Farm Box Adventure #4

I was so happy that I didn't get any cabbage last week. I knew that it was too good to be true...

This Week's Bounty

• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Oranges
• Watermelon
• Cilantro -- already given away so it's not pictured here.
• Lettuce
• ...*sigh*... Cabbage

You gave away cilantro? Aren't you Asian and supposed to love that stuff?

I do like cilantro. Cilantro/Coriander is almost Thailand's national vegetable! We incorporate the roots into marinades and curry bases (yes, back in our country, they sell them WITH roots.). The leaves are used like parsley here, sprinkled onto a dish or used as garnish.

Heck, we even have a saying based on cilantro! When you do something poorly but you make it looks nice and presentable, Thai people call that "sprinkling cilantro on top". (ผักชีโรยหน้า)

Unfortunately, Brandon doesn't like cilantro. Well, not liking is a part of it. He is also one of those people to whom cilantro tastes like soap. Some studies said it's a genetic thing. Some people are sensitive to a certain aromatic chemical of the cilantro. And so on.

I just settled at the fact that he doesn't like it. My next door neighbor was very happy to take it off my hands along with a fistful of green beans.

Before we discuss this box, let's talk about the last one.

Box #3 Report

Box #3 was not too big of a challenge to cook. After all, it didn't have cabbage.

I gave one avocado away to a friend visiting from Colorado who has missed California avocado so much she was going to smuggle some back on their drive home. The other, I made a ghetto guacamole for a snack by mashing it with chopped tomatoes and a pinch each of garlic and onion powder, cayenne pepper, and salt, and a splash of rice wine vinegar because I didn't have any lime on hand.

Tomatoes are also one of the things Brandon doesn't eat. To my delight, actually. All the yumminess is mine! Muwahahahah! :-D I have been cooking up a whole tomatoes with eggs for breakfast on my Meatless Tuesday for a great and filling meal.

Beef and broccoli was also a major success. My dad back in Thailand sat our family's housekeeper down to get her recipe for the beef marinade. He even typed it up for me himself--a feat for someone who actually doesn't know how to type ("That's what my secretary is for!")--so I can make dinner that same night. And boy, was it worth the trouble. While I did take some pictures for you guys, I did not take picture of the finished product. We were hungry. So very, very hungry...

Also as planned, I made Caesar salad, French onion soup, and that cabbage soup with some green beans and carrots in it. And I still have a quarter of frozen cabbage left.

I used the carrots to make carrot cake instead because Brandon was craving some. I bought a few more carrots just in case but I actually didn't need them. I even had extra! I use Tyler Florence's carrot cake recipe for the cake which turns out super moist and NOT overly sweet at all, and the cream cheese frosting from Nigella Lawson's Guinness Chocolate Cake recipe. Should've made double batch of the frosting as my filling was a little bit on the skimpy side. But over all, it was yummy.

Box #4 Meal Ideas

Carrots and tomatoes are never a challenge around here, and lettuce and green beans are not too hard to figure out either. This time around, though, I'm going to introduce Brandon to tuna-less Nicoise salad since I have some lovely brined olives from the farmer's market in the fridge.

Aaaand we're back to the cabbage. I'm starting to feel like the Cabbage Guy in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Instead of losing the cabbages, I keep getting them!

I did buy some pork bangers on sale from Whole Foods today. So I grabbed a couple of potatoes so we can do bangers and mash with a side of sauteed cabbage. So that'll take care of half of one. I can probably throw the other half in the freezer...to join yet another quarter of cabbage...for future soup making enterprise.

I also wonder if  I can make kimchi out of the non-Napa cabbage.  I need to do a little research on that.

Any thoughts on what else I can do with cabbage? Please don't say cabbage roll. I read that recipe to B and he made a face. LOL

Knott's Noms

When I first visited the US back in the spring of 1993 for the English immersion program, we stayed with Aunty Tim, mom's friend, in Garden Grove.  One of our very first meals was a bucket on Knott's Berry Farm fried chicken and biscuits.  I remembered looking at the packet of boysenberry jam, a berry I never heard of or tasted before.  I didn't know then that Knott's was a theme park and home to Snoopy and his friends.

A few months after the visit, I came back to attend high school in Orange County, bringing along my Snoopy doll whom I've had since I was 5 years old.

And the rest is almost a 20-year-old history.

When I was invited to A Taste of Knott's event last week with other bloggers and journalists, it was more than just "Yay! Tasting event!" but a bit of a trip down memory lane.

Not only I haven't had the fried chicken in years (despite living not that far away), I haven't been to Knott's Berry Farm since, oh gosh, freshman year of college?

And of course, I'd never say no to Snoopy. Never.



Flying solo at the tasting evening, I found myself embedded with Matt of Dig Lounge, an old friend from dot com glory days, and...



...new friends Lynn of the Actor's Diet and her friend Sam.



And yes, you TOTALLY should check out Lynn's recap from the event. I'm amazed by the amount of food consumed between Sam and Lyn. I mean, look at this Leaning Tower of Grubs they made!



Most of the items at the tasting were finger foods. Most of us were also tweeting #KnottsNoms. It was inevitable that our collective smart phones need a good scrub down afterward.



I should probably say that the food was FABULOUS. Frankly, I don't remember eating anything that yummy while in Disneyland.  And of course, there's also beer AND wine. Hooray for alcohol! 

First order of business, the fried chicken, washed down with Anaheim's very own Noble Ale Works Breakaway Pale Ale. Heaven, I tell you. Heaven.



Then we continued with black bean burger from Ghost Town Grill. The vegetarian patty is very flavorful and hefty. Meat? What's that?



I made a mistake of following the huge flavor with the chicken kabob sandwich from Big Foot Broiler. While the chicken was tender and moist, I felt it was a little bland. Ghost Town Grill Goldie's Honey Garlic Salmon and Baby Spinach Salad following that was really tasty as well. (Again, poor chicken kabob sandwich.) Now I'd also like that salmon in a sandwich!



I also had Spurs' Cajun lime salt riblets which were so good I inhaled them before I took a picture. If it wasn't for me leaving room for the funnel cake, I'd gotten more! Those also go really well with the Pale Ale, by the way. Finger lickin' good!
 
I didn't need to get my own funnel cake after I saw what Sam and Lynn procured. They shared the monster with me.

After I tried my damnest to polish it off, I gave up and texted the hubby to let him know I was heading home. It's no fun to be at an amusement park by yourself, especially when you also don't do thrill rides anyway. 

As I approached the exit, I figured I might as well walk a lap through Camp Snoopy. Not knowing my terrain, somehow I ended up at the very back of the park by the Boardwalk. I looked at the map and somehow still took all the wrong forks in the road possible.

Another text update to the husband ("I'm lost in the effin' park!"), he lovingly suggested that I should ask for directions or just spend the night at Camp Snoopy.

No funnel cake to-go for you, sir. None. You're lucky I didn't buy this whole shelf full of Snoopy because I was really, REALLY tempted!

Thanks for a wonderful time, Knott's Berry Farm. I'm looking forward to coming back to enjoy the park and your yummy grubs later!

Farm Box Adventure #3

Box #3?! But you just wrote about the boxes for the first time a few weeks ago?!

True. But remember, that box was box #2 already. I just didn't write about the very first box. Are you on the same page now? Good!

This Week's Bounty:

• Romaine lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Avocados
• Carrots
• Broccolis
• Green beans
• Sweet onion
• Grapefruits

What makes getting CSA box more adventurous for my household is that Brandon is a particular eater--not picky per se but specific. He can eat just about anything as long as he doesn't have to eat things he doesn't like, like fresh tomatoes, raw onion, most mushrooms, corn, and avocado.  So, when I get a box like this, I have to figure what I can do that he can also enjoy.

Yes, meal planning can be a challenge around here sometimes. But Brandon does embrace the culinary adventures we're embarking on, and is game to try something different.

For example, guacamole is out of the picture for him, but that will come in handy for me on Meatless Tuesday.  I never cook with the giant sweet onion before, but I know for sure Brandon likes French onion soup. Alton Brown actually uses sweet onion to make his version. (But it's so hot...I don't know if I'd want a bowl of gooey, melty cheesy soup!)  Brandon also said that he'd be game to try a stuffed onion. So we shall see.

There will be some interesting experiment with this box, I can tell ya!

Box #3 Meal Ideas

Caesar Salad. Glazed carrots. Steamed green beans. French onion soup or perhaps stuffed onion? Broccoli beef.

Yes, I'm cooking Asian food. Those of you who've been following along a while know that this little princess does not do much Thai or Asian food in the house.  I'm calling up my nanny/housekeeper in Thailand for her recipe. Her beef marinade is pure magic!

As for the grapefruits, we both don't care for them. I guess I'm going to make margaritas...

Report from Box #2 

We did good with the last box. Fortunately for me, I threw a barbecue for our little apartment complex and we got to grill the summer squash and made Jamie Oliver's cucumber and olive salad.

I also put some cucumber slices into a pitcher of water so I have flavored water to drink all week. And the last little bit of it went into Rachael Ray's tomato and cucumber salad a few nights ago.

The kale was a bit of a challenge. I looked up a few recipes and went with my own take of a beer-braised kale with bacon. While I couldn't stop eating the thing, Brandon didn't care for the fibrous leaves. I think I undercooked it a bit.

The cabbage, surprisingly, was the last one to go.  I used half in a pot of mixed vegetables (cabbage, carrots, baby potatoes, green beans, and green peas...again, a la Jamie's) with a side of my "ghetto aioli"--mayo, a few cloves of crushed garlic, a little squeeze of lemon, and a little drizzle of good olive oil.  I still have half a cabbage left that I finally tossed into the freezer. If I have any green beans left, I'll probably bring that out to make chicken vegetable soup adapted from a Weight Watcher recipe I got from someone's mom years ago.

But where are the pictures?

I know! I know! I promise I will start blogging the recipes soon. I'm still getting used to a new schedule I'm setting myself on. I will try to get them up as soon as I can.

And now, share your thoughts! Do you have any good stuffed onion recipe?

Let the Farm Box Adventures begin

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a new concept to me, having heard about it from watching Food Inc. a few years ago.  According to LocalHarvest.org, the program has been around for over 20 years. 

Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. (Read more here.)

I have been looking for a program that has a pick up schedule that would work for me, but for a while I couldn't find one. They were all in the mid-afternoon at some schools. Not at all convenient.

Then a friend signed up for one that delivers to your house.  Just as I was looking into that service, my other friend Wyatt posted about Tanaka Farms CSA boxes on his Facebook.

Most of us Orange County residents have grown up knowing of Tanaka Farms for their strawberries and their farm tours. When I first visited the U.S., my aunt took my mom and I to their farm stand down the street in Garden Grove. I had never seen strawberries so BIG in my life! For many years, I would smuggle containers of strawberries and cherries back to Thailand as gifts.  Long story short, Tanaka Farms is the name I trust when it comes to good produce.

And then I found out that they have pick-up location at Long Beach Whole Foods from 4-8 p.m. on Fridays. Talk about a perfect match!  I signed up almost right away for a small CSA box, every other week.

My first box was picked up at the end of June. I didn't know what to expect but yet I was very excited of the possibilities.  For a household of two, the small box every other week was more than enough.  I had to throw a few things away because I couldn't get to them fast enough, and I traded/gave away a few other items that Brandon doesn't like to eat. e.g. corn.

No knowing what's coming in the box keeps you on your toes for sure. And it also makes grocery shopping and meal planning exciting.

For example, there were some Red Russian kale in the first box. I didn't know what they were except that they looked like kale. So I had to look them up.  Then I looked up a recipe to cook them because I had never cooked with kale before.  Voila! We found out that we DO like kale around here!

As I picked up my 2nd box today, I thought I should probably bring you guys along my cooking adventures. The photos may not be perfect and the results might be disastrous. But at least I can keep you guys entertained.

And hopefully, I would inspire you to join a CSA program in your neighborhood.

Without further ado...

This week's bounty

• Kale
• Cabbage
• Lettuce
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Summer squash (aka Pattypan squash)
• Oranges
• Corn -- will be given away...so don't worry about that

Tonight's dinner: Roasted carrots and pork chops. (Jamie Oliver's recipe).

Tomorrow night's dinner: Chicken Caesar salad. (Another Jamie's recipe. Yes, I'm just a wee bit obsessed with Jamie these days. Don't get me started on the 30 Minute Meals series. Hee.)

Veggie I've never cooked before: Summer squash.

What would you do with this CSA box? Do share some good recipes and ideas...especially for the summer squash. lol

Feast of Freebies: A Night of Wine, Chocolate, and Tandoori

Full disclosure: I have been sent Chateau Ste. Michelle wines by Thirsty Girl and Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolate from another PR firm to try. The opinion about the products are mine and my friends'. While we are grateful for the freebies, we hold no punches when it comes to our opinion of these products.You'll see...

Thirsty Girl team, with whom I collaborated with the Ghirardelli Intense Dark event last year, wanted to send me some Chateau Ste. Michelle Rieslings to try. Coincidentally, just a week before that, a box of Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolate arrived. To top it off, the deadline for a Fresh&Easy recipe contest was fast approaching so I need to make my 7 Layer Dip soon...and I need some help eating it. What's a girl to do with all these goodness happening all at once?

She called her friends and planned a dinner, of course! 

I had a great mix of guests for this wine tasting dinner: my newbie wine drinker husband Brandon, blogger Paulette of Girl + Fire, photographer David (who just came from a day of shoot so I didn't have the heart to ask him to shoot the dinner too), moms on their respective night off Aurora and Olaina, Aurora's sister Lee, and Brandon's friend Greg and his girlfriend Heather.  Not a wine snob in the house! So, proceed to read our review with caution. ;-)

The three Chateau Ste. Michelle Rieslings were 2001 Dry Riesling, 2010 Eroica, and 2011 Harvest Select Sweet Riesling.  All are recommended to pair with Asian dishes, Indian curries, crab, scallops, and mild cheese.  I just hoped that they would all go well with the 7 Layer Dip.

Since I have folks who are allergic to dairy and seafood, the dinner choice went to Aarti's "Tandoori" chicken recipe I saw on Best Thing I Ever Made.  The recipe has a lot of components and takes some time to prep but it is easily adaptable to feed my 10 guests. (Will blog about that later).

Well, except for the fact that I forgot that the bulk chicken I bought are bone-in and her recipe used boneless. Let's just say that I had to recommend that my guests eat a lot of dip and put more rice and veggies on their plates.

Thanks to Paulette, the only person with the frame of mind to snap a photo.
This is pretty much the only image from the entire night. LOL

Lee suggested that I should have all of my guests enter more tesserae for the last piece of the chicken. (A Hunger Games reference for those not in on the joke.) The thought of having folks fight it out Hunger Games style did cross my mind. I mean, after all, we do have bow and arrows in this household...

Anyway.  To wrap up the meal, we would do the tasting of Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolates: Gourmet Milk Creamy Devotion™ with rich and creamy 32% cacao milk chocolate; Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape™ with sea salt and roasted almonds; and Gourmet Milk Coconut Rendezvous™ which features toasted coconut flakes. I was sent 2 bars of each. But not all of those survived to dinner that night. (I couldn't help myself!)

First wine we tasted was the 2001 Dry Riesling which I served while folks were still noshing on the 7 Layer Dip, giving me a bit more time to line up the buffet in the kitchen.

The tasting note from winemaker Bob Bertheau calls the wine “a dry, crisp, refreshing style of Riesling with beautiful fruit flavors, crisp acidity and an elegant finish. It exudes beautiful white peach and floral aromas with a clean finish.”  The wine was a little underwhelming against the strong flavors of the 7 Layer Dip, but it was a nice, neutral wine to sip with tandoori chicken.

Aurora took a sip. "Wow. This wine reminds me of Indian food."

"Honey, you're smelling the tandoori chicken from the kitchen," quipped Heather.

Lee said the Dry Riesling tasted like grape juice and lemonade.  She doesn't usually like dry wine but this is fruity enough for her.  Brandon on the other hand didn't care much for the dryness while some of us who prefer red actually appreciate the crispness and acidity.

Paulette immediately called out the fruitiness of the aroma. Upon tasting, she thought that this would be a great base for a white sangria. Heather agreed.

Once everyone had their plates, I poured the 2010 Eroica, named for Beethoven’s Third Symphony. (Naturally, "The Erotica" was what the gang came to call it for the rest of the evening.)  Tasting note says, "The 2010 Eroica Riesling exudes mandarin orange and sweet lime aromas and flavors with subtle mineral notes."

"How do we like it, folks?"

A round of applause.

Talk about a perfect pairing! The wine's hint of lime and subtle sweetness was a perfect match for our tandoori chicken with lime and honey in the sauce along with other Indian spices. Lee didn't like the wine by itself as it was too sweet for her taste, but she did like it paired with the food.

On that sweet note, Greg compared the wine to a wine cooler--that it's easy to drink and refreshing.  Heather liked that "nice, wet finish."  David just called it juicy.

I saved the 2011 Harvest Select Sweet Riesling for last as I wasn't sure if the sweetness would interfere with food.  It wasn't meant to be a dessert wine and I didn't serve it as such. It was the "Drink this while I clear the table and fetch your dessert" wine.

At this point, I should probably mentioned that in addition to these great Chateau Ste. Michelle wines, we also drank a bottle each of Firefly Ridge Chardonnay and the effervescent New Age, served with a slice of lime.  Oh, and also most of the dinner party were around the TV with Lee as she watched Blade Trinity for the very first time. Hey, no girls should ever go through life without having seen Ryan Reynold's glorious abs…and a vampire Pomeranian!

So, between being nicely sauced and the movie in the background, the colorful reviews I elicited earlier was no longer. While the tasting note suggests that the wine "offers beautiful crisp Washington Riesling character with rich flavors of ripe pears and peaches," all I got from the crew was "Yeah this is tasty!" and a moan of approval ("Wow…yummyyy…") from Aurora who sipped hers while nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.

Since nobody threw the wine in my face for interrupting the movie/dessert, I would say that the Sweet Riesling was also a hit.  The star of the evening though was Eroica.

Now, onto the chocolates.  I found Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolates to be incredibly creamy and flavorful. Milk chocolate tends to be overly sweet sometimes but these weren't. Not even Creamy Devotion aka the plain one. These are so good I would ditch the beloved Intense Dark for especially the Sea Salt Escape.

The surprise winner of the evening was the Coconut Rendezvous.  Heather said that it tasted like Hawaii. Olaina and Paulette who are already fans of the chocolate and coconut combination absolutely love it and were debating as to who get to take the leftover home.  Even Lee and I, who absolutely abhor this combination, had to agree that it was probably the least offensive coconut chocolate we ever had.

A few pours of tawny port, a few more sips of homemade Limoncello and vanilla-brown butter infused rum, and a whole bunch of dead vampires later, the party rolled out.  After all, this was a Wednesday night. 

The next Feast of Freebies will be for the Villa Maria wines from New Zealand. We'll be doing it on the weekend this time.

Making Macarons with Mira

Of all the things I've cooked and baked, I'm most afraid of macarons.  The notoriously temperamental French confections made with a meringue base and almond flour, sandwiched together with some kind of filling.  Oh, the horror stories I've read! Things can go wrong if the eggs aren't aged right, the syrup is too hot, the oven is too hot, it's raining outside, or a butterfly in China decided to fly counterclockwise.

So, no. I wasn't going to touch macarons without professional supervision. Yes, I'm a big culinary wussy when it comes to something that delicate.

So when my friend Mira who has perfected her macaron recipe, asked if I want to come learn how to make them with three of her friends, I jumped to the chance.  The timing, after all, was perfect. I was freshly unemployed once again again after a 5-month freelance stint. 

To document Mira's process, I took pictures of the important steps, like what the aged egg whites should look like when it's ready.  Meanwhile, others were deciphering Mira's handwritten recipe and notes which was part Thai and part English.



We had so much fun hanging out with each other that I had to leave before the macarons were baked off and assembled.  Hey, when you get five Thai girls in the same room, it's all about eating and chatting! I mean, Mira kept whipping up something for us to eat even before we get to the actual lesson. And of course, it didn't help when I kept refilling people's mimosas.  Hee.

Look at our lunch of Korean-inspired, "I'm going to throw this together" dish she made for us with potato noodles, beef, pickled mustard greens, and secret sesame sauce. Oh, what a delicious digression... ;-)



Back to the macarons, though.  So I spent the whole day at Mira's and went home empty handed. However, my belly was pretty darn full.

Fortunately for me, Mira gave me a box of them for Christmas.



And fortunately for all of us, Mira decided to share her secrets. She's reviving her long dormant blog with recipe and tips for her famous macarons just in time for Valentine's Day.

So, head over there and learn something new!

Ragu Napoletano

It wasn't difficult for me to fall in love with Italian cuisine. One of the restaurants we frequented growing up was Thailand's first Italian establishment owned by a Thai guy. My dad's friend, to be exact. My mom also made some killer bolognese in the slow cooker and I was always envied when I brought spaghetti to lunch at school.

As you know, when I first started to cook when Brandon and I got married, it was Rachael Ray who got me into the kitchen, but I quickly graduated from her onto Giada DeLaurentiis.

I can see some of you hard core food nerds rolling your eyes right now. But hey, like bacon to a former vegetarian, there is always a gateway. Giada got me interested in Italian cooking, cultures, and language. (I'm currently on my second year of casually learning Italian, made more difficult by being a third language learned on a second one.)

Naturally, I paid a lot of attention to Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation when he visited Italy once again in search of the origin of the Red Sauce. [ETA: Gah...video has been removed. Gotta find another copy.]

I took notes of all the ingredients mentioned in this video and paid close attention to what was being put in the pot. There isn't a recipe laying around or anything, so I just went for it.

The video more or less tell you everything that goes in the ragu:

Onion, garlic, good extra virgin olive oil. Pork sausage, veal, pork ribs, and braciole (pieces of veal wrapped around parmesan cheese, garlic, basil, parsley, raisins, pine nuts). You brown the meats in the pan, then cover it with tomato puree. Put it on super low, just so it barely bubbles, all day. Skim of the fat. Toss the sauce with the pasta as your first course, then serve the meat as main course with wild greens sauteed in garlic and pepperoncino.

A good testament to a solid base recipe is this: even I took off running with the ingredients and put my own interpretation to it, the result is still fantastic. I may have really been Italian in my past life after all!

For my Sunday supper, I didn't go to the length of doing the sauteed greens, but I did separate the meats from the sauce. However, I did provide plenty of scarpetta to mop up the sauce at the end.

Ragu Napoletano della Oakley

Inspired by this awesome Italian momma on No Reservation.This recipe can easily feeds 6...or 4 really hungry people. :) Obviously, I winged the whole thing. So there's really no measurement to much of anything. Trust your judgement!

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lb. Italian mild/sweet pork sausage, kept whole
• 3-4 lbs. pork ribs (I prefer short ribs but country style will do too, whatever is available).
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, sliced
• A palm full each of pine nuts and raisins, roughly chopped
• Strained tomatoes in a can, box, or bottle. I used a box of Pomi (Trader Joe's) or a bottle of Bionaturae (Whole Foods) 
• A palm-full of chopped Italian parsley
• Parmesan cheese rinds -- if you have some. You can buy them from Whole Foods too now.
• Accompaniment: grated Parmesan and crusty bread to mop up all the goodness

1. Heat the EVOO in a pot on medium-high. Liberally season the pork ribs. Brown all the meats, starting with sausage (yup...the whole thing goes in), one batch at a time. Set aside. Keep the fat in the pan.



2. Turn the heat to medium, add onion and garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook until soft. Add pine nuts, raisins and tomato paste. Cook a few more minutes.

3. Add the meat and juices back to the pot. Add the tomatoes, water, and parsley. Move the meat around to get the sauce all the way to the bottom and sneak the cheese rinds into there.



4. Bring it to bubbling. Then turn the heat down as low as it's going to go. Let simmer.  It'll look like soup the first few hours.  But don't worry, we're going to get that reduced.



5. Keep the sauce on slow bubbling at least 4 hours. (See the video of how low the bubbles should be!). At least 5 hours from my experience.  I've gone to 8 before...

6. About 30 minutes before serving, skim the fat off the top of the sauce. And there will be a LOT of it. (Still have the empty can? Good! Use that.)

7. Remove the meat from the sauce. Be careful as they're all falling off the bones.  Discard bones and cheese rind at this point. Put the meat on a platter and keep warm.

8. Cook your pasta (I used rigatoni) in a pot of boiling salted water. You can reserve a cup or so of the pasta water then drain over the sink or, what I did, fish out the pasta from the pot and put it on the sauce directly so I have all the pasta water in the world to add to the sauce to loosen things up. If your pasta water is nicely salted, you won't have to worry about it diluting the seasoning of the ragu. Toss to coat.



10. Serve your pasta with a drizzle of really good extra virgin olive oil and side of grated parmesan cheese and the platter of meat.



Buon appetito!

Chocolate, Wine, and Boobies

Posts on this blog and twitter about the Ghirardelli Intense Dark Pairings event are based on an advertising relationship. I have been paid to host and promote the Intense Dark Pairings event for Ghirardelli. I also received a discount from District Wine along with a bottle of wine as a raffle prize. However, the opinion about the Ghirardelli products and the District Wine are all mine. Mine!

Ghirardelli is supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month by donating $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for each code entered from the specially marked Intense Dark chocolates. As a part of this promotion, I was contacted to host an Intense Dark Pairings party, tasting the Intense Dark chocolates and pairing them with food and wine.

I lost my mother and a good friend to cancer. Any fight against any kind of cancer is my fight. Instead of just calling a few friends over to my house, I wanted to help spread the word as much as I can. So I reached out to my blogger friends and tweeps. But now I'd need a cozy venue for all my fabulous guests.

A wine tasting party that feels like it's being hosted in someone's (really nice) living room? Naturally, I called Mark and Angela at District Wine in Downtown Long Beach (@districtwine). They were more than happy to play host to an all-girl afternoon out. (Well, almost all-girl. We did have a Token Male...) They even threw in a bottle of wine for my raffle.

Annette (@dananner) is a happy camper!

Some of us started the party started a little early with District Wine’s Sunday special, $9 bottomless mimosas. Mark mentioned that the orange juice was just for color, and he wasn't kidding. The pour was generous and the glasses were never once empty. I'd definitely come back some other Sundays for this!

What made our tasting party even more special was that my friend Melissa (@melissakeyes), a breast cancer survivor, shared her story.





For the pairings, I received a guide of food and wine pairing suggestions which were put together by Leslie Sbrocco of Thirsty Girl. You too can host one of these tasting parties at home. The party planning kit, and tasting guide and videos are on this website. I am also giving away a mini tasting kit. Read on for more details.

Anyways. I passed Leslie's list along to District Wine along with some chocolate samples, and they came up with their own selection of wines. And here is our menu.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Evening Dream: 60% Cacao
District Wine's Pick: Frogmore Creek Iced Riesling, Tasmania
Food: Dried apricot

While the Riesling goes well with the wine and the apricot, it brings out so much of the apricot that the chocolate was more of the supporting actor. Still good though. One of the crowd's favorites.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Twilight Delight : 72% Cacao
District Wine's Pick: Taft Street Zinfandel, Russian River Valley
Food: This would've been paired with fresh raspberries but I forgot to bring them. Boo...

Another pleasant pairing of chocolate and wine here. But neither was memorable for me.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Midnight Reverie: 86% Cacao
District Wine's Pick: Layer Cake Malbec, Argentina
Food: Salted almonds, parmesan, and water crackers

Home run all around! The high cacao content makes the chocolate almost savory. Something magical happens with the chocolate, the parmesan, and the Malbec. Red wine fans all agreed this would be the wine they'd drink any day of the week. I would also suggest that you try this chocolate with some prosciutto. I had some at Cochon 555 and it was wonderful. I was thinking about bringing some for the tasting but I didn't want to scare my friends. LOL.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Toffee Interlude: Toffee bits and caramelized almonds
District Wine's Pick: Taylor Fladgate 20 Years Tawny, Portugal - OR - Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
Food: Plush Puffs Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

The surprise hit of the evening was the Plush Puffs (found at my favorite store Fresh & Easy). Folks were nibbling on them even before our tasting began and there was nothing left afterward. I can only imagine what the toasted Puffs and this chocolate would taste like inside a S'mores! They're already magical in their respective raw form without the Graham crackers. Mark and Angela gave us a choice between a port or a beer here, and I chose the port. It just brought it all home perfectly.

My friend Jennifer also took fabulous photographs of the event. You can find the rest on her Facebook album.

It was a great afternoon of discovering flavors of Ghirardelli Intense Dark chocolates, finding new wines we love, making new friends, and raising awareness for breast cancer.

Look on twitter for #TGTaste and/or #IntenseDark for great coverage. I will update this post with links to the coverage from my fabulous guests as I get them.

• Our cancer's butt kicker Melissa: Wine and Chocolate: Ghiradelli Intense Dark Chocolate at District Wine
  
• Paulette (@girlplusfire/@pfont): Fighting Like a Girl: Ghirardelli & Vino at District Wine.
• Rachel (@theartmuse): Intense Dark
  
• Tamara (@divacowgirl): Hope
• Veronica (@lbcshopper): Intensely Delicious Wine Pairing

Melissa and I with Mark and Angela, owners of District Wine

INTENSE DARK CHOCOLATE GIVEAWAY!

Be ready to join the Intense Dark Tweet Chat on October 5 at 5 p.m. PST hosted by Thirsty Girl (@beathirstygirl / #TGTaste). Enter to win your own mini tasting kit! Leave a comment down below (make sure to leave your valid email address) to throw your name into the hat to win a Ghirardelli Intense Dark Pairing kit with a pairing guide, wine charms, samples of Evening Dream, Twilight Delight, Midnight Reverie, and Sea Salt Soiree.

ETA: Congratulations, Alana (@AlanaGarrigues)! You've won the little pairing gift box! :)

Playing Hostess

EVENT IS FULL! THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST! Come back later to see our recap. :)

I'm honored that Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate is partnering with me in putting together chocolate/wine pairing event in recognition of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Come sip some glorious wines, nibble some luscious Ghirardelli Intense Dark chocolates, and talk about boobies with me!

Disclosure: Posts on the blog and twitter about the Ghirardelli Intense Dark Pairings event are based on an advertising relationship. I have been paid to host and promote the Intense Dark Pairings event for Ghirardelli. I am also receiving a discount from the "Awesome Location" to host this event there. However, the opinion about the products and the "Awesome Location" are all mine.

Craft Beer Drinkers Unite

I'm a lightweight. Since I can't drink a million beers like everyone else, my 1-2 pints must count. And the other stuff just don't cut it like the craft stuff.

Okay, I still like my Guinness occasionally, but the craft stouts and porters out there these days are damn tasty.

So, here's to you, craft beer drinkers and brewers!