“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.”
–Benjamin Franklin

I’m not quite as much of a wine drinker as I used to be. Vintage Virginia used to be firmly scheduled each year, but when I got rid of my car and other friends with cars moved away, it wasn’t quite as easy to make it out to VA to attend. This year a last-minute invite in response to my need for a day trip appeared out of nowhere and Vintage Virginia was back on!

About 50 wineries from Virginia show up, along with food and crafts vendors, and it’s a really good time. You’d think that it would be a loss for the wineries as they’re just giving away product all day–albeit in 1-2 ounce doses–but the vendors I talked to seemed really excited about the day. When I’d been in the past, the wineries had descriptions of their wines available and you could request a tasting of select bottles, but this year most of them seemed content to give tasting flights to a group at a time. This was both good and bad, as the group I was with was there to taste and buy, not taste and party. We got stuck behind some people for whom tasting had evolved to drinking. But as every taster is a potential purchaser, I can’t fault the wineries and volunteers for making sure no one’s glass went dry.

Thankfully the sun stayed away for most of the day, but around 4 or so, it was streaming down on us. By then even my tasting had become drinking–especially as some wineries also sell wines by the glass. Along the way we’d made lots of notes about the wines we liked and decided to head back to our favored wineries to buy some bottles and have them sent to will call. (Will Call at a wine festival is the most dangerous and brilliant idea ever.) Luckily, for me, some of the wineries had sold out of the bottles I wanted by the time we rolled around. This is really a defensive maneuver on my part as I only came home with nine bottles. If I’d been buying while tasting, I’d have bought a lot more.

The pictures from the day are on flickr, and I’ve still got my notes on the wines I liked and the wineries I want to visit. Most of the wineries are a few hours outside DC/NoVA and I look forward to a day trip or two to make a visit. However, even if I can’t make it, living in DC allows me to have wine shipped–a big plus. Between Vintage Virginia and Wine in the Woods each year, there are few excuses not to indulge your love of wines and local wineries.

If you’ve ever seen her shows Cooking Live or Sara’s Secrets, she is just as friendly and engaging in person. She reminds you of the friendly neighbor that might stop by to borrow a cup of sugar and then come back with a share of the cookies or brownies she baked with it.

Watching her talk about Food Network, Gourmet Magazine, her family, her recipes and the new book was like seeing her on TV all over again. One of the things she practices and stresses is that cooking shouldn’t be a burden. Many people resort to fast food or dining out because they see cooking as a chore, especially when they have families to take care of. The recipes in her latest book, Everyday Family Dinners are the cure for that. The longest “total preparation time” I’ve seen in the book is 2 hours and 30 minutes and that was for “quick” kimchi, most of the “hands on” times are 15-30 minutes. She even starts the book off with a “How to Use This Book” section explaining cooking terms, where to find ingredients mentioned, the difference in weight between box grated and microplane grated cheese and most importantly the equivalent between chopped fresh herbs and dried herbs–1 tablespoon fresh = 1 teaspoon dried. For most people, this is common knowledge, but it’s something that used to confound me when I started cooking, especially when finding fresh herbs wasn’t easy if you didn’t have a garden.

For the demo, she showed us how to make her Polenta Lasagna and Warm Chocolate Cheesecake (recipe below) and sent samples around the room for tasting. Chantal cookware is sponsoring her book tour, so she used their wares and was happy to show off its capabilities, but it didn’t feel like a sales pitch. Leah did make sure, however, to let us know that the items Sara was using were all available for purchase at Hill’s Kitchen!

When she was finished cooking, she answered our questions–about anything, not just food–and then the book signing began. Thankfully my friends were knowledgeable in the ways of book signings and explained the Post-It note thing to me. During her discussion, she admitted that she steered us wrong when she had her cooking show and never had a chance to correct herself. One of the classic cooking teachings is that when you oversalt something, you can add a potato to correct it… well this is a myth, and I now have her signed say-so! However, she did say that there are two things while cooking that you can’t undo if you mess them up: burning things and mashed potatoes.

I’m not a giant, she really is that adorably tiny in person. And when she found out my friend and I were food bloggers, she asked for our cards! Sara Moulton asked for my card! Believe me, I was buzzed off of that for days! It was a fun morning and simply amazing to meet her. There are few food celebrities/personalities that I consider must-see, and Sara is easily at the top of that list. Take a look at her book if you see it while out and about and Amazon has a Kindle edition for 1/2 price. This one won’t be collecting dust on my shelves for a while!

Warm Chocolate Cheesecake

• One 3.5-ounce bar bittersweet chocolate
• 
8 ounces full-fat or 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 
2 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 large egg

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter four 1/2-cup ramekins and place them on a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Coarsely chop the chocolate and melt it in the top of a double 
boiler or in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. 
Combine the chocolate with the cream cheese and vanilla in the 
bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Process 
until well blended.
3. Stir together the sugar and flour, add it to the processor, and 
blend it into the chocolate mixture. Add the egg and pulse until 
smooth. Divide the batter among the ramekins.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the centers are set. Transfer to cooling rack to cool slightly before serving.

Feel like getting a head start on happiness? You can create your own favorite Frappuccino® blended beverage right here. Share it with your friends and invite them to meet you. Starbucks is celebrating Happy Hour from now until May 16.

Looks like the offer is one per person, so no sending the office intern with all of your drink orders, but an afternoon blended coffee drink break on the cheap isn’t such a bad thing… unless you’re watching your calories, of course.

I don’t really have the words to describe it. Some people call the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner the Nerd Prom, well Cochon 555 is the Pork Prom, no doubt about it. Pork based dishes, desserts and drinks, some amazing wineries, a demonstration where Butcher Ryan Farr completely… butchered a 216-pound pig. I was lucky enough to attend with Adventures in Shaw, One Bite at a Time and Not Derby Pie. We also ran into food bloggers The Bitten Word.

It was hard to pick a favorite, but I managed to cast my vote–and then maybe have a few more nibbles. Of the competing chefs: R.J. Cooper of Vidalia, Joe Palma of Westend Bistro, Daniel Singhofen of Eola, Nicholas Stefanelli of Bibiana, and David Varley of Bourbon Steak, it was Varley of Bourbon Steak who was declared the winner. Honestly though, all of us in attendance were the winners. I’m sort of glad I’m fasting for a hospital visit today because I still don’t have any room after last night!

The new Capitol Riverfront Market, offering fresh produce and locally prepared foods, will open Thursday, May 6th and operate from 3 pm to 7 pm weekly through November at the intersection of New Jersey Ave., SE & M St., SE, adjacent to the Navy Yard Metro (New Jersey Ave exit). Entrance to the market is on M St., SE.

Every Thursday, the Capitol Riverfront will transform into a festive marketplace with over ten local farmers and vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables, breads and baked goods, herbs and spices, pickles, olive oil, jams, honey, desserts, flowers, prepared foods and more. The fresh food market is presented by the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District and Diverse Markets Management, in partnership with The Donohoe Company.

This is very exciting news for the residents of this area who haven’t really been served very well in terms of local markets. There are some fast food places, a nearby gourmet foods store and a bar/cafe just opened up, but the best options for produce have been either Eastern Market or the new Safeway at the Waterfront Metro station. Neither one is far away, and both make for a great walk on the weekend when you’ve time to spare, but in terms of an after-work shopping trip, navigating the metro can be a bit of a pain–dealing with commuting crowds when you just want to pick up some items for dinner!

I’m optimistic with a drop of pessimism. The Capitol Riverfront BID has tried a market before and it didn’t do so well. In fact, it didn’t even last a day. That market was aimed more at general shopping–gifts for the season, etc.–than just food, but I’ve seen at least one merchant at another market and he seemed hesitant to give them another try. Still, this area has plenty of residents and I hope they can make this a success. I know I’ll be stopping by to check it out next Thursday!

Since it’s part of most people’s morning commute, this is an easy one from Starbucks. As part of the Big Picture movement, on April 15th, bring a reusable travel mug into your local Starbucks and get a free brewed coffee. It looks like the offer is valid all day, so it’s good for your morning cuppa or that mid-day coffee break.

If coffee isn’t your thing, perhaps a free frozen treat from Dairy Queen better suits you. The Blizzardmobile will be parked outside of the IRS Building at the corner of 10th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. To celebrate the 25th birthday of the Blizzard and Tax Day, they’ll be giving out free Mini Blizzards.

This probably won’t be of use to many DC residents, but those in the burbs might like this. Participating mall-based Cinnabon locations will be giving away free bite-sized cupcakes tomorrow evening from 6 to 8 p.m. Looks like Cinnabon’s putting their hat in the ring for the cupcake market now.

Know of any other Tax Day freebies/offers tomorrow in DC or elsewhere? Drop a note or a link in the comments!

Urbana Restaurant and Wine Bar (2121 P Street NW, in the Hotel Palomar) presents their “Only Fools Fall In Love” lunch giveaway for the first 300 customers starting at 11:30 on April 1st. The free bagged lunch includes their new pulled pork parmesan sandwich made with braised pork shoulder, bolognese sauce, mozzarella, and radicchio. Comes with a pickle, chocolate chip cookie, and bottled water.

I don’t work near enough to take advantage of this, and I don’t know if they take lunch reservations, but this may be a line-up, first-served type of deal. Still, it looks to be in the high 70s tomorrow which makes for a perfect day to take your lunch outside!

The free pastry coupon is available here at their blog. You can print out the coupon or show them the coupon on a mobile device. They’ll stop redeeming the offer at 10:30 am–just in time for the morning coffee stop or that 10am coffee break.

I had to stop getting pastries at Starbucks when I started reading their nutritional information. Even though they’re advertising a more natural, less artificial line of pastries with no trans-fats, I still pass on them for something a bit more on the healthy (and filling) side. But if you’re looking for a little sugar rush to go with the daily caffeine, it’s a good deal. You usually can’t beat free. And since people do love free, I’d hit them up earlier rather than later.

We will be selling our wares on Sunday, March 28th from 9-11am on the patio at Zorba’s Cafe. It’s just two blocks north of the Dupont Circle metro exit (Q St) and one block north of the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market.

The market opens at 10, so why not stop by and see us before your Sunday morning shopping? You can pick up something to go with your morning Starbucks and tuck away a few more goodies for later! It should be a lovely morning and you’ll get to meet some of your favorite food bloggers–it’s ok, I won’t be jealous if I’m not one of them. Our last bake sale had a great turn out (and sell out!) and we’d love to see you again. And to let you in on a little secret: having access to food bloggers with a nearby farmers’ market is a great way to get helpful tips and ideas for your meals and answers to your food questions and/or dilemmas.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please contact Adventures in Shaw, Thrifty DC Cook, Not Derby Pie or One Bite At A Time. We need everything from bakers to sellers, set up & clean up.

Even if you’re not baking-inclined, we can still use your reach. Please feel free to grab a copy of the flyer and post it on your own blog or Facebook page. Print it out and hang it up at your office, e-mail your friends with a sweet-tooth and let them know about it. Since we’re only going to have around a 2-hour window this time around, the more people we can let know about it, the better.

I hope you’ll come out to see us on the 28th. There’s going to be some great eats for a great cause.

Olga Berman of Mango & Tomato taught an amazing knife skills class this weekend for a few local food bloggers. It was hosted by Adventures in Shaw with myself, Thrifty DC Cook, adventures of a florida girl in dc and One Bite At A Time in attendance. We all have varying levels of experience in the kitchen, but I think most of us either ignored our chef’s knives, or weren’t using them to their fullest potential. I personally love my Santoku-bladed knife, but I admit that it isn’t the best tool for every job. I mostly reach for it because it’s a slightly smaller blade than my chef’s knife and the handle suits my grip better than that of my Sabatier set. And sometimes when your kitchen surface area is reduced, you just want the one tool to have at the ready. Still, after this past Saturday’s class, I have newfound respect for the chef’s knife.

This is definitely a “100 level” class, as she went through the basics on how to prepare your knife before each use, the best type of cutting board–we both love Epicurean boards, and how to hold the knife. Of course, I’d been doing it all wrong thereby robbing myself of the naturally rhythmic cutting motion that a chef’s knife affords the wielder. After we had the proper grip and cutting motion, we moved to to food, starting with segmenting an orange. It isn’t a necessary technique for when the slices won’t be featured, but it’s an amazing effect for when they’re center stage. My technique wasn’t quite perfect with this as I couldn’t quite get the roundness I was looking for, but I was able to get a few pretty segments before my orange fell apart. Still, in this class, even your mistakes are yummy.

From there we moved onto onions, learning two methods for dicing them: making perpendicular cuts into the onion–which is the method you’re mostly likely to see TV cooks use, and cutting with the natural grain of the onion. The latter being a more natural and faster technique, but for either one, you have to have good control of the knife and the food on the cutting surface. Both gave us nicely even diced onion pieces which were swiftly collected in a bowl and whisked away by our host… As it turned out, she was reaping the benefits of the class by planning to use our chopped veggies for dishes this week.

Working with potatoes, we learned basic cutting methods for strips, matchsticks and cubes which can be applied to many foods. We also learned a new way of cutting carrots to give more triangular cuts than the standard round chunks. I’ll be using that next time I roast something as more surface area is a good thing. After applying the same basic cutting method to garlic and learning how to mince parsley–also discussing the chiffonade method for leafy herbs, she ended the class with a bang: peppers. I know, it doesn’t sound that exciting until she showed us the following method:

It may take me a while before I’m able to do that, but it was certainly impressive and none of us had ever thought to avoid the ribs and seeds that way. Over the course of the class, I realized that my biggest problem is timing. When I cook for myself, I often lose track of what needs to be done when and I end up rushing through my prep. This usually leaves me with shoddily chopped veggies–though that doesn’t always matter–and the occasionally-nicked fingernail. With Olga’s instruction and surrounded by friends, I realized that it wasn’t (and isn’t) a race. Taking my time produced superior results, and learning the appropriate techniques still had me finishing quickly. I will also note that there were six of us dicing onions in close proximity, but with the right methods and sharp knives, none of us cried.

The class was a lot of fun, very hands on and Olga is a wonderful teacher. As we were wrapping things up, she made sure we asked questions, and using pen & paper was able to sketch out cutting techniques for other types of food that we didn’t have on-hand. If you and some friends are looking for a fun (and educational) foodie event, get in touch with Olga through her blog and ask about the class.

We all took some great photos of the class and our efforts. There’s a flickr group with fantastic shots by Shaw Girl and the rest of us. I suppose I shouldn’t be, but I was surprised at how much fun it actually was. I’m not really into classroom type situations, but this was non-competitive, non-judgmental and we had a lot of laughs.

If you want to hear more about the class or our other foodie exploits, look us up on twitter: @urbanbohemian, @MangoTomato, @Shaw_Girl, @ThriftyDCCook, @floridagirlindc & @frijolita. (Note: Some of us have protected accounts, and some of us may not follow back right away, if at all. But an @-reply will be seen if you have a specific question.)