Tag Archives: Linden Vineyards

Dining Al Fresco … West County Style

Posted on May 4, 2012 by AnnieRie

One thing I learned moving out here. We don’t run out for dinner or order carryout like we did in Columbia. Not as many choices without driving. My neighbors and friends out here have more meals outside, in the quiet countryside, with family and friends. Friday night al fresco dining is this for us.

The view is way better from my chair than parking lots or storm water management ponds.

We can spend lots of money to go out for dinner, but honestly, dinner on the patio is so much more relaxed, and a fraction of the cost. Everything at dinner tonight was bought without setting foot in a chain grocery store. The entire meal, minus wine, cost about twelve bucks.

The soup: cauliflower leek

I made using CSA veggies with organic almond milk and vegetable broth. Indian spices. The sausage that finished the soup. Homemade hot Italian from Boarman’s.

The salads: CSA oranges and beets from the Lancaster market. Tomato and goat cheese mozzarella, also from Lancaster. The basil from my garden. The oil from Casual Gourmet.

The bread: Atwater’s rosemary Italian. The wine: Linden chardonnay. I figure the dinner cost me $12 in supplies. The wine $20. What would I pay for a meal this good in a restaurant? Two times? Three? The wine alone is the equivalent of a decent Burgundy, that would cost me $40-$50 in a restaurant. I suppose I could order a $10 wine marked up to $30 which is the usual markup.

I know I am unique in loving to cook. I know I now have the time to do so. But, I used to “pee” away how much time with a beeper at restaurants waiting for a table. I think I prefer spending that time cooking, and not roaming around being bored and paying ridiculous prices for a beer or glass of wine while waiting for a table in the chain restaurants in Columbia.

My cocktails are better, too. Meyer lemon basil fizz, anyone?

Have a great weekend everyone!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, West HoCo, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, hoco loco, Howard County, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Grillin’ and Enjoying a Killer VA Wine

Posted on April 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Tonight we decided to grill using mostly local ingredients.

We wanted to try a killer wine from Virginia. This is a wine that will rival Bordeaux wines such as Pichon Lalande.

The year 2009 was one of those years where the weather cooperated in giving us big, flavorful wines worthy of cellaring. Linden had their barrel tasting the past two weekends and pre-released this 2009 Hardscrabble Vineyard cabernet dominant blend.

Dark, intense, a baby when compared to other wines. Here is an example of what winemakers are capable of producing in the Mid Atlantic region when it comes to wines. This wine won’t peak for at least ten years. It can be bought at a fraction of the cost of Bordeaux wines with less depth. It just overwhelms your palate. The filet, though, stood up to it..

The filets and the bacon were fron Boarman’s. The asparagus and potatoes from the Zahradka Farm CSA. A local dinner with a wine from the master. Jim Law has assisted countless aspiring winemakers, including Black Ankle winemaker Sarah O’Herron. He is one of those talented people who puts his heart and soul into his wines.

The year 2009 was a perfect year for making big wines in the mid Atlantic. This is the vintage to buy.

For a fraction of the cost of dinner in a restaurant, you can grill a steak and serve a killer wine. Trust me. We did dinner at Aida on Saturday. My grilled dinner with wine blew it away.

From start to finish, a simple grilled meal with an awesome wine can be had for half the cost of going out. In this area, we are blessed with wineries that produce excellent cabernets and chardonnays, at a fraction of the cost of French or California wines.

Check them out. Make a killer dinner yourself. Look at VA and MD for some big, cellar worthy reds.

hocofood@@@

Tasting Barrels …

Posted on April 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

… or is that barrel tasting. I forget after the 11th sample.

Today we spent a lovely day at the case club barrel tasting at Linden Vineyards.

I think everyone here knows I love Linden wines. I even have a tag in my tag clouds for them.

We have been collecting their wines for 20 years. They will drink beautifully for 10-15 years and some of them for 20. We drank our last 1990 a while back, still hanging in there.

The barrel tasting today was on a dull rainy day, not the lovely spring day we wished for.

No one out on the patio. After the tasting we ended up inside by the stove.

We tasted barrel samples of the three designated sourced Avenius, Hardscrabble, and Boisseau chardonnays. Plus the claret blend, all vintage 2011. There will be no designated reds this year, due to the huge amount of rain that we all experienced last September. The reds didn’t come to potential and will be mostly blended.

Wines from 2011 include the recently released Rose, which is made from the merlot.

We started out up in the new tasting room, the site of special events. We tasted a newly released sauvignon blanc with broiled mussels.

It has a view down into the tank room where we were tasting the claret sample. I took a couple of pics down there but in the darker venue didn’t want to use flash to bother people, and they didn’t turn out well.

Still, the whites will be good, decent wines, well made as usual. The 2008 and 2009 designated red wines were tasted side by side with very tasty paired food items from the Ashby Inn in Paris VA.

We also had a charcuterie board from Croftburn Market in Culpeper VA Their sausage made with fennel was really nice.

All in all, a lovely day, even though the weather did not cooperate. They have the most commanding view of the mountains, so I will leave you with a view from the patio a week ago, when it wasn’t raining.

Grillin and Chillin in Locavore Style

Posted on April 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today was lovely. One of those days you are glad you are retired. Cleaned up the grill. Did some yard work. And grilled up a locavore meal.

This is surf and turf Boarman’s style.

We bought two crabcakes Sunday. And four mushrooms. Split the crabcakes into the mushrooms with some Trader Joe’s mustard underneath and Old Bay sprinkled on top. Brushed with Trickling Springs butter. Grilled up off the flame.

The sausages are Boarman’s sweet Italian. Not the spicy ones.

As for the rest of the meal, it was mostly CSA foods. Potatoes, onions and the defrosted peppers, all came from Zahradka. The only non-local items here were the tomatoes, but they also were bought at Boarman’s. The bread. Sourdough from Canela, bought at Boarman’s.

I did not set foot in a grocery store to buy these foods. You can have lovely meals from small stores using local sources.

The wine: the Linden 2011 Rose made from the estate merlot grapes. 2011 was the difficult year, due to the hurricane and all the rain. Lots of good grapes that didn’t get to be great wines are being used to make light refreshing wines. This wine was a perfect match to compliment crab and pork sausage.

Doesn’t get much better than this.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, GGSAC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, grilling, hoco loco, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, retirement, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Terroir

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AnnieRie

It really makes a difference. The earth. The soil. Are you partial to fruits and vegetables grown in your area?

Are you, like me, someone who craves Eastern Shore tomatoes, ‘lopes and watermelons, because they taste the way they do?

And, even though hydroponically grown tomatoes have flavor, it doesn’t pick up terroir, because there is no soil.

It is interesting that Glen Manor changed their web site this week. They have always featured the term “a sense of place”, which is what terroir roughly translates to mean. Their new web site has more detail on what that means to them.

Last Thursday night, I blogged about my pizza with a 2002 Linden Cabernet Franc. Full of fruit, hint of smoke.

Friday we drove to Front Royal to pick up our 2009 Hodder Hill allocation from Glen Manor. we had to get it quickly as it had just won the VA Governor’s Cup and was already in short supply.

We tasted the 2010 Cabernet Franc, and surprise, the same hint of smoke. Why? Because in 2002 the Linden Cabernet Franc consisted largely of Glen Manor’s grapes.

Terroir!

Jeff worked at Linden before going out on his own. He learned from one of the best in VA. His wines reflect that same commitment to using what nature gives you.

You can’t go wrong with either one of these vineyards. If you talk to either one of them, they will tell you first and foremost they are farmers. They grow grapes. They make amazing wines from those grapes.

I may sit down with friends this weekend if it stays warm and decide whose dry Rose is my favorite for a summer time wine. They both make great reds, but their style of Rose isn’t bad either.

If you want to visit two beautiful wineries and taste some of the best of VA, you can’t go wrong at either site. I love the fact, no limos, no large groups, no party people. Just simple folk who love wine.

Glen Manor

Linden Vineyards

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Posted in Day Trips, Locavore, Wine and tagged day trips, foodie, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

That Whole Grocery Store Avoidance Thing

Posted on April 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

Who knew you could put together a pizza this good looking without setting foot in a chain grocery store? Or by eating out.

A while back, I evaluated how much better I was doing by moving from processed to whole foods and declared an avoidance strategy when it comes to shopping the easy way at grocery stores.

I called it my GGSAC and only posted twice about it. So, how am I doing at avoiding the Giant Food and Safeway stores? For the past two weeks since I started, pretty well with an exception for Harris Teeter when I didn’t feel like running across the county to Costco or up to H Mart for fish.

I have spent more time and money in Boarman’s, Roots and David’s so far this month. I have been using up pantry items bought last fall, and have also put together a bag full of stuff to take to the Food Bank. If it makes me sneeze, it is out of here. If it has a long list of additives, same thing.

Thanks to Nicole at Hoco Loco for commenting that she saw Meyer Lemons at David’s. Yesterday we made it there to do some shopping that included locally made sausages and the aforementioned lemons. Looks like National Boh Brats on the grill this weekend maybe. Made in Baltimore.

I got a few things necessary as well to make a killer pizza tonight. The cheese, oh, the cheese. My favorite Mountain Top Bleu from Firefly Farms, bought at the Silver Spring Market.

Pancetta, bought at David’s Natural Market. The pizza crust came from Roots. The fig butter was in the fridge, and from Trader Joe’s.

The greens, from my garden, the asparagus, the first delicate spear from that wild plant under the crepe myrtles. Finished with a drizzle of Ariston olive oil bought at Casual Gourmet, this pizza is so satisfying.

Dinner was served with a 2002 Linden Cabernet Franc, still hanging in there after ten years. Full of fruit, a hint of smoke, not tired or fading. No bell pepper taste that Virginia francs sometimes exhibit. This lovely wine balanced the sweetness of the fig butter, the saltiness of the pancetta, the earthiness of the cheese, and the tang of the greens. What a great combination and a satisfying meal, NOT courtesy of boxed supermarket pizza.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, GGSAC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, GGSAC, hoco loco, Howard County, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Keeping It Mostly Local – Pizza

Posted on March 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

Last night we felt like having pizza. But, I refuse to be influenced by TV commercials enticing me to just pick up a frozen pie or calling for delivery pizza. Making it myself is really not that difficult, as long as I buy dough, or find a flatbread that works in the oven or on the grill.

I picked this one up from Roots the other day.

It is a thick crusty base that will hold up to lots of oil and sauce and cheese without getting soggy. Making my own toppings is what I like about pizza. Dig around in the fridge and see what looks good.

I made a sauce using local Maitake mushrooms bought at MOM’s, Hummingbird Farms cherry tomatoes bought at Roots, garlic and onion from my CSA, a bit of sauce from Quaker Valley in PA, bought at the Silver Spring Farmer’s Market, and some organic tomato paste, bought at the Common Market a while back. Sweated the onions and mushrooms. Added the rest and left it on low to simmer while I got the cheeses on the crust.

Used up some Firefly Farms chevre, and some tomato basil spread from Bowling Green Farms. Put the sauce on top of the cheeses. Ready for the oven.

Baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes to make it crispy.

Served with a 2002 Linden Cabernet Franc, the last of this year and varietal in the cellar. As usual, the wine did not disappoint, nor did the pizza. The wine did not exhibit that bell pepper taste the francs from VA usually do. It was well balanced and still had quite a bit of fruit for a ten year old VA wine. If I recall, this was an OK year after a really good one in 2001. This wine proved that even in a less than optimum year, Linden made wines with longevity.

What made this dinner even more fun were the brownies. Made with a mix and black beans and water. That’s all. No eggs, or oil. I did jazz them up a bit with peanut butter and peanuts, but you can make them just with the mix and beans. Look it up on line. Simple brownies, dark, dense and chewy. Great to finish the wine with them while watching the basketball games.

This was a mostly locally sourced meal, and yet simple to do. In just a few weeks the farmer’s markets will open across Howard County, and it will be really easy to pick up cheeses and mushrooms to make your own pizza. We will have to wait a while though to get good tomatoes, but until then, Roots has Hummingbird Farms hydroponically grown tomatoes, including the heirlooms.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, Food, Howard County, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

A Special Award for a Local VA Winery

Posted on February 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

We received an email yesterday that I just have to share. Glen Manor Vineyards in Front Royal, VA won the VA Governor’s Cup for their 2009 Hodder Hill Meritage. I have written about Glen Manor wines here on the blog as they are some of our favorites, including those made from Glen Manor’s grapes while Jeff White grew for Linden.

We have earlier vintages of Hodder Hill in our cellar, tucked away in boxes waiting for them to mature. This wine is made from four of the five traditional Bordeaux varietals. Only Malbec is missing from the blend.

We have been drinking these wines since 1998 when Jeff’s first single vineyard designation appeared on a Linden label. We recently had a 1999 with dinner. Just like all of Linden’s reds, it was still big, beautifully balanced and still a bit tannic.

A visit in early January to Glen Manor resulted in our stocking up on
their Sauvignon Blancs while assuming we would get some Hodder Hill in April at their barrel tasting. Now, it may be difficult as he indicated he will have to ration us to four bottles. It seems the phone is ringing off the hook since he won this award.

The Virginia Governor’s Cup was revamped this year, making it a very stiff competition, with two levels of judging. The twelve top wines, designated the Governor’s Case, will be featured in marketing and at official state events. Winning this first place finish is indeed an honor for Jeff. Over 400 wines were entered, many of them from very respectable long standing vineyards, and some from “upstarts”.

I mean, how often can you say you beat The Donald? Yes, Glen Manor beat out the Trump aka Kluge blanc de blanc sparkling wine. Here is the link to the press release.

Virginia is so far ahead of MD in promoting local wines. For years we have found the agriculture and forestry office in their government to aggressively promote their wines, all the while MD has been putting road blocks in front of potential MD winemakers.

Now there is some support for MD’s boutique wineries, with legislation passed favorable to the industry, but they will have a hard time competing with VA.

For those of us who love local wines, any progress is a good thing. With Black Ankle getting national press last year, and Glen Manor rising to the top of a booming industry in VA, this region may finally get the respect they deserve. The hills all along the Appalachian Mountains are a perfect place to grow Vinifera. No need to buy foreign wines. Uncork a bottle of something locally grown and produced.

And enjoy the view.

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Posted in Commentary, Locavore, Wine and tagged Linden Vineyards, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally – Bison and Polenta

Posted on February 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

Week 13, three months into the challenge to eat at least once a week with locally sourced items. All of the main ingredients for dinner came from less than 150 miles of our house. A few exceptions, spices and oils/vinegar, as noted when I started this personal challenge.

This week I challenged myself to cook items new to me for cooking, but not new from experience in restaurants. Bison, from Gunpowder Bison, and bought at the Silver Spring Year Round Farmer’s Market. Short Ribs, slow cooked in the oven. Served over soft creamy polenta and with honey glazed carrots.

The bison was first rubbed with “RubJoeMeat” coffee based dry rub bought last year at one of the local home shows. It is not local, obviously, but perfect for bison. Then, I placed it in an olive oil rubbed shallow pan, added red wine, balsamic vinegar, sliced white onion, and spread some McCutcheon’s tomato preserves over the top. Salt, pepper and cayenne. Baked at 225 degrees for three hours.

The polenta was made using Burnt Cabins roasted cornmeal. Nothing but water, cornmeal, salt, pepper and unsalted butter. Also, I steamed carrots then glazed them with honey.

Here are the supporting ingredients that went into the meal.

This was a really tasty meal. The polenta set up beautifully with an earthy quality: using roasted cornmeal created this heartier version of a soft polenta. The bison is lean, but using the wine and vinegar kept it from being dry or tough. The tomato preserves are awesome. Just tomatoes, sugar, and citric acid. Slightly sweet but still tart like tomatoes. This stuff is also great on toast for breakfast. The McCutcheon Family has been in the butters, preserves, jams and jelly business in Frederick for 74 years. We can find their jars of goodness all over the area.

As for the wine to stand up to this meal, we chose the 1998 Linden Hardscrabble. A fourteen year old Virginia red wine. Still with oodles of fruit and still tannic. Not brown around the edges. This wine is a killer wine and it proves that Jim Law has truly mastered the art of making big wines right here in our backyard. If you are a fan of Black Ankle and have tasted their big Crumbling Rock or Slate wines, they are babies compared to Linden. Sarah O’Brien is pushing Black Ankle in the direction that Jim Law took Linden. These are very concentrated wines. It will be interesting to see if Black Ankle can get to the level of Linden as their vines mature.

I have added Jim’s notes from his web page below the picture for those who want to know more about this lovely wine, that almost but not quite upstaged my bison and polenta.

Linden Vineyards Cellar Notes:

Aromas: Cocoa and dried herbs, especially rosemary.

Palate: Flavors of dark cherry, cloves and black pepper with firm, yet fine grained tannins.

Food Pairings: Red meats, rich cheeses, and dishes with olives or garlic.

Vineyard: Estate (100% Hardscrabble Vineyard), on Blue Ridge at 1,300 to 1,400 ft. with an eastern to southern slope. Deep, well-drained mineral soils give cherry character, deep color, and good structure. Vine ages from 8 to 14 years.

Vintage: 1998 was an unusually hot and dry year. A severe hail storm on June 15 reduced average yields to just 1.5 tons/acre (about 22 hectoliters per hectare). Harvest was September 22 through October 7.

Winemaking: A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Merlot. Grapes were destemmed and lightly crushed and fermented warm in small open bins. The cap was punched down by hand two times a day. The wine was pressed off just prior to dryness and put immediately in primarily one and two year old Virginia oak barrels. The wine was bottled after 21 months of oak ageing. 332 cases produced.

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Posted in Dark Days, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged Dark Days Challenge, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally Hasn’t Been All That Difficult

Posted on February 9, 2012 by AnnieRie

Here we are, I believe on Week Eleven of the “Dark Days Challenge“, where over 100 of us from across the US, with one or two from Canada and the UK, are trying to see if we can make one meal a week using ingredients sourced from 150 miles or less from where we live. We have exceptions like spices, oils, chocolate and coffee. Plus, whatever we declared before we started. I will use locally produced items that may contain ingredients like flour or baking powder that aren’t local. Atwater’s bread is one of those sources.

So far, every week I have been able to source and use local items to make at least one meal. I finally reached the repetitive stage in this week, the eleventh one. I did an omelet for dinner, not much different than my frittata of a few weeks ago.

Finding a CSA that delivers all winter, and having numerous markets open year round, has made this fairly simple. Silver Spring, Tacoma Park and Dupont Circle all stay open year round. Zahradka farm provides home delivered veggies, fruit, meat, eggs, bread, and specially ordered items using an online weekly form. After picking which options you want for the 18 weeks, and pay in advance, we just sit back and take delivery weekly.

For this meal, the inspiration was a package of bacon from TLV Tree Farm in Glenelg, bought from Jamie this past year at the Fall Fest at the Howard County Conservancy in October and put away in my freezer with other goodies like a brisket and sausages. I defrosted it to use for Tuesday’s omelet and for Southern greens I will be making this weekend when my CSA arrives with collard greens. I admit, belonging to a CSA means you have to plan meals.

The baby Swiss cheese from a recent visit to South Mountain Creamery along with their milk and unsalted butter is going to be used for this 5 egg omelet. I am getting my biweekly delivery of eggs this coming weekend from Zahradka Farm CSA so I needed to use up some of the ones from last month. The spinach is from the CSA as well. The mushrooms I picked up at Boarman’s. They are labeled as from our favorite local source, Kennett Square PA. I get these mushrooms most of the spring and fall from the Sandy Spring CSA that delivers to Columbia and to the Conservancy.

Come this May will mark our second year with the cooperative of 70-80 organic farmers around Lancaster, including Mother Earth mushrooms. Until then, though, I am eating lots of greens, onions, potatoes, leeks, chard, cauliflower and broccoli. Eating seasonally is something many of us stopped doing when year round veggies from all over the world came into our chain supermarkets.

Taking this challenge has brought me back to simple cooking, fresh foods and decreased allergies. I am glad I did it.

On to the omelet, I cut up some bacon, browned it in the pan, added the veggies and mushrooms, then poured in the egg and milk mixture.

The finished product fell in pieces when I was trying to serve it so there are no dinner pictures.

We poured a glass of Linden Chardonnay from VA and buttered some some Atwater’s Bread, making this a completely local meal except for the salt and pepper.

A source that I have relied upon to tell me where to find local foods is the book Dishing Up Maryland by Lucie Snodgrass. I bought mine at Black Ankle vineyards last year, and I have seen it at Baugher’s Market. Besides the great recipes, there are pages of local resources in the back, a great place to find farms, artisans and markets in the state.