Tag wine tasting

What’s Cookin’ in the Dogpatch

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in General, Menus & Recipes, News & Events Tagged with , , , , , , July 1st, 2008 @ 3:15 pm

Parties that CookA couple of weekends ago, we toted our pans and burners over to neighborhood winery Crushpad for their annual summer open house. Over 1,000 folks showed up to taste Crushpad’s wines, sample artisan chocolates, and participate in our free hands-on cooking class.

We had a chance to sample a deliciously refreshing Rose and oaky Chardonnay before an inundation of hungry drinkers hit our tables wanting food.

At first, it took a little convincing to get folks to dirty their hands, but once a few brave souls jumped in and threw on an apron, the flood gates opened. For the next 3 hours, our chefs were racing around teaching people how to chop onions, shave herbs and flip quesadillas. They couldn’t get enough of the cooking (and eating)! Check out the photographic evidence here.

We featured our famous Shrimp Quesadillas with Tomatillo Salsa (goes great with Crushpad wines) and our Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Walnut Dip with Pomegranate Molasses and Crispy Pita Chips.

Looking for great summertime recipes? These and other delights can be found in Parties That Cook’s Sumptuous Small Plates recipe deck.

Looking for love? We’ve got that covered, too. Join us for the next Cooking Crush Party, an evening of wine tasting and cooking for singles! Wednesday, July 16th from 6:30 – 9:00 pm at Crushpad Winery in San Francisco. Click here to RSVP.

Our Neighborhood Winery

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in General, News & Events Tagged with , , , , , , June 17th, 2008 @ 1:35 pm

 

Last fall, Parties That Cook moved into funkified new digs on Minnesota Street in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, situated right near Potrero Hill and the Bay. We love our new location, and have had fun exploring it. In case you have never been to this particular neck of the city, here is a quick primer.

 

What Dogpatch Isn’t:
– A band led by Keanu Reeves
– A style of facial hair for men
– An actual patch of dogs

  

What Dogpatch Is:
– An area with hot spots such as Serpentine, Piccino, Yield wine bar and a soon-to-open sibling restaurant to A16
– Sunnier than many parts of SF
– Home to Parties That Cook and the urban winery Crushpad

 

Crushpad quickly became one of our favorite neighbors in Dogpatch, and we’re not saying that just because they gave us free wine. However, they did give us free wine. And they did so in a cool way: Wine guru Stuart Ake led us through a blending session using their irresistible kit, Fusebox.

 

Much in the way that we help people cook up fabulous dishes by combining different ingredients, Fusebox encourages you to experiment with different grape flavors to create your own signature blend. Using the pipettes and graduated cylinder in the kit to mix varietals together almost made us forget the traumas of seventh-grade science class. Nifty evaluation and aroma cards gave us the criteria and vocabulary to distinguish between the varietals in the kit (e.g. “This cabernet sauvignon has notes of tobacco and molasses, with a hint of burnt match and wet dog.”).

 

Sound like fun? It was. You can embark on your own wine-tasting journey by attending Crushpad’s Open House event on Saturday, June 21, from 2:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. We will be there too, offering you the chance to do some cooking and noshing while you sip. If you are single, check out our Cooking Crush event on July 16, hosted by Parties That Cook and Crushpad. An excellent pairing, if we don’t say so ourselves.