Bernese Mountain lap dog

Jackie the Bernese Mountain Dog continues to grow. With large breed dogs, the changes are not gradual, they are instant. She is too big for me to pick up any longer. From her first days home at 18 pounds, she has grown to over 60 pounds at 7 1/2 months.

Jackie at 10 weeks

Jackie the lap dog, 7 1/2 months, photo by John Poole

A little snuggle, please? She's still a puppy and only about 2/3 grown. We spent the day harvesting and crushing grapes last weekend. She was denied her constant daily attention while we were out in the vineyard. (Grapes can be toxic for dogs.) She is hoping to be the next winery dog, though there are several dogs in the wine group. This one could actually pull a cart loaded with grapes some day.

Here's a video of her right after she arrived. She is meeting the neighbors and Otto, an almost record breaking Great Dane.

Where Men Win Glory

My latest book selection for the Bolgia Book Club was Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer. 

Our book club is a little different than most.  It has been around for eight years.  It is equal parts men and women.  The books are selected by the host.  Our order of rotation and basic rules are contained in a pickle.  The pickle is passed when the next book is revealed at the end of the meeting.  There is always food and wine (we live in Napa, after all.)

I heard about a new local book club called the "Commando Book Club" - which does not allow food or beverages.  Our group would not long survive with such austerity.



The last book we read was The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason.   I thought the Pat Tillman story might be a fitting follow up to a rather fey attempt to re-write the story of Odysseus.  There was almost universal acclaim for this book, and it is a hard crowd to please.  Don't they look hard to please, critical and picky?  In this photo they are sipping a small glass of homemade limoncello.  Do I need to provide the recipe?  The big jar on the table is the new batch - about 35 days into the first stage prior to addition of the simple syrup.  The rose is our latest Leap of Faith bottling - 2010 Merlot Rose.

We had a wonderful conversation about war, kleos, what is a justified war, heroism, epic poetry, and of course the life of a remarkable man told by one of our great story tellers.

We also had spring lamb stew:



...and a luscious savory mushroom (and chanterelle) bread pudding.



We ended with two kinds of homemade cookies and lemon milk sherbet made two ways, one with Meyer lemons, and one with Felicia's sour lemons.  After the side by side tasting, sour lemons are better for lemon sherbet.  Meyer lemons are too sweet and lack the tang of the Eureka lemons.

young wine and a long engagement

This is such a delightful video by my young friend, Laura and her fiance, Jarrod. Laura is the daughter of friends John and Cyndi with whom I have been making wine since 1993. If you watch the video, you will see that the charm of making wine has been transmitted to another generation. Laura is a graduate student, and the name of the wine refers to their desire to wait till completion of the degree before getting married. John and Cyndi make cameo appearances.

Leap of Faith

I have to remind myself at times that my friend who lives in Italy is not on facebook and that she does not see things that I post in that forum.

Last Saturday was the annual Napa Home Winemakers Classic held this year in Yountville. Proceeds from the event support the Dry Creek- Lakoya Volunteer Fire Department. As we have been doing since the 90's, our home wine making group "Leap of Faith" entered a wine in the competition and poured our recently bottled 2008 Cabernet from the Oak Knoll District.



photo by John Poole

My husband John snapped this picture as we lined up with our award for the top Cabernet of the competition (no first place awarded). We tried to get him to put down the camera and join us, but to no avail. Next year we may get a group shot with everyone in it.




This wine tasted special in the barrel. After discussion and blending tests, we decided not to blend it with the Merlot/Cabernet Franc in another barrel. Usually we produce a "Bordeaux blend" with at least these three grapes and call it "Trinity" -- but this year bottled the Cabernet Sauvignon by itself. The Merlot is still in the barrel, which is now the American new oak barrel that held the Cabernet. If we go another year in the barrel, that will be a record for us.



John took lots of photos, and his son Laurence got to taste many wines as good or better than commercial wines of Napa. John as designated driver did not taste.




The sunflowers on our table were glowing from the late afternoon sun. We made some sangria (with one of our wines, of course) expecting a hot afternoon, but the weather remained sunny and warm. Near the end of the event we pulled out some of our "blue ribbon first place" 2007 Syrah Port - a big winner from last year. With chocolate.

Wine makers trade wines near the end - and we had to turn away some who wanted to trade for the port. We poured it all.

plum cake

Today we bottled wine for the Leap of Faith home wine making group. We work now in John and Cyndi's garage (so we can call ourselves "garagistes"). They have hot and cold running water and electricity, things lacking in the old carriage house we used for years. While the carriage house has apple, fig and lemon trees - John and Cyndi's has a plum tree. On the counter were these perfectly ripe plums - asking to be eaten and to be baked in a plum cake. Cyndi asked for the recipe - so here it is. The picture above is a pluot cake from last fall and the pictures below are from today.

"Brunelleschi's Dome" by Ross King is a highly recommended book for those interested in how an enormous Renaissance dome is constructed. John read it before their trip to Italy...



Plum Cake
adapted from a recipe at "Sweet Amandine"

1 C flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 C. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
4-5 plums, pluots, or other small stone fruit (or 1-2 C. berries)
1 T. raw sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 8 or 9 inch springform pan and slice fruit thinly. Mix flour, baking powder, lemon zest - add sugar, eggs, vanilla and oil. Stir till mixture forms a thick batter. Place batter in pan and arrange fruit on top. Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake for 50-60 minutes. Do not over bake - but do remove as soon as cake tester in center comes out clean.

I've made this cake with pluots and with plums - and will see tomorrow how the plum version turned out.

Nocino, or Liqueur de noix

This is a recipe I've been wanting to try since last summer at the Napa Home Winemakers Classic. A bottle of an intriguing brown liquid was brought out from underneath one of the pouring tables, and a small amount of an aromatic liqueur poured into the wine glass. I had never tasted anything like it. On reaching home, I started looking for recipes for "Nocino" and found several, including one for a "liqueur de noix" or "green walnut liqueur" by David Lebovitz, a favorite author and chef.

Unfortunately, this requires green walnuts, and by July the Napa walnuts were too mature to be cut. The shells had already formed. I made a mental note of the date for harvesting the green walnuts - June 24.

I picked the walnuts at my friend Cindy's house this afternoon and bought a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka for this batch. The gallon glass jar is one I use for making Meyer lemon "limoncello" - also an Italian favorite.










Because of the size of the jar, I decided to make one and a half recipes of the green walnut liqueur. A recommendation from several of the recipes is to use a heavy cleaver to cut the walnuts. Tap the cleaver into the side of the green walnut (keep fingers well away) and let the weight of the cleaver slice the walnut in half, then quarters.

I mixed the sugar, lemon and spices with the vodka before adding the walnut quarters.







The walnuts are still green and firm and the shells are forming but still papery. They looked just about right.
























Ingredients:
3 3/4 Cups sugar
1 1/2 Liter vodka
3 sticks cinnamon
15 whole cloves
1 vanilla bean split lengthwise
zests of two Meyer lemons removed using a vegetable peeler

Mix vodka, sugar, spices, and lemon zest in gallon glass jar. Stir till the sugar is dissolved. Add the walnuts. Close jar and let stand on the counter for two months, shaking the jar every day. (For limoncello I put it in the cabinet and shake it every day for 40 days, add the sugar syrup and shake it every day for another 40 days.)

When it's ready to bottle, filter the liqueur through cheesecloth and pour into clean bottles.


























According to David Lebovitz, this liqueur de noix will keep for years in a cool, dry place. It can also be stored in the refrigerator. Supposedly good on vanilla ice cream. We shall see!

before the next rain

In the midst of our relentless string of winter storms, this rainbow made a quick appearance. We spent the day last Saturday racking wine at the little ranch on Big Ranch Road (2009's), then at the garage on the eastern side of Napa (2008's). This is a view toward the eastern mountains from Big Ranch Road in the Oak Knoll District. I posted a picture from this series on my facebook page - and seemed to get more response than usual. Those of us living in California are just glad to get a small break in the weather.

Not everyone in the world is on facebook, however - and facebook does not serve all purposes. Missy is way off in Italy, showing pictures of the Tuscan snow, rain on the floor of the Pantheon, and glorious food even in the depths of winter. She does not appear to be a facebook user, and I'm thankful for the more thoughtful and thorough postings about her life in Italy.


John and I each caught swine flu, with just enough time between bouts to make a fresh batch of chicken noodle soup. Soup with lots of the secret cold and flu fighting ingredient - freshly grated ginger. This batch was courtesy of double turkey carcasses from a Thanksgiving of twenty-two guests. I made a huge batch of turkey stock, knowing that the winter could be harsh.

On my first day of high fever, John brought me the last of the winter roses and soup. On a tray. I felt like an ailing Jane Austen. At the time, I barely managed to snap a picture, but knew that this would be the last of the roses till April. We usually have some early ones -- ones as large as dinner plates. These are the hardy, fragrant, persistent ones, a bit brown on the edges, with some yellowing leaves - but fearless flowers all the same.

Forever

Que Syrah

The annual Napa Home Winemakers Classic was held last Saturday, July 18 at St. Supery Winery.  Our home wine making group, Leap of Faith, dutifully entered our wine in the competition for the 15th year.  Now they only permit one entry per group/label.  Of course our new hardly even bottled yet 2007 Late Harvest Syrah Port won a first place. It is "hardly even bottled yet" in that we only bottled 8 bottles for this event.  The rest of this lovely wine is still in the barrel, waiting for our labels to be printed. We will get together before the harvest this year and spend a day bottling.

Last year we entered the 2003 Zinfandel Port (about 20% late harvest Cabernet) and won first place.  Even though we have made port only twice, we seem to have struck a nerve or a taste bud.



The day was beautiful - and not too hot...



The event benefits the Dry Creek - Lakoya volunteer fire department and is staffed by young and good looking firefighters. It is not a bad way to spend a lovely summer afternoon in Napa.