A Deep Dive on Wine
Episode 25: I took notes so you didn’t have to….Today we are talking all about Wine with the AMAZING Cassie Carruth from Julio’s Wine and Liquors! “Drink Smarter, Not Harder”
Cassie has been in the industry for over a decade and you can hear in her voice the passion, love and respect she has for wine and the industry as a whole. It was truly a pleasure and honor to sit down with her and chat about her passion and share some incredible bottles of wine together. Cassie can be found at Julio’s in Westborough, MA. They are a wonderful liquor and wine store with an incredible variety of pretty much anything you are looking for. This podcast was not sponsored by the store, I just really like them a lot.
Here’s a list of the wines (in no particular order) we were enjoying during the podcast and we both recommend them all:
Dibon Brut Rosé
Selection de Cognettes Muscadet Severe et Maine 2019
Assyrtiko Stamnaki 2019
Vinhos De Altitude Beyra 2019
Gönc Pavel Kerner 2017
Caldera Bellus 2018
Bourgogne Aligote 2019
Pepp Grüner Veltliner 2020
Garzon Albariño 2020
Some great wine pairings that Cassie recommends are:
Gruner Veltliner and Rieslings (don’t age this, drink it right away) - this would be great with Thai, Vietnamese or Spicy Sushi.
Rosés, think BBQ or Jerk everything. Chicken, pork, fish, veggies. The spices in the BBQ and Jerk seasonings compliment the flavors in the rosé wines so well!
Do you like Cava? Well then grab some of your favorite chinese food, especially crab rangoons Cassie says!
Falanghina Wine goes great with risotto and seafood. This wine is seafood’s best friend.
Mencia Wines with some beautiful grilled meats
Wine cocktails your thing? We got you covered!
For wine cocktails…first we have to start with what flavors are going on in the wine to start? If they are more florally, maybe add a splash of it to your Gin and Tonic. Or maybe with your Sauvignon Blanc, add that to your vodka lemonade. A fun twist on a Moscow Mule is to top it off with some Rosé. Beyond Sangrias, Spain knows how to do wine cocktails best. The Tinto de Verano is a great summer red wine Spanish cocktail! And if you want even more ideas check out this article from Food & Wine!
To decant or not to decant that is the question!?
Certain wines are shy and need a little help to open up and the decanter does this for them. Other wines shouldn’t be decanted or really don’t need to be. Do you have to have a decanter? No, you can absolutely open a bottle up but you’ll just have to plan ahead and maybe let it sit out for an hour or two. The wines you need to decant would be wines that are aged.
Where should I store wine in my house?
Not all of us have access to wine fridges, myself included, so where are we suppose to put our wine in our house? Ideally you want to keep the temperature of the bottles in a place where the temperature doesn’t fluctuate too much. Which is basically what a wine fridge does. Do you have a basement? That could be a good spot if the temperature stays kind of the same throughout the year. Ours is an old New England stone basement that's 100 years old and stays pretty much the same temp all year long. Say you don’t have a basement and maybe live in an apartment. Wrap the case of wine with a blanket and put it in the closet or a pantry that is not near a heat source. Or even a bottom drawer of a dresser.
Additional wines and producers Cassie loves:
Grab some Pinot Noir Rosé from Oregon, this vintage (it’s very important to support this community because of the wild fires and the wines from this vintage will be especially amazing)
And a handful of recipes we both love and eat really well with a great bottle of wine too!
Now go forth and cook some amazing food!!
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!
xoxo
Beth
The “B Team” Fruits & Veggies
Episode 24: I took notes so you didn’t have to….Today we are talking all about the “B Team” Fruits & Veggies, what to do with them and our guest is Rob from the Friday Food Market!
Friday Food Market is such a cool concept for a company! What is it you ask, well…they describe their company best on their site, “Our mission is to make fresh produce delivery affordable. We currently work with local food distributors in Boston who supply us with excess, ugly, and #2 produce at steep discounts. We quality-check them to ensure that all produce is fresh and delicious. We then put them up for sale on our website and deliver them to your home next-day.” I love that they use local vendors here in the Boston, they are helping the environment, eliminating waste and servicing our local community in a beautiful way! Check out their instagram and website! And now they are open 7 days a week! At the time of this recording they were only open 3 days a week but now it’s 7! YAY!
Too many bananas? I got you! Below are some great banana recipes!
Banana “Soft Serve” ideas….here’s 8!
Fruits and Veggie Recipes: for those fruits & veggies that have been on the side lines and “benched” all week for one reason or another. No judgement! I do it too. I always have the best intentions to make dinners all week and do a big grocery shop at the beginning of the week but then life happens and take out happens so those veggies and recipe ideas sometimes go to shit. SO what do you do with those fruits and veggies who are looking a little sad? Check out a few recipes below!
Quick Pickled Veggies for this veggies (any veggies) who are looking a little sad and then will keep in your fridge longer!
Super Easy Veggie Stir Fry (add whatever protein you’d like)
Vegetable Curry Ideas, there are so many out there in the world!
Haitian Pikliz, the best spicy condiment you’ve most likely never had…so make it!
Vegetarian Taco Ideas, who doesn’t love tacos?!?
Cilantro Lime Slaw, use this on fish tacos or even as a side dish for your backyard BBQ
Avocado Crema, goes good with everything
Pasta Sauce Recipe, for those tomatoes who don’t make the cut for a salad
Nectarine Tart, great for plums, peaches and any stone fruit! I put a tiny bit of almond flour and cornstarch at the bottom of the cooked tart shell before I put the fruit in to help soak up a little bit of the fruit. So first put the jam layer down then sprinkle about a tablespoon of almond flour mixed with a teaspoon of corn starch.
Tomato Tart for any tomatoes B team or otherwise
Crispy Vegetable Fritters and maybe make that avocado crema with it too!!
Now go forth and cook some amazing food!!
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!
xoxo
Beth
A New Kind of Banking with Old Roots
Episode 23: I took notes so you didn’t have to….Today we are talking all about a new kind of banking with old roots with the incredible, Charley Cummings CEO of Walden Mutual.
I am so grateful that my, now, good friend and podcast guest extraordinaire is back on today! You may remember Charley from episode 11 which if you haven’t listened to yet, please check it out! Today’s episode is really about an old concept in banking that has a wonderful new twist on it. I know what you’re thinking, “What does banking have to do with food?” Well, Walden Mutal is a beautiful intersection of this, “Digital banking for everyone who eats, makes, grows, cooks, or just loves New England’s local food.” Walden Mutual is such a cool concept in banking. Banks are companies who are into making money. Honestly I didn’t really think of a bank as a business which is probably pretty naive on my end. But a bank is a business and money is the commodity. When you are putting your money into a bank the bank is going to turn around and invest it into things like stocks, bonds, mutual funds to make money for you and the bank. For me I have always wondered where my money goes when I invest it into my bank, my fidelity account, etc. But honestly it’s hard/exhausting to figure it out where my money is REALLY going. I have strong core values and I want to make sure that the companies I choose to invest in represent those values and to be honest, and truthful, I don’t fully know if they do. But with a bank like Walden Mutual, and their beautiful transparency you know exactly where your money is going.
As they state so beautifully on their site, “We fund local food and agriculture. We’re supporting innovators who are pursuing a healthier and more sustainable New England community in a world long dominated by industrial agriculture. Our focus is on lending to organic, sustainable, and regenerative food and agriculture enterprises. We offer competitive rate loans to organizations across the value chain, from farms to processors, retailers, and brands—to support land, building, or equipment acquisition or refinancing, organic transitions, working capital lines and other needs.”
To me, this is important and really aligns with my own ethos. And if you are thinking, well how to does really affect me? Great question! Walden Mutual says, “We invest in our community. We’re creating bank accounts that directly support local food and agriculture businesses. We’ve chosen the mutual governance model because we intend to build a 100-year institution focused not on the next quarter but on the next century. Currently we’re pursuing a banking charter to open for depositors in early 2022.”
Honestly I want to feel good about my investments and that they are doing something positive in the world. Charley puts it so beautifully, “Banking in synch with nature means understanding the internalities and externalities that don’t appear on a balance sheet, and valuing second and third order effects of our actions. Put differently, we don’t support businesses that socialize their costs but privatize their profits. We do support the sustainable growing, harvesting, processing and selling of local food in sync with nature, and we focus on the long term.”
If you are a company, farm or an agricultural organization who would like to be involved with this business or an individual with additional questions for the company, Walden Mutual can be reached directly, info@waldenmutual.com. And if you live aboard or outside of New England, maybe this will inspire you to take a moment and see what might be available to you in your local area.
If you want to watch the documentary we touched on, “The Biggest Little Farm”. I had to fact check myself on the name of that documentary so I apologize for that! But it’s a great film and talk about “synching” with nature and having a total symbiotic relationship with everything in your world.
We also talked about the incredible Tunisian Orange Almond Cake. Below are three recipes that I have tried and really like! Each are slightly different and all delish!!!
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tunisian-orange-almond-cake-11615381314
https://juliascuisine.com/tunisian-orange-cake/
https://www.crumbsmag.com/recipes/tunisian-orange-and-almond-cake/
And if you are looking for some Sourdough Inspiration, look no further than Vindi from My Love of Baking! And take a listen to our interview from episode 9!
Now go forth and cook some amazing food!!
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!
xoxo
Beth