Five Things to Love about the South Okanagan Valley

Since the kids these days are all about lists, I thought I'd create one to discuss some of the highlights from our recent trip to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada. Before you ask, no we didn't see any of the Women's World Cup soccer (futbol for those of you from outside the U.S.) games, although we did walk by the Fox Sports pavilion when we were in Vancouver. The Okanagan Valley is about four hours to the east of Vancover across the mountains, and they make really good wine. We'd been there before, but this time we focused around the Osoyoos Lake and the wineries in and around Osoyoos and Oliver.

Without further ado, here are five things to love about the South Okanagan:

View from Tinhorn Creek Winery

1. The views.

Seriously, whether you're in the valley or on one of the ridges, everywhere you look, it's breathtaking.

Even the grapes have a view.

2.  The experience.

Hubby and I have tasted wine in several places including California, Oregon, Washington, and several other states including Georgia (duh), Pennsylvania, and Texas. Canadians have a reputation for being nice, and this comes through in the non-snobbishness of the tasting rooms. Granted, the wine-making operations seemed bigger than the previous time we were there, but it still felt laid-back and relaxed, even in the busier tasting rooms. Apparently winery-hopping is a popular "stagette" (i.e., bachelorette) activity, but everything was handled well.

3.  Drinkable white varietals

I typically stay away from Sauvignon Blanc because I find it to be too tart for drinking on its own, and Hubby doesn't like Pinot Grigio, but in the Okanagan Valley, these two grapes take on a smoother characteristic with stone fruit to balance the citrus. The Pinot Gris, as they call it there, also has more body to it than Italian Pinot Grigio, and we found the same with Hester Creek's Trebbiano. The highlight Sauvignon Blanc was from Maverick, which has an adorable tiny tasting room in the bottom of the valley right off the highway but still with a nice view. We enjoyed the one we bought from Fairview Cellars in Vancouver with a view of the harbor after an amazing sushi meal.


4. Interesting red varietals

Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are usually blended in with other Bordeaux grapes and rarely get the chance to shine on their own. They do in the Okanagan - pretty much everyone has a Cab Franc. The best we tasted were a Tinhorn Creek, and you can see that we came home with both the red and the rose. Another great find was the Desert Hills gamay, which they also make as a red and rose (and where the guy pouring the wine was pretty cute - don't tell Hubby). We already drank the red when we celebrated Canada Day last week. The regular reds - Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Noir, are also pretty fabulous. We came back with a Moon Curser Syrah.

The haul

Cherries!

5. The food

The first thing we noticed when we drove into the valley was that cherries were ripening, which we were told was happening about a month ahead of the usual time. They were beautiful, as were the meals on the plate. The restaurants there take pride in using locally sourced food and do great things with it. Strawberries were also in season, and we enjoyed a strawberry crepe at a place in Oliver and a strawberry dessert at the Tinhorn Creek restaurant Miradoro, which is where we had our fancy meal, going for the chef's tasting menu with wine pairings.

Strawberry crepe at Cock & Bull in Oliver

First course at Miradoro.

If you're looking for somewhere off the beaten path, Canada's Okanagan Valley is a great place to visit. For more information or to plan your own wine tour, visit winetourhandbook.ca  They even have a Twitter account, @BCwinetour

Kitchen Playtime: Summer Holidays

Happy belated July Fourth and Canada Day! This post covers the food we made for both.

Since Canada Day was July first, I'll start with that one. I got caught in a hellacious rainstorm that afternoon while on a marketing visit, and so I was really happy that Hubby volunteered to cook that night while I went into introvert recovery mode, i.e., pet the cat and stared at my phone for a couple of hours. He'd found strawberries at the Union County Farmers' Market (in Blairsville), so he made Grilled Lamb Chops with Wheat Berry, Strawberry, and Lacinato Kale Salad.

Looks kind of like the picture in the magazine

We've just been to Canada - check back Wednesday for that post, already written and scheduled, so it will be here - and brought back some Canadian wine. I'd say this bottle was our first casualty from the trip, but one actually didn't make it out of Vancouver. Oh, well. We enjoyed the lamb chops with a lovely gamay from Desert Hills Winery. You've probably just wrinkled your nose as memories of Beaujolais Nouveau flooded your brain. This wine wasn't like those at all. Think medium-bodied and nice fruit but with enough acid to be perfect with food.

Oh, Canada! I love your wines.

Since we were both off from work on Friday morning, I decided to make a real breakfast. I drew on memories from my childhood, when my Belgian mother would make Croque Monsieurs. One of my Belgian cousins corrected me on Facebook saying that if it has an egg, it's a Croque Madame. Oh, well. Alas, no cheesy sauce, either, which I've seen in restaurants. To make this version, toast some bread and top with ham (I used turkey - it's what I had), tomatoes, and an egg sunny-side up.

Croque Something

Saturday morning we ran the Peachtree Road Race in the pouring rain. At least it wasn't horribly hot. Dinner was burgers made with the special blend of pork, beef, and ground bacon from Pine Street Market, which I didn't get a picture of because I was really hungry, and cucumber and tomato salad. It's a super easy summer salad made from cucumbers and tomatoes - in case you were wondering - onion, and a vinaigrette that allows for a lot of freedom. I used the same one I made for the Greek Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Farro I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, but I think next time I'll switch out the proportions of lemon juice and vinegar.

On Sunday morning, we slept in, and I made blueberry muffins from the recipe in the Joy of Cooking cookbook.

I also had my kitchen oops of the week. We had one bag of peach pie filling in the freezer from last year, so since it's had a birthday, I decided to make it. I assembled it but forgot to turn the temperature down for the last cooking period, so the crust ended up a little overdone:

It still tasted good, though.

And finally, here are the ribs Hubby made Sunday evening:

They ended up with a few extra minutes on the grill because of the women's world cup championship game - go USA! I didn't take a picture of them plated because, well, the sides were grocery store slaw and beans from a can. The recipe came from Selby Winery, which sends food pairing suggestions for with their wine. We ate them with a lovely Selby Merlot.