my christmas menu for 2003

filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter and
veal demiglace)

french potato gratin with gruyere cheese

brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs

lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown chicken
stock)

white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)

any help would be appreciated. money is not too much of an object but i am
not rich either. i live in the syracuse new york area. thank you

mike cretaro

"Mike Cretaro" > wrote in
:

> my christmas menu for 2003
>
> filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle
> butter and veal demiglace)
>
> french potato gratin with gruyere cheese
>
> brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs
>
> lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown
> chicken stock)
>
> white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)
>
> any help would be appreciated. money is not too much of an object but
> i am not rich either. i live in the syracuse new york area. thank you
>
> mike cretaro

I really like Apex 1993 Cab Sauv. with a nice cut of beef. Around $50. Or a
Caymus Napa reserve 1991 to 1994. would be excellent too only a bit more
pricy.
My opinion.

In article >, "Mike Cretaro"
> writes:

>
>filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter and
>veal demiglace)
>french potato gratin with gruyere cheese
>white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)
>
Well, assuming these are all served together (the soup being a separate
course), my first thought would be either a good Nebbiolo (Barolo or
Barbaresco) or a bigger Burgundy.

>any help would be appreciated. money is not too much of an object but i am
>not rich either. i live in the syracuse new york area. thank you
>
A range would help (one man's splurge is another man's quaffer). I think Mark
Sv. is near Syracuse, maybe he could offer specific suggestions.



Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

Mike Cretaro > wrote:
: my christmas menu for 2003

: filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter and
: veal demiglace)

: french potato gratin with gruyere cheese

: brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs

: lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown chicken
: stock)

: white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)

I'm thinking this calls out for a young, big Burgundy or an aged St
Emillion that has a heavy cabernet franc component.

: any help would be appreciated. money is not too much of an object but i am
: not rich either. i live in the syracuse new york area. thank you

Syracuse, eh? You invite strangers to dinner?

: mike cretaro



--

"Mike Cretaro" > wrote in message
...
> my christmas menu for 2003
>
> filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter
and
> veal demiglace)
>
> french potato gratin with gruyere cheese
>
> brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs
>
> lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown
chicken
> stock)
>
> white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)

I'd lean toward serving Napa Cabernet _and_ Bordeaux with this feast.
Either would be good, but you might find the comparison interesting. A few
years of bottle age would be nice, but whatever the current vintage of BV
Private Reserve is would be fine. If you don't want to spend that much, the
BV "Rutherford" Cabernet is nice too. For the French wine, I'd favor a
classified growth from the 2000 vintage. The 1st growths are hideously
expensive, but there are a lot of others in the $30 range that are very
nice, e.g. Clos L'Eglise (sp?).

BTW, this sounds like a *great* dinner! How about posting the recipes? I'm
particularly interested in the savory stuffing and the wild mushroom ragu.

Tom S

Mike Cretaro wrote:

>
> filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter and
> veal demiglace)
>
> french potato gratin with gruyere cheese
>
> brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs
>
> lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown chicken
> stock)
>
> white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)

While I don't disagree with any of the other suggestions (you have a very red
wine-friendly menu there) my personal inclination would be to open a quality
red wine from the Rhone Valley. I think that a Chateauneuf-du-Pape of either
the meaty (Beaucastel) or fruity (Vieux Telegraphe) school would be excellent,
or a Cote-Rotie would be great. You could even go with a fairly young wine,
as the beef will help temper youthful tannins, though I'd prefer a mature
wine. To me, the mushroom ragu, the truffle butter and the smokiness of the
lentil soup would harmonize well with the funkier, meatier notes found in the
Rhone. One word of caution: I doubt that the Brussel sprouts will match well
with any red wine, so you might want to have a white wine handy, too.

Mark Lipton

"Mike Cretaro" > wrote in message
...
> my christmas menu for 2003
>
> filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter
and
> veal demiglace)
>
> french potato gratin with gruyere cheese
>
> brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs
>
> lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown
chicken
> stock)
>
> white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)
>
> any help would be appreciated. money is not too much of an object but i am
> not rich either. i live in the syracuse new york area. thank you
>
> mike cretaro
>
>
Can't quite figure out how the courses go, so I'll make a guess. For the
lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown chicken
> stock, a Beaujolais, a 2-3 year old Amour or Morgan.

For the french potato gratin with gruyere cheese brussels sprouts with
chestnuts and provencal herbs, stay with a Beaujolais

For the filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle
butter and
> veal demiglace go with a young (2000, 2001) Bordeaux in the $10-$20
range.

Rich

"Rich R" > wrote in message
. com...
>
> "Mike Cretaro" > wrote in message
> ...
> > my christmas menu for 2003
> >
> > filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter
> and
> > veal demiglace)
> >
> > french potato gratin with gruyere cheese
> >
> > brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs
> >
> > lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown
> chicken
> > stock)
> >
> > white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)
> >
> > any help would be appreciated. money is not too much of an object but i
am
> > not rich either. i live in the syracuse new york area. thank you
> >
> > mike cretaro
> >
> >
> Can't quite figure out how the courses go, so I'll make a guess. For the
> lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown
chicken
> > stock, a Beaujolais, a 2-3 year old Amour or Morgan.
>
> For the french potato gratin with gruyere cheese brussels sprouts with
> chestnuts and provencal herbs, stay with a Beaujolais
>
> For the filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle
> butter and
> > veal demiglace go with a young (2000, 2001) Bordeaux in the $10-$20
> range.

Surely, you're joking. Beaujolais and cheap Bordeaux with a Holiday dinner?
I drink better than that with _hamburgers_!

He said he wasn't rich, but that doesn't mean he's Bob Cratchitt.

Tom S

>I'm thinking this calls out for a young, big Burgundy or an aged St
>Emillion that has a heavy cabernet franc component.
>

I agree with Mark and Dale here. The richness of the meal as well as the cheese
and potatoes suggest a big Burgundy (or Merlot, Cab Franc Bordeaux)

Keep in mind that a Gevrey Chambertin or a Clos Vougeot (to name a couple of
wines from Cote de Nuits) are much bigger than a Volnay or Rully (from Cote de
Beaune). The range of weights (big vs little, however you want to say it) is
substantial in Burgundy. And people say that Pinot Noir produces light
wines...It depends.

I'm sure Liquor Square could steer you to a bigger Burgundy, a nice Rhone, or a
right bank Bordeaux (Pomerol, St. Emilion). Mark would know other stores in
Syr.

Tom Schellberg

In article >, "Tom S"
> writes:

> A few
>years of bottle age would be nice, but whatever the current vintage of BV
>Private Reserve is would be fine. If you don't want to spend that much, the
>BV "Rutherford" Cabernet is nice too

Tom,

While I am a longterm BV fan, I think its only fair to be sure that poster
knows re their TCA troubles, as the '97-99s (the affected vintages) seem to be
the ones mostly available. These days I'd only purchase from a local retailer
where I was sure returns would be accepted. I'm batting about .750 for BVs from
that vintage- 6 were fine, 2 tainted (1 '98 GdL and a '97 Tapestry).

Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

In article >,
(Xyzsch) writes:

>Keep in mind that a Gevrey Chambertin or a Clos Vougeot (to name a couple of
>wines from Cote de Nuits) are much bigger than a Volnay or Rully (from Cote
>de
>Beaune). The range of weights (big vs little, however you want to say it) is
>substantial in Burgundy. And people say that Pinot Noir produces light
>wines...It depends.

Tom,

Very good points. And of course it's not just appelation- producer and vintage
make a difference too! While Gevrey are usually bigger than Chambolle-Musignys
or Volnays, not always. That's why it's especially important if buying Burgundy
to buy from a store that knows their stuff.


Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
> While I am a longterm BV fan, I think its only fair to be sure that poster
> knows re their TCA troubles, as the '97-99s (the affected vintages) seem
to be
> the ones mostly available. These days I'd only purchase from a local
retailer
> where I was sure returns would be accepted. I'm batting about .750 for BVs
from
> that vintage- 6 were fine, 2 tainted (1 '98 GdL and a '97 Tapestry).

Hi, Dale -

I had a couple of bottles of the '98 GdL that were definitely "off", but
none of the '97 Rutherford or GdL, and none of the '99 Rutherford. That's
the extent of my buying/tasting experience, so far. I hope my '97 Clone 6
is OK. That was an expen$ive purchase!

Tom S

With a menu like that why dont you just drink red blood.

Salut/Hi Folks

Sun, 16 Nov 2003 22:55:28 -0800 (PST), said:-

> With a menu like that why dont you just drink red blood.

You can count on a webtv user to say something REALLY bright.
--
All the Best
Ian Hoare

Sometimes oi just sits and thinks
Sometimes oi just sits.

"Ian Hoare" > wrote in message
...
> Salut/Hi Folks
>
> Sun, 16 Nov 2003 22:55:28 -0800 (PST), said:-
>
> > With a menu like that why dont you just drink red blood.
>
> You can count on a webtv user to say something REALLY bright.

Careful, Ian! You're starting to sound like _me_! ;^D

I know of at least one exception to that general rule (Cwdjrx_), and he
posts here pretty regularly and intelligently. I'm sure you didn't mean to
include him. :^)

Tom S

Salut/Hi Tom S,

le/on Tue, 18 Nov 2003 02:42:17 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

>> You can count on a webtv user to say something REALLY bright.
>
>Careful, Ian! You're starting to sound like _me_! ;^D

>I know of at least one exception to that general rule (Cwdjrx_), and he
>posts here pretty regularly and intelligently. I'm sure you didn't mean to
>include him. :^)

I most certainly didn't. Humblest apologies to him, he's the exception that
prevents me simply killfiling the lot of them!


--
All the Best
Ian Hoare

Sometimes oi just sits and thinks
Sometimes oi just sits.

Yes, I post with a MSNTV (former WebTV) box. This is to avoid spam. The
MSTV box is too dumb to catch a virus, but it is a good e-mail
machine.It has very poor spam filters, so I keep the mail box full, and
you have to send a response to a Yahoo mail address. Yahoo has very good
spam filters and virus scan for attachments. I have a fairly new Dell
computer on Windows XP with MSN8.5(a slightly modified IE6 used by the
ISP MSN), IE6, Netscape7.1, Mozilla1.5, and Opera7.21 browsers as well
as the W3C's Amaya editor-browser. I seldom use it for e-mail to avoid
spam and virus attachments. I often will order something on the
computer, but give one of my 5 MSNTV addresses for a return address.
When this box attracts too much spam, I change the name of it. I have
all of my large collection of operas recorded on the computer in WMP
variable bit rate lossless audio. I use an external 250GB HD for the
music and video, and it connects to the sound system. I also have my
complete wine list on the computer and a private web page. I get to use
the MSNTV box on the MSN IP service for the computer at no extra charge
for about US$21 a month for unlimited usage. I am on dial-up, but
probably will go the cable, phone DSL, or ultra high speed radio link in
the future.

My mailbox is always full to avoid spam. To contact me,
erase from my email address. Then add . I
do not check this box every day, so post if you need a quick response.

Cwdjrx _ wrote:
<SNIP>
LOL! Yep, just your typical WebTVer... FWIW, given a choice between DSL
and cable modem, I would choose the cable modem option on the basis of
effective bandwidth and future extensibility. I don't know enough about
the radio link option to comment on it.

Mark Lipton