Wine & Cheese of the Week: O'Shaughnessy & Grilled Cheese at Hog Island

Wine & Cheese of the Week - Lava Vine & Rogue River Blue

Wine & Cheese of the Week - Tin Barn & Bohemian Creamery

Wine & Cheese of the Week - Trefethen & Andante Figaro

Wine & Cheese of the Week - Ram's Gate & Pierre Robert

Wine & Cheese Of The Week - Sinskey & Aged Gouda

Wine & Cheese of the Week - Benzinger & Lamb Chopper

Since moving to Napa, our wine and cheese consumption has obviously increased. Figured I would start posting about some of our favorite finds in the valley. Enjoy!

Soba Noodle Salad with Salmon and Asparagus

I've been making a lot of dinners with asparagus lately because it is everywhere and looks great. I am definitely adding this recipe to the healthy dinner rotation.

It's so tasty because it is not totally drenched in salad dressing. The soba noodles and vegetables are lightly dressed and you are able to actually taste them. You could easily use some grilled shrimp or portobello mushrooms instead of the salmon. Great flavor, super healthy, and low maintenance. Make this.

Kwak

The Public House opened up directly across the street from my house a few months ago. Such a great place to sit outside and consume way too many delicious beers. This is where I fell in love with the Kwak.

Kwak is a Belgian strong pale ale from the family owned Brewery Bosteels. (They also make Tripel Karmeliet, which is another favorite of mine.) As you can see, it's a nice amber color and goes down super smooth and caramely. This beer weighs in at 8.1% ABV, so he is to blame for my drunk text messages and other shenanigans. I have recently been placed on a one Kwak maximum. I'm gonna need to get that lifted because it is just so delicious. Kwakme.

http://the-publichouse.com/

Cakebread Rubaiyat

Dug a bottle of Cakebread's Rubaiyat out of the wine fridge the other night and could not believe that I had forgotten about it in there. Happy I found it because now is the time to drink it!

Cakebread's Rubaiyat is usually a blend of mostly pinot noir with some zin and syrah. I really love this wine because it is a light red that you can chill slightly. It's not sweet at all and great to enjoy on a hot summer day rather than white wine or beer. It's also a perfect barbecue wine because it is delicious with any kind of grilled meats. (Zin has always been my go-to barbecue wine, so it's nice to switch it up a bit!)

After polishing off the bottle, I realized this definitely needs to be a summer staple in our house. Cheers!

Moroccan Chicken with Mango Chutney

Trying to eat healthy this week before a few weekends of massive eating ahead. Can't believe how tasty and healthy this dish is. The flavors of the lemon-curry sauce and mango chutney are so great together. You could easily make this veggie friendly by taking out the chicken and adding in your favorite vegetables. If you do go 100% veg, I would serve over brown rice to give it a little more substance.

No bread in this, so it is Passover friendly my fellow Yids. This one is a keeper.

Monday Detox

If you are anything like me, Monday morning rolls around and you feel like your body could use a cleaning (especially the liver :). Kimberly Snyder is the celebrity nutrionist of the moment and her glowing green smoothie is really popular. Even Dr. Oz drinks something similar to it every morning, so it's gotta be good for you, right?!

I really like her recipe because all you have to do is throw all the ingredients in a blender. Kimberly says, "blending allows the food to be ingested as a whole vegetable with fiber intact (as opposed to juicing), so you feel FULL from the fiber and are able to absorb the maximum amount of nutrition from your greens."

I am definitely no health expert, but I know raw veg is great for you. If you feel like your body could use a little TLC, whip this sucker up. Is it weird that I feel slightly buzzed after drinking this? Cheers!

Ribollita

When I was little, I remember having ribollita for the first time and thinking the person that invented it was a genius. No need to dunk any bread into this soup because its already stirred in. Ribollita has such a good thick consistency that its sort of a cross between a soup and a stew. Its filled with tons of great vegetables and it doesn't hurt that they're cooked in pancetta and topped with Parmesan cheese. You can easily make this vegetarian friendly by using a couple tablespoons of butter instead of pancetta and using veggie stock instead of chicken. However you choose to do it, this is a great bowl of comfort food.

Fleury Estate Winery

The tasting experience at Fleury is probably one of my favorite in the valley. There are so many huge places up and down Hwy 29 and I find that my favorite wineries are usually the smaller ones a little off the beaten path.

Fleury isn't even that much off the beaten path. Technically it is right off of Hwy 29, but you are away from all the craziness and congestion. Tasting at Fleury is such a cool experience because all tastings are done in little private "salons" sectioned off in their cellar. Everyone there is so friendly and the wines are fantastic. I genuinely liked everything I tasted, but one of the highlights was their F in Red Proprietary Blend. So good.

Robert Biale Vineyards

Jason and I are so excited to be moving to Napa Valley this fall. I was lucky enough to work there for a couple years and now we really cannot wait to call this amazing place HOME.

One of the first orders of business when we move back is to join the Robert Biale wine club. Robert Biale Vineyards is a personal favorite of ours. Robert's father, Aldo, is a Napa Valley icon and was one of the first zinfandel growers in the valley. Their zins and petite sirahs are seriously some of the best in town and their sangiovese and barbera are fantastic as well.

Chipotle Chilaquiles



Chilaquiles are one of my favorite Mexican dishes. They are like really good baked nachos. When I see them on a breakfast menu with a fried egg on top, it is hard for me to not order them. I was flipping through one of my Rick Bayless cookbooks and was surprised to find a recipe for chilaquiles that I had not tried.

A lot of his recipes can be sort of intimidating because he is the master of Mexican food, but his chilaquiles are so simple and ridiculously tasty. This dish is a great casual dinner, a hearty appetizer, or a delicious breakfast with some eggs.

400 Calorie Sweet and Sour Pork

Considering I usually consume more than 400 calories during cocktail hour, I could not believe that I made a meal that was only 400 calories. This recipe came out of the 400 Calorie Fix cookbook and makes a great weeknight dinner. Loads of flavor for such a low cal dish and you can easily throw this together after work. You could also substitute the pork with boneless, skinless chicken. The recipe below is double the original recipe because I like leftovers and my husband eats like he is eating for two....

10 Step Cassoulet

I loooove cassoulet. It is the perfect comfort food. It makes such a great winter dinner. It was only 61 today in San Diego and I saw a man in a full-length fur coat, so I think this is as cold as it's gonna get here.

I got this recipe off of one of my favorite websites, The Amateur Gourmet. http://www.amateurgourmet.com/ He adapted it from Daniel Boulud's Daniel's Dish: Entertaining At Home With A Four-Star Chef. Daniel Boulud is the master, but I am happy the amateur gourmet adapted his recipe into something all of us can turn out in our kitchen fairly easily. While this recipe is not difficult at all, it is a labor of love and a bit time consuming. It is SO worth it though! This may be one of the best things I've ever made. The flavors just get better overnight and I am looking forward to cassoulet leftovers for the next couple days.

Our apartment smells ridiculous right now. Make this.

Rao's Meatballs and Marinara



Rao's is another New York institution. Wednesday night is meatball night, but goodluck getting a reservation. My mom has had the Rao's cookbook for years and their meatballs are my favorite. The combo of beef, pork, and veal is delicious and they turn out surprisingly light and fluffy. If you have the time, making homemade marinara is a nice touch.

Pad See Ew



I finally got white dishes!



Jason and I saw The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook at a bookstore in Point Reyes Station last year. We immediately wanted to get it because there are beautiful xia long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings) on the cover. Long story short, I finally got the book and I am very happy I did.

First recipe I wanted to try was the pad see ew because it is a takeout favorite of ours. We stopped by our Ranch 99 (Asian market) and were able to find sweet soy sauce and fresh rice noodles. The book says if you can't find these ingredients that you can make your own sweet soy at home and use dried rice noodles. Using fresh noodles and all the correct ingredients really makes or breaks this dish in my opinion, so do a little legwork and get the right stuff. This is the first Thai noodle dish that I have made that actually turned out fantastic. It is so easy and even better than ordering in.