by Antonio F Delgado
I had the opportunity to run into Ryan O’Neal from Sleeping At Last. We got to talk about his love for baked break with cheese, how all of his important decisions are made at a Giardano’s Pizza in Chicago and what it takes to be creative. Enjoy Spooners!
By Tiffany Young
OK, OK. It’s not officially SXSW yet, but that doesn’t mean the free food and drinks have not already begun. Thanks to the start of TechMunch and Whole Foods and Forkly hosting TANGO con VINOS ARGENTINOS at GSD&M, I’ve already had a few glasses of wine, some food and a swag bag of goodies.
First, I tried the Argento Bonarda, a red wine, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Its description is “earthy dark fruit and rustic red berry notes, hints of violet and toasted oak.” I enjoyed this with some empanadas and tapas topped with fried asparagus … yum. The weather in Austin was beautiful tonight, as I strolled along the courtyard saying hi to a few people I knew.
I hope the weather holds up, but the forecast is calling for rain the next few days.
My next glass was the Crios Torrontes, a sweet white wine. It was lovely as well, but I ended up eating some cheese alongside it and it may have been too sweet to pair with a strong cheese. There were several more wines I abstained from as well as a meat buffet that I heard was delicious.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to catch some more SXSW festivities during my lunch break. Wish me luck!
For New Year’s Eve, Antonio was sick with allergies and we ended up deciding to stay in, so I decided to make a big dinner.
I had already copied several recipes I wanted to try out, using the “Cook This” notepad made by Knock Knock. I decided to make Cream of Mushroom Soup, which I found over at YumSugar, Mushroom and Potato Gratin from a recipe from Williams-Sonoma, Not Real Macaroni and Cheese (unfortunately I don’t have the original source on this as I just copied it into Evernote sometime ago) and a salad of mixed greens, avocado and a homemade vinaigrette.
Basically if you weren’t a fan of mushrooms or cheese, you would hate this meal. As it turns out, that was not the case, for Antonio, myself, or his roommate Rolando.
The whole project took me several hours and dirtying almost all of the dishes at the Baylor House. Everything smelled so good and it was pretty much the first time I had cooked for Antonio, so I knew it was a waste when he said his nose was so stuffed up he couldn’t smell anything.
We finally sat down and toasted to the good life and the new year and being thankful to friends and all the things we have. We all realize we have little to complain about compared to many, many others.
I was pretty happy with how the meal came out, even if we had to start on the soup and salad while the gratin continued to bake.
The salad and dressing was good. My secret recipe consists of half balsamic vinegar, half olive oil, a splash of honey—and this time I added some fresh thyme since it was on hand.
The mushroom soup was wonderfully aromatic and the splash of truffle oil divine! I can’t wait to pour truffle oil into many future dishes.
The gratin proved to be a lot of trouble for how it came out—I don’t think I got enough salt and pepper in the layers to make it worth its while. I also would have loved for the potatoes to get crispier, but we were all hungry by the time the buzzer went off. However, I got to use the mandoline Antonio bought me for Christmas, so it was worth it.
The mac and cheese was Antonio’s favorite. I liked how creamy it came out.
The next night ate in again and made grilled cheese and tomato soup. It took all of 15 minutes to make. Antonio said, “This is the best meal we’ve had in a long time!”
It’s the simple things in life, spoons!
Here’s to a yummy year!
After doing some research, Robert found out that Manchengo is wonderful compliment to Pinot Noir.
Antonio and I went to a wine tasting yesterday consisting only of pinot noir. Our friend Robert is holding wine tastings for $15 per person so he can learn more about wines. We had some from the French region (which I seemed to be the only one to like), a very interesting one from Chile and a few from the states.
Fresh Berries
He had a variety of cheeses, fruit, crackers and some chocolate wafers. He also decided to pick up some rotisserie chicken, since he realized he scheduled the wine tasting around dinner time for most people—5:30 p.m.
Everyone (excluding me) loved the J from J Vineyards and Winery, a vineyard in California. It seemed very pepperry to me, although everyone else said it was the most fruity.
Our arsenal of Pinot Noir for the evening
While there were two that I tried that I wouldn’t mind having again, I don’t believe pinot noir seem to be my favorite type of wine. I will have to go to his next wine tasting now just to see if it’s something that suits me better. I think in all we had eight heads, which I think is a perfect number for a wine tasting—anything more than that and it’s really just a party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I love a good party. I just realize I shouldn’t call it a wine tasting since I don’t focus on the wine at all and usually end up drinking too much to tell the difference between one or the other.