melkor

Another six months later, I've used up the first batch of vanilla extract. We made another batch, the same way and when the first jar was empty we dumped the cut up beans into the 2nd jar. The 2nd batch is better than the first, I imagine if you start with a jar full of cut up beans you can make some unbelievably strong extract - now to find a pound of beans and someone else to pay for them...

Drinking another cappuccino now, this one is better than the one earlier today - the milk came out better this time. I'm running low on beans, but it's raining and I really don't want to stand out by the grill in the rain for 20 minutes to roast more. Hopefully the rain will stop this afternoon and I can roast a batch of decaf and a batch of liquid amber.

Bottom of the valley means American Canyon - the town 5 minutes south of Napa. I've seen rancho_gordo at the Napa farmers market a few dozen times, he's got great produce. He'll be at the eGullet Potluck in a few weeks, I'm sure you'll get a full report. The Napa market shut down for the year at the end of October - I can't wait for it to come back.

Wow. Maybe a little rain isn't so bad . At least we've been able to have asparagus from our garden twice in the last week, I suppose that's better than 12 feet of snow

Yeah - I'm not a huge fan either... but I've got this free meal and have to be in that part of the world that night. Raincheck on Ana's, okay? That works.

We've got grey skys and an ass-load of rain coming down. It's only slightly better than what you've got in NY today.

Breakfast is courtesy of MsMelkor - A spinach, potato, and parmesan frittata with some fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

Not a huge fan of Chipotle, how about Ana's Cantina in St Helena instead?

Thanks to gsquared I will be hosting this week's food blog. This week is more or less like any other week, except for Friday - which is my birthday. We live at the bottom of Napa Valley in California, in a reasonably small town. MsMelkor and I both work from home, so the only time we go out for breakfast/lunch during the week is for work. Almost every day starts with a cappuccino. We are working on perfecting our cappuccino making skills so we each drink 4 or so a day - I make them during the week, MsMelkor makes them on the weekends since her work day starts around 6:30am, while mine starts at 9am. Because it wouldn't be right to start this blog without pictures of the cats here ya go. Texas: Rosie:

I just got back from a completely unremarkable lunch at Oliveto. Our server was unable to recommend any dishes. My dish (pigeon) was oversalted, and the three people I was eating with all ordered swordfish which none of them found at all compelling. I did get a reasonably good cappuccino at the bar downstairs while I was waiting for the rest of our party to arrive.

If you caramelize some onions in the pan and then wash it while it's still warm it should be easy to clean.

There's a discussion about the bug here. The eGullet tech folks are working on it. In the meantime, I'll just come through and delete all the dupes.

Winos (& Wine Ho's?) will want to know that Zuzu has a very impressive wine list specifically designed for pairing with tapas. Not a bad selection of beers, either Zuzu Wine List Absolutely, but it doesn't exactly qualify as SF. That said, it's a great place to eat when your in town - less good if your a local since they are somewhat slow to change their menu. Most everything they serve is excellent, and with a sufficently large group (four or more) you can eat the entire menu in one night.

If there is absolutely no one else willing to take over the blog, I'll take next week.

Giggidy giggidy giggidy aalllllll riiiiight!

They get paid well and receive health benefits. Maybe that's why they naturally fit into a different category. They also have a menu with all of four things on it. There's nothing to upsell when everyone who walks in orders a double double animal style with fries and a drink.

I know that Hopewell is just outside of Princeton... as is Princeton Junction... I'm guessing that geographical nomenclature phenomena like that are localized, so Hopewell Junction should be someplace close to Hopewell. There's a Hopewell NJ, and a Hopewell Junction NY - I can't find any reference to a Hopewell Junction NJ (not that this has anything to do with project making 16 year old girls blush)

You could just stuff the fish with slices of lemon and fist fulls of herbs, oil the skin so it doesn't stick and toss it onto the grill. I often cook a whole salmon like that after going fishing - it's very simple and with a fish that was swimming around that morning it tastes amazing.

Isn't Hopewell Junction in NY?

Pride makes a great Viognier.

You can never have too many stock pots. As long as they are all different sizes you can just stack them inside eachother. I've got 6qt, 8.5qt, 12qt, 16qt, and 35qt pots and all of them get regular use.

And at Sattui, the grounds are only for paying customers. You have to be eating or drinking stuff you bought there -- I think they don't allow outside food, but could be remembering incorrectly. I'd sooner eat lunch at a bus station than at Sattui. There are parks in every town in the valley where you can have a picnic and there are plenty of wineries that have picnic facilities - there is no reason to be stuck eating at Sattui.

I would grind as finely as you can without ending up with gritty coffee and I would start out with as much ground coffee as you can fit into the filter.

Given the number of options in Sonoma/Napa it's hard to say what they will like best. Anyone who is a Zin fan should venture over to the Russian River Valley in Sonoma as ludja recomended above - Quivera, A. Rafanelli, Mazzoco, and Ridge are all great places to visit. In Napa you can find plenty of spots to have a picnic lunch - Pride on top of spring mtn is a great, they have tables outside their barrel room overlooking the vinyards. Hall, next to Dean and Deluca on highway 29 has a few picnic tables next to the tasting room in their garden. Either place is happy to let you use their facilities if you buy a bottle of wine from them. You could also have a picnic in Crane Park in St Helena.