By Kathleen Rake
In the August 21 issue of the Abbotsford News (page A35), I paired the Singletree Winery Siegerrebe with Lepp Farm Market's Asian Ramen Noodle Salad recipe.
Click here or on the image below for the recipe and wine pairing.
À Votre Santé!
Copyright © 2015 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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You have to buy this rosé wine from Mt. Lehman Winery in Abbotsford. Really.
Sure it's a gold-medal winner from this year's SavorNW Wine Awards. Sure, it's wallet-friendly, ringing in at just $13.50. And sure, it's grown, produced, packaged, and sold locally. But, best of all, it is bright, well balanced, and delicious.
Read my notes in this month's Sipping Vines column in the Abbotsford News. Also, give the recipe from Lepp Farm Market a try. The tang of the feta cheese and tomatoes, along with the spicy fennel, garlic, and pepper flavours, and the salty-sweetness of the shrimp will work perfectly with this rosé.
À Votre Santé!
Copyright © 2015 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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In April's My City wine column in the Abbotsford News (page 31), I pair a glazed pork tenderloin recipe from Lepp Farm Market with the Tinhorn Creek 2012 Gewürztraminer. Read the piece here or click on the image to your right.
Over the next few months, I will pair a wine to whatever recipe the good folks at Lepp Farm Market decide to share. This promises to be delicious fun--for me and my friends and family--as I try a variety of wines from all over the world, including B.C.'s Okanagan and Fraser Valley wine regions, with the food and then pick the best of the bunch to share with you.
I've always said that any wine is better when shared and I love that Lepp Farm Market tags its The Farmer and the Foodie segment with the same sentiment.
Give the recipe a try, pour the wine, and tell me what you think.
À Votre Santé!
Copyright © 2014 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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Fraser Valley Food Show returns to Tradex next week, Oct. 4 – 6. This year’s three-day event promises exciting new products and stage activity, along with some good ol’ favourites, including local wines from Mt. Lehman Winery and Blackwood Lane:
The Great Canadian Sausage Making Competition, presented by BC Pork, returns, by popular demand.
The Gluten-free Living Show, a “show within a show” and newest feature at the Fraser Valley Food Show, offers great products and information for those trying to live gluten-free.
Celebrity chefs Rob Feenie and Corbin Tomaszeski appear on stage to dazzle audiences with their “amazing talent, wit, and humour.”
Kathleen Rake of Between the Vines leads participants through wine tasting and wine-and-food pairing on the Grapes and Hops Stage. Read the schedule here.
Rick Mohabir and Deb Mohabir of Just Here for the Beer educate and excite participants about beer on the Grapes and Hops Stage.
Wine, beer, and spirits (including Abbotsford’s own Kealy’s Moonshine) from BC and around the world available for tasting in the Wine, Beer and Spirits Pavilion.
Bite of the Valley ensures you won’t leave hungry.
Seventeen chefs from BC compete for the title of Master Chef in a hot, head-to-head competition.
Dairy Farmers of Canada present cheese tastings and seminars throughout the weekend.
We’re giving away two sets of two tickets to the show … just answer the following two-part question in the comments section of this blog for your chance to be entered into the draw to win.
I live by two wine-related mantras. Fill in the blanks:
There is never a good reason to not drink _______.
I seek the perfect glass of ____, but hope I never find it.
Entries received before midnight on Thurs., Oct. 3 are eligible for the draw. Winners will be announced here on Friday morning and can pick up their tickets anytime during the show at will-call.
You can find the answers here and here.
À Votre Santé!
Copyright © 2013 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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Here is my wine column as it appeared in the September, 2012 issue of My City, a monthly magazine in the Abbotsford News one week before I took off for three wine-and-sun drenched days in the Thompson-Okanagan at the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival.
I had a number of great experiences during [the recent] Fraser Valley Food Show at Tradex, but especially memorable was when participants in my wine-tasting seminar turned into blue-cheese-with-sweet-wine believers.
Salut!
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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Here is my wine column as it appeared in the August, 2012 issue of My City, a monthly magazine in the Abbotsford News.
In the wine world, the term heartbreak is usually reserved for its prima donna, Pinot Noir. Every once in a while, however, the term is appropriate elsewhere.
Vern Siemens of Mt. Lehman Winery has created a gold-medal-winning field blend of white grapes he’s named Heartbreak. Read more.
Salut!
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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Many thanks to all of you who answered my six not-too-tough wine-related questions and were entered to win two tickets to this year's Fraser Valley Food Show at Tradex in Abbotsford, Sept. 14 – 16. It was interesting to read your selections and obvious that you put some thought (and research!) into your answers.
Congratulations Harjit, Shirley, and Erin! You each win two tickets. I'll have them waiting for you at the will-call booth.
If you have the time while at the show, I'd love to swirl and sip some wine with you at one of my seminars.
Salut!
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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This is the easiest contest you will ever win. Really.
I'm thrilled to explore wine with you once again from the Grapes and Hops Stage at the newly named Fraser Valley Food Show Sept. 14-16 at Tradex in Abbotsford.
We’re doing things a little bit differently this year by tasting wines alongside some delicious cheese or sausage at many of my eight presentations.
Pairing food with wine in a seminar setting really helps people understand some of the wine-tasting concepts often referred to as rules. The more I learn, the more I'm able to share with my audiences. It never fails that when my audience learns something new, I end up learning more. Learning about wine just never ends.
And, as many of you know, I get excited when the conversation turns to anything remotely concerning wine and frequently suffer the raised-eyebrow stares of other guests around a dinner table when I swiftly and surely deliver myself to cork-dorkdom.
Such is my fate. <le sigh>
Popular local restaurants, wineries, food and beverage manufacturers, cookbook authors, retailers, artisans, and many others from the culinary world will be featured at this 2012 food extravaganza formerly known as Eat! Fraser Valley.
And this year's high-powered lineup of presenters include Real Housewives of Vancouver star Reiko MacKenzie, Spice Goddess Bal Arneson and executive chefs from Granville Island, Penticton, and Kamloops.
So, back to the contest.
All you have to do to be entered to win one of three pairs of tickets to this year's Fraser Valley Food Show is answer all six of these questions. There is no right or wrong answer.
Submit your answers in a comment on this blog post by 6:00 PM Wed., Sept. 12. I'll draw the winners and then announce them by email and on this blog on Thursday. Please be sure you include your first and last name and email address when you enter. Then remember to check this blog on Thursday to see if you've won. I will leave the tickets for you at the Will Call window at the show.
Do you have questions? Contact me directly.
Salut!
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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Still haven't made Valentine's Day dinner plans?
Here are some suggestions for those who live in the Fraser Valley or those who don't mind driving here. As I write this, there are still some Valentine's Day dinner seatings left, but if by the time you write or call you can't get a reservation, I highly recommend you try another date and simply share some oysters and wine with your lover on February 14.
xoxox
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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We had Mt. Lehman Winery's 2009 Pinot Gris with dinner tonight.
The wine was cheery and refreshing, with green apples, pears, chalk, and just a hint of roses and tarragon on the nose and palate.
For dinner, we enjoyed the pork tenderloin I had picked up from Lepp Farm Market earlier in the day while in Abbotsford.
I made a rub from the herbs I had grown, dried, crushed, and stored earlier in the season (rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley, garlic, plus added sea salt and black pepper), a little olive oil, and some grainy Dijon mustard, and then roasted the meat until it reached just a light pink in the middle.
I'm always shouting how pork and Pinot are made to go together...this time, though, it's Gris rather than Noir.
Cheers, all!
Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
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