cvwine.com Blog

Introducing #8 in our Bacon Freak Top 10 Bacon Recipes, Bacon Quiche Tarts! This is an extremely quick and easy bacony meal that is perfect for when you`re on the run or have surprise visitors show up hungry at the door and manage to successfully snout their way in without having to huff and puff and blow your house down!

This tart recipe was specifically created to be prepared with Boss Hog`s Hickory Smoked Brown Sugar Cured Bacon and then served to your self or collection of unexpected guests served with some slightly chilled glass of Chardonnay.

Try it, I guarantee you`ll like it!

(Serves Prep Time = 15 minutes. / Cooking Time = 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

6 ounces of softened cream cheese
5 teaspoons milk
2 eggs
2/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped green pepper
2 tablespoon finely chopped onion
An 8 oz. tube of pre-mixed, refrigerated crescent rolls
1 bottle Gourmet Olive Oil for lubricating your muffin pan.
6 strips of Boss Hog`s Hickory Smoked Brown Sugar Cured Bacon cooked crispy and crumbled into bits.

Directions:

Beat the cream cheese and milk together in a small bowl until it is smooth and creamy.

Now add the onion, green pepper, cheese and eggs to the bowl and mix well.

Separate the dough into eight triangles

Lubricate your muffin pan cups with a thick coating of gourmet olive oil.

Place the dough triangles into the muffin pan, pressing the middle to the bottom and pushing the sides up the sides of the pan.

Sprinkle half of the crushed bacon pieces into cups.

Pour the egg mixture over bacon.

Top the cup off with your remaining bacon.

Bake the muffins in the oven, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until you can stick a butter knife in and it comes out clean!

Allow to cool for approximately 3 to 5 minutes to avoid burning your mouth.

Pig out!

Gourmet Olive Oil is now available online at: www.cvwine.com/oliveoil/home.html

Signing Off and Pigging Out,
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock
Visit our Bacon Store by clicking here

As many of you fellow “Baconistas” know, I’ve had the awesome opportunities to do some extensive traveling all throughout the Pacific Northwest this year on some very official www.baconFreak.com “Bacon Business!” While there I got a chance to meet some really cool people and visit with some old friends.

I especially spent a lot of time visiting the tourist sites and hanging out with various “Bacon Buddies” seemingly strewn randomly between Portland and Seattle. This year a lot was going on in Washington, so I had a chance to hang out with my writer buddy Larry and do everything from fishing the Lewis River winding down from placid Lake Merwin to hiking through the wild and wondrous wilderness trails leading right up to foot of restless Mount St. Helens.

Larry’s a good guy; sharp as a tack and we’ve been friends for years, as he used to live down in SoCal before escaping up to his magical mountain manor. Being a professional writer, he’s got quite a creative mind and being a “people person” he spends a lot of his off time hanging on with the locals.

So I wasn’t all that surprised to discover that he’s already gotten pretty well, completely “De-Californicated” and I think maybe his vivid imagination has been spending a little bit too much time alone up on those mountain peaks and forging through the forests, because he and a few other friends of mine had some strange tales to tell.

You see, the indigenous natives throughout the region have always told stories of surprise visitations and sightings of what they call “Sasquatch and what we normally simply refer to as “Big Foot!” Well, even though the jury is still out on whether Sasquatch ever did exist, let alone still exists, people in that region, even to this day continue to share stories about personal “run ins” with “Big Foot.”

Now Larry is no kook by any means and while he has a writer’s vivid imagination, he’s a pretty solid and sound, rational thinker with his head on straight and his heart in the right place. So I was a little surprised to hear him defend some of the locals who keep talking about such nonsense as if it’s truly REAL!

What is this obsession with Sasquatch and why won’t people just “Let It Go! I just don’t get it. Now, according to a few of Larry’s local friends, there have been sightings and encounters with a few small parties of poachers driving around the mountain road and through the forests with SUV’s with Texas license plates, dressed up like vigil ante snipers, with all the camouflage gear and sniper rifles.

Seems a few of these good ole’ boys started chatting up some of the locals after a few whiskey shots and beer chasers, and they claim their looking for Sasquatch, but then they immediately laughed it off as if it’s a joke. So now no one knows what to believe. Are they joking, or are they actually trying to capture or maybe even kill themselves a real Sasquatch? No one knows.

Now we have all these tree hugging crazies writing to the local government officials, seeking some sort of official political sanctuary for a mythological creature that no one has been able to prove exists for over 100 years.

I think it’s just plain crazy, but Larry’s already taken kindly to the locals and so he just smiles and says Welcome To The Pacific Northwest Rocco, Please check your doubts and judgments at the border Sir! Maybe he’s right, they do eat an awful lot of bacon and Bacon Jerky up in “them thar hills,” so maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree.

Something tells me this isn’t the last I’m going to here about Big Foot. I guess maybe he’s over, hanging out with The Tooth Fairy, Casper The Friendly Ghost Writer and The Loch Ness Monster. Anyway, it’s a beautiful area and if you’ve never been, check it out on your next vacation, you’ll be glad you did!

Just watch be sure to watch out for the big, strong hairy guy swinging through the trees up there! Oh, never mind … that’s just Larry. “Hey, get a haircut you dang hippy!”

Signing Off and Pigging Out,
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock
Visit our Bacon Jerky Page by clicking here

Recently two chocolatier’s Susan Johnson and Kerry Johnson Anthony of Susan’s Healthy Gourmet announced their newest venture, Xan Confections, a gourmet chocolate company being spearheaded by famed Orange County chocolatier Tracey Downey. Xan Confections includes special collections of satisfying, all-natural chocolates that are non-dairy, gluten-free, vegan, low-glycemic and low calorie. The rich chocolate taste results from Xan using fine cacao with no fillers. The Saintly Sins collection delivers raspberry, strawberry and pineapple filled chocolates that are just 29 calories, 1 gram of fat and 5 carbs. The Wholly Cacao Caramels are made using agave nectar instead of refined sugar.

Forty-nine different gourmet chocolate pieces are currently available; collections being expanded and developed include Saintly Sins, Wholly Cacao, BigMouth Candies, and Vertles – vegan turtles. Health-conscious chocolate lovers will welcome a Saintly Sins or Wholly Cacao collection for Valentine’s Day, and Xan’s decadent, over-sized BigMouth Candies provide the perfect Chocolate Gift for women to give the chocolate-loving men in their lives.

“We’re excited to share Xan Confections with our clients and fellow chocoholics, and hope they’ll consider it a perfect gift,” said Kerry Johnson Anthony, president of Xan Confections.

I highly recommend their raspberry or strawberry sin treats!

Signing Off and Pigging Out,
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock
www.cvwine.com

I recently met with Kate of the Crepe Vine Wine Bar and Bistro in Old Town Pasadena this past week. Kate has built a wonderful wine bar since she opened her doors three years ago. Her goal was to create a “Neighborhood Cheers” sort of friends and family environment. I think she has done that. It was easy to see Kate’s passion for serving her customers. It was clear as she interacted with her guests pouring them wine, serving food and carrying on great conversation.

This Bistro serves European style cuisine based upon traditional French dishes. Kate’s chefs are extremely resilient and make simple yet delicious dishes such as flat bread Pizzas, Gyro’s, Ceviche and Crepes! In fact I had a wonderful lunch. I started with the Bruchetta for an appetizer which was made with basil oil and topped with Chevre cheese. It was delicious! For the main course I had the Gryo plate. I choose to enjoy this plate with braised lamb which was ground that gave the Gyro exceptional taste!

The wine bar has many special events and has live music Wednesday’s through Saturday. They focus on two types of music. They have a Jazz duo and the music of a Flamenco guitar artist who performs music from Dave Matthews and Sting to name a few. Additionally on very special occasions such as their anniversary which is coming this week they will have the music of a string quartet!

Kate shares over 40 wines by the glass with her customers. She offers wine from all over the world. She focuses on great wine and promises her selections won’t break the bank! As a special treat Kate poured us a glass of Lomond Merlot from South Africa. She says that the wine has excellent flavor and body and since she started offering it just a week ago, it has been selling off the shelf!

If you are in Old Town Pasadena, please be sure to visit Kate’s Crape Vine!

Cheers!
Rocco Loosbrock
www.cvwine.com

Recently I met with Brad Roen of Eight-18 Wine Bar. Brad is the owner of one of the hottest wine bars in Southern California. Eight 18 has an interesting clientele as it is located in the heart and soul of the movie industry here in California. It neighbors to almost every major movie studio including NBC, Warner Brothers and Universal Disney. They provide wine lockers for select clients including Andy Garcia and Jennifer Love Hewitt to name a few.

Brad has an interesting philosophy about wine, he serves his customers, “wine without attitude.” He tells me that his bar is the perfect spot for the novice drinker to the connoisseur as he specifically hires servers who know what each wine tastes like and can tell a customer why they might enjoy it! With over 40 bottles of wine available to taste it is important to have servers who are educated on how the wine tastes so that they can match what they have to your unique taste buds. Not only is Brad passionate he encourages an environment in which people can feel free to chat about wine.

The wine bar boasts a very interesting art collection. In fact they every few months they change up their artwork. Currently they are featuring a local artist who shows 40 styles pin up girls shown in an exotic way. At the end of the month they will actually feature the artist and the pin up girls (the real models) in the wine bar. I am sure it will be a fun night!

Soon Brad will be launching a TV show called, “Love and Minds” It’s a show about his passion of wine. In the show he will be looking for the best wines while his co star Heather Meeker is looking for the best wine guide she can find! So basically he is looking for juice and she is looking for love! I can’t wait till this show comes out.

Brad is currently featuring the wine of Ryan Carr. I was excited to hear this as we here at the Coastal Vineyards Wine Club featured his wines in our club nearly two years ago. It was exciting to see how Carr Wines has grown and developed in the world of great wine!

Brad is a very light and fun guy. He tries to bring everything from a “lightly buzzed” perspective. He and I had a great conversation and he shares my passion for enjoying a great bottle of wine. Brad is the kind of guy that I am sure I will become life long friends with.

As many of my readers know, I have been on a quest to start pairing wines with gourmet bacon. Brad has agreed to help the Bacon Freak Bacon Club with this task and may even feature an event doing just that in his wine bar. We will keep you posted as that develops.

Be sure to visit one of the best wine bars in the movie capital of world – Eight 18!

Cheers!
Rocco Loosbrock
www.cvwine.com

Recently I met with Jazz of Tapas and Wine Bar in Little Tokyo Los Angeles. This is a very interesting wine bar with a décor that is different than anything you have ever experienced before. As you walk in to the place you are greeted by faux pink furry walls that open into an exotic and erotic wine bar. When Miss Cha Cha designed and decorated this wine bar she was trying to create a place that allowed for a trip down naughty lane. The bar boasts a French Maid theme and the staff plays it up by dressing the part.

This wine bar has created several trends. First and foremost is their chic retro French theme and secondly, they have popularized a drink called The Galvatron which has lead to a weekly Galvatron night! This drink has even caught the attention of websites such as Thrilllist.com and several others. This drink is made of one part Maker’s, one part Patron, and one part 151. Jazz describes The Galvatron as the ultimate dare drink – fit for the guy with balls!

Tapas and wine bar stays current with new and hot trends. The one constant is great wine and drinks along with Karaoke almost every night! You can count on this wine bar to have special events and parties and always have something entertaining scheduled such sports night, where guys can watch a game, however your drinks come to you via a sexy gal in a sexy referee outfit!

Jazz tells me that they focus on California wines and French Bordeaux’s! In fact we saw several wines that were featured in the Coastal Vineyards Chardonnay Wine Club in the recent past. To celebrate the night Jazz poured us a glass of French Maid Wine. The perfect drink to match the fun and spirit of Tapas and Wine Bar of Little Tokyo.

If you are in Little Tokyo Los Angeles, I highly recommend that you visit this wine bar. For more information visit there site at barc.biz/index.html

Rocco Loosbrock
www.cvwine.com