Lightcatcher Winery gang gathering

Last weekend the winery gang gathered for my birthday!!! Turning 40 is getting better and better all of the time and it was a perfect opportunity to gather with friends. The pièce de résistance was Lauren’s Baba au Rhum.

The evening started with make your own Ultimate Grape Martinis – using my favorite vodka, Ciroc. For those not familiar with Ciroc, it was one of the first of a new trend of vodka based on grapes rather than grain or potatoes. The martini is easy…. Equal parts of Ciroc, Santa Cruz Organic White Grape juice and top with your favorite sparkling wine (we used Chandon). Garnish with a frozen grape…. It had been a while since I had these and forget how crisp and refreshing this cocktail is….

For appetizers to go with the cocktails, Kaki brought an olive salad that was YUMMY!! I also served a jar of my sweet pickled jalapeños with a block of cream cheese.

For dinner Caris grilled marinated skirt steak (memories of Argentina) and delicious portabella mushrooms and red peppers. Sides included some of Cryssie’s great baked beans, Nat’s sliced bacon roasted potaoes with scallion sour cream, Kaki’s blue cheese cole slaw and some guacamole.

Lauren’s baba au rhum was amazing (pictured at the start of this blog entry). It is a yeast based cake studded with dried fruit and baked. There is a rum syrup that the cake soaks up… it is then glazed with an apricot glaze and topped with whipped cream. WOW! She used the Ina Gartner recipe from the Food Network show Barefoot Contessa, http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_33879,00.html. It is also in the Barefoot in Paris cookbook. Amazing job and amazing cake!!

Nat brought me a mini cigar…. Lauren wanted a little taste...Nat, Lauren and I did a little dancing to our favorite 80s. Kevin was even skipping along to the Cure at one point…

Kaki and Kevin gave me a second Anthony Bourdain book, A Cooks Tour. They gave me Kitchen Confidential last year! The rest of the gang grouped together and purchased a very nice basket of gifts. A cute little blue and black sake set, a set of cheese markers, a cool olive dish that has a place for pits, olives and toothpicks all in the same dish, and then a little cold bottle of something….

Hou Hou Shu sparkling sake is amazing…………… it is an unfiltered, unpasturized sparkling sake. This experience is best described by a fellow blogger – Ben Madeska at the following link: http://benmadeska.blogspot.com/2007/08/hou-hou-shu-sparkling-sake.html

WOW…

There has been some discussion with my friends on how & if the blog should continue and I will be continuing the blog, randomly logging some of my food experiences… and fun adventures.

Enjoy!

Mendoza and then HOME....

Back home – Sorry for the delay in the final Mendoza entry. But getting home is always fun. I am listening to the Beatles CD from the Birthday Dinner at Bistro 743 while blogging today. Oh the memories. I will blog in a couple of days about how the blog will continue. Thanks for the great input and we were happy to share our Argentina trip with you!

Photo of the day.... SPECIAL late harvest "Cab Franc Special".... from Pulenta Estates Winery.

Mendoza Day 7

The last day in Mendoza was nice. It was Sunday and we were planning to cook dinner at the house and take advantage of the last bottles of wine purchased for the house. There were 6 unopened bottles that were not getting packed in our overweight luggage. Because all of the food markets were closed on Sunday there, cooking was out. Purchasing groceries there is a multi-stop shopping experience. The super market does not have meat, very little cheese and no veggies. So you go to the market and then 2 doors down the veggie shop and then across the street on the next block is the meat store… but they were all closed on Sunday.

It was a lazy morning. We were all delaying the thought of leaving a newly found paradise, but the day was beautiful, sunny and warm 75 degrees. I went out wondering to see what our dining options for the day were. With no substantial groceries, we were wasting away the lunch opening of restaurants and I was thinking… what will we do for dinner???? Not hungry now, but I know I will be.

The streets around the Chacras de Coria square were blocked and a small public market selling trinkets and antiques had taken over. There were a ton of people milling about. It was nice. Noticeably there was no Starbuck’s or McDonalds anywhere near. It was a great day. I found a small place that listed their Sunday hours till midnight. We were in business. I was not looking for a 5 course meal, but only something we could all enjoy our last night together.

Dave, Bill, Liz, Rolando and I ventured out around 2 for some lunch as I showed them the market. We found Bocas del Toro Resto. We sat outside under an arbor and enjoyed lunch. At this point, we all seemed to share a bit of everyone’s food….. So I will just say what the table ordered…

We were greeted with a basket of warm bread with a tomato, eggplant, onion and pepper in olive oil for the bread.

A roasted butternut squash stuffed with sautéed carrots, zucchini, cabbage and onions (YES a meatless dish)

Spinach and Jamon lasagna with a meat tomato sauce

Linguini with a tomato cream sauce

Seafood risotto

Chicken Curry

The chef, who had come out to help answer some of our questions on them menu, sent out a huge plate of grilled vegetables with cheese and chimichurri sauce.

It was a great lunch. We decided not have wine with lunch, but have some outside on the back patio of the house. The square was VERY busy… On the way home, we passed an ice cream store. It was so tempting. Liz and Dave got ice cream.

No pictures….

We got home and Megan was in gym shorts and a Texas Tech sweatshirt and Melissa had been laying out in the back yard on a towel, enjoying some Argentine beer. When Megan heard about the market, she wanted to go, but not change clothes. So in flip-flops, shorts and her TT sweatshirt, Melissa, Megs and I went out to the market.

We arrived home and Dave, Rolando, Liz and Bill had already finished the bottle of Trapiche Torrontes and a bottle of La Flor Sauvignon Blanc (La Flor is the house brand of my favorite Pulenta Estates winery). We also had a bottle of Lopez Sparkling wine that we opened….

Final packing and then dinner at Café Flora.

We had asked the restaurant if we could bring our wines and it was OK with an AR$8 (or US$2.67) per bottle. Dinner reservations were at 9 p.m.

We arrived at dinner with 3 bottles of Pulenta Estates wine – The 2005 Malbc Cabernet Sauvignon Blend, The 2005 Gran Cabernet Franc and the small bottle of valued late harvest Cab Franc.

We started the dinner with a couple of “large” bruschettas; one tomato and olive and the other mushroom and leek. These were large thin slices of toasted bread topped with incredibly flavored toppings.

Bill had the onion soup and Dave had the pumpkin soup. Both were incredible.

Dinner came….. we had already finished both our Pulenta Estates wines and needed more for dinner. The host said her husband was a wine maker at a local winery and she offered a bottle of his wine for us to try… it was AMAZING too. I did not get a picture of the label or name of the winery….

Dinner consisted of the following –

Osso Bucco with grilled tomatoes and creamy polenta

Pumpkin Stuffed Ravioli with toasted almonds in a light cream sauce

A Smoked Trout Salad

Chicken Avocado Sandwich

Barbeque pork sandwich

The other pasta special…. (I don’t remember…)

And then it was time for the “cab franc special”. I ordered oven roasted fruit, but it was not quiet was I expected… so we just shared the wine. The beautiful thing is the wine maker had a bright pink sticky note on the bottle that labeled it “cab franc special”…. And special it was. This was the bottle from the barrel the winemaker had given us from Pulenta Estates… WOW!

We ended with 5 Café Flora Coffee drinks… A sweet creamy coffee layered with sweetened condensed milk on the bottom, next espresso, then steamed milk foam and then chocolate. YUM!!!!

We leisurely walked back to the house… looking at the moon and thinking about the 8 a.m. pick up tomorrow morning.

Mendoza Day 8 - Traveling Home…..

I woke early… got things organized and gave the groundskeeper 9 beers…

Oscar showed up on time as usual. WOW… Liz and Rolando were waiting at the house for a later flight and we had even more luggage….

Arrived at the Mendoza airport and caught the LAN flight to Santiago. There was a problem with Dave’s ticket, (he is quickly earning the name as Double Drama Dave after loosing 2 credit cards on the trip…). Everything was worked out after a call to the friendly AA desk. Our plane was FULL with 2 field hockey teams and managers and their entourage.

The flight over the Andes was BUMPY…. BUMPY…. But the view from here was incredible.

We arrived at the Santiago airport and there was our first Starbucks in 11 days…. There was talk of going into the city, but with the entry fee of $100 per person …. We opted to hang in the airport AA lounge for the day. I took my first airport shower... Melissa, Megan and I had salads at Ruby Tuesdays and Megs got a Latte from Starbucks…. Along with her mom’s local SB mugs.

The flight home from Santiago was not memorable... the food was good. I slept as long as I could. It is nice to be home… NO wine broken... !!!!

Mendoza Day 5 & 6

Mendoza Day 5 & 6

Day 5…. Its my birthday … yeah.. yeah.. yeah.
































I woke before everyone else in the house and used some of our overripe bananas and made banana bread. I had located a recipe online, but had no measuring cups or measuring spoons. I also needed to convert the 350F oven to South American gas mark 4. The house did not have a loaf pan, so I made it in a tube cake pan.

It did not take long before the smell of freshly baked banana bread to waft through the house…. With a good cup of coffee, and a spoon of caramel (which they call milk jam here) and a slice of warm bread, we were in heaven.


Lazy day, but we were hungry around 2 p.m. The birthday dinner at 743 Bistro was not until 930 p.m. and we needed something other than banana bread. After wandering through town a bit, we stopped in a café to have pizza, French fries with peppers, onions, sausage and a fried egg on top, salad and more empanadas. I ordered a salad. I had always been told to avoid fresh produce, especially lettuce, in a foreign country, but I needed something NOT beef and NOT cooked….

The food started arriving and we realized the fries were each enough for 4 people… The small pizzas were enough for the group… but we also had 12 small empanadas, and a salad. We asked for a pizza to go box.

Headed back to the house. I napped for 3 hours.


815 p.m. Dave had purchased a sparkling wine from Lopez to have before the birthday dinner.. we had it served in chilled wine glasses. The Montchenot brand was a traditional Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend.

830 p.m. Oscar arrived on time to transport us to the dinner location.

915 p.m. As the 743 Bistro (http://743bistro.com.ar) does not publish a physical address, it took Oscar a couple of minutes to find the right street. The directions only say to look for the light. It is a white globe with colored circles on it… I thought we were going to a full restaurant and the light would be a large identifying light, but we were on a residential street with the light being only the size of a small soccer ball. Oscar rang the bell and we were let into a small courtyard and then into a small room. The room had a large table set up for our party and 2 other smaller tables to either side for wine and supplies. That was it. Further into the room was a step down to a wall of seating and a cozy fireplace. Silly me wanted us all dressed in black, to walk through a buzzing restaurant, but here we were in what appeared to be someone’s living room.

We were 15 minutes early and the host gave us the run of the evening – 15 courses paired with 5 wines. Although I am not the biggest Beatles fan, there was a mix of songs redone by other artists playing in the background. The dinner started.














Wine 1 – Setpima Chardonnay – Semillon blend

Course –
1. A spoon of Arugula Ice Cream with shaved Parmesan cheese.
2. A terrine of Apples and Cream with parsley oil and red pepper oil with bread crisps
3. A small Parmesan cheese crisp with a spot of quest fresco and topped with a spicy basil pesto.











Wine 2 - Tobiano 2003 Merlot

Course
4. Roasted Eggplant and Ravioli with roasted tomato sauce
5. Roasted Pumpkin Puree with Dried Plums with thin bread crisps.
6. Fingerling Potato Slices layered with homemade hummus and topped with mozzarella cheese.











Wine 3 – Kella 2006 Malbec

Course
7. Spicy quinoa with tomatoes and chicken
8. Homemade Ham with Roasted Tomato
9. Creamy Lentils with Pork Ribs and Chorizo














Wine 4 - Pulenta Estate 2005 Pinot Noir (YES… we toasted Ana!! )

Course
10. Smashed Corn Cigar in a crispy crust
11. Tea and Mushroom Risotto topped with a ragellando cheese that I did not like… (THE ONLY THING HERE THAT I DID NOT LOVE…. But Dave had 3 servings)


Palate Cleanser
12. Strawberry Mousse with Black Pepper









Wine 5 – Norton Late Harvest Chardonnay

Course
13. Roquefort Flan with Apple Puree
14. Candied Kumquats





Coffee –

Course
15. A Chocolate Cake with one (not 40) candles.







Between courses, the gang offered 3 gifts –
A chocolate brownie – for pleasure
A bingo game – for play
And a wooden frame with a personalized note from each person there on a small card – for passion.

When we were leaving, our host gave me the Beatles Mix CD he had been playing. How fun!

We were exhausted, emotional, full and in love.


















Mendoza day 6 –

UGH… 40.. we all started to fret on how to get the over 100 bottles back to the US. It seems that to ship via UPS / DHL or FedEx, you must have an import license, even if it is for personal use. We also did not think to leave enough room for extra purchases in our luggage and between Bill and Dave, we have more than enough Styrofoam wine shippers, but no one thought to bring them. We started strategizing. Before the activity tonight, Oscar was going to stop by Wal-Mart for some reasonable luggage.

Megan and I decided to head to Mendoza earlier than the gang to take advantage of the incredibly beautiful spring day. It was sunny and 70…. Wow! We visited the Mendoza historical museum where we learned about the earthquake from the 1930s that destroyed the entire city and how the new city was layered on top of the existing city’s ruins.

Mendoza has 5 major parks in a satellite patter with 4 smaller parks a couple blocks from the main square in a grid pattern. We visited each of the 4 parks; one for San Martin, the military general who led Mendoza to freedom from the Chileans. One dedicated to Chile, one to Italy to honor the Italian immigrants and one to honor the Spanish immigrants.

She and I decided to have dinner at the M Bistro of the Park Hyatt Hotel before heading to the Al Magen de Tango, a tango show that discussed the history of wine and tango in the Mendoza region, to meet the others. The restaurant did not open until 830 p.m. and the show started at 10. We wanted the chef’s tasting menu, but were not sure we could do it in the allotted time. The waitress assured us we could, so we did. It was 5 courses paired with wine… NICE!!!



























Course
1. Shrimp sautéed with spices, a mushroom crepe covered in ground almonds and a small salad. This was served with an Argentina based Chandon Reserved Chardonnay sparkling wine.

2. Pea Soup glazed with garlic foam and a bruschetta of roasted tomatoes and jamon on sun dried tomato bread. This was paired with a Semillon


3. A large bowl of Pumpkin Gnocchi with asparagus, mushrooms and smoked bacon paired with an unoaked chardonnay

4. Grilled beef sirloin with Parmesan polenta and sun dried tomato puree, grilled eggplant and rosemary foam. Paired with a Malbec.

5. Pistachio tart with red current honey and bitter chocolate ice cream and vanilla sauce. With this the Sommelier offered us either a sparkling rose or a late harvest Torrontes. We chose the Late Harvest… WOW!!!













TOOO full, Megs and I rushed to the tango show to meet the others. The show was Great…. We had front row seats. Dave and Melissa was called up to enter a visitors competition. How fun!

Back at home with new luggage in hand… we were exhausted.