Tag Archives: MD Wine

Spirit of the Season

Posted on December 7, 2013 by AnnieRie

Let’s start with the cookies, and then move on to the crafts fair and then to the winery. All in all, a busy weekend so far.

The cookie inspiration came from Rantings of an Amateur Chef.

I adapted it to use my butternut squash instead of pumpkin puree.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

What you will need:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup roasted butternut squash
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup natural cane sugar, for rolling the cookies

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth. This took a while as i hadn’t softened the butter enough. Add the roasted butternut squash, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract. Mix at medium speed until well combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, not all at once. I had about a cup at a time. Continue mixing until combined and it starts to clump up.

Refrigerate the cookie dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least 1 hour. The dough can be chilled for 2-3 days. I chill mine overnight when I can. Because I made a double batch, I did divide it in half.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350° F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the cane sugar in a small bowl or on a plate. Roll tablespoon-sized balls of dough in the cane sugar until well coated and place on prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10–12 minutes, or until cookies look cracked and set at the edges. I put two sheets at a time in the oven. Top and bottom third.

The cookies will still be soft. Let them cool on the baking sheets for 2-3 minutes after removing them from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. I made larger cookies and got about 30 of them per batch.

I made a double batch to take to the Conservancy. The holiday crafts fair, which was a huge success. Including some amazing crafts made by the children. Like this one.

I spent today assisting at the fair. Watching all the festivities and linking people with local farms for trees, and for holiday dinner items like beef and pork.

Then, we headed off to visit a new winery to try out some bubbly. Nothing like a good blanc de blanc to get you in the spirit.

Our first visit to Old Westminster Winery, and definitely not our last. What a wonderful family owned winery. Right up the road from Mt. Airy.

Just the beginning of the holiday season and already we are out and enjoying the festivities. Here’s to a few more weekends spent out and about.

hocofood@@@

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

Thanksgiving Wine Throwdown

Posted on November 24, 2013 by AnnieRie

MD versus VA. In the battle to be chosen for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Mostly, in past years, we have relied on Linden for Thanksgiving wine. Either the Vidal Reisling or the Rose.

This year, there is a new kid in town.

Big Cork. With two wines in the running. Traminette and Vidal. Although I think the Traminette is the best turkey wine.

Being a locavore, and a locapour, I love using products from not far away to make for celebrations.

Like taking Stone House rolls to my brother’s, and also making Maple Lawn turkey at our house, so we can savor the holiday an extra day.

This year, I think MD wins the competition, and Traminette will go with us to Annapolis.

But, for our turkey, later this weekend, I may pull out one of those lovely Ankida Ridge Pinot Noirs, another good “turkey” wine.

As for Linden, they will be paired with lots of dinners in the next few weeks. They never go out of favor at our place.

For Thanksgiving, if you can’t find the Traminette, look for Elk Run’s Gewurztraminer. It is available in many local stores.

Put MD on the table for your Thanksgiving feast.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine and tagged Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, traditions, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Field Trip Friday

Posted on November 22, 2013 by AnnieRie

Centered around the opening of the tasting room at Big Cork Winery, at its production facility in Frederick.

We first found their wines at the liquor store across from the Frederick Wegmans. Have been serving them at many dinners, and took some to the family reunion.

We will probably take the Traminette for Thanksgiving this year.

Tasting is $5. You get to taste all four whites, the current releases. Reds aren’t ready yet. They need a bit more time to develop.

As for the whites, the Chardonnay is very well balanced, and not one of those heavy huge overly oaked specimens found often from CA or South America.

The Traminette is related to Gewürztraminer. Spicy undertones, and the perfect turkey wine.

The Vidal Blanc is one of those go-to slightly sweet yet still acidic wines that pair well with spicy foods, like Thai.

The Late Harvest Vidal is dessert in a glass. Try it with salted caramels, or with a drier, nutty cheese.

We had some time to talk to Dave Collins, the winemaker. We first met Dave years ago at Breaux, and we are glad to see him setting up this winery in Maryland.

The facility is on “Shab Row”, just east of the main drag (Market St) and northeast of Carroll Creek Park.

The next time we visit, we may be tempted to have lunch at Family Meal, Bryan Voltaggio’s restaurant just a few blocks north of the winery tasting room.

I am thinking that their chicken pot pie fritters sound interesting.

Or, we may do Greek/Turkish at Ayse, just south on N. East St. Want something else to see? The Roads and Rails Museum is right across the street from Big Cork.

We haven’t spent nearly as much time discovering Frederick as we would like.

Sounds like many more day trips, lunches, strolls, tastings are to be scheduled for the future.

Maybe I should do some Christmas shopping there, and support those small businesses just to our west.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Adventures, Day Trips, Food, Local Businesses, Restaurants, Wine and tagged day trips, Food, foodie, hobbies, local businesses, MD Wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Another Tidbit Tuesday

Posted on November 19, 2013 by AnnieRie

So many little things happening today and this week. Much of it locally driven, but some of it really interesting.

So, what is happening?

I am waiting to see if they launch the Minotaur rocket from NASA. The new time of launch is 2015 EST. We saw the last one from the back deck. Skies look clear enough to see this one, too.

I am checking with the NASA Facebook page for Wallops to get updates.

Today is my better half’s 63rd birthday.

When he gets home from his regular radio club dinner meeting, we will share the dark chocolate sea salt bar with the rest of the lovely red I got with my dinner at Bistro Blanc. It is half price wine night there.

I went up there for a few reasons. A quick perfectly cooked medium rare lamb burger, and a delivery to Chef Marc of a dozen long stems of my rosemary, and a huge bouquet of three kinds of sage. Cleaning up the herb garden.

While there, I sampled something new. Two words I never thought would go together. Chocolate. Grappa. Hey, don’t knock it! It isn’t bad.

Since my husband went off with his fellow radio friends, I postponed his birthday dinner until tomorrow night. Currently, I am marinating a strip steak from Clark’s farm.

It will be pan seared and finished in the oven tomorrow, to be served with roasted romanescu. And, I think I will open a really nice Virginia wine.

Speaking of wine, Big Cork announced on their Facebook page that their production facility will be open for tasting this Friday and Saturday. We hope to get there to see what they are offering. Their facility is in Frederick, just off I-70. Tasting time is 12-6.

Last but not least I have been working on scheduling the farmers who will be offering goodies at the Conservancy Natural Holiday Crafts fair on Dec. 7th. We hope to make your holidays special with goodies from local farms, as well as all those local crafters who will be there.

A Trip Down Memory Lane … On White Bread

Posted on July 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

Combining two goals. The Buy Local Challenge and my Sixty@Sixty goal.

Yes, I know white bread is highly processed. Tell that to my mom who fed us Hauswald’s bread every day. Toast. PB&Js and those lovely tomato sandwiches aka “mater sammiches” (when you were four years old).

When in Royal Farms the other day to get ice for the trip to the Amish farm and money from the ATM, I saw that loaf of Hauswald’s and also thought of a blog post somewhere about simple tomato sandwiches, like we ate as children.

Hauswald’s was a staple in our house growing up. 75% of my heritage is German. We lived in a mostly German American community in west Baltimore. And, tomatoes? We loved tomatoes all summer. In everything we could make.

Heck, yesterday for breakfast I made toast and spread this on it.

Another local company, based in Frederick, with all sorts of old recipes recreated. Do you like pickled beets? Apple butter? All memories of my growing up.

As for the Buy Local Challenge, today, like most days included large amounts of locally sourced items. Like the milk for my husband’s cereal.

Bought at the Hospital Farmer’s Market Friday.

And, the wine at dinner tonight.

The new winery outside of Frederick. They only sell whites at the moment. Reds will be coming soon, and the winery will open next year. We bought this bottle in Frederick last week. Grape growers are farmers, too!

We had local foods at breakfast, lunch and dinner today. I didn’t cook much either. Simple local foods, as I said, it isn’t hard to support local farms.

Today we ate:
Milk, at breakfast.
Tomatoes, yogurt, beets, cucumbers and greens at lunch. The cucumber became that dill pickle in my crock.

Sheep’s milk cheese on the flatbread at dinner. The sheep’s milk cheese was from Breezy Willow. Pesto from CSA veggies (carrot tops, radish greens, arugula and scallion tops). The last container from the freezer from last year.

The rest of dinner was chicken/feta/spinach sausage bought at The Common Market in Frederick, which was baked on top of CSA onions, peppers and pattypan squash. They were drizzled with olive oil, and had nothing but salt and pepper on them.

Simple. Delicious.

Eating locally is easy around here.

hocofood@@@

Kicking Off the Buy Local Challenge

Posted on July 19, 2013 by AnnieRie

The challenge begins tomorrow, but for whatever reason, I kicked it off tonight with dinner.

Lots of local goodies on this plate. Local lamb, zucchini, onions, cucumbers, and potatoes.

Paired with a Maryland wine.

And, if you don’t cook much. Hit the local restaurants participating in the Farm 2 Table restaurant weeks.

If you want to support local farms, take the pledge. Join thousands of us eating at least one local item every day for nine days.

Heck, just go visit Maryland wineries, and hit a few farmer’s markets to support the local farmers. Like Love Dove.

I found their new bags today at the market at the hospital. Tomorrow they are in Silver Spring, and next Wednesday at Miller Library. For me, I love getting fresh greens from their high tunnel. Today I bought arugula and spring mix. Oh, and some sun gold tomatoes since mine aren’t ripe yet. Gotta love those high tunnels.

You could eat at locally owned restaurants during the week, hit a few wineries on the weekends, come to our picnic at the Conservancy next Sunday bringing local goodies.

Or, you can get really into it, like me, the foodie/locavore/locapour and dine with locally sourced items for most meals.

We have a picnic tomorrow to attend. I will be taking watermelon, feta and mint salad. Feta picked up at Breezy Willow. Mint from my garden. The plants were bought from local farmers.

Check my blog daily for suggestions of easy ways to eat local foods, even if you don’t cook.

As for those gorgeous kebabs.

The recipe. Take one pound of ground lamb (I buy mine from England Acres). Generously spice it with garam masala, cinnamon and pepper. Add a teaspoon of salt if your garam masala doesn’t contain salt (Spice Island is very salty; McCormick isn’t). Add about a 1/4 cup chopped sweet onion. Mix it all together by hand and form around skewers. Grill until it reaches the level of doneness you prefer. I like ours medium rare to medium. Still juicy. Serve with a tzatziki. I made this cucumber yogurt dip with dill instead of mint. It works, even though it isn’t a traditional tzatziki.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Restaurants and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread, And Thou

Posted on April 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

From Omar Khayyam, the phrase from the Rubaiyat that resonates with me.

Today was one of those lovely spring days. No, we did not want to do yard work. Or spring clean up. We went first to look at the chicks and pick up bird seed.

Then, we did what I haven’t done since fall.

Drove up to Black Ankle for lunch.

Now, it may be one of the closest wineries to us in West County, but the roads will test your car’s shock absorption ability. Unless you take the long way round. On the paved roads.

Black Ankle Road isn’t paved. We actually came home on the short cut, but went up the longer route.

They are out of whites until late May. It is a tribute to those who love good wine, that this young MD winery sells out their whites every year. Nothing left. The winery is beautiful, a green building with straw walls and a planted roof. Cows in the meadow below the patio.

Here is where the Friday night music is played. Where we usually come to picnic and listen. Today for lunch we watched the cows and the tractor while enjoying local cheese made in Easton MD, some mixed olives and a good bottle of Rolling Hills.

Picked up a few bottles and wandered on home to enjoy another lovely MD spring day. If you live in Howard County and want to spend some time relaxing in a lovely setting, this is a day trip worth taking.