One fine spring day in 1972, attorney, private pilot, and wine aficionado Fred Fruth was piloting his plane over the Russian River Valley area. Down below, he hoped he saw what he had been searching for: a property that had the climate and soils to grow first-class wine grapes. Furth and his second wife, Peggy, purchased the land, named the estate Chalk Hill, and started producing wine about a decade later. They gradually planted more than 270 acres of vines. Years later, Furth said, “I have always been interested in wine because my grandfather had vineyards. I’m actually more interested in the working-the-soil aspect, but I have many very talented people in the winery who know how to produce a world-class wine. When I bought this property, I was told it was too hilly to be a vineyard, but I simply planted the grapes in rows going uphill. People said you can’t do that, but I’d seen it done in Germany so I knew it would work.” After a rich and varied life, Furth died in 2018 at the age of 84.
Bill Foley
Lawyer Bill Foley acquired Chalk Hill in 2010. Although Foley is titled as “vintner,” I doubt he sees the interior of the winery very often. He is a vintner in the broader sense of “someone who sells wine.” He also owns the National Hockey League’s Vegas Golden Knights, is the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors for Fidelity National Financial Inc., is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., and owns fifteen other wineries. Continue reading “Chalk Hill Estate Red”
Is it possible to get a quality XO brandy for $20? If this Dunill XO is any indication, the answer is no. (For just one comparison, Courvoisier XO costs $170. Most XOs cost at least $100, and go up from there.)
I have nine pizza cookbooks, and seven of them have a recipe for Pizza Margherita. In part this is because it is a classic, and in part because the story of its creation is clearly known and iconic. In 1889, the Italian royal couple King Umberto and Queen Margherita paid a visit to Naples. While there, local pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito made three types of pizza for them: a marinara pizza with anchovies; a bianca (white) pizza with lard, provolone or caciocavallo cheese, and basil; and a pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, featuring the red, white, and green of the Italian flag. The queen was particularly delighted by that last one, and when Esposito received a note of thanks from her, he dedicated the pizza to her.
My wife recently came home with a lovely seven-ounce tuna steak. Well, I love tuna, and because of this I thought, “this isn’t going to feed the two of us.” So I began to consider how to stretch it out. The answer? Tuna pasta, Japanese-style!
Garlic Olive Oil is a wonderful and versatile condiment. Sure, you can buy it, but it’s going to cost about $1.50 to $2.50 an ounce. For around 75 cents an ounce, you can easily make it yourself, and know exactly what goes into it as well. Most recipes for garlic olive oil roast the garlic in the oven. My method uses just the stovetop, which is more streamlined but delivers the same amount of flavor. Here’s how to do it:
Gene & Georgetti is a legendary old-school Chicago steakhouse, founded in 1941, and still with us, happily. On November 1, 1987, the Chicago Tribune‘s food critic at the time, William Rice (excellent name for a food writer, no?), published a recipe for Chicken alla Joe. Like Spicy Grilled Tuna, this is one of the very few recipes I have made many times. (I have about 200 cookbooks and I don’t like to repeat.) Unlike that one, however, I have modified it somewhat, to make it a bit simpler and even more flavorful. (There is a link to Rice’s original recipe at the end of this post. ) And about ten years ago, I realized I almost always made this in January. So, now I must make it in January. Sometimes late, like January 31, 2020, and sometimes early, like January 1, 2021.
Chicken alla Joe is named for the man who invented it. Gene & Georgetti retains servers for years, if not decades. One of them was Joe Pacini, a native of Tuscany, who worked tables beside the bar in the restaurant’s front room. He had a regular customer, Morris Krumhorn, who liked spicy food. He would order broiled chicken and ask Pacini to have the chef, Mario Navarro, put red pepper on it. “One night I went to the chef and told him, ‘My customer is complaining that the chicken you make is not spicy enough,'” Pacini recalled. Chef Mario responded, “What can I do?” and Joe says, “He really likes it hot. Let’s put some hot pepperoncini with the chicken and green pepper and red pepper.” After serving the dish, Joe returned to the kitchen and said to Mario, “Mr. Krumhorn is a happy customer. He asks what you call this dish?” Mario answered, “It was your idea, not mine. I call it Chicken alla Joe.”
Chicken alla Joe
Serves 6 to 8
3-1/4 lbs. bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, or a mix of thighs and breasts
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 teaspoons dried oregano
1 or 2 teaspoons dried red-pepper flakes, depending on how hot you want it
9 tablespoons olive oil
1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into broad strips or chunks, about 12 each
16 oz. jar of pepperoncini, drained, rinsed and left whole (but pierced once, so you don’t get a mouthful of vinegar when you bite into one)
3 – 4 russet potatoes, sliced into spears
2 lemons, cut in half
Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Mix the salt, pepper, oregano, red-pepper flakes, and 3 Tbls oil together. Rub the oil/seasoning mix under the skin of each piece.)
In a large bowl, add the remaining 3 Tbls oil, salt and pepper to taste, potatoes, and bell peppers, and toss with your hands to evenly coat.
Add 3 Tbls oil to an 18″ x 12″ roasting pan and coat the bottom. Add the chicken pieces skin side down to the center of the pan (just the thighs for now if you are using breasts also) and potatoes. Place pan in the oven and cook until the chicken pieces begin to brown, about 20 minutes. Remove roasting pan from oven. Turn chicken pieces (add breasts now if using) and add bell-pepper strips or chunks and pepperoncini. Return to oven and cook until chicken is tender and pepper strips are soft, an additional 20 minutes.
Run under the broiler for a minute or two to crisp the skin.
Remove pan from oven. Squeeze juice from lemon halves over the chicken pieces, then transfer them, the peppers, and pepperoncini to warm serving plates. Spoon pan juices over each portion.
Serve with a green vegetable such as spinach or a salad of your choice, and an Italian red wine, perhaps a Dolcetto.
And if you are ever in Chicago, you can try Chicken alla Joe at Gene & Georgetti itself, where the dish remains quite popular to this day. geneandgeorgetti.com/
If you decide to make my modified recipe, or Rice’s original, I would love to hear about it in the comments below.
If you don’t like fish, this is the fish recipe for you. If you do like fish, especially tuna, this is definitely the recipe for you. It was published by the great Pierre Franey (1921 – 1996) in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune in August of 1992. It may well be the greatest tuna recipe ever written. I have made it many times over the years, something I rarely do. Hell, I almost never make anything more than once.
LVOV [Luh-voff] premium Polish vodka offers excellent value for the money. Crafted in the old tradition from potatoes (and thus gluten-free), it is distilled four times, then filtered four times through an activated carbon and candle process for smoothness. It features a hint of mineral taste with a touch of sweetness, and a slightly herbal aroma. This is a refined, mellow sip to add as part of your favorite cocktail or enjoyed on its own.
Because home freezers don’t get cold enough to freeze spirits, many people (us included) like to stash their vodka there for ready-to-go enjoyment.
Directions: Muddle all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and pour everything into a cocktail glass. Garnish with remaining serrano pepper and lime wedge.
LVOV Sparkling Sea Breeze 1½ oz. LVOV Vodka
1½ oz. cranberry juice
1½ oz. grapefruit juice
1½ cups ice cubes
1½ oz. sparkling water
1 lime wedge
Directions: Fill a cocktail shaker with vodka, juices, and ice cubes. Cover and shake. Fill a glass with sparkling water. Strain vodka mixture into sparkling water and garnish with lime wedge.
Coq au Vin (Chicken with Wine Sauce) made with white wine.
Coq au Vin
Coq au Vin is a classic French dish of chicken in wine with onions, mushrooms, and bacon. It is usually made with red wine, but I think white wine makes for better color and flavor. In France, the only side is usually parsley potatoes, but you can add buttered green peas as well. This recipe comes from volume 1 of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Winter is behind us for yet another year, so thoughts turn to relaxed evenings on the deck or patio, steaks or shrimp sizzling on the grill, and something cool and refreshing in the glass. A crisp Chardonnay or ice-cold beer are nice, of course, but it’s hard to beat a well-made Margarita (no sweet-and-sour mix!) when the weather gets pleasant.
As you enter Sonoma county from the south on California 121, one of the first wineries you encounter is Cline Cellars, and there could hardly be a better introduction to the Carneros AVA.
At Milwaukee’s Miller Park, home of the Brewers, the official brandy served at the ballpark is Central Standard distillery’s North Wisconsin Brandy. Your day of baseball can include an iconic Wisconsin-style brandy Old Fashioned made with a spirit produced right there in town.
The Mastiha tree is also known as the famous Crying Tree, since it “cries” teardrops of resin during the harvest period. It only grows and is cultivated on the small Mediterranean island of Chios. Nowhere else in the world has it been able to take root.
Spaghetti Aio e Oio
