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.

Winery Architecture

We had a recent opportunity to go "over the hill" to Sonoma County to visit a new winery. A favorite architectural firm, Backen Gillam & Kroeger Architects designed the new facility located on the site of a previous unremarkable structure.

Ramsgate tasting room

The main Ramsgate tasting room features a soaring ceiling with exposed steel trusses and window walls that open for expansive views. To the east is Mount Diablo.

Mt. Diablo

Ramsgate courtyard

An inner courtyard with fireplace and seating areas is sheltered from the westerly prevailing winds.

















The eastern window/wall opens like a garage door in warm weather, but is closed during the winter chill.

Ramsgate window wall

Food and wine pairings are elegant and well balanced. We were attending a small birthday gathering for a friend who also lives in Napa.

Food and wine pairings

The ambiance is young, fresh and aesthetically appealing. We were perhaps a few years beyond the target age demographic!

Ramsgate Winery

Tales from the trail

I've been busy. Walking a lot of miles, knocking on about 3,500 doors, wearing out three pairs of shoes. All in the service of running for local office. There have been neighborhood meetings, debates, a direct mail campaign, and the task of raising money to send the mail that one hopes does not go into the recycle bin unread.

From walking in the wind and rain of January to the scorching heat of late May, there have been many lovely interludes on the campaign trail. I'm convinced that most people really put a lot of effort into making a lovely entrance to their homes. I'm posting some photos to show what I mean. We have vineyards in the City of Napa - and photos of vines before bud break.

Campaign events for other candidates such as for Congressman Mike Thompson:

Talking to a group of neighbors about the evils of urban sprawl:

 I found an old "head pruned" vine in north Napa, serving as a landscape feature:

A celebration of 100 years of Girl Scouts, complete with uniforms I remember from my own childhood:

Crabapple trees in bloom, in the rain:

A clever "Burma Shave" sign campaign against that same "Urban Sprawl" project:
 

Pink dogwoods in bloom, reminding me of the "old home place":

California poppies and bearded iris in a vibrant clash in a front dooryard:

 A front yard garden in a forgotten and often overlooked neighborhood:

 

And by the end of the campaign, the bare branches and dripping spring flowering trees have yielded their front yard bounty:

 

My backyard persimmon tree is loaded with tiny green fruits in little frilled and pleated cups. Our cherry trees have jays and mockingbirds yacking over who will eat the first fruits. They test the sweetness then complain that the cherries are not yet ripe. The weeds in our garden are knee high and the peonies are begging to be relieved of the strangling tentacles of blackberries that seem to think the deeply dug flower beds are their own. We missed the iris bloom in our own yard, and the artichokes will be sending out their blue flowers any day. Certainly they are past their tender and youthful stage.

The elections office calls the election "too close to call". So we wait patiently, realizing that we are 87 votes behind, and not likely to surpass the other challenger to the incumbent.

Persimmons on fire

I read an interesting article on how to write a blog post. The advice was to delete the first and last paragraphs, so this is a very short first paragraph. No deletion required.

Christmas dinner came together without a hitch, and in a rather effortless fashion. Brother Joe and his wife Nancy sent us a "honey baked ham". We tried champagne and sherry with the ham, but with the leftovers on Boxing Day tried this Simply Recipes Honey Mulled Wine which is also recommended.

After our late afternoon Christmas Day dinner, we had John's famous flaming persimmon pudding. His mother used to serve flaming puddings, with decorations of holly and berries. Here is a video of the pudding:

Courtesy of John, here is the persimmon pudding recipe - his adaptation from the "California Heritage Cookbook" by the Pasadena Junior League.

Persimmon Pudding
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon salad oil
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1 cup Hachiya persimmons, sieved
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger, no smaller than 1/8" chunks

In a mixing bowl, beat one cup sugar and the oil into the well-beaten egg. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and soda. Add this alternately with the milk to the creamed mixture. Mix in the persimmon, vanilla, nuts, and dates. Generously butter and sugar a pudding mold with a hollow center; the sugar coating will slightly caramelize when lit on fire providing a light shell crunch on the exterior.

Bake in the covered mold set in a pan of hot water in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, or until done. The pudding may be steamed in a water bath on top of the stove for 4 hours, or until done. Unmold onto a serving plate. Use waxed paper between the lid and body of the mold if boiling.

To flame the pudding, warm 1/4 cup brandy, pour over pudding and light. Alternatively, pour 1/4 cup 151 rum over the cake and light (do not warm - read warnings on the label!)

Pudding may be served with a hot lemon sauce, but we prefer it plain.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Nocino part 2

A year ago I made some Nocino, or Liqueuer de noix - green walnut liqueur.   The traditional time to harvest the green walnuts is next week on June 24.  The previous blog post explains the method.  Making Nocino requires patience, just like making wine. 

We tasted the Nocino on Saturday.  It has been resting in the dark in the cool basement.  I actually forgot where I had stored it and had to do a search in the special rare foodstuffs (liquors) area of the cellar. 

At the time I bottled it, the Nocino had a bitter, bitter taste.  So bitter, it seemed like it had crawled out of a bile duct.  I questioned whether the bitter flavor would ever go away.  Now the Nocino has a complex spicy, nutty, tannic flavor and still has a somewhat bitter edge.  It needs a little more rest, but has become very promising.  Visualize this deep amber liquid poured over fresh vanilla ice cream.  Surely it will be worth the wait.

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.

Paeonia redux

The garden feels the fine effects of a bountiful winter of rain.  Almost two years ago we went to Oregon in late May to visit iris and peony farms. The post Paeonia shows some of the photos from that trip.  Now our own tree peony "Hephaestus " has set buds and bloomed for the first time in our yard.  This huge bud is just opening.



The colors of the irises, roses and peonies rival the jewel windows in the Rhine House at Beringer vineyards.  I just toured the site again on Friday in preparation for a conference later this summer.



I thought this looked more floral than the picture I snapped of the jumping trout.

At sunset an orange iris lit the west side of the yard.  This was my reward for Easter afternoon weed pulling.

the great escape

This evening our little group met up at a local winery whose owners sponsored a release of two rescued owls. The winery is Folio - the Michael Mondavi Family Winery. I was very curious about how owls are released. The non-profit group that rescues these birds and other wildlife is the Wildlife Care Association. They operate on a shoestring budget, yet rescue 5-7,000 wild animals per year. The great horned owl above was rescued about 14 years ago and could not be released back into the wild due to a broken wing. She nurtures young orphaned horned owls and acts as an ambassador for the Association. I took this photo with a close-up setting, and the owl did not blink.



This little screech owl is blind in its left eye, so is also an ambassador and foster parent.



At dusk all the excitement was about this -the release of two barn owls in the organically farmed Carneros vineyard surrounding the Michael Mondavi Family Winery. Two new owl boxes have been installed at the edge of the vineyard. Rob Mondavi hosted the crowd of birders, wine enthusiasts, and local Napa families eager to see the young owls take wing. I talked to many present, and most of the guests were Napa area residents. We were all so glad to support the mission of this small and effective group.

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!

Olive Oil Citrus Cake

Several people have asked for the recipe for this citrus-olive oil cake, so I am including it here. It is adapted from a recipe at "Sweet Amandine" - whose author, Jess - adapted it from the cookbook "Rustic Fruit Desserts" by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. A photo of the cake I made is in this post.

At the Napa Rotary Club meeting last week we had a speaker from Round Pond who lead us through an olive oil tasting. The blood orange olive oil reminded me of this cake. The olive oil tasting may be a wonderful alternative for Napa visitors who are not big wine drinkers. We certainly had a great time at Rotary slurping and swallowing some spicy virgin olive oil and the much more delicate and mellow blood orange olive oil. Round Pond also makes a Meyer Lemon olive oil.



1 ¼ c. cake flour
1 t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 T. plus ¾ c. sugar, divided
Zest of 1 ruby grapefruit
Zest of 1 blood orange
Zest of 1 Meyer lemon
1 ½ t. vanilla extract
squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
1 c. fruity (not spicy) extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a paper towel, coat a 9 x 2 inch round spring-form baking pan with olive oil, then sprinkle it with the 1 T. of granulated sugar.

Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together twice. Using a handheld mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, and zests on high speed for five minutes, until the eggs are thickened and lighter in color. Yes, you need to mix it that long. Add the vanilla and juice, if using. Turn the mixer down to medium-low speed and drizzle the olive oil into the batter, pouring slowly along the edge of the bowl.

Add the dry ingredients, and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake is golden and slightly domed in the center. Cool to room temperature in the pan.

Glaze (optional- I omitted this):

¾ c. powdered sugar
2 T. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

Sift the sugar into a small bowl. Add the grapefruit juice, and whisk to combine. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake.

Wrapped in plastic, this cake will keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Good luck with that!

Yield: 8-10 servings.