#lynfred

[brookiecookiebling]

Me and my bestie!! Enjoying some much needed girl time and #wineallday #lynfred #lynfredwinery #grapesallday #wineisafruit https://www.instagram.com/p/ByvrJsGjphj/?igshid=1xoqwuz4iqlar

[djerge]

#lynfred #octoberfest (at Lynfred Winery)

[lynfred]

Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

Hey all, it's been awhile since we posted. We had a major fire in our home around two weeks ago - everyone is safe and OK (thank goodness!) but it was almost a total loss of our possessions, including the pictures we took for the Chocolate Chip and Bacon cookies from last month.

Anyways, I can't think of a better way to combat feeling down about something really bad happening than to have some chocolate chip cookies with bacon in them alongside a glass or two of wine :)

So, that being said, here's the recipe for them:

INGREDIENTS 

2 c. all-purpose flour 

½ tsp. baking soda 

½ tsp. salt 

¾ c. unsalted butter, softened 

¾ c. packed dark brown sugar 

¾ c. sugar 

1 tbsp. vanilla extract 

2 eggs 

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips 

1 c. cooked bacon, cooled and chopped into small pieces 

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 325F. 

Cream butter and sugars together with the paddle attachment of your mixer, just until light and fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together in another bowl. Beat eggs and vanilla extract together in a third bowl. Add of the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl with the creamed butter/sugar mixture and beat into the mixture until it is fully incorporated. Add half the egg mixture and another of the dry ingredients, then beat again until fully incorporated. Repeat; all ingredients except chocolate chips and bacon pieces should now be fully incorporated into the cookie dough in your mixer bowl.

Stir chocolate chips and bacon pieces into the dough. Scoop with disher* onto sheet pans with parchment paper or oven-safe silicon baking mats, leaving 2-3 inches of space between the balls. Will make 1-2 dozen, depending on the size of your cookies.

*If you don’t have a disher, you can use spoons to drop dough onto your cookie sheets, but their sizes will vary slightly.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned and no longer give easily when touched.

ENJOY!!

EK & LK

[lynfred]

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breast Roulade

to be paired with the Lynfred Viognier

One of these days I swear I'm gonna buy that miniature home picture studio.

http://www.amazon.com/Sakar-PS-103-Portable-Lighing-Studio/dp/B000UUR23S

Anyhow, there were a whole lot of bacon recipes during the month of February - and one more coming up this month. It was hard to choose which one to do at first but then we saw the word "roulade" and wanted to try it out again - this time with some plastic wrap over the meat.

http://lynfred.tumblr.com/post/162166913/italian-roulade-served-with-a-2006-barbera-and

Everyone knows that anything wrapped in bacon is better than anything else.

Anything wrapped actually is better than anything else - I already have talked about how much I love anything if it's wrapped in a tortilla. I don't see how you could wrong with making any kind of roulade either. The cool thing about roulade is you can use so many different kinds of meat and basically an infinite number of fillings and you'll get a different meal each time. Definitely try it out if you haven't yet. Ok let's get to it.

INGREDIENTS 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 6-8 strips of bacon 2 c. baby spinach ½ c. onion, diced ¼ c. red wine vinegar Fresh mozzarella, sliced

-> Fresh mozzarella has gotta be in my top 5 favorite food things in life.

1 tbsp butter Salt and pepper, to taste

PREPARATION Preheat oven to 350F. Melt butter in a skillet and saute onion until it softens and begins to brown. Add baby spinach and cook just until wilted, stirring as needed to cook evenly.

Deglaze pan with red wine vinegar and cook until most of the vinegar has evaporated. Allow to cool to room temperature.

While spinach mixture is cooling, butterfly chicken breasts and stick each newly butterflied breast between two sheets of plastic wrap. Pound out thin and flat with a skillet. The plastic wrap will keep the raw chicken and its juices contained to minimize the mess.

-> The plastic wrap blurb above is one of the most important directions in a recipe that you will ever follow.

Pull the top piece of plastic wrap off of each chicken breast. Spoon cooled spinach mixture into the middle of each chicken breast; do not overfill. Put a couple of pieces of sliced fresh mozzarella on top of the spinach mixture. Gently fold the chicken breast up and over the filling, so the filling is completely surrounded. (You want the juices and melted mozzarella to stay inside the chicken breast as you cook it later.)

Wrap 3 pieces of bacon around each chicken breast. Depending on the size of each stuffed chicken breast, you may need a fourth piece of bacon to completely surround the chicken.

-> Don't be afraid to really get in there and wrap everything up tight. You can wash your hands later.

Place bacon-wrapped chicken breasts in an oven-safe pan and bake in oven for 45 minutes. Bacon should be cooked and chicken should no longer be pink inside. Enjoy immediately.

[lynfred]

Fried Coconut Shrimp

from Lynfred Winery Chef Chris Smith to be paired with the Lynfred Seyval Blanc

I've always said that really good cooks don't leave a clean kitchen after cooking. This one got messy but was delicious when all was said and done.  As you will see from the below pictures, I ended up just basically piling all the shrimp together into a big mound and tossing it with the coconut shreds and the batter.  The only thing I would really do differently is to spend the extra money on the large shrimp. 

I cheaped out like I normally do and bought about a pound and a half of the small shrimp around 12.99USD / pound instead of the larger shrimp which was at around 25 bucks a pound.  I quickly ran out of batter as well so I would say to double that as well.  Also regarding the shrimp if you get say 12 large shrimp it'll come in well under a pound so you might end up paying the same price.

What else?  Oh, the dipping sauce...this is the stuff you get when you go to a restaurant. I'm not a fan of it in general so really didn't use the sauce we made.  However if you like it, save the ingredients here because it was super easy to make from scratch.  Food!

Shrimp Ingredients

Vegetable oil for frying ½ cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon baking powder 2/3 cup water 2 cups shredded sweetened coconut ½ cup panko bread crumbs

-> Make sure to specifically look for the panko.  It should be right by the regular bread crumbs. Panko is crunchier and bigger and is better to bread things.

1 ½ pounds medium or large shrimp, peeled and deveined

-> See note above about the shrimp.  Also unless you have a lot of experience cooking shrimp I would just got the pre-cooked stuff - it's the ones that are already pinkish.

Dipping Sauce Ingredients

½ cup orange marmalade 4 teaspoons rice vinegar ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Shrimp Directions

In a large, heavy pot heat about 2 inches of the oil to 360 degrees.

-> It says to do this first, but I'd wait to heat up the oil until you're ready to start frying. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

Add the water and whisk until smooth.  Let the batter stand for 15 minutes.

In a wide, shallow pan, toss the coconut and bread crumbs together.

-> The coconut will probably clump up on you.  Make sure you break up all the clumps.

Put the shrimp into the batter, one by one, remove the shrimp and dredge in the coconut mixture, pressing to help the coconut adhere.

Fry the shrimp in batches in the hot oil for 1 ½ to 2 minutes or until golden brown.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the shrimp to a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Allow to drain for 1 to 2 minutes.

In a small, non-plastic microwave safe bowl, stir together the dipping sauce ingredients. Microwave on high about 45 seconds or until bubbly. Stir and serve with the shrimp.

ENJOY!

[lynfred]

Cannellini Bean Bruschetta

It's the return of the table!  Contrary to popular belief, the table DOES still exist, but it's usually covered by clutter.  It's amazing how much stuff a tiny human being requires.  Anyways on to the recipe!  Anyone will tell you that I love anything cheesy - in food and in life - and anything spread on bread is always good. We got the bread loaf frozen from Lynfred Wheeling, I think it was 350 for like 10 minutes and was it GOOD.   Onward!

We also did a lot of substitutions, like I said in the last post we're going to call in when we do.

Ingredients

1 cup dried cannellini (white kidney beans) or Great Northern beans, picked over

-> We've found that preparing dried beans takes hours that we don't really have, so we normally do canned beans.  1 cup dried beans = 2 cans of...canned...beans.

2 celery stalks, halved 2 carrots, halved 2 onions, halved 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 4 whole cloves 1 bay leaf 4 tablespoons olive oil 2 large garlic cloves, minced 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

-> We usually just do some kind of Italian cheese mix.

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 4 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage or 1 teaspoon dried 6 1/2-inch-thick slices from large crusty round loaf of white bread 3 garlic cloves, halved

Directions

Place beans in large saucepan. Add enough water to cover beans by 2 inches. Bring to boil. Boil 2 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat. Cover and let stand 1 hour. Drain beans.

-> Because we used canned beans, we were able to just pour the beans into the saucepan (after draining them) and heat them up - only about 5 minutes or so.

Return beans to same saucepan. Add celery stalks, carrots, onions, pepper, cloves and bay leaf.

Add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to boil over high heat. Re duce heat to medium-low and simmer until beans are tender, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. (Beans and vegetables can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

-> Once again, if you used cans, just bring to a boil and simmer while you're prepping everything else...doesn't need to be 45 minutes.

Drain beans, reserving 1/3 cup cooking liquid. Discard vegetables, cloves and bay leaf.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add minced garlic and sauté 30 seconds. Add 2 cups beans (reserve remaining beans for another use), both cheeses, 3 tablespoons parsley, 2 tablespoons butter, rosemary, sage and reserved 1/3 cup cooking liquid.

Stir until cheeses and butter melt, whisking constantly and mashing b eans to form thick chunky sauce. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat broiler. Arrange bread on large baking sheet. Brush top of each bread slice with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Rub with cut side of garlic clove halves. Broil bread until lightly toasted. Transfer bread to plates.

-> We didn't do all the broiling.  We just baked the bread and rubbed with olive oil and garlic and it was delicious.

ENJOY!!

[lynfred]

French Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb

We've 3 weeks left in 2013, and 3 meals left...looking to do one a week and start anew with something different in the posts like we normally do until I forget.  The first thing you might be saying is "hey!  that's not a rack of lamb!"...I've been thinking about talking a bit more of how we do substitutions for ingredients either due to cost, time, or availability.  Will probably start here with this one...

Sauce Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3 pounds lamb stew meat  

-> I believe we used two pounds, and it was ground.  Couldn't find stew meat (which I'm assuming means cubed)

1 pound onions, coarsely chopped 1 large carrot, chopped 4 large garlic cloves, chopped 1 tablespoon herbes de Provence 4 1/3 cups Lynfred Petite Sirah 3 cups low-salt chicken broth 1 tablespoon butter, room temperature 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

Lamb Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh thyme 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh sage

-> OK here's a big one: we've pretty much made the switch from fresh herbs to dry or ground herbs (depending on what it is).  We didn't in particular here because it was so much, but did in next week's recipe where I'll talk more about the conversions, but conversion charts are legion online for anyone looking for a cheaper and easier alternative.

1 tablespoon ground black pepper 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided

-> Remember, unless it says extra virgin, it's ok to use the regular stuff

3, 1.5-pound well-trimmed 8-rib racks of lamb, preferably frenched

 -> Racks of lamb by us run something like TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS A POUND.  So yeah we just usually substitute some type of lamb steak for the rack.

Sauce Directions

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add lamb and sauté until deep brown, turning occasionally, about 18 minutes.  Using tongs, transfer lamb to bowl. 

-> Since we were using ground it didn't take nearly as long, maybe 5-10 minutes.  And obviously used a spoon hehe

Add onions, carrot, garlic, and herbes de Provence to pot. Sauté until vegetables are deep brown, about 8 minutes. Add wine and broth to pot; return lamb and any accumulated juices to pot. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer uncovered 1 1/2 hours. Strain into large bowl, pressing on solids in strainer to release all stock. Spoon off any fat from surface of stock; return stock to same large pot. Simmer until reduced to 1 1/3 cups, about 15 minutes.

-> Below are pictures of the strained and skimmed stock and the solids.

  Mix butter and flour in small bowl to smooth paste.

Whisk paste into stock. Simmer sauce until slightly thickened and smooth, whisking constantly, about 1 minute longer. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Transfer to small saucepan, cover, and chill. Rewarm before using.)

Lamb Directions

Stir fresh herbs and pepper in medium bowl to blend.

Add 2 tablespoons oil and mix until herbs are sticking together. Sprinkle lamb racks with salt. Firmly press 1/3 of herb mixture over rounded side of each rack to cover. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Place on large rimmed baking sheet. Cover; chill.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

-> NOTE: this whole next paragraph can be skipped if you're not doing a rack of lamb.  It works just fine putting what-have-you into the oven.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 lamb rack to skillet, herbed side down. Sauté until browned, about 4 minutes. Turn rack over and sauté until browned, about 3 minutes. Place rack, herbed side up, on rimmed baking sheet. Repeat, fitting remaining racks on same sheet.

Roast lamb until thermometer inserted into center registers 135°F for medium-rare, about 25 minutes. Let lamb rest on sheet 15 to 20 minutes. Cut lamb between bones into individual chops. Arrange 3 chops on each plate. Drizzle with sauce and serve.

ENJOY!!

[lynfred]

Zucchini and Ricotta Fettuccine

Another item in a bowl, yes!  (Longer-time readers know I love everything either wrapped in a tortilla or served in a bowl, in that order.  There's probably a third favorite type out there somewhere).

This was quite an interesting pasta dish.   The zucchini and lemon tastes, for me, actually didn't come to the forefront until the pasta sat in the fridge overnight.  The original taste was just kinda cheesy pasta.  But the next day, look out!  

It was like eating a completely different meal, and that's not a bad thing.  The zucchini stayed fresh and a little lemon goes a long way.   For what this meal is, I felt it was kinda too much work to be honest, not something in the everyday repertoire...but as always, I think everything should be tried once.  Go for it! 

Ingredients

Salt 1 pound pappardelle [the most elusive type of pasta known to man.  whenever we see pappardelle we just get the craziest shaped pasta we can find] 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated Zest of 2 small to medium lemons 2 medium- large or 4 small zucchini, cleaned and shredded, but not peeled Freshly ground pepper 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil 1/8 cup chopped fresh mint [We didn't use mint] 1 cup fresh whole-milk ricotta cheese, at room temperature

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.  For al dente, usually about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is warm, add the garlic and saute until golden, about 1 minute. Add the lemon zest and cook for 30 seconds longer. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the zucchini and cook, stirring until tender, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.  [I highly suggest prepping all this stuff before-hand]

Remove and reserve about 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and quickly toss with the zucchini, parsley, basil, and mint.

[pre-toss]

[post-toss]

Spoon on the ricotta and toss lightly again, add small amounts of the cooking water to lighten the cheese to the consistency you like, and serve.  [We basically just dumped all the ricotta on at once]

[and got a pretty good consistency]

*for a heartier meal, add grilled chicken breast or fish, such as tilapia or halibut.  [and last but not least, the dish smothered in chicken strips]

ENJOY!!