wine list wednesday

so today im reviewing a renwood 2006 serria foothills  zinfandel - if you saw my post from last week you may remember my little rant about how im on a bit of a zin kick at the moment - so i decided to take a chance on this bottle of zin for the week and sadly i must say i was disappointed. 

over all the flavors werent bad, just unbalanced. it was kinda clumsy - like a big red apple-y black current explosion with not much else to reign it in. i must admit im partial to drier wines and dry this is not... not even a hint of it to speak of. but it you like big voluptuous fruity wines then this might be the one for you - 

food pairing : bbq ... maybe all that hot spicy savory goodness would be a nice compliment to all the fruit. 

wine list wednesday: bonterra zinfandel

i was a little disappointed by this zinfandel. its not that its bad by any means but just meah- its got a bit of the light fruity characteristic you would expect from a zinfandel and it is most certainly well balanced and smooth, but it really doesnt do too much. maybe a hint of mineral on the tongue. i was hoping that if i left it open and breathing for a while that it would change, and it did a bit the fruit became a bit more developed and forward.

 i was hoping to love it especially since it is an organic california wine. i guess for the 10$ price its ok if i really felt pressed to have an organic wine but there are many other similarly priced wines out there that i would rather try. 

fruits of labor: esther's cottage farm swedish cucumbers

i have been getting tons of cucumbers in my produce box, perhaps you have a similar problem or dont know what to do with all those cucumbers growing in your garden? here is a delightfully fresh and easy recipe - it is an adaptation of my great-grandmothers recipe for swedish cucumbers, but ive punched it up a bit.
this would be really fun and unexpected at a summer bbq!

the recipe that follows is for 1lb of cucumbers but as you will see it can be easily increased to accommodate more.

1lb of cucumbers
1 1/4 cups of water
1 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of white vinegar
1/4 tsp of salt
3 tbsp of parsley finely chopped
1/8 cup of sliced red onion

combine water, white vinegar, sugar, salt, parsley in a large bowl

the easiest, most efficient and i think nicest way to do this next step is on the mandolin, (a rather ingenious kitchen accessory i must say. if you don't own a mandolin they are rather inexpensive the one i have cost about 8$ though some can be as pricey as 100$ or over) if you aren't equipped with a mandolin, slice the cucumbers and red onion as thinly as you can -

peel the cucumbers and then slice them on the mandolin right over the liquid mixture then do the same for the red onion until you have approx. an 1/8 cup in the mixture (you don't want too much or all you will taste is onion). stir it all together and let it sit at least 2 hours - though i recommend over night or even 2 days ahead as they get better the longer they sit in the brine.

this is also a nice light accompaniment to meat or served over fresh sliced summer tomatoes. once you taste these im sure you will think of many things to do with esther's swedish cucumbers -
enjoy