Tag Archives: red wine

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Recipe: Petit Goulash

I’ve been told that this isn’t really a goulash recipe, but since that’s what my husband called it, that’s what I’m going to call it as well.  This was a two-pot dinner… one medium pot for the pasta and one large skillet to brown the meat and mix everything together.  Simple and comforting… that’s what I was craving last week when the snow hit our area.

PetitGoulash

I started by dicing together a large onion and half a large green pepper and sautéing them together in a pat of butter.  Once the vegetables were browned, I added a package of ground turkey and cooked this until the meat was thoroughly browned.  To this mixture, I added a healthy pour of a dark Petit Verdot and cooked the meat mixture until the wine had been thoroughly absorbed.   The last “flavor addition” was a can of petit diced tomatoes, which added some great color to the dish.

While I was cooking the meat, I started cooking a pot of water with jumbo elbow macaroni and salt.  Once the pasta was cooked, I drained it and added it into the large skillet and stirred everything together, seasoning with garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika.  This recipe is very similar to the mazetti that my mother-in-law makes (which is absolutely delicious) and was a huge hit with my family.  The flavors melded together nicely and the dish was hearty enough to be filling without adding bread on the side.  A simple green salad would have been a nice addition, but not totally necessary.

Enjoy playing with this recipe if you choose to make it for your family.  A wonderful Hungarian smoked paprika would be fabulous – Think  I might be able to talk my local grocer into stocking this spice if I whine about it enough?  Have fun making your own family’s favorite “goulash”… after all, you’re creating something for those you love.  What could be wrong about that?  Enjoy!

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Crock Pot Recipe: Pork Roast

This recipe was so ridiculously easy that I’m almost embarrassed to post it… almost.  I was on the schedule to work earlier this week and decided to through a few things in my crock pot to see how dinner would turn out.  The meal was filling and flavorful, just what I needed after a busy day, but it came together so simply that I just had to share it with you.

CrockpotPork

I found (literally… my husband defrosted our freezer over the weekend) a lovely 2-3 pound pork loin that needed to be used and decided to be a bit creative in what I was making that evening.  To the bottom of the crock pot, I layered 2 sliced onions, 1 sliced apple, 1/2 cup James River Cellars Rad Red, and 1/2 cup James River Cellars Reserve Chardonnay.  I un-bagged the pork loin, placed it on top of the vegetables, seasoned it with garlic salt, pepper, and herbs de provence.  I realized that I wouldn’t have time to cook and make mashed potatoes, so I popped 4 small potatoes in the same pot and cooked everything on low for 6-8 hours.  By the time I got home, the house smelled amazing!

Adding the finishing touches on dinner was fairly simple.  I pulled the potatoes out and mashed them in a bowl.  I added some of the liquid (along with the cooked veggies) from the pot to the potato mixture to smooth everything out, then added a touch of margarine (or butter), salt, and pepper before serving.  I sliced the pork, which honestly was falling apart at this point, and served dinner in under 15 minutes after my arrival home.  It was simple, tasty, and satisfying… three things that I look for when trying to come up with a work-night recipe.

I hope you’ll consider trying this recipe or a variation thereof… making dinner doesn’t have to be a huge production… it can be as easy as thinking ahead.  Enjoy!

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Recipe: Petit Enchilada Casserole

 

Coming up with recipes is truly something that feeds my creativity.  I love when my manager asks me to “come up with a recipe”, because it sends me into my kitchen… one of my favorite rooms in our home.  This recipe came from a desire to create something using leftover chicken, yet have a meal that could be popped in the oven by whomever got home first that night.

As you can see, this looks like a “real” recipe, as opposed to most of my posts.  The reason is that I plugged this recipe into “My Recipe Builder” app so I could figure out the calorie count.  While I usually don’t do this when blogging, the written recipe will be included this weekend at James River Cellars’ Petit Verdot Vertical Weekend and I needed to have it look more official.

  • 12 ounces Salsa (I used Gunther’s Spicy Black Bean Dip)PetitEnchiladaCasserole
  • 10-1/2 ounces Soup, cream of mushroom (use your favorite)
  • 6 ounces Wine, table, red (I love the deep flavor of Petit Verdot here)
  • 15 ounces Beans, baked, canned, plain or vegetarian
  • 8 small tortilla (approx 4″ dia) Tortilla, corn
  • 1 Onions, sweet, raw, diced
  • 2 cups, chopped or diced Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, stewed
  • 2 cups, shredded Cheese, low fat, cheddar or colby

 

Instructions:

 

  1. Saute’ onion until softened, adding garlic if desired.
  2. Add salsa, undiluted soup, drained and rinsed black beans, and wine.  Stir in chicken and mix until flavors combine nicely.
  3. Spray the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.  Cut the corn tortillas in half, then slice each half into 4 pie-shaped bites.  Separate the tortilla pieces in half and spread half across the bottom of the baking pan.
  4. Layer salsa mixture on top of the tortilla layer, then top with half the cheese.
  5. Top cheese with the remaining tortilla pieces.  Cover the tortilla pieces with the remaining salsa and top with cheese.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

I found this casserole to be really tasty.  I cut the casserole into 8-square shaped pieces and it was a really filling dinner.  As always, you’re welcome to swap out ingredients to suit the tastes of your family… that’s the best part of making your own dinners.  You can even make this into a vegetarian dish by using shredded zucchini or diced eggplant or tofu in place of the chicken.  Try this sometime and let me know how you, and your family, likes this dish.  We loved it!

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Recipe: Petit Veggie Pizza

Since the winery is going to have a Petit Verdot Vertical weekend soon, I’ve been working on creating some new recipes that utilize this amazing wine.  This recipe is one of the creations I made when trying to come up with something that’s vegetarian.  You could easily add some sort of protein as a topping, but I thought this was really tasty by itself.  PetitVeggiePizza

I started with the whole-wheat pizza dough recipe that you can find on my blog.  If you have a pizza dough recipe you like, by all means, use that one.  If you don’t want to be bothered with making your own pizza dough, feel free to stop by your favorite pizza place and ask them for some dough – many are happy to sell you enough dough for a small/medium/large pizza.  I really wanted to know the nutritional analysis for the dough, so the recipe I used worked well for me.

Once I stretched out the dough to the size I wanted for my pizza, I started working on my vegetarian topping.  In this instance, I used Gunther’s Spicy Black Bean Dip (I had about 1/2 cup left over in my fridge), some salsa, a handful of frozen corn, some taco seasoning, and some James River Cellars’ Petit Verdot red wine.  After mixing this together, I realized that I needed something to give it more volume, so I grated one small green zucchini into the salsa mixture (see the middle photo on the left).  This is what I used as my base/topping for my veggie pizza.  I spread it over the entire crust and then topped it with a cup of pizza cheese before popping it into a 425-degree pre-heated oven to bake.

As easy as this sounds, it was just as delicious.  The zucchini gave enough volume to the pizza so my dinner was very satisfying as well as being really tasty.  Pizza is one of those meals where I could put almost anything on a crust and I can be happy, so this was a fun meal.  If you’re getting bored with your own meal planning, try putting something unconventional on a pizza crust…. you might find that you’ve created a new favorite dinner.

Have fun being creative!

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Recipe: Petit Venison Chili

I confess…. I was a slacker over Christmas break and didn’t post any new recipes.  I made a few fun things that I’ll post ASAP, but spending time with my kids ended up taking precedence.   Since the winery has a Chili Cook-off coming up this weekend, I had chili on my mind when it was so rainy yesterday, so this recipe just came together for me.  As with all my recipes, I used “The Force” with regards to the amounts of spices and such, but this is a fairly standard way for me to make chili.  I do alter the meats, types of beans, and amounts of spices at times, but this is a workable recipe to use as a jumping off point if you have never made chili before.

PetitVenisonChili

I start with 2 onions, 2 spoons of garlic, and 1 large green pepper, diced well.  I saute them in a little bit of olive oil until they got slightly toasty and then added one pound of ground venison.  (Note:  I got the venison from a friend… I would have used a package of ground turkey if I hadn’t had the venison to use.)  Once the venison is thoroughly cooked, I add 1/2 cup of James River Cellars’ Petit Verdot red wine.  This wine is smoky and deep… a great pairing with the lean game meat in this dish.  Take your time here…. you want to allow time for the wine to be totally absorbed by the meat and vegetables before moving forward in the recipe.

Once the wine is totally incorporated, you can add the tomato/bean side of the chili.  I use one 28-oz can crushed tomatoes and four 15-oz cans of beans, undrained. For this recipe, I used one can each of pinto, light kidney, dark kidney, and white cannellini beans. I also like to add one 6-oz can tomato paste to thicken the chili.

Once your beans and tomato products are incorporated into your chili, it’s time to think about spices and seasonings.  I like to add a variation of spices… typically a blending of salt, garlic salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, paprika, cinnamon, parsley, and a touch of honey or a little sugar.  I used varying amounts of these spices, tasting the chili after incorporating each flavor until it all meshed well and tasted the way my family likes.

I know many people who like to add chipotle seasonings, hot sauce, or spicy peppers, but since my family isn’t fond of too much heat, this is the way we like our chili to taste.  There are a multitude of “official” recipes for chili – some have specific ingredients while others simply give you generic ideas of what “should” be used.  Lots of people also have accompaniments that they like to have with their chili… corn muffins, cornbread, saltines, spaghetti noodles, cheese, onions… the list can be endless.    No matter what you use, or how you make it, enjoy the process of making chili for your own family.  What you choose to use in your chili is completely appropriate – as long as it’s what you and your family enjoy, that’s all that matters, right?

Happy Cooking!

 

 

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Crock Pot Recipe: Red Wine Pulled Pork

I have been asked about crock pot recipes and thought I’d post my version of this recipe from the blog, “100 days of Real Food”, that states that it’s The Best Pulled Pork Recipe In A Crockpot.  I started with the author’s recipe but ended up tweaking it so much that it became a version of my own.  Don’t get me wrong… this recipe that I’ve linked is stellar.  If it looks like one you’d prefer to use, go for it.  That’s the beauty of cooking and creating recipes – if you find you’re missing an ingredient, or your family has particular tastes, then by all means alter the recipe to suit those you’re feeding.  Remember, there are NO food police… NO wine police… just enjoy the process and have fun creating something tasty!

Here are the Red Wine Pulled Pork ingredients I used yesterday:RedWinePulledPork

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 square garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon dried lemon thyme
  • ½ cup honey
  • ¼ cup red wine (I used a Malbec, but James River Cellars Rad Red would be great here) 
  • 1/2 cup Chambourcin Wine Jelly (made by a former employee at James River Cellars – any of her red wine jellies would work well in this recipe)
  • 1 onion, peeled and cut in chunks
  • 3 to 3 ½ pounds pork (I used a Boston Butt), cut in half, excess fat removed

Directions:

  1. Mix all spices together in a small bowl and then add the honey and wine.  Mix to make a paste and set aside.
  2. Put onion in the bottom of your crock pot and place the pork on top.
  3. Pour spice paste over the pork and allow pork to cook for 6-7 hours, stirring occasionally, until cooked thoroughly and shreds easily.
  4. Add wine jelly to the shredded meat and allow it to cook for 10-15 minutes to incorporate the flavors.  We found the cayenne pepper to be a bit too spicy in this recipe, so the jelly added a bit of sweetness that really made the flavors pop.
  5. Serve warm on rolls with coleslaw, if desired.  Also tasty on a salad with some “southwest” flavors added (corn, black beans, cheese, etc).

This was an incredibly easy recipe and one that really didn’t need any BBQ sauce or ketchup for flavor.  The meat was tender, the onion thoroughly incorporated into the meat, and it got rave reviews in my house.  Definitely a KEEPER recipe for me!  Hope you’ll consider trying it the next time you want to make a simple, easy dinner.

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Recipe: Pinot’d Pizza

Ok… I’m almost embarrassed at how easy and simple this pizza was… well, almost.  The wine portion of this meal came from simply “thumbing” some Pinot Noir over the pizza that I put together tonight for dinner.  Honest!  It’s a lazy, Friday night, so here’s my favorite way to make a homemade dinner without a huge amount of effort… and here’s how I put everything together.

I started with a trip to my local pizza place and purchased a medium size pizza dough for $4.00.  Seriously… $4.00 and I had enough dough to split into 2/3 dough for my hubby’s pizza and 1/3 dough for my own pizza.  It’s the perfect “single-serve” amount of pizza for dinner for me and the cost is totally worth it.  NOTE:  if I’m planning on feeding more people, I would obviously purchase more dough.  My boys like thicker pizzas, so I would have picked up a medium size for each of them and do our 1/3:2/3 split for us.  See if your favorite pizza place sells dough… it’s a huge timesaver!PinotPizza

I had thrown the dough in the fridge when I got home, so I pulled it out to rest for about an hour before starting to make our dinner.  M and I have things down pat when making pizza for dinner.  I make the crusts for everyone and then, together, he/I add all the toppings and such.  My pizza tonight consisted of jarred pasta sauce (go cheap if you like… it’s getting covered after all), a large handful of spinach/arugula mix, cut in thin strips  (this is called a chiffonade), crumbled gouda cheese, mozzarella cheese, and  garlic salt.  I layered everything in order mentioned and added as much or as little as looked right to me at the moment.  The “pre-oven” pizza pic is on the left.  NOTE: for those of you wondering, my husband makes a mean pepperoni pizza with light sauce and light cheese… and NO wine.  LOL.

At the last moment,  I pulled out a bottle of Pinot Noir red wine that I had just opened and used my thumb to sprinkle the wine over my pizza.  Weird, I know, but it was one of those “why not” moments.  The pizza went into a pre-heated 475 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  Don’t leave the house or plan to be too far away… this pizza can go from “almost perfect” to “burned” fairly quickly if you’re not watching.

With the extra liquid on top of my pizza, I needed to let it rest for a few minutes before cutting it into 8 pieces and inhaling… I mean, eating… my dinner.  It was a wonderful way to end the week.

May your evening meal be as entertaining AND delicious as ours!

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Recipe: Brownie-Wine Brittle

I saw a yummy-looking bag of Brownie Brittle at the store recently… and it just seemed to cry out for a wine-makeover.  Since today was a “cook/bake/blog/errand” kind of day, this recipe just called out to me.  I hope you’ll enjoy it!

BrownieBrittle

I started with one box of brownie mix, one egg, red wine, canned pumpkin, creamy peanut butter, and mini chocolate chips.   Using the directions on the back of the brownie mix box as a guideline, I added equal amounts of canned pumpkin and creamy peanut butter along with the egg, then poured in red wine to thin out the entire mix.  I also added a handful of mini chocolate chips, so there would be little nuggets of chocolate throughout the final product.  I was playing with this recipe, so I did a lot of “guestimating” as I mixed this together.

Feel free to mix this in whatever way you’d like – my plan was to make the mixture thin enough to bake and become crispy as it cooled.  Success!  NOTE: I used the pumpkin in place of the oil because it was in my fridge… and I used the small amount of creamy peanut butter to add a hint of nuttiness to the flavor.  Either one could be substituted with applesauce or you could certainly follow the directions and add more wine/water to thin out the mixture.  It’s entirely up to you!

I used the largest baking sheet (with an edge) that I had in my cupboard and lined it with parchment paper so the final product would lift off fairly easily.  I added enough red wine to thin out the mixture (I would have used James River Cellars’ Rad Red if I’d had some open… the bottle I had open was a South African Shiraz Viognier blend, so I used that in this recipe), poured it onto the baking sheet and spread the mixture as thinly as possible, reaching all four corners.

Because I wanted the brownies to end up dry and crispy, I cooked the entire recipe at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.  Once the cooking was finished, I turned off the heat in the oven, opened the oven door and let the brownies dry for about an hour.   I decided to wait until the brownie-wine brittle was cool before I broke it apart into pieces.  It broke up nicely and will be fun to play with when I need a small, fun snack or if I want to do a fancier presentation with a small cookie scoop of frosting with brittle around it, like flower petals.

I’ll probably play with this recipe again and adjust the amounts of ingredients, but feel free to try this at home for your own family.  Being able to re-create something you see in the store is actually fun… and making a treat for your family is the best-ever kind of treat.

Wishing you lots of homemade treats as the holidays draw near…

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How to make a sauce… and a bonus recipe

Have you ever been frustrated when trying to make a sauce (or even a simple gravy) for dinner?  Here’s a basic sauce recipe that you can personalize to fit any meal… and it’s easy!  I’m also including a mash-up of step-by-step photos so you get a feel for how each stage should look… hopefully that will help as you create your own masterpiece.

Start with butter, olive oil, and flour.  I typically will start with a 1:1 ratio of fat to flour, so if I’m using one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of oil, I’ll use 2 tablespoons of flour.  Note:  Much of this is driven by the amount of sauce you want to make, so if you’re hoping for a large amount of sauce for a casserole, feel free to double these amounts.   Saute’ your fat/flour in a pan until it’s bubbling and gets just a slight bit “toasty” looking… you’re making a simple roux to start this sauce.  (This is the first photo I’ve included in the upper left corner.)

SauceBasics

Once you’ve given the flour some time to cook, you’ll begin adding your liquids.  I like start by adding wine first.  I use whichever wine I feel will go nicely with the end product.  I used James River Cellars’ Montpelier (a Cabernet Franc “Blanc”, if you will) and thought it paired well with the cheese I was using.  (The second photo, below the first shot)  Feel free to use red wine if you’re making a sauce for something heartier than chicken or fish.  I always use a whisk and make sure to thoroughly incorporate the liquid into the sauce at each point before moving on to the next.  How much wine you add is entirely up to you.  I like to add about a cup at the beginning (use your morning coffee cup if you’d rather not get another thing dirty).  Whisk the wine into the sauce and as it starts to tighten up, you’ll begin to recognize when to add more liquid.

After adding wine, I like to then add stock to my sauce.  I try to always have some chicken stock (or broth) in the fridge but feel free to use whatever flavor you feel will best fit the rest of the meal.  When taking the photos for this post, I was making a sauce for my Chicken Divan casserole, so I used chicken stock.  If I were making a sauce to top a steak or piece of beef, I would have used beef stock.  Try to always keep your final product in mind while making segments of a meal so that everything coordinates nicely.

At this point, you’ve got a lovely, smooth gravy.  Add some Worchestershire sauce, liquid smoke, or a dash of Liquid Aminos and you’ll have a great way to bring some pizzazz to your meal.  Since I was making a sauce for a casserole, I needed more “heft” to this sauce and decided to add 4oz of grated cheese.  I used a Monetary Jack cheese to pair with the Montpelier wine I used earlier, but sharp cheddar would pair nicely with a big red wine and a mild colby or creamy goat cheese can accent the crisp taste of a bright Chardonnay or Vidal Blanc.  Choose your favorite and make the sauce your own!

Once the cheese is incorporated, and the sauce is smooth and creamy, add your spices at the last moment.  Again, I was making a Chicken Divan, so I chose to add a palmful of curry powder and some dried parsley.  This is another opportunity to personalize your sauce and make it taste the way *you* want.   Allow the sauce to cook for a moment, whisking as you go, and use it however you like.  In this case, I poured the sauce over a casserole of chicken and broccoli – it was the perfect piece to pull all the flavors together.  YUM!

Now, I *DID* promise you a “bonus recipe”… here it is:  Buttered Bread Crumbs!

ButteredBreadCrumbs

I’ll admit that “Buttered Bread Crumbs” doesn’t sound like much of a bonus, but if you’ve never made this wonderful topping for a casserole, you have no idea what you’re missing.

I reused the pan in which I had just made the curry sauce and warmed some olive oil, butter, garlic, and salt.  I simmered this mixture a bit while I cubed up four potato rolls that I had on hand.  I have made this using chiabatta bread… homemade bread… leftover rolls… I’ve even used a few slices of a simple white bread.  Use what you have on hand… this is a topping and meant to be a way to use leftover loaves of bread.  No matter what you use, it’s a really tasty addition.

Once your butter mixture is warm and your bread is cubed, add the two together and toss them over medium heat until they pick up some crispy edges.  They don’t have to be entirely cooked… they’ll toast up in the oven after you put them on top of the casserole.  NOTE: If you’re making bread crumbs for a salad, you *will* want to toast them long enough to get them crispy on all sides.

Simple, right?  I adore this bread crumb topping… it’s something from my childhood that brings back wonderful memories of comfort foods and family meals.  I hope you enjoy trying this topping for your family casseroles!

Helpful hint:  If you’re reheating a casserole, you can add some fresh buttered bread crumbs to the top and toast it in the oven before serving… no one will guess that you’re serving leftovers!

Enjoy!

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Recipe: Red Steak Stir Fry

The house smelled soooo good when I was making dinner last night…. a definite plus after a weekend of pizza and dinners out, no matter how yummy.  Since M asked me to make a stir fry, I stopped by the grocery store on the way home from work and was able to throw this delicious meal together without too much difficulty.  Picking up two sale packages of “stir-fry beef”, a package of sliced mushrooms, a small package of Haricot Verts (long thin green beans), a bag of onions, and a bottle of Korean Teriyaki sauce, I started cooking in “layers”.  Let me explain what I mean by that…

RedSteakStirFry

Start with the onions and mushrooms.  Slice half an onion and half of the package of sliced mushrooms, and saute them in a pat of butter and a little bit of olive oil until they start to brown.  To this mixture, add some Napa Valley Pinot Noir red wine (this is what I had in the fridge… any tasty red wine will work well in this recipe) and allow the veggies to soak up the wine (here’s your first layer of flavor).  Remove the veggies and add another pat of butter and a little bit of olive oil, allowing the pan to get hot.  Add salt and pepper to the beef and add to the melted butter/oil in the saute pan.  Brown the beef thoroughly and then add more red wine (this is your second layer of flavor) so the beef can soak up more of this flavor.  Once the beef is cooked, return the onion/mushroom mixture and bring everything to temperature.

While sauteing the vegetables and beef, take a moment to pull the stir-fry sauce together.  This sauce was a blend of 2/3 cup red wine, 1/3 cup of Teriyaki sauce, some garlic, some ginger, and a spoonful of flour.  Whisk the sauce thoroughly to incorporate the flour into the sauce and wait to add the sauce until the beef is thoroughly cooked and toasty and the veggies are returned to the pan.  This will be your third layer of flavor.

Since the Haricot Verts are so incredibly delicate and quick cooking, I would suggest adding the beans and the sauce close to the same time in the cooking process.  Toss everything together for a few minutes to allow the flour to cook and the beans to warm.  I did add 1/4 cup water to thin the sauce a bit, but the stir-fry sauce I had made was absolutely delicious.  Served over a bit of brown rice (I microwaved a package of brown basmati rice), it was a thoroughly satisfying meal… warm, tasty, and totally yummy.

Try your own version of this stir-fry at your house… chances are that it will become your family’s favorite as well!