Picnic at Mount Eden Vineyards

Friday Group Annual Picnic at Mount Eden Vineyards, 2010: an annual affair that always brings great food, wine and friendships together. Even though we were missing a few members and spouses, this year brought together some haute cuisine and special wines.

We started with Einar’s Gravlax and who better to make it than a Norwegian! It was delicious--moist, flavorful and sensual! It was served with 2007 Mount Eden Chardonnay, Saratoga Cuvée…needless to say, a perfect accompaniment.

We then had a Chilled Asparagus Soup that Martin prepared using leeks, spinach and asparagus….the dish was so good that I asked for a recipe and you’re curious, click on the soup to get the recipe. He didn’t create the “timbale” part but the soup alone was divine! What enhanced this dish was the wine he served with it. There is a perception that no wine goes well with asparagus EXCEPT this little known wine from Austria: Grüner Veltliner. I had never heard of this wine variety (it’s NOT “varie-tal”) but it does pair perfectly with asparagus! K&L sells it for around $10 so that part is nice too!

Next was a totally decadent dish prepared by JP (also a guest blogger), Scallops with Uni Hollendaise and Salmon Roe. The photo does not do this dish justice! If you love uni (from sea urchins), you’ll love this dish because the sauce just shouts out fresh ocean flavors, silkened by the buttery hollandaise. He placed a small piece of the uni on top with a sprinkling of jeweled salmon roe. He then served it with 1996 AND 1990 Louis Latour Corton Charlemagnes (my favorite white burgundies!)….

In addition to the wines that people brought to go with their dishes, Jeffrey and Ellie graciously shared some of Mount Eden's wines with us: Mount Eden 2006 Chardonnay Estate, and Mount Eden 2002 Chardonnay Estate in magnum. We drank it all, of course!

We then had our main course which was Wild Duck Legs Confit. I provided the wild duck legs (which were very small!) I received from a hunter friend of ours and Jeffrey prepared them over two days. The leg was served over some chopped greens direct from Jeffrey and Ellie’s garden with a side of Rice and Lentils with Caramelized Onions, topped with crispy onions. The Rice and Lentil dish was from the cookbook, Zov, that our cookbook club used two years ago. With the wild duck we had a Caymus 1982 Pinot Noir Special Selection, Santa Cruz Mountains Vineyard 1982 Pinot Noir, and the Mount Eden 2002 Pinot Noir Estate in magnum. The older pinots were interesting, still had some flavor, and were of lower alcohol with the Caymus at 12.5.

We had a cheese plate that had an assortment of French, Italian and California cheeses (sorry, I can’t remember what they were called! If you remember, please add the info in the "comments" section below) served with 1990 Chateau Baron de Pichon-Longueville and 1990 Chateau Pichon Longueville, Comtesse De Lalande. What great pedigrees in cheeses and wines!

We than had the dessert that I described in a previous post. Orange Layer Cake with Orange Caramel Crème Cheese. I served it the Thomas Kellar’s Vanilla Ice Cream that I enhanced with orange zest…sort of a frozen crème anglaise. It was a hit with everyone but me...I just didn’t like the cake part of it. The dessert Bordeaux wine was a delicious Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey 2001 Sauterne


I think we have just raised the bar on our picnics!

I have included some photos of the members of the Friday Group because they are all so photogenic and everyone was so happy and full of fun on this "perfect-day-for-a-picnic" event!






If you'd like to see more photos (unedited) you can view them on Shutterfly. Just click on the word "Shutterfly." Shutterfly photos were taken by Einar.

Dining in the Wine Country

It’s been too long since I’ve written any posts to the blog. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking, or dining out…. I have been busy, honest! It started out innocently enough…we decided to paint our house. In the process of painting, termite damage was found, house was tented and fumigated, (we had to move out for 3 days) termite damage is being repaired, and you know how one thing leads to another? New paint cries out for a new front door…and then the fence in the breezeway doesn’t look good there anymore…and then we might as well replace our gutters since they are leaking…hmmm, now the brick doesn’t look good with the new door…

We have been dining out and returned to a restaurant in Windsor (near Healdsburg, CA) in Sonoma County, Mirepoix.

This meal was fabulous! It was reasonably priced and the chef’s menu was innovative, well prepared and served with grace and humor. We were there with Bill’s childhood friends from So Cal. The four of us had difficulty choosing which dishes to try. Not one dish was a disappointment and while some were more delicious than others, all of them made us want to return for another meal! The menu merely lists the ingredients for each dish so you have to ask your server to tell you how the ingredients are prepared OR just go for the gusto and be pleasantly surprised!

The restaurant is very small and has only 8 tables so make reservations! Because it’s small, the setting is intimate and we talked with other patrons at nearby tables…we compared what we all ordered and raved in unison. Four-course dinner (you choose what your 4 courses will be) is $55 and there is also a tasting menu for $80.

The photos were taken with our iphones so they aren’t of the "Willie" quality but enough to give you an idea of the beautiful presentations that Matthew Bousquet created. Here is a sampling of what we ordered:



Onion Tart, with Goat Cheese, Bull’s Blood Beets and Caramelized Balsamic sauce that was served deconstructed & deliciously!




Albacore, Fennel, Grapefruit, Arugula, Toast, Olive.





Scallop, Oyster, Cauliflower, Caviar, Chive, Crème Fraiche, Champagne Foam. (photo, right)







Black Cod, Frites, Tarragon, Cashew, Lemon, Celery.







Sweetbreads, Horseradish, Potato and Brussel Sprouts.






Foie Gras, Peach, Prosciutto, Hazelnut, Yogurt, Black Pepper.








Duck, Plum, Edamame, Peanut, Scallion.








Pork, Brown Butter, Mushroom, Lentils, Garlic. This was the dish that was over the top! The Brown Butter was prepared like a Hollandaise. And, of course, we had “over the top” wines out of Bill’s cellar that complimented each dish!

I don't have photos of the following dishes but let your imaginations soar because they were wonderful!
Risotto with Asparagus, Peas, Pistachios and Parmigianino Reggiano.
Beef Tongue, Tomato, Horseradish.

I also went to a potluck picnic with our Friday Wine Group at Mt. Eden Vineyards and decided to take Zov’s Rice and Lentil Pilaf with Caramelized Onions as a side dish to Jeffrey’s Duck Legs Confit. I had 10 left over wild duck legs and decided to share them with this group and Jeffrey offered to “confit” them.

For dessert, I made a 3-layer Orange Cake with Caramel Orange Cream Cheese Frosting and an Orange Crème Anglaise filling. IMO, it looked prettier than it tasted but everyone else raved about it. I didn’t like the cake and thought it was too dry. Others like the crumb texture. It did have caramelized orange syrup that I was to soak the cake in but I thought it might make it too sweet. The reviews of this recipe complained that the cake was too sweet so I cut back on the sugar in the cake and didn’t soak as much of the syrup as the recipe required. The filling and frosting, however, is a killer combination so I just need to find a more moist cake recipe.

I served it with Thomas Kellar’s Vanilla Ice Cream that I flavored with orange zest. It was a big hit too! Well, with 10 egg yolks, 2 cups of cream and 2 cups of whole milk, how can anyone miss?

I am now trying dishes out of the Zuni Café cookbook. Some of the recipes are as detailed as Kellar’s and some of them are so vague that each ingredient is “to taste.”
I did not buy the cookbook but checked it out of the library and do not plan to purchase it because there were very few recipes that I want to try. I think I know what I want to prepare for our dinner. I’m going to try it out this week so I’ll let you know if I liked it or not!

Bon Appétit!