Articles for November 15th, 2012

What To Drink Now: Beaujolais Nouveau

posted by Hayley Hamilton | November 15th, 2012 3:23pm | filed under Events, Silly Reasons to Celebrate, Wine & Spirits | 2 Comments »

Just after midnight this morning through the French villages and into the countryside the new release of Beaujolais Nouveau made its way from the the southern part of Burgundy in to Paris to celebrate, raising a glass to the honored annual tradition happening the third Thursday of November each year, when winemakers of Beaujolais race their youthful, juicy Gamay variety wine into the city of light and love, celebrating the first wine of the recent harvest and the fruit of the year.

Perhaps the best known Beaujolais Nouveau comes from Georges Duboeuf, celebrating 30 years of making the fruit forward, approachable and incredibly food friendly wine this year. Each year they succeed in highlighting the fun aspect of this youthful wine with continually changing whimsical bottling reflecting the current vintage, while maintaining the very affordable price tag, about $10 a bottle. Continue reading "What To Drink Now: Beaujolais Nouveau"

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Top Chef Season 10: Seattle, Episode 2 Recap

posted by Carol Shih | November 15th, 2012 12:20pm | filed under Top Chef Season 10 | 8 Comments »

BRAVO really needs to consider renaming this episode. Top Chef: Seattle is starting to become The John Tesar Show. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Tesar makes for excellent television. Hopefully, Tesar will keep calling himself “the most hated chef in Dallas” in the rest of the episodes, just to keep the trend going. (“Let’s make him a shirt or something,” said Desiree, my gchat partner last night.) If we do, Des, he’s going to wear that shirt every single day. And it’ll smell like fish.

Round 1: QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE

The 15 contestants are finally in Seattle, and Tesar’s glasses are back on his forehead, right where they belong. All is right in Tesar Land. But, wait, why is Padma with three old Top Chef alums (Josie from Season 2, CJ from Season 3, and Stefan from Season 5)? These oldies are going to judge the newbies, who’ve split up into five groups of three. Tesar, the smartypants, pairs up with the AZNs: Quiet Asian (Kuniko) and Maui Asian (Simeon). He assumes Quiet Asian, because she is Japanese, has good knife skills. Lucky for John, stereotyping works in his favor. The three of them make sweet music together and create a geoduck sashimi with ponzu, apple, and cucumber. Meanwhile, the all ladies group (Lizzie, Carla, and Chrissy) are yackin’ each other’s ears off. Crazy Italian Carla, who shall henceforth be known as “Big MAMA,” needs go back to the Real Housewives of Italy. Desiree is not a fan.

Jump for the party.

Continue reading "Top Chef Season 10: Seattle, Episode 2 Recap"

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Katherine Clapner Expands Dude, Sweet Dude Chocolate to Preston Center in Dallas

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 15th, 2012 11:55am | filed under Chocolate, restaurant business news | 1 Comment »

Katherine  Clapner expands her universe.

Just in time for the holidays, and maybe only for the holidays, Katherine Clapner just signed a 3-month lease at 8304 Preston Center Plaza Drive for a second location of Dude, Sweet Chocolate. If the chocolate chick likes the shop in the southeast quadrant, Preston Center Plaza, she will stake a longer claim. Meanwhile, she’s eyeballing another location in Fort Worth and has larger production facility up and running on Inwood Road. Preston Center is HOT!

 

 

 

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Farm to Market Report: Weekend of November 17

posted by Sarah Bennett | November 15th, 2012 11:07am | filed under Farm to Market Report, Farmers Markets |

Cooler temperatures are finally here, and that means it’s time to cuddle up with someone. What better date activity than venturing to a farmer’s market together and whipping up some concoction at home with your finds? Luckily, you have plenty of sweet deals to choose from this weekend, so find a market close to you and get started!

Celebration Farmers Market: This market is technically closed for the season, but this weekend you get to experience its special Thanksgiving market! Chef Gorji will be there just for the occasion, selling gift baskets. Each basket features four of his sauces, two pastas (including gnocchi), and his “Cooking with Gorji” DVD. Did I mention the collection of recipes for all the products? I’ll bet you know a foodie who’d love this present for the holidays.

 4515 W. Lovers Ln.
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Coppell Farmers Market: Alert! This is the last weekly market for the season. Winter markets will take place beginning in December, but for now, don’t miss the winter squashes, sweet potatoes, and greens to make your Thanksgiving a success. Did you pre-order a turkey? Be sure to pick it up Saturday. Just Pie is taking pie orders for delivery on Wednesday. Ta-da! Your holiday prep just got easier.

793 S. Coppell Rd.
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Continue reading "Farm to Market Report: Weekend of November 17"

What To Drink Now: Thanksgiving Pinot Noir

posted by Hayley Hamilton | November 15th, 2012 9:47am | filed under Thanksgiving, Wine & Spirits | 2 Comments »

There are many options to go to when planning your Thanksgiving wine  to pair with your Thanksgiving meal, but for me Pinot Noir is always a solid go to which will suit both the meal and your dinner guests.  Somewhat like a Labrador Retriever, Pinot Noir (especially New World Pinot) is a super likable, friendly wine that has the ability to please just about any palate and pairs well with everything from roasted turkey, to cranberries, to sweet potatoes, to pumpkin pie.  Here are a few suggestions that will make you thankful for Pinot.  If you just insist on serving a spicy Zin, Syrah, Beaujolais or Grenache on this special day I will have a list of others up soon, but for now it is all about Pinot.  A few selections were sent for editorial consideration.

Etude Winery, may be best known perhaps for their Heirloom wines, but just the basic Etude Estate Pinot Noir from fruit grown in their Carneros, Napa Valley vineyards enahnces any dinner table any time of year, but particularly with the Thanksgiving meal.  From cool, maritime influenced fruit, and created with the belief that the winemaking happens in the vineyard and not in the winery, the Etude Pinot Noir is filled with concentrated cherry, blackberry and red berry jam flavors enhanced with touches of soy, star anise, clove and slight minerality from the clay and gravel soils of Carneros. Continue reading "What To Drink Now: Thanksgiving Pinot Noir"

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Look What I Made: Thanksgiving Green Beans My Way

posted by Travis Awalt | November 15th, 2012 9:03am | filed under Look What I Made, Recipes, Thanksgiving | 2 Comments »

Green beans (photos by Travis Awalt)

I love Thanksgiving. Food, family, not working on a Thursday, football. Food. Thanksgiving has it all.* Unless you’re planning on doing some banking, mailing of letters or fasting, in which case you’re sadly out of luck. Still, the food.

The thing I don’t particularly like about Thanksgiving is actually… some of the food. Awkward! Look, I dig turkey, mashed potatoes, turducken stuffed with stuffed jalapenos, all of that. But green bean casserole is not something I think of as being terrifically edible. Yeah, I know, that’s un-American. Fine. It’s just that I have a shaky history with green beans. We’re only now getting to a place where there’s trust.

Continue reading "Look What I Made: Thanksgiving Green Beans My Way"

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