Warre's Warrior

[Innkeeper]

N/V Warre's Warrior, Special Reserve, Porto ($14.50). A great casual sipper, before or after dinner, and not too expensive to cook with. After having had our principal meal out at noon yesterday, we settled down to cheese and Port in the evening. Wonderful. Killed the whole bottle!

[Innkeeper]

Having done Applebees earlier in the day, popped another of these last night with some Dubliner and Smoked Gouda cheeses. Very nice in front of the fireplace. Life is good.

[tandkvd]

I went shopping today to make the Super Bowl Meatballs for Karen's birthday dinner. I wasen't sure what port to get to go in the sauce. This one caught my eye. It's good to see that you liked it.

[wondersofwine]

Glad Tan brought this thread back to life. I have twice recently bought Dubliner cheese (and some hickory smoked Cheddar). Nice food. I gave up cheese for Lent but have indulged some this week.

[tandkvd]

I love this Port. And I haven't said that about a port. Although I have only tried a few.

The sauce and meatballs were a hit. I made them Friday then put into the fridge overnite. Yesterday I put them into a crock pot for about 4 hours.

Our two oldest daughters boyfriends were here. While we were wonderfully miserable after one helping, one of the boys (tall and thin [img]http://wines.com/ubb2/mad.gif[/img] ) went back for more. And you were also right about the Cecchi Cianti Clasico, wounderfull.

I found this recipie for an apitizer. We had Karen's favorite, Martini & Rossi Astie Spuminte with it. It was very good as well.

Gnocchi Alla Romana

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 15 minutesCook Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

6 tablespoons butter, plus 2 tablespoons for sheet pan and baking dish
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus 1/2 cup
4 egg yolks


Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Butter 1 cookie sheet with 3/4-inch sides and a baking dish.
In a 3 to 4-quart saucepan, heat to scald the milk, salt, and 6 tablespoons butter. Pour in the semolina in a thin stream, whisking vigorously, and cook for about 1 minute, switching to a wooden spoon as it
thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup grated cheese and 4 egg yolks. Mix well to combine. Pour the semolina onto the buttered cookie sheet and, using a spatula, spread to a thickness of 1/2-inch. Allow to
cool.

Using a pastry cutter or water glass, cut 3-inch quarter moons out of semolina. Arrange the moons so that they are leaning up against one another (overlapping) in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with remaining grated cheese. Place in oven and cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until top is deep golden brown. Remove and serve immediately.

We couldn't have had a better meal at Carraba's.


[This message has been edited by tandkvd (edited 04-18-2004).]

[Innkeeper]

Picked up another bottle tonight after a very sad wake. It is very nice.

[Innkeeper]

We had some more tonight with some very nice goat gouda.

[Innkeeper]

Had some more tonight with some drunken goat cheese, smoked salmon swirls, and even a little left over German potato salad. Incidentally the price of this thing is all over the map these days. Have seen it from $12 to $23 in the space of a couple of weeks.

[wondersofwine]

What's drunken goat cheese? I assume they don't pour liquor down the goats' throats before they milk them. (Hey, there's a rhyme in there).

[Innkeeper]

From the village of Jumilla in the Murcia region of Spain, Drunken Goat is a semi-soft artisan goat cheese with a smooth violet rind which has been soaked in Doble Pasta wine for 48-72 hrs. Aged about 75 days, it has a sweet, smooth flavor.

[Innkeeper]

Well, today may have been my last trip to Applebees. Had one of there "Skillet Specials" the garlic steak with garlic potatoes and garden veggies. I guess the instructions to the kitchen didn't include making allowances for the cooking of the steak before dumping in on a hot skillet. Besides that, could hardly detect any garlic in anything! The sides were only passable. The red wine dejour in places like this these days seems to be Redwood Creek Merlot (no doubt a Gallo effort). Served at 73 degree "room temperature", it requires a cube from the glass of water (which you have to ask for of course) to make it palatable.

So, tonight it was just Warre's Warrior, cubes of extra sharp country cheese and drunken goat cheese, and leftover chocolate cake. All is well now!

[tandkvd]

We have an Applebys, Chili's, and an O'Charlies here now. They all started off great but after a couple years, they are ok but nothin to brag about. Although Chili's El Presidenti Margarita is prety good.

[Zinner]

Yes, that's why I mostly like to eat in independent restaurants, not chains.

A year or so ago, I was in Nashville and a restaurant reviewer there wrote a hilarious story about why she absolutely refused to review chain restaurants. The story was written around her experience of attending a Sysco product show. Apparently a lot of the chains make liberal use of already-prepared stuff to fix their dishes. May be a reason that it often tends to taste similar.

I've never understood the popularity of chains anyhow.

[Innkeeper]

Well today the "principal" meal was brunch at the Samoset Resort in Rockland. It was splendiferous, complete with a couple of glasses of Mystery Cabernet. Then we had a late going meeting this evening. So, after arriving home at 9 PM it was time for more Warrior with a hunk of Goat Gouda. Swonderful.

[Innkeeper]

Spent the day shopping in Bangor/Brewer. Had lunch which turned into our principal meal at the EVO Brick Oven in Bangor. This place was opened around six months ago right next door to an Olive Garden. The owner is a young resturanteur we know who opened a nice place here in Searsport. At any rate we had nice pasta meals washed down with Vestini Montepulciano D’Abruzzo.

Tonight we had leftover Queen of Sheba cake with some WW. Lovely.