Over this weekend, I had the reason to go poking around my freezer(s) looking for stuff. I came up with the usual assortment of things like bags of frozen peas, carrots and corn, some rockfish filets from Ms Cocktail’s cousin, a couple of tubs of mole from the last time I made it, a tub of chipotle chile sauce for fish, a couple of chicken breasts, 2 racks of baby back ribs, 2 bags of shrimp shells and a bag of chicken bones. Now, I know that you are all asking, what the hell are shrimp shells and chicken bones doing in the freezer? Shouldn’t you have thrown them out?

The answer is no, I always save these types of things when I can. You can add to this list beef, pork and fish bones. The reason? I make my own stock from them. Anyone who cooks always has stock around. Go to your cabinet and pull a can or box of stock out and read the list of ingredients. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

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For whatever reason, this article didn’t come easy for me. Spring is in the air here in Northern Virginia and I just  can’t seem to focus on things like I want to. I look out in my yard and as the snow has receded, all I can see is the  myriad of branches that have fallen from the trees making the yard look like a giant game of pick up sticks. All those will have to be cleaned up before I can break out the mower. Of course, there’s the annual maintenance on the mower and let’s not forget over seeding the lawn. This winter took a harsh toll on what little grass I’ve managed to get growing out there.

It’s also the time of the year when the good folks at the wineries head on out to inspect the damage the winter brought to the vineyards. I sincerely hope that no one took too large of a hit. Here in Virginny we had several feet of snow dumped on us. Grape vines are hearty and I know the ones in New York and in other regions regularly get that kind of treatment so all should be well. Still, unexpected weather can make things hard on folks and the snowfall here was definitely unexpected.

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Way back in the day, Ms Cocktail and I used to frequent an establishment in Willimantic, Ct called the Victorian  Lady. Not only was it the best restaurant in all of Willimantic, it also had the huge bonus of being staggering distance from our abode. That meant that we could get stupid drunk and not have to worry about driving a vehicle. So to recap, good food + walking distance = many fun (perhaps forgotten) nights.

One of the things on the menu there that totally rocked was an appetizer of steamed mussels. They would steam them with a touch of garlic and a touch of wine. It was a nice light little taste. Being the seafood lover that I am, I was hooked on those things. When we moved out of Connecticut to Pennsylvania, mussels were one of the sea foods that we could still get. So I set a out to recreate this recipe in my own in you face style.

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To anyone that has ever been to New Orleans, the city is about much more than just Mardi Gras. The architecture,  music, culture and cuisine make it a special city in so many subtle and different ways. However, there is a certain sense of unbridled passion that appears there during Mardi Gras. Friendly faces are everywhere, there crowds of people aren’t nasty, but looking to extend a helping hand as everyone let’s go of their inhibitions for just a little while.

For those of you that have been following me here and on Facebook, you’ll know that I threw a dinner party last Saturday and that it was a Mardi Gras themed meal. I know, it was just a little late seeing that the previous Tuesday was Fat Tuesday, but seeing as the previous weekend was Valentine’s Day, well, we just didn’t want to stack our celebrations.

Those same people will also note that I’ve been talking about dialing in the recipe for Hurricanes. Having been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I’ve also had the pleasant experience of having a Hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s in the heart of the French Quarter. It is after all, the quintessential New Orleans drink. So I dutifully set out to duplicate that drink for this dinner. In those regards, I failed. However, I did come up with something almost completely, but not totally unlike a Hurricane that was extremely delicious in it’s own right. So I trotted it out as a pre-dinner drink and it was very well received (BTW, I served several items that I’ve previously blogged about, but the Cajun Grilled Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms were the food star of the evening). However, since it wasn’t a Hurricane, I asked our guests to come up with a name for this concoction. It was our friend Kim that came up with the name of Who Dat Daiquiri and it is this name that the drink shall be known as going forward.

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As most of you know, the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C. area has been slammed with several snowfalls that have virtually crippled this area. A week later and we are still trying to dig out from under the mess that Mother Nature (MN) left us. We were pretty well prepared for this type of thing having grown up in Connecticut and spending time in Central Pennsylvania, we’re very accustomed to heavy snowfalls and the associated hunkering down and the subsequent digging out.

While we were picking up those last minute things at the local megamart to tide us over during the last blast from MN, Ms Cocktail spied something on the shelf of the beer aisle and brought it to my attention. It was a beer from the New Holland Brewery called Cabin Fever. She said that if there was ever a beer calling out to us, this was the one. I heartily agreed, knowing that being cooped up in my house for over a week would certainly lead to a case of Cabin Fever.

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Today finds us back in Spain and specifically in the DO Bierzo which is located in the worthwest of Spain in the province of León. It is located in a mountainous region but the area contains numerous small valleys and a   microclimate that is great for viticulture. It is from this region that Vinos de Arganza produces the Flavium Bierzo Crianza. To break down this name, Flavium is the wine label, Bierzo is the Region and Cianza is the specific style of wine which is governed by specific rules from the DO. In this case, a Crianza must be aged at least 6 months in oak and 18 months in the bottle.

For those of you wondering, the varietal of grape this wine is made from is Mencia. At one time it was thought that Mencia was an ancestor of the Cabernet Franc grape. Alas, DNA testing shows that it is not related to Cab Franc at all and that it is actually identical to an obscure Portuguese varietal. Or should I say that the Portuguese varietal is identical to it. In either case, this wine is made from 100% Mencia grapes.

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There was a time when I didn’t live in the snow covered wastelands of Northern Virginia. I lived in the snow covered hills of Central Pennsylvania, specifically in State College, Pennsylvania, home of the Pennsylvania State University. I did however, have a good friend that I’ve known since high school who did live in the snow covered wastelands of Northern Virginia, specifically Manassas, Virginia home of…well, pretty much nothing unless you like Civil War museums.

Now this friend, we shall call him Damian since that’s his name, had gone and gotten his pilot’s license. That alone should have been a bone chilling thought but being a good friend, I was very supportive of any endeavor that provided personal growth, no matter how dangerous that growth might be. One fine spring morning, I get a call from Damian announcing that he now had his pilot’s license and that he was going to buzz up to State College and pick up Ms Cocktail and I and where would we like to go?

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I know. You’re asking yourself why would I ever want to make this myself when I can just buy a package of the dry mix, add some butter and/or milk and be done with it? Well, the answer is actually pretty simple. It is just about as easy to make it from scratch as it is to make one of those mixes and it tastes a damn sight better this way. The only thing that puts people off is that you should use a double boiler to make it. The reason for using a double boiler is so that you limit the amount of heat getting to the eggs and that they don’t set too quickly. A professional chef can skip the double boiler and make the sauce over very low heat. That means lots of practice for everyone else.

Ok, so the whole idea behind hollandaise sauce is that eggs are used to help thicken the butter to make a sauce. In order for this to happen, there needs to be lots of little bubbles in the eggs for the butter to get in to so that when the egg sets, the butter is trapped inside.  That is why you have to beat the eggs quickly and often, before, during and after adding the butter to the eggs. A wire whisk is the preferred tool for doing this as it helps to make a lot more little bubbles than any other type of implement you could choose.

So with these thoughts in mind, here’s how to make Hollandaise Sauce.

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I’m sure that each and every one of us has had this meal at some point in our lives. Everyone’s mom knows how to make spaghetti sauce. It’s a great meal for a family, you make a big vat of the sauce and throw it in the freezer, it feeds a lot of people and it makes a relatively inexpensive meal. The problem is that while most people can make a version of this dish, most people don’t know how to do it correctly. Well, I’m here to rectify that situation. Please hurry along, we have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of stops to make to day so no dillydallying.

There are three components to the classic spaghetti and meatballs dinner, the spaghetti, the meatballs and the sauce. Almost everyone spends most of their time on the sauce, a lot less time on the meatballs and almost no time on the spaghetti. This is a problem. You see, since the spaghetti makes up the majority of the stuff on the plate, it should be the thing that absolutely, positively must be cooked correctly for everything to come out right.

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Those of you that have been following this blog for a while will notice that while I do rate a fair number of wines,  most of them are in the under $25 category. There is a reason for this, I’m not rich. I would love to be dropping big bucks every night on a wine that is supposedly fantastic or have a wine cellar where I can just immediately pop down and grab a world class wine at a moment’s notice. Sadly, that just isn’t the case.

However, what I have found is that I can go and have a fair bit of fun searching for those wines that represent great value and excitement in that under $25 category. Seriously, when you come across something that just blows you away and you’ve only spent $12 on it, that is an awesome find. You can go back and buy a case (getting the appropriate discount) and stash a bunch away for whenever you want them. That’s my goal, to find those underpriced gems and to let you folks know about them as well.

Today’s offering falls squarely in the category of underpriced gem. It is a Spanish wine from Bodegas Eguren in Vitoria and it has two things going for it. First, it comes in at right around $10 a bottle which really makes me smile. Second, it is made from blend of grapes not usually seen in Spanish wines. the Tempranillo grape for sure is Spanish, perhaps being the most common Spanish grape out there. The Shiraz grape however, is a grape better known from other regions, principally Australia and the west coast of the United States and France where it is known as Syrah. In fact, since the grape is typically known by the Syrah name in Europe, it is a bit of a surprise to see it called Shiraz here. (For a more thorough discussion on name of the Shiraz/Syrah grape, you can start with the Syrah page on Wikipedia.)

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