Category: Cooking, Food & Wine

My favorite fall/winter pasta! Loaded with sautéed butternut squash, thyme + sage. It’s also almost too easy to make!

I’ll let you in on a secret.

I’ve been secretly switching off between this pasta and this brown butter mushroom pasta.

I call it the wedding diet done right.

Because for me, the wedding diet should consist of a ton of butter, freshly toasted breadcrumbs and shaved Parmesan. No?

I also threw in some butternut squash, thyme and sage, making it the perfect fall/winter meal.

Not to mention, we all get bonus points when adding more Parmesan flakes than what the recipe states.

The post Brown Butter Butternut Squash Pasta appeared first on Damn Delicious.

There are many ways to eat manuka honey. Discover why this sweet elixir is highly beneficial to your health.

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Matt Abergel talks Chicken and Charcoal as we dip into his debut cookbook from cult yakitori restaurant, Yard Bird, in Hong Kong.

The easiest mac and cheese of your life! No boil noodles, no condensed soup! Completely homemade and SO GOOD!

It’s a miracle, guys. It’s mac and cheese without any of the fuss!

Now this recipe will come in particularly handy during the holidays, especially because it doesn’t take up any oven or stovetop space!

I’m serious. Even the uncooked pasta gets cooked right in the actual crockpot!

Plus, there’s no condensed soups, no velveeta, no nothing. This bad boy is completely homemade, and it’s so stinking creamy, it’ll get you weak in the knees.

And I threw in some broccoli because I guess we’ll need some veggies in our diet. But you’ll barely notice it. PROMISE.

Just be sure to keep a close eye on this. It’s best to serve immediately (as with most mac and cheeses) and to avoid keeping this on the WARM function as it will continue to cook in the slow cooker.

Simply serve, devour, and nap. That’s what we did!

The post Slow Cooker Creamy Broccoli Mac and Cheese appeared first on Damn Delicious.

First came fire, then rain. As if recent devastating wildfires hadn’t caused enough suffering for the beleaguered Malibu Coast wine region, an unexpected severe storm dumped an estimated 2 inches of rain on Southern California yesterday. Mud and debris flowed down from the fire-scorched Malibu hills onto the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) during the morning commute, forcing officials to close the road until late afternoon.

(The storm also dumped several inches of snow on a stretch of Interstate 5, California’s main north-south thoroughfare, that passes through the Santa Monica Mountains, forcing its closure too).

An already massive and complicated cleanup of the hills between Highway 101 and the Malibu coast that was devastated by the Woolsey fire is now even more complicated. Not only are vintners and growers in the appellation dealing with the loss of homes, vineyards and habitat due to fire, but now they’ve got to think about rain, flooding and mudslides as California’s rainy season begins. (Fires increase the risk of mudslides by stripping the hills of vegetation that holds the soil in place.)

The Malibu Coast American Viticultural Area (AVA), established in 2014, encompasses some 50 vineyards totaling approximately 200 acres spread out over 44,598 acres. None of the producers have winemaking facilities on site, due to local restrictions. Wines from Malibu grapes are generally produced in facilities in the Central Coast area. They are all small-production wines, sold mostly to high-end local restaurants in L.A. and consumers in the local tasting rooms or wine clubs.

The recent Woolsey fire devastated the area and hit many of the vineyards and wineries hard. Although the extent of damages and losses may not be fully known for many months, some vintners have lost everything: homes, vineyards and tasting rooms.

Dakota Semler, owner of Semler Malibu Estates and Saddlerock Vineyards, lost his house and vineyards and narrowly managed to save the exotic animals that were a part of Malibu Wine Safaris, his company that runs open-air vehicle “safaris” through his hillside vineyards.

Others’ homes were spared, but still face damaged vineyards. Howard Leight, owner of Malibu Rocky Oaks Estate Vineyards, said, “Our vineyards and estate were originally planted for erosion and fire control, so I took everything and threw it into the house, which was like a fortress—covered French limestone. The vines actually took the brunt of the hit.”

In the days following the fires, locals and celebrities, many of whom had lost their own homes, banded together to form the Malibu Foundation to aid those who needed help the most. Gathering at the home of actor Gerard Butler and partner Morgan Brown, the celebs managed to raise $2 million to aid victims of the fire. Jamie Foxx, Sean Penn, Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver and Robin Thicke, along with Butler and Brown, were among those on hand. Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth (who lost their home in the fire) donated $500,000 to the cause. The Malibu Foundation’s website continues to accept donations for victims.

What’s next for Malibu’s vintners and growers? There will be a need for vine cuttings to replace damaged or destroyed vines. And more immediately, growers will need to prepare for the effects of rain. “There will be a very high potential for debris flow for the next three or four years,” said Chris Stone, assistant deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. “But we can identify where they will likely go. That helps us to plan, evacuate and be prepared.”

With the rains falling hard today, rebuilding will have to wait for now.

This is the only recipe you’ll ever need for cooking rice in the Instant Pot. It cooks up in just four minutes and the results are spectacular.

One of the better way to explore gypsy culture is discovering their traditional food. How could a nomadic people build its own traditional cuisine?

The Bay Area is joining the NBA’s wine league with a splash. The Golden State Warriors are partnering with Silver Oak, and the Napa and Sonoma Cabernet house announced it will be providing the team’s official in-seat pours at Oracle Arena and releasing an etched set of five Warriors-themed Cabernet bottles.

Platinum–ranked Silver Oak first came to Golden State in 2015 through All-Star Draymond Green. The power forward and Michigan State alum made a wager against LeBron James over a college football game: Green’s alma mater versus James’ home team Ohio State. Because James is the dean of NBA enophiles who drains Cabernet like he does three-pointers (enthusiastically but in moderation), he set the terms at two cases of wine. The Spartans won, and Green found 2 cases of Silver Oak Napa Cabernet in the mail.

“The [bet] really kicked this off. We saw this incredible energy and very authentic interest, and a lot of new customers discovering us through that initial introduction,” explained Silver Oak director of marketing Ian Leggat to Unfiltered. Soon after, Silver Oak partnered with the San Francisco Giants and discovered sports and wine fandom made for a natural pairing, with “people being kind of ritualistic in their sports routines, where they have certain traditions in terms of what they want to eat and drink.” (After the introduction at Oracle, the plan is for Silver Oak to follow the Warriors to the new Chase Center, where the Warriors will relocate next season.)

The winery also created a collector set for superfans of the Silver and Golden, a 5-bottle pack of 2014 Alexander Valley Cabernets, each etched with the Warriors’ five historical logos over the past half-century, to open “for five winning Warrior moments”—individual player records, going to the playoffs, winning the championship, winning the championship again ….

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‘Three Days of Glory’ Film Follows Five Months of Misery in Burgundy’s Brutal 2016 Vintage

When frost smashed Burgundy vineyards on April 27, 2016, ultimately causing some winemakers to lose more than 80 percent of their crop, director and producer Scott Wright and his crew were in the middle of shooting a documentary—about the struggles of grapegrowing. “The idea was to show the stories of these small family winegrowers and the difficulties they were facing after all these difficult vintages [since 2009],” Wright told Unfiltered. “Then suddenly on top of this comes this crushing 2016 vintage. It just amplified the story we had already intended to tell, and it created a lot more drama then we had anticipated.”

The resulting film, codirected by Wright (himself an Oregon winemaker) and American Wine Story director David Baker is Three Days of Glory, which debuted last month for American audiences on streaming platforms like iTunes and Amazon.

The severity of the 2016 vintage and the tiny crop it yielded might have caught the filmmakers by surprise, but the goal of telling the story of the small family wineries, remained intact and became perhaps even more urgent. “People probably think these winemakers are rich, and they have this very sexy, glamorous life, and that’s not necessarily the case,” Wright said. “They live wonderful lives, but at the end of the day, these are farmers out working in the dirt with their own hands.” Still, even in the face of 2016’s grind, vintners, merchants, chefs, critics and connoisseurs of Burgundy gathered to bid the harvest adieu with an epic annual fête—the titular Les Trois Glorieuses.

After the headaches of 2016 subsided and filming wrapped, good news was on the horizon, with auspicious seasons for many in 2017 and 2018, Wright added. The vignerons “now have the ability to start digging themselves out of the hole that they were in.”

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Take Note: ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Star Ezra Miller’s Champagne Pen

Ezra Miller is certainly not the first celebrity to accessorize with wine, but his intellectual-chic ensemble at a recent Dior fashion show in Tokyo made a splash nonetheless.

Stepping in front of the paparazzi, Miller—known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series and as the Flash in DC Comics’ superhero movie universe, among others—took on a studious persona on the red carpet, wielding a clipboard and taking notes with Unfiltered’s new favorite writing tool: a handsome silver pen that doubles as a stem for the flute of sparkling wine that rested atop it. No word on what the bubbly was, or who made the fantastic contraption that contained it, but there is one thing that those who follow the happenings in wine-style might speculate about this fashion choice: Rihanna would approve.

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In South Korea’s Konjiam Resort, La Grotta delivers a wine-centric experience inspired by vineyard dining. Named for the Italian term for “the cave,” La Grotta is located in an actual wine cave, carved into the side of a mountain to create natural temperature control. The space protects an inventory of 30,000 bottles supplying the 800-selection, Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence–winning wine list. Overseen by wine director Hyo Keun Lee, the program is strongest in Bordeaux, with numerous vintages from the region’s top producers such as Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Latour.

There are also exceptional labels from Italy, California and Burgundy. Selections are presented on an iPad for regularly updated inventory and vintage information, and to make the list easier to read in the dimly lit atmosphere. Elements like the soft lighting, arched ceilings and warm color palette are meant to evoke the feeling of dining in a Napa Valley winery. Yet the cuisine is distinct, blending Italian tradition with seasonal ingredients and Korean flair. Chef Jong Hun Ahn’s menu consists of signature entrées and pastas like spaghetti in an olive oil sauce with mackerel and basil. Except during a few months in winter, the herbs and vegetables are sourced from the on-site organic garden.