Brunello Italian Wine ... Yes, you CAN do this!

OK! Listen up! WHY haven't you tried making your own wine yet? Times are tough, money is tight, and jobs are scarce! So again I ask again, "Why haven't you tried making your own wine yet?"


Ah, too complex you say? Bull.

Too expensive? Bull again.

No time? Triple bull! It takes less than two hours to get your first batch of wine going if using a kit.

However, I do suggest planning ahead. For instance if you want to make wine for your daughter's wedding (oh yes, you will want to trust me!), plan on starting the wine 3-6 months ahead, and even up to 1 year ahead. I'll explain more about this later on in this post. Think about it as you start looking at wedding facilities and reception halls...explain that you will be bringing your own "winery" wine. Oh yes, I am serious!

Making wine from a kit is far easier than making wine from the scratch...I mean the grapes. It's also easier than making beer, and only slightly more difficult than making bread...yes, even the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. So read on!

Last fall I attended (for the second time) a lecture by Tim, about how the folks of Wine Expert (a Canadian company) scour the world and select the juice they want for their kits. It was a "sold out" event (actually free, but there was standing room only. Spots were gone just 1 day after seat reservations opened)! The lecture was sponsored by Mr. Steve's where I buy my wine and beer making supplies here in York, PA.

Tim does a great lecture! He brings forth all manner of information of what makes a good vineyard a great place to grow grapes. He talks about how the weather, rain, drainage, type of soil, amount of sunshine come into play for fabulous wine grapes. We learn about the country, the terrain, the district, and the wide varieties of grapes. And he is funny! How can you not enjoy an evening like that?

Then we get to TASTE wines that are similar, but of course not as good as ours will be! LOL. We tasted wine paired with chocolate, fruit, cheese, etc. Sorry, no caviar! Darn! LOL. Think about that next time Wine Expert and Mr. Steve's! LOL.

Finally, we got to place our orders for these Selection International Series. Special warning here, no more of the Brunello is available (at the time of this post). These kits are strictly limited in number, another thing to keep in mind for that wedding! We've ordered kits from Wine Expert at these lectures before and have never been disappointed. They have other kits available year around too! Below are just a few of the types of wines we have made. With these more deluxe kits the labels come with the kits. We've used their regular wine kits also.

2009 was their first offering (special ordering) of Brunello Italian in four years! This is a wine that is deep, dark, and rich, with an abundance of dark fruit flavors, plum, a hint of cherry, and aged oak. So I had to buy 2 kits...one for drinking in 6 months or so (although their info says it's ready in 6-8 weeks) and one for setting back (once made) to age for a few years. Yes, we're that serious about this!

A good Brunello wine will set you back $49.99 a bottle and more. I paid $114.00 for each kit. One kit makes 33 (750 ml) bottles. So let's do the math...that's only $3.49 a bottle! And a little bit of your time.

Yes, there is a start-up investment of $100.00 for the supplies such as the fermenter bucket, a hydrometer (for measuring alcoholic content during the fermentation process), and a few other tools. But there are wine and beer supply stores that allow you to use their equipment and facilities for a few dollars more. This is especially popular for those wanting a fun group activity such as getting the wine bottled for a wedding!

As to bottles, I have only bought bottles one time, and that was when I wanted some blue splits (475 ml bottles). I usually just ask bartenders to save me some bottles and within a night or two I have plenty of bottles. I do try to bottle my wines into the proper shape bottles, but that's not necessary. I clean the bottles well, remove the old labels and sanitize them well before filling them. Again, $3.45 compared to $49.99 a bottle...isn't that worth your time? Not to metion the satisfaction of doing it yourself!

Many friends have certainly enjoyed my wines! Ha! you thought they only got bread didn't you? I gave a bottle of one of my wines to a friend. She wasn't listening well when I gave it to her. She drank it, then went around trying to find it in the wine stores in her area so she could buy more. Hello! I said I made it myself! LOL.

Another time I gave a bottle of one of a regular merlot to the V.P. at work as a Christmas present. He thanked me but didn't say anything for 6 months. I figured he probably thought it was not going to be good since it was "homemade." One day he came in, pulled me aside and said "I finally had the wine you gave me. I was sitting out by the lake and thought I would just have a glass of it. I finished the entire bottle! It was really good!" He had a touch of wonder in his voice! I was smiling all day, especially since he has a reputation of having very discerning taste!  

And when my husband started his consulting business, we held a launch party and served our homemade wines and beers to our guests and they loved it! 

I don't know how many people have asked to buy some of my wines, especially the Chocolate Raspberry Port!  This is a... very... BIG... NO! NO!  Federal regulations allow us to make 100 gallons per person in the residence. We can give it away, donate it (such as to a non-profit fundraiser), but sell it and you'll end up facing federal charges. But you CAN serve it at that wedding coming up!

Please understand, I am not bragging about my abilities in making these wines...instead I am bragging about how this company makes these kits so easy to use, and how you can save alot of money! 

So let's get started!   Go to the next post titled:  Brunello Italian Wine ... Yes, you CAN do this Two!  There you will be able to follow the easy process!

May 15th Bread Braid - Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Assignment:

I full Master Recipe

1 loaf of Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf, pgs 62-63

Turkish-style Pita bread with black sesame seeds, pgs 66-67

Whole Grain Garlic Knots, pgs 64-65

While we can not put the recipe on our blogs, due to our agreement with the authors of Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, we can share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs. 

I've been using Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois two books, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day since they books came out.  I love the ease of the recipes, and the wonderful way they come out.  I very seldom buy bread anymore...sorry Wegmans! 

-------------------------------------------------------------

Substitutions:

WWW (white whole wheat) for the whole wheat

for once I did NOT switch the AP (All Purpose) and WW (whole wheat) measurements

I've given up trying to get my husband, Ken, to eat whole wheat bread.  But I love it so much I make it for me and my neighbors and co-workers.  LOL

Due to all the studying I had to do for my final exam I did not have time to try round up black sesame seeds, and make the pitas or the garlic knots. 

-------------------------------------------------------------

Instead I did an experiement with the basic recipe and the method I formed the loaves and raised them. 

I started with my favorite way of forming the bread.  I flattened out a 1 pound ball of dough into a rectangle (ok, roughly that shape), then starting at one end I roll the dough tightly. 

I then put formed a one pound ball into a regular loaf shape and put it into a bread pan. 

In the picture below you can see that a 1 pound loaf does not fill this bread pan even after rising.  Since it's difficult to slash with a knife, ne impossible, I use a pair of scissors.

I've come to love Julia Child's meticulous methods and found that she rose her baguettes in a floured dish towel (the old fashioned kind with the tight weave such as I've used below).  She would form the baguette, and then lay it in the middle of the floured dishtowel, then fold the towel in half.  She would then hang the towel from a drawer and allow it rise.  I did not make this baguette long enough, but you get the idea. 

Months ago I also tried the towel method hung up in my laundry room.  That was a hoot!  I didn't hang it on the drawer because it was a seeded oat bread that was very heavy and I was afraid it wouldn't hang from the drawer without falling.

 

Here I am doing my best imitation of Julia Childs during an Oscar night celebration at work.  I wondered around the two floor call center like this saying in a loud boisterous voice "Bon Appetit!"  It was hilarious!  I could tell the folks that didn't cook or watch cooking shows!  They had NO idea who I was imitating and when I told them they went "Who's that!"  Such peasants!  LOL. 

 

Once the baguette had risen sufficiently, I gently rolled it onto the cookie sheet.  I sometimes use a cookie sheet instead of my baking stone just because I want to get everything on one surface easily and not have to transfer it.  I honestly find it comes out very well indeed. 

There is something so satisfying in seeing the bread pop open as soon as you slash it.  It's as if it is giving a sigh, like us women when we remove that tight pair of panty hose, or tight girdle (now called fancier names by marketing departments.  Watching the dough bloom before it even hits the oven is proof to me that the loaf will be a winner! 

As you can see below, they are all winners!  The baguette on the right is the rolled up version. 

Lower centrer is the one I hung in the dishtowel. 

Upper center is just an oval loaf let to rise in the pan and you can see how it spread out

and sort of flattened out. 

The left loaf is a bowl shape but you can see the lump on the right hand side. 

So which method or rising and shaping do I like best?  I prefer the rolled baguettes best with Julia Child's method second.  I like the bowls more than the oval shapes.  Next I am going to try one of our other HBin5 member's method.  Old Pop (http://oldpopsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/errata-in-last-post-i-offered-with.html) uses pieces of wood to give the rising loaves a higher support.  I think his loaves come out well with that method also. 

As I've said, Ken won't eat whole wheat bread, but Waneta, my neighbor, will!  It happened to be Mother's Day so I took her down a loaf.  It also happened that Don, one of her son's, was in town. 

So I took him a small loaf also. 

Don is an interior designer, and he set the beautiful table seen below. 

Waneta had to cut into her loaf as soon as the picture above was taken. 

Don then got a piece and started contemplating the taste and crumb.  He declared it an excellent loaf! 

I've got to say this is one of my favorite breads and I will continue to make it! 

Be sure to stop by Big Black Dogs (http://bigblackdogs.net/) to find the links to the other great bakers' versions of these great recipes! 

I made a full recipe

Pesach Mead, the Ezzie way (Follow Up)

On Sunday, March 14, 2010, I wrote about making Pesach Mead, a honey alcoholic beverage that is a good substitute for beer during Pesach (Passover).  http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2010/03/pesach-mead-ezzie-way.html

The "beer" wasn't fully carbonated in time for Pesach, but it was still very drinkable.  We have been enjoying it and sharing it with neighbors and friends.  We have some of it left...but bottles of it go quickly when brought out.  Recently we were visiting some neighbors who own a beer distribution store here in Pennsylvania.  When he tasted the Pesach Mead he immediately claimed the rest of the large bottle for himself.  We did have to warn him that this stuff is 8.7%.  Since we were sitting at HIS house he didn't care, he didn't have to drive!  LOL. 

Ken, my husband and favorite label designer, did a very good job coming up with a label that represented the history of this mead type beverage. 

Mexican Egg Bake

Our neighbors Barb and George inspired me to make this recipe.  When I told Wanetta's daughter Denise, I would be making it again, she asked for the recipe.  Hmmm.  No real recipe.  So just for Denise I had to document this recipe and decided to share it on my blog. 

Barb and George were just returning from a sojurn in Florida and I decided to surprise them with my favorite Mexican Egg Bake waiting on their kitchen counter for them!  They've had this before and always love and appreciate it!

I started making this about 10 years ago.  But the original recipe was a strata, a wonderful egg and bread dish that is a great use of stale bread!  You can refrigerate the strata mixture over night and then bake in the morning, in time for company for breakfast or brunch! 

But one day I had some corn tortilla chips that were just getting crushed in the bag and some left over salsa.  Why not try them in the egg mixture I thought! 

I started with the usual egg custard type mixture of 2 c milk and 4 eggs.  But this recipe doesn't call for cornstarch (which you don't really need for a custard anyway).  I've found this recipe and the strata to be so adaptable you can use just about any leftovers for it.

Grease or use Pam on an 8"x x 8" baking pan, or aluminum foil pan. 

Crush up enough corn tortilla chips to measure about 1 1/2 c.

Beat together 4 eggs, then add 4 c milk (I use whole milk, but you can use 2%).

Spread the chips in the bottom of the pan. 

Have on hand your favorite salsa and some sort of Mexican cheese blend (shredded).

For this recipe I had a left over mixture of chicken, onions and manchego cheese from making enchiladas a few weeks before.  I had put the chicken mixture in the freezer.  So I just thawed it out and spred in it the pan on top of the chips. 

We love spicy salsas.  Sometimes I make my own, but sometimes I just pick up a good hot salsa or a good chipotle salsa at Sam's Club, Costco or BJs.  In this case I had two kinds of salsa on hand. 

Then I put about 6 big soup spoon fulls of salsa over the the mixture. 

Next I poured the milk and egg mixture.  I then took a fork and gently mixed it all up in the pan.  On other occassions I have mixed all the ingredients except the chips in a big bowl and then poured it in the pans.  It really does not matter how you do it. 

NOTE:  At this point you can put this in the refrigerator overnight, and then go to the next step in the morning. 

Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees F.  Check the egg bake by inserting a clean knife.  If it comes out clean, it's ready for the final step.  If it doesn't come out clean, bake for another 10 minutes, check again, etc until done. 

Sprinkle a 3 or four blend of shredded Mexican Cheese (jack cheese, sharp cheddar, manchego, etc) on the top and bake for another 10 minutes to melt the cheese. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.  This recipe can be easily doubled or quatrupled for a large crowd.  You can serve this with a side of sour cream, a green salad, beans and rice, or just the egg bake. 

I served the Mexican Egg Bake to Ken, my husband, for breakfast with a side of papaya. 

Great way to start the day! 

May 1st HB in 5 Bread Braid, Milk and Honey Raisin, and Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat Brioche

Assignment:
1/2 recipe Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat Brioche, pgs 294-296
1/2 recipe of Milk and Honey Raisin Bread, pgs 270-271


We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Milk and Honey Rasin Bread
Substitutions:

I made a full recipe
Instead of 4 1/2 c AP and 4 3/4  c of whole wheat
I used 5 c AP and 3 c WWW (white whole wheat for whole wheat)
For the raisins I used my home dehydrated seedless red grape raisins
I also soaked my raisins in warmed up homemade port (just enough to cover, then drank the port after the raisins were plumped up!)

-------------------------------------------------------------

I only did the Milk and Honey Raisin dough this time.  I will make the other recipe later.  I'm still in SQL class, and most of my "spare time" is spent studying.  I have only 2 more weeks to go in the class so at this point I am studying hard for the final!  Will be glad to be done with it and back to doing what I really love, baking, cooking and blogging about it and exploring more cultures.

As I have said before, I let the dough tell me what it wants to be.  In this case it wanted to take on those high calorie sugary breakfast pastries with a healthier approach.  I love the cheese danishes and sugar content is way too high.

I love the tenderness of this dough!  I did have agave syrup (bought at Costco recently) to try in it.  I love agave syrup!  It's a different taste from honey.  But frankly I can't see that the agave syrup made that much of a difference in the taste.  Since agave syrup is still expensive, I would opt for the less expensive honey next time. 

Here I've added my homemade raisins that I had soaked in port

I tried a variety of shapes, all worked well! I call the ones on the bottom of the pan "papooses" as they remind me of the papoose that the Native American women carried their babies in. 

The papooses have a mixture of mascapone cheese, walnuts, and more raisins.  

All of the shapes above have mascapone cheese instead of cream cheese.   

All shapes were a great success!

As usual, I shared some with neighbors and took some into the office.  That's one of the things that I love about doing a full recipe...4 pounds of dough makes for alot of sharing and BIG SMILES!

Be sure to check out what others did with our May 1st Bread Bread at:

http://bigblackdogs.net/welcome-to-the-10th-hbinfive-bread-braid/

Rack of Lamb smothered in Nut Brown Ale mustard and fresh from the garden Rosemary

As I have said before I am a big fan of Sam's club, Costco and BJ's.  One of the biggest reasons is at Costco and Sam's club you can get rack of lamb and lamb chops (from Australia) for a mere pittance of what it costs at the local grocery store.  Oh sure, if I was able to buy a whole lamb and have it butchered it might be cheaper...but for that I would need a bigger freezer which I don't have. 

Anyhow, recently I broke down and bought a package of two racks of lamb at the local Sam's club.  I decided that this would make a fabulous Shabbas dinner for Ken and I.

But I have to tell you that rack of lamb or lamb chops always reminds me of my friends Janet and Vivian.  Both are adventurous travelers and a real kick to join!  We're always laughing and having the best time together. 

Viv on the left, Janet on the right

Janet retired about 10 years ago, after 30 years of working for the city of Anchorage.  She wasn't about to sit around in a rocking chair, she was much too young for that.  So she took a summer job working for Princess Cruises.  Thank you Janet!  We have reaped so many rewards of her job as her friends over the years.  Vivian's been on several cruises with her.  I went on a cruise with her back in the spring of 2001, during which we visited Puerto Rico, went through the Panama Canal and up to Costa Rica on the Pacific side.  Janet, Viv and I, have also had many fun trips to some of the Princess lodges in Alaska.

One of my fondest memories was a weekend we took a room at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge.  See it here at http://www.princess.com/learn/destinations/alaska/highlights/wilderness_lodges/kenai/index.html

Janet arranged it so we had a cabin right next to the hot tub.  This was a real bonus as it was mid-January, the temp was -5F,  and we couldn't think of a better time to go hot-tubbing!  After chasing out some raucious kids by playing Dean Martin music on OUR little boombox, we laughed and joked about our frozen hair as steam rose around us in that marvelous outdoor hot tub!  If you've never hot tubbed in minus farenheit weather then you haven't lived a full life!  What a time we had!  After a good long soak we ran back to our cabin and dressed for dinner. 

On the menu that night was a lamb chop smothered in mustard and rosemary.  Well, that was something I had never had, so of course I had to be adventurous and order it.  Oh, what a delightful dish that was!  I was over the moon for the rich aroma of the lamb joining the fresh resiness from the rosemary.  The heat of the mustard hit my tongue and made a wonderful unforgettable combination! 

The rest of the weekend we ate in the cabin, having brought all manner of goodies with us.  I'm glad we did, because I kept savoring that meal in my mind and developing the recipe based on what the waiter said, and what my tastebuds told me about the ingredients.  We also couldn't afford to eat at the restaurant every nite of our visit! 

So this past Friday I made sure I had plenty of my latest batch of Nut Brown Ale mustard, picked a few big branches of rosemary from my herb patch out back and started. 

Click here for the recipe for the mustard: http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2009/11/nut-brown-mustard.html.  If you don't want to make your own mustard you can use any mustard you like, but a nice whole grain, or a brown mustard goes very well! 

Make sure the lamb is dry. 

Strip several branches of rosemary of their leaves and chop very fine.  I had about a 1/2 cup of chopped rosemary. 

Rub about 3 or 4 tablespoons of mustard on the lamb, making sure you get the ends if doing a rack of lamb.  If doing chops, rub the mustard on both sides.  If you are using a good whole grain mustard you just put a thin layer on because the whole grain mustard is usually much spicier and has more heat.

Roll the lamb in rosemary leaves, coating evenly all around.  Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt. 

I baked these racks in my convection oven at 350 degrees and used a Accurite probe thermometer to cook them to a temperature of 155 degrees.  Lamb should be cooked to 160 degrees for rare, but remember that meats continue to cook once removed from the oven.  According to Emeril Lagasse the meat will cook another 5 degrees after being removed from the oven. 

Ken's plate

We had our rack with boiled turnips, corn, salad, and homemade challah (egg bread).  The challah had been in the freezer for a few months, but because I bake using the "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" method...it still tasted fresh as the day I baked it when I warmed it up.  I added cantalope for dessert. 

My plate

What a fabulous way to bring in Shabbas!  If we had gone out to a restaurant for this dinner it would have cost us $75-100 for two dinners.  I paid less than $19.00 for the rack of lamb, which carved into 8 lambchops each.  All totalled our dinner cost less than $22.00 for the two of us!  Although I will say, at a restaurant we wouldn't have to do our own cleanup! LOL!

Thanks Janet and Viv for the added great memories! 

Borrowing from other and homemade birthday presents

First let me say two things...

Happy belated Birthday to Wayne (Wanetta's hubby)!

and

Thank you Michelle at:
http://www.bigblackdogs.net/2010/04/potato-chip-cookies.html

You may well wonder why those two things go in one blog...easy to explain! 

Last weekend was Wayne's birthday and I was so bogged down with a political discussion group meeting at our house (thank you Todd Platts, PA Representative for coming!) and school and work, that I didn't have time to remember it was Wayne's birthday! 

But I did remember that he really loved a Pecan Sandies recipe I had made a few years ago.  It was an unusual but very good recipe that included crushed potato chips as one of the ingredients!  My sister had given me the mix nicely packaged in a canning jar.  I simply followed the instructions, made them and shared them with several neighbors, including Wayne.  Then awhile later Wayne wondered if I had anymore of them, he really liked them!  I didn't at the time and because the dry ingredients were all mixed up in the canning jar, the recipe only said what the measurements were for the wet ingredients and directions went from there. 

Last week I was checking out Michelle's site http://www.bigblackdogs.net for the latest HBin5 bread braid blogs and feeling sad because I hadn't had time to participate in the April 15th bread braid.   Michelle is a great leader of this wonderful group of bakers.  We bake recipes from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois 2 times a month.  It will take us 2 years to go through the entire book.  You should check it out for some great interpretations!  http://www.bigblackdogs.net/2009/10/announcing-hbinfive-new-baking-group.html

 Getting back to the cookies lo and behold, there was the recipe for the Pecan Sandies using potato chips.  Michelle calls them Potato Chip cookies, I still call them Pecan Sandies, and Wayne calls them delicious!

So I bought a bag of generic chips (Lays potato chips), and pecans and made a double batch.  I decided to made a double batch because I knew my hubby, Ken, and I would like some also! 

But when I told Ken to keep his hands off the potato chips that they were for Pecan Sandies he looked at me like I was crazy!  "You can't use potato chips in cookies!" he said with a snort.  I smiled and said "oh yes, I can, and you will love them...matter of fact you had them 2 years ago and loved them."  He still didn't believe me and made several other comments.  I just shined him on...I know what I know.

So after a morning of volunteering with "Comcast Cares Day" (April 24th) during which we cleaned up, mulched, and painted over at Sunset Park in Dover, PA, I made two batches of the "potato chip cookies", aka "Pecan Sandies."

This is a great recipe to make with your children by the way, or grandchildren, or as a project with a scout troop, etc.  Have the child(ren) smash up the potato chips with all the gusto that they can!  What kid wouldn't love that?

I won't put the recipe here.  Instead follow this link to Michelle's blog for that!

http://www.bigblackdogs.net/2010/04/potato-chip-cookies.html

Below are the pics of the results...by the way Ken LOVES these and was happy to eat his words...literally!  LOL. 

Sandies ready for baking.  Michelle says to bake them until the Sandies are nicely browned...I found that to be about 10 minutes when I used a teaspoon to drop them onto the parchment paper.  Waxed paper didn't work as well as the parchment paper. 

Who wouldn't love this basket of cookies for a birthday present, belated or not!

Wayne immediately heated up a cup of coffee and sat down to enjoy his present. 

His wife, Wanetta, didn't wait...she just dipped her hand in the basket grabbed one and started eating!  LOL.