Lunch on the patio begins with a small bisque. After having toured the cave, guests are generally a little cold. Arriving to the table with a warm bisque waiting is a comforting welcome. We vary the bisque depending on the season and like to feature vegetables from our garden. Also, starting a meal with a bisque is an easy first course; they’re made in advance and are simple to serve.
PEA AND POBLANO BISQUE
“RECIPES FROM NAPA” IS A MONTHLY COLUMN BY FLORENCIA PALMAZ ABOUT FOOD, WINE, COOKING AND ENTERTAINING.Here’s the Scoop on Savory Sunday’s…
Harvest is upon us! The vines are steadily ripening and it’s been a very prolific year in the vegetable garden. The beneficiaries of this bounty have been our club members and guests at our Friday Family table. Every Friday morning I begin my day in the garden picking and foraging for the day’s featured ingredients. Then I design a five course food and wine pairing includes the following wines:
Next week, the tasting-room table will welcome a new addition: spittoons in the form of charming, quirky tumblers that will make you giggle when you hold one. Last year I had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of Justin Parr, a talented glass artist out of San Antonio, Texas. While enjoying a glass of wine at his studio, I fell in love with the small free-form tumbler he had casually handed me. Not long after, we began developing a line of colored glass containers to use as spittoons in the tasting room.
MY FAMILY HAS BEEN blessed to live and work together on an estate that produces one of the world’s most joyful and magical elixirs. Life on a family vineyard has innumerable charms, and I could surely effuse to the point of reader nausea with smug Suzy Homemaker drivel about my latest fresh-from-the-garden creations. Don’t worry! This monthly column, “Recipes from Napa,” won’t be that kind of discourse — promise! You may hold onto your lunch, because I intend to tell you the straight truth about what goes on in my kitchen — the fresh, the frozen, the failures and everything in between.
