One of my favorite beaches in San Diego. Family-friendly and not so crowded even at the peak of summer.
Mellow waves near shore to wade in but good body surf a little farther out.
There’s a relatively clean bathroom at the 25th St. lifeguard station. Perfect for pregnant couples like us!
I just couldn’t resist jotting down this recipe, one of my favorites and one of the simplest things in the world to make. All it takes is the right ingredients and patience. The reward is one of the most delicious expressions of Italy you’ll ever taste. The photo appeared today in my Houston Press post on the Aligoté by Michel Lafarge. Buon appetito!
Risotto alla Parmigiana
Serves 4
Ingredients:
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. finely chopped white onion
1 cup Carnaroli
½ cup white wine
chicken stock, as needed (2½-3 cups)
kosher salt
Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a wide sauté pan. Add the onion and gently cook until translucent, making sure all the while not to brown the onion (add a dash of water or white wine if needed). When the onion has become translucent, add the rice and toast over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally (this step is fundamental and ensures that the individual grains don’t stick together or become lumpy). Deglaze with the white wine and when the wine has evaporated, begin adding the stock one ladleful at a time, stirring gently all the while (constant stirring is the secret to evenly cooked risotto). Season with salt to taste (not necessary if the stock is properly seasoned). As the stock is absorbed by the rice, continue adding more liquid as needed until the rice has cooked through (or to desired firmness), about 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and gently fold in a generous amount of Parmigiano Reggiano. Sprinkle lightly with minced flat-leaf parsley and top with freshly cracked pepper. (For traditional Risotto alla Parmigiano, omit the flat-leaf parsley and pepper.)
Serve as a first course with extra Parmigiano Reggiano on the side and pair with Lambrusco di Sorbara.
In other news… Happy birthdays…
Today is Alfonso’s birthday. Anyone who’s been following along here at the blog knows the important role he’s played in our lives over the last years. He introduced me to Tracie P, was the best man at our wedding, and he’s our comrade in all things vinous and blogilicious. He has one of those great palates that you can only train and develop over years — decades — of tasting all kinds of wines, from every category. I admire him for how he lives his life, for his career, for his intellectual pursuits, for his natural gift in writing and the amazing stories he tells us about his life in Italy wine, and for the generous friendship that he’s shared with us. We talk almost every single day about everything under the sun and there are days when we seem to communicate telepathically through our blogs and social media (he and I are leading a panel on wine blogging at this year’s Texas Sommelier Conference in a few weeks, btw). And I probably don’t know anyone who can make laugh as hard as Alfonso can. We love him a lot and are thinking of him today on this special day.
Tomorrow is Cousin Marty’s birthday. Does anyone remember the scene in Mel Brooks’s The Producers when Gene Wilder gives the speech at the end in the courtroom before the judge? “This man… this man… this is a wonderful man.” That’s how I feel about Marty. He’s the Bialystock to my Bloom. I never knew Marty growing up: he’s my father Zane’s first cousin and because the families were estranged, I didn’t have much or any contact with him and his children. But when he found out that I moved to Texas to be with Tracie P, he reached out to us and made us part of his family’s life. And guess what? It turns out that I’m not the only fresser in the family! Like us, Marty loves food and wine (“I never met a Rhône I didn’t like,” goes one my favorite aphorisms of his) and he loves the theatrical experience of restaurant going. We’ve become so close over the last few years and the amount of fun we have together is criminal, really. There outta to be a law against it! Marty had a health scare this year and even in its darkest moments, I was blown away by the joy and hope and love and generosity of spirit that he mustered — not just for his own sake but for ours as well. Thank G-d that he’s fine. I just can’t imagine a world without him and Tracie P and I are sending lots of love and happy birthday wishes for his special day tomorrow.
In other other news…
Tomorrow I’m heading home to California where I’ll be pouring wine on the floor Wednesday and Thursday nights at Sotto in Los Angeles. If you’re in town, please come down and taste with me. We’re going to be debuting a new Gragnano (my favorite) and Randall Grahm’s excellent Syrah by the glass. Hope to see you!
One of the coolest things about living in Austin, Texas is that there is still an abundance of locally owned and managed food stores. That number is sadly and rapidly dwindling across Texas and the U.S. but Austin is one of those hold-out cities where folks take the local battle cry — keep Austin weird — to heart.
And one of the coolest things about being pregnant is that most weekends will find us at the best ice cream parlor in Texas: Amy’s Ice Creams, where the creamery takes local pride in on-site churning and idiosyncratic combinations, like the Vulcan Mind Melt above.
For those who grew up in the Baskin-Robbins era, the limited number of ice cream flavors might come as a surprise. But the servers are ingenious at creating the flavor you desire by combining the ice creams with the myriad toppings they have at their disposal. In fact, the “crush’ns” outnumber the ice cream flavors. (This weekend Tracie P had Belgian Chocolate and crumbled Heath Bars.)
There are even ice creams that have alcohol in them — stout beer and vodka the last time I checked — although the alcoholic content is negligible.
We’ve been having a lot of fun with food cravings (thanks again, Noah, for the awesome pickle shipment from Zabar’s!) and who doesn’t love ice cream on a lazy summer Sunday in Austin, Texas? I know I do. :)
Happy Sunday, yall… Buona domenica…
In years past, my birthday has been marked with a bistecca alla fiorentina. (Last year’s Florentine-style porterhouse was particularly memorable because it coincided with James Suckling’s announcement that he was leaving Wine Spectator.)
But this year, with Baby P on the way and the implementation of new austerity measures, bacon cheeseburgers (another guilty pleasure of mine) seemed more idoneous.
I always use ground sirloin for my burgers, seasoned with salt, pepper, and Tabasco.
We sacrilegiously paired with a bottle of 2001 Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes by Leroy (!!!). I know what you’re thinking: austerity measures and a $300+ bottle of wine? It was given to me by a friend at a famous auction house after I helped her out by researching a lot of famous Tuscan wine for her.
I wrote about the wine this morning over at the Houston Press blog, where I’ve been having a lot of fun with the “Odd Pair” rubric that I author. It’s been great to get out of my comfort zone and write about a wider variety of wines (and even some wines I wouldn’t reach for normally).
I made the burgers and Tracie P made the mashed potatoes (as my birthday request) and the traditional blueberry pie (this year with lattice-top crust!). She’s really beginning to show!
Baby P and she are doing great and we’re looking forward to finding out Baby P’s sex in a few weeks. :)
Thanks, so much, for all the birthday wishes! They mean so much to me… What a special birthday this year and what an amazing year this has been and will be… We can’t tell you how much your support means to us…
It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Ryan Opaz and I were going to become fast friends when we meet last month for the first time at the Radici Wines festival in Apulia. Ryan is simply one of the coolest dudes in wine blogging today and I completely dig, his style, his energy, his mission, and his vibe… My kinda people…
I am entirely geeked and psyched to share the news that Ryan and his partner in marriage, life, and business Gabriella have asked me to speak at a couple of events at this year’s European Wine Bloggers Conference in October in Italy… YES ITALY! In Franciacorta to be exact… How friggin’ cool is that?
In coming months, I’ll be posting on the panels and seminars in which I’ll be participating and I am thrilled to get to meet so many bloggers and winemakers whom I only know virtually and through their wines. The super cool Evan Dawson is going to be the keynote speaker! That’s way rad and I’m stoked to finally get to connect and taste with him. Stay tuned!
In other news…
I’m taking the rest of the day off because a little bird just landed on my shoulder and told me that today is my birthday! Tracie P baked me a blueberry pie with lattice-top crust and we have a special secret menu planned for tonight… See you tomorrow! And thanks for all the birthday wishes! This birthday is a really special one for me. :)
I love you Tracie P.
The scene at the Santorini airport yesterday was maddening: Italian, Irish, French, Japanese, Korean tourists all trying to leave the island, as strikes and an uncertain future loomed. Somehow my handlers managed to usher me through the pandemonium on to a small propeller plane. And when I awoke with the Cretan sunrise this morning surrounded by vineyards, the stinking reality still hadn’t sunk in: as my New York Times mobile feed reports on this gorgeous Wednesday, which finds me a stone’s throw from the town where modern Greek philosopher Kazantzakis was born on the island of Crete, the future of the European Union — and perhaps the financial security of the entire Western World — rests upon Greek lawmakers’s tense negotiations and the outcome of their debate over deep-reaching austerity measures. As I slumbered last night, I dreamed of Kazantzakis’s Christ. And when I awoke with the daybreak, I wondered whether or not every Greek woman, man, and child must feel the same existential burden that Christ felt as he weighed the temporal and spiritual consequences of the mission entrusted to him by his G-d.
One man I spoke to in recent days — P the stoic — observed wryly that “the Germans are invading us once again with these imposed austerity measures,” pointing out that the northerners are essentially condemning the Greeks to indentured servitude for this and the generation to come.
Another man I spoke to — S the mystic — caressed his amber and mastic komboloi and told me of seeing water squeezed from stone, a miracle he witnessed when, as a younger man, his failed wine shop had left him with suffocating debt. His faith, he said, gave him the strength to rebuild his life and provide for his family.
Today, I wish I could write about the bitter herbs that balanced the sweetness of summer tomatoes and cucumbers in the salad prepared for me last night by Maria — the matron, who, together with her husband Yannis, looks after the estate where I spent the night. I wish I could tell you how the bones of the smoked lamb were so delicate that they crumbled easily, rewarding my palate with their marrow.
But I can’t. My thoughts and spirit are consumed with world — indeed, local — events.
I will go to Kazantzakis’s almond tree and ask her, “sister, please tell me, will the child that Tracie P are bringing into the world believe that humankind has a greater purpose on this earth beyond that of consumption?”
And hopefully she will blossom and show me G-d.
Thanks for reading…
Tracie P and I are OVERJOYED to share the news that in the early hours of Friday June 24, Jayne and Jon gave birth to a healthy baby girl! 10 lbs, 14 ounces!
We are so happy for our friends… :)
We’re sending lots of love to San Diego, California where Baby Erickson made her way into this world…
Before heading up to Los Angeles this week to work at Sotto where I curate the wine list, I stopped in my hometown of La Jolla, California, to have dinner with father Zane who was in from Indiana visiting my brothers down there. We decided to go to Carino’s Pizza on La Jolla Boulevard, a restaurant where the décor has not changed since 1971, when the current owner bought the joint and when my family moved to Southern California from Chicago (Remember when Annie Hall moves to LA eats in a vegetarian restaurant, smokes pot and uses black soap? That’s essentially what happened.) The place looks like a movie set and is still adorned by murals of Mt. Vesuvius.
The food at Carino’s is nothing to write home about. But then again, I was at home. I hadn’t been there in literally 16 years. The antipasto was exactly as I remembered it. Over breakfast the next morning mama Judy said, “honey, I hate to tell you this, but you smell like garlic. You should do something about that before you start your day,” she added. I guess it’s the kinda food that “sticks with you.”
Carino’s has a moderate corkage fee of $8 and so I brought this excellent bottle of 09 Toni Jost Riesling that my buddy Jesse sold me. I’ve been drinking a lot of Riesling this summer (and posting about it over at the Houston Press blog, Eating Our Words).The wine was bright and delicious, with a wonderful 12% alcohol. Great pairing for the antipasto.
The pizza hasn’t changed either. We had the peperoni with jalapeños.
I popped a bottle of 05 Benanti Nerello Mascalese from Etna, Sicily. This has been one of my favorite red wines this year: earth and black and red and berry fruit, with bright bright acidity, and that wonderful balance of elegance, lightness, and power that you find in the pharmacist’s wine (Benanti made his fortune in pharmaceuticals before becoming a winemaker).
Zane doesn’t drink red wine, so he didn’t have any.
He talked to me about the usual subjects: his expertise in aerophysics and the recordings arts, Israeli politics, and his legacy as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Some things never change… Es muss sein…
Received my first father’s day wishes this morning from Tony, one of my putative fathers…
happy fathers day
you now qualify
tony
Do Bianchi 