Snacks, Friends, Recipes

To my surprise, I recently found myself in a crazy cooking/entertaining mood...imagine that! Here are just a few of my recent creations. The days have been blurring together so I apologize for the massive recipe dump. Enjoy!

Before the visitor/fun-filled Labor Day weekend, I had a friend over for quick snacks before a night out. I still had a ton of basil so I decided to make mini polenta pizzas:

Mini Polenta Pizzas

1 log polenta, sliced into 1/4" disks

1 heirloom tomato, diced

1 c marinara sauce

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp chili flakes

1/3 c fresh mozzarella, chopped

4 large basil leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place polenta slices onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes on each side.

In a small bowl, combine tomato, sauce, garlic powder and chili flakes. Top each polenta slice with sauce mixture, mozzarella and basil. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

I kinda winged this snack so measurements may be a bit off. Also, there were just 2 of us so obviously I wasn't making the WHOLE log o polenta ;p

By the time the long weekend rolled around, I still couldn't shake my urge to cook so naturally I jumped at the opportunity to whip up a portable meal for our Sunday day trip to Healdsburg :)

Sorry for the lack of photos...totally forgot to take some until all the food was eaten :(

(source)

Israeli Couscous & Beet Salad

2 candy stripe beets, diced and roasted

1 1/3 c Israeli couscous, cooked according to package

1/3 c arugula, chopped

1 onion, thinly sliced

pinch salt

splash balsamic vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

2 tbsp sherry vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan over medium low heat. Add onions and cook for 15 minutes or until onions start to soften. Add salt and balsamic vinegar. Cook for another 5 minutes and set aside.

Whisk together sherry vinegar, sugar, rice wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Combine couscous, beets and onions in a large bowl. Drizzle half the dressing and stir to combine. Refrigerate overnight, reserving remaining dressing. Stir in additional dressing before serving.

More to come soon!

I Heart Wine Country too!

I woke up bright and early (before my alarm went off - woah!) Sunday morning. This was partly because I was excited about our day of wine tasting and partly due to this sinking feeling that I forgot to put my pupusa in the fridge. D'oh! Suspicions confirmed. I definitely left my 3rd pupusa in the zipper portion of my purse and it smelled like pupusa in there! Nononono! To make matters worse, the pupusa greased out of the bag so a) I felt gross having consumed all that grease the night before and b) I worried my purse would have a giant stain in it! Thankfully it did not - Amee, don't you love how I take care of your designs?? :p

There were six of us headed to Healdsburg for a day of wine tasting and I was super excited. Not only were we headed to the land of zinfandels (my personal fave), but we were planning on stopping at deLorimier Winery first!

Why was I excited about deLorimier? Well, about 3 years ago Jamie and I went to Farrah Olivia for restaurant week. I chose the optional wine pairing with my meal and fell in love with my second glass of wine (and dinner!) - Mosaic Malbec. We were just coming off of a trip to Buenos Aires so I was all about the malbecs. I wrote the name down and anytime we were near wine, I made a point to look for it. No such luck.

I then reached out to Selin since she was in the land of wines and my sister and parents figuring maybe they had more options being near NYC. Fail. I even tried to get to the vineyard on my first trip to SF but alas, too far out of the way for our day trip to Napa :(

Recently I got a text from Selin and turns out she was driving past the vineyard! AH HA! Totally on my 'must make it happen' list for this trip.

We get to deLorimier and find out there's a festival going on at all the Russian River Wineries. Apparently this weekend was the 11th Annual Wine and Food Affair - for $40, we could get free tastings AND free food pairings at 80 vineyards. WOAH. My kind of festival ;) We were kinda skeptical about the whole $40 ticket thing but the woman at the door totally sold us on it once she said we might run into problems getting tastings otherwise. Sold. They gave us a wrist band, map and wine glass and off we went.

Delorimier was serving this bad ass Grilled Rib-Eye Steak Chili made with one of their wines. AMAZING! Thick, but a little soupy, nice heat and the super tender rib eye bits were little nuggets of heaven. *sigh* oh wait, we're at a winery...the wine! Turns out they only make the Mosaic Malbec once a year and it's so popular, it sells out quickly (Selin did her research)...they weren't even tasting it that day!

Thankfully Selin jumped in and convinced the ladies to check if they had any bottles since her crazy friend flew across the country for this stupid wine and low and behold - two bottles (one for tasting and one for me!)...the 2006s were waiting to be bottled. Score!
After a little more tasting, I also grabbed a bottle of the tasty Mosaic Meritage :) Check out the gorgeous views:
Next up was Hanna Winery where they were serving Endive Cups filled with French Lentil & Prosciutto Salad with Peppers.
I wasn't really into the food, but the Jasmine Vixen was one of my favorite wines though I refrained from buying.

We turned back around to visit Hawkes Wine and as much as I hate to admit it, we went just for the Skirt Steak Tacos with Cabernet Chili Sauce. Oh my god. Best. Sauce. Ever. EVER! It was pretty packed (probably b/c of the delicious food!), so we grabbed a quick taste and sat outside to enjoy the perfect weather and scenery:
As soon as those tacos were gone, we scooted on over to Simi Winery for some Lamb & Herb Meatballs with Creamy Polenta and more soothing scenery!
They even had an outdoor kitchen...I want one!!
A couple meatballs later and we were ready to go to Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs. This was #2 on my must visit list ever since I tried their Geyserville last month. They too were serving meatballs, but they were Sicilian Meatballs with Spaghetti (by the time we got there it was bread) and I think they were the best meatballs of the day :)
I walked away with a bottle of the Geyserville (another bottle they opened for us - thanks!!) and their Lytton Springs - both delicious blends!
All the reds they were tasting were fantastic, but those two were my favorites. We lingered a bit longer here. Why? Oh yes, GORGEOUS.
We stopped down the road at Mazzocco Sonoma for some Lamb & Rosemary Meatballs with Rice Pilaf and a surprise treat - Butternut Squash Soup!
As if there weren't enough meatballs in our day ;p The wines here were pretty good, but I found myself moseying over to the Reserves Collection table and tasting a glass of their Petite Syrah...and promptly buying a bottle. Impulse buy! That's just what happens at the end of a wine tasting day ;p

The next and final stop was Wilson Winery because we got a little lost getting to our planned destination. SO glad we stumbled upon this place because they were serving Caramelized Onion Quesadillas with Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Basil Salsa & Famous Marinated Tri Tip OMG! The quesadillas were kinda lame, but the tri tip was phenomenal. I don't even know if I've ever had tri tip before...but I NEED it now! So tender and flavorful, though I'm not really sure why it was served on a tortilla?
The long line for the tri tip wasn't too bad since we had this glorious view:
Check out all those grapes!!

How on earth did I get all these bottles home?
Two rolls of bubble wrap and these were safe and sound in my suitcase. Phew!

It's getting late so I'm off to bed - early and long day at work tomorrow. I can't wait to gush about my last meal in San Francisco!