Bargain Wine of the Week: Venta Morales Tempranillo 2008

Remember the old Chianti wine bottles from Italy that came with a wicker basket woven around the bulbous bottom part of the bottle? Well, we don't have fond memories of those wines — only the times we had when we were drinking the wine. The wine, and probably the fact that we had too much of it, gave us a headache.

And the bottle was memorable not only for the wicker, but also for the coffee table candleholders that everybody made out of the empty bottles in college dorms across America.

Today's wine has nothing to do with the basket wine, except that the label has an illustration of woven wicker in a wide band across the middle.

This wine isn't even from Italy, it's from Spain. But it's a heckuva bargain. It is a red wine, made from Tempranillo grapes and made in a non-oak-barrel inexpensive way — except that the grapes are grown in an old vineyard that yields only two tons per acre, so the grapes have lots of flavor.

And, here's the best of all: It tastes so good that it was rated 88 by Wine Advocate; it has depth; and it only costs $6 a bottle. Yes, that's right, $6. If you see this bottle in your local store, buy several bottles, because it's a bargain and a half at that price.

There's Good Fast Food at the Supermarket

Moving to Virginia has meant longer car trips to visit family and friends. Although we like to think of ourselves as the kind of people who are so well organized that we leave the driveway fully armed with delicious, healthy meals and snacks to sustain us in the hours ahead, we're really the kind of people who are always rushing around, and we tend to hit the road with little more than a bottle of water and a couple of cups of coffee.

This means finding food on the road, and as we've written, we try to avoid fast-food restaurants. But on a recent trip back from Upstate New York, we were starving, and pulled off the interstate into the usual neighboring sprawl of Wendy McBurgers, resigned to the usual fries and soda. But as we approached McDonald's we saw that there was a supermarket right next door. We could escape the fast-food rut!

In less time than it would have taken to order and receive our greasy fast-food bag, and for approximately the same amount of money, we grabbed baby carrots, hummus, and a bottle of water. If we'd been a little hungrier, we would have gotten pita bread, olives, and fruit to round out the meal. But the cold, crunchy carrots and tart hummus were incredibly satisfying, and we happily ate them with the knowledge that the next time we found ourselves road-bound and starving, we would have a delicious alternative.

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Bargain Wine of the Week: 3 Blind Moose Chardonnay 2008

Here's a California Chardonnay that won't suck green out of your wallet. It's bright color is almost as golden-yellow as the cartoon label on the bottle. There's a bit of oak in this, but not enough to make the price reach the levels of most chards from the golden state.

This bottle costs $8 — no kidding — and could be served weekdays or weekends when friends come to your house for dinner.

There is some citrus and non-red fruit, but the wine is buttery, round and rich in your mouth. The winery says it has a bit of baked-bread taste as well, and we won't argue.

Wine of the Week (Under $10): Yalumba Shiraz-Viognier 2007

Shiraz is what the Aussies call their syrah grapes and wine. When you live down under, you can flip anything around and call it what you like.

In this case they're pretty good at it. They've made shiraz their own and they make it sing.

For those who like red wine that's not as chewy and dark and intense as cabernet sauvignon, shiraz/syrah is a nice relief.

Yalumba has blended its shiraz from the famous Barossa Valley with viognier grapes from Eden Valley and come up with a smooth red that brings raspberries and plums to the table, but cuts them with cedar. Like a zin, this shiraz has a light dusting of pepper and coffee and anise.

This 2007 Yalumba won an 89 from Wine Spectator, which was a lower rating than it received in the 04, 05, 06 and 08 versions. But it's pretty darn good, and you only pay $10 for a bottle. As regular readers of Eat Well, Eat Cheap know, we don't eat much red meat around here, but this bottle of shiraz went incredibly well with our ratatouille and a fillet of grilled salmon.

Ratatouille, Tian or Confit Byaldi: Great Company Food

Whether they know it or not, most people have probably had ratatouille, the French dish of cooked vegetables. In the cartoon movie "Ratatouille," the chef Remy, who is a rat (literally) makes the title dish at the end of the movie. To help the director show a fancy version of ratatouille, real-life famous chef Thomas Keller (French Laundry; Boulud, Per Se, Ad Hoc) made a version called Confit Byaldi.

Like ratatouille, Confit Byaldi is made with zucchini, tomato and eggplant, but they are sliced very thinly and arranged neatly in rows or a spiral in the dish. It reminded us of a Tian that we make from Ina Garton's "Barefoot Contessa" book. The Tian contains potatoes instead of eggplant, is sliced slightly thicker and is layered in neat rows on top of a sauteed onion and herb base.

The Confit Byaldi veggies are layered neatly on top of a piperade, which adds roasted yellow, red, and orange peppers and tomatoes to the onions.

We made one the other night and absolutely loved it. It is a good vegetarian main dish or would work as a side for everything from grilled fish to roasted chicken to medium rare steak. Here is Thomas Keller's recipe for Confit Byaldi:

The Piperade
1/2 roasted red pepper, seeded and chopped1/2 roasted yellow pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 roasted orange pepper, seeded and chopped
(you can substitute whatever colors you find)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup diced onion3 tomatoes (12 ounces total) peeled, seeded and finely diced
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig flat leaf parsley
1/2 of a bay leaf
kosher salt

In a medium skillet over low heat, add olive oil, garlic and onion. Heat until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes.
Add tomatoes, thyme, peppers, parsley and bay leaf. Simmer over low heat until very little juice remains, about 10 minutes. Reserve a Tablespoon and spread remainder in bottom of a large oven dish or 8-12-inch skillet.

Vegetables
1 zucchini, sliced in 1/16-inch rounds
1 Japanese or chinese eggplant, sliced in 1/16-inch rounds
1 yellow squash, sliced in 1/16-inch rounds
4 roma tomatoes, sliced in 1/16-inch rounds1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350. In oven dish or skillet (with piperade on the bottom), arrange vegetables in a spiral, starting on the outside and alternating different kinds of veggies so that 1/4-inch of each slice is exposed. Continue the spiral around and in toward the center until the dish is filled (below). You might not use all of the vegetables. Mix garlic, oil and thyme in a bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle over vegetables. Cover pan with foil and crimp edges to seal.
Bake until vegetables are tender, about 1 hour. Uncover and bake about 30 minutes more. If using as a main dish, sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top for these last 30 minutes of baking.

When it comes out of the oven, you can serve it. Or, you can cover, refrigerate and warm later in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. The official recipe calls for a vinaigrette to be drizzled over the byaldi when it's served, but we've never felt the need to do this. The vinaigrette is made with the reserved tablespoon of piperade, 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, fresh thyme and chervil, and Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

Great Red Values from Portugal

We have a few wines from Portugal in our cellar, but we don't know much about wines from the sliver of land on the western edge of Spain.

It appears that 2007 was a great year for red wines from Portugal, especially those from the Douro and Dão regions in the northwest.

The spring in 2007 was wet, but the grapes that survived produced great wine. Since the mid-90s, more than 40 red wines from Douro have scored 90 or higher on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale and five scored 95 or higher. Most of these great wines were produced by well-known Port houses and cost $50 to$155 a bottle.

However, the two regions also produced many great values under $10, according to Wine Spectator. Here's a sampling to look for at your wine warehouse:

• Encostas Do Douro Douro Palestra 2007, 91 rating, $10
• Vinhos Douro Superior Douro Castello d'Alba 2007, 89 rating, $10
• Goanvi Estremadura Castel do Sulco Reserva 2007, 88 rating, $10
• Avelda Douro Charamba 2007, 88 rating, $8
• Casa Santos Lima Estremadura Quinta de Bons-Ventos 2007, 87, $9
• Herdade Do Esporão Alentejo Monte Velho White 2008, 86, $10
• Symington Family Douro Altano 2007, 85, $8
• Jose Maria Da Fonseca Vinho Verde Twin Vines 2008, 85, $9
• Casal Branco Ribatejo Qunita White 2008, 85, $9

Saying 'Aged in Oak' in Spanish

From the time that we spent in California wine country we learned a lot about Sonoma, Napa, Central Coast, Valley of the Moon and all of the other appellations. From there it wasn't too big a stretch to Oregon and Washington.

We could ride our bike to wineries along the Russian River, where we learned much about each grape, every winery, the differences between the valleys and even changes from one vineyard to the next.

But we admittedly have a lot to learn about the nuances of French, Spanish and Australian wine and wineries. So it might come as a shock that we never knew what "Crianza" meant on the label of some Spanish wines.

It means that the red wine has spent a minimum of six months in oak barrels — and in the case of a wine from Rioja, 12 months in wood casks.

For wines that had not been aged in oak, the slightly derogatory term used to be sin crianza. But in the last 10 years, that term has been replaced by joven. The Sabor Real Toro red we recently reviewed included "joven" on its hind label. It would not be uncommon to find the term on value wines from Spain. It doesn't mean they're no good. It just means that they're not as complex, which makes sense, right?

Make It Yourself: Cornbread

We're mystified by how many people use mixes to make cornbread when it is almost as easy and fast, and much cheaper, to make it from scratch. In our favorite recipe, from Bread, by Beth Hensperger, buttermilk provides tanginess and moistness and eliminates the cloying sweetness common to most box mixes.

Cornbread

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal*

1/2 t. salt

1 T. baking powder

4 T. sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup buttermilk

4 T. melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a good-size bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and sugar. (If the baking powder is lumpy, first push it through a fine strainer to prevent the harsh-tasting lumps from cooking into the bread.)

2. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, buttermilk, and butter. Add to the dry ingredients. Gently stir until it's just mixed.

3. Transfer the batter to a greased pie pan or square baking pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the bread gets a nice, brown crust and a knife comes out clean. If you like your cornbread on the moist side, check it at the 25-minute mark; it may be baked enough for you.

4. Devour, but remember that the leftovers are wonderful split and toasted.

* Any cornmeal works well, but we think a mixture of coarse and fine provides the most interesting texture. Again, it's a matter of taste.

A Little Miso Boosts Flavor

Everybody is familiar with the four basic flavors—sweet, salty, bitter, and sour—but there's an elusive fifth flavor known as "umami." It's harder to define than the other four, but it refers to savoriness, a quality that blends in well with others to round out the flavor of a dish. Parmesan cheese has this quality; so do mushrooms.

We've been reading about umami for years and thought we understood it, but we never really got it until a few weeks ago, when we found ourselves with a big pot of underflavored leek and potato soup. We'd made this soup at least a hundred times over the years, and although it occasionally needed an extra dose of salt, butter, or Bragg to fill out the flavor, it had always been reliably delicious.

This time we had big beautiful leeks and a fresh bag of potatoes, and we had taken care not to add too much water, just covering the sliced veggies with liquid before we turned up the heat. What happened? We still don't know, but even after we added salt, Bragg, and butter, the soup lacked flavor. We knew that if we added any more salt, Bragg, or butter, we'd just end up with a pot of salty, Braggy, fatty, underflavored soup.

Then we thought of adding miso. After all, miso and water make a fine, simple, flavorful broth. We had a small tub of sweet yellow miso in the fridge, so, using the strainer method, we stirred a couple of tablespoons into the soup. Just like that, we had flavor; just like that, we really understood the concept of umami. The miso added depth and interest without unduly amping up the salt or adding a strong miso flavor.

There are many, many kinds of miso, ranging from the mild yellow version we used to dark, beefy concoctions reminiscent of demi-glace. (All are based on fermented soybeans and completely vegetarian.) You may be able to find miso in the refrigerated section of your produce department; if not, look for it in a health food store or Asian market.

Experiment, and you'll find that miso is a delicious, easy way to add flavor to soups, sauces, and salad dressings.

Wine Week: Ortas Rasteau Cotes du Rhone Viguiers 2007

This is a lighter red than a typical Cotes du Rhone, but that makes it the kind of red wine that goes with everything from pizza to pork. Great with a casual dinner of little nibbles or various cold meats. The winery says it will stand up to calves liver and we'll take its word for that.

Made from mostly grenache grapes grown on a small chalky hillside outside the southern France village of Rasteau, the Ortas Rasteau Cotes du Rhone Viguers 2007 is an inexpensive way ($10) to drink a French red wine that Wine Spectator rated 89. But buy it and drink it this year. It's not going to improve in the bottle the way more expensive wines do.

It is light ruby colored with lots of red fruit such as boysenberry and cranberry along with spice cake and a slightly peppery finish.

Wine Week: 2 Brothers 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva

Given our pleasure finding and drinking Chilean wines over the last five years, we couldn't let Wine Week pass without including a wine from Chile, especially with the earthquake there that killed 800 people and ruined hundreds of millions of liters of wine.

Chile has great bargains and values (not always the same thing). We've written about it a lot here, because it's relatively easy to find Chilean wines under $10. And many of these are great, tasty values.

Within Chile, we consider the Colchagua Valley, our little secret valley of superb wines. Ever since we discovered MontGras Carmenere, we've never had bad luck buying a wine made in the Colchagua Valley in the middle of the country known as Region 6. We're sure there are terrible wines from the valley, but we haven't found one yet.

Our latest discovery was 2 Brothers 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva. It retailed for $15 when it was released, but we bought a case for $8.33 a bottle (and no shipping) from EmpireWine.com. What a bargain AND value. Robert Parker and Wine Spectator both gave it an 88. Not bad for a really good $8 weekday wine.

It smells of blackberries, currants and cedar and tastes of chocolate and spice and toast. Lots of berries and cassis in here. It's certainly chewy, but its not so thick that you couldn't drink it with non-meat dishes, which is how we had it.

And one last thing, the two brothers give $.50 from every bottle sold to breast cancer research in honor of their mother, who loved the Fleur de Lys that is on every label. They've already passed the $1 million contribution mark and have started expanding their gifts to other charities.

Wine Week: Hogue 2007 Cabernet Merlot blend

This Hogue red is not as good as the Hogue Chardonnay we reviewed earlier in the week, especially given that good $10 whites are a lot harder to find these days than $10 reds, which are abundant.

Having said that, Hogue is a pretty reliable buy if you're in a small wine store on the way to somewhere and have to pick up a value red wine that you know will work no matter what the host is serving.

By blending merlot and cabernet grapes, Washington State's Hogue winery can make a distinct wine for this price category. It is not terribly complex, but has some oaky taste backed by cherries and other berries for fruit — along with some cinnamon and spice for balance.

There are better under-$10 wines, but if you're stuck for a bottle and this one happens to be in the store, it'll do nicely. If it's white sister is on the rack, definitely bring her along to dinner.

Wine Week: Sabor Real Toro 2006

Spanish wines continue to be an amazing value. If you are looking for a red wine, pick what you like but don't buy before checking out the aisle of Spanish wines in your local store.

If you are like us you don't know as much about Spanish grapes and wineries as you do about France or California, or even Chile, Australia and Argentina. But we find wines from Spain to be consistently reliable in the $8-$15 range. That's difficult to say about any wine region.

And when a Spanish red gets a 90 from The Wine Advocate and costs only $9, well, you've got a winner for weekday dinners at the very least.

We stumbled upon such a bargain recently. Sabor Real Toro 2006 came highly recommended in an eLetter we received from an online wine dealer. We looked up reviews and found the very high 90 rating noted above and the reviewer who said, this is the wine to buy by the case. So, we did.

Dark-colored, full-bodied, with "gobs of spice," and lots of fruit (blackberry) , you'd think this wine would be good only with a big steak. But we don't eat much steak. In fact, very very little red meat. And yet, this wine is well matched with anything spicy or not delicate.

At the $9 price, this Spanish red is at least worth a try if you see it in your store. You won't be sorry.

Wine Week: Hogue 2007 Chardonnay Columbia Valley

Washington State's Columbia Valley looks more like a desert than a lush wine region. Unlike the other (western) side of the Cascade Mountains, the eastern side is not green and has few trees.

But the days are hot and the nights are cool, a good start for wine-friendly weather. And the rocky soil is somewhat difficult growing ground. But again, bad ground makes for good wine grapes because they strive harder and grow less fruit. The fewer grapes concentrate the nutrients in luscious wine grapes.

Hogue is not on the list of wineries that produce Washington's premium wines, but like Beaulieu and Beringer in Napa Valley, it produces very good value wines. It's 2007 Chardonnay is $10 and it makes us happy when we open a bottle for dinner (or socializing) because we know it will be predictably good.

This wine won't stand up to a burly tomato sauce, but it is great with fish fillets, a light pasta dish, clams or a crisp salad. It smells of pear and a bit of citrus, and tastes of pear and honey. It is not as complex as a $40 Chardonnay, but it is round and crisp.

Wine Week: d'Arenberg Shiraz 2008 The Stump Jump

Finding a 90-point wine at your local store's Saturday free tasting is a very pleasant surprise. Finding it at $10 is even more pleasant. And then realizing that this very same wine placed 82 on the Wine Spectator's annual list of Top 100 Wines of the year is just a very happy coincidence.

We had tasted The Stump Jump white, one of the other low-end "Stumpies" made by this great Australian winery, but had not tasted the Shiraz, which is what the Australians call their Syrah grapes. This Rhone-style wine, which had been sitting open for some time, tasted great at the store. We bought a couple of bottles because our local dealer only had a couple left.

When we opened the first bottle two nights ago, it was a bit rough and sharp tasting. So, we let it sit open for a couple of hours, then vacuumed the air out and put it up for the night. Two days later we opened it to pleasant aromas of berries.

Despite sitting open for the two hours, the taste was fresh and fruity (in a good way). This is an everyday wine that would sit well with pork or chicken, pasta or salad. It went incredibly well with the Chinese stir-fry we happened to be having for dinner.

If you see it, buy it. Only 5,000 cases were imported.

Wine Week: Chateau de Nages 2008 Reserve Rhone White

This is Wine Week. You might ask, isn't every week? Well, somebody designated this wine week somewhere, so we're going to review a different $10 bottle every day this week.

Today's wine is a white sibling of a red Rhone wine we reviewed a few months ago: Chateau de Nages Red Rhone Wine. Both are less than $10 and are well worth carting home from your local wine store. French wines can be a tough decision these days unless you're familiar with the wine, because the inexpensive ones, especially from Bordeaux, can be just awful.

Unlike Robert Parker, wine taster extraordinaire, we like Rhones and a few Languedocs. And in these regions you'll find your French bargains.

The Chateau de Nages Costieres de Nimes 2008 Reserve White Rhone Wine is a product of the Michel Gassier family of wines. This wine, made with grenache blanc and roussanne grapes in a 60-40 mix, tastes of pears and grapefruit.

While it is a light wine — somewhere between a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc — it stood up well to the pasta with blue cheese and cream sauce. Yet it is light enough to sip or to accompany a delicate fish dish.

Drink now or through 2013.

Bargain Wine of the Week: 2007 Ramal Road Carneros Chardonnay

One of the tricks of merchandising and marketing is to use leftovers to produce a product similar to the main brand. Thus, every drug store has store-brand products that are actually made by the big-name companies. Wineries often do the same thing. They create a second-tier wine, give it few if any marketing dollars and use the off-cuts of the production process and sell it at a much reduced price.

It would seem that Buena Vista Winery, one of the oldest wineries in California, has created Ramal Road wines, which it sells at $10 a bottle. (The label at the top of the bottle says "Buena Vista" in mouse-sized type and Ramal Road is the address of the Buena Vista winery.) The $10 price tag on sale (it is normally $15, we discovered later) is impressive for any Chardonnay that good. It is particularly impressive when the grapes are grown in the Carneros region that sits at the south end of the Napa-Sonoma border in California.

When you are at the wine store, remember that any Carneros Chardonnay is predictably great drinking. The best sells for more than $50 a bottle and most sell for $30-$50. This particular label, which doesn't even show up in a Google search, is easily worth $20.

The flavor that comes through in spades is pear and honey.

It also tastes of apple and citrus, with a little vanilla in the finish. A great bargain. Put away a case. This probably won't stay undiscovered for long, and then the price will undoubtedly go up.

Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Orka Mitts

We'll admit it—the first time we donned our Orka oven mitts, we found them stiff and unwieldy. And the first time we used them to reach into a 450-degree oven, we flinched, wondering if the thin silicone really would protect us.

Years later, we're hooked. Our trusty Orkas have shielded us from spattering ovens, boiling water, and red-hot barbecue grills. You can't pick up a needle with these gloves, but you never have to worry about getting burned from wet or worn-out fabric.

After years of use, they show no signs of wearing out. Best of all, they're washable. Those embarrassingly brown, greasy, smelly cloth oven mitts we used to own—and hide from guests—are only a dim memory at this point.

At $30 a pair, these aren't the cheapest oven mitts you'll ever buy, but they'll be the last oven mitts you buy.

Cheap, Fast, Delicious Fried Cheese Appetizer

This photo of the fried queso fresco does not do the dish justice. It is a delicious crispy treat made even better by the homemade salsa we served with it.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we were still pretty much snowed in, with little inclination to go out and forage for snacks. But we did have half a round of queso fresco, the white cheese that's often crumbled on Mexican dishes. Remembering that you can make a fine appetizer simply by grating parmesan onto a nonstick pan, we wondered if we could do a similar thing with wet but firm queso fresco.

So we cut the cheese into quarter-inch slices, carefully placed it on a nonstick griddle, turned the heat up to medium-high, and watched: After just a few minutes, the cheese had released its liquid and browned on one side. A few minutes on the other side completed the cooking process.

Good so far, but the appetizer needed a garnish. Salsa, for example.

Unfortunately, the cupboard was bare, and we remained disinclined to venture into the frozen streets to search for a jar, particularly on the biggest salsa day of the year. We did have half a can of crushed tomatoes and a leftover roasted red pepper. Along with a chopped jalapeno and a couple of sliced scallions, lime juice, cumin, cilantro, and chili powder, this made a fine improvisation—and tasted great on the hot fried cheese. Not the best salsa we've ever made — mainly because diced tomatoes would have been better than crushed — but excellent in a pinch.

If you can't find queso fresco at your supermarket, Costco usually carries it. Or you can find it at any Hispanic market. It freezes well and also makes a good quesadilla filling mixed with cheddar or Monterey Jack.

Bargain Wine of the Week: Three for Less Than $10

One of the great advantages of writing a blog about wines that cost $10 or less is that guests often bring such wines to dinner parties and introduce you to bottles, regions, or grapes that you might not know.

We had some friends here for dinner, and one guest who reads the blog religiously brought a three-pack as a house-warming gift. It contained:

Casata Monticello Barbera D'Alba 2008, a red table wine from northwest Italy;

Loma Gorda 2005 from the Santa Quiteria co-op in the Almansa region in the southeast of Spain and, like the Barbera, grown close to the Mediterranean; and

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico, an Italian white table wine from the Adriatic (east) side of Tuscany.

Verdicchio wine often comes in a signature hourglass or vase-form green amphora bottle and is often described as Italy's best white to serve with fish. The Verdicchio was a serviceable sipping white, but our least favorite of the three. (It should be noted that we're not big fans of most Italian whites—either too watery or too grassy-sharp.)

Ruth's favorite was the Barbera D'Alba. Just as its name implies, it is made with barbera (Nebbiolo) grapes from the area around the town of Alba in the Piedmont of northwestern Italy. If you drew lines between Turin, Genoa and Nice, Alba would be in the middle of the triangle.

The somewhat warmer climate than the nearby Barolo means earlier picking, lighter constitution and less complexity than Barolo. Thus it's a bit less expensive, but also a very easy drinking wine that would be good with most foods.

Tim's favorite was the Loma Gorda 2005 from Spain. It is made with two-thirds garnacha tintorera grapes (65%) and Syrah (Shiraz in Australia) makes up the other third.

If you like the strong hint of vanilla, with some tart fruit, in your red wine, this is the wine for you. Lots of flavor for the price. Wine Review Online rated it with an 88. Robert Parker gave it an 87. This is an unknown wine from a little-known region, but definitely worth a try.

Enough! And a Blizzard Makes Three

We're eating up our curried vegetables and the black-bean chili we made for the Superbowl as well as the chocolate chip cookies, the rice, last week's peppers and onions over chickpea pancakes.

Most people here in the nation's capital had Monday off. The federal workers also had Tuesday off because the roads aren't clear and the metro trains aren't running anyplace that the tracks are above-ground.

And today we're in the middle of our third big storm in six weeks, the second in five days. This one has wind to add insult. Forty miles per hour at times, so the shoveling (which is getting old, even for a couple of experienced shovelers from South Dakota and upstate New York) is undone the minute after you clear a path.

(The tree in the photo is not on fire. It's a reflection of lights in the window.)

Hot Sauce: Ignore the Hype and Visibility

We're big fans of Cook's Illustrated and its TV show, America's Test Kitchen. We were charter subscribers to the original Cook's Illustrated, which died an untimely death. We think that Fine Cooking actually channeled the original Cook's, but that doesn't take away from the great cooking advice found at the current Cook's media empire outlets.

A recent review by the Cook's crew reminded us of our strong opinions about hot sauce. We're always up for trying any kind of hot sauce that lands on the counter or table in front of us. Many years ago we even made a pilgrimage to the island in Louisiana where they grow and produce Tabasco sauce.

But since that time and for many, many years we've avoided the omnipresent Tabasco as a condiment in our cooking. We found it too hot to taste the flavor. Not that we mind really hot. We don't. But it was just difficult to get through the heat to get to any flavor enhancement for food.

When Cook's ran a blind tasting of hot sauces, its panel found the same thing. The famous one was too watery but exhibited too little flavor to taste.

The winner? Two sauces. First: Frank's RedHot Original Hot Sauce. Not searingly hot, but a bit of tomato flavor coming through with the cayenne peppers and vinegar. We agree. It's a great sauce to add heat AND flavor to dishes.

Second: La Preferida Louisiana Hot Sauce. Hotter, for sure, but also very tasty. The judges split on these two great additives. The panel members who like more spice and heat voted for La Preferida. The judges who wanted more flavor liked Frank's.

Snowed-in Update

We got about 30 inches, and yes the electricity did go out.

Fortunately it waited until after we had made the curried vegetables and the spicy channa dhal with rice. We thought about posting a photo of the curried veggies, but food photos are notoriously difficult and curried veggies tend to look yellow and mushy after cooking for an hour. But it was so tasty.

Ruth had the Zabaco Zinfandel with the Indian dishes and Tim had a Silver Peak Pinot Noir (grapes from Carneros, bottled in Lodi).

And after shoveling snow all day in a storm for the ages, we deserved a treat, right? Chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

All in all, a great way to end a stormy day. Then the lights went out.

Snow: Here We Go Again!

We thought that the big snowstorm before Christmas was the big one for the year — and significantly deeper than normal for the mid-Atlantic region. But we're in the middle of our second of the season. And this one is worse.

We're at two feet deep and counting. The weather service says we're supposed to get six more inches. It's a good excuse to stay in and cook what's in the house. Our only fear is that the power might go out, as it has to 200,000 others in the area. Thank goodness for the gas grill.

Yesterday at noon, the grocery store, which is new and usually short on customers, was so picked over that there was literally no meat on the shelves. The storm mentality that grips even the most snow-weary regions was exacerbated by tomorrow's Super Bowl. What would have been a run on chips and beer today and tomorrow was pushed up to Thursday because of Friday and Saturday's storm. It left the parking lots packed and the counters empty.

So we're challenging ourselves to make due with our stores of dried beans, veggies and other staples.

Last night we roasted peppers and eggplants on the grill and roasted potatoes in the oven. Tim also put a couple of small pieces of tuna steak on the grill. Served with wasabi mayonnaise, along with a Zabaco Zinfandel from California and a Sangiovese from Italy, it was a delicious way to spend a snowy night.

One more late-night trip outside to shovel snow and stay ahead of the storm, and we slept like babies. (No, we did not wake up every hour and cry.)

Even the dogs settled in for a good eight-hour snooze.

Today, maybe cauliflower curry and dhal.

Make It Yourself: Gomasio

A blend of toasted sesame seeds and sea salt, gomasio is a condiment that adds flavor and texture without delivering too much sodium. You may encounter gomasio in Japanese restaurants or health food stores, but there's no need to restrict it to Asian dishes—it gives a flavor boost to everything from sautéed green beans to roasted peppers to tossed green salads. And it couldn't be easier to make.

Toast half a cup of sesame seeds in a dry pan. Keep a vigilant eye on them, as they can scorch very quickly—the toasting shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Then grind the seeds with two teaspoons of sea salt. If you don't have a spice grinder, a clean coffee grinder works wonderfully.

That's it!

You may soon find yourself reaching for the gomasio instead of the salt shaker.

New Validation of the Lettuce-Shaking Trick!

As previously explained, we avoid a lot of waste and save a lot of money by shaking up those big clamshell packages of prewashed salad mix: if air is added to the mix, the lettuce stays fresh longer.

But lately we've been either busy or traveling, and a three-quarters-empty container languished in our crisper for more than three weeks. Last night we pulled it out with some trepidation and were astonished to see that the lettuce was still fresh, with nary a slimy strand of mizuna or yellowed spinach leaf!

If you've never tried this technique for prolonging the life of your expensive salad mix, we hope this convinces you that it works.