Interloper

I unearthed all of the remaining root crop vegetables in our garden. I have 2 gallon bags of beets, a collection of fairly small carrots that had tried to grow under the squash that encroached on their space, and a turnip.

What? 

A turnip?

I didn't plant turnips!

Regardless, it will be tasty!

I also cut most of the Silverbeet Swiss chard,

also known as Rainbow Swiss chard.

Isn't it beautiful?

The colors make me smile.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

I'm not gonna be making hay, but I want to take advantage of our nice weather over the next two days to get a few chores finished outside. I can leave my basement projects for now. The basement will be dry, even if not very warm, once the  arctic chill hits us.

So, today I want to dig up my Dahlia tubers. I wasn't successful in over-wintering them last year, but as the old adage goes, if at once you don't succeed….  

I think my problem is finding a place that will stay between 40-50 degrees. I tried a corner of the basement last year - probably too warm for the tubers. I'll try the garage this year, although I am not holding out too much hope. The garage door has southern facing windows so it can sometimes get toasty in there, and, if we have an extended period of cold, I think it might dip to freezing. But, I love my Dahlias, so it is worth a try. 

I have some kale, beets and carrots in the garden to harvest. The beets may not be in the best of shape as we did have some freezing weather, but I'll see if they may be salvageable. Worst case scenario, I can harvest the lower portion of the beet and enjoy the yummy beet salad I made while we were on our trip!

The last thing I want to get accomplished is to put Christmas lights on at least one tree. It is ever so much nicer to wrestle lights and scratchy tree branches when the sun is shining and your hands aren't freezing, than wait for more seasonable weather to put you in the mood!

Those are my marching orders for the day. What plans do you have for this weekend?

Wining and Dining

Wine goes with food. It is a given. Those who know are always talking about 'pairing' - making suggestions of wines to complement the flavor of the food. Pairing our adventures in the wine regions of California also included adventures in eating. Two of our dining experiences stand out.

The first, a trip on the Napa Valley Wine Train.

source

Our group traveled first class, enjoying the ambiance of a renovated 1952 domed dining car. I guess you might think we had no class… as everyone began taking pictures of everyone taking pictures!

But that might be partially due to our free glass of bubbly, 

provided by our excellent wait staff!

The food was outstanding...

and we enjoyed the scenery as we traveled from Napa, CA to St. Helena, passing numerous vineyards along the way. One of the vineyards was the V. Sattui Winery. 

We Dreamers happened to stop there the day before. We were excited to point it out to our friends. This winery has a long history, but somewhat dissimilar to that of other wineries I've blogged about. Vittorio Sattui came from Italy in the late 1800's and worked as a baker. He made wine on the side. His wine was very popular and he soon devoted his time to wine making. However, prohibition brought an end to his business.

In the 1970's Vittorio's great grandson, Dario, began anew to bring the V. Sattui wines to life. He recalled village delicatessens in Europe and decided to incorporate a deli and gift shop as part of his winery experience near St. Helena, CA. We just happened upon the deli, near lunch time. To be honest, I was not exactly thrilled with the prospect of having lunch at a deli. But, oh, my! I was so wrong! This place is Dreamy! The counter was mobbed. Which, in hindsight, was a good thing. It gave us time to decide what we were going to order. We had to decide between salads, paninis, stuffed things and breaded things, and a huge selection of cheeses and crackers. 

We took our order outside and ate at one of the picnic tables found under the trees on the grounds. Mr. Dreamy enjoyed a panini and German potato salad and I had a portabella mushroom stuffed with Italian sausage and cheese and beet salad. We shared the dreamiest crème brûlée I have had in a long time.

It was all good…. well, no, it was great! But, that beet salad was something else. I kept going back to it and eating one more bite. Mmmmm. I wanted to make this salad. I began trying to dissect it. Mr. Dreamy helped. The beets were easy. The chef had used golden beets, and they were beautiful. There was onion. There was something else crunchy… neither of us could decide just what it was. There were some bits of green. The dressing had vinegar…. I couldn't stand it. I marched back into the deli. The lunch crush was over. I asked one of the serving gals about just what was in the salad. She beckoned to a guy standing nearby. He was wearing an unassuming Tshirt and looked like one of the tourists. She introduced me to their Italian chef, Gerardo Sainato! Gerardo shared the basics of his recipe; golden beets, red onion, fennel, and a vinaigrette made with white balsamic (or he said 5% white wine vinegar could be substituted) and canola oil (olive oil is too heavy in taste). He also adds some fresh tarragon. Yum! 

A few nights later I prepared the salad for our group, using the last of the beets I had yanked from our garden the day we left on our trip. I roasted the beets in foil on our grill until they were tender, then added the rest of the ingredients. The salad received raves. The funniest comment though, came from Mercedes. She collared me and exclaimed, "You MADE me eat beets! I don't like beets. They taste like dirt. But, everyone said I had to try your salad… and you made me eat them. It was pretty good… although I think I could still taste a bit of dirt!"

If you are ever near St. Helena, CA, plan to be there around lunch. You won't believe it!