Category Archives: Wine

Tuesday Night in Turf Valley Towne Square

Posted on February 11, 2014 by AnnieRie

Before the snowmageddon being forecast. We went out to meet friends for dinner.

Facci has lots of company now along the main street in the newly developed “Towne Square”. Last spring I blogged about the anticipated center, built between Marriottsville Road and the Turf Valley resort properties.

With Facci there closer than Maple Lawn. Grille 620 closer than Stanford Grill for steaks. Xitomate now open for good Mexican. Red Parrot for Asian.

And, of course, Harris Teeter, for getting all those supplies before the snow hits.

We heard some news from Gino, who was bussing tables and visiting, that Pisco, his Peruvian restaurant, will open sometime in April.

That should be a welcome new ethnic restaurant over by Trader Joe’s and Costco.

We also heard that Facci will be adding a roll back roof on the outdoor seating and a few new surprises in design.

It just keeps getting better for dining out options, out here.

By the way, Tuesday night is half price selected wine bottle night there. And, happy hour daily from 3-6 includes half price appetizers.

The highlights of tonight’s dinner included very nicely made calamari. Hand made pasta, a pappardelle with a Bolognese sauce. Dessert, hazelnut gelato with espresso and whipped cream, shared.

After dinner, we hit Petite Cellars to grab a box of Italian pinot grigio, and off to Harris Teeter for some rolls for sandwiches, coffee for the Keurig, and some cream of coconut for some baking I want to do. No toilet paper or milk or loaves of bread.

They were doing a brisk business tonight with people getting ready for the snow. Will this be another bust, or will we really get snow?

Glad to see crowded parking lots and many people enjoying the new center.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Community, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Restaurants, West HoCo, Wine and tagged community, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, weather, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Posted on February 4, 2014 by AnnieRie

Ordinarily I am not a big fan of chicken breast. Usually too dry and without the taste that legs, thighs and wings have (at least to my taste preferences).

I tried a new technique for me, and made a very satisfying dinner tonight. Half the chicken in dinner, and the rest will become a chicken corn chowder base in a day or two.

Made in a stir fry pan. Here is what I did.

I had a pound of boneless chicken breast from our first Friends and Farms basket. I wanted chicken pieces that were moist. So, I started out with the chicken fat that had been skimmed off the stock I made with a whole chicken last week. I heated it up in the pan and added the chicken in strips and cubes. Let it cook slowly in the “schmaltz”. Pulled out the chicken and removed all the fat from the pan.

Put in my base.

Remember that jam jar dressing recipe from last week? Made with maple yogurt and Dijon mustard. Well, over the weekend I made another batch right in the mustard container, using equal amounts of mustard and yogurt and adding the cider vinegar and oil in the appropriate ratio. I put some coconut milk in the pan, about six ounces, added two teaspoons of flour, salt, pepper, and a healthy squirt of the mustard dressing. Made a white sauce. Added about four ounces of my oven roasted cherry tomatoes, taken from my freezer. Put the chicken back after adding another couple of ounces of milk to get the consistency I wanted.

A little sprinkle of tarragon, and of paprika. Kept on a low simmer while I made some of the Pappardelle’s pasta from Secolari.

I used about four ounces of the pasta that made two servings of pasta. Added about half the chicken mixture. That leaves me with half a pound of chicken to make the soup later this week.

The finished dish. I was considering adding cheese, but it was fine all by itself.

Served with a Maryland Chardonnay from Big Cork. The 2012 vintage. Perfect match to the creaminess of the sauce, this big chardonnay balanced the meal. The salad. Made with the Bibb lettuce from last week’s basket.

I have to admit. It is easy around here to eat locally, even in the dead of winter. The chicken. The tomatoes from the freezer. The schmaltz from a local roasting chicken bought last fall. The yogurt in the dressing. The lettuce. The wine.

I am glad we signed up with Friends and Farms for the winter. Gets me into making new dishes, and expanding my recipe collection.

Now I need to pull the frozen corn from the freezer and make that soup soon.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, value of CSA, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

A Super Weekend

Posted on February 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

And it had nothing to do with a very boring football game.

I did make spicy wings to eat during the game. We actually ate in the dining room since only one team seemed to have shown up to play today.

The rest of the weekend, though, was really quite nice. Good to see warmer weather before our next round of snow and ice and whatever.

We got to England Acres to pick up filets for Valentine’s Day, and some goodies for dessert (plus one to take to an upcoming Conservancy planning meeting).

Today we had our library wine tasting down at Linden. Postponed from that icy Sunday in early December, we got to savor some really lovely old wines as a treat for hanging in there with a two month delay.

Who would have thought that a 1993 Virginia Chardonnay could still be good? Not just good, but having “fruit” left and structure. We tasted four Chardonnays, and four Hardscrabble Reds.

The Chardonnays show us that you can make wines that age well here on the East Coast of the US. We tasted the 1993, 2002, 2009 and 2012. All from the Hardscrabble vineyard. We them moved to the reds. The 1992, 1998, 2006 and 2010 Hardscrabbles. Last, a comparison of the 1997 and 2004 Late Harvest Vidal Blancs.

Ninety minutes, where we conversed, tasted, asked questions and learned quite a few new things from Jim Law, the owner/winemaker at Linden.

My favorite. The 2009 Hardscrabble Chardonnay. One immensely intense yet elegant example of poetry in a bottle.

My other favorite today. The 2004 Hardscrabble being poured in the winery by the glass. Paired with some surryanna ham, and black and blue goat cheese.

Jim tells us he will be having more of these small events. No release party this year. The 2011 vintage, damaged by the late weather events (who can forget Irene and Lee?), meant no single vineyard reds that year.

We also found out about the building of the new “man cave”. A joking reference to the structure being erected just behind the winery. A heated space to work on equipment, from the winery and for vineyard maintenance.

We picked up a few bottles of the last of the Seyval. It was ripped out this year, to make space for more cabernet planting. The terroir there is better suited for Cabernet. Interesting to hear the changes coming in the future.

On our way home, we stopped in at Delaplane Cellars, near Sky Meadows State Park. Let’s just say, I want to live with this view.

Oh, and the wines are very nice, too. Impressed with their “cinq trois”.

Now, time to get ready for the snow.

hocofood@@@

The Sausage Inspired Frittata

Posted on January 18, 2014 by AnnieRie

The beef sausage just screamed, make something with eggs and sausage.

The Friends and Farms basket contained eggs, potatoes and sausage. All great ingredients to make a frittata (or a Spanish tortilla). The difference, flipping in a pan or finishing in an oven. I chose to finish in the oven.

My cast iron skillet has a cover that doubles as a shallow frying pan.

This morning I slow cooked the sausage in the oven. All of it. Half went into tonight’s dinner. The other half will be used in another dish. I also parboiled the potatoes we got. Peeled and sliced.

Some became potato salad. One went into this dish. Along with some chard from Harris Teeter and a few scallions.

The sausage, scallions and chard were all cooked first. Then I added five eggs that had been whisked with a splash of milk, salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence.

Cooked on the stove top until the bottom set, then finished in a 350 degree oven, sprinkled with Parmesan, cut and served with a salad.

The bibb lettuce from F&F also.

A simple Saturday night dinner, served with a Virginia wine.

Early Mountain does make one very flavorful Pinot Gris. It went well with the frittata.

A very good beginning to cooking with our new source for food. Thanks, Friends and Farms. Today, a frittata. Tomorrow, venison black bean chili.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Friends and Farms, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The Birthday Dinner

Posted on December 29, 2013 by AnnieRie

OK, I already know I can cook better than most restaurants in the county. At least for 90% of the food available.

Today I easily made a feast. No real effort. Just good ingredients.

Starting with lobster.

Steamed lobster tails bought at Harris Teeter, and steamed here. Served with honey mustard butter.

Followed by sirloin tips from The Common Market in Frederick. Sides of tomatoes and potatoes. Tomatoes from Costco. Stuffed with basil and mozzarella. Potatoes from the CSA parboiled, then finished in the oven with honey mustard, onions, and mozzarella.

Served with a couple of lovely wines. One, the barrel select Chardonnay from Breaux. The other, a nine year old Merlot from California.

The rest of the white is in the fridge, waiting to be an aperitif tomorrow. The merlot. Later tonight will be dessert with some awesome dark chocolate bought at Roots.

This dinner, decadent as it was, was a fraction of the cost of going out. It took minimal effort to make. Fitting it in while watching the Ravens self destruct.

Seriously. Buy good ingredients. Make simple preparations. Serve with local wines.

hocofood@@@

Field Trip Fridays … Again

Posted on December 27, 2013 by AnnieRie

We were off and wandering again today. Our favorite day to just head out and go wherever looks interesting.

Starting at Breaux, where we needed to pick up cellar club wines. We haven’t been there since May, so had three two packs to pick up.

Big construction happening there. Another addition. To make a cellar club room and more space to handle tastings. Harper’s Ferry Road is getting to be a popular wine road, with other wineries being built, and opening up between Breaux and Harper’s Ferry.

Like this one. Which opened since our last visit down to Breaux. A 100% female owned winery. We didn’t stop in today, but will put it on our “ToDo” list. Particularly since they grow Albarino and Petit Manseng.

Another one with no signs yet, but they are definitely building.

After we headed back into Maryland we detoured up Route 67 to Rohrersburg to see where Big Cork is building. Vineyards look good, but they still have lots of construction to do.

At the top of 67 in Boonsboro, we headed east and stopped at South Mountain Creamery for some of their wonderful ice cream, for my birthday this weekend. What could be better than peppermint stick ice cream?

Nice crisp winter sunny day. Back road driving. Loving the view while having a glass of wine, baguette, red pepper and feta spread and cheddar.

hocofood@@@

Christmas Dinner

Posted on December 26, 2013 by AnnieRie

Better than Ruth’s Chris. Worth way more than what it cost to make. Our quite simple to make yet amazingly flavorful Christmas dinner.

Start with the tenderloin. I’ll let you in on a secret. Hit Wegmans on the 3rd or 4th of January, when they sell off the tenderloins at huge savings. We bought two last year. Half price.

One grilled this summer. This one saved for Christmas. A very simple recipe, thanks to Ina Garten.

This was a three pound loin. I didn’t need to tie it off. I didn’t use the tarragon. Just olive oil, salt, pepper and I did add garlic powder. Slow roasted for about two hours at 250 degrees.

It registered at 140 degrees when tented. Came out absolutely perfect. Fork tender.

The sides. Brussels sprouts in brown butter with pecans.

Another simple technique. Brown some butter. Add pecans and toast. Add very small sprouts. Get them nice and seared, then lower the heat and cover the pan. A few minutes until they soften up.

We opened a very fruity, lovely velvety soft William Cole wine. A gift from a friend.

This wine was a 1998. Let’s just say I couldn’t afford it at a restaurant. Fifteen years old. Still with structure. My husband’s comment was “Delicious”, something you don’t always hear about wine. It still has a few more years to improve, for those lucky enough to have some.

The dinner.

Baked potato. Brussels sprouts. Tenderloin. I made a quick mushroom gravy from a box of Pacific condensed cream of mushroom soup (picked up at Roots) that was heated with some sliced CSA button mushrooms. Salt and pepper.

It was something special. We still have half the tenderloin and half the gravy left. It will probably be Saturday night’s dinner, over a salad of baby spinach and bleu cheese.

I may never go to Ruth’s Chris again. I just need to get to Wegmans for a few more tenderloins to put away.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Real Food, Restaurants, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, wegman's, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

My Local Little Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2013 by AnnieRie

This year I managed to buy almost every gift I gave from local artisans, farms, small businesses and people I know.

With the exception of regifting some books and some vintage jewelry from my late mother in law’s collection of fun costume stuff.

I didn’t post until after the presents have been given.

For me, reducing waste and my carbon footprint have driven me to look locally for my food, my services, my choices in giving, and just generally in how we live.

Call it that “greening” thing.

I still have a few indulgences that can’t be found locally. Like avocadoes. Spices. Citrus.

But, by and large, I prefer supporting people I know, all year round.

Some highlights.

Local wines. Taken to drink at my brother’s. And given as gifts. This year, it was mostly Big Cork.

Drinkable, approachable wines, to take to dinner when ham is on the menu. The Vidal Blanc and the Traminette.

Fun gifts. Like the soaps from Breezy Willow. Wild Woman is one of my favorites.

An alpaca scarf for my husband.

The greenery around the door from TLV Tree Farm. The tree from Greenway Farms. Not from North Carolina, but from right up the road.

The shrimp I took to my brother’s came from Boarman’s.

Dinner tonight featured many local items too. Tomorrow, my post will be about replacing those expensive dinners with easy to prepare local feasts.

To paraphrase, have yourself a local little Christmastime. Think about it as you get ready for New Year’s Eve. More on suggestions for the upcoming holiday later this weekend.

Makes for a lovely holiday week.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Community, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine and tagged community, cooking, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Resolutions

Posted on December 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

I didn’t make New Year’s Resolutions last year. I decided to challenge myself in my 60th year to do sixty things.

It was interesting. Fun. Not totally successful. But fun. I may try something similar this year.

Like finish the list in the areas I didn’t do very well in accomplishing.

My list —
Visit six festivals and/or fairs that are new to me
Taste at six new wineries never visited before
Seek out six new farmstands or markets to expand my locavore network
Do something different or visit someplace new in six states other than MD
Eat at six small business restaurants and/or diners
Eat/drink or experience six childhood memories
Log six new birds not seen before
Cook and eat six new proteins, i.e., meat, seafood, beans or nuts
Grow and/or eat six exotic fruits, veggies or herbs
Tackle six rightsizing projects

I am proud of myself in really taking on those rightsizing projects and pushing myself to get rid of things.

I hit more than enough wineries. Getting out of the rut of going to the same places. Discovering new and not so new places in MD and VA.

Farmstands and markets were successful too. Fruits, veggies and herbs, yep, did those too.

Where did I fail? Not getting out of MD, VA and PA. I really have become a stick in the mud when it comes to traveling. We did the trip to Roanoke and a few trips to PA. Found a few new towns in MD.

Never made it to DE or WV or NJ or NY, like we planned.

I was lucky in getting three new birds. Not by traveling, though. What were they? The guinea hens, the screech owl and the great horned owl. Thankfully, the program on creatures got me two close encounters with delightful creatures.

Cooked with some new grains like wheatberries.

Hit more than enough childhood memories, too.

I should take inventory of how much I did. And, decide what to do next year. I am a firm believer in challenging myself, so as not to get stodgy and set in my ways in retirement.

After all,

cooking with chayote was a highlight of my adventures into new foods.

As for wine, we can add Big Cork, Old Westminster, Early Mountain, Doukenie, Port of Leonardtown, St. Michael’s, Villa Appalaccia, Ankida Ridge and Valhalla to the list of new wines and wineries discovered this year. Not bad.

Here’s to a great year. And many more adventures.

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Posted in Adventures, Birds, Bucket List, Food, Remember When, Sixty@Sixty, Travel, Wine and tagged birds, cooking, day trips, Food, MD Wine, retirement, traditions, travel, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

One Snowy Sunday

Posted on December 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

And it still isn’t over. There are at least five inches of snow on the ground, and we are crossing our fingers that there won’t be much ice tonight.

Around noon, things were somewhat under control but with more snow and now freezing rain, getting up the hills could be interesting. I am so glad as a retired old person that I can sleep in tomorrow and avoid that rush hour mess around DC.

We always got a bit more snow and ice here in the western edge of Howard County. Our elevation of 600-800 feet across these parts is high enough to be a few degrees colder, and we see it in our snow fall totals.

This is the beginning of the heavier snow and ice on some of our ornamental grass. I hope tonight that the evergreens are spared the ice load. A few years back, we lost quite a few limbs on our pines and fir trees.

Watching football with a glass of Old Westminster Chardonnay, and some Bowling Green cheddar. Nice to be inside and warm. Wish us luck, to keep us from losing power!

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Community, Howard County, Retirement, Weather, West HoCo, Wine and tagged community, Howard County, MD Wine, nature, retirement, weather, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

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Category Archives: Wine

Tuesday Night in Turf Valley Towne Square

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

A Super Weekend

The Sausage Inspired Frittata

The Birthday Dinner

Field Trip Fridays … Again

Christmas Dinner

My Local Little Christmas

Resolutions

One Snowy Sunday

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