Tarragon Chicken

If you follow this blog, you know we like chicken.  With that in mind, we searched the internet for a new recipe for a chicken dish.  We came across a Tarragon Chicken at myrecipes.com.  Since we still have some tarragon growing in the south forty of the gardens, we decided this would be a great dish to try out.  We combined the chicken with left over sautéed vegetables from last night and some roasted butternut squash.  I fix the butternut squash by cutting it into small pieces, drizzling olive oil over it, and sprinkling roasted cumin, salt, pepper, and nutmeg over it all.  As a side note, use fresh ground nutmeg … the difference is surprising.   By the way, when fixed this way, the butternut squash tastes and looks very similar to sweet potatoes (without the carbs).

            We paired the dinner with a 2010 Dogajolo Toscano.   This is a Sangiovese & Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Tuscany Italy which we purchased from Costco for about $10 a bottle.  Although I have to admit, we selected this bottle  because we liked the pretty label, it turned out to be a good wine that went very well with the dinner and even better with the chocolate!

White Again

Well we once again dived into our Cuisine for Two cookbook and found another new recipe.  This was for a Moroccan Spiced Halibut with sautéed vegetables and lemon parsley couscous.  The halibut had a delicious crust, the vegetables were fresh with a citrus flavor and the couscous was creamy and rich.  All in all, it was an excellent meal with only one problem … what wine to pair with it.

After a lot of soul searching we decided on a white?  That’s right, I said a white.  The Chateau St. Michelle Indian Wells Chardonnay turned out to be an excellent choice.  With flavors of pineapple and mango, it complemented the dinner perfectly!  And for a white wine it went ok with the chocolate.

Pepper Pork

We once again dived into the “Cuisine for Two” cookbook to find an alternative for dinner tonight.  When I stumbled on the recipe for pepper pork, I knew we had found another alternative to our regular Cruz Bay Grill Rub pork.  This recipe included pork with a spicy ground pepper corn crust and a delicious sauce with apple juice and calvados.  The menu also included an apple barley salad which went very well with the pork and roasted broccoli.  All in all, the dinner was excellent (however the sauce was fantastic).

This was paired with a 2009 Pinot Noir from France.  Red Bicyclette is a light wine which should pair well with poultry and seafood.  Although it was not a truly epic match, the wine did go well with the pork and just as well with the chocolate.

Maybe White?

We ran across a fantastic new book with healthy recipes called “Cuisine for Two” (before you tell me this has existed for years, let me state that it is at least new to us).   Anyway, the first dinner we decided to create was Pistachio Fish with Pineapple Rice.  The baked halibut with a pistachio crust was a great change from our usual way of cooking fish (with the island fish spice) and the pineapple rice was fantastic and a recipie we may try in the future with pork.

Unfortunately we tried to pair this dinner with one of our favorite red wines.  Les Enfants Terribles, is a 2009 blend of Mourvedre and Syrah.  At $8 per bottle this has become a wine we really enjoy.  However, I have to admit it did not pair very well with the fish and probably for the first time in a long time (maybe forever), I have to admit a white wine would have paired better.  We actually had a good white wine last night (a Chateau St Michelle Indian Wells Chardonnay) that would have paired perfectly with this dinner.  I know Tom … but this realization is probably what caused the earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods we have been plagued with.

On the flip side I can categorically state that the wine went perfectly with the chocolate!

German Heritage

My father thought I should pay some homage to my own heritage by sampling some traditional German fare in this blog.  So I thought, what could be more German than Sausage and Sauerkraut?   We bought some spicy chorizo chicken sausage from Wegmans.  These are not only low in fat, they are also very tasty.  We paired it with some sauerkraut we also purchased from Wegmans.  I split the sausages lengthwise and sautéed them in a pan, heated up the sauerkraut and had the start of a great dinner.  We had decided to make sandwiches with this combination so we purchased a loaf of focachia bread; split it and cut it into sandwich sized pieces.  Now all we needed was some Thousand Island dressing for the sandwich but (oh-no) we did not have any!  So my creative wife decided to try to make her own version.  She combined mayo, ketchup, relish, and some mustard and thereby made a great spread for the sandwiches.  Lastly, we added some whole wheat taco chips.

The only question was what drink to pair with the sandwiches.  If I were to follow my usual rule of thumb (pair food with wine from the same region) I guess I would pair the meal with Riesling or more likely some German beer.  Unfortunately we had neither so I selected a Spanish Tempranillo.  Campo Viejo is a 2005 Reserva which I have to say successfully complemented the sausage.  Of course it also went well with the German chocolate for dessert.