OH MAN. This...this was awesome. Sweet potatoes are another one of those things that I have no idea what to do with, and usually end up doing the same one or two things. I found a couple of ravioli recipes and this was the first one we tried. Using the wonton wrappers made it go a little quicker, though it's still relatively time-consuming. But it's really worth it. Every time I look at this picture it makes my mouth water remembering how good this dish was. I'd like to try making the pasta myself sometime, when I have plenty of time to kill.

Another nice thing about Greenling is that the local box always includes a recipe that uses one or more of the items from the box. In the past I've been at a loss for what to do with butternut squash, so this recipe was an interesting experiment. Aside from the squash it used mushrooms, lentils, oj, and veggie broth. Yeah, you read that right, orange juice. I've noticed that butternut squash recipes are more often sweet than savory, which is not normally my cup of tea but I have been trying to broaden my palette. Next time I make this I would probably go a bit easier on the oj.

After a year of radio silence I'm back with a nicely alliterative dish. Some of the produce we get in our Greenling box is not your typical grocery fare, so I was having some trouble finding recipes for certain things on Allrecipes. A friend had mentioned Epicurious as an alternative. I took a look and immediately found about ten recipes I wanted to try. The site is definitely a bit more on the foodie side, so some of the recipes are a lot of work but it makes for a nice change between some of my easier standbys.

I found this recipe when we got a bunch of radishes one week and I didn't want to make veggie pizzas again. The risotto is crazy buttery and rich, but the vinegar and radishes add a nice sharp contrast. Leftovers weren't quite as good...the radishes got a bit soggy, though the risotto was still nice.

Now that it's finally started to cool down in Texas I have been craving wintry-styled drinks. All of the teas I currently have stashed at work are commercial tea bags, so I stopped by Chado over lunch today to pick up something a bit nicer. The Temple of Heaven is a green tea flavored with chocolate and vanilla and blended with rooibos tea. I love teas flavored with chocolate and vanilla, but most of the time they're black teas. I usually put milk into black teas, and since I don't generally have milk at work I wanted to try something different. The flavorings give the tea a lot of sweetness. I also noticed that this one doesn't give me that weird cottonmouth that some green teas do. This is a definite keeper.

Region: Romania
Vintage: 2005
Price: $8.99

Hoo boy. First of all I should add a disclaimer: I do not generally drink Pinot Noir, so I don't necessarily have a good base for comparison.

I picked this up on a lark when I was getting some supplies for a Halloween party. Yes, gimmicky things are cheesy, but it was on sale and I thought it couldn't hurt to try.

When I peeled the foil off the top I saw that the cork was one of those horrible plastic things. Oh, how I hate those. Of course when I tried to uncork it the corkscrew kept slipping out. I had to get Dane to do it for me, and he even needed several tries to do it. When he finally got it open I saw that it's red printed with black werewolf slashes, same as the logo on the bottle. Cute, but I think I'd rather have a real cork that I can actually OPEN, thanks.

When I poured it I took a couple of good long sniffs (hey, I'm trying to become a real wine connoisseur, here). The only thing I could say to Dane was "hmm...smells like...tannins." I honestly couldn't make anything else out, just the alcohol smell. Drinking it is a similar experience. It's not a very smooth wine. It is possible that a higher tannin content is something that occurs more often with a Pinot Noir (so I should probably do a bit of reading) but I didn't really enjoy this one very much. I wouldn't even chalk it up to the cost, as several of my favorite wine staples cost less than this. I doubt I'll pick this one up again.

Hopefully the Vampire Cabernet I got on the same trip will fare a bit better.

We made a trip to Specs a few weeks ago where I replenished the wine supply. The La Posta is the most expensive one I picked up, but still under $20. I can't remember if I've had a Malbec before. I really enjoyed this one. It has a pretty heavily spiced finish, so it's nice for drinking while sitting on the patio and enjoying the fall weather.