News From The Davis Creek Winery

06 Thursday Aug 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food, Wine and Food, Wine Dinners, Wine Tasting

I received this from Davis Creek today. Good information to a fantastic winery.

August 2008 August and September Events at Davis Creek Cellars

Dear Bob & Robin,
As the summer comes to a close and with harvest just around the corner, we are coming up on events season. Davis Creek will be at multiple tastings and celebrations during the months of August and September so check out a few of them if you can. If you are unable to attend, you can still find us at the Capital City Public Market in downtown Boise on Saturdays, Evenings at Edwards on Tuesday nights off Hill Road in Boise, and of course at our tasting room in Marsing. We will also be having a release party for our new vintage of Tempranillo and Malbec August 28-30. We will be releasing our UP A CREEK! Syrah in September, but that date is yet to be decided. Watch our website for the UP A CREEK! release date! Cheers! from the Davis’s at Davis Creek Cellars

Basque Wine Fest: August 14 from 5:30 to 9pm

Hosted by the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, this annual tasting events takes place on Grove Street between Capital and 6th Street. Tastes wines from local wineries and distributors as well as various tapas from restaurants on the Basque Block. Contact the Basque Museum and Cultural Center for tickets and details at 343-1285.

Eagle Food and Wine Fest: August 21 and 22

Gala Dinner and Tasting at Stueckle Sky Center, August 21 from 6:30-11:00pm: Enjoy an evening at the BSU Stueckle Sky Center featuring 6 local wineries (including Davis Creek), a live and silent auction with proceeds to benefit Meals on Wheels and The Landing Community Youth Programs, and a dinner featuring Idaho wines. Food and Wine Festival at Merrill Park, August 22 from Noon-6pm:Wine tasting, Live Music, and a Chef’s tent featuring local wines and restaurants in Merrill Park in Eagle. For tickets and information visit http://www.eaglechamber.com or call 208-939-4222

New Release Weekend: August 28-30

Time to come out and taste our latest vintage of Tempranillo and Malbec!!!Our 2007 Tempranillo is sold out and the 2007 Malbec is not far behind it! We will be pouring our 2008 Two Vineyard Cuvee Tempranillo and our 2008 Pontin Vineyard Malbec for the first time! Come out have taste of our newest wines and enjoy light appetizers at the tasting room all weekend.

Basque Cooking Class at the Orchard House: August 30

A cooking class featuring Davis Creek Cellars 2008 Tempranillo (among other wines) and the Basque Market of Boise. Enjoy wine tasting while learning how to make various tapas and paella from the pros.Contact Kris and Sherry at the Orchard House for details and reservations at 208-459-8200.
(Note: Any of the Boise Foodie Guild interested in this? A great opportunity and we might be able to get a couple of tables!!)

Chefs’ Affaire: September 10 from 6:30-11pm

A Chefs’ Affaire takes place at the Centre on the Grove featuring local wineries and chefs. The evening concludes with a lively auction of local dining packages. Each package is different, but many of them include having a chef come to you home and prepare a dinner for you and you friends! The proceeds from the event go to the Idaho Food Bank. For tickets, call 208-336-9643.

Taste of Idaho at Qwest Area: September 12 from 10am-5pm

Enjoy wine and food sampling from local wineries and restaurants. Since this is an Idaho Preferred event, all food and wine must be from Idaho! There will be an Idaho Chef Competition and cooking demo’s going on during the event as well. This is a great event to sample the bounty of Idaho Agriculture! Tickets will be available at the door.

Davis Creek Cellars, 429 Main Street, Suite 101, Marsing, ID 83639

Trivia to Ponder

05 Wednesday Aug 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Thought For The Day, Trivia

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Thanks to Kate and Paul Sudmeier for these pieces of trivia. Interesting.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

1. In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

2. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

3. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

4. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

And just for fun ……
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

Interesting. Cheers!

Bacon Fest, Nampa, Idaho

01 Saturday Aug 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food, Party Time, Things To Do

≈ 3 Comments

Yup! There really is a Bacon Fest! This one was held at Brick 29 in Nampa, Idaho. (If you have never eaten here, absolutely don’t miss it!!) But this was a special event and I think sponsored by Vande Rose Farms, Iowa Duroc Heritage Breed Pork. You can reach them, and order products, from their website, Vande Rose Farms. Bacon, bacon, bacon! A bacon lovers event. You can try bacon any way you can think of it.

Eggs and Bacon on Bread Triangles
Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms
Bacon Dip
Bacon Wrapped Mushrooms
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno
Bread stuffed with Swiss Cheese and Wrapped in Bacon
Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato Sandwiches (BLT)
Chocolate Covered Bacon

And then there is Bakon Vodka. Yup! You have not read it wrong … Bakon Vodka. This vodka is from New West Spirits. The original spelling of bacon came from the “… Old German (bakkon) and Old French (bako). “Bacon” or “bacoun” first appeared in the English language around the twelfth century, initially to describe pork in general”. (2009 Lauer, pg 20) So, what do you do with Bakon Vodka besides mix it with eggs and then scramble them? Try one of these:

1. Bakon Apple Martini
(Apple, Bakon and Rum)
2. Luau Martini
(Bakon, Pineapple and Butterscotch)
3. Irish Boar Martini
(Bakon, Kahlua, Baileys, Hazelnut and a splash of Cream)
4. Bakon Mary
(Killer Bloody Mary with Bakon)
5. Pemican Martini
(Bakon and Huckleberry Vodka. Robin came up with this one!)

It was nice to meet Heather Lauer author of Bacon: A Love Story and to have her sign her book. And there are some really nice looking recipes in the book like Bacon Frittata, page 116, and Hana Beach Breakfast Sandwich, page 118. But the book is not all recipes. There is really some delightful discussions of bacon folklore. And some lyrics from Bacon Love Songs, like in chapter 5, page 88. “A little bit of bacon, A little bit of life.” Or, “Beer and bacon waitin’ for my friends, They ain’t comin’ over, but I’m not stayin sober.” But I know, you’re waiting for a recipe. Well try this and it too, is a song lyric. “Bacon, lettuce and tomato … Try it with some Mayo … Fry it up, put the oil in a cup. Bacon.” And, as Ms Lauer states in the header of her first chapter in Bacon: A Love Story, let us not forget that “On the eigth day, God created bacon.” Hmmmm. Now, where is the corn?

I know. Waaaay too much fun! But then good food, good drink and warm friends make it that way. Cheers all! (Oh. I almost forgot. I do have some photos coming after a while. My camera is in the shop – too many falcon photos – so one of the waiters at Brick 29 who was taking photos said he would send some.)

Herbal Pickles

31 Friday Jul 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Recipes, Things To Do

≈ 1 Comment

From Herb Companion we can find some good Herbal Pickles for that over abundance of cukes in your garden. Here is what they say about the pickles. “The pleasure of late summer is the burgeoning abundance of available fresh herbs—whether plucked from your own garden or obtained from your local farmers’ market. A good way to savor these herbal treasures is by using them to make quick pickled vegetables, which can be ready in about an hour or so.

Unlike traditional canning methods, these easy-to-prepare recipes take just 10 to 20 minutes to assemble. Then all you need to do is chill the jar in the refrigerator for about an hour, until cold. The pickles do need to be refrigerated, however, so if you want basement shelves full of pickles, you’ll need to take the longer, more involved canning route.”

Make lots of pickles from these four recipes. Good luck! Cheers!

Eating Crow

30 Thursday Jul 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Celebrations, Classics, Food Trivia

≈ 1 Comment

Thus, the saying: Eating crow. Never a good move.

How to Eat Crow

If you have ever had to eat crow you know it is not a pleasant experience. However, if you are in the situation where you have to eat crow, it is possible to make the experience less difficult and who knows, maybe it can even be fun.

Instructions
Difficulty: Moderate
Step 1
Decide to enjoy it. Whether you have to eat crow all time or if it is your first experience eating crow, you can still choose to enjoy the experience. It will only be as bad as you allow it to be. You may have said that those pants did make her look fat or reading books is more fun than watching television, but it is not the end of the world.
Step 2
Brush it off. Many people will take pleasure with the experience of watching you eat crow. Smart aleck words, funny faces–they will pull out every trick in the book to make you feel as small as the period at the end of this sentence. Do not let them do that to you. Decide that no one can embarrass you. No one can make you anything less than you are. This is your crow. You decide how big or small it is.
Step 3
Laugh at yourself. The more you joke about it the less ammo others have to hit you with. When you eat crow it is up to you how it goes down. Laughter will grease the palate but bitterness will be like a dam in your throat. Take charge of your crow and wash it down with some laughter, good wine and zest for life.
Step Four
Promise yourself that you will never ever eat crow again.
When it is all said and done eating crow is a negative charged act. Do not let all those people that love to watch you flounder in embarrassment who reveled in your shame ever get to experience that again. From now on the crow will be theirs to eat. They will be the ones who are ashamed and embarrassed. You will be the one laughing and mocking and making the biting comments. They will get theirs!

"Wash, Boil, Surv"

29 Wednesday Jul 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food Prep, Thought For The Day

≈ 1 Comment

And be sure to Wash first! Robin found this somewhere. Seriously funny! Seriously stupid!

The inscription on the metal bands used by the U.S.
Department of the Interior to tag migratory birds has been
changed. The bands used to bear the address of the
Washington Biological Survey, abbreviated as “Wash. Biol.
Surv.” — until the agency received the following letter
from an unhappy camper: “Dear Sirs: While camping last week,
I shot one of your birds. I think it was a crow. I followed
the cooking instructions on the leg tag and want to tell you
it tasted horrible.”

The bands are now marked “Fish & Wildlife Service.”

Let’s not try this one! Cheers!

Produce Available From Spyglass Gardens!

28 Tuesday Jul 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food, Local Farmers Markets, Local Markets, Things To Do

≈ 1 Comment

I received this via E-Mail this afternoon. Local produce; Local Goodness!

Yes it has happen! Summer is really here. We have CORN and Watermelons! Plus we have been picking Tomatoes, Green Beans, Yukon and Red Potatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Peaches that are so juicy and sweet and of course Carrots, Beets and summer lettuce.

Come on out to the markets and check out our booth! Tues Evenings McFadden in Front of Meridian City Hall, Saturdays in Eagle-Downtown in the City Park and Meridian Farmers Market on Eagle Road north of Ustick. And if you are headed up north on Wednesday at the Alpha Nursery in Round Valley – Hwy 55 – north of Clear Creek. Steve went last week for the first time, and was greeted by the locals! They were so excited to have us come up we are looking forward to going again this week and thru the month of August.

Hope all is well with your families, Take Care – See you soon Steve and Wendy at Spyglass Gardens

Let’s support our local gardeners/farmers and purchase the goods that they produce! Cheers!

Osso Buco – Lamb Shanks

26 Sunday Jul 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food, Food Prep, Herbs, Recipe By: Bob Young, Wine and Food

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OK, so you say you like lamb and you don’t really know what to do with the shanks? (You could use pork for this, too.) Shanks are just a big hunk of fat and bone? Not exactly if your butcher has cut the leg correctly. Look here for a recipe for Lamb Shanks – Osso Buco. This recipe is a little Middle Eastern and Italian; A blend of the two. It does take a while to prepare: 30 minutes plus for the prep and 2-3 hours at a low simmer to cook. But well worth the wait. Serve with a good red wine (Dusted Valley [WA] Cabernet Sauvignon is suggested) and a mix of steamed Green Beans and Yellow Wax Beans. The preparation has a multitude of other things in it including tomatoes, onion, fennel bulb and herbs and spices. Try it and let us know how you like it. Cheers!

What Are "Pinquito Beans"?

24 Friday Jul 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food, Food Trivia, Trivia

≈ 5 Comments

From several sources, we have the following information on Pinquito Beans.

First, from Ranch Gordo we have, “A specialty bean from Santa Maria, California. Pinquitos are a cross between a pink bean and a small white bean and are a standard in Santa Maria style BBQ. Use to make side-dish beans, chili beans or substitute for in any recipe where pintos are called for. In Santa Maria the classic combination is pinquitos with BBQ tri-tip.”

From Wikipedia, we learn, “Pinquito Beans

Pinquito beans are an essential component of the traditional Santa Maria Style Barbecue menu. Pinquito beans are a cross between a pink bean and a small white bean. How they came to be grown in the Santa Maria Valley remains a mystery. Some say the beans were given as a gift by a Mexican vaquero to one of the early Swiss-Italian settlers. Others contend that a lady brought several plants with her when she migrated to the area from Europe. Pinquito Beans grow well in the fertile soil and mild climate of the Santa Maria Valley, which is the only place where Pinquito beans are grown commercially.”

And to define the Santa Maria BBQ, “Santa Maria Style Barbecue originated in the mid 1800s when local ranchers would host Spanish-style feasts each spring for their vaquero. They barbecued meat over earthen pits filled with hot coals of local red oak. The meal would be served with pinquitos, small pink beans that are considered indigenous to the Santa Maria Valley.

According to local barbecue historian R.H. Tesene, “The Santa Maria Barbecue grew out of this tradition and achieved its ‘style’ when local residents began to string cuts of beef on skewers or rods and cook the meat over the hot coals of a red oak fire.”

In 1931, the Santa Maria Club started a “Stag Barbecue,” which was held on the second Wednesday of every month, with up to 700 patrons attending each event. By the late 1950s, three local restaurants—The Far Western Tavern, Hitching Post and Jocko’s—were on their way to becoming landmarks of Santa Maria Style Barbecue. The original cut was top-block sirloin. Then, as today, the meat was rolled in a mixture of salt, pepper and garlic salt before being barbecued over the red oak coals, which contribute a smoky, hearty flavor. In the 1950s, a local butcher named Bob Schutz perfected the tri-tip, a triangular bottom sirloin cut that quickly joined top-block sirloin as a staple of Santa Maria Style Barbecue. “

OK, so there we have some information on the now infamous Pinquito Bean. It’s time to try some! Cheers!

June’s Beans

24 Friday Jul 2009

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food Prep, Party Time, Recipes

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From one of our readers, June Jensen and I am hoping that she continues to read this blog, we have this recipe for Baked Beans.

Recipe for Barbecue Beans
Original

2 Cups (1 lb) Pinquito Beans
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large Onion chopped
1can(8oz) tomato sauce
1/3 c.Bacon Drippings
2 to 4 teaspoons Chili Powder
1/4 teaspoon powdered cumin seeds or comino may be omitted

Brown and add 1 of the following: 1/2 Lb of Hamburger, ham, or sausage with 1 chopped green pepper.

Wash and pick over beans. Soak overnight in cold water or cover beans with boiling water and add above ingredients. Cover and simmer gently 2 or 3 hrs. until beans are tender and sauce is thick and rich. Stir occassionlly..it may be necessary to add a little boiling water from time to time. When done, the beans should be neither dry for soupy. Served with Barbecued meat, this amount of beans should serve 6 to 8 people.

Jim’s Version of Barbecued Beans

2 cups (1 lb) Pinquito Beans
2 or 3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1 large White Onion (chopped)
1 can (16 ozs.) V-8 juice
2 to 4 teaspoons of Chili Powder

Brown and add 1/2 lb. of Bacon (Chopped and drained)
Brown and add 1lb. of Hamburger

Use same method as above.
We feel this serves several more than 6-8 used as a side dish. But it can be used as a main dish, along with salad, Garlic bread, an a desert.
If you have any questions call or email us.

Santa Maria style Barbecue includes Barbecued Tri Tip, Beans, Potato Salad, Salsa, and Garlic Bread.

Sincerely,
June (Maxine)