Friday at Green Acres

Never a dull moment around here…I swear. So yesterday as I begin my daily post I hear beeping and I think “did the power go out?” The computer has a battery backup so I was still ok, I just shut down and did discover that yes, we were indeed without power. The irony in this is that I just saw the NYSEG truck on our road an hour before. Hello? If you are going to zot people can’t you just give them some sort of automated phone call or something? Regardless, the child and I sit down at the kitchen table to read the paper and what do I see on the back page of the local section? A little blurb that says NYSEG now has all the power outages listed online. HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Get it! online? Excuse me but when I lose power I have no cable which means no internet, and if I have forgotten once again to charge my laptop that mean no computer either.  So NYSEG basically spent who knows how many millions to implement a system that 3/4 of the people won’t be able to access.  I just don’t get where ideas like this come from sometimes.  Needless to say I was crunched for time and didn’t get to post a recipe so I have a new one below.

I received lots of mail about the limoncello recipe and other fruit wines. I highly suggest visiting www.homemadewine.net and browsing the recipe section, there are hundreds of great ideas. I love this one, and it might help some of you who were interested in the lemon wine idea.

 

Lemon Wine

Yield: One Gallon US Beginning SG/PA: Not Provided Ingredients: 24 clear skinned lemons and peels 4 qts. boiling water 8 cups cane sugar 1 egg white (save the shell) 2 cups cracked wheat 1 cup muscat raisins, finely chopped 1 pkg. wine yeast Instructions: Peel lemons, keeping peels as thin as possible and avoiding the white pith underneath. Put peels in large mixing bowl. Combine sugar, water, white of egg and crushed egg shell in a saucepan. Put over low heat, and stir until sugar is all dissolved. Bring to a boil, and boil until froth of egg white is floating on the surface. Strain into bowl containing lemon peelings. Let stand overnight at room temperature. The next day, squeeze the lemons and strain juice through a coarse sieve; discard seeds. Put juice and sugar water in which peelings soaked into canner kettle. (Throw away the peelings.) Stir in chopped raisins and cracked wheat. Let settle for 15 minutes, then stir again to break up any caked wheat. Sprinkle dry granulated dry yeast over the surface and put in a warm place to ferment for two weeks. Stir every day during this period. After two weeks, strain through jelly bag, squeezing very dry. Return to canner kettle to settle for one week more. Siphon off into clean sterilized bottles and cork lightly. When fermentation has ceased, cork tightly and seal with paraffin. Keep this wine for nine months.

Speaking of ideas! I now offer an online menu planning service. This is WONDERFUL for those of you who actually like cooking and don’t mind shopping but find the actually planning difficult. You will be given a weeks worth of menus with a shopping list and the fully detailed recipes. How neat is that?!?!?

Tonight is pizza night and we are going to do a little experiment and do a blind test of one of the recommended reds (the Eola Hills 06 Pinot Noir) from Wine Spectators June edition against our 06 Pinot Noir. Let the best wine win! Last night my dinner consisted of Wegman’s stuffed olives so tonight I better eat something with substance.

 

I am off to go play with the horses and clean up my bad riding habits, then it is crunch time to get ready for graduation parties tomorrow. Have a fantastic Friday and cook something delicious!

Colleen
Creatively serving the Greater Binghamton area in the lovely Southern Tier of NY. www.foodwineartdesign.com

Colleen is a private caterer and personal chef, she also hosts the internet’s favorite resource for the home wine maker at www.homemadewine.net. Her blog and websites are viewed by thousands each day who enjoy her simply explained, illustrated and photographed recipes and helpful tips.

Much talk about Limoncello

I noticed lots of chat about Limoncello this morning and it made me reminiscent of our lovely little lemon libation that we make here at home. It is so very easy to make and tastes absolutely heavenly!

Here is what you need:

1 c spring or distilled water
2 c sugar
4 T lemon zest
1/2 c fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 c 100 proof vodka

***notes***

• we use organic lemons or Meyer lemons when in season
• lemons are zested using a fine micro plane grater to avoid any white pith. This is VERY important. The pith will add bitterness.
• use a good vodka, the taste matters here

Make a simple syrup by boiling the sugar and water over medium high heat until the mixture becomes clear, do not over heat this or you will end up with caramel 🙂 . Remove the simple syrup from the heat and allow it to cool to a just warm temperature and pour into a clean 1 quart jar with a tight fitting lid. Add the zest, vodka and lemon juice and stir. Seal the jar and store in a cool dark place for at least 4 weeks…6 weeks is best. After your wait is over strain the solids and decant. Store in the freezer and serve ICE cold.

To serve we rim a chilled martini glass with sugar infused with lemon balm.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE-make at least two batches.

There are several excellent recipes on homemadewine.net too so swing by and check them out.

Speaking of Limoncello…

Six Mile Creek Vineyard (which is one of my favorite places on the Cayuga wine trail) makes a grape based Limoncella. It is FABULOUS! If you are local to the finger lakes area stop and get a bottle or two you will not be sorry.

While you are there pick up a bottle of the 2006 Pinot Noir and 2006 Quintessence. I served my last bottle of Quintessence this past weekend so I need to get up there myself.

Make Mine Wine is having a photography competition. If you live in the mid-west check out the details!

http://makeminewine.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/make-mine-wine-announces-midwest-wine-country-photo-competition/

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

Colleen
Creatively serving the Greater Binghamton area in the lovely Southern Tier of NY. www.foodwineartdesign.com

Colleen is a private caterer and personal chef, she also hosts the internet’s favorite resource for the home wine maker at www.homemadewine.net. Her blog and websites are viewed by thousands each day who enjoy her simply explained, illustrated and photographed recipes and helpful tips.