Sonoma County

  • Pantry and Wine Friendly Recipes for a Pandemic

    April 1, 2020 14:08

    Pantry and Wine Friendly Recipes for a Pandemic

     In a recent post I mentioned I was trying to come up with wine tips-outside of hand sanitizer-and cooking with it was one of them along with what I have learned about the chemistry of using wine in a sauce. I have gathered hundreds of recipes over the years and always strive for what I call 'pantry friendly' recipes-you know, the ones where you don't have to go to a specialty store to buy an ounce of caviar.

    Let’s begin with one of my favorite recipes because polenta is a comfort food I grew up with-think of it as Italian grits. Parmesan Polenta with Sausage Ragu

    I found this recipe while searching for easy dinners and while it takes a little bit of time between cooking the sauce and the polenta, Sunday dinner anyone?, this brings simple ingredients together deliciously. Here are a few photos when I made this not long ago.

    Pantry ingredientsHere are a few tips: buy fresh basil-nothing like fresh to give a dish the best taste but in a pinch use dried basil-a teaspoon of dried to a tablespoon of fresh herbs. I buy the better grade canned tomatoes-but whatever you have on hand should work. Regarding the type of sausage, I like spicy but you can use the sweet Italian type and will still work, you can also replace pork sausage with turkey sausage very easily. 

    garlic and onions

    pouring in the tomatoes

    Your pantry, my pantry-there may be a difference in what you keep or have on hand. Sometimes Ed just shakes his head at my ‘substitutions’ and I admit they don’t always create the same recipe. Don’t be afraid to be creative-if you don’t have leeks use onions. If you don’t have ground turkey use ground beef. Cooking at home doesn’t have to be difficult. Follow the instructions, measure out the ingredients, take your time-we have a lot of it these days. Planning ahead-there’s another tip. Pre-COVID119 I would go to the store almost daily after work to get a quick weeknight dinner together. Secretly I love grocery shopping but let’s keep that between us. Now I plan ahead to go to the store twice a week so I am following our shelter in place order.

    Now, besides the tips I received about ways to use up wine, like turning leftover wine into ice cubes and later on using them in sauces or drinking the same wine you used in the recipe at dinner, I also received a question about the bank of recipes I have stored on our website-I have been adding to the different categories for many years. I am a recipe hound and have collected quite a few from many sources including family, staff, newspapers, local chefs, authors and recipe sites. Here are some of my favorites and I hope they become yours!

    You know the can of chickpeas taking up a spot in the cupboard? Dress it up by roasting them-use as a snack or in a salad for lots of flavor: Spice Roasted Chickpeas

    This soup is a staple in our household-spicy, tummy filling and healthy: Chicken Tortilla Soup

    Alternately this soup uses up lots of veggies, the kitchen sink approach: Minestrone

    Here is a simple, tasty and easy dinner idea: Chicken and Rice Pilaf

    My mom Phyllis has been making a version of this for many years-both Mom and I find we do it a bit differently each time: Chicken Scallopini a la Phyllis

    Here is a family favorite from our pre-empty nest days-I found this in Adrienne’s cookbook for kids. Easy, flavorful and filling-the trifecta of the perfect family recipe-use beef and make it Sloppy Joes: Sloppy Toms

    Each month I send out an enewsletter and part of it includes 2-3 recipes I find that are wine friendly. If you’d like to be on the email list let me know and send to julie@pedroncelli.com I'll sign off here like I do in the column: don’t forget the vino!

    Tags: Pedroncelli, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, Recipes, Homecooking, Pandemic, COVID19
    Categories: pedroncelli
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  • A Note From Home: Hanging in There

    March 27, 2020 15:13

    A Note From Home: Hanging in There

    Are you hanging in there? What are some surprises you’ve found (and I don’t mean the dust bunny under the sofa)? Have you discovered the next million-dollar idea? Have you found more or less time to get those projects done or have you developed your Zoom family and see you need to clean up the clutter behind you? Zoom has become the way people are reaching out these days whether via a Virtual Cocktail Party or playing a game with family members who are physically distanced. I visited with Joe Glunz Jr the other day. He is the President of our Illinois based distributor Louis Glunz Inc. talked about his family gathering virtually this Sunday. They will all make the same dish at the same time for dinner. Not a big deal?  He has 9 siblings and his parents spread from the west to east coast. What a fun thing to do!

    Thanks to all who responded after checking in with you last week. I heard from at least 16 states, multiples from each, as far away as Vermont and as close to home as one of our growers and neighbor Larry Giovannoni. I can see Larry’s house from my office window by the way. I learned what some of you do for a living (a book editor, a nurse & fellow introvert, a first responder and one of our longtime retailers to mention just a few) and you all are hanging in there with an abundance of stories to tell once this is over.

    I was trying to come up with some wine tips to offer during this time as we are all hanging out. While wine isn’t the best hand sanitizer (maybe a little Chardonnay but no Zinfandel-those telltale stains would give it away) it certainly can be used in cooking. I have used wine since I began experimenting in the kitchen. In the beginning I didn’t ‘cook off’ the alcohol in the wine and it gave dishes a ‘raw’ taste. One of my first experiments was mushrooms sauteed in red wine '#kitchenfail', they were inedible. I have learned to take time. When adding wine to a pan sauce and cooked for a few minutes it will do the trick, or if making a ragu the hour or more on the stove-mission accomplished. Wine does add a different level of flavor, different than herbs and spices. If you have a few ounces left in a bottle keep it around-you never know what recipe will inspire you and adding a bit of white or red wine will make the flavors fuller. Ed added a splash of Sauvignon Blanc to his Turkey Stroganoff the other night-that little something extra enhanced this dish.

    So, hang in there. There is a light at the end of this tunnel, most likely in a few more weeks.  Right now summer is looking pretty good. Warmer days, gardens beginning to give up their first fruits, family get togethers and the biggest St. Patrick’s Day/Easter/Mother’s Day/Memorial Day celebration ever.

    Update on the tasting room and curbside pick-up: Are you a local? We can fulfill online and telephone orders with curbside pick-up. We’ll be open for limited days and hours for now. Visit here for more information.

     

    Tags: Pedroncelli, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, cooking with wine, note from home
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  • A Note From Home: How Are You Doing?

    March 21, 2020 09:25

    A Note from Home

    JasperSo how are you doing? I hope this finds you coping with the new restrictions in our lives-! I know many, many things have been cancelled or rescheduled for another time. Are you catching up on personal correspondence? Tackling those household projects you’ve put off like painting the bathrooms or adding a she shed? Homeschooling your kids? I personally will be reading more, walking more with #JasperWineDog-who by the way loves us working from home-he thinks we are on vacation and totally ignores the virus thing. I’ll do more home cooking while also supporting our local restaurants for take-out and of course enjoy a glass of wine or two while kicking back in the evenings.

    How are you? This simple phrase seems so much more important now as we are physically distanced from each other and our daily lives. I typically write this note from my office, my former bedroom in my childhood home, which overlooks our Mother Clone zinfandel vineyard. Today I am writing from my own home in Healdsburg with a view of spring burgeoning in the new leaves on the oak trees and birds singing just outside.

    For me yesterday was a wonderful day because two things happened: I have a new grandson and my niece Sarah (Lisa & Lance’s daughter) was married-in Brazil of all places-they watched the ceremony at 6am that morning from their home. Galen Kurt Edwin Rule was born a few hours later. 3/20/20 will be remembered with joy amidst such a time and I look forward to hugging him once this is over-I am thankful for our ease of communication so I can see all the fingers and toes and make sure mom Adrienne is okay and dad Jason is holding the baby correctly.Baby Galen

    Home AloneWhile we hunker down with loved ones I know there are many challenges ahead. Those parents with kids home for the long term-I received an email yesterday from a mom who had our wine at their wedding and now, 9 years later, has kids home and needed a case of wine to smooth the rough edges! (pretty sure my own parents would have gone crazy with the four of us girls bouncing off the walls). Work and the interruption of regular life is a challenge and a change. If you are at home alone reach out to neighbors who might also feel alone-keeping your distance of course! You know Wilson had it right by visiting over the back fence. If we keep socially connected in our age of technology we’ll know we are not alone.Wilson over the Fence

    How are we doing at the winery? The Governor of California has put the whole state from tip to top in a Stay at Home order. Our trade group Wine Institute just confirmed that, while our tasting room remains closed, the new order allows winery and vineyard operations to continue under the Food and Agriculture Sector critical infrastructure plan. We can keep things going in the vineyard and cellar! Probably more important to you is that we are still processing and shipping orders. While we can’t offer tastings, we are working on how to do “take-out” at the winery. Stay tuned for developments. Meanwhile we wouldn’t want our friends and neighbors to run out of wine. If you’d like us to ship you some wine click here.

    Until the next time, keep healthy, stay inside and reach out even if just an email or call! julie@pedroncelli.com or 707-857-3531.

    Stay well and don’t forget the vino. Julie

    Tags: COVID19, Pedroncelli, Dry Creek Valley, Courage Zinfandel, Wisdom Cabernet Sauvignon, note from home, Sonoma County, Pandemic
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  • Heat & the Vine

    June 28, 2017 16:40

    Heat & the Vine

    What happens in the vineyard when summer hasn’t even begun and we have one of the hottest days on record? On Sunday June 18th the temperature hit 110 degrees in our little corner of Dry Creek Valley. The days that followed were not much better and the mercury wavered between the mid 90s to over 100 degrees again on Thursday. This pre-summer heat wave definitely had my attention.

    I was curious-what does happen to the vines as it gets unseasonably hot? It isn’t the first time the month of June has seen this heat and it does some good to know the following week we had our fog back in the evenings with pleasant temps in the low 80s. I asked our Vineyard Manager Lance Blakeley to explain a few things to me. How does he prepare? What happens to the fruit? Was it a good time to have a heat wave?

    First of all he was ready for the heat-farmers are always weather watchers and he and the crew prepared the vineyard for what was coming by drip irrigating the ranches, which totals 105 acres. This in and of itself helped the vines to survive the brutal heat which hit on the 18th. The fruit was protected by the canopy of canes and leaves. There was little to no scorching of the green berries. If there was a good time to have a heat wave this was it-if it had occurred during bloom time we would have a more drastic story to tell.

    I learned something too. The leaves actually move to cover either the stem or the fruit, whichever is in danger of scorching. One way to test if the vine is keeping cool is to feel the leaves-if they are cool then they are safe. If they are warm to the touch then they need some help as they’ll begin to wilt and become overwhelmed by the heat. Kind of like people-we wilt when it becomes too hot and just want a cool drink of water. The good news is, with temperatures rising in the first week of July, the vineyards are acclimated to the heat by this first wave. Here's to the vines and the hard working crew who takes care of them with a splash of Rosé of Zinfandel in my Dino!

    Tags: Heat wave, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley, Vine, vineyard, Zinfandel
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