Quickfire - Zinfandel 2006

Normally I wouldn't expect much from a wine sponsored by a television show, but as a long time fan of Top Chef, I figured what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

Someone over at Top Chef put the Terlato Wine Group in charge of the Quickfire wines, and with 50 years of experience, I think they know what they're doing.

I was pleasantly surprised with this wine. It's smooth with soft tannins, fruity and spicy. Characteristics I always look for in my reds. When I label search and read tasting notes, I try to find those words, any fruit related words, cocoa, chocolate, and usually get wines I'm happy with, taking notes to never buy again anything that isn't good.

The tasting notes for Quickfire Zinfandel read: Rich, dark rose. The nose captures brambly blackberry fruit. Anise, blueberry and black cherry notes flow through on the palate.

If you find this one in the store, give it a shot. Pairs well with pretty much anything that can hold up to a spicy fruity red! So don't have this with some halibut! Stick to your red meats, hearty pastas and of course Pizza!

Enjoy!

Bethesda Community Store Barbecue

The Bethesda Community Store (BCS) has been around a lot longer then I have, sitting in an ideal location across the street from NIH on Old Georgetown. I've often thought it was a perfect location for a BBQ joint.. in a town that's in much need of some good down home cooking. Now I've dreamed of having my own little BBQ trailer at this spot ever since I saw BCS for the first time. Someone has beat me too it.

BCS now has a little Wood Cabin smoker trailer parked on the lot for walk up BBQ, and you can smell the delicious smoke from a mile away.

Their menu consist of the normals, Brisket, Chicken, Pork, sides, etc.. and oddly enough Lobster Rolls. Just walk up and place your order...

 ...and then wait what seems like a ridiculous amount of time for something that probably finished cooking many hours earlier and is just kept warm.

I ordered the Pulled Pork platter with cole slaw and Mac & Cheese. The pulled pork was decent, but not great. I've had better, I've had worse. It had a lot of fat, was a little chewy, under smoked for my taste and lacked any seasoning. I like spices on my BBQ! The BBQ sauce was average. I got the hot, which it was not. The cole slaw seemed like your typical mayo based slaw sold in containers and so did the Mac & Cheese... terrible. Why did I wait nearly 20 minutes for this? There were maybe 4 people in front of me, and none of this stuff takes that kind of time to put in a container, it should all be ready to go in just a few minutes.

It was all kind of a big let down. I had high expectations and I do have really high standards when it comes to BBQ, and specific taste... so if any of you ever try this place out, I'd love to know your thoughts. In the mean time, I'll just make the further trip up to Urban BBQ in Rockville, MD when I'm craving some Q.. or make it myself.


Bethesda Community Store
8804 Old Georgetown Rd
Bethesda, MD 20814

Allagash - Curieux

Wikipedia is telling me that the nectar of the gods was sometimes termed as Ambrosia. But ambrosia is something of a disgusting recipe families often make for Thanksgiving diner because just one relative has to have it, and then there's lots of leftover marshmallow - sour cream - pineapple - pecan - cherry mess that ultimately hits the garbage can once someone overcomes the loss of such fine ingredients.. that just never should have been mixed together and called a salad to being with.

But I digress..  Let's talk about the true nectar of the gods, Beer! I'm pretty picky about beer, so when I find a great one, I gotta tell everyone about it. Not too long ago, after thinking I'd never find a beer as good as Dogfish Head's 90min IPA.. I stumbled on this one: Allagash - Curieux.

Brewed in small batches at Allagash Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, this amazing beer is barrel aged in Jim Beam bourbon barrels for 8 weeks before being bottled and distributed.

Allagash describes this beer perfectly:
During the aging process in bourbon barrels, the beer is totally transformed, and many new flavors and aromas develop. Most notably, the beer picks up soft coconut and vanilla characteristics...and also a hint of bourbon flavor!

Those flavors pop out distinctively, and this beer is meant to be enjoyed slowly, sips at a time, savoring the amazing flavors that Allagash has been about to develop. I can't say enough good things about it, if you love beer.. you have to try this!


750ml bottle and 11.0% APV

Pizza!

 There are literally billions of pizza topping combinations that are possible! I'm serious! There is math behind that madness.. if there were just 20 options of toppings and you only put 5 on your pizza you're already well over a million different combinations you can make.. trust me! 20! / 15! = 1,860,480...  don't make me pull out a proof for that!

Since we like to eat healthy, Chicken and Veggies are a big hit in my family! You can do whatever toppings you like, but this guide will get you started with your basic tomato sauce and cheese pizza.

I've already walked you through the dough process.. now it's time to get your eat on!

What you need:
Flour
Cornmeal
Dough
Toppings (Pizza Sauce, Chicken Breast, Mozzarella, Onion, Broccoli, Red Pepper)
Pizza Stone
Pizza Peel


I have had an Old Stone Oven pizza stone for around 10 years and love it!




Any nice 14" peel will do. I say 14" because the stone is 14" and so you know you can make the pizza exactly the same size on the peel as the stone.

Having a nice pizza wheel helps with the cutting!

Recipe:

1. Put your pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees. The oven should heat for about 20 minutes once at the 500 degree mark to get the stone really hot. The whole point of the stone is to retain that 500 degrees and cook the heck out of your cust, so you have a nice crusty crust when the pizza is done. You won't regret the small investment in the tools to do pizza right.. and you'll never order pizza out again once you practice it at home, saving you tons!

 If you're making a chicken pizza, season your chicken to your liking and put your chicken breast in now and cook for 30 minutes. 1 to 1 1/2 chicken breast are usually enough for a pizza.

2. Prepare your other ingredients. For the Onion, Broccoli and Red Pepper, I chop around 3/4 cup worth of each, maybe 1/2 cup on the onion. Grate an 8 oz ball of Mozzarella. Chop the chicken once its cooked.

3. Prepare your dough:
Remove it from the bag using some flour on your hands and adding some to the outside of the dough as needed. Cover the dough in a light amount of flour so that it won't stick to the counter while you're working with it. Also put some on the counter where you will be working with the dough.

4. Put your hands on the dough just inside from the edge, in order to form an edge for the crust of the pizza.

5. Gently spread your hands apart, stretching the dough, and turning the dough in a circle after each stretch, so that you're continually stretching a new part of the dough as you go. Continue until your dough is roughly 14" in diameter, the same width as the peel.

You should be able to stretch the dough in this manor with out ever lifting it off the table. You can get fancy and twirl it in the air.. but that's for another post ;o)   and no, you can't use the dough if you drop it on the floor.. especially if you have a dog!

 If you're having a hard time stretching it, you can also lift the dough and work it around in a circle that way. If you get a tear in the dough, lay it flat on the counter and try to remove the tear by closing the opening and mending the dough back together.

6. Cover your peel in some CORNMEAL and place the dough on it. The cornmeal will allow the pizza to slide off the peel easily. Shake the peel a little to make sure your dough can slide off. If the dough is over stretched, you can usually play with it a little to get it to shrink back to the size of the peel.

 
7. We like to coat the crust in a little olive oil and sprinkle on some Brady Street from Penzy's Spices. This is a cheese sprinkle of theirs that gives the crust a really nice flavor.. this is especially good if you think crust is boring plain, like we do!

 8. Ladle on your sauce  and spread it around evenly. Don't go too heavy or your pizza might be sloppy. The crust needs to be able to hold the weight of all your toppings and the sauce can be one of the heaviest.

9. Sprinkle on your mozzarella and then all your other toppings. Again, don't go so heavy your crust can't take the weight of them.

As you are topping your pizza, double check you can still slide it off the peel. A few careful quick back and forths can usually get it unstuck.

10. When you're ready to cook, open your oven and pull out the stone. Heavily sprinkle it with some cornmeal to prevent your pizza from sticking to it. Cornmeal is best because it doesn't burn like flour and doesn't have much taste, usually not even sticking to the pizza anyway.

11. Carefully slide your pizza onto the stone. Sometimes getting the leading edge onto the stone will help pull off the rest if you do end up with a sticking problem.

12. Shut the oven up and cook for around 12 minutes, checking around 10 and 11. You want the crust to be nicely browned, but not overly so! This will vary based on your oven.. so watch carefully and learn the time it takes in yours. You should be able to lift the crust and check the underside to make sure it's fully cooked. Also you can squeeze the crust to feel its denseness.. if it's soft, give it a little more time.

13. Pull it out and let it rest on a cutting board. The sauce, cheese and any water that has come out of your veggies needs a few minutes to solidify again. Otherwise, when you cut it, it'll all run under and ruin your pieces making them soggy.. or your toppings will all fall off when you pick up a piece!

14. Slice it up and enjoy!

Pizza Dough!

I promised a lot of people I'd show you how I make pizza dough. My wife and I have pizza and wine night nearly every Friday.. ya, we're lame.. but after a long hard week, it's nice to have a night in to relax.

The recipe makes 3 balls, so I usually make it on a Thursday, so 1 ball is ready for Friday night and the other 2 can be frozen for the following Fridays.

Recipe:
1 packet rapid rise yeast
1 cup hot tap water
2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/4 cups ice cold water
5 1/4 cups flour (bread or all purpose)

Start by getting your cup of hot tap water and lightly mixing in the contents of the yeast packet. This needs to rest for at least 5 minutes to get the yeast to start doing their job.

While that's working, get 1 1/4 cups of cold water from the tap and drop an ice cube in to get it ice cold. You can also mix in the olive oil, salt and sugar. This time I used 1 tbs. + 1 tsp. of Penzey's Garlic Salt to add some garlic flavor to the dough.

Remove the ice cube if it's not melted by the time the yeast is ready.

Load your 5 1/4 cups of flour into your mixing bowl. I highly recommend a stand mixer with a dough hook, because kneading the dough is a lot of work, but it's not impossible if you don't have one.

Combine your wet ingredients together into one container, and slowly add them to your running mixer. I use a low speed, like 2 on my mixer.

Let the mixer run 10-15 minutes.. if the dough climbs up the hook, stop the mixer and push it back down. The longer you run it the better.. you want it to really knead the heck out of the dough. It should turn into a really smooth and somewhat dry ball. If it's wet, add just a little more flour to the mixer till you get a nice smooth dough ball wrapped around the hook.

You can knead by hand, folding the dough in half and pounding it together over and over till you get a really smooth ball like the mixer would have. It's just a serious workout for your arms!

Cut the ball into 3 even pieces. I use a food scale to get them even.. I don't want a small pizza one night and a large another!

 

Next you want to fold each of the pieces into a ball, making it smooth on one side and folding the edges in together to make a ball on the other side.

As you form the ball, the top side, where you're bringing the edges together to make a ball need to be pinched together so you end up with a nice tight ball.

 The bottom should look like this:

 And the top, the pinched side, like this:

Takes a little practice, but you'll get it!

Give them a light dusting of flour and put each one in a 1 quart zip lock bag.

Let them sit in the fridge for around 24 hours to rise. Use them then, or freeze them for another day. If you freeze them, take them out of the freezer and put them in the fridge 24 hours before use. 

Let sit on the counter 30-60 min before making pizza!

Once you get this down, you'll never want to order out again!

Good luck!

This book has a bunch of great recipes for dough and pizza. The above recipe is basically right out of the book. It's fantastic!

This is the mixer I use, and it's great for a lot of things, but making dough is the primary thing I use it for!

...and a bottle!

I believe that there are many many truly exceptional wines in the 10-20 dollar range at the store. My favorite store in the area that sells wine and beer being Total Wine! Every few months my wife and I will make the pilgrimage to Alexandria, VA or McLean, VA and get a case of wine. Check their site for tastings, it's the best day to go and happens most weekends! 


I try to get a mix of mostly $10-12 and a couple $20ish bottles. There are some wines we know and love and we often will get a couple of those, but the rest we gamble on. Read the labels, read the tasting notes, ask the employees.. unlike other stores, the people there know what they're talking about!

Last Saturday I cooked up some tuna for my wife and scallops for myself. When we make a higher quality meal then your normal baked chicken (which we eat nearly every night of the week).. sometimes I like to break out a new bottle of wine that was priced near my max range on wine. This was one of those nights!

 2009 Zinfandel "Mischievous" by MACCHIA

This was a wine we tasted a few months ago at a tasting at Total Wine, but I forgot how much I liked it. I'm no expert, but I would describe it as really fruity, very jammy and smooth. I think you can pretty much get an idea for what that would taste like, but think blackberry, cherry, and raspberry jam in wine form.. and that's pretty much it. I loved it! This wine cost around $20.. and is perfect for a special occasion. Best with food items that can stand up to a hearty wine. Steaks, spicy foods, foods with strong flavor. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

It all begins with a message...

I've thought about this for a long time, but it's time to begin my own blog. I eat, I drink, I dine, I cook and I want to share this all with you. I'm just an average foodie in the Washington, DC area. I don't dine at super expensive restaurants that often, or buy high priced bottles of wine. Truly great meals come at prices under 30 a plate and wine well under 20 dollars a bottle. I'm no expert, but I'm opinionated. Maybe my experiences will help you gain new experiences or find something new you love! I hope you enjoy my blog!