Sangria + Grilled Chicken is a Great Summer Combo

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The other night we pulled the little Weber grill out of the garage again and grilled some chicken, caramelized some bell peppers and onions (inside, in a pan, with a little salt, cumin and chili powder), made some guacamole and to accompany it all there was a pitcher of tasty, tasty sangria.

The sangria recipe is from the old red and white checked Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. This is probably one of the only recipes I still use this cookbook for, but that alone makes it worth the shelf space, imho. I’m not sure how completely authentic it is, but it is dependably good.

Really Good Summer Sangria
1 bottle red wine (I used $4 barefoot merlot)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
1 lime, sliced
1-2 cups sparkling water

Add the sugar, water and the end fruit slices (6 total from the ends of the lemon, lime and orange) . . . → Read More: Sangria + Grilled Chicken is a Great Summer Combo

Five Hours in Wine Country

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Saturday, jwa and I headed to the Dundee/Dayton area in Yamhill County, where the wine flows like, uh, water or somethng. Seriously, so much wine, so little time. You could not throw a rock and not hit a winery. Add to this, it was a beautiful day (high of 66 and blue skies).

Here’s what we saw and did.

herbs

The first stop was at Red Ridge Farms in Dundee. Of course, google maps got us a little lost and it directed us to Sokol Blosser instead of the farm (not necessarily a bad thing) but we eventually found our way to the herb farm.

green house

They had a greenhouse open, along with many herbs, olive trees, herbs, flowers and a small store with olive oil, some art and other things. They were also having a wine tasting — this will be a theme of . . . → Read More: Five Hours in Wine Country

This Was so Good: Chicken Stew with Grapes and Tarragon

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This was a recipe I found . . . → Read More: This Was so Good: Chicken Stew with Grapes and Tarragon

It’s Chilly Again: Baked Bolognese with Lamb

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Well, it least it was a little while ago. Ahhhh, Spring.

This makes a lot (let’s say 6+ servings) so you can invite a couple of people over or have extra lunches for the week. It also freezes beautifully. In fact, jwa’s having a defrosted container of it for lunch today. Myself, I’m going to my new favorite lunch place, Voila Cafe on SW 9th. Today, the special is salmon over soba noodles. But, I believe that’ll be another post.

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Baked Bolognese with Lamb
Adapted from a recipe by Dave Lieberman
For the tomato sauce:
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground lamb
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried oregano
Couple dashes red chili flakes
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
Sugar
Dash of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup red wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add oil to large skillet over high heat. Add ground lamb and saute, breaking . . . → Read More: It’s Chilly Again: Baked Bolognese with Lamb

Cheddar, Roasted Garlic and Zinfandel Fondue

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This recipe is from Fondue: Great Food to Dip, Dunk, Savor and Swirl by Rick Rodgers. I think I’ve had it for about five years but I haven’t used it before this batch of fondue. Why use it now? Well, jwa got me this awesome fondue pot for my birthday! It was on my Amazon wish list but I didn’t really expect to get it (because, dude, it’s a $135(!!) fondue pot), and he completely surprised me with it.

I thought he was going to get me the tea kettle on my list and I picked up the box and thought, “Damn. This is very heavy for a tea pot.” Well, that’s because it was a cast iron fondue pot. Hooray!

For the first recipe, I thought and thought. Then I thought about it some more. What is worthy of the first fondue in this great new pot? Well, one . . . → Read More: Cheddar, Roasted Garlic and Zinfandel Fondue