Ingredients:

1 lb. mushrooms (crimini & shiitake, stems removed)

1 lg. white onion

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 box whole wheat penne pasta

pinch or two of crushed red pepper flakes

sea salt & fresh cracked pepper to taste

1/2 cup dry red wine (pinot noir)

5 0z baby spinach

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup toasted sliced natural almonds

In an large pot, bring well-salted water to a boil.

In a large sauté pan, heat up olive oil.  Dice onion and toss into pan.  Sauté for about 5 minutes on medium heat.  Rough chop the mushrooms and add to sauté. Continue cooking onions and mushrooms, stirring occasionally, allowing a little browning to occur, about 8 more minutes.

Meanwhile, boil pasta according to package instructions until al dente.  Drain and toss in a few tablespoons of olive oil.

To the sauté, add salt & pepper to taste, and red pepper.  Stir the sauté, and add the red wine, gently scraping the tasty bits up, deglazing the pan.  Add spinach and heavy cream, continue to cook and stir, about 1 minute, just to wilt spinach.  Pour sauté directly over cooked pasta, top with toasted almonds and serve immediately.

Chef’s Note:  This pasta dish was served with grilled lamb sirloin that was simply seasoned with dried thyme, sea salt, fresh cracked pepper & garlic.  We accompanied this with sliced whole wheat bread, buttered and grilled along side the lamb, and topped with soft goat cheese.  These flavors all worked wonderfully together.  We drank some Spanish Tempranillo, Corral de Campanas, Tinta de Toro, 2007 and enjoyed the pairing immensely.  Perhaps you can too

Here is a list of the wines we had on Friday night…. see the menu below to correlate the wines with the menu items…

2007 Schmitt Söhne IceWine, Pfalz region
2003 Niersteiner Olberg Riesling Beerenauslese, Rheinhessen region
2006 Grafen Reipperg Lemberger, Württemberg region
2005 Piesporter Michelsberg Riesling Kabinett, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region (was positioned near the Bavarian Sausage Pot)
2007 Valckenberg Gewürztraminer, Pfalz region
2005 Robert König Assmannshäuser Höhenberg Spätburgunder, Rheingau region (in the decanter)
2006 Josef Drathen Riesling Kabinett, Rheinhessen region (positioned near the pretzels)
2007 Dr. Loosen Riesling, from the Mosel region (positioned near the pretzels)
2005 Rietburg Dornfelder Trocken, Pfalz region
2007 Peter Mertes Riesling Spätlese, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region (positioned near the spaetzle)

Sold Out

…. but you can send me an email (scott@foodpluswineequalsart.com) and if there are enough interested parties we can schedule another night.

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Hallo!

Victoria received a Christmas card this year that had this on the front cover:
“I once read about a lady who would make ice cubes out of leftover wine.  I never knew that was possible.”

This is on the inside:
“To have leftover wine, I mean.”

I thought that was funny

On February 13 we begin our series of events bringing the foods and wines of specific wine-producing regions to our neck of the woods (since, given the economy, we can’t go *there*).  The first “visitation” is Germany.

I have to say that I’m really looking forward to this.  I have a “thang” going on with German wines.  I just love them.  Perhaps its my German heritage, I don’t know, but I find them noble and mysterious.  On February 13 we’ll be pairing German wines with German foods, giving us the chance to experience how the wines were really meant to be consumed.

I hope you can come and try them with us.

Cost/Registration

$25/person (through February 7); $30/person after that until February 11 when registration closes. Note that this cost is for the food only.

To register, please send me an email (scott@foodpluswineequalsart.com) to RSVP (then I have your email address so I can assign your wine) and pay via the PayPal button below.

When and Where

February 13, 2009, 7pm – 9pm
Caffè Victoria 1296-A Main Street, Windsor, Colorado

Menu

• Potato Latkes – Riesling (Kabinett or Spätlese), Gewürtztraminer
  
• Varietal Käse Tray (Butterkase, Hirtenkase, Tilster, Weinkase) – All the German wines listed in the menu
  
• Pretzel-Crusted Swine with Orange-Mustard Sauce – Riesling Spätlese, Spätburgunder
• Beef Sauerbraten with Spätzle in Brown Butter – Dornfelder, Spätburgunder, Lemberger
  
• Bavarian Sausage Hot Pot – Gewürtztraminer, Dornfelder
  
• Chicken in Riesling – Riesling (Spätlese or Auslese)
  
• Apfel Strudel – Dessert Riesling (Ice-wine, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese)

For those of you who are new to our events let me provide a little explanation about how things work.

At the beginning of the event (which is informal, by the way), Victoria and I go through each of the menu items on the menu – Victoria describes the food, ingredients, and cooking details, and I explain why I recommended the wines I did and specific things to look for in the pairing.  After that, we all get to eat great food and drink good wine and see how good food and wine can be together…. in other words, experience art.

A couple more things:

• Space is limited to 24 people.
• I’ll “assign” wines to people as they RSVP – one bottle per couple.  I generally only assign the varietal, allowing guests to choose the specific bottling so that they can purchase a wine in their comfort zone – we don’t mandate that everyone brings an $80 bottle! – though if you want to, we won’t argue   That said, I’d say that guests typically spend between $20 and $25 per bottle.

f you have any questions or comments, please contact me at scott@foodpluswineequalsart.com.

NOTE: you must be 21 years of age or older to participate.

Once again, I recognize Reisling as “der Koenig” (the King) of grapes (my opinion).  It was tremendously good.  I fell in love again with that complexity: so floral, good fruit, but so minerally too.  Chemical on the nose (perhaps one of the things I like most is the seeming contrast between the nose and the flavor).

Anyway, I believe I’ll have a hard time restraining myself from this favorite-of-mine varietal for very long in the future

• Sweetness: dry
• Tannins: low
• Acidity: low (?)  tasted in restaurant and didn’t really pay attention, but definitely not enough acidity to *get* my attention
• Body: full
• Flavors: blueberry, cooked raspberry (?), touch of smoke, touch of mineral
• Length: long

Known Good Food Pairings:
Anticipated Good Food Pairings:something with fennel/anise, mushroom risotto

Notes: very good.  unctuous. great fruit but none of that cloying “maple syrup” thing that many Zins have.  15% alcohol.

This club exists to facilitate the exploration of the magic that occurs when foods and wines are properly paired.  When food complements wine, and vice versa, each is made even better than if consumed alone.  Properly-paired foods can make wine fruitier, rounder, smoother.  Properly-paired wines freshen the palate for each bite so that each is as good as the first.

Executive Chef Victoria Queen, will guide you through the food served at these events.

Food and wine pairing is an art.  True there is some science to it – after all, chemistry is involved – but when done properly a food/wine pairing transcends the chemistry equation and becomes something that is sometimes best appreciated in awe and silence.  That’s where we strive to get in this club – to the point where we create art.

Not all club events will involve food paired with wines.  Just as an artist must perform values studies, must explore the effects of light and shadow, must play with colors, so must we sometimes work in the “basics” of the food/wine pairing craft.  This involves understanding wines, how to analyze and taste them, how wine characteristics interact with food, and so we’ll spend some time doing these things.

Scott Queen is your host and wine expert at these club events.

But don’t worry!  It’s all going to be fun   There are no finals here – just as much personal growth as you want.

Check out our next event now.

If you are interested in participating, send me an email at scott@foodpluswineequalsart.com and I’ll add you to our email distribution list.

Come join us on our journey into the magical world of wine and food.

Scott Queen
Food + Wine = Art Club

Scott and Victoria Queen own and operate Catering by Victoria, a full-service catering company in Windsor, Colorado.  Visit their website at http://www.caffevictoria.com.

Who are “us” and “we”, you ask?  We are Catering by Victoria, an off-premises catering business located in the Fort Collins Colorado area.  We do all sorts of off-premises catering (off-premises: off of our premises and on yours) including weddings, private parties, wine-focused events as well as corporate events.  Our website has current news and images that we are quite proud of…. check it out at http://www.caffevictoria.com.

We have special expertise in food-and-wine pairing and have established a spin-off club that allows us to explore and share that expertise and passion. The club is here Food + Wine = Art but I expect to migrate that information to this site.

Lastly, we also serve breakfast on the weekends from our restaurant, Caffè Victoria.  Come have a tasty breakfast and great coffee!

Summary
This is an introductory-level “course” detailing how to assess wines (appearance, nose, acidity, body, etc). There will be some discussion relating the results of wine assessment to basic food-wine-pairing principles. Perfect for those who are just getting into wine or who want to improve their food-wine-pairing skills.

Cost and Availability
There are 12 spots available; cost is $10/person.
Caffè Victoria 1296-A Main Street, Windsor, Colorado

Details
We’ll go through the steps of analyzing wines according to WSET’s method for classifying wines, beginning with the appearance, followed by nose, and concluding with palate.  We will assess five wines using this technique.

Wines
* A Gruener Veltliner
* Alsace Gewurztraminer
* Montecillo Crianza
* A Malbec, southern Rhone, Cabernet Franc, or Barbera.
* A Tawny Port or a Sauternes.

Purpose
* Provide attendees with basic skills/process related to wine analysis
* Highlight the different characteristics of wines and discuss how they affect food-wine pairing
* Establish standards for tasting notes and future wine discussion

Registration
To register, please send an email to scott@foodpluswineequalsart.com. You will receive instructions regarding payment for the event.

NOTE: you must be 21 years of age or older to participate.