a day with John and Bryan

If you poke around in the tags for this archive, you will find a tag for John and Bryan.  Different people, a different time.  That John and Bryan have not been together for many years now (since before we left Chicago), and we've drifted away from John over the years.  It happens, alas.

So, a new John and Bryan, Van's friends.  John and Van were fraternity brothers at CU-Boulder decades back, and Bryan is John's longtime husband.  Confusingly, Van and John have a fraternity brother whom Van stays in touch with also named Bryan.  Thankfully, that Bryan is not currently dating or married to a John!  Oh, and John and Bryan know Allan and Paul in part because they all lived in Santa Rosa for a time and also because John and Allan both work in real estate.  I'm still going to use the same John and Bryan tag, though.  So, clear as mud?  Great!  Let's proceed....

Our second full day in Sonoma (and writing that, I'm really realizing what a compact trip it was and how much we did but also how much driving to and from there was on top of the flights), we met up with John and Bryan at their new house in Sonoma, which proved to be not that far from our hotel.  Nice to see them - it's been a couple of years or more for me!  From there, they drove us to lunch at Bear, the restaurant at the Stanly Ranch resort in Napa.  Handsome place!  I had a pork belly and fried rice dish that I really got into. 

We held off on wines - that was to come!

John and Bryan had planned for us to try two wineries that day:  Cuvaison and Donum.  Hooray!  Who doesn't love a winery visit? 

When we got to the modern-looking Cuvaison tasting room

and settled in, I had the realization that Conrad and I had been there years before, on  a tour we took the day after I ran the Napa Marathon.  It was nice to be back.  I liked the wines, but, sadly, we had to rush through the tasting to make a tasting appointment time at Donum.  A shame - the setting was pretty glorious,

and we might have bought a bottle or two had we lingered.

Where Cuvaison was a lovely but typical wine tasting experience, Donum was a very different thing.  The wine tour was at an appointed time and with a group that included others.  Rather than collect around a tasting counter or table, we were taken out into the winery grounds.  As we went along, we learned about the impressive sculpture collection on the grounds. 

I especially liked the stained glass structure that represented a spreadsheet of environmental data from a year in the vineyard. 

That was cool.  The wine-making building was interesting, too -

that design on the wall is actually venting for the facility. 

Did I mention, by the way, that they poured wines during the tour? 

We did finish in the tasting room. 

Excellent wines, start to finish, though, and Van ended up joining the wine club.  I hope he'll stick with it.  I would enjoy having those wines in the future, for sure!

We headed to dinner from there, a place in Kenwood called Stella.  Lovely place, a newer restaurant.  Pasta was the specialty.  I liked the burrata and asparagus I had,

and the pasta with chicken livers was good (but not photogenic), but I think we all thrilled to share the baked Alaska dessert. 

A small quibble:  that wasn't baked.  Torched, yes, and definitely tasty, but not baked.  No matter.  It was a good end to a very good day with John and Bryan.

still here

Look, I know it's been a while. I've spent time recently thinking the blogging thing - why am I doing it, for whom? No, I'm not overcome with angst, but I did realize that the blog hasn't been as fulfilling as it used to be. And I'm not yet sure whether and how to continue. I'll think on it more. I have, however, been adding photos to Flickr. I've not forsaken social media.

But golly, much has gone on since last I posted:

Garden party at the home of Rick and Deann Bayless of Frontera Grill, a prize won in a silent auction. No, they weren't there.

A good bye dinner at Mercat a la Planxa for CG before she moved away. Excellent dinner, bittersweet having to have it.

I had a few days in Baltimore with my best friend, Todd. Conrad joined us for most of it, and among the highlights was a long-awaited dinner at Woodberry Kitchen. And I ran a marathon.

Conrad and I had concurrent conferences in Pittsburgh, a quite appealing city. The time there was marred only by the cold I was suffering post-marathon.

John and Bryan treated us to birthday dinners at Frontera Grill.

I spent a long weekend in Toronto with Allison, my Best Woman, and her husband, Sean. Much shopping ensued.

There's a lot more I could write, I know. I have baked and cooked. We've had other meals out (like Sunday night, at Yoshi's celebrating Rachel's birthday). It's been a lovely autumn all in all.

Many of those moments are no longer fresh in mind, though, and I think it best to not look back too very much, just move ahead. I'll return to the blog again, certainly, even if it's to close it down. I still don't know. For now, though, a glimpse of a busy and fulfilling autumn.

poblanos rellenos

One small reason why I haven't blogged cookie much lately is because, frankly, it's been a series of mediocre efforts from me as of late. Not horrible food, but not food I'm especially proud of or care to post photos of. Perfunctory food.

That, sadly, is kind of what some friends got from me a couple of weekend back when I cooked a small dinner party while Conrad was out of town.

We haven't entertained much at all lately. Weird travel schedules, cozying up in the domesticity of home without others. We've been bad about seeing people. A couple of weeks ago we were going to finally - FINALLY! - see Allan, Paul, and Bryan. Weird struck again, though, and Conrad ended up being in Hawaii instead. Poor him.

I was pleased with the warm chips and guacamole I made - I've been on a Mexican kick lately, I admit. I also rather liked the simple mango sorbet that I served for dessert: fruity, light, refreshing.

The main course? Meh. The refried black beans were fine. The simple red cabbage slaw was colourful and fine. The chiles?

Well, at least one was decent enough to photograph.
I had made a turkey filling, poaching thigh meat and shredding it for sauteeing with some seasoning. Tasty, really. But the chiles were fragile, the filling heavy for the fragility, and the batter was a nightmare to work with.

I was not entirely happy.

Good company made a real difference that night as it all turned out very happily. So nice to see the guys again.

The other thing is, I was rocking the four-way apron. Totally adorable, if I do say so myself. ;-)

summer wine tasting

We've barely eaten today. Last night was a good night of much cheese - oh so delicious, but oh so rich. That pretty much killed our appetite today. Happily, much hydration through the night and before bed means we're not feeling the after effects of our wine tasting last night.

Fun fun wine tasting. It's a treat to have friends over and do something like this. I thought it was a good time, and so did Conrad, and while I wasn't blown away by any of the wines in the end, I certainly made sure to enjoy trying them!

Photos follow, of course, but here's the write up I did for everyone to refer to last night....

Weeks of angst and deliberation went into deciding how to do this. Red or white (we've gone with both)? Geographically diverse or all from the same region (we've dispersed it some)? One grape, one varietal (nope, two grapes in this case)? What to do….

Conrad did a lot of research and came up with some ideas, and one recent night he and Peter finally bounced enough things about that one fell into place: start with a cheese. Goat cheese. Summery, light, creamy, tangy. Who doesn't love it? Pretend you do, in case you don't. Based on that we went with two grapes, four wines. On the white side of things, we have a couple of Sauvignon Blancs. On the red, we have Pinot Noir. Let's see how these fare alone and with the cheeses.

In truth, we wanted to grab Sancerre, but it's not as inexpensive as we might wish, and we sort of wanted this to be a way to try modest bottles that may become regular favourites in your home. Instead we picked up a white Vins de Pays Côtes de Gascogne, the Grassa Family Vineyards 2007 Sauvignon Blanc ($11.99 Available at Kafka Wine, 3325 N. Halsted). We know nothing about this region or this wine, but the little sign on the bottle at Kafka said it is perfect with goat cheese, so….

Set against this (though this isn't a competition, and it's not even a blind tasting) is a New Zealand "Savvy". Marlborough is justifiably famed for its Sauvignon Blanc, and we've enjoyed a number of wines from there. We’ve not visited this winery, though, nor tried its wines. Here’s what the winery says: "fragrant mix of pineapple and passionfruit tropical aromas with underlying ripe citrus characters adding complexity to the nose. On the palate, again a flavoursome array of pineapples and passionfruit, with a zesty citrus essence of orange and lime." Great! If you like it, it's at Binny's (3000 N. Clark St.) for $12.99 a bottle.

On to reds. Pinot Noir is the great grape of Burgundy, and the prices sometimes reflect it. From what we read, when going with modestly priced Burgundies, the bigger names are safer choices. So we settled on the Joseph Drouhin 2006 Laforêt Bourgogne Pinot Noir. It is a Bourgogne, though a regional appellation. Here's what the Drouhin Web site tells us: "A wine full of charm: bright ruby colour and a nose rich with aromas of red fruit (raspberry, red currants, wild strawberry). On the palate, the wine is pleasant, fruity and refreshing, with light tannins and great elegance." Sounds promising! Available at Binny's for $13.99 a bottle.

The fourth wine is a California red, mostly sourced from Sonoma county grapes. We have tasted this one, briefly, a sample at the gorgeous new Whole Foods. A little plastic cup can't tell us exactly how good it is, so we’re offering up bottles for your opinions. 87 points from the Wine Spectator and the Wine Enthusiast, if that means something. According to the winery, then: "This Pinot Noir is aged in French oak barrels for 12 months and has a brilliant ruby color with aromas & flavors of strawberry, raspberry and overtones of smoked tea and spice." Also from Binny's (sorry Whole Foods) for $13.99 a bottle.

So then, a show of the food: cheeses, fruit, breads, pickled things, a walnut cake.







And then all the folks enjoying the evening.























Culminating with this handsome man, doing dishes. Isn't he a dream?