A Beautiful May in August

As so many of us have experienced lately, I got back into contact with my high-school friend, Karla, this past spring through Facebook. The timing was perfect as she was entering a new stage of her life and about to have her first baby. I heard from another friend, Blaine, just a couple weeks before our Minnesota trip (also on Facebook) and since we were all friends in high school, we decided to get together for lunch while I was there.

It was so fun seeing them again after so many years, it was like not a day had passed. They both looked exactly like they did in high school, and as we caught up on each other's lives the conversation was easy, fun and non-stop. As we said our goodbyes I was sad that I didn't have these two people in my life on a daily basis. Even in this world that has been made so small with technology, sometimes there is no substitute for actually being there. There is a connection to be made in person that no amount of bandwidth can duplicate.

I offered to take some pictures of Karla's little girl, May, while we were there and she was a great model. There really is nothing more photogenic than a brand new baby. Karla gave me permission to put some photos up and as you can see, she's a cute one. I am so happy for her and her husband, what an adventure awaits!

Minnesota Wine Country?

Yes folks, it's true, Minnesota has more than a couple wineries. They're in the relatively flat farmland areas not too far south of the Twin Cities, I guess it's called the Hiawatha Valley. So on this visit, my brother, Mike, and his wife, Jenny, took us out to Alexis Bailly Vineyards, a winery they have been to regularly over the years. Having just come come off a trip to Napa and Sonoma I was really excited to see how it's done in Minnesota.

This rare variety of human adult does not enjoy being photographed and has been know to attack a heedless photographer.

We tasted a couple reds, a couple sweet whites, a chocolate Port, and orange-infused dessert wine called Ratafia, an Eiswein-style dessert wine, and a nice Rose Noir. They seem to lean toward the sweeter style, based on what they are able to grow. Turns out some of the grapes, such as the Seyval Blanc, come from upstate New York, and some are from their own vineyards. It all depends on how the grapes fare through the winter. They've got the tasting room atmosphere down perfectly, I felt like I could have been in Santa Ynez--rustic wood, wine casks, and the requisite dog behind the bar. It's a great little place, a taste of wine country in a small Minnesota town.

We learned that this winery has been growing grapes since 1978 they've recently been planting grapes in conjunction with the University of Minnesota. This new varietal, called Frontenac, is meant to withstand temperatures of -32°. It's a pretty cool way to approach winemaking and not for sissies--they are required to lay down the vines in the fall and cover them with dirt to protect them through the winter. In the spring--you guessed it--they have to dig them up and re-train them. There's a reason why their motto is "Where Grapes Can Suffer."

They had a great sculpture garden out back which Anson and I made use of.

No outing with my dad would be complete without bringing a cooler. We made a picnic out of cheese, crackers, salad, grilled meat and wine. How very pastoral. It was a beautiful day I'll remember for a long time.

A Midwestern Summer Night's Dream

It's been several years since I visited Minnesota, where I grew up. August brought a milestone for my mom, her 65th birthday, and I thought it was as good a time as any to revisit the places of my childhood. Anson came with me and we had a whirlwind trip eating, drinking, sightseeing and visiting our way through the Twin Cities. It was a lot of fun and the great weather made me think I might live there again someday...or maybe just visit again for the summer.

The first place I always ask to go is a place called J's Restaurant which figures prominently into my life. It is just about the only restaurant I remember going to with my whole family as a child. They had a big Hamm's beer sign over the door, red vinyl chairs and every other booth had either a small television or a juke box. The Hamm's sign is gone and so are the jukeboxes and TVs, but everything else remains the same, including the spaghetti.

I guess J's would probably be the genesis of my spaghetti obsession. There is something about the sauce and big fat overcooked noodles that I can't duplicate at home. Everytime I go I say I have to get the recipe and when I do, that recipe will have a special place in a fire-proof safe in my house.

But the spaghetti is not the only reason I love the place--I still get cravings for their Potatoes Benedict on Sunday mornings.

We had a small party at my parent's house for my mom. Anson is taking a break after hauling chairs, coolers and beer to the back porch.

My dad is nothing if not organized. There should be no questions when it comes to refreshments.

Theresa and me.

I don't know where to start with this explanation...

My mom cutting her cake, surrounded by family and friends.

(We got up the next day and went to Alexis Bailly Vineyard in Hastings--stay tuned for a whole separate post on that-- but first...)

The next night, we all went to Saji-Ya in St. Paul for sushi. We took a picture of a Minnesota Roll (on the left). What's that? What do you mean you've never heard of a Minnesota Roll? It's crab with spicy habanero mayo, cucumber, egg and tofu. It was pretty good, but I would expect something called a "Minnesota Roll" to be lutefisk and Swedish sausage wrapped in lefse.

On the right is a California Roll. Holy Roe Batman!

Kanpai Mary!

My brother Mike and sister-in-law Jenny are quite accomplished gardeners. In front is the craziest squash I've ever seen, behind it a random squash that grew in the middle of their garden, heirloom tomatoes in the back.

We met my brother Dave and sister-in-law Theresa out at a great bar called Captain Jack's that sits right on Prior Lake. They took a page from Mexico and put in swings instead of bar seats. Very cute, I could see myself spending a lot of time at that bar.

Anson took a wrong turn, luckily we found him before he became a child of the corn.

Echinacea in Dave's and Theresa's backyard.

I practiced some environmental portraiture too. Their backyard is perfect, it looks like a set.

Another family portrait, Emily. She's the wild child.

Anson had never tried the famous White Castle burger ("Because bein' bad news is what we're all about, we went to White Castle and we got thrown out."), so we stopped and captured this seminal event.

Dinner at Khan's Mongolian BBQ, another favorite from when I was a kid.

Summer Fest '09 Green Beans

I wanted to get on board with the Summer Fest '09 cross-blogization hosted by a bunch of great food bloggers: MattBites, White On Rice Couple, Steamy Kitchen, A Way To Garden, and several others, so here's my contribution!

If you've been reading for a while you've been watching the progress of the garden, starting with our little baby green beans. I had to get the requisite picture of hands holding the fresh-picked beans, and Anson was happy to oblige.

The beans, of course, grew like mad up the trellis and then the caterpillars took their revenge and ate up the leaves like crazy. At first Anson stood out there every day picking them off the leaves, but we soon realized we needed some help from modern science. We found some caterpillar killer called "Safer" that claimed to be safe and natural. Would you believe it totally worked?

We usually don't cook the beans we pick off the vines, I just snack on them while I'm making dinner, but I do have a green bean recipe in my back pocket:

Stir-Fried Green Beans

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

1 pinch Chinese 5-Spice

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon corn starch

1 teaspoon brown sugar

two big handfuls of green beans

Mix all ingredients, except beans, and set aside. Wash, trim and dry green beans. Heat up 2 tablespoons of peanut or canola oil in a wok until very hot and add green beans. Stir fry for 2 minutes, until beginning to soften. Add liquid mixture and bring to a boil. Liquid will start to thicken, so you can lower the temp and cook until the beans are as soft/crisp as you like.

I will also add tofu or chicken and serve it over rice to make this a meal.

Pepper Troika

Ivory

Purple Beauty

Golden Bell

Napa, Sonoma, the Heat, Oh My!

If you ever move to California there are two places that you will have to go immediately, if only to avoid the look people give you when you say you haven't been there. The first place is Catalina Island. "You haven't been to Catalina?!? Oh, you HAVE TO go, it's soooo great! There's no cars!" And they giggle, thinking about how quaint that is. So, a couple years ago I finally went and was completely underwhelmed. Maybe I was just faint from the exhaust of the 2-stroke engines and boat diesel clogging the air, but once was enough.

The other place is Napa and Sonoma. Now that I've been there, I can see why people look at you like you just grew a third head if you say you've never been there. It is more beautiful than you imagine, like Fantasy Island for the food-and-wine-inclined. In the words of the immortal Ferris Bueller, "If you have the means, I highly recommend it."

Which leads me right into Day 2 of our NorCal vacation. On Saturday we were eager to get out of foggy Ocean Beach and on to the warm valley of grapes ahead of us. What a difference a bay makes--we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and went from 65° and thick fog to 95° and blazing sun in less than an hour. Let's review:

Naturally, we took our yacht across the bay and landed in Sausalito where we grabbed a quick coffee and scone for the ride to Napa. (The helicopter dropped us off on land.)

I was most excited about this stop on our trip--Michael Chiarello's Bottega in Yountville, home to some of the best restaurants in the U.S.

Notice there's no one out in the courtyard? That's because it was about 162°. Hear that?

It's the sound of my forehead sizzling.

Inside was cool, quiet and what I'd call "upscale rustic." A large patio outside seemed to be popular, but we were happy to sit inside where we could do our favorite thing--watch what was going on in the kitchen.

A nice couple next to us took our picture and we took theirs. We were almost elbow to elbow with them--the tables are very close together--but it turned out to be fun because we ended up chatting with them on and off through the meal.

We started with the heirloom tomato, burrata and balsamic caviar salad. Those are little jelly beads of balsamic vinegar. Yep, the tomatoes were great, as you'd expect.

Anson had homemade gnocchi with marinara and I had a delicious risotto of the day--sweet corn and wild mushroom with little bits of crispy pork on top. I would have taken more pictures, but the light was not happening.

Now, I'm the first to admit I'm not a food critic, but it all was really good. I was worried I might be expecting too much, but that wasn't the case, it was all great. The little touches made it nice, like the bread that gets set right down on the table (no plate) with a miniature cup of oil, cheese, garlic and red peppers to spread on it. Our server was so nice, and even the iced tea was a step above. He has done a nice job with the place, and seems to have a good sense of what people like in restaurants.

We headed north to our next stop, St. Supéry Winery in Rutherford,

home of my favorite Sauvignon Blanc.

Here's the view from St. Supéry. Nice, huh?

Our next stop was Benessere Vineyards, a little out-of-the-way winery in St. Helena. This is the kind of tasting room I like, almost an afterthought, room for half a dozen people. The sales manager, Chris, poured wine for us and we had a great time talking to him. He was so welcoming and friendly, really passionate about wine and lacking the weariness that the attendants can sometimes have at the big wineries.

We never would have stopped here, but for a little wine we used to serve at Ciao Brasserie called Costa del Sol. It's their off-label and they mostly just sell it to restaurants. We had been rationing the case we had for a couple years and decided to just go ahead and see if they'd sell us one. Well, all we had to do was ask. Chris hooked us up and even took some pictures of us in the barrel room and showed us around. It was so fun!

Our beer-maker neighbor recommended Bear Republic Brewery in Healdsburg, so we made our way to Sonoma County and stopped for some nectar of the gods. The brews were pretty creative too, we tried a cask-conditioned ale I wasn't into, but Anson liked it.

The food was good too, I had an awesome Wild Mushroom Polenta with Bolognese Sauce and Anson loved his Black-and-Bleu Burger.

We used a vineyard in Cloverdale for a nice portrait of this handsome guy.

Sunday morning we wanted to get one more stop in before we started our long drive home. Sunset Magazine had a great article a couple months ago on the champagneries (is that a word?) in the area, so we followed the Russian River over to Korbel. What a different landscape! We drove curving forest roads under canopies of redwoods and pine trees, far from the sunny, rolling hills of vineyards we explored the day before.

Educational note: Established in 1882, Korbel is one of the oldest wineries to make champagne in the country and they are able to call it "champagne" because they were established before the French designated a Champagne AOC.

We were there first thing in the morning, and as I framed my photo of the Brandy Tower, these two deer jumped out of the hillside to check us out.

Does it get more picturesque?