Time to Diet - Cutting back on the booze

With the past few month being full of celebrations (trip to Singapore, my birthday, celebrating a new job, Cinco de Mayo), we've been eating and drinking to excess. With our Mediterranean Cruise quickly approaching we've decided it's time to cut back and whip our butts in shape. Time to cut back on extra carbs, eat lots of lean protein, vegetables, hit the gym everyday, and cut back on the booze....

Of course the first thing we did was go to Esquin and drop a few hundred....

As we've said many times before Esquin is the bomb (taking it back to the 90s) and we can't control ourselves when we go there. The tally totaled up because we found our favorite Ross Andrew limited release wine Glaze, which is his "economical" cabernet sauvignon and along with other random favorite wines, we bought a case of Distant Bay Cab. This is Arnie Macmillan's (the master at Esquin) favorite cheap wine. We enjoyed it last time, so figured it would always be good to have on hand, especially after being a few bottles in at a dinner party where no one can tell the difference between a $30 and $6 bottle of wine.

Probably the next day we went to QFC because they had a buy 8 bottles get 20% off deal. So of course we stocked up on one of our favorites the Alamos Malbec and prosecco. With all of the temptation around over the past few weeks, I'm surprised to say we've shown great self control. And at least next time we have people over we're fully stocked!

- Kyle

French Wine Tasting - French Sparkling Wine and Oysters

After picking up dim sum at T&T, we decided to keep our gluttonous Sunday moving with a trip down to Esquin our favorite wine shop down in SoDo. Emi wanted to go to Central Market afterwards to buy some oysters for dinner, so of course we needed to pick up a bottle of champagne to pair with them!

We went down to Central Market and bought two dozen oysters for ourselves. We bought a dozen Dabob and Sisters Point Oysters. It was our first time trying the Sisters Point oysters.

When perusing the Champagne selection down at Esquin I quickly noticed that any bottle from the Champagne region would cost me at least $40. Veuve, which is high class to me, was on the lower end of the Champagne price points. We asked one of the friendly employees at Esquin for a little bit of help and he highly recommended the selection above. It was grown outside the region, but was still from France. He mentioned that a similar tasting Champagne would have cost at least $35 or $40. We paid much less.

I couldn't put it off any longer; Emi finally forced me to learn how to shuck an oyster... Usually I avoid learning certain tasks like how to clean a razorclam, how to shuck an oyster, how to fold a crane (I've recently been taught to do the first two, but have still avoided learning how to do the last). It's pretty easy to learn, but difficult to efficiently put into practice.



Emi's brussel sprout tree that we picked up at Central Market. This is definitely a seasonal offering, they said the difference between the tree and normal brussel sprouts were that these were usually sweeter, which they were. Just make sure to cut them off the tree first.

Nothing better than fresh, sweet, local grown oysters paired with some bubbly to end a long week.

Another attempt at brussel sprouts with pancetta. A little too salty, but with each attempt Emi was getting closer and closer until her most recent attempt, which I think is really good.

Our babushka Buster

Another fun foodie Sunday spent together.

- Kyle

Truffle and Chantrelle Pizza and Italian Wine Tasting

Reason #101 why we love our kitchen; the new convection oven! We used to attempt to make pizza in our old kitchen, but it never came out right. With a few new changes, our pizza has never been better. Hate to sound full of ourselves, but our kids (one day) will be eating some great homemade pizza!

The key for us is to use the convection oven, a pizza stone (I bought from Crate and Barrel for Emi), frozen pizza dough from Central Market, and parchment paper (great tip from Carol).

We wanted to splurge a little for Emi's aunt and uncle who were in town from Hawaii and bought some black truffles for our pizza. $248 a pound! However we only needed a little bit.

The black truffles didn't end up being all that flavorful because in hindsight we think they may have been a little old and dried out. A few weeks later we bought some white truffles from Central Market and they almost knocked me out with their overpowering scent. Now I know how they should have smelled. We love truffle anything, but had never had fresh truffles.

Emi bought some amazing truffle cheese from Trader Joe's that she shredded and mixed with mozzarella to top the pizza. She also sauteed some fresh, wild chantrelles in olive oil and garlic to top the pizza. After cooking the pizza in the oven we thinly sliced the truffle over the pizza. One of the best pizzas ever and when we duplicated it a few weeks later with the white truffles, even better.

We also sampled Emi's uncles favorite wine, the Trader Joe's Barolo. I don't think it's TJ brand, but he's only ever found this great Italian wine there. We ended up bringing two bottles with us as an Xmas gift on this most recent trip out to Hawaii. Highly recommended wine that complemented our pizza perfectly. Only tip is to let is breathe a solid 15 minutes or so before you start to enjoy it.

- Kyle

French Wine Tasting - Chardonnay

We've been having so much fun tasting French wine that I couldn't wait to go pick up something different and this time went with a white wine. We prefer reds and rarely drink white wine, but if we do drink white, it's usually a Chardonnay.


Also the meal I made for Emi asked for a little bit of white wine, so I figured the wine would pair well with the food.

• Name - Macon-Villages - Louis Jadot - Chardonnay - 2009
• Cost - $15 - Central Market
• Our Take - Emi described this Chardonnay as less buttery than most Chardonnays she has tried in the past. It wasn't as overpowering for me where some Chardonnay's are sort of sour and not very pleasant with their aftertaste. Similar to the French Pinot Noir we tried earlier in the week, this wasn't as strong as we expected. It was light, sweet, and paired well with the meal.

I paired the wine with Rachel Ray's real deal caesar salad and Mark Antony's scampi topping. I think it was the first time I've ever made a caesar salad from scratch. It turned out really well, but took a lot of steps which I don't really feel like listing here. However if you are interested, pick up Rachel Ray's Top 30 - 30 minute meals - Guy Food cookbook or just look it up online.

The best part of the salad was the scampi topping. I will list that recipe.



What you'll need:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced


• a pinch crushed red pepper flakes


• 2 T EVOO
  
• 10 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined (Central Market has a great deal going on right now)
  
• a shot of white wine

Heat the garlic and crushed red pepper in oil over med-high heat until the garlic speaks. Add shrimp and cook for a minute on each side, keeping pan moving with vigorous shakes to avoid burning the garlic. Douse with a little white wine and serve on top of the caesar.

This scampi topping goes with anything, over pasta, any type of salad, even by itself. Also it's really easy, I highly recommend it and make sure to pair it with a nice glass of Chardonnay.

- Kyle

French Wine Tasting - Bordeaux and Cotes Du Rhone

Food and wine go together hand in hand, however we haven't done many posts related to wine. We've done a few about winery tours, but none related to our day to day eating. There are a few reasons for that.

1. We're definitely wine amateurs, but to our defense, we do understand what we like and what we don't like. Emi told a guy helping us buy wine today that we'll drink anything, even Yellowtail. That's where I draw the line, too many bad memories of that crappy wine. I know someone who loves that wine, but she probably won't read this, so I should be OK. And if she does, you know I'm sort of kidding, but not really.


2. We never used to drink wine all that often, alcohol in general, unless it was the weekend or a special occassion. Work has changed all of that, now there's nothing I want more then a glass or two of wine to help me unwind after I get home. Hey I love my job, but I've also come to enjoy my vino.


3. We're poor.

Now that we've picked up a little more "experience" we thought it was time to start sharing our adventures with all of you as well. Besides drinking more wine recently, we've also decided that we need to broaden our palattes beyond our NW and Napa Valley wines. Especially with our upcoming trip to Paris and the Mediterranean next summer, it's time to prepare. Since it's our first trip out to Paris and Italy, we might as well have an idea of what we'll want to drink while we're out there because there will be a lot drinking. Also learning is fun!

Since the first stop off our trip next summer will be in Paris, we decided it was time to gain a better understanding of French wine. A few things I've learned so far:

1. French wineries highlight the region the wine came from over the grape variety. In general you won't find a bottle that says Syrah on it, but if you understand the region that is famous for Syrah, then you should buy a bottle from that region. Meaning some research and understanding is required.
2. Most French wines are a little harsher than PNW wines and need to breathe.
3. What I've seen so far is that French wines are primarily blends over a single type of grape. There are always exceptions to the rule.
4. The wine guy at Central Market told us, if the wine calls out what type of wine it is (Cabernet Sauvignon) over the region, it's probably cheap and no good.

Bottle #1 - Cotes Du Rhone Rouge:

• Name - 2007 - Perrin Reserve - Cotes Du Rhone Rouge (from the Cotes Du Rhone region)
• Price - $12 at QFC - $9 at Trader Joes
• 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourevedre, 10% Cinsault grapes
• Winery's notes - peppery, black cherry, cassis and spice flavours
• Our take - harsh from beginning to end, even when we let it breathe still didn't like it. In general our first French wine taste test was pretty bad.

Bottle #2: Bordeaux Rouge:

• Name - 2008 - Les Caves Joseph Bordeaux
• Price - $6 at Trader Joes
• 60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon
• Winery's notes - serve with roasted or grilled beef, lamb, and game
• Our take - compared to the first wine and PNW wines in general, this was a great value. Smooth, yet bold, smokey, and peppery all for half the price of the other bottle. This made me think I need to try more wines from the Bordeaux region.

If any of you out there have any recommendations for what we should try please let us know. We are definitely looking to keep things economicaly ($13 or under, $20-$25 on the very high end). In general we prefer reds and for comparisons sake we love Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs, Napa Valley Cabernet's. Also we enjoy Syrah and I've recently started to really enjoy Malbec's.

- Kyle