2008 Castle Rock Pinot Noir - Mendocino County

Wine, Wine of the Week

2008 CASTLE ROCK PINOT NOIR - MENDOCINO COUNTY
As my first "Wine of The Week" post, I have chosen the 2008 Castle Rock Pinot Noir - Mendocino County.  Recently this has become one of my favorite wines.  Why you ask?  I will tell you!!  For one simply because it is an easy drinking, any day wine.  This wine has a slightly fruitier taste for a red wine and has an outstanding after taste.  I am through my first case of this wine and I cannot get sick of drinking this.  I have found this wine to be a great accompaniment to almost any dish.  I have had this with anything from and the American staple of a burger and fries to a heavy Italian chicken and pasta dish.  One of the greatest things is that it can be found from $9 - $13 which is a bargain for a wine that stands up as well as it does.  I highly recommend that everyone go out and see if your local wine store has this bottle.  I have found that people who aren't huge fans of red wine even like this bottle.  Enjoy and smooth drinking!!  One interesting note I just read about Castle Rock Winery is that it was founded recently in 1994.

The Husband's Wine Grade:  A-
I gave this an A- because it has amazing smooth taste, its price is great for its quality, with a pretty good availability.  It will not be in every wine store, but if you search all local wine stores, at least one should be carrying this wine.  If you can't find it, request it.  Most wine stores will take requests on orders.

Comment Away

Please comment as much as you want and let me know if anyone has made any of the recipes and what you think!!  I would love to hear your comments.  And as always, please ask any questions you would like and feel free to email me at thehusbandskitchen@gmail.com

Vegetarian BBQ Pizza

Once a week I like to eat vegetarian.  This is good for us as people as well as the earth too!!
 Follow this link to see the many reasons going vegetarian once a week is a positive thing to follow:
http://wannaveg.com/

Today I decided to make a low fat, vegetarian BBQ Pizza.  As simple as this recipe is, it tastes so complex and I must say is a fulfilling enjoyable dinner.  This dish can also be made to serve as an appetizer for a group of people.


Ingredients for BBQ Pizza 
1 Package of Fresh Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Small amount of whole wheat flour
1 Red Onion
Canola Oil
1 handful of Cilantro (chopped)
BBQ Sauce (Of your Choice - I use Trader Joes Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce)
1 Package Low Fat Mexican Cheese (What I Use)


First thing to do is go out an buy a pizza stone (Pizza Stone with Rack).  Everyone should have one cause they make an amazing crispy bottom pizza.  But obviously if you do not have one a cookie sheet will serve the purpose.

Preheat pizza stone in oven to 425 degrees.  Slice the red onion as thinly as you can and saute in a saucepan with a small amount of canola oil until softened and browning has begun.  While onion is cooking and stone is preheating shape pizza dough into a desirable shape and stretch until dough is as thin as you would like.  You will have to flour the dough from time to time to keep from becoming too sticky.  Put dough on floured pizza stone and spread dough with BBQ sauce.  Spread cilantro evenly on top of BBQ sauce.  Next evenly distribute the cheese on top.  Lastly put onions on top of cheese.  Put the pizza stone back into the oven and cook until cheese starts to bubble and brown slightly.  Enjoy!!

A couple of notes on the recipe
-  Sometimes fresh Whole Wheat Pizza Dough is hard to find.  If so, regular pizza dough is ok to use but does make the dish less healthy.  But, either way, every supermarket should have fresh pizza dough.  It may be in the freezer section.
-  The low fat cheese that I use is amazing.  Some low fat cheeses lose flavor but to me with this particular one, you would never know the difference.
-   Use as much or as little of the Cilantro and Red Onion as you would like.  Even a little of each will add a little something to the pizza!!
-  A perfect accompaniment for the pizza is a nice big salad!!  Those recipes coming soon... 

Turkey Burger Sliders

I decided to make Turkey Sliders because I love the current fad of finger food and making things smaller.  Usually you see sliders under the Appetizer/Starters section of a menu.  Appetizers are my favorite course so why not turn an appetizer into a main course.  Works for me!!!  While I was cooking on the grill I decided to make some Grilled Balsamic Yellow Squash which are extremely easy to make. How can you have a burger without the fries?  I simply went to the freezer section of the supermarket for some sweet potato fries.  More on the health facts of sweet potatoes at a later date.

Main Dish
Ingredients for Turkey Slider:
1 Package of Extra Lean Ground Turkey Meat (What I Use)
1 Egg
2 Fresh Shallots (Chopped Fine)
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Whole Grain Bread Crumbs (What I Use)

Mix all ingredients together (The 4 spices use to your own taste, I use a lot of garlic).  Add additional bread crumbs until meat has a less watery consistency.  The contents will be sticky but you want to make sure it will hold its form when made into patties.  Form into small 1 inch balls and pat down into sliders or buy a slider maker (The Perfect Slider Press)
Grill on medium heat until dark grill marks form on both sides of burger.  If you do not have access to an outdoor grill the oven or a George Foreman Grill will do just fine.

1 Package of Turkey Meat yields about a dozen sliders

A couple of notes on the recipe
 - I used Extra Lean Turkey Meat as opposed to regular turkey meat because it has 1.5 grams of fat per serving versus 7 grams per serving in the Regular Lean Ground Turkey
 - The combination of egg and bread crumbs keep the Turkey moist when cooked.  Without it, the turkey would come out extremely dry.
- If you can't find whole grain bread crumbs, regular bread crumbs are fine but make sure they do not have high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils like most bread crumbs do.
- I topped my sliders with cooked onions, pickle chips, and organic ketchup.  I found this to add an extra flair to the dish.

Sides 
Ingredients for Grilled Balsamic Yellow Squash:
2 Yellow Squash (Sliced the long way about 1/4 inch thick)
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Marinate the Squash in the Oilve Oil, Balsamic, Salt, and Pepper for about 30 minutes.  Grill on medium heat flipping one time once dark grill marks appear.  Squash will become very soft but should hold together.

A couple of notes on the recipe
 - Make sure you oil the grill will grilling spray or brush oil on grill where squash will be because it tends to love to stick to the grill. 

Sweet Potato Fries
I used the McCain Sweet Potato Fries because I love the crinkle cut, but Alexia's Sweet Potato Fries or comparable are fine.  For these just read the back of the bag!!

My Mission for my Blog

Hello, my name is David Ringel and I am the creator of "The Husband's Kitchen". It may be called the Husband's Kitchen but this blog is meant to be enjoyable for all audiences. My plan is to show everyone what my kitchen experiences are like. From the tools I use, to the wines I drink, to the food I cook. I will include recipes and pictures as much as possible. One thing to note though...I don't measure the ingredients I use, for the most part, so, this makes things more interesting. I look to myself as a jam band in the kitchen. The same ingredients to make up the song, but it never sounds the same twice. Because of this, you might see a recipe repeated or commented on in a post from time to time explaining how I modified a dish to make it different or even better. I always try to cook in the healthiest of ways using fresh products, healthy (non-hydrogenated) oils, no trans fats, and no high fructose corn syrup. From time to time I might even comment on a restaurant I went to, the dish I had, and how I can create this dish at home. I hope everyone enjoys and please comment as much as you would like.