Just before serving, I removed it from the freezer and used my torch to caramelize the meringue. The end result was yummy!