There's nothing quite so good as the sublimity of an unexpected GREAT meal

[Shakespeare]

Y'all know what I'm talking about--you sort of stumble accidentally into a really, really good meal(whether you make it yourself or eat out). We had one of those last night.

I was out on a lunchtime errand, and my wandering mind remembered reading that our dungeoness crab season is predicted to be a short one this year, and then I realized that we hadn't yet had any. I grabbed my cell phone while sitting at a red light, and sent a quick text message to hubby that said "Crab for dinner?" About 30 seconds later, my phone rings, and he's laughing when I answer. "You won't believe this, but I was just walking out of the store after picking up a couple of crabs when I got your text message." Ah, serendipity. A good omen.

So, we agreed he'd stick one of our better bottles of white wine in the fridge to chill down to go with, and we both looked forward to dinner. On my way home, I impulse-bought a small wedge of English white cheddar. Got home, spread newspaper out on the table, opened the wine (a stellar Rosenblum marsanne, one of my favorite varietals), warmed up our half loaf of sourdough leftover from what I baked Sunday, melted a dish of butter for the crab, unwrapped the cheese, pulled out the shellfish utensils, and got down to business. It was a perfect meal. Even the leftover bread was outstanding.** We're considering doing a repeat of it tonight. :-)

**Note to & about housewolf: I just discovered that the sourdough starter AND the sourdough bread recipe I used are yours! I was looking through some old threads in our forum, and saw your post identifying one of the sourdough sites as being yours. THANK YOU for that site, m'lady. The starter worked marvelously well (and believe me, I'd obsessed over about 20 different starter recipes before I settled on yours!), and my husband and I both agree that the bread is without question the best I've ever made. The crust turned out perfect, nice and crispy/chewy without being SO "rustic" as to shred the roof of one's mouth, and it even re-heats well (that surprised the heck out of me). I'll be making this one regularly.

[mike_c]

1. oh my-- yeah, I've had a number of those....

It's hard to winnow down to the most memorable-- one was a pork shoulder rubbed with chili powder and grilled slow in a kettle grill on the beach in Mexico, with the meltingly soft pork stuffed into fresh tortillas with salsa fresca. There was tequilla and good friends involved....

[Shakespeare]

2. That sounds like a perfect combination....

Slow-cooked pork....yum.

Here's last night's vino, btw:



Wine Advocate gave it 90 points; pretty accurate rating.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I've found Rosenblum to a great label for Zinfandels, too

California Zins are my favorite red wines. Unlike the sameness of Cabs - even good, complex ones - Merlots, and even Italian reds of any sort, California Zins are all over the lot. From thin and tannic to incredibly complex and peppery, each bottle is an adventure. That's what I like about them. They're always a discovery. Those by Rosenblum, Ridge, and Cline have been consistently good, albeit very different from one to another.

[mike_c]

4. another california zin fan here...

...although since gout reared its ugly head I've pretty much given up red wine (pretty much given up alcohol altogether). Oh, but a jammy fruity zinfindel is a thing of beauty!

[Shakespeare]

6. Oh, absolutely. The zins are why we're in their wine club.

We're impatiently awaiting the next Rockpile (new AVA) zin release, which'll be in either February or April.

Their petite sirahs are also wonderful.

One of their tasting room staff is a friend of ours (met him through Fetzer...the wineries are rather incestuuos up here), and he tipped me off to their marsanne because he remembered I'm nuts for that varietal (it's also bargain-priced). They do a HUGE variety of wines, and I hadn't even realized that one was in the lineup.

[NMDemDist2]

5. it just doesn't get any better than that

one of my favoritest meals in the world, that

and I told ya housewolf is a treasure!

[Shakespeare]

7. Aw, she ROCKS!

Tickled me to death when I realized it was HER site I'd gravitated to for my big sourdough experiment. And the bread is really unbelievably good.

One of our local markets has fresh local-caught & cooked (Bodega Bay) crab for $1.99 a pound this week, which is why we may have it again tonight. It's super-fresh, and that's the best price we've seen.

[NMDemDist2]

8. that's a GREAT price! my 2nd hubby and I had a biz for three years

where we'd go to Bodega, fill two pickup trucks with fresh catch off the boats and sell them in Sacramento/Lodi/Stockton to small resturants and churchs and VFW halls etc

we had 55 gallon drums in the back yard cooking the cathc twice a week

winters were heaven......

and $2 a pound was what we charged for it in 1985!

[Shakespeare]

9. It's one of those rare foods that's just perfect as-is.

And I don't think you can really improve on it by turning it into a snazzy, dressed-up dish. That might be yummy, but it's not any better than just rolling up your sleeves and going at a pile of crabs spread out on a tablecloth of newspaper.

I'll bet those groups in the valley were happy to see you and your pickup trucks every winter!!

[NMDemDist2]

10. yup, we had a very stable clientel who kept us busy and employed

all thru season.... it was great fun



well, except for that deer at 3AM on Hwy 1..........

[housewolf]

11. You're so welcome!

I wrote the site in 1998, I think, when my major interest in life was being a sourdough scientist. It was a great time! I had a message board on it that was (at the time) the most active bread board on the web - we had professional bakers who'd get on there and take part in conversations, answer questions, chat and carry on, as well as a number of "serious" home bakers and visitors. It was a _great_ time, I loved it and had a blast. It sort of died when the forum host crashed and closed down and another forum opened up at the same time. So the site's been pretty much just sitting out there all this time, I haven't updated it in ages.

It's great to hear that you found it and found some help there. Thanks for letting me know, it's sweet news to me.

I'm thrilled to hear that you love your bread so much, believe me when I say that I know what an accomplishment it is, you deserve to be mightly proud of yourself!