Spaghetti with tomato sauce

I started off by sauteing some garlic in a skillet and then added some grape tomatoes.  I squashed them in the skillet as they cooked and added in some dried basil, as well as some sun dried tomatoes.  I served it over spinach spaghetti with bacon bits, chevre and a little bit of italian spice blend.

Read Full Post »

63° and bubbling away

When I got home from work last night and changed the bottles of ice, the must was at 68°.  Since fermentation was proceeding nicely, I installed an airlock.  Within minutes, the airlock was bubbling every other second.

When I changed the ice this morning, it was at 63°.  That’s much better, but still higher than I like.  I don’t have a cooler big enough to hold my 3 gl carboy, so I’m going to try and pick one up tonight.  I’m sure that would be better than just sitting the carboy on the floor under a blanket.

Read Full Post »

78 & Foamy

I pitched the yeast yesterday morning right after breakfast.  I was afraid it was a little cool in my house for the must.  I was doing some laundry and realized that it was warmer next to the washer and dryer.  So I put the carboy on top of the washer and dryer.  I watched the temp but it never got above 76deg F.  By lunchtime, I had small bubbles in the carboy.  This morning the temp registered 78 and I had about 1/2″ of foam.  The  temp in the house was about 74.  I put a few frozen bottles of water around the carboy and covered the whole thing with a blanket in an attempt to cool it down.  Ideally I’d like to keep it below 60° until the very end of fermentation.

Read Full Post »

First wine batch from grapes

My buddy and I split about 120 lbs of Chardonel grapes that we crushed and pressed on Monday. I ended up with about 4 gallons, divided into three lots (1-6 qt and 2-5 qt).

Here are the numbers:
pH-3.13
TA-9
SG-1.0834 (23.5 Brix)
To my inexperienced eye, the sugar looks good and the acid a little too high (but not excessively so).

All of the juice spent Monday night in the freezer, but I pulled the 6 qt into the fridge Tuesday night. It sat in the fridge until yesterday when I got the yeast and DAP to start the batch. I pulled the must out of the fridge yesterday afternoon and strained it through cheesecloth into a carboy. Last night at bedtime, the must was at 62deg F, and I wanted it at room temperature before I pitched the yeast.

This morning it was at 70deg F, so after breakfast I added 1.5t of yeast nutrient and 40.5 grains of DAP (in order to bring the N up to 150ppm). I rehydrated the Lalvin K1V yeast per the instructions, and at the end of 15 minutes it was active and at 80deg F. I poured the yeast into the juice and shook the carboy vigorously (that’s another advantage of doing 1 gallon batches). I rubber-banded a paper towel over the top, poked it once with a fork and placed the carboy next to my clothes dryer for a little added warmth.

I’m a little anxious because my buddy was not able to get his first batch to start, blaming the high acid/low pH. He ended up mixing in an equal amount of Niagra juice (from concentrate) and repitching the yeast. All I can do now is wait and hope.

Read Full Post »

Completed wine press

The first pic is our finished wine press.  Following the pressing on Monday, we hosed it down with water and meta’d the tar out of it.  I picked it up this morning because I’m going to be storing it when it’s not in use.

Monday night, I put all my juice in my freezer.  In the process, I discovered that I did not have as much space as I had thought.  All the chardonel fit, but barely.  Tuesday, I decided to pull the first batch of chardonel and start fermenting it.  It was slushy but had not yet frozen solid.  I put it in the fridge to settle while I gathered the necessary ingredients.  I had to mail order DAP.  I figured it would arrive today, which it did.  I went to the Home Brewery this morning and picked up a sachet of yeast (Lalvin K1V).

The second pic is 6 quarts of chardonel that I’ve had settling in the fridge.  I strained the juice thru cheese cloth because of all the sediment.  The sediment turned out to be rather solid, so I could probably gotten by with just carefully pouring off the juice but better safe than sorry I guess.

Now I’m just waiting for the juice to achieve room temperature.

Read Full Post »

Peanut butter pasta

I started with this recipe (http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f20/peanut-butter-pasta-66592.html) and modified it based on personal preference and ingredients on hand.

I put the peanut butter in a small pan on low heat.  To that I added the garlic and soy sauce.  I used cayenne in place of the sriracha.  I don’t keep sesame oil, so I used olive oil instead.  I added some fish sauce just because.  I also added some onion powder in place of the red onions.  I added just enough water to thin the resulting sauce.

I served it over spinach spaghetti with grated carrots and black walnuts.  I was shocked to discover at the last minute that I was out of corn.  The resulting dish was good but won’t win any beauty contests.

Read Full Post »

Another salad

I started with a head of red lettuce and added a small box of grape tomatoes.  The dressing started with a two to one ratio of mayo and grated romano cheese.  I added some fish sauce, worcestershire sauce, bleu cheese and enough lemon juice to thin it out.  The salad also had a pouch of tuna, bacon bits and panko.

The salad was good but the tomatoes were too sweet and next time I’ll leave them out.

Read Full Post »

First Crush

Well, the Chardonel grapes actually materialized. When I got to my buddy’s house about 5:20pm, he was just finishing up manually de-stemming them. We’ve not yet come up with a crusher, so we wrapped a 2×4 with plastic wrap and just tried to crush them in a large tub. That worked terribly, and about a third of the berries were still whole after pressing. My buddy started re-crushing them by hand while I worked the press. We started out with about 120 lbs of grapes (we bought 100 lbs and they threw in the small amount that was left) and ended up with 8 gallons of juice. The juice had a pH of 3.13, a TA of 9 and a specific gravity of 1.083. I got home just before 10pm with Chinese take-out for dinner.

We were not exactly ready for grapes, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We definitely need a crusher. Sunday morning I came across plans for a DIY crusher that looks promising. The wine press worked pretty well. Based on our pressing experience at the winery last week, we lined our press with fiberglass screen wire to prevent the grapes from slipping between the slats (a tip we picked up from a guy at our first stop, which was the university fruit research station). The press does need a longer spout, because of the location where we press. It also needs a handle or something to assist removing the top press plate. My idea is to install a couple of small eyebolts and attach a couple of large zip-ties as handles.

Read Full Post »

Grapes…maybe

I had pretty much given up on getting any grapes this season. My job is not flexible enough to allow me to drop everything and go pick up grapes at the last minute. My buddy will be getting some Norton grapes later this fall, and would gladly pick me up some, but Norton is one of two wines that I will not touch. I know it’s the state grape, but I just can’t stand it.

Friday and Saturday I went on a wine tasting trip.The first stop on Friday morning had grapes for sale at a great price. Unfortunately, I was not going to be home for 36 hours. They said they should have some more tomorrow, so my buddy is going to pick up a 100 lbs or so tomorrow afternoon. We’re going to crush and press them, and divide the juice. The second stop was a mom-and-pop operation. As we were finishing our tasting, the husband came in and was going to press a couple hundred pounds of grapes they had just picked up at a nearby vineyard. We went outside to watch and ended up helping to crush and press the grapes. They were Brianna grapes that he had gotten just to try. That’s an experience you just won’t get at a more commercial winery.

Read Full Post »

Radiatorre with microwaved cheese sauce

I wanted mac’n’ cheese, but my favorite All-Clad that I always use to make the cheese sauce was dirty.  So I decided to try making the cheese sauce in the microwave.  It turned out identical to my regular sauce.

I put the butter in a glass pyrex dish and microwaved it in thirty second intervals until it was melted.  I then mixed in the flour and microwaved it in thirty second intervals, whisking after every interval.  Once the roux was ready, I added the milk and continued with the thirty second intervals, continuing to whisk the bechamel.  I cooked it until it was thick and bubbly, just like I would on the stove top.  I added the grated cheddar and whisked until it was fully incorporated.  The tricky part was when I had to add the radiatorre pasta.  Normally, I put the pasta in a clean bowl and pour the sauce on top.  Mixing the pasta into the bowl of sauce proved difficult, and I ended up losing a pieces.  Making the sauce in the bowl also left some sauce at the top of the bowl, which got a little dark under the broiler.

Overall it was a complete success, but I’m kind of a traditionalist, so this won’t become my SOP.

(No pic because everyone’s seen my mac’n’cheese)

Read Full Post »