Let's Monkey Around With Wine And A Summer Salad

Look at this label on this wine!!! I had a big smile on my face and a chuckle when I came across this bottle of wine at the supermarket yesterday. Of course I had to buy it!! But when I opened Pinot Evil I had another big smile on my face as the wine behind the funny lable was not funny. It was quite good! The wine was located in the French section of the store, but when I got it home and was really "reading" the label I noticed it was from Romania!! Wow, I do not know if I have ever had a wine from Romania! So now I have a whole new country to discover. But for now, I will tell you about Pinot Evil.

The 2005 Pinot Evil is a Pinot Gris from the Cramele Recus winery located in the town of Recus in Timis County, Banat, Romania. This location is in the Eastern part of the country of Romania. This little excerpt was on the back of the bottle: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil. Dating back to the 8th century, this Three Wise Monkey proverb was introduced to Japan by a Buddhist monk from China. Long believed by winemakers to be a challenging grape to grow and craft into wine, Pinot Gris often seems possesssed if not downright evil. We prefer to view Pinot Gris as a guilty pleasure. I think it is nice to be entertained by the bottle while drinking the wine from it! Anyhow, Pinot Evil is a nice crisp wine with a taste of ripe pears and a hint of mineral to it. It is one of those lip smaking wines which are wonderful on a hot summer evenings. I drank this very well chilled. It would be great with some late summer fruits, such as melon or a nice piece of fish on the grill. Or you can just chill a bottle, have some friends over and just "monkey" around!!!

Now for a great little quick fix salad for a summer lunch or with whatever goodie you are putting over a charcoal or gas grill.

Pasta Salad With Peas And Whatever Sounds Good!

8 oz. of elbow macaroni cooked and rinsed in cold water

3/4 cup frozen peas

1/3 cup chopped shallots - you could also use red onion or green onions

1 chopped red pepper - you can also add green pepper if you like

3/4 cup chopped celery

1/3 cup chopped parsley

For the dressing - I make a double batch. This first half of the batch I use as soon as I make the salad. The second half I use when I pull the salad out of the frig and am getting ready to plate up. This is a double batch recipe.

5 tablespoons white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 heaping teaspoons of Dijon mustard

6 tablespoons of extra virgin oil oil

1 teaspoon of honey - you can add more of this if you like it a bit sweeter

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all of your pasta and veggies together in a big bowl. Add 1/2 of the dressing and stir. Put salad into frig until it is chilled. When ready to serve, add the other 1/2 of the dressing.

This is so easy to make and works well as a side dish to almost anything grilled outside. Don't be shy to alter the ingredients! If you have some type of bean, say pintos left over, pitch them in or even green beans, whatever. This salad loves leftovers. It also tastes great the next day, if you are lucky to have any leftovers!

I want to thank Valli for giving me the "Droolworthy" award! That was sweet of you Val and I do love coming to visit you on your site!

Cheers !

Gustave Lorentz Wine & A Summer Pasta Salad

Summer is now in full swing, as most of us are hitting those high 80 and 90 degree days. No better time than now to pull out a refreshing wine from the Alsace area of France. I was lucky enough years ago to make a trip through that lovely countryside tasting my way from vineyard to vineyard. A trip that I would never hesitate to repeat. I fell in love with their wines before I made the trip, but my journey enhanced that love. You cannot miss a bottle of wine from Alsace as they are bottled in those beautiful slim tall bottles, that sometimes are hard to fit in the frig. As like all the other French wines that I have enjoyed, their pricing has went up the ladder also. But in digging around Sam's Wines on my Chicago trip, I came upon one that still had a low price tag of $11.99.

Into my cart went a bottle of Gustave Lorentz 2006 Pinot Blanc Reserve from Bergheim, France. I figured last night was a perfect evening to open this chilled wine, as it was shady, but quite toasty on the deck. On unscrewing the cap, a pleasing bouquet of fresh fruit, not so much citrusy, but just refreshing fruit escaped. Following up on the palate was that same fresh fruit but it was so clean and soft! No heavy acid in this one and the alcohol volume was 12%. At this price, I would recommend this little beauty for sipping on these hot summer nights!

I made an easy summer pasta salad the other night that I want to share with you. It was so easy and would pair up with just about anything you might put on the grill. Also would be great for a nice light lunch. Here ya go!

1 cup spiral pasta

1 cup of lima beans, I used frozen

1 15.5 ounce can artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed and chopped

1 6 ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained, rinsed and diced

4 oil packed sun dried tomatoes diced

About 2 tablespoons prepared pesto

Shredded mozzarella cheese for sprinkling on top

Cook pasta according to directions. The last few minutes of cooking, toss in the lima beans if they are frozen. If not frozen, add to artichoke hearts and red peppers putting all these in a big bowl. Stir the dried tomatoes and pesto together in separate bowl then add to the peppers mixture. Season with salt and pepper, add the drained pasta and lima beans, toss well. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and serve. I served at room temperature but did have leftovers that tasted great the next day. I did add a little more pesto the next day to give it a little extra flavor. And hey, if you like it with more tomatoes or pesto, have at it. It seems one of those salads you cannot mess up.

And since you are seeing, limes, etc. next to my wine, I was making a butter, cilantro and lime juice mixture to pour over veggies that I was putting into packets for the grill. These foil packets consisted of zucchini, yellow squash, green onions, red pepper, a few broccoli florets, a few hot pepper flakes, salt, pepper and my butter sauce. Toss on the grill for about 15-20 minutes and "Oh, so good"!

Cheers!