mostarda, mozza2go, Napa Valley, pork, Sandwich
In Food on November 7, 2009 at 9:23 am
Earlier this week, I slow-roasted an 8lb pork shoulder (aka Boston butt) forever, resulting in the best, most tender and rich pork I’ve yet to enjoy. And it couldn’t have been easier. We’ve already had two nights of AWESOME leftovers for three slightly piggy adults, and still have enough for several more meals. At least. So, at $4.99/lb, this roast was something of a steal. The first round of leftovers was inspired by a favorite slow-roasted heritage pork panini at Napa Style in Napa Valley. Taking a page out of chef Michael Chiarello’s book, I had my husband stop by Mozza2Go to pick up a jar of mostarda (an Italian riff on chutney made w/ pear and mustard). Of course, being too generous to say anything until he got home, he bought the damn jar, which cost NINETEEN DOLLARS. I mean, that is half the price of the freaking pork butt.
But begrudgingly—and I mean begrudgingly—I admit it was incredible on the sandwich. As well it should be at prices that rival gold. I lightly toasted some potato buns from Ralph’s, where we also picked up a bag of pre-shredded slaw and mixed with mayo & apple cider vinegar.
And then reheated the pork in a 300-degree oven for 10-15 minutes, and piled it high topped w/ slaw on the sandwich. I’m guessing we will be porked out by the time we’ve reached the end of the bounty, but next time I’d love to try this with a bone-in heritage Boston butt, though it’d be almost triple the price. Hmm…Santa, baby?
annie the baker, Cookies, Napa Valley
In Food on September 2, 2009 at 8:00 am
A couple of weeks ago, my sister was visiting from Napa Valley and she brought down a bag of her favorite cookies, which quite honestly left me and my husband a little speechless. Look at them! Now imagine biting into one of these chewy, decadent peanut butter cookies with mini chunks of peanut butter cups tucked in there, or how about one with toffee bits and milk chocolate chips? Oh my god!!! These are the work of Annie the Baker, who sells these heavenly cookies at the St. Helena and Napa farmers markets in Northern California. Annie is the former pastry chef at Mustard’s Grill, and recently she has turned her attention full time to her cookie business. I love her motto: “For those who love cookie dough more than the cookie.” But not as much as I LOVE HER COOKIES! Annie, when can we get our mitts on these in SoCal???
documentary, Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens, HBO, Jessica Lange, meadowood, Napa Valley
In Design, Film on April 26, 2009 at 9:50 am
Friday night we made it through about an hour of the HBO Grey Gardens remake with Drew Barrymore. (Above photo from the original 1975 documentary about the Bouvier cousins in East Hampton.) My friend Billy loved it, and if he were at all reachable I would demand that he state his case right here and now, but alas he is in Dallas this weekend, having attended last night’s Art Ball benefitting the Dallas Museum, wearing a midnight blue Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo jacket with black Prada pants, black tuxedo shirt and vintage black YSL bow tie with patent leather lace-ups. I know he’s been obsessed with Drew’s hair lately, particularly at the Golden Globes (below) but I’m going to need more…
Chez Foodinista, today we are staging our own version of Grey Gardens. That is, we’re painting our garden wall Meadowood Gray—the color used at Meadowood in St. Helena (below), where we got married two years ago. The guys at the St. Helena Paint Works kindly shared the formula. We’re starting with the garden wall, but plan to paint the whole house in this dreamy sandy gray with cream trim later this year! (By which I mean sometime before 2020.) I’ll post before after pics of the wall here later today.
Update 9:10pm: We are still watching paint dry – looks great!…. photos forthcoming….
mostarda, Napa Valley, panini, pork, Sandwich
In Food, Out of Town on March 6, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Last weekend when we were up in Northern California visiting my sister, we stopped by Napa Style in Yountville to try her current indulgence, a slow-roasted heritage pork panini with fontina cheese and mostarda (an Italian condiment kinda like chutney, but made with fruit and mustard). I didn’t believe it could possibly live up to the hype, but I was wrong. I found the recipe online for both the pulled pork (a serious time commitment, 8 hours) and the mostarda. Maybe this Sunday I’ll slow-roast some pork and use it all week for tacos, sandwiches and such.
Update: you can order the sublime pear mostarda used at Mozza by clicking here, or by swinging by Cube on La Brea.
Cheese, goat cheese, massipou cheese, Napa Valley, Oxbow Cheese Merchant, pyrenees cheese, tomme crayeuse
In Food, Out of Town on March 3, 2009 at 8:12 am
The man in this photograph nearly ended my parents’ marriage. His name is Ricardo Huijon, and he knows his cheese. For the past decade he was at Dean and Deluca in St. Helena, but last year moved over to Napa’s Cheese Merchant at the Oxbow Market, which features 100-some daily varieties of cheese. Ricardo is so exceptional at his craft that he sold my father a $300 wheel of hard-to-find Massipou sheep’s milk cheese from the Pyrénées a couple of Christmases ago. One taste and my dad had to have the whole wheel, upon discovery of which my mother went ballistic. Over the next couple months, my husband, sister and I all eagerly volunteered to take wedge after wedge off their hands, but truthfully it was so good that the wheel disappeared pretty fast. The Cheese Incident is still a highly explosive topic, even though it was some of the most sublime cheese in memory—nutty, slightly salty, pure heaven. When I was at the Oxbow Cheese Merchant last weekend, I stopped by to see what Ricardo was recommending. He handed me a piece of creamy, buttery cow’s milk cheese called Tomme Crayeuse:
Sadly he had shared the very last bite of this exquisite cheese—more is coming next week—so we chose a triple cream instead. (Ricardo truly knows how to leave them wanting more.) Here are a couple shots of some other intriguing curiosities on hand like this sort of obscenely shaped Italian cow’s milk cheese with black truffles, or this girly “blonde” goat’s cheese covered in sultanas:
No trip to Napa is complete without stopping in to see Ricardo. And do yourself, if not your marriage, a favor and give yourself over to temptation.
beer, Hog Island Oyster Co., lagunitas, Napa Valley, Oxbow, oysters, tomales bay
In Drink, Food, Out of Town on March 2, 2009 at 8:03 am
Every year, on the day after Thanksgiving my sister and I drive out to Hog Island Oyster Co in Tomales Bay—about an hour’s drive from our parents’ house—and get 5 dozen oysters, which we like to chase with Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs. (Whomever ends up with the unenviable task of shucking the oysters, we dub the “mothershucker.”) A few years ago, Hog Island opened up a satellite restaurant at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, but just last November they opened a third location at Oxbow Market in Napa. This is GREAT news for future visits.
On Saturday afternoon, we stopped by the new oyster bar for a quick dozen—six Sweetwaters from Tomales Bay, six Kusshi from BC. The Sweetwaters are my absolute favorite—smokey sweet and briny. If you see them on a menu, order them without hesitation! The Sweetwaters are the ones with the fluted shell:
Couldn’t resist a pint of Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball, a seasonal beer released each January. It’s a little bit sweet (kinda tastes like figs), and is a great match with the Sweetwaters in particular.
COFFEE, marathon, Napa Valley, napa valley marathon, stumptown coffee
In Drink, Out of Town on March 1, 2009 at 9:25 am
It is absolutely POURING up in St. Helena, and my sister is running the Napa Valley Marathon as we speak. We got up early and had some Stumptown Coffee our parents brought back from Portland last week.
We met her at mile 8 on the Silverado Trail, and now we’re going to meet her at mile 18 in Yountville. I don’t know how she’s surviving. To give an idea, here is the view from my parents’ driveway last month. And then the same “view” today (and that’s a color photo, no joke).
Update. Tiny G, his grandmother and I raced from Yountville to Oak Knoll Lane near mile 24 to catch another glimpse. Still pouring, but the scenery is so beautiful. Let me tell you, mile 24 of the Los Angeles Marathon in Boyle Heights did not look like this:
Nor did I look like this:
Congratulations, runners!!! And a special shout out to Tiny G’s aunt, who finished strong, finished pretty and finished fast!
English muffins, Model Bakery, Napa Valley, Oxbow, St. Helena
In Food, Out of Town on February 28, 2009 at 10:31 am
The English muffins at the Model Bakery in St. Helena are what I crave most when I come home to visit my parents and sister. They’re made from Ciabatta dough and then griddled in cornmeal. Yeah, real, real good. This morning, we met my sister for a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Model. The breakfast sandwich is made on one of these heavenly English muffins with scrambled egg, sliced ham and cheddar cheese. And thus begins my sympathy-carbo-loading for her marathon run tomorrow. Breakfast of champions!
Rumor is that Model might shut down its original St. Helena location, and just keep their new bakery open at Oxbow Market in Napa. I think I would throw myself into traffic if this happened. Model has been around for more than 80 years; bread is still baked in ovens from the 1920s, and it has been my neighborhood bakery since I was a kid.
