Feb 12 – Fresh Eggs Daily

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Guy

My guest this week is Lisa Steele with her new book “The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook – Over 100 Fabulous Recipes to Use Eggs in Unexpected Ways.“

“Fresh Eggs Daily blogger Steele lays down as many tips and recipes as her chickens do eggs in this innovative and plucky collection…. This will be hard to beat.” – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Lisa Steele, fifth-generation chicken keeper and founder of the popular blog Fresh Eggs Daily, knows a thing or two about eggs. And she’s ready to show you just how easy and delicious it can be to make eggs a staple of every meal.

First, Lisa will tell you everything you don’t know about eggs—such as what the different labels on grocery store egg cartons mean—and bust some common egg myths.

From there, she provides you with foundational techniques for cooking with eggs, including steaming, grilling, baking, and frying.

And finally, Lisa shares her go-to recipes for everything from breakfast staples, like eggs Benedict and a classic French trifold “omelette,” to breads, sandwiches, beverages, snacks, soups, salads, pasta, cakes, pies, and condiments. You’ll encounter a wide variety of both sweet and savory dishes with Lisa’s unique twists.  Get your copy NOW!

Read The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook to discover new and exciting ways to incorporate fresh eggs into your cooking and baking repertoire each and every day.

From her beautiful farm in Maine, Lisa has contributed her sage advice to the backyard chicken keeping community for more than a decade, appearing on local and national media including NPR, The View, HGTV, Farmers Almanac, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, the Hallmark Home and Family show and Country Living magazine. She’s an author, 5th-generation chicken keeper, Master Gardener and “coop-to-kitchen” cook. Follow Lisa on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms @fresheggsdaily

In the second half I’ll be talking to Dennis Patton from DNA Vineyards

Dennis Patton Proprietor
Dennis has been harvesting grapes and making wine for over 40 years and is considered an icon of Mendocino County’s wine industry. He is a sought-after winemaking consultant for wineries throughout Northern California. He site selects vineyards throughout Mendocino County and Northern California to make wines with unparalleled price/quality ratios for clients who include Trader Joe’s and The Wine and Spirits Guild of America. He directly sources and manages harvest and vinification for approximately 345,000 gallons of wines each year and expanded into Russian River Pinot Noir when DNA Vineyards expanded into their Sonoma County vineyard in 2012.

Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2018 CORO MENDOCINO DNA Vineyards Red Blend
Deeply saturated ruby hue, blackberry with earthy notes of cedar and coffee. Velvety entry leads to a juicy blueberry core with tannic structure building to the finish. Hints of chicory and chocolate unfurl with time in the glass. An age-worthy, textural blend of mature vine Zinfandel and mountain-grown varieties. ABV13.96%  55% Zinfandel, 31% Syrah, 14% Petite Sirah, 22 months matured in French oak barrels
www.dnavineyards.com
Follow CORO Mendocino on Facebook

“This dark-colored, concentrated and moderately tannic wine fills its big structure with very focused, pure black-cherry and blackberry flavors. A sense of polish in the texture and layering in the flavors raise this region-specific Zinfandel-based blend above the ordinary. Best now–2027.” 

Posted in Other | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Feb 12 – Fresh Eggs Daily

Feb 5 – Natalie Maclean

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Guy

My guest this week is Natalie Maclean

Natalie’s first book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass and her second book Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines were both selected as one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Year. She is the wine expert on CTV’s The Social, Canada’s largest daytime television show; CTV News; and Global Television’s Morning Show.  www.nataliemaclean.com

She was named the World’s Best Drinks Writer at the World Food Media Awards, and has won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She is the only person to have won both the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award from the James Beard Foundation and the M.F.K. Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing from Les Dames d’Escoffier International.

To fund her late-night vinous habits, Natalie MacLean holds down day jobs as an author, online wine course instructor and wine reviewer. An accredited sommelier, she is a member of the National Capital Sommelier Guild, the Wine Writers Circle and several French wine societies with complicated and impressive names.

Natalie studied the Romantic Poets at Oxford University with Jonathan Wordsworth. She graduated with honours from the Master’s of Business Administration at the University of Western Ontario.

Funny, brainy and unapologetically tipsy, her goal in life is to invite both the novices and the knowledgeable to the table to share a glass of wine (or three).
Follow Natalie on Facebook & Twitter

Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2018 Bodegas Mas Alta CIRERETS, Priorat D.O.Q.
“…It’s a village wine from La Vilella Alta produced with 60% old Cariñena planted in 1962 (La Veana) and 40% young Garnacha planted in 2002 (Cirerets). It is powerful yet elegant and harmonious with a soft texture, sleek tannins and very pure and penetrating flavors. Really delicious and hedonistic. This is certified organic and biodynamic since 2016. It was bottled in July 2020 and is already very harmonious and has the stuffing and balance for a good development in bottle.” ABV15.5%
95 Points, Wine Advocate

About this Spanish Winery
Based in the traditional village of Vilella Alta, Bodegas Mas Alta is the culmination of five Belgian partners’ common desire to produce a great wine. This dream is now taking shape thanks to the advice of Michel Tardieu and Philippe Cambie, and as the result of the work done by a passionate team every day.

Choice of vineyard is crucial for the production of highly expressive wines that combine character and elegance. We have planted some 35 hectares of vines since 1999 on land classified as being part of the DOQ Priorat, carefully selecting the plots in so doing. In fact most of our vineyard is planted at altitude, on slate. Depending on the plot’s characteristics, we either plant varieties traditional to this region – carignan and grenache – or varieties such as cabernet sauvignon or shiraz. These young vines, whose potential quality is already very promising, represent the future of Bodegas Mas Alta: We also purchase grapes from local winegrowers, often from the village, to make our wines. These winegrowers are the custodians of Priorat’s traditional heritage.  In fact the essence of our vintages – old vines – comes from these winegrowers.

Vines aged 50 years and more naturally produce fewer grapes, the first step towards quality wine…Their deep, well-established roots thus enable them to achieve full maturity, consistency, less dependence on climatic conditions. It is without question the ultimate, pure expression of the terroir.

Posted in Other | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Feb 5 – Natalie Maclean

Jan 29 – Store, Age, Drink fine wine

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Guy

LIVE from Redding Beach Florida with my brother Brian Bower, & some Wichita Friends

It will be a fun give and take chat about a number of things “Food & Wine”

  • Wine storage – do I need a wine cellar or portable temp controlled storage device
  • Old Wine vs. New, when to age – how long – what’s the benefit – personal taste
  • Food and Wine pairing – personal taste and why
  • …and anything else we decide to chat about, might even open the phone lines!?

Good Life Guy’s Wine (s) of the Week:
1984 Joseph Phelps Napa Cabernet vs. 2019 Joseph Napa Cabernet
A great opportunity to explore the bottle age of a premium California Cabernet and compare to the current release wine!

The tasting table is set! 🙂

Posted in Other | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Jan 29 – Store, Age, Drink fine wine

Jan 22 – ICONIC EATS of Wichita

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Guy

My guest this week is the multi-talented Joe Stumpe with his new book Iconic Eats of Wichita: Surprising People, History and Recipes,

Joe Stumpe has been writing about cooking in Wichita for more than two decades, and during that time, he’s collected hundreds of recipes and met hundreds of local cooks. All that time in the foodie trenches makes Stumpe — also a well-known local musician, cooking instructor and editor of The Active Age newspaper — uniquely qualified to determine which dishes are Wichita’s most iconic, which he’s done in a new cookbook/ food history book just published by The History Press.  The book, titled “Iconic Eats of Wichita: Surprising People, History and Recipes,” has an official release date of Monday but is already available at Watermark Books, 4701 E. Douglas, and from Stumpe, who is selling autographed copies. It’s Stumpe’s second book for the publisher: In 2018, he authored “Wicked Wichita,” an exploration of the city’s earliest bad guys.

The 239-page book features almost 200 recipes — some provided over the years by generous Wichita restaurant owners and chefs, some that helped talented home cooks win contests both local and national, some shared by Stumpe’s eclectic array of foodie friends and acquaintances. Many of the recipes were previously published during Stumpe’s tenures at The Wichita Eagle, Splurge magazine and The Active Age, and all gave permission for him to re-share them in the book. But “Iconic Eats of Wichita” is not just a cookbook. It also includes an entertaining history lesson on the cuisine that helped make Wichita the city it is, especially the dishes introduced by Mediterranean, Asian and Mexican populations.  Above text from Denise Neil “Dining with Denise” January 11, 2022 Wichita Eagle article.

Read more on Kansas.com 

Joe Stumpe has been a professional writer for 30 years, authoring articles for The New York Times, Agence France-Presse, Wichita Eagle, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Splurge magazine and many advertising clients. From 2000 to 2009 he was food editor of The Wichita Eagle. He continues to be active in the city’s food scene through his catering operation and cooking demonstrations. As a musician, Stumpe performs frequently in the Wichita area and has recorded three CDs of original songs.

In the second half Bill Coleman proprietor of “Bill’s Homegrown HEAT” makes a return visit to talk about his incredible pepper powder.  I had pretty good luck recreating his recipe at the expense of a pepper aroma-filled house, two dehydrators running day and night for weeks and burning eyes when I ground my peppers.  If you like to add spice to anything this is the answer.  A Combination of dried and ground Jalapeno, serrano and habanero peppers…It’s HOT BABY!  www.billshomegrown.com 

Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2018 Opolo Summit Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles California
The 2018 Summit Creek Cabernet Sauvignon presents dark fruit aromas with notes of vanilla spice and pie crust. A broad, mouthfilling texture delivers polished varietal layers of currant, blackberry and black olive, all cascading into a smooth, integrated finish. The result is an immensely accessible Cabernet Sauvignon that offers unbeatable value. Varietal Composition: Cabernet Sauvignon 86%, Merlot 8%, Malbec 6%. ABV14.5%

Wine Enthusiast…EDITOR’S CHOICE!

One of my favorite Paso Cabs and now available here in Kansas.  If you haven’t visited Paso Wine Country you are out where the busses don’t run!  Make a plan to visit and be sure to add Opolo to the list of don’t miss wineries.  🙂  Available at Jacob Liquor Exchange on N. Rock Road or ask your wine merchant.  www.opolo.com

Posted in Other | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Jan 22 – ICONIC EATS of Wichita

Jan 15 – Académie du Vin Library & “On California”

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Guy

My guest t his week is Hermione Ireland Managing Director Académie du Vin Library, publisher of some great books including the latest; ON CALIFORNIA – From Napa to Nebbiolo…Wines from the Golden State.

Hermione Ireland

Regarding Académie du Vin Library, Hermione  says; “First and foremost we are wine lovers! The Library was founded by Steven Spurrier and friends, dedicated to publishing the finest wine writing of the past, the present and the future. The story behind the name came from Steven’s days in Paris in the 1970s, when he began running wine appreciation courses for his English-speaking friends.” Read more here.

“Our list is small – and will never be large – because we value quality over quantity. We choose our books with care – above all for their readability, but also because we genuinely believe they have something important to say about the world of fine wine that will enhance your drinking pleasure.”

The newly commissioned titles aim to bring you the best of modern wine writing. They are not out to emulate the many excellent fact-filled volumes that form the backbone of modern wine publishing. The books are there to provide the color, the background and the essential understanding on which any true enjoyment of fine wine depends. It really is wine writing at its finest.

They also publish beautiful new editions of old books that demand a new audience. Rather than simply republishing the books, they add updates and additional material that will appeal to a modern readership without in any way destroying the charm or the essential wisdom of the originals. Fine wine writing, like wine itself, represents an accumulation of knowledge over the ages. The aim is to pick the best and to let it breathe again.

Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter for more details of our forthcoming books.

On California explores the grapes and the people who have made California wine great. The pioneers, the boffins, the whizz-kids and scientists, many of whom tell their stories on its pages – some in precious archive material, others have set down their thoughts mid pandemic in 2021: Randall Grahm, Gerald Asher, Steven Spurrier, Paul Draper and Warren Winiarski take a bow….

  • California wine and the future: where will the ‘California spirit’ lead next?
  • The ‘Hollywood Grape’: our authors chart the path of Cabernet Sauvignon, from the wish-list of Thomas Jefferson to the hallowed hillsides of Stag’s Leap and Screaming Eagle
  • 1976? Of course it was a competition! Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher look back at the motivations behind the famous Paris wine tasting
  • Top New York sommelier Victoria James tells of her near-death introduction to the whacky world of winemaking in Sonoma
  • Will the real Zinfandel please stand up? Paul Draper seeks out the true heritage of California’s versatile orphan grape
  • Contributions from top California writers: Elaine Chukan Brown, Mary Margaret McCamic MW, Karen MacNeil, Esther Mobley, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Liz Thach MW, Clare Tooley MW, and Kelli White
  • Hugh Johnson, Jane Anson and Fiona Morrison MW introduce California’s intrepid wine pioneers
  • Rex Pickett’s Sideways heroes, Jack and Miles, clink glasses over the Central Coast’s finest Pinot Noir
  • A–Z: from ‘Bob’ Mondavi to Xylem sap-sensors and pink Zinfandel – California wine in bite-size

Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
Something from Napa of Course…
2018 Black Stallion Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
An elegant and full-bodied wine that is quintessentially Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.  The aromas are blackberry and cassis with hints of cinnamon.  The flavors are dark, ripe, jammy fruit with savory notes.  The tannins are velvety, and the wine is beautifully balanced a delight for Napa Cabernet lovers to enjoy.  This rich, fruit-forward wine calls for succulent, flavorful dishes such as grilled tenderloin with roasted shallots, creamy blue cheeses, pepper-rubbed pork chops, or duck breast with grilled plums.

  • JS92
  • WW91
  • WE90
Posted in Other | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Jan 15 – Académie du Vin Library & “On California”