Category: We recommend!

September’s Toast: Here’s to Keeping Summer Going with Etxaniz Txakoli Rose!

If there is a Txakoli on a wine list, you can be sure Ed will consider ordering it. In this year of old favorites for our Happy New Month toast, we'll pour from on high with a bottle of Etxaniz Txakoli Rose.

After a scorching month of August, we're hoping for a September that's more typical of a Boston summer. We've been hoarding a few bottles of this favorite wine from the Basque region of Spain. This particular producer creates one of our favorites. It's a nice low 11.5% alcohol by volume and is wonderfully food friendly. Lower alcohol makes for a more refreshing warm weather drink.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month! In 2018 we decided to feature a year of old favorites like this one. Tonight we'll pop the cork and pour this frizzante wine from on high to create its signature froth!

On egin! (A Basque toast which roughly translates, "Enjoy your meal!")

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino

September 1, 2018
Food Waste Feast Is Our Friday Link

Today we want to encourage all our food loving readers to click over to Food Waste Feast, the website that helps you, "Cook more creatively, and stop throwing away perfectly good food."

This site comes from Mei and Irene from the Mei Mei food truck, restaurant, and catering company. We have deep admiration for all the wise, generous, and sustainable decisions this family has made as they've found a place for themselves in the competitive food world.

Now they have found a way to help you become more sustainable by using the food you might be tossing out. Earlier this week, we published a post that explained that "Your Most Expensive Food Is the Food You Waste."

The next step is to buy just what you will use and use what you buy.

Recipes by Ingredient!

The Food Waste Feast team is building valuable resources for those of us who no longer feel that wasting food is acceptable. You can find recipes by ingredient for what you have on hand. For example, the photo above is a recipe they call, "Pasta with Wrinkled Cherry Tomatoes."

They say,

"Because sometimes you get super excited about tomato season, and you purchase three large local containers of cherry tomatoes, and then some of them inevitably linger a bit longer than you wanted them to and get all wrinkly and forlorn on the countertop….anyone else ever find themselves in that position? Just me?"

We say,

Irene and Mei you are not alone. We've done that too. But, from now on when that happens, we'll click over to the recipes by ingredient section of Food Waste Feast and find inspiration for a dish to use them.

More Resources!

Food Waste Feast also gives you information about the issues surrounding food waste and tips on how to buy, store, and use up the things you do purchase and, sadly, when to toss them. For example here is the section on "Veggies that are actually fruits" like those tomatoes we're all overbuying right now.

This is a deep treasure trove of useful information. We suggest you make an initial visit and click around to find the areas you need right now. Then bookmark Food Waste Feast on your phone and make that your reading for times when you have to sit around waiting. Penny has been doing that for the past few weeks and has picked up useful information and been inspired to make new dishes by reviewing the recipes.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos and screenshots: courtesy of Food Waste Feast

August 24, 2018
Food Waste Feast Is Our Friday Link

Today we want to encourage all our food loving readers to click over to Food Waste Feast, the website that helps you, "Cook more creatively, and stop throwing away perfectly good food."

This site comes from Mei and Irene from the Mei Mei food truck, restaurant, and catering company. We have deep admiration for all the wise, generous, and sustainable decisions this family has made as they've found a place for themselves in the competitive food world.

Now they have found a way to help you become more sustainable by using the food you might be tossing out. Earlier this week, we published a post that explained that "Your Most Expensive Food Is the Food You Waste."

The next step is to buy just what you will use and use what you buy.

Recipes by Ingredient!

The Food Waste Feast team is building valuable resources for those of us who no longer feel that wasting food is acceptable. You can find recipes by ingredient for what you have on hand. For example, the photo above is a recipe they call, "Pasta with Wrinkled Cherry Tomatoes."

They say,

"Because sometimes you get super excited about tomato season, and you purchase three large local containers of cherry tomatoes, and then some of them inevitably linger a bit longer than you wanted them to and get all wrinkly and forlorn on the countertop….anyone else ever find themselves in that position? Just me?"

We say,

Irene and Mei you are not alone. We've done that too. But, from now on when that happens, we'll click over to the recipes by ingredient section of Food Waste Feast and find inspiration for a dish to use them.

More Resources!

Food Waste Feast also gives you information about the issues surrounding food waste and tips on how to buy, store, and use up the things you do purchase and, sadly, when to toss them. For example here is the section on "Veggies that are actually fruits" like those tomatoes we're all overbuying right now.

This is a deep treasure trove of useful information. We suggest you make an initial visit and click around to find the areas you need right now. Then bookmark Food Waste Feast on your phone and make that your reading for times when you have to sit around waiting. Penny has been doing that for the past few weeks and has picked up useful information and been inspired to make new dishes by reviewing the recipes.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos and screenshots: courtesy of Food Waste Feast

August 24, 2018
Toasting August with the Flame and Spark of Nino Franco Faìve Brut Rose!
In this year of favorite wines and friendship, we will be toasting with a bottle of Nino Franco Faìve Brut Rosé. A wine has to have special meaning for us to take it with us to Provincetown. This year a bottle joined us there in spring and another will join us with friends to toast August.

We must explained the name of this lovely Rosé. "Faìve, from the Venetian dialect, are the small gilded red tongues of flame and sparks rising towards the sky from a great fire, lightly and freely carried by the wind." Sylvia Franco told us the pronunciation is Fie-EE-vay!

Our stash of Faìve was hiding in plain sight on the top of a bookcase. We've been rationing this harder-to-find wine. But the time has come to enjoy this special bottle and share the experience with friends. Then we'll go hunting for a new supply!

Here is what Nino Franco says about this special Rosé from their collection:
- "Variety and Grapes: 80% Merlot 20% Cabernet Franc.
- Vinification Technique: Short skin and must contact at a low temperature to obtain the right colour. The first fermentation in steel tanks and the second one in “cuve close”.
- Type: Rosé Brut.
- Colour: Rose petal -like pink.
- Flavour: Perfume of small red fruits. Mineral and floral notes.
- Taste: In the mouth, pleasurably fresh. Dry with soft tannins and persistent bubbles.
- Matching: Well paired with mortadella, meat and mushroom dishes, fish or vegetable soups. Excellent with “Lasagna”, “Parmigiano" or the typical Italian dish “vitello tonnato” .
- Serving Temperature: 6° – 8° degrees" (~ 43°F – 46°F)
While we are enjoying this old friend from our wine rack, we hope you'll pull a bottle you have been saving and join our sparkling resolution as we toast the new month of August 2018. Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

Here is an earlier post about this wine from 2015!

We Toast the Month of May with Nino Franco Faive Rosé Brut

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino
August 1, 2018
Toasting August with the Flame and Spark of Nino Franco Faìve Brut Rose!
In this year of favorite wines and friendship, we will be toasting with a bottle of Nino Franco Faìve Brut Rosé. A wine has to have special meaning for us to take it with us to Provincetown. This year a bottle joined us there in spring and another will join us with friends to toast August.

We must explained the name of this lovely Rosé. "Faìve, from the Venetian dialect, are the small gilded red tongues of flame and sparks rising towards the sky from a great fire, lightly and freely carried by the wind." Sylvia Franco told us the pronunciation is Fie-EE-vay!

Our stash of Faìve was hiding in plain sight on the top of a bookcase. We've been rationing this harder-to-find wine. But the time has come to enjoy this special bottle and share the experience with friends. Then we'll go hunting for a new supply!

Here is what Nino Franco says about this special Rosé from their collection:
- "Variety and Grapes: 80% Merlot 20% Cabernet Franc.
- Vinification Technique: Short skin and must contact at a low temperature to obtain the right colour. The first fermentation in steel tanks and the second one in “cuve close”.
- Type: Rosé Brut.
- Colour: Rose petal -like pink.
- Flavour: Perfume of small red fruits. Mineral and floral notes.
- Taste: In the mouth, pleasurably fresh. Dry with soft tannins and persistent bubbles.
- Matching: Well paired with mortadella, meat and mushroom dishes, fish or vegetable soups. Excellent with “Lasagna”, “Parmigiano" or the typical Italian dish “vitello tonnato” .
- Serving Temperature: 6° – 8° degrees" (~ 43°F – 46°F)
While we are enjoying this old friend from our wine rack, we hope you'll pull a bottle you have been saving and join our sparkling resolution as we toast the new month of August 2018. Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

Here is an earlier post about this wine from 2015!

We Toast the Month of May with Nino Franco Faive Rosé Brut

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino
August 1, 2018
Toasting July with Charles de Cazanove Rosé Champagne

For July we would like to reintroduce you to a lovely bottle of Charles de Cazanove Rosé Champagne. This year we're having a great time shopping in our own wine rack and enjoying old favorite sparkling wines for our first-of-the-month wine toasts.

Above is a photo from a couple of years ago when we first wrote about this wine in our post:

Charles de Cazanove Rosé Champagne – One Happy Surprise!

Click over there to find out how a mistake made in a moment of hurry had a happy ending.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since New Years Eve 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

Our bottle of Charles de Cazanove Rosé is a blend of 15% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier, and 15% Côteaux Champenois Rouge. The blend will vary from year-to-year as the winemaker tries to achieve the house style. We're always happy when we see a high percentage of Pinot Noir in a bottle. And, we love wines of great value. This one should be about $35.

K & L Wines always has great and reliable descriptions of wines. "This rich, round rosé is a truly affordable luxury. Although thus far off the radar of wine critics, I think it's the best wine from de Cazanove, with its lovely strawberry color and aromas. Full-bodied but nicely balanced, this wine will make a great aperitif or pair well with a charcuterie plate or after-dinner fruit salad."

Then they include this quote which makes us happy about opening an older bottle.

"… 91 points Wine Spectator, Refined, with well-meshed acidity providing a backbone for delicate flavors of dried currant, graphite, green plum, meringue and grapefruit zest. Fresh, smoke-tinged finish. Drink now through 2020."

Our friends at Bauer Wine & Spirits often have this wine in stock.

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino

July 1, 2018
Toasting July with Charles de Cazanove Rosé Champagne

For July we would like to reintroduce you to a lovely bottle of Charles de Cazanove Rosé Champagne. This year we're having a great time shopping in our own wine rack and enjoying old favorite sparkling wines for our first-of-the-month wine toasts.

Above is a photo from a couple of years ago when we first wrote about this wine in our post:

Charles de Cazanove Rosé Champagne – One Happy Surprise!

Click over there to find out how a mistake made in a moment of hurry had a happy ending.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since New Years Eve 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

Our bottle of Charles de Cazanove Rosé is a blend of 15% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier, and 15% Côteaux Champenois Rouge. The blend will vary from year-to-year as the winemaker tries to achieve the house style. We're always happy when we see a high percentage of Pinot Noir in a bottle. And, we love wines of great value. This one should be about $35.

K & L Wines always has great and reliable descriptions of wines. "This rich, round rosé is a truly affordable luxury. Although thus far off the radar of wine critics, I think it's the best wine from de Cazanove, with its lovely strawberry color and aromas. Full-bodied but nicely balanced, this wine will make a great aperitif or pair well with a charcuterie plate or after-dinner fruit salad."

Then they include this quote which makes us happy about opening an older bottle.

"… 91 points Wine Spectator, Refined, with well-meshed acidity providing a backbone for delicate flavors of dried currant, graphite, green plum, meringue and grapefruit zest. Fresh, smoke-tinged finish. Drink now through 2020."

Our friends at Bauer Wine & Spirits often have this wine in stock.

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino

July 1, 2018
Toasting June with Our Old Friend, Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco

Nino Franco Rustico is the kind of old friend you take on vacation with you. And we did! To be sure we would have a bottle of this favorite prosecco to enjoy by the beach, we took along one from our Boston wine rack. (There are usually a few bottles of Nino filling their usual slots.)

We are having a fun year toasting each new month with wines that are old friends and that have happy stories of friends to go with them.

This wine was introduced to us by Howie Rubin at Bauer Wine and Spirits on Newbury Street in Boston. Howie is one of our longtime wine mentors. We have been writing about him and the wines he has introduced to us since 2008. Here is his story: Howie Rubin-A Life of Wine and Relationships.

Over the years of writing about and recommending this wine, we became social media friends with Silvia Franco. That's her in the photo above. We were fortunate to meet her in person when she came to Boston. Here is that story: Brix Wine Shop Makes Our Nino Franco Dreams Come True!

Sharing a bottle of this lovely sparkler is a rite of vacation for us. This year we sipped it on a foggy evening on the deck as we watched the tide change in Provincetown Harbor. First and foremost this is a food wine. It will happily pair up with whatever you are nibbling…

… even if it's some squares of bar pizza, a few cherry tomatoes, and a pile of shavings of parmigiano reggiano. Hey, it was what we had on hand in a rental house when we were too relaxed to go out and shop for more food. The Nino turned it into a feast!

Last month by the bay or tonight on the roof deck, we love this wine and hope you will find a bottle and enjoy it at some point this summer.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since New Year's Eve 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month – waiting 12 months just wouldn't do.

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino

June 1, 2018
Toasting June with Our Old Friend, Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco

Nino Franco Rustico is the kind of old friend you take on vacation with you. And we did! To be sure we would have a bottle of this favorite prosecco to enjoy by the beach, we took along one from our Boston wine rack. (There are usually a few bottles of Nino filling their usual slots.)

We are having a fun year toasting each new month with wines that are old friends and that have happy stories of friends to go with them.

This wine was introduced to us by Howie Rubin at Bauer Wine and Spirits on Newbury Street in Boston. Howie is one of our longtime wine mentors. We have been writing about him and the wines he has introduced to us since 2008. Here is his story: Howie Rubin-A Life of Wine and Relationships.

Over the years of writing about and recommending this wine, we became social media friends with Silvia Franco. That's her in the photo above. We were fortunate to meet her in person when she came to Boston. Here is that story: Brix Wine Shop Makes Our Nino Franco Dreams Come True!

Sharing a bottle of this lovely sparkler is a rite of vacation for us. This year we sipped it on a foggy evening on the deck as we watched the tide change in Provincetown Harbor. First and foremost this is a food wine. It will happily pair up with whatever you are nibbling…

… even if it's some squares of bar pizza, a few cherry tomatoes, and a pile of shavings of parmigiano reggiano. Hey, it was what we had on hand in a rental house when we were too relaxed to go out and shop for more food. The Nino turned it into a feast!

Last month by the bay or tonight on the roof deck, we love this wine and hope you will find a bottle and enjoy it at some point this summer.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since New Year's Eve 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month – waiting 12 months just wouldn't do.

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino

June 1, 2018
Farmers Market Asparagus Ragout à la Jacques Pepin

We have had Asparagus Ragout for supper repeatedly in recent weeks. We visited the Provincetown Farmers Market on a recent trip to our favorite spot on the tip of the Cape and bought a bunch of asparagus from Silverbrook Farm. We didn't want to turn on the oven in our rental apartment to roast it, so Penny remembered a Jacques Pepin cooking technique for cooking fresh vegetables in a little water and a bit of butter. We both loved the result.

After returning home, we located a Jacques Pepin video with instructions for what he calls Asparagus Ragout. (This dish is first up on this the program.)

Via Wikipedia we found this about Ragout, "The term comes from the French ragoûter, meaning: 'to revive the taste." The Italian ragù (the word being borrowed from French) is a sauce such as Ragù Napoletano used typically to dress pasta."

While this farm fresh asparagus did not need reviving, this method of cooking it certainly results in great flavor complete with a light sauce. (Naturally, Ed selected his favorite utensil – a slice of fresh bread – and sopped up every drop of the sauce remaining on his plate.)

When we returned to Boston, we bought more asparagus at the Atlas Farm stand at the Copley Square Farmers Market and had a second supper of lovely, local asparagus.

We do peel the stalks and this time we had watched the video and followed Jacques' method. If you have the time, you can make an asparagus soup from the trimmings.

We highly recommend this quick and easy cooking method for many of the fresh, local vegetable you'll be gathering at local markets this summer.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino

May 30, 2018