Wine Tasting

Saturday afternoon I attended a wine tasting in North Scottsdale. This was my first ever wine tasting so I had no preconception of what to expect. All twenty wines presented were limited production, in most instances less than 200 cases. That was reflected in both the price of the tasting ($30) and the price of wines ($32-105 per bottle). I felt a little out of place both by disposable income and knowledge of wines and wineries. I think it bothered me more than the presenters or the other attendees. The tasting was presented by Arcadia fine wines and was a very casual afternoon affair. The location was a cooks dream. Multiple functioning kitchens, including an Iron Chef stadium, equipped with the latest in Wolf and Sub Zero (who together own the showroom) appliances. I ended up tasting about a dozen wines and learned a lot about wine and wineries and had several peasant conversations with folks. Seems almost everybody interested in wine has been a frequent visitor to the Central coast.

Immersion blender

Also called a stick blender. Really neat toy! I usually make my own hummus. The first time I made it I got out the full sized blender and it didn't really do that great of a job (think I used too little liquid) and since then I have been using my mini processor. But it always came out like chunky peanut butter instead of smooth. I thought about getting out the big blender again but wasn't convinced that was going to fix my problem for the small batch sizes I make. So I narrowed my choices of a new toy down to the mini blenders where the container becomes the vessel and an immersion blender which I think was more popular a few years ago. I found out my brother has used one for years to make small batches of mayonnaise. Last night I made my first batch of creamy hummus! $20 at Wal-mart and it doesn't take up too much storage space in my cramped kitchen.

Sauteed cabbage

This is one of those things I have had since I was a kid. My youngest sister doesn't remember having it so I am posting how I did it. We grew up calling it broiled cabbage and I have also heard it called fried cabbage. Sauteed is probably the most correct term however caramelized could also be used. I have served this to many folks that did not like cabbage and they liked it. I use 1 stick of butter per head of cabbage (adjusting up or down to keep the ratio the same) starting with about 1/2 of it and and adding the other half near the end. Basically what you are doing is cooking the moisture out of the cabbage and replacing it with butter. I cook it on medium low as any attempts I have made to hurry the process along has always left me with a combination of burnt and undercooked pieces. Average cooking time is an hour or so. And this is not a dish you can walk away from for very long.

I am starting here with half of a large head of cabbage, coarsely chopped.



Here it is after 10 minutes in the microwave which saves a good hour over the original cooking time.



And this is how much of the wok it fills at this point. Choice of cooking vessel really makes no difference, my dad used an electric skillet and I have used various pots and pans depending on how much I am cooking. It should be noted here that 1/4 head of cabbage yields one small serving.



Here it is cooked in the wok.



And back in the original serving bowl.



And the two small servings I referenced earlier.



There are a few variations to this. You can add a diced onion. You can replace the butter with bacon grease. You can cook small pieces of bacon in the pan (I would probably use 1/2lb for a whole head) and leave the bacon bits and grease in the pan to cook the cabbage with. I have also done this same dish with Brussels sprouts both with butter and with bacon. I prefer the cabbage. If your diet doesn't allow for butter or pork fat it can be cooked with margarine without too much loss in flavor.

My First cake

To be more accurate this was the first cake I baked entirely from scratch. The few I have done before were box mixes and canned frosting. What started this all off is I accidentally bought a box of powdered sugar when I was baking cookies for the holidays and the only thing I could think to do with it was make butter cream frosting. And it just didn't seem right to waste scratch frosting on a boxed cake mix. A couple of other firsts for me, First time I separated egg yolks from whites and the first time I used unsalted butter. The cake was chocolate and I thought it to be a bit dry and folks said it could be from baking too long (I was using a recipe for a layer cake and made a sheet cake) to I should always expect scratch cakes to be a bit drier. The orange butter cream frosting turned out perfect! I have decided I do not have enough spatulas, mixing bowls or counter space to be doing this on a regular basis. Overall it was a pretty good cake and all who sampled it liked it.