Online recipes that work!

This is a selection of recipes that Dan and I have been blown away by over the last three months:

• Bacon wrapped dates (we made this for the New Year's Eve party)
• Paella (we've made this three times, the first was epic, the other two blew away our respective families -- pair with a dry white)
• Lemon Creme Brulee (we have a very prolific lemon tree in our back yard, so we've tried a lot of lemon variations to tasty-sounding recipes. This one is a consistent winner, and had my mom mumbling to herself for a couple hours)

Food blog inspiration

A disproportionately high percentage of my friends are foodies and I LOVE it! A small selection of their blogs to get you inspired:
Erica's: Apricosa
Dmitrii's: Cucina Bizzarra
Pradyut's: The Crazy Chef

Almost Meatless

Almost Meatless is a cookbook that was recommended to me by food-ethics conscious climber friends. I picked it up because the philosophy of cooking with a little meat, and in a way that doesn't centerpiece the meat appeals to me. It's what I do anyway! So far we've tried two lamb recipes: ragu with home-made gnocci, and albondigas with oatmeal. The latter turned out great, the former however was no less than a revelation. So based on our experience thus far, the book gets a thumbs up!

2007 Red Diamond Merlot

I was pleasantly surprised by this Merlot the other day. It's inexpensive, delicious and very stable. It remained consistent in taste and aroma over the customary 3 days or so it takes me to finish a bottle. I picked up a second bottle, so we'll see if it's also consistent across bottles, as it's common for cheaper wines not to be... Extra points for the label, which is unusually classy for a wine this price.