Napa Vacation Planning & Wine Friday: Meritage

Happy Good Friday! I have today off. Yipeeeeee! I am doing exciting things such as laundry and cleaning. I plan to treat myself to a manicure this afternoon :)

Perhaps what I am most excited about is that I just booked our trip to NAPA! We are headed to wine country in early June with another couple and I am just beside myself with excitement. I have been researching, pinning and dreaming of all the wonderful things we'll do. I know some of you out there have been or live in the area, so I'm all about getting great advice from others! Here are a few things I've got on our list:

We're staying at the Embassy Suites Napa Valley. Embassy is my main client at work, and I love this brand, so of course we'll be staying there! They've just had a renovation, so it will be even better. Plus, free cooked to order breakfast and nightly cocktails don't hurt, either!

There are lots of vineyards on our list, and we plan to do a little bit more research before making our tasting appointments, but here are a few I've heard great things about:

Miner Family Wines

Swanson Vineyards

 Merryvale Vineyards

Cakebread Cellars

Domaine Chandon

 The food is going to fabulous!! There are tons of great restaurants, and lots of great grocery stores and markets. We plan to do a nice dinner at a 'fancier' place and then more casual the rest of the time.

 I really want to eat at Celadon!

Perhaps lunch at Mustards

Maybe we'll assemble a picnic lunch for ourselves at the Oakville Grocery

Morimoto has a place in Napa. That would definitely be good!

My dream list goes on and on, but I'd love to hear from anyone that's been if there is a "must-do" that should be added to our list!

Speaking of wine, here is a great Meritage I've been enjoying recently. I usually only buy one bottle of any kind of wine, but this is one I like to keep several of in stock.

Lock and Key North Coast Meritage

Year: 2009

Origin: California

Average Price: $10

About the wine: Lock and Key is a true Meritage blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. Spicy and supple, this North Coast red is an amazing value. Grapes are sourced from some of the best vineyards in Sonoma and Lake counties, the grapes are vinified separately, cold -soaked for rich extraction and French oak aged. You're going to love this ripe red that tastes like it should cost double. 

Happy Easter Weekend! :)

Incredibly Delicious Sunburst Veggie Quiche

Oh em geeeeeee. I recently made this quiche for me and my mother to enjoy on a Saturday morning. We woke up early and I thought I could surely round up enough stuff in the kitchen to make a tasty one. Little did I know, it would be the best quiche I've ever made, and probably ever had! Mom and I just died over it. I quickly wrote it down so I wouldn't forget, and she has since made it twice! It really is worth all of my hype!

I sort of made it up as I went along, so I know you could play with the ingredients and it would still be great.

Incredibly Delicious Sunburst Veggie Quiche
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Ingredients:
1 pie crust (I always buy Pillsbury refrigerated)
1 cup chopped mushrooms
10-12 Sunburst tomatoes (the baby yellow ones, but red would be a fine substitute)
6 green onions, sliced
1/4 - 1/3 cup chopped roasted red bell peppers (from jar, drained)
1/2 cup of Feta cheese, crumbled
3 eggs
Salt and; Pepper
1 and 1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 375
Prepare pie pan with crust, and pierce center with fork in several places.
Bake for 10 minutes, remove and reduce heat to 350
Toss mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and feta together. Add to pie crust and spread evenly.
Whisk together eggs, salt and pepper to taste, cream, parsley, zest and paprika.
Pour over veggies. Bake 40-50 minutes. I covered the crust edges with pie shield halfway through.

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

I'm back! After a couple of trips out of town, including an unexpected extra night stuck in DC due to snow, I was delighted to be back home for the weekend, sans plans. We've cooked a lot, napped a lot and I even got a massage, courtesy of my sweet hubby. And my favorite dish we cooked up, was this one. I love all things 'buffalo', but Keith is not into spicy things, or blue cheese...or cilantro, either. So, I haven't made anything 'buffalo' until now. But, I decided he could just deal with it. Hah!

Well, he more than dealt with it. He 'dominated' them - in his words. I tamed the heat with a little bit of cream cheese and used less blue cheese and cilantro on his half of the enchiladas. These were SO good. Like get-in-mah-belly-now good. The recipe is adapted from one of my fave recipe blogs, How Sweet Eats. Her blog always make me crazy hungry - check it out!

One of these days I'll get my big girl camera back out and stop being so lazy by only using my iphone.

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas
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Ingredients:
8 large whole wheat tortillas
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I baked mine in a little bit of buffalo sauce at 450 for one hour)
19 ounce can red enchilada sauce
1/4 - 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (depending on your tastebuds)
4 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
4 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled (or blue)
5 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375.

Lighly grease a 9x13 pan.

Pour enchilada sauce in a bowl and begin by whisking in 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce. Taste and adjust according to your desired level of heat. Set aside.

Add shredded chicken to a bowl with 2 green onions, 4 ounces of softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup monterey jack cheese. Pour in about a 1/2 cup of enchilada/buffalo sauce mixture and mix thoroughly. Stir until mixture comes together.

Take each tortilla and fill it with a few heaping tablespoons of the chicken mixture. Roll each up and set it in the baking dish, seam side down. Pour the rest of enchilada/buffalo sauce on top of tortillas and add remaining monterey jack cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Immediately after taking enchiladas out of the oven, add crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese on top. Garnish with the remaining onions and cilantro and serve. 

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Enjoy! I feel certain this will rock your world, and your lunch with the leftovers.

Seared Salmon Tacos with Honey-Lime Slaw and Sriracha Ranch

Y'all. These suckers are SO good. We love, love, love fish tacos (who doesn't?), but we've never made them with salmon before. This was a delightful, somewhat healthy, weeknight meal and we devoured them. I found the recipe through Pinterest from Peas and Crayons. There's another good food blog to follow!




Seared Salmon Tacos with Honey-Lime Slaw and Sriracha Ranch
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Ingredients:
Salmon (I used 3 small frozen Alaskan Salmon filets and thawed them first)
Olive Oil (if you have an infused oil like chipotle or jalapeno olive oil, this would be great for that!)
Favorite rub (I used Williams-Sonoma Chili Lime rub, but you could always do a combo of paprika, ground cayenne pepper and garlic powder)
Salt + Pepper
6 corn tortillas
1 large avocado
1/4 cup cheese (I used Mexican blend, but would prefer cojita, if my store sold it)
1 lime, sliced into wedges

Slaw:
1 heaping cup cabbage, finely chopped/shredded
1/4 small red onion, sliced thin
1-2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 TBSP honey
1/2 tsp dried or fresh cilantro, to taste
1/2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
a pinch of salt

Sriracha Ranch:
2 Tbsp ranch dressing
1/2 tsp Sriracha (more, if you like it spicy)


Make 'em:
First, preheat your oven to 450 and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Drizzle salmon with olive oil and rub with spices. Use as much or as little as you like based on your tastes. Add salt and pepper.
Heat a cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. When pan is hot, add salmon. Allow to cook 2 minutes on each side until you have a nice crisp sear.
Transfer salmon to baking sheet and allow to cook for 8-10 minutes more.

Meanwhile, make the slaw and ranch. In a bowl, combine all slaw ingredients listed above and toss together to combine. Add more or less of the ingredients depending on your tastes. For the ranch, whisk together ranch and sriracha. Keith is not a fan of spicy things, so I went a little light on the sriracha.

I like to toast my tortillas a bit, too. First, I microwaved them in a damp paper towel for 25 seconds and then toasted lightly on my skillet I used earlier. I just wiped a bit of the oil out first. I like my tortillas crisp, but still pliable, so I take them off as soon as they start to brown.

Once the salmon is done, roughly chop into big sections and layer in your tacos. Top with slaw, avocado, cheese and drizzle with ranch. I sprinkled a bit more cilantro Finish with a squeeze of lime and enjoy!


Happy Friday!