blue_dolphin

Thanks! These are all dry and go nicely with food, so it might be worth exploring to see if you can find some you like. These exact bottles may not be available but I'm sure you can find a dry rosé from Provence that would be similar to the Chateau la Tour de l'Eveque, a brighter, fruity, but still crisp rosé from the US and/or a Tavel t compare. Thanks for the tip! I see my local BevMo has the La Crema so I will check that out. Their price is $16.99. Both of the shops, K & L and Hi-Time Wine Cellars, that I occasionally order from for delivery, carry that Muga Rioja Rosado so I will certainly try it. These tasting notes on the K & L listing make it sound delicious, indeed!

I hope @Rebel Rose will be back to join us and help facilitate some more discussion, but I thought that in the meantime, I might get us started on our next topic. Per the list outlined in this post it's Dog Summer Rosés. I only have cats, no dogs so I'm not entirely sure of the meaning of "Dog Summer." From this article, What Are the Dog Days of Summer? I learned that the dog days of summer got that name from the period when Sirius, the dog star, rises and sets with the sun, a time that generally coincides with the hottest days of summer in July and August. We may be a little late, but I'll share some of the rosés that I drank during the official dog days of summer and will continue into the fall. Hopefully you'll join me so we can find some new rosés to try. Who's drinking what? From right to left: The Chateau la Tour de l'Eveque rosé from Provence is one I purchase at Total Wine. It's $17.99 at my store. It's a blend of 53% Cinsault, 15% Syrah, 14% Grenache, 9% Mourvèdre, 7% Ugni Blanc, 2% Rolle. Lovely pale salmon color with crisp, but delicate flavors. I started buying this a couple of years ago when it was ~ $12 with Total Wine's 6-bottle discount but the price jumped a few dollars this year. Not sure if that's due to import tariffs or what. It makes me feel elegant to sip this one. The Trader Joe's Petit Reserve Napa Rosé @ $5.99 and per the Fearless Flyer, it's a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petite Verdot, and Cab Franc. It's a pretty pink, very fruity but still dry and crisp. I feel playful when I drink this. Tavel, in the Rhone region of France is the only appellation devoted entirely to rosés. This Reserve des Chastelles Tavel Rosé is also from Trader Joes @ $8.99. It's a blend of 60% Grenache, 25% Cinsault and 15% Syrah and has a deep rose color and complex flavors that go with dishes that might also be served with a light red. IMHO, this compares well with Tavels sold elsewhere in the $20 + price range. It's a good rosé to take into the cooler weather. I feel serious when I drink this. On the far left, is the Trader Joe's Reserve North Coast Brut Rosé Sparkling Wine. This stuff is sold around the holidays @ $9.99 when I drink it with abandon and then hoard the last bottles of it throughout the rest of the year. It's excellent. I love to bring it to parties or pull out a bottle to celebrate almost anything with my friends. Very few gatherings this year means I've got almost a case left and we should be seeing a new allotment in a few months so I plan to treat myself to a few more "champagne" brunches with this stuff. I highly recommend picking up some of this when and if you see it. It makes me feel like celebrating when I drink this.

I used convection bake. I'll try steam-bake when I reheat the others. They'll be either coming from the fridge or freezer. It was pretty good. Thankfully, there were no mushy peas 🤣 The only savory pie that my local Marie Callender's has on their current menu is a chicken pot pie. It's $12.99. The nutritional info lists it as a single serving @ 1140 calories and 1020 mg sodium.

Egg, Spinach and Pecorino pizza from Ottolenghi's Plenty p 156. No onion or garlic here. The only seasonings are sumac and za'atar. Some modifications. I used a dough ball that I had in the fridge instead of the one in the recipe. Probably could have split it into 2 pies. Used a mix of fresh baby kale, chard and mustard greens plus some frozen spinach, likely more overall than intended. The recipe calls for 2.75 oz grated pecorino on a 7-inch pie. Mine was 9-inches but that much finely grated cheese is rather a mountain so I used less. The recipe says to add the egg towards the end of cooking and use a fork to spread the white around but don't break the yolk. I didn't think I could do that so I separated the egg, spread the white around as directed and cooked until the white was set up before I dropped the yolk on top. Still managed to break it 🙃 but at least I got a cooked white and runny yolk. Good flavor combination. I may this again as I'd like to master the egg on a single serving pizza trick and I'm clearly not there yet!

Add me to the list of those who'd not seen the flipped pot pie. Growing up, the top crust, which had some potential to be crisp and flaky was removed, the contents dumped on to the plate and the top placed back, leaning on the pile of filling. The bottom crust was inspected but generally deemed not worth eating. This morning, I ventured out for a rare trip to deliver popsicles to a friend and made a detour to Roan Mills in Fillmore. I've mentioned them before. They are an offshoot of Kenter Canyon Farms and grow grain, mill it and bake it into bread and various other baked goods. They do the milling and baking at the Fillmore location and sell at local farmers markets and to restaurants, the latter now significantly curtailed. Even their farmers market business was shut down for months when LA County banned the sale of prepared foods at the markets. But I digress....back on topic: While I was picking up some scones for my friend, one lemon, one blackberry, I spied a selection of hand pies, both sweet and savory. I thought: Crusty ✔️ Savory ✔️ From a bakery ✔️ Why yes, I do believe they meet the criteria so I skipped the apricot but purchased one each turkey, ham & cheese and pizza hand pie in order to gain admittance to this thread. Starting with the turkey, reheated from room temp in the CSO at 350°F for, I think, 8 minutes. With ham & cheese and pizza as the other alternatives, I wasn't sure what to expect here - something like a pot pie? or the contents of a turkey sandwich wrapped in pastry? As you can see below, it is more like a pot pie. Moistened through but no actual liquid gravy, which I guess would be messy in a hand pie: Potato, carrot, zucchini, greens of some sort and turkey. Less turkey than I'd expect given its top billing, but it was flavorful. The crust was flaky but too thick so there was a doughy layer surrounding the filling. Since I was eating off a plate with a fork, it was easy to lift off the flaky part and leave the doughy bit behind on my plate. They use all stone ground, whole grain flours and the flavor is great. They turn out lovely pies as well as laminated pastries like croissants so I was disappointed at the doughiness, though I appreciate that it's a fine line between too thick and thin spots that rupture and leak filling all over the place. A satisfying breakfast. The other two went in the fridge and will be reheated for future meals.

It seems best suited to a group activity. One that I'd be happy to participate in. But make them just for myself? No....I'll buy from the folks at the local farmers market!

While it's not a huge favorite of mine, I have to come to the defense of the dreaded Muscat and share 2 very summer-appropriate applications. First up, in Diana Henry's book, How to Eat a Peach, she includes a dessert that's barely a recipe - fresh white peaches sliced into chilled Moscato. I scoped out the tasting notes on the shelves at Total Wine and picked this Cardinale Lanata Moscato d'Asti . The tasting notes promised flavors of peach and honey and it delivered in spades. This photo is from a couple of years ago but I've purchased the same wine several times and served it this way to friends to good reviews each time. I often get wrinkled noses and, "I don't like sweet wine," but they are usually won over in the end. It's so easy but looks very elegant and is perfect when people are insisting that they don't want dessert. The other night, I'd fixed myself a little platter of fresh figs, walnuts, blue cheese and crusty bread. What to Drink with What You Eat recommends a sweet wine with blue cheese. I'd normally go with port but that seemed too heavy on a warm evening. I've got an assortment of dessert wines that I rarely remember to open so I pulled out this 2008 Muscat Canelli that I'd picked up years ago on a visit to Leoness Cellars down in Temecula. It was really delightful with the figs and blue cheese.

I had a basket of nice Harry's Berries strawberries that needed to be used so I made a variety of pops. From left to right: Strawberry & Cream - pour ~ 1T cream down one side of the mold and fill with lightly sweetened strawberry purée Strawberry & Milk - this is from Anna Jones book, The Modern Cook's Year. She blends ~ equal quantities of milk (cow, oat or nut, I used cow) with the strawberry purée. Strawberry & Yogurt - fill molds half & half with strawberry purée and yogurt sweetened with honey and thinned with a little milk, then swirl with a stick I've made the cream and yogurt versions before and prefer the contrast of separate fruit and dairy over the blended version in the middle. The punch of the fruit is diluted and it's kind of boring.

Another wine from my "summer whites" box. This is the 2018 Citrine Chardonnay from Enfield Wine Co. Delicious! and a wine I can actually enjoy with my Chardonnay-loving friends! I'm not a lover of overly oaky, buttery California Chardonnays and don't really consider them "summer wines" so I wasn't terribly enthused about the presence of this one in the box. However, I'd read an NYT article that featured winemaker John Lockwood (The Art of Winemaking on the Cheap) that made me interested in trying it and the wine info sheet on the Beaune Imports site said that it was similar to Chardonnay from southern Burgundy which was encouraging. I was pleasantly surprised. It's very nicely balanced with peachy and floral notes, a slightly creamy mouthfeel (but not the heavy buttery sense I get from some Chards) and a brisk, palate-cleansing acidity. Lots of flavor but not heavy. This was delicious to drink on its own and I enjoyed sipping it both before and after my meal. Salmon is my go-to dish with chardonnay but my fish peeps were absent from the farmers market this week so I made some crunchy little appetizer-sized salmon croquettes and enjoyed the wine with them. This is not a fussy wine and would pair well with a range of foods. Unlike the heavy, oaky Chards, it won't overwhelm a light fish dish but has enough substance to pair with stronger flavors as well. This bottle is $28 on the winery's website. For my low-end budget, that's approaching special occasion territory and I'm not sure this is really a special occasion wine. On the other hand, because of its balance, versatility and easy drinking nature, it could make a table of people very happy with their glasses. I can buy more from Beaune for $24 and I may just do that.

I used a can of Trader Joe's wild-caught sockeye salmon to make salmon croquettes from Jubilee in a 2 Tbsp appetizer size: Preserved lemon aioli from Shaya on the side. Salmon croquettes formed into bulky logs with mushy middles were a Lenten penance when I was growing up. The small size of these improved the ratio of crispy exterior to tender interior. No mush.

The macarons look glorious! I know what a gender reveal party is but for some perverse reason, I imagine random people dropping trou or raising skirts and shouting "Surprise!" at happy hours everywhere.

Another OXO here. Mine is similar to the one that @kayb linked to but it is red. I don't see it on offer. Mine is ~ 12 years old. No complaints thus far.

Couldn't resist sharing from today's Breaking Cat News comic: Field Reporter Tommy: This just in: The People are making s'mores! A puzzled news anchor Puck: Tommy, what are s'mores? Tommy: It's a marshmallow sandwich that combines two things children LOVE: "FIRE" and "BEING STICKY"!

The Kindle version of Josef Centeno's first book, Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles is currently $2.99 on Amazon in the US. Sadly, not in Canada. I have a hard copy of the book. It uses a lot of unusual ingredients and some recipes are rather involved but I find the it always inspires me to cook!

You guys are so cute!

I mentioned upthread that in honor of this tasting, I ordered a mixed box of summer whites from Beaune Imports. They arrived very promptly but I've been turning to the same old rosés from TJ's. Six wines was just too much choice 🙃. Yesterday, I received some tinned mussels in escabeche AND remembered that we only have a few more days for this tasting. Mussels from Spain? Wine from Spain ✔️ I opened the 2016 Villa Narcisa Verdjo from the Reuda region by winemaker Javier Sanz. The notes in my quote above are for the 2019 vintage which Beaune is currently selling for $11/bottle. At first taste, without food, I liked the wine but was not won over. As you can see from reading the notes, there's a lot of fruit on the nose, nice acidity but also significant grassy and mineral components. It is bone dry and, at least for this 2016, is not a lightweight but has some body to it. Without food it seemed sort of awkward to me. I made some crostini with my pickled mussels, setting them on toasts rubbed with garlic and spread with a preserved lemon aioli. Between the rich, slightly funky mussels and that preserved lemon aioli, there was a mouthful of flavor going on and this wine stood right up to them. This was the synergy that @weinoo mentioned above. I wouldn't really recommend this to be sipped on it's own but it's certainly a great companion for flavorful seafood recipe....crabcakes with remoulade? Oh, yeah! I'm not familiar with the varietal at all. A little looking tells me that it's recommended where one would serve a Sauvignion Blanc. I think that's true, though many Sauv Blancs in the price range seem to be little more than lemon water. This stuff had some guts. I'd certainly consider getting more. We've apparently got a few more days before Sept begins so I'd best get to work on a few more bottles!

I was running low on tuna and placed an order with the Fishing Vessel St. Jude people. Decided to add a few tins of these La Brújula mussels in escabeche to my order. I put a few on crostini, spread with aioli, then followed the description on the website for a super quick pasta: A little parsley would have been nice but I hear it's over-used 🙃 Very tasty. I wish I'd bought more but I see that the local import store I visit from time to time has them in stock so I'll check their prices.

I use the snack-size zip-top bags. I know plastic is the devil but it keeps them from picking up freezer odors and it's easy for giving them away. After unmolding, I put them back into the freezer for a little while to firm up before I bag them up. If you try to bag them as you unmold, the bags get smeary.

The coconut pops were a big hit last time so I made another batch: The original recipe from Paletas included sweetened condensed milk and half & half. I substituted sweetened condensed coconut milk, coconut cream and cashew milk to make them non-dairy for my friend's vegan daughter.

Thanks for another great flavor combination! Coconut and Pineapple with Star Anise: The pineapple part has the star anise added, the coconut does not. I liked pineapple/star anise combo a lot. I made an infused syrup with whole star anise and also added some ground. Could have used more. Maybe I should have mixed the layers together but the contrast of the two is kind of nice. Edited to add that the guy I buy the figs from at the farmers market liked the saffron & fig pops. He thought my idea of figs on pizza was an abomination so I wasn't sure what he'd think of the pops 🙃

In the LA Times this morning: Instacart shoppers say they face unforgiving metrics: ‘It’s a very easy job to lose’ This statement rang true with me: I stopped into Whole Foods the other day for the first time in ages. I only wanted blue cheese and bread to go with the fresh figs that I'd just picked up at the farmers market. I felt like I was the only person in the store purchasing my own groceries. The vast majority of other shoppers were....well....shoppers 🙃. Shoppers for Instacart, or other services. There was a bit of gridlock near the meat counter as shoppers were using carts to maintain their place in line while running off for other items. I powered my way through but after reading how these shoppers are penalized for taking too many seconds per item, I'll try to be more gracious next time!

@paulraphaelmade blender Negronis back in this post. I've been drinking this version from Jeffrey Morgenthaler's website which adds a couple of ounces of OJ and some simple syrup to the mix. The brain freeze helps distract me from other annoyances.....🙃

White Nectarine & Raspberry Pock-marked pops!

Plum & White Nectarine. These were the last of the vibrant Satsuma plums and the white nectarines were freebies from my farmers market peeps. I wanted to do something to show off their pretty color but they are clings, not freestone so pretty slices weren't going to happen and this was the next best option. I'll be sharing these when I visit their booth on Thursday.

Popsicles? Did someone say popsicles????? 🤣🤣🤣