Cold and Raining

I am sitting here on a cold and rainy day in Sonoma County.  The winery is dead, although I am doing some winemaker stuff that has to be done in order to keep the wine quality up.  We are experiencing a very wet and cold spring that has now gone into June and we are just hoping that it warms up.  My poor little tomatoes and peppers are unhappily stewing in the mud and will grow at least a foot as soon as the days get to 80+ degrees. 

On a happy note, I guess that my water bill is down compared to last year.  Used a whole tier less water, so yay for saving money!

Not enough time!

I recently went over to a friends house to participate in a "Chopped" competition.  It wasn't just for fun either, I was helping a good friend ready himself to be on the show.  He is a great chef and I hope that we were competition enough for him to prepare him for the show.  We used a basket of beef ribs, taro root, rhubarb and brussel sprouts.  Tough one to prepare on the spot for sure and I was unprepared to use the beef ribs in only 30 minutes.  They are something that I have used primarily for soup making, so you cook them for a few hours.  That or grilled.  So I attempted grilling again here, but with time quickly running out I didn't take the meat off the bone and so served up a massive bone on the plate. 

Rib, Taro/Rhubarb Sauce, Brussels and a potato Chip

The winning dish

He beat me out with a hash/stew that was more hash than stew, not enough liquid.  Great flavor though.  What a great experience too.  Lots of fun to compete in a friendly match up and just see how you deal under pressure.  I have to admit though, that the adrenaline of the entire thing (only 30 minutes remember) just sapped the life out of me.  I went home and went to bed at like 9pm.