CSA Box Meets Kitchen Garden

One of the best challenges with the CSA has been figuring out how to use new ingredients, not necessarily the ones we would choose while shopping at the farmers market.  Watermelon radishes are beautiful and they offer a nice crunch.  The radish tops make nice hearty salad greens. However, they are pepper bombs when raw! … Continue reading

Watermelon Radish Salad & Lioco Rosé

A refreshing glass of rosé and a nice salad are just right on a hot summer night.  Continuing on our local theme, much of this salad is built from a our CSA box and local farmer’s market produce.  The combination of peppery crunch from the radishes, the sweet fruit and the salty feta provide satisfying … Continue reading

Spring Pea Basil Risotto and a Pair of Piedmont Wines

I might not choose to serve risotto on the hottest day of the summer, but it makes a fine dinner on days when the A/C is off and the windows are open.  Risotto’s historic home is the Piedmont area of Italy, so we decided to match the meal with wines from the same area.  We … Continue reading

CSA Meatless Monday: Wines for Sriracha Sauce

One Pan Curried Kale Medley Today’s Meatless Monday recipe is a spicy one pan meal featuring ingredients from our CSA box.  Sriracha sauce is pretty spicy, but we found a couple of wines that gracefully handled the heat. Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorees Beaujolais 2011 ($14) There are very few red wines that pair nicely with … Continue reading

Transportation: Where Wine has Taken Me

Fellow blogger and virtual friend, Jeff at The Drunken Cyclist, has issued a challenge to blog about the topic of “Wine and Transportation” in any way we see fit.  I’d like to tell you how wine has been the vehicle to take me to several new places over the last three years. What Do I … Continue reading

La Morra to Barolo Vineyard Walk

Barolo, Barolo, or Barolo which one do you mean? Barolo DOCG – Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (controlled designation of origin guaranteed) the official Italian government sanctioned area which can produce wines with the “Barolo” designation. Barolo – the name of one of the communes (or towns) within the area prescribed as the Barolo … Continue reading

5 Tips for Your First Visit to Barolo (Italy!)

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in the Langhe, the sub-region of Piedmont which includes both Barolo and Barbaresco – two of Italy’s finest wines.  What a treat!  I’ll have several posts over the next few weeks highlighting different aspects of my first wine experience in Italy.  I had … Continue reading

Eat Local – CSA Veggies, Lamb & a Summer Syrah

Bossy Acres CSAWe received our first Bossy Acres CSA box this week!  It’s a little like opening the mystery box in those cooking shows on TV, but that’s part of the fun. Radishes – Summer Salad Stars 1st challenge: We would be getting radishes in this delivery.  Radishes aren’t one of our everyday vegetable choices, … Continue reading

Kermit Lynch Wine Dinner at Pairings

Wine dinners at Pairings Food & Wine in Minnetonka are always a treat.  Tonight, we had the pleasure of an all Kermit Lynch wine selection paired with special dishes by Chef Mike.  Anissa, the manager at Pairings and Eric from New France Wine Company were our hosts to this special evening. (click on any photo … Continue reading

Rosé Season!

Summer = Rosé Have you stocked up on Rosé for the summer?  Have you had a traditional (dry) Rosé?  If you thought Rosé was a sweet wine for beginners, please go find a bottle of real Rosé to sample.  You’ll be hooked! What is Rosé? With white wines the juice is pressed off the grapes … Continue reading