Greetings friends & family!  

Most year-end holidays are behind us except for one of my personal favorites Chinese New Year on Saturday, January 28. It will be the Year of the Rooster and if any of you turn an age that is divisible by twelve, this is your symbolic year. Many Asian cultures follow the lunar calendar and serve foods that celebrate good luck and good fortune. I love Mustards Chinese chicken salad, and the black pepper and garlic chicken wings recipe in both my Appetizer and Big Small Plates cookbooks (available at the restaurants or through the restaurant web sites, autographed).

 

For Pour Off Pair Off Friday's at Mustards we will serve a Chinese New Year special menu on Friday, January 27 featuring "lions head" soup, pork and preserved egg congee, sticky BBQ pork ribs and a Malay sponge cake with paired wines.   The other Pour Off Pair Off Friday's offer long and slow cooking from Italy, the United Kingdom and Latin America. 

 

At Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen Jim is featuring crab during the month of January. Look for specialties like crab cakes, Crab Louis, Cioppino, crab curry and whole crabs.

 

For several years John and I have subscribed to the wonderful series of concerts at Chamber Music in Napa Valley. The non-profit is dedicated to bringing the worlds greatest classical musicians to our local audience at affordable ticket prices in an intimate venue. For classical music lovers it is an unparalleled experience to hear musicians like the Julliard String Quartet, St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, pianist Garrick Ohlsson and many others. Under the direction of friends John and Maggy Kongsgaard the organization also brings free classical music for students in our local schools throughout the Napa Valley.

 

Last month we were in San Francisco and parked in the large Fifth and Mission garage. Returning to our car late at night the rear passenger window was shattered and clothes were taken. The security guard gave us a plastic garbage bag and duct tape to cover the window for our drive home. It was a dark and stormy night. The temporary seal did not last.

 

Once home John remembered a trick we use in the restaurants called a "catering wrap." Essentially when wrapping an open container of food, we wrap it several times from top to bottom in plastic wrap sealing the contents. Nothing spills. John wrapped the window including part of the door frame in plastic wrap. It rained again and there was no leakage. It worked well until we had the window replaced.

 

January is a wonderful, quiet time to visit the Napa Valley. The hillsides are green from the rain, grapevines will be pruned, and the yellow mustard flowers have appeared. Do come visit.

 

Happy Year of the Rooster.