Two Sonoma County chefs take the same main ingredients, interpret them based on their own personal style, come up with completely different dishes, and then share their recipes.

That’s the premise of the new cookbook Down Home: Downtown, published by Rodney Strong Vineyards.

The two chefs, Jeff Mall from Zin restaurant (Down Home) and Josh Silvers of Syrah Bistro (Downtown) with the help of Linda Murphy do a very nice job of explaining not only how to cook each dish, but also why certain components were chosen and how they went about assembling the flavors on each plate.

There are even sections on where the chefs source some of their key proteins, cheeses and veggies, which is a boon for local Sonoma County foodies like me. The wine pairings in the book are serviceable, but I would have liked to see more Pinot noir recommendations (Dry Creek Zin with Duck Breast? Whaaa? Pinot, baby!).

My good friend Alan Campbell took the photos, a selection of which are shown below. His work is top notch, and what I like best is that every single dish is photographed. Too often cookbooks skimp on the photography, leaving home cooks wondering about things like presentation. Not so here, and that alone makes the book a keeper.

You can purchase Down Home: Downtown at The Cookbook Marketplace for $25 here. Get it for the Butternut Squash and Apple soup recipes alone (hint: bacon). Really good times.

We’re all looking at ways to pinch pennies these days. With the economy in the toilet and its fetid bottom likely yet to be fully exposed, it’s nice to know there is at least one sure fire way to save cash and see a good return on investment (ROI): Plant a Vegetable Garden.

What, you think I’m joking? Have a look at this, Mr. Smarty Weisenheimer:

History says few people ever beat the market consistently. And even those who do don’t beat the market by much.

So what’s the best you can expect? Wall Street’s best year, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, was 1915. The index rocketed 82%. The second best year was 1933. It jumped 66%.

Here are seven that will do better. Yes, they will produce a greater return on investment than Wall Street’s greatest boom year.

And, unlike your typical investment tip, these returns are pretty much guaranteed. What’s more, you won’t have to call your broker to make any of these moves…

Order a packet of seeds and plant them in a window box or garden. Growing your own herbs, spices, and even vegetables – depending on the amount of space you have – is a great investment. If you spent just $10 on seeds and saved a mere $50 in the year, that’s a 400% ROI.

The article’s author, Brett Arends, obviously isn’t factoring labor into his calculations, but there are likely psychic benefits to building and working on a garden that offset much of the “cost” of labor. And that’s really only if you’re being a total butt-clenching stickler in how you measure costs. Seriously, just relax. Don’t be a butt-clencher.

So, assuming you buy the ROI argument, the obvious question is How Do I Start a Veggie Garden and Is It Hard? Enter the Pinotblogger.

Raised Beds Gardening

Besides hanging out with my extended family and entertaining friends over the holidays, I spent a nice chunk of my vacation planning our vegetable garden. Even though we moved up to the vineyard (which had been a vacation rental) in November, and you would think space would be easy to come by, I had to search pretty hard for the right spot to plant.

What I ultimately settled on was a plot of four raised beds on a cement slab located next to the water tower. Raised beds are ideal for a slew of reasons:

• They can be built up to whatever height suits your needs
• The medium warms sooner than topsoil, which means an earlier start for seedlings and seeds
• You can build a hoop house out of PVC and covered with breathable sheeting to get planting started even earlier and protect new plants from a late frost
• They have great drainage. No “wet feet” and drowned roots.
• No freakin’ gophers
• You don’t need much space and you don’t need any bare land. A cement patio is ideal.

A workable height is important to me especially since I’m tall and have a bad back.

If you’ve never built a raised bed, they’re pretty simple. Still a moving picture is worth a thousand words. Below are two videos on raised beds by Garden Girl. The first shows how a raised bed is constructed, and the second talks about using raised beds in an urban environment.

I used some reclaimed wood we had left over from some old projects, but still have to buy a bit more to complete my boxes. Lumber can be expensive and is the biggest cost in using this method of gardening, so if you can’t locate any used stuff and don’t mind squatting, building a lower bed can save you some bucks.

Determine Your Final Frost Date

Once you’ve found a spot and got the beds assembled you need to figure out your average final frost date, so you can know when to start planting. The best place for frost data is the gov’ment. You can download a PDF with frost dates and probabilities here.

Now these PDF sheets are kinda tricky to understand. For some reason the NOAA decided to put the explanation for each of the probabilities at the bottom of the page, which makes comprehension hard. So here’s a crib sheet:

The very first column labeled “threshold” is the temperature. 32 is freezing obviously, so use that as your guide. The next column, the one with a 90 in it, denotes the date at which there is a 90% chance that some time after said date there will be a day with temps lower than the threshold. So for ADIN RS, there is a 90% probability that at some point after May 21st temps will dip below freezing. The same kind of analysis applies for the 50% column and the 10% column.

Since we can protect our young plants and seeds with warmer soil and a hoop house cover if needed, the 90% column can be used provided that the number on the far, far right side isn’t too high. That number, called the super descriptive “Probability Level (4)” denotes the percentage of days during the year that a temperature is recorded lower than the threshold. Basically this is another measure of the risk you face in planting early.

If this is all too confusing, there is an easier way. You can look up your local Master Gardener and ask them for the average final frost date for your area. Master Gardeners are super helpful, and the Sonoma County Master Gardeners website in particular has a ton of awesome info on starting a vegetable garden. You can check it out here.

NEXT: Seeds, Determining Your Planting Schedule, and Composting

This interesting item comes courtesy of my mother-in-law Jami. According to a Cornell University study, folks who are given a glass of wine before a meal and told it is from California eat 12% more than when they are told the wine is from North Dakota. The wine given to each person was the same.

The explanation for the increased consumption is hypothesized to have something to do with noshers having a “heightened sensory enjoyment not only of the wine but also of the food”. The folks told the wine was from California also hung out at the table 10 minutes longer on average than the folks who thought they were swilling North Dakota wine.

California wineries: Doing our part to keep America fat.

Map from Calwineries.com

It’s good to be home. Candace and I just got back from a cruise to Alaska with two very good friends and are still readjusting to life on land. It was tough being away from our 10-month-old for that long, but the sleep and general relaxation were wonderful. You don’t realize just how sleep deprived you really are until you get to actually sleep in for the first time in nearly a year.

Still, the trip could have been better and so much more enjoyable if I’d been able to bring my own friggin’ wine on board. Royal Caribbean, the cruise line I sailed on, is typical of the cruise industry in general in that they allow no wine whatsoever to be brought aboard. A few cruise lines allow one bottle per person plus a $15 corkage fee, but that’s still absolutely pitiful for a 7 day cruise.

There are only three cruise lines that allow you to bring unlimited amounts of wine and champagne on board. A fourth, Costa Cruises, allows a “limited amount” to be brought on board, but it must be consumed in the dining rooms. The three that allow unlimited wine are Holland America, Cunard and Norwegian Coastal Voyage. Holland and Cunard both charge a $15 fee per bottle, while Norwegian Costal allows you to consume as much as you want – as long as it isn’t in a “public area”. Oh really, what about the dining room?

I love wine, but I’m not prepared to hole up in my stateroom and drink it alone, Leaving Las Vegas style. I guess you could always order room service, but c’mon, you’re not a leper. Hell, smokers have more freedom on cruise ships than wine lovers do!

After perusing the wine list on Royal Caribbean I would have gladly paid a $15 corkage fee to escape drinking the insipid fare they were offering. The most specific appellation I was able to find on the menu was Sonoma County, and the rest were from notable terroirs like California, Australia or New Zealand. Just awful.

So I thought I’d try my best to save you my misery when planning your next cruise. Below is a list of what each cruise line allows you carry on, how much they charge for corkage, and whether or not you can actually drink your favorite beverage among your fellow cruisers. The info comes directly from this article in the Columbus Dispatch and was originally published in the Washington Post, so it might all be rubbish. You never know with reporters these days .

Holland America Line

Unlimited wine and champagne are allowed.
Corkage fee: $15 a bottle.

Cunard Line

Wine and champagne are allowed.
Corkage fee: $15 a bottle.

Norwegian Coastal Voyage

Any legal alcohol is allowed for consumption in the cabin.
Corkage fee: Does not apply; no bottles may be brought into public areas of the ship.\

Costa Cruises

Guests may arrange to bring a limited amount of wine.
Corkage fee: $10 plus gratuity.

Celebrity Cruises

Two bottles per stateroom are allowed.
Corkage fee: $25 a bottle.

Carnival Cruise Lines

One bottle per adult (21 or older) and only on the day of embarkation. Any other alcohol can be confiscated with no compensation.
Corkage fee: Carnival charges $10 a bottle to have the wine or champagne opened in the dining room, $14 in the Supper Club.

Princess Cruises

One bottle per person is allowed.
Corkage fee: $15.

Royal Caribbean

No carry-on alcohol is allowed. Security reserves the right to inspect containers such as water, soda and mouthwash bottles and dispose of any alcohol.
Corkage fee: Does not apply.

Norwegian Cruise Line

No wine allowed.
Corkage fee: $15 per bottle of wine bought onshore during cruise, which must be consumed in the dining rooms.

MSC Cruises
No wine allowed.
Corkage fee: Does not apply.

I love all styles of pinot, as long as they pair well with food I’m passionate about. Since I happen to be a big steak guy I find that the concentrated but balanced pinot that you often find in the Russian River, Central Coast and Oregon pair really nicely with a well prepared steak. The trick is that it has to be nice and tender, with lots of flavorful juices.

Here’s the best technique I’ve found to get a juicy, flavorful steak with a nice crust. Best of all, the steak doesn’t have that weird ring of gray, over cooked meat around the perimeter.

Using it you can evenly cook a steak to a perfect medium rare, just like they do in your favorite restaurant.

Items you’ll need:

• A 12″ full clad stainless steel skillet. No non stick! I recommend All Clad.
• A digital instant read thermometer.

Directions:

• First you need to get yourself a nicely marbled steak. Prime is the best and most expensive cut, but it’s pretty hard to find (less than 2% of all meat is prime). Even our local butcher, Willowside Meats, didn’t have any prime the last time I was in. Choice cuts are what you’ll probably find, so pick through them and try and grab the two of the best. You’ll also want to make sure that the cuts are of even thickness. If you are at a butcher, the ideal thickness (that I’ve found at least) is around an inch and a half. New York steaks are my personal favorite, but the technique works with other cuts as well.
• Preheat your oven to 275 degrees
• Liberally sprinkle all sides of the steak with plenty of salt and pepper. I prefer Maldon Sea Salt, which is flakey and delicious and helps make a great crust. I also like to get whole peppercorns and either chop or crush them up.
• Pop the steak in the oven on a cookie sheet with a wire cooking rack until the internal temperature registers 90 degrees. Be sure to check the temp in the thickest portion of the steaks. Depending on the oven this should take about 20 minutes.
• Remove the steaks from the oven and let them rest for about 4 minutes. During this time the internal temp of the steaks will continue to rise, and the meat will continue to cook. You can take the time to prepare your skillet with a couple tablespoons of oil (olive oil is fine but vegetable oil has a higher smoking point, giving you a better crust). When the oil in the skillet is smoking, add the steaks.
• Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes on each of the two large sides, until the meat is nice and brown and you’ve got a killer crust. Then turn and sear each steak on the remaining 4 sides about for 30 – 40 seconds each.
• Finally, let the steaks rest for another 4 minutes so that the meat will reincorporate its juices. Afterward take a peek inside with a knife and revel in the luscious, moist, red meat awaiting you. Mmmmm.

There are a ton of great sauces you can make to top off this beauty, but this is the one I’ve been using lately. It’s quick, easy and delicious:

You’ll need equal parts butter and blue cheese (3-4 tablespoons worth is good for two – three streaks) and a minced shallot.

Just throw the shallot in the pan first to soften it up, then add the butter and finally the cheese. Serve immediately and enjoy with a concentrated but balanced pinot, like Anne Amie’s delicious La Colina.

I’m always looking for new and interesting pan sauces recipes. If you know of a good one let me know in the comments!