A BBQ Made For A King
I’m always looking to impress when entertaining the guests and somehow I think this David Klose BBQ will do the trick. The extensive list of features includes, (#1) a 160,000 B.T.U. propane burner that can bring 20 gallons of cold water to a boil in 5 min. The entertainment portion [...]
Continue reading about Forget my Weber… here is the Ultimate BBQ
hmmm that title looks ackward… but I seem to be batting 500 with it.
I was just informed of a couple dates that I thought important:
Computers & Electronics recycling event is on Friday June 9th and Saturday June 10th from 9am-2pm in the South parking lot at Napa Valley college. You can’t miss it, trust [...]
It takes about five hours to make your way through the 25-course Tour menu at Alinea. Item 11 arrives at hour three, stuck on the end of a foot-long wire. Your black-clad, impeccably polite server suddenly turns stern. “This is applewood,” he says. “Please eat it without using your hands.” The golf ball-sized morsel looms [...]
Continue reading about Former Napa Valley Chef Innovating Cuisine in Chicago
After the earlier post about using Google to find recipes I’ve been enjoying giving it random information and coming up with interesting ideas. So far looking through them I figured I’d post a couple I’ve liked so far.
I went search according to what I new we had in the freezer or pantry. Steaks, [...]
Choose a main ingredient and a cuisine, let Google do the rest. Unfortunately, no “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.
This is a cool new service. You give it a a main ingredients what cuisine and it will search through a number of archives and give you recipes using those options. For Example:
Poultry -> Mexican [...]
EPICUREAN EXPLORATIONS — Goosecross Cellars and Napa Valley Grille introduce Epicurean Explorations, an interactive, multi-course food and wine pairing designed to explore old theories on wine pairing and test them on today’s palate. April 20 at Napa Valley Grille. $125 per person, all-inclusive. Info, (800) 276-9210 or visit www.goosecross.com.
OK, I have lived in Napa most [...]
Continue reading about Epicurean Explorations - A Dining Experience
In my theme that seems to expound mainly eating I ran acrossed this article that made me wish I lived closer to Vegas. I am a man who loves buffets and it’s one of the main reasons I love to go to Reno. But this buffet tops all I’ve seen/heard of. [...]
Continue reading about Four beautiful words: All You Can Eat…
I’m loving this years birthday. I’m one of those guys who likes cooking…. but I’m also one who likes good cooking, generally at retaurants. So the last few days have been great.
Friday Night I had a great Milet Minon Dinner at OD’s in Downtown Truckee. The Filet was wrapped in Applewood Bacon, [...]
Porn star hits it big as wine-maker
Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:15 PM ET
By Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It seemed like the perfect gimmick: a celebrity porn star would launch her own wine, with her alluring picture on the label.
Savanna Samson did just that, but when it received a score of 90 to 91 out of 100 by wine guru Robert Parker, the project became serious. It turns out Samson, the star of “The New Devil in Miss Jones,” has produced an exceptional wine, becoming the toast of two industries: wine-making and pornography.
“I never wanted to just do gimmick. That would just happen with me being a porn star, me having a photographer shoot the label, how risque could I get on the label — all those things,” Samson, the stage name for 31-year-old Natalie Oliveros, said in an interview.
The seriousness of the idea was lining up a respected wine maker. So she convinced Italy’s Robert Cipresso — also a vintner to the Vatican — to join the project.
Samson went to Tuscany and tasted dozens of Cipresso’s Italian-grown varieties, then she selected a mix of 70 percent Cesanese, 20 percent Sangiovese and 10 percent Montepulciano. She ordered over 400 cases.
“I knew I wanted Roberto to make my wine — I just love his passion for wine,” said Samson.
The result is Sogno Uno, a 2004 vintage of an Italian red wine packaged under the Savanna name with a label of Samson in a see-through gown. It was launched last month.
Parker has been called the most influential wine critic in the world, and a score of 90 to 95 denotes “an outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character.”
“Trust me, I didn’t add any points for Ms. Samson’s personal presentation,” Parker wrote in his review.
NAUGHTY AND SPICE
Samson is one of the biggest names in pornography, having won best actress in the Adult Video News Awards (AVN), the pornographic equivalent of the Oscars, and another AVN Award for a scene she shared with Jenna Jameson in last year’s “The Masseuse.” She has made two dozen porn flicks.
The wine “really represents who I am,” said Samson.
“There’s spiciness — the Cesanese has the naughty side of me. And yet it’s an elegant wine. I love the opera, and I’m a classically trained ballet dancer. And there is some chocolate undertone, which I just love. There’s a little bit of sweetness. Like, 10 percent of the time I’m sweet,” she said.
She is working on a white wine — Sogno Due — that could be out later this year, and also has ideas of expanding into champagne, ice wine and grappa.
Samson, who was raised Catholic in upstate New York, said it was pure coincidence that Cipresso also sells wines to the Vatican. She met him through her husband, a wine merchant.
“My priest said in Mass once, ‘Violence or pleasures of the flesh. What is the greater of two evils?’ I think we all know the answer. I felt like he was saying that toward me,” she said.
Still, she never had her parent’s blessing for her career choice as an adult movie star. “They were so devastated. They were terribly, terribly upset.”
But while she will continue her film career, wine-making may offer some redemption. “I wanted to do something that my parents could be proud of,” she said.
Well after many setbacks… Money shortages, our fridge/freezer dying last monday with a bunch of supplies. But thanks to big help from family and friends, Joseph had a day long party with lots of food, and lots of friends. I’ve taken pictures of some of what went on, from the Birthday Cake made [...]
