I had the great opportunity and pleasure to prepare a tasting dinner for the Colonial Wine and Spirits Australian Wine Dinner. Carol Larson, our wine educator, gave a great comprehensive overview of the wines regions of Australia. Guests sampled the wines along with a small tasting each dish. Following the tasting guests were invited to join together to enjoy their favorite wine of the evening along with full portions of the dishes they just tried. It was a great evening…just ask the Sassy Ladies!
Australian Wine Tasting Dinner
Entree 1
Salmon spiced with lemon myrtle with macadamia sauce and plum chutney paired with
d’Arenberg’s “The Hermit Crab” Viognier Marsanne and Tohu Pinot Noir.
Entree 2
Pepperberry spiced chicken with black truffle sauce paired with
Rutherglen Estates “Red”
Entree 3
Pepper Crusted Lamb Chops with mint macadamia pesto paired with
Torbeck’s “The Struie”a Wine Spectator Top 100 (91 pts).
Dessert
Pavolova with cream and fruit – choice of kiwi and passion fruit or fresh berry with Grand Marnier and served with fresh roasted coffee from Updike’s in North Kingstown.
Chicken with Spinach Truffle Sauce
Individual Pavolovas with Kiwi & Passion Fruit
Colonial Wine staff member - Lisa
My husband and I love Friday nights. The two young adult children are at work (both work in local restaurants) and we have the house to ourselves. We always have a night dinner in front of the fire, a bottle of wine and our favorite music. We have something special for dinner – something fresh or a new recipe. This past Friday night we had an amazing seafood dish with shrimp, mussels, little necks and scallops over pasta and some pesto bread. We opened one of our Long Island wines – Wolffer Estates, 2005 Estate Selection Chardonnay. Yummy!
After our trip to Long Island and touring many of the wineries we headed back to Newport. While on the ferry back I COULD NOT WAIT to get back and prepare a dinner that would pair with the beautiful wines we purchased. We toured about 6 wineries and the Tasting Room which acts as broker for some of the smaller wineries that do not have their own tasting room. If you find yourself on Long Island and not sure what wineries to try we found
Lenn Thompson’s blog to be incredibly helpful. Lenn blogs about New York wines and provides reviews and information on the wines of NY. Always helpful to know where to begin where there so many! Our friends who own Colonial Wine and Spirits in Wickford, RI were our special guests. As they always are when wine and food are involved – I couldn’t ask for a better two people to cook for. Menu and wine served…
Amuse Bouche – Strawberry Tartar with Goat Cheese
Roasted Fennel Soup with Spiced Grilled Shrimp served with Comtesse Therese, 2006 – Russian Oak Chardonnay
Porcini Dusted Scallops with Rich Mushroom Broth garnished with Microgreens served with Brooklyn Oenology, 2005 Merlot (this wine was absoutely outstanding!)
Herb Stuffed Lamb with Roasted Plum Sauce, Maytag Blue Cheese Polenta Rounds and Steamed Asparagus served with Wolffer Estate, Claletto, 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Thank you Long Island for producing some great wines we did not even know about until our tour. We had an amazing time and met some great people along the way.
Strawberry Tartar with Goat Cheese
Roasted Fennel Soup with Grilled Shrimp
- Porcini Dusted Scallops
I love this potato! A friend from BNI gave me this great potato. This potato will not see itself in a scalloped potato dish. It will sit on my counter until it sprouts multiple tentacles!
Not meant for scalloped potatoes!
After just a couple weeks the plants are looking good!
Although I have only met my brother-in-laws one time (hint…hint you should come and visit in RI)
Dallas is way too hot anyhow! We have talked many times on the phone I have come to conclusion that my husband’s family is just a REALLY nice family. The men (dad and three sons) are kind, ethical full of character and integrity and I got to marry one these great guys. And their mom, Peg – well she has to be something special to have raised these amazing sons. So, brother in law Ken recalled that I like to garden and obviously cook and every gardener and chef knows the importance of having fresh herbs on hand. After the post holiday hoopla and doldrums of January set in this year a packaged arrived in the mail and – wow- it was an Aerogarden from brother-in-law Ken and his family. I seriously almost cried – this is something that I have always wanted and suppose it was one of those items that I placed in the “luxury” column of items that I wanted/needed. The Aerogarden is a very cool thing to have in your kitchen. The plants grow right before your eyes and very quickly. I do this with all seedlings – plant them and watch them everyday for the first signs of life. I often quietly cheer them on and give them a little silent round of applause each day that look at them. The Aerogarden came with a seed kit that contained – parsley, basil, purple basil, mint, thyme, dill and chives. It takes about 5-6 weeks for the plants to be at a stage where you can harvest some of them. After some research on the Aerogarden web site I discovered that AG makes a seedling starter insert that will allow 66 seedlings to started and transferred to the outdoors. YEAH! Bring on Spring!
Everything in its place for cooking
Alexandria Mauck in action
Fun…fun! What a great experience. Through my BNI group I have met and come to know Alexandria Mauck who is the Photographer in our group. She is EXTREMELY talented and on top of all that talent is one of the most positive people I have met. She is always upbeat and cheerful and full of great energy and ideas. Her photography specialty has been in weddings and family portraits but she is expanding her professional services to include product photography. The pairing was perfect…I had food and wanted food photos and she had the cameras and needed some food photos for her portfolio. In addition we know an interior designer who had been a food stylist in a previous career. Together we made the perfect team – I cooked the food and plated it, Ellen assisted in plating and then did her styling and arranging and Ali photographed the dishes and made them look even more amazing. I couldn’t believe this was MY food! We worked for about 5 hours total from set up to tear down and spent approximately one hour photographing each dish. Ali was amazing to watch as she set up each shot and Ellen was an artist with arranging food on the plates. A group of artists working together to come up with a great product!
