Category: Food & Wine

Photo Friday: Luscious

This is my Photo Friday photo entry for the theme luscious. Nick and I spent a weekend last April touring Woodinville wineries, where we discovered DiStefano’s Syrah, which is the very definition of luscious. Dark, plummy, and ohh so tasty! Other favorites from the weekend included:

• JM Cellars - one of the best kept secrets in Woodinville, we’ve been back several times to the winery for tastings and are never disappointed
• DeLille - What can I say?! Doyenne, D2 and their Chaleur Estate blanc are some of the best wines in Washington; you pay a pretty price for them too
• Paige - I think they are actually from Gig Harbor, not Woodinville; they make two wines, both are worth trying
• Facielli - When you don’t want to splurge on the spendier wines, wines from these guys are great alternatives.
• Matthews - Even though they make a very limited run of each wine, they have a good selection, and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch

Eat Smart Play Hard

If you’re anything like me, you’re tired of hearing about the low-carb, high-protein diet plans like South Beach or Atkins. Not only are they boring and one dimensional, they’re expensive to maintain and sap you of the energy required to exercise and stay active. Enter Eat Smart, Play Hard by Liz Applegate.

Whether you spend all day on a golf course, hours in a bike saddle, 45 minutes at a local running trail or a half-hour on a weight bench, it’s no doubt that eating well can help you perform better. Eat Smart, Play Hard offers advice on fueling your body to maximize your effort and minimize your recovery time.

In part 1 of the book - New Fueling Basics - Applegate offers a revised food pyramid. She adapts the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid to fit an active lifestyle, relecting a greater need for nutrients, fluids and yes, fats. She also offers the latest information on how to eat smartly befor, during and after exercise. In part 2 of the book - Advances in Fitness Eating - you get the most up to date research on energy bars, gels, sports drinks, supplements and performance foods. What works, what doesn’t and what falls somewhere in between. Part 3 - Eat to Reach Your Goals - talks about eating for 14 specific fitness pursuits, including the Weekend Warrior approach to fitness.

This book has been criticised for being overly simplistic or too common sense. I found the detailed diet plans for morning, noon, afternoon and evening exercise worth the cost of the book alone. The revised food pyramid was also a refreshing dose of sound nutritional advice in the sea of high protein nonsense. Even if you think you’re nutrition-saavy, I’d recommend picking up a copy.

Happy Thanksgiving

From left to right: Doug, Bari, Nick, Lesley, Carry, Karen, Bruce, Dave, Mark, Jason, and Sam

Thanksgiving started - as it should - with a little pre-emptive calorie burning. Eleven of us met in North Bend for a quick hike up Little Si in the mist. The views weren’t great, but the company sure was! Three people are missing from the summit shot: my brother Brian and two of his friends. Apparently, they got to the trailhead after we left and went on their own off-trail adventure. They might not have made it to the summit, but it sounds like they had a good time anyway.

After the hike, the family met at the Brown household in Woodinville for some holiday cheer and delicious turkey.

Of all the things I’m thankful for today, I have to say that I’m most thankful that Nick and I live near our families and that we can enjoy a meal together. It’s the simple things that are most important. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Beets Revisited

Nick and I have been turned off by beets since the sliced, slightly mushy pickled variety turned up at the dinner table when we were young. Neither of us had eaten them in years (or even thought of eating them), but we suspected that there had to be more to this humble, crimson root. We decided to give them another chance - this time, cooked fresh, in a savory soup.

The results totally surprised us! The soup was silky in texture, deliciously earthy and - best of all - a shocking color of red. We swirled a bit of sour cream on the top for effect and served it with spicy sweet potato wedges.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it yourself:

Savory Beet Soup

Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 45 minutes

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup onion—chopped
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 medium beets—peeled and halved
1 medium potato—peeled and halved
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon lemon juice
8 teaspoons lowfat sour cream

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Add broth and next six ingredients (through bay leaf). Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes or until beets and potato are tender. Discard bay leaf.

Place one-third broth mixture in blender or food processor; process until smooth. Place pureed mixture in a large bowl. Repeat procedure twice with remaining broth mixture. Return pureed mixture to pan. Warm soup over low heat for 5 minutes or until heated through. Remove from heat, and stir in lemon juice.

Combine 1/2 cup soup and the sour cream, stirring with a whisk. Place 3/4 cup soup in a bowl and top with 1 tablespoon sour cream mixture; swirl sour cream using tip of a knife.

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Per Serving: 63 Calories; 2g Fat (22.4% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1mg Cholesterol; 415mg Sodium.

Stay tuned. We still have the beet greens and will be trying those next!

Food at the Bobbie Burns

More on our heli-hiking experience: Food at the Bobbie Burns was phenomenal - tasty and beautifully presented. Even with all the hiking we did during the day, it was easy to develop the well-known “heli-belly.”

Looking at the dinner menu on the second day, we weren’t sure what “Sexy Swans” were. Needless to say we had a little fun with the cute cream puffs when they arrived on the table.