Monday, February 10, 2014

A cure for the wintertime blues

The last time I ventured into the blog-o-sphere to give you a slice of my mind it was 78 degrees and sunny, today not so much. When I fired up and connected my life to the rest of the world this morning, the accu-weather app informed me, quite smugly, that THIS sunny day was starting out at a balmy 27 below zero (yes, that is Fahrenheit)!

In the land of 10,000 lakes it seems that the weather is always the main topic of conversation,  my theory is because there is so much of it, and in typical Minnesota nice fashion we try to look at the positive.
" Oh jeez, I saw Mr. Frostmeister dropped the temp down to minus 27 last night, I had to use a blanket!"
  " Ya but at least there wasn't any wind, so it was a pure cold and not some hopped up windchill number"

This year, however, it is really getting to be too much. So when the love of my life announced that she had received an email inviting us to attend the de'vine Food and Wine Experience at Grand View Lodge in Nisswa Mn (www.grandviewlodge.com), it was if the clouds parted and the angels were pouring liquid sunshine (Riesling, I presume) from the sky! "Book it!" I said and let the cold be damned for one weekend at least. " Oh, and buy the way, on Friday night there is a wine dinner featuring the wines of Robert Sinsky Vineyards in Napa (www.robertsinsky.com), should we do that as well ?" (praise Jesus and hallelujah!! I thought to my self) "Why yes dear, I think that would be quite interesting as well." So two phone calls and one free room upgrade ( a cabin with 3 bedrooms, three bathrooms, two fireplaces, and a kitchenette) later we were ready to go.

 Early Friday afternoon we packed up the Jeep and made our way north to Paul Bunyan's turf, where the women wear flannel and the guys wear beards, but not in the ironic hipster way you see in the "city". As we checked in we were offered the lodge's house wine- "would you like red or white? or one of each perhaps?" and this being Minnesota we took one of each, just to be polite. I mean, they did offer....

 

What a pleasant way to start the weekend! We hopped back in the car, got to our cabin, unpacked, opened the Cab, and entered a state of relaxation.




Friday night's dinner was held in CRU, the resort's wine bar/restaurant/cellar which seats about a hundred and has a wine cellar that holds 2000 bottles. The decor is dark with wood beams, spotlighted ares of vintage bottles and various wine paraphernalia, twinkly lights and candles, overall very cool.
The first surprise of the evening was that the sales rep from Sinsky that was going to be the host of the dinner was replaced by Robert Sinsky  himself! Something about how she no longer works for him, and besides he wanted to come here to experience some weather.

A quick aside  - I was fortunate enough to actually visit the Sinsky winery about 6-7 years ago while attending a continuing education course at the Culinary Institute of America called  "A Chef's Tour of Napa Valley", I know, pretty rough duty, and to this day when I think of Napa , this is the first place I think of - with its views of the valley, the wines, the food etc... Robert's wife, Maria Helm Sinsky is an accomplished chef and cookbook writer and is also the Culinary Director of the winery.

We found our seats and were soon joined by another couple and Chris Griese - the manager of the company that distributed Robert Sinsky Wines in Minnesota so that led to a few extra glasses of wine for our tables as well as an autographed bottle of the Abraxas wine that was served with dinner.

Chef Manders and his crew did a great job of developing a menu to compliment the wine, but hey speaking as a chef who has done his fair share of wine dinners, with wines like these, all you are going to do is compliment, not outshine the wines.

The menu included;
lobster potstickers on seaweed salad w/ sake dipping sauce and an Abraxas cuvee , Los Caneros

baby spinach salad with triple cream goat brie, caramelized pears and walnuts with a 2012 Pinot Blanc ,Los Caneros

bacon wrapped pheasant with an apple stuffing, braised red cabbage with 2010 Pinot Noir, Los Caneros

braised beef pie with wild mushrooms, tarragon, and winter vegetables - 2007 Marcien Red, Los Caneros
and a blackberry upside down cake with a vanilla Greek yogurt sauce  paired with a late harvest 2012 Pinot Gris.                                              


sorry about the picture- I can't decide if it was pheasant juice or too much wine!


 For me this was the highlight of the weekend festivities but there was so much more such as break out sessions on everything from South African, Italian, and Pacific Northwestern wines, a sushi and sake demo, cheese 101, even a demo and book signing by Minnesota's own Food Network star Amy Thelen.

Lunch on Saturday was a soup challenge in which the resort chefs each prepared a soup and samples were voted on by the masses. The soups ranged from Chinese duck confit hot pot to lobster bisque w/creme fraiche, to short rib and potato (the winner), the was even an apple pie soup which would have scored big with some ice cream!

That evening was the Grand Tasting event with approximately 20 wine vendors serving up over 100 different wines - there was even a local craft brewery there which was a welcome respite to all the wine. Again the resort chefs put on a great spread with dishes like pork shoulder tostadas, venison meat loaf, chicken parm, and even tater tot hot dish (this IS Minnesota after all), but my favorite pairing of the night was a dark chocolate mousse bombe with caramel and a 10 year old Tawny port, which of course I had to eat the whole thing!

The finale of the weekend was the Sunday morning champagne brunch with all the caramel rolls, bacon and eggs Benedict you could eat. Frankly, by this time I couldn't eat a lot but still managed to reduce the amount of leftovers. They were pouring muddled berries with prosecco, and a sparkling Vouvray, which as you know is our favorite white in this house, in fact , I am pretty sure I ordered a case!

So now it's back to the same old grind, with work and sub-zero temperatures but for one fleeting three day span we were able to find a remedy for the wintertime blues.

Thanks for a wonderful weekend dear and Happy Valentines day - I love you!