Crave Wednesday: Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

On Sunday, Thatboy and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary.  11 years you guys.  That's over a decade of being married.

We celebrated by getting rid of the kids for a couple of hours.  That's right!  A Day Date!

We headed to Temecula for some wine tasting, but stopped on the way to grab breakfast.  It was one of those spur of the moment things, googling places while on the highway and pulling off before we got into town.

Our destination was Cork Fire Kitchen, the restaurant at the Temecula Creek Inn.  One of the things that makes this place especially special is that it's part of the same hotel group as The Surf and Sand, where we got married 11 years ago.

The inn itself was really pretty, and quiet.  It looked like a great place to stay if you were planning a trip to the area.  We are already trying to figure out a time we can come back and stay.

We decided to split a couple of their breakfast items, since both of us wanted to try the chipotle chorizo benedict.  We also ended up with the citrus chia pudding.  I've been really into chia pudding lately, and although Thatboy was wary, he ended up really enjoying it.

With the food in our belly, we were ready for our wine country adventures.

We had picked several wineries to try that weren't as kid friendly as the ones we usually go to.  Our first stop was Doffo.

We were expecting to be more wowed than we were.  The syrah and malbec were enjoyable, but the rest of the wine list left us unimpressed.

I did like the 3-D video they showed of the winery!

Our next stop was definitely somewhere we couldn't go with our kids.  Briar Rose winery is adults only.  That's right, you have to be 21 to even be on the grounds.  And just like the 21+ pools, we definitely enjoyed the child free atmosphere.  We enjoyed the wines here more than at Doffo, again sticking with reds.  Just due to lucky timing we even got to taste one of the oldest bottles in Temecula.  They had just opened the second pressing of a 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon.

If Briar Rose felt like something out of a fairy tale, that's because it was.  The winery is housed in a replica of Disney's Snow White Cottage, built by one of Disneyland's imagineers for his wife.

While working at Disney, he designed parts of Toontown and Fantasyland.  And the Toontown roofing found its way to this Temecula replica.

The inside also stayed true to the theme.  Although it's not open to the public, you can peek in doors and windows.

Other parts of Disneyland adorn the grounds.  The lanterns that hang on either side of the entrance once lit the way in the Haunted Mansion.

And the one above this clock once hung in Splash Mountain.

The rocks at the front of the grounds came from Indiana Jones.  And to keep with the Snow White theme, there are little dwarves hanging out all over the vineyard.

We spent a long time at Briar Rose and realized it would probably be a good thing to eat again.  At the recommendation of the staff at Briar Rose, we headed over to the restaurant at the Avensole winery.  We ended up making a meal of some appetizers.  Baked brie, roasted brussels sprouts, and a crab cake.

After lunch we had time for one more winery.  We went back to a tried and true, Palumbo.  We both really love this winery, but it's small, which isn't great for young children.  So we used this opportunity to stop by and pick up a bottle of one of our favorite Cabernet Francs.

We headed home and spent the rest of the days with our boys.  Who could care less about our anniversary.  Or 11 years.  They have their own things going on.  And while they want to include us in those things, it's really all about them.  What they want.  And right now?  What they want is ice cream.  It IS summer after all.  And we've been doing a lot of ice cream lately.  Including an ice cream dinner on Saturday night.  Thatkid even made ice cream at preschool last week, by putting cream and sugar in a bag surrounded by ice and "squeezing" it.  When he asked if we could do that at home I assured him we had a much better way of making ice cream - the ice cream maker.  Just pour the ingredients in, and no squeezing required!

This is a basic, light, ice cream.  Many cheesecake ice creams feature graham crackers, or more of a cake like consistency.  This one creates a cream cheese base with fresh blueberries simmered down to a thick syrup.  Pieces of blueberries remain making it seem really bright and summery.

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (From Cooking Light)

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

4 egg yolks

3 cups 2% milk

1 cup half and half

3 cups fresh blueberries

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup water

1. Combine sugar, cream cheese and egg yolks in an electric mixer and mix at high speed until smooth.
2. Bring milk and half and half to a boil in a heavy saucepan.  
3. Gradually add half of the hot milk to the cream cheese mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk.
4. Return milk mixture to the pan and cook over medium low heat until the mixture reaches 160 degrees, stirring constantly.
5. Place pan in an ice filled bool and cool completely, stirring occasionally.
6. Bring blueberries, powdered sugar, and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and cool completely.
7. Stir the blueberry mixture into the milk mixture. Pour into the freezer can of an ice cream maker and and process.  
8. Spoon ice cream into a freezer safe container and freeze for 1 hour or until firm.

Trail of Crumbs: Tipsy Melon with Prosciutto

We are all creatures of habit.  Me?  I look forward to my Friday night glass of wine.  It's the perfect way to wind down after a week.

In general I go with lighter reds like cabernet francs and pinot noir.  Thatboy likes dessert reds, like port.  Strong and sweet.  On their own, ports don't make my heart sing, but this is a really nice way to serve it if you're looking for both oomph of presentation and a way to improve on port.  The wine soaks in to the sweet melon, giving it a nice fruity flavor.  The salty prosciutto brings out the deepness of the port itself.  And I love the combination of sweet and salty, so melon and prosciutto is a winning combination anyway.

Tipsy Melon with Prosciutto (From Trail of Crumbs)

1 ripe summer melon

Port

prosciutto

1. Halve the melon.  Discard seeds.  Slice a small piece off bottom of melon so it will balance on a plate without wobbling.
2. Fill melons about a third with good-quality port wine.  Chill until ready to serve.
3. Serve with thin slices of prosciutto.

Short Rib Lasagna

I've mentioned before that Thatboy likes his lasagna with a little meat in it.  And I tend to get bored with throwing in ground beef or sausage.  This lasagna is a little time consuming, because you actually have to make short ribs first, but it's totally worth it if you have some time to kill on a weekend.

Short Rib Lasagna

1 1/2 lbs boneless beef short ribs

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 bay leaf

1 cup red wine

1 can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk 

1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese

 1/2 cups mozzarella, shredded

lasagna noodles

1.  Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add the short ribs and brown on all sides.  Remove from pot.
2. Reduce heat to medium and saute onions and carrots until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Add 2 cloves of the garlic and cook just until fragrant.
4. Add the tomato paste and cook for another minute.
5. Add the wine and bay leaf. Simmer for 2 minutes, scraping up any browned bits.
6. Add the crushed tomatoes.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
7. Add the short ribs to the pot.  Cover and reduce het.  Simmer for 2 1/2 hours, turning ribs.
8. Remove the ribs, but keep the sauce (discarding the bay leaf).  Skim the fat off the top of the sauce.
9. When ribs cool, shred the meat.
10. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
11. Stir in the flour and cook until thick and bubbly, about 2 minutes.
12. Whisk in the milk.
13. Add the remaining garlic and reduce heat to a simmer, cooking while stirring for an additional 10 minutes.  Mix this sauce into the tomato sauce.
14. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking dish.  Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the dish.
15. Place a layer of noodles over the sauce, then put another 3/4 cup of the sauce over the noodles.
16. Add 1/2 cup of meat over the sauce, then 1/4 cup of parmesean.
17. Repeat with noodles, sauce, meat, and parmesan 2 more times.  You will have 3 layers of meat and 4 layers of noodles by the end.
18. Spread the remaining sauce over all and then sprinkle with remaining parmesean and the mozzarella.  Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
19. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.

Speaking of having some time to kill on a weekend, this past weekend we headed out to Temecula for a little R&R - wine tasting!  We packed up some fruit and cheese (and Pirate's Booty and grape juice for our youngest family member) and headed out to enjoy the day.

Thatbaby was perfectly happy to sit and enjoy his juice and booty while we ran through the whites, but when we got the reds he got a little antsy, wanting to run around and explore.  Luckily the grounds are very conducive to exploring.

We packed up our food and moved our tasting down to the fountains, bridge, and waterfall.  A large grassy (and deserted) area where Thatbaby could run around, toss the football, and spin to his heart's content.

Sometimes it's nice to get away as a family.  Even if you're not going all that far.

Day Drinkin' - Must be nice

Thatboy took off the week between Christmas and New Years. We decided this would be an excellent time to make the trip out to Temecula to our wine club. Mostly because we are completely out of wine. Some chick who lives in this house seems to be off her 9-month sobriety wagon.

We joined the wine club at Churon Winery for a couple of reasons:
1) We really like the wines.
2) It's only 2 wines every other month.
3) They don't send you random wine. Every other month you can go and pick out whatever 2 you like.
4) You don't have to go pick up every month, they'll hold your wine for you until you do go pick it up.

Since we hadn't been to Churon since May, we had 8 bottles to pick up. As members we get free tastings, so we took advantage to see if there was anything new we wanted to add to our usual suspects.

We packed up a cooler with cheese and crackers, packed up the dog and baby, and headed out.

We sat outside and enjoyed the day and our little picnic. We also got to try an unreleased late harvest tempranillo. Which was amazing. I can't wait to get a bottle at our next pick-up. Thatbaby can't wait either:

Don't worry - he wasn't driving.

We picked up a healthy dose of reds, including Thatboy's favorite port, and a couple of whites, including the new pinot grigio. So far the first bottle we've opened is the Ruby Cabernet, which is a fairly typical Cabernet. Cabs aren't generally our favorite, but we like the tobacco-iness of this one. And it pairs well with a nice heavy winter pasta dish. Like one of my favorite stroganoff recipes.

I like this dish because it's a true one pot meal - the noodles cook in the sauce/broth so you don't even need to dirty a boiling pot. If you find some nice meaty mushrooms, each bite fills your mouth with good, rich flavor.

More Birthdaying! Blast from the Past

When Prez and I first started planning our Girls' Weekend, the original plan was to hit up nearby Temecula for some wine tasting. And I started doing research on activities on the potential weekends and came across something very exciting...for me.

I immediately emailed Prez - "We're not going to Temecula the weekend before my birthday, the girls' weekend HAS to be the weekend after your birthday. The weekend before my birthday Thatboy and I are going to be in Temecula seeing THE GIN BLOSSOMS."

See, I happened to notice that one of the weekends was the "Temecula Wine and Balloon Festival." And each night of the festival had concerts. And one night, my all time favorite band ever was playing. Yay Gin Blossoms! If that wasn't enough to get me there, Vertical Horizon was also going to be playing. It was like high school and college all rolled in to one. I immediately begged Thatboy to take me there, and he was happy to oblige.

We arrived at the festival early enough to take advantage of the fact that multiple Temecula wineries set up shop and were doing tastings.

But before we could get to the wine, Thatboy spotted something else he wanted to taste...

There was a Stella Artois booth - complete with a souvenir Stella glass. We were sold.

While we drank our beer, we wandered into the kiddie area. That makes sense, right?

Thatboy found a new pokey friend.

And then there was the petting zoo! How cute are these puppies?

(For the record, I know these aren't puppies)

But of course, we saved plenty of room for the wine - we're predominantly "red" people, but it was so hot we ended up doing a lot of whites - cool and refreshing in the summer sun.

And we found quite a few we really enjoyed. Including the Amour De L'Orange from Weins.

We enjoyed this sparkling wine with a hint of orange so much, we swung by Weins the next day to pick up a bottle.

There was music all day long, so when we needed a break from drinking, we settled into the grass for a picnic. Thatboy was thrilled to see "FAIR FOOD!" as he proclaimed. And he went about collecting another cup for the day - this one filled with a mix of cream soda and root beer.

As for me, I went with something a little more my style.

Eventually it was time to settle in for the evening and get ready for the music!!!!!!!!

There were a couple of bands before Vertical Horizon took the stage, but really are you interested? They were okay but not as great as my boys.

Vertical Horizon was fun to watch. Thatboy commented on their high energy level - they had the crowd going which is definitely something given that it was still light out.

After they played, Thatboy and I used the break to go grab dinner. Continuing on his Fair Food extravaganza, Thatboy had a sausage.

And I tried to elevate it a little by having gumbo. Friends, a wine festival is not a place to have gumbo. Well, at least not gumbo with shellfish in it. I spent most of my dinner de-shelling the crab and shrimp, and picking out pieces of shell I missed.

But my meh dinner was forgotten when the Gin Blossoms took the stage.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Gin Blossoms? And they have a new album coming out. They even played s0me songs off of it. I already made Thatboy promise to get me the album once it's available.

Robin Wilson even came down into the crowd. Although after several people tried to steal his hat, I don't think he'll be doing that again.

I never get tired of watching and listening to the Gin Blossoms, and yet too soon the concert was over.

So Thatboy headed for the other highlight of the festival - the Balloon Glow. (Hey it IS the Wine and Balloon Festival).

They do lots of "tricks" with the balloons, having them light up to music, and in certain rhythms. But our favorite was the Flicker.

And then we were off to our room for the evening - at the Inn at Churon Winery.

It was late and we weren't thrilled with some of the aspects of the place when we got there, so I'll share with you the highlights from our "everything is better in the morning" morning.

First, there's the jacuzzi tub. As tired as we were, we definitely took advantage of this the night we checked in. It was such a relaxing way to end the evening.

Then there was the bed. OH this bed. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Westin heavenly bed has got NOTHING on this bed. Thatboy and I didn't want to get out of it the next morning. I was planning on getting up and going for a run, but even I couldn't get out of this bed.

And then of course there was our full size balcony. While I did my getting ready routine, Thatboy sat outside there. I won't mention he also sat outside there in the dark after our bath, because that would make him sound weird.

But with a view like this, can you blame him?

And then came breakfast. Thatboy and I are no stranger to B&Bs, but this was the first time we were given a menu at breakfast, with a selection of made to order choices. Thatboy had an eggs benedict.

I ordered a croissant filled with cheese and eggs - which is pretty much one of my fave things for breakfast. I love buttery croissants and y'all know how I feel about cheese. But this was so filled to the brim I couldn't even finish it!

And then there was the free wine tasting. We weren't expecting much, but found some real winners, and a wine to bring home to Thatmom! And in an ultimate "I'm now a real adult moment," Thatboy and I joined the wine club! It's our first wine club, and I'm pretty excited about it. See, unlike most wine clubs, we get to pick our selection every other month - not just get shipped a wine we may or may not like. AND we can pick up our wine whenever, so if we don't get around to it one month, the next shipment we can combine with the one we missed and get twice as many wines. Love that. Maybe this growing up isn't so bad after all!