First Book Orders of EAT and DRINK in the NW!

Had to share and celebrate the announcement of the first wholesale orders to a wee wine shop in Long Beach, WA. Mark and I stepped into the Peninsula Wine Merchant wine shop last Saturday while taking 3 days to relax, eat razor clams and fried oysters (soon to be blogged about) at the beach. I met the Howell's, Sallianne and John, owners of the cute shop located right in the middle of town on Pacific Ave. Really wonderful folks who were enthusiastic about their latest venture and they really should be proud. It is a great wine shop with a granite tasting bar and a wide selection of Northwest wines as well as other wines from all over the world. They had just placed the open sign on their business and were celebrating their Grand Opening when we walked in. We sampled a couple of fantastic wines and even the Maryhill Rose was on the tasting bar-one of the wines that is showcased in the book paired with a salad with avocado, goat cheese and pomegranate dressing. After tasting a delicious Kiona Chenin Blanc, we, like 3 other people who tasted the wine, ended up buying a bottle to take home. As a great fit to their new shop which carries several of the wines that we describe and pair food with, the Peninsula Wine Merchants have decided to sell the book! Cheers!

Teaching Thai For Issaquah Highlands Cooking Club

Couple projects on my plate: Starting to work on the second EAT & DRINK in the Northwest book, catering for the book and wine release party at Des Voigne Cellars and then, April 4th, the Issaquah Highlands Cooking Club invited me back for my 5th time to cook and teach Thai Cooking. I'm thrilled to be cooking with Thai ingredients. Mark and I spent 4 months backpacking around South East Asia and I took a three day course in Chang Mai Thailand learning ingredients, cooking and tasting. The menu for the Issaquah Highland Cooking Club:

Issaquah Highland's Thai Cooking Class Menu

Tom Kha Gai , a chicken and coconut soup

Green Papaya Salad

Thai Style Crab Cakes

Green Curry with Eggplant and Jasmine Rice

Mango with Sticky Rice

Thai Iced Tea

This week and next will be devoted to perfecting these recipes and finding banana leaves for decoration. I will also be showing how to do a couple food carving tricks: green onions and red chilies into lilies and roses out of tomatoes. The picture above is a Thai chili bush outside the Chang Mai cooking class door.

EAT & DRINK Book Launch and Wine Release Party

EAT & DRINK Launch Party - Saturday, March 29th at Des Voigne Cellars

In Woodinville, WA from noon to 5pm, Marcus and I are joining up with the winemakers of Des Voigne Cellars to announce their wine release as well as our book release. The wine release is titled "Untitled" and it is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 30%Syrah and 30% Petite Verdot. It was recently described as:

"It's big, bold, and layered with flavors of dark cherry, mocha and olive with traces of eucalyptus and cigar box for a lightly spicy finish that goes on and on. "

I'm looking forward to catering the release and launch party. We are not sure how many people to expect, so I am planning on making enough crostini for 200 people, or 2 per person so 400 crostini. Of course we would like to represent the food from the book as much as possible so i am making 270 hanger steak crostini and the rest, 130 sauteed pear, gorgonzola and fig spread with arugula crostini, like the Pear and Fig Spread sandwich in the book. The hanger steak in the book is marinated in a green peppercorn marinade but I will be doing the spice with horseradish butter on these crostini. Hanger steak is just lovely no matter how it is prepared and Besides the tasty crostini, there will also be a cheese tray for snacking too.

Des Voigne Cellars
19501 144th Ave NE Suite C-200
Woodinville, WA 98072p.
(425) 415-8466