Thursday, March 24, 2016

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #37

We need a little Pok Pok in our life.

And Le Bernardin.

And Prune.

And Momofuku.

And The Breslin.

And other New York things.

So we're going to make that happen.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $90 for food and $186 for wine = $276

Sunday: Jeremiah Tower Chicken with 2014 Dominque Lucas Les Vins du Léman Quintessence Chasselas

Food Details: Easter dinner before our New York trip! Same prep as the rather revolutionary first eating of this Jeremiah Tower chicken recipe a month ago. One alteration (from those alterations) was the addition of fried chicken spice, just for funnsies. Doesn't need that, as it doesn't allow the viscous chicken juices to expand into a savory chicken bomb in your mouth like before. Watercress-arugula salad with white wine vinegar and a wee touch of walnut oil. Toasted mini-ciabatta, buttered. Top the bread with the above ingredients. Eat.

Did We Like It? It was a fine-arse chicken, juicy as all get-out. Loved the chicken itself, but the fried chicken spice clipped the loveliness and Chez Panisse-ness that we found the first time we had this meal. Lesson learned. Great food, though. The original wine pick for the night didn't reach the heights of the grolleau gris on the first time around with this JT chicken dinner, unfortunately.

How Was The Wine? A bit too delicate here. It's Dominque Lucas's entry-level wine. Pretty, light, somewhat ethereal, but missed on having a full-blown presence from beginning to end. It needed a strand that ran through it and a couple of changes to reach true-blue goodness and it just didn't have it.

And The Pairing? We opened a cheap bottle of Albero Cava and found bubbles and fried chicken spice are, of course, not too shabby together, even if it's in a stranger form than the typical...that.

Cost: $18 for food, $27 for wine = $45

Saturday: Mexican Rice with 2014 La Granja Blanco Rioja

Food Details: Bayless recipe here. Jalapeño chicken sausages, rice, onions, chile, garlic, cilantro, chicken broth...click on the recipe. Sour cream and hot sauce on top.

Did We Like It? We'll probably put Mexican rice to bed for a few months. But a nice, big bowl of food.

How Was The Wine? House white. Spanish verdejo-viura from Trader Joe's. It's $5 and suffices for meals like this.

And The Pairing? Fine.

Cost: $8 for food, $5 for wine = $13

Friday: Pick-n-Choose with 2015 Espiral Vinho Rosé Vinho Verde

Food Details: Roast beef, salami, ale cheddar with mustard, pickled onions, pepper mayo, arugula and ciabattini. Bread plus everything else as an open-faced mini-sammy. Eat. Repeat. Enjoy.

Did We Like It? Always. It's an easy-peasy dinner that brings the satisfaction.

How Was The Wine? When you're having dinner after work, want to have a bit of wine, but want to make sure the annoyance of work doesn't force you to have more wine than you really should/want/need, drink wine that isn't...the best. Spiral fits that mold. Light berry-strawberry and lil spritz. And that's about it.

And The Pairing? Wine. With food.

Cost: $20 for food, $5 for wine = $25

Thursday: Meatloaf and Pierogi

Food Details: Wine break. Food & Wine meatloaf with mustard seeds and white pepper. Onion-potato pierogi with asparagus. One of the better meatloaf batches in a good long while. Happy.

No wine

Cost: $8

Wednesday: Squid Ink Pasta, Shrimp and Fava with 2014 Txomin Etxaniz Txakoli Basque

Food Details: Sepia spaghetti, shrimp, favas, chorizo, charred scallions, fresno peppers, preserved lemon, garlic, dill, mint. On a plate, then in our mouth.

Did We Like It? Both of us were thinking before dinner, "Fine...that'll do." And then we ate it. PERFECT pasta, perfectly cooked, great texture and nice, light hit of squidy flavor without tasting like you're eating sea garbage. First fava of the spring for us, which always marks food spring and that's a good thing. Flavors galore, all of them welcome, wanted and waxed over while taking in two more episodes of Come Dine With Me UK. Good Dinner! And the wine helped.

How Was The Wine? Delicious, because it tastes like Spain. It's been a couple of years since we had a bottle of Txomin Etxaniz. Missed it. It's always had a classy txakoli shine and it did here. Something about the balance and back-and-forth between the spritz, herbs and light green-yellow fruit, then a nice pause, and a finish that tastes like driving on a Basque backroad with the sea air just starting to enter the car vent.

And The Pairing? Not superlative, but a pairing where EVERYTHING on the plate and in the glass was oh-so delicious and nothing in each was getting in the way with the other. Very happy.

Cost: $12 for food, $20 for wine = $32      

Tuesday: Rabbit Croquetas and Snap Pea-Radish Salad with NV Mumm Rosé Napa

Food Details: Jose Andres' croquetas, substituting freezer rabbit for chicken (and fried in rabbit oil), and almond milk for dairy in the béchamel. Melissa Clark snap peas and radish salad with ricotta salata.

Did We Like It? Loved the rabbit croquetas. Loved the stink out of them. Not so much the salad. It came off rather ordinary, missing a broadness and pop.

How Was The Wine? Opened a bottle of Halcyon Sparkling Rosé of Cabernet Franc Templeton Gap to start and got NOTHIN'. I was somewhat excited about this one and it tasted like lightly-flavored sparkling water. Had no anima, no personality, nothing to say. I strained to get to "sun-baked earth, chalk and white chocolate from Reeses eggs" just to be an wine-descriptor idiot. But overall, nothing to see here for us. We figured the dill in the salad (added) would help. Nope. So a bottle of Mumm rosé, that was only marginally better.

And The Pairing? Meh.

Cost: $12 for food, $53 for wine = $65    

Monday: Fish Cakes, Carrot-top Pesto and Roasted Potatoes with 2012 Ponzi Chardonnay Willamette Valley

Food Details: Fish cakes, recipe from New Book of Middle Eastern Food, page 180 (using cod, serrano, lemon zest, and basil--no spices). Roasted potatoes, carrots, onions, all separately roasted. Halved grape tomatoes and lemon slices, roasted. Ms Bloomfield's carrot top pesto. Lemon squeezes.

Did We Like It? We did. Fresh and bright fish cakes, delicious with the superlatively great carrot-top pesto. Surprisingly wonderful potatoes with perfect crisp on the outside and creaminess on the inside. An all-around good meal that Mrs. Ney didn't even want while making it. And a big wine shocker.

How Was The Wine? This Ponzi chardonnay has been sitting in the house since we got it from their wine club three years ago. Forgot it was in the house, really. This food was a good opportunity to drink a wine we typically don't gravitate towards. Unoaked. Very pretty secondary flavors showed nicely here, with an Asian herb leaf note being a big thread throughout. Shiny citrus notes. Shorter finish but we didn't care. This had a nice balance and strut. Big fan.

And The Pairing? When we drink Ponzi in any form, we taste that Ponzi acid that brings us back to the first time we had Ponzi. It's a happy memory in the glass nearly every time. The pairing here tasted like a breezy fish cake lunch where time stops a bit, and lunch becomes a true pause in the day. Very satisfied.

Cost: $12 for food, $30 for wine = $42

Thursday, March 17, 2016

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #36


I didn't love Carol, unlike the rest of the planet. Felt underdeveloped with respect to exactly why Carol and Therese are attracted to each other, outside of the physical, which is fine to build upon, but a bone or two thrown my way on the emotional angle would have helped.

Beautifully filmed, fantastic use of score, visually sumptuous, great performances. Blanchett and Mara are two of the best working today. It simply felt initially unformed, and the rest of the castle was built on that.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $96 for food and $130 for wine = $226

Total food and wine cost for the month: $431 for food and $519 for wine = $950

Sunday: Green Chorizo-Zucchini Goop with 2014 Alloy Wine Works Grenache Rosé Central Coast

Food Details: Based on a recipe from Mexican, by Jane Milton (page 186), with the addition of green chorizo, from Melissa Clark in NYT Cooking. Cook your chorizo. Remove from pan, and then brown two sliced onions. Add garlic and four [previously salted and rinsed] sliced-into-sticks zucchini, sautée some more. Add half-pint of halved cherry tomatoes and sliced pickled serranos; sauté briefly. Dump in chorizo, warm through. Turn off burner, add half a block of cubed cream cheese to melt in residual heat. Fresh oregano, dill and parmesan. Pugliese bread to top with zucchini goop.

Did We Like It? Bready, porky, touch spicy, vegetabley, happy as all-get out. This version brought the heat.

How Was The Wine? Fading. Still perky-sunny, but the distinctive, round, bouncy guava-strawberry fruit is fading into rather flat generic fruit.

And The Pairing? The acid still present in the wine saved it from being a pairing dud.

Cost: $9 for food, $14 for wine = $23

Saturday: Ottolenghi Chicken Salad with 2014 João Portugal Ramos "Lima" Loureiro Vinho Verde

Food Details: Mr. Ottolenghi's take on chicken caesar salad, which tastes vaguely like caesar salad, but with the signature Ottolenghi "crap! this man can cook!" spin. Yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Half for marinade on the chicken, other half for dressing. Easy-peasy. Chicken seared, then ovened. Salad of romaine (sub for radicchio - too tired to run to WF), arugula and tons of basil. Charred onions (added to the recipe). Chicken. Green Peppercorns. Pecorino (instead of parmesan). Dressing. Mix. Ciabattini slathered with butter-garlic-parsley. Eat.

Did We Like It? Toss it on the food rotation pile! The great thing about Mr. Ottolenghi's recipes is that his ingredients are ingredients we always have in the house. Calling this chicken caesar salad sells it short, but the outline is there. The green peppercorns in this application tastes like a perfect funky stand-in for anchovies. The copious amount of basil brought an ideal herbal pop. Yogurt-lemon creates a bright framework without overwhelming. It's a big plate of perfect. 

How Was The Wine? We've probably had two cases or more of this wine over the years. It's started to become merely "wine" lately, but here it excelled. Juicy, lightly floral, even a bit tropical. Lovely.

And The Pairing? It LOVES this food, something the Lima hasn't of late. Bright, refreshing, delicious, cleansing... We'd do this again tomorrow. It was that good.

Cost: $7 for food, $8 for wine = $15   

Friday: Merguez Kebabs and Kale Tabbouleh with 2014 Marqués de Cáceres Rosé Rioja

Food Details: Another Yotam Ottolenghi recipe that makes us say, "Jebus Cripes, that guy likes food the way we like food!" Merguez lamb sausages made with ground lamb, harissa, cumin, coriander, fennel, paprika, etc. Along with a stupid-delicious Melissa Clark (modified) kale tabbouleh recipe, subbing beets for tomatoes. Tahini (plus lemon juice, garlic and water) with pita.

Did We Like It? Yep. It will be put right into the food catalog and eaten, most likely, 6-8 more times this year. This is weeknight food and weekday food. Fancy food and everyday food. Frankly, if this becomes your everyday food, you're eating extraordinarily well. And isn't that the goal with food? Eat well. It makes you happier.

How Was The Wine? Probably a decade ago, we used to drink this rosé on occasion. Checking back in reminded us why we haven't in a decade. There's nothing necessarily wrong with it, just nothing necessarily gripping or compelling about it.

And The Pairing? Best with the merguez on its own, with no tahini or pita. Nondescript with everything else.

Cost: $15 for food, $8 for wine = $23    

Thursday: Red Lentil Dal and Rice with 2014 Amancay Torrontés La Rioja

Food Details: Nigella Lawson recipe from NYT. Red lentils, sweet potato, onions, ginger, garlic, chile, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cilantro, etc. Over rice.

Did We Like It? A fine dal with enough depth and guts to say, "Yes. This will work just fine, thank you very much."

How Was The Wine? A better drinking than our first one of this cheap Trader Joe's Argentinean torrontés offering. Peachy-floral, bouncy, nice.

And The Pairing? No complaints.

Cost: $5 for food, $7 for wine = $12  

Wednesday: Potato Focaccia with Petit Basque Cheese and Quince Paste with 2013 Raventos i Blanc L'Hereu Brut Reserva Conca del Riu Anoia

Food Details: Yotam Ottolenghi potato focaccia (at the bottom) with petit Basque cheese, quince paste, serrano ham and arugula salad.

Did We Like It? Weirdly wonderful focaccia that we'll be making again. Like the lightest potato pizza that never gets too potato-heavy. Easy to make, just a lot of rest-time involved. Topped with quince paste and petit Basque cheese, it went from a thrown-together dinner into something much better than that. The serrano ham was barely needed. A focaccia-quince-cheese bite repeated over and over again was enough for us. And paired with Come Dine With Me New Zealand was perfect.

How Was The Wine? We used to drink this (former) Cava a lot, but we stopped buying it after a couple of bottles didn't exactly thrill and we got into Champagne more heavily. This drinking will bring us back. 45 % macabeu-40 % xarel.lo-15 % parellada. Biodynamic. You can read about Raventos switching appellations here. Refreshing was the word of the night with this drinking, with the smallest touch of apple-lime and very happy minerality. The L'Hereu hasn't tasted like this for us before. It's lighter, shinier, more polished and direct in the best sense.

And The Pairing? Tasted like a Spanish picnic.

Cost: $20 for food, $20 for wine = $40      

Tuesday: Anne Burrell Chicken Milanese with 2013 Jackys Preys Cuvée de Fié Gris Touraine

Food Details: Home Food eaten dozens of times. Anne Burrell recipe: read it, make it, know it, love it. Breaded chicken breasts, pan-fried. Hazelnut-parsley-pecorino blend. Pickled onions. Arugula salad. A piece of fried breast, bit of nut blend, some pickled onions - eat.

Did We Like It? Al. Ways. And this was a very good version. We love it every time we have it. Felt like it had been too long since the last time.

How Was The Wine? Fié gris grape. Natural wine. Loire. Our third bottle and it's been natural-different every time. That's a good thing everyone, if you're inclined to get into such things. This time, a burnt-out candlewick note, mostly, with a wee touch of Asian fruit and white flowers. And a frothy impression that seemed like it was going to get into beer territory but never did. Wild is the word, and we loved it.

And The Pairing? Nothing wrong with that. Best when the wine was cooler.

Cost: $10 for food, $18 for wine = $28

Monday: Hanger Steak, Blue Cheese and Potato Pancakes with 2012 Arnot-Roberts Syrah North Coast and 2010 Abacela Tinta Amarela Umpqua

Food Details: Hanger steak marinated in Chinese black bean and brandy marinade, seared medium-rare. Trader Joe's potato pancakes for starch. Rogue Creamery Caveman Blue Cheese. Haricots verts seared in cast iron with soy and balsamic spritz.

Did We Like It? Delicious marinade, delicious beef. Rogue blue cheese in any form is so gosh-darn good. With a bite of beef with blue cheese and a lil bit of potato pancake...that's all we need in life. Very happy meal.

How Was The Wine? Two wines that were put in the fridge with Preserva disks over the last week or so. Gotta drink up 'em up and this meal seemed a good time to save on bit of wine dollars since they were already a sunk cost. The tinta amarela came off like before - a touch flat and lacking in depth. The Arnot-Roberts, though, turned into a cool climate syrah with personality, with cooling fruit frame backed by a touch of VERY black olive and a bit of thyme. Had a nice pep to its step.

And The Pairing? There wasn't any point during the meal where we thought about opening something fresh/fancier because the food warranted it. That's how well these fridge wines performed with the meal. The syrah was the overall winner on the night, but the tinta amarela loved the green beans. Good start to the weekend.

Cost: $30 for food, $55 for wine = $85

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #35

Here's a thought: 

For all the people consuming each primary result like it's an indication of a sea change in American thought, consider this: In 2008 at this time, like the Republicans now, we were talking about a possible 'stalemate, vituperation and disillusionment' at the Democratic Convention and hadn't even heard of Sarah Palin yet. In 2012, we were still talking about Rick Santorum.

It's a long slog. To put how long in perspective, and for all you people who complain about the length of a certain sports season, we have an entire baseball year to play before anybody even votes in the general election. 

So take a breath.

Just a thought.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $94 for food and $116 for wine = $210

Sunday: Asian Pork, Peppers and Snow Peas with 2014 Selbach Incline Riesling Mosel

Food Details: Freezer BBQ pork from banh mi, stir-fried red peppers and snow peas, scallions and cilantro over rice.

Did We Like It? A big bowl of Asian goodness. Clean, ample, deep and satisfying. Big winner and a big surprise.

How Was The Wine? Selbach's entry-level riesling. Perky, fruity, light sugar mixing with minerality, refreshing. A fine example of riesling on the cheap.

And The Pairing? The hoisin, fish sauce and hot sauce in the pork wants a touch of sugar. Then you get the Asian-riesling "aaaah" and "yes!" So...happy.

Cost: $5 for food, $12 for wine = $17 

Saturday: Ham-Asparagus Naan Pizzas with 2014 La Granja Blanco Rioja

Food Details: Naan with [cream cheese, feta, roasted red pepper spread], charred asparagus, onion, ham, with arugula with walnut oil.

Did We Like It? Naan pizzas. They're what's for dinner. We love 'em. Topped with arugula and it's a bite of that has everything you'd want.

How Was The Wine? $5 Trader Joe's verdejo-viura blend. Big tropical fruit notes this time, with a fine snappy finish.

And The Pairing? Not great, not even really acceptable. But something about it tasted like some thrown-together meal we've had in our hotel room in Spain. So we didn't mind.

Cost: $9 for food, $5 for wine = $14

Friday: Lamb Pan Bagnat with 2015 Espiral Vinho Verde Rosé

Food Details: (Bittman recipe) Leftover slow-roasted lamb from Tuesday, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, kumatoes, olives, basil on ciabatta; smushed. Olive oil chips.

Did We Like It? Southern French smushed sandwich! It's becoming a fav. This iteration had that extra something, with the lamb and artichokes mixing into a taste that was almost...Turkish (?). Pretty great stuff.

How Was The Wine? Just released new vintage of the Espiral rosé. And it tastes exactly like Mateus. Mateus isn't...the best.

And The Pairing? Meh.

Cost: $12 for food, $5 for wine = $17    

Thursday: Persian Chicken Stew with 2011 Georges Descombes Morgon 

Food Details: (Sifton recipe) Fesenjan, or Iranian chicken stew, using several more onions and 50% less pomegranate molasses, over white rice with cumin and orange zest. Pomegranate seeds on top.

Did We Like It? The result was a nutty, goopy chicken stew with a molasses depth, but a brightness that kept everything light. Tart, sweet, dark, bright; typical Iranian goodness, at least as we're starting to understand. Happy food that will be put into the weekday rotation.

How Was The Wine? Put into the fridge with a Preserva disk after Tuesday's pairing failure with slow-roasted lamb, this drinking was much more delightful, with a sort of undersweetened mulberry-cherry pie filling note backed by a lil bit of thyme. Light, easy, nice.

And The Pairing? Firmly in the camp of nice. Nuts and chicken with Beaujolais. Nothing wrong with that.

Cost: $7 for food, $21 for wine = $28      

Wednesday: Ottolenghi Fish-Coconut-Peanut with 2013 Darting Durkheimer Hochbenn Muskateller Kabinett Trocken

Food Details: Ottolenghi's mackerel/coconut/peanut recipe (a little down the page), substituting smoked milkfish for mackerel, with steamed mustard greens, soba noodles dressed with sesame oil. Nearly every Asian flavor in the book: Coconut, peanut, (manzano) peppers, fish sauce (tripled), mirin, rice vinegar, ginger, cilantro, lime, mint, everything. First had here. After that eating, we knew we'd be eating it once or twice a year until we die.

Did We Like It? I believe it's what's called a Nutritionally Complete meal! Each bite subtly different; each bite meaty, substantial, clean, deep, springy, popping and delicious. It's statement food. It's Armani worn well. And Andy's Fruit Ranch Filipino milkfish makes for a cheaper, delicious substitute for whitefish/mackerel.

How Was The Wine? Don't mess with a good thing. This meal wants Darting's muskateller. It's peachy-limey, almost paper dry, direct, focused, round, and tastes like a cool breeze.

And the Pairing? The first time we had this, it was the best pairing we'd had in a long time. Very similar love here. And we've had this pairing with the food enough to make it feel as nostalgic, wanted and enjoyed as grandma's cooking. Perfect.

Cost: $14 for food, $18 for wine = $32          

Tuesday: Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb with Fennel, Blood Oranges, Olives and Anchovies with 2011 Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre Rouge

Food Details: This slow roast is really an amalgam of about seven different recipes based mostly on Nrs. Ney's slow-roasted goat over the years. Lamb leg slow-roasted with fennel, blood oranges, oil-cured olives, anchovies and herbes de provence. Broiled tomatoes on the vine. Potatoes in a mustardy vinaigrette with tarragon. Mâche salad to finish. 

Did We Like It? We love lamb. It's been awhile since we had lamb. That distance from the last lamb we had doesn't influence my next statement, due to some 'distance makes the heart grow fonder' kind of thing. This is my favorite lamb going forward. It's benchmark lamb. Bring up lamb and I will point you to this lamb. Because it took lamb's funk and upped the funkiness in the most wildly funky sense. It tasted like an OLD recipe; proven, loved and eaten monthly by some group of migrated Uzbek people in the French-Swiss Alps or Andorra or something. We loved every part of this.

How Was The Wine? Well...it took us opening three bottles to get to a wine that approached acceptable with the crazy goodness of this food. A 2011 Georges DesCombes Morgon came off sappy, hollow and flat with the food. A 2012 Arnot-Roberts Syrah tastes merely like grape juice with a bite (shame - pretty nose). But the Reverdy pinot noir from Sancerre brought enough layers, transitions and something approaching an actual pairing dimension absent from the other two for us to be satisfied enough. Nice cherry, smoke and raw spice.

And The Pairing? We were just happy to find something with the Reverdy after opening $60 of wine that was useless with the food. Those two with show up later this week with some meal. Overall, with the Reverdy, a nice pairing. It was just one we wouldn't have chosen, tasting more like a pairing someone else loves. Pleasing. We get why they like it. We just wouldn't have chosen it.

Cost: $32 for food, $25 for wine = $57              

Monday: Jacques Pépin Brandade, Crostini, Shishito and Salad with 2014 Day Wines Malvasia 'Mamacita' Applegate Valley

Food Details: Jacques Pépin recipe (celery root instead of potato, almond milk instead of dairy, pecorino instead of parmesan), with grilled baguette. Charred shishito peppers and arugula-dill-celery leaf salad.

Did We Like It? Yes. The brandade got a lil mousse-y but still maintained all of its loveliness. Three things here: the celery leaves in the salad, taken from the top of the celery root and looked beautiful, were so goshdarn good. So was the bread. That sounds silly but there's something about perfectly grilled bread. And shishito peppers are always welcome. And then there's light, pillowy, tasty brandade. It's fish in spreadable form. Who doesn't want that?

How Was The Wine? We say "I could drink that by the bucket" a lot. And that applies here. Pet-nat sparkling malvasia from Oregon. Mrs. Ney saw that and rightfully said, "Yes. Always. Now." Big mouthfeel of orchard fruit skin to start, transitioning to a sunny, white flowered, yeasty core, and finishing with a refreshing, lemony acid and perk. People on the interwebs have called it beer-like or cidery...maybe just a little bit, much less from the initial impression compared to the final, overall picture. It's picnic wine at its finest. Available at Vin Chicago and Pastoral in Andersonville. 

And The Pairing? A perfectly not-perfect pairing that was perfect. Tasted like love on the table and in the bottle and boy were they happy and relieved to be in each other's company. 

Cost: $15 for food, $30 for wine = $45    
     

Thursday, March 3, 2016

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #34

Thoughts:

1. Good to see a Hollywood awards show get it right for Best Picture and reward restraint.

2. The Third Man is just as good on the fifth viewing as the first.

3. Rossellini is one of my blindspots. Rome, Open City is a damn good film with the story told through masterful camera work more than anything. But..

4. Germany, Year Zero is better. Utterly raw and gutting.

5. The new Apple TV is a beautiful piece of equipment. For the remote alone!

5. Mrs. Ney came home this week with a great haul of natural wines, including a fantastic ribolla gialla below.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $111 for food and $111 for wine = $222

Sunday: Big Greek Salad with 2014 Poggio Anima 'Gabriel' Pecorino Terre di Chieti IGT

Food Details: Calabrese salami, cucumber, Greek sheep feta, sliced black olives, grape tomatoes, cucumber, roasted red pepper, scallions, dill, arugula. Ciabattini with Kerrygold butter.

Did We Like It? That'll work. All the Greekiness one would want from a weekday Big Salad. Mrs. Ney missed out on the cucumber, as it wasn't in the house.

How Was The Wine? Tasted like a nondescript Italian white table wine more than pecorino, but enough sunny acid and verve to compliment the salad. Nothing more to see here.

And The Pairing? See above.

Cost: $12 for food, $13 for wine = $25  

Saturday: Red Beans and Rice with 2013 VinTJ's Gewürztraminer Mendocino County

Food Details: Cook's Illustrated red beans and rice with andouille sausage, red beans, onions, bell pepper, garlic, paprika, cayenne, scallions, etc.; over brown rice.

Did We Like It? Deliciously balanced red beans and rice with a bouncy vacillation between its spice, veg, rice and meat and beans.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's cheap gewürztraminer, nothing special, but nice gewürz fruit with decent acid. Some watery gaps and its 2013-ness is showing, though it didn't detract from its price-to-quality ratio. At $7, that's a sliding scale.

And The Pairing? Respectable countering the spice. Not much less to see here.

Cost: $7 for food, $7 for wine = $14

Friday: Jeremiah Tower's Roast Chicken, Watercress and Ciabbatini with 2013 Domaine des Herbauges Val de Loire Grolleau Gris

Food Details: Our new chicken! Jeremiah Tower recipe with a couple of alterations: no washing, not making an actual sauce with the juices, and seasoning it a day early, letting it stand in the fridge. Simple lemon, head of garlic, rosemary, olive oil, s/p on/with the chicken, roasted at 375 (covered Dutch oven) for 60 minutes, 425 for 25 minutes uncovered. Pan juices poured into a dish to drizzle (instead of sauce). Inland cress and arugula salad with white wine vinegar and a wee touch of walnut oil. Toasted mini-ciabatta, buttered. Top the bread with the above ingredients. Eat.

Did We Like It? So. Ridiculously. Delicious. Frenchy chicken in the sense that it begins as the typical, more quiet, milder roast chicken, only to have its full-blown chicken-ness show up a few seconds later. A chicken juice explosion in the bestest sense. This will be our replacement chicken for a while, as our high-heat, 500-degree roast chicken over the last year blasts the entire house (and the oven) with chicken smoke and juice, making for chickeny clothes and jackets and an oven that looks like someone exploded a barrel of tar into it.

Big key here: the tiny drizzle of walnut oil on the salad and buying watercress (sometimes a difficult find) make this meal utterly perfect. It becomes transportive, as if you're in Lyon (which I've never been) and you get a tip on the best lunch in town. It's a perfect bite. And with this wine...gee-whiz.

How Was The Wine? By itself, it's fine. WITH this food, it's like that rare moment when I wait on a couple and feel like they really like each other, after 20 years of marriage, and they seem to like each other more everyday. A tiny vein of delicate oil runs through its texture with a smoked orange peel/peach skin note. Lower acid, which is perfect here; and the walnut oil on the watercress and white pepper on the chicken amp up its background herby notes. Both of us loved the snot out of it. A great meal.

And The Pairing? See above.

Cost: $18 for food, $14 for wine = $32    

Thursday: French Vegetable Tart with 2013 Globerati Gascogne Blanc

Food Details: Tart shell filled with charred asparagus, onions, tomatoes, Bulgarian sheep feta, dill and tarragon; baked. Herb salad.

Did We Like It? Fine Frenchy tart and salad. Bistro food. No complaints.

How Was The Wine? Grapefruity with a lil punch. Southwestern France table white wine done moderately well. No complaints. 70% colombard 30% gris manseng.

And The Pairing? No...well..complaints.

Cost: $7 for food, $6 for wine = $13

Wednesday: Yakitori-marinated Hanger Steak, Steak Mock Frites and Kale Salad with NV Marietta Cellars Christo #2 Sonoma-Mendocino Counties Rhone Blend

Food Details: Freezer yakitori (Saveur), garlic, rosemary and evoo marinade for hanger steak, seared medium-rare. Sam Sifton faux pommes frites. Melissa Clark Tuscan kale salad.

Did We Like It? Meat and potatoes done well. Paired with Supersizers from Channel 4. Hosts Sue Perkins and Giles Coren pick a (mostly) British era and spend a week eating like the people from that era ate. It's a rip-roaring good time.

How Was The Wine? Started with a bottle of 2010 Abacela Tinta Amarela Umpqua but it was too soft for this meal. It'll pop up again this week. So a Christo (syrah, grenache, petite sirah and viognier), because it's besties with meat and potatoes, though the #2 in the past has left us wanting. #1 was pure joy in the bottle and the #2 was a shadow of that in the past for us, but much better here. It gave more blackberry, smoke and bark with a nice dryness and presence this time. Didn't reach the heights of the #1 and the #3 is out, so we'll plow through the rest of our #2s and move on.

And The Pairing? Meat, potatoes and Christo. Big place in our world. Good here. Not the best, but nice.

Cost: $17 for food, $17 for wine = $34

Tuesday: Psilakis Rabbit, Bloomfield Carrots and Risotto Milanese with 2011 Primosic Ribolla Gialla Friuli Venezia Giulia

Food Details: Michael Psilakis rabbit (recipe) with April Bloomfield roasted carrots and carrot top pesto (recipe) and Anne Burrell risotto Milanese (recipe)

Did We Like It? There was a lot of swearing. This. Was. Delicious. Tasted like the one thing we miss by not going to really high-end (northern) Italian restaurants: a great rabbit meal that would probably cost $45 but completely satisfy every part of your food being (unlike most everything else in really high-end Italian restos - we don't love it). Succulent rabbit that I wanted to put in between my cheek and gums and leave it there. Incredible carrot top pesto and carrots. Solid risotto with nice ooze backing it all up. We loved this plate of stupid-great food.

How Was The Wine? Natural ribolla gialla from Venezia. Decanted an hour. Hay, and white flowers that have been sitting in the sunny window for an afternoon (that's an early candidate for the dumbest wine description of the year). Nuts, light lemon-smoked orange fruit. Even a lil chickeny. Delicate acid. Pleasing texture. All in balance. Rather beautiful. Maybe a buy-again. Didn't dig deep into us, but admired everything it gave.

And The Pairing? Tasted like a great sommelier recommendation that he or she found in their testings and trials, and it turned into their go-to rec with the rabbit on the menu. Graceful, original and memorable.

Cost: $30 for food, $34 for wine = $64    

Monday: Shrimp, Chorizo and Broiled Feta Spread with Tesouro Da Sé Espumante Método Classico Reserva Dão

Food Details: Spanishy-Greeky spread of shrimp and chorizo sizzled up together, broiled feta and arugula salad with Pugliese bread to dip, top and drag.

Did We Like It? A mighty fine spread of flavors we enjoy. Chorizo oil was freakin' delicious and the creamy feta perfect.

How Was The Wine? Differing opinions here. A rarity, that. We usually fall into a fairly similar camp. Mrs. Ney loved this malvasia-cercial-bical blend done in the Champagne method from the Dão, liking its "melon formerly wrapped in prosciutto" notes and pretty finish. I was less enamored. At about $20, we'll buy it again. It has malvasia in it, which is a "buy it!"wine in our house no matter what-where-how it is-from-made.

And The Pairing? Nice space, nice gas, nice lift; it dug in and like its frolic.

Cost: $24 for food, $20 for wine = $44