The Grape and the Grain Exchange

It was the first Saturday morning in town that is just STUNNING. Its so nice that I'm sitting outside enjoying a shaken passion tea lemonade from Starbucks. While i was reading my magazine enjoying the most beautiful day in WEEKS! i run in to a friend who says she is in the mood for a mimosa.. why didn't I think of that? But where do you get a mimosa in San Marco, on a Saturday Morning?

We ended up at that very cute, quaint and simple bar, Grape and Grain exchange . The bar which is a Speciality Bourbon, Wine, and Craft beer retailer. Sits on one of the corner blocks on a San Marco Block right next to Maple street Biscuit Company.

When you walk in to G&G(Grape and Grain) there is so much natural light from the 10ft tall windows with stool seating. The tall ceilings and wood crafted walls covered in specialty bottles of bourbon/whiskey, it feels like your are walking in to an upscale country store. To your right theres a lovely bar clean and white with aluminum red stools. The back of the bar is decorate and stocked with beautiful wine, beer, and balloon glasses.

The menu offers a wide selection of hand crafted beverages, beer and wine on tap, wines by the glass plus a cheese and charcuterie.

We decided to go with a wine by the bottle on the recommendation of the bartender. We headed to the cooler to pick a nice bottle of wine that was reasonably priced. They have EVERYTHING your wine filled heart could desire. Ranging prices from $10-$100 for a bottle a wine.(plus a corking fee, 1$ for beers $10 of wine). We chose a chilled white pinot gris. The staff was friendly and extremely knowledgable about the wines explaining the different flavor profiles and level of sweetness we could expect. We were going to do a champagne/sparkling wine but the ones we liked weren't chilled and as we all know .. You can't  drink warm champagne.

Three Pear wine ($12)has a pear after taste and is light and not too sweet is. It would be great with fish and light fare. 

So we sat down to try the meat and cheese platters asked about pairing with our wine.Based on those recommendations we chose our meats and cheeses. He was right, the pairings were phenomenal.

What I liked about this wine was that it was full of flavor and refreshing. This wine is following a new trend of screw top wine no cork to pull (makes it easy to open). Personally I would take this wine on a picnic with me. 

 We also chose a beer to try from the cooler

A Cigar City brewing, Florida Cracker is brought from tampa. 

Normally I am not a huge beer drinker but for the sake of trying local beer it went with it. It was like drinking a mimosa in a beer. The beer reminded me of florida summer. With hints of orange peel and vanilla up front then lead to citrus and a light flower flavor. I was pleasantly surprised and at 3$ a beer (plus $1 corking fee) it was an all around great choice that was picked out for me.

All in all my experience at G&G was GREAT. I enjoyed learning about about the drinks and bourbon  and trying some of them (forgot to take picture but i'll add them later).

Its definitely a place to check out and go on your own taste trial with the bourbons. I would check it out for happy hour. Sometimes on the weekend they have a acoustic band playing.

5 cheese Baked ziti= epic dinner

Lately, I have been craving some ewwy, gooey, cheesy, delicious pasta.. Now this is my recipe for an EPIC recipe for 5 cheese baked ziti.
First off I do not consider myself a gourmet chef or anything in that realm. But I do know GOOD FOOD, and I know what I like to eat! I have plenty of friends who are super foodies and kind of amazing when it comes to teaching me about new foods.

So first things first, supplies:
- large mixing bowl
- spatula(mixing spatula)
- casserole dish
- cutting board and knives

Now that you're set up and ready to go here are your ingredients:

- 15 oz. tub of Ricotta
- small package of goat cheese (Ile de France has a 1$ off coupon right now)
- trianlge(small) Parmigiano-Reggiano A.K.A parmesan cheese
-cottage cheese(normally I'm not a huge fan of this cheese but WOAH! it helps with binding and texture)
 -2 cups of mozzarella cheese (separated)
- 1 large egg
-1 med/large white onion
-1 cup of mushrooms(optional)
1 box of ziti or Mostaccioli pasta
-5 basil leafs
-1 bay leaf
-2 cloves of garlic
-3 tablespoons of Italian seasoning
-2 cans of diced tomatoes (I bought Delmonte basil and oregano)
-1 can of tomato sauce again I used Delmonte
-1 can of tomato paste
- salt and pepper for taste
-1lb of ground chuck 80% lean (feel free to use chicken or turkey it works the same way)
-1lb of ground mild Italian sausage
-1/4 cup of red cooking wine
-3 tablespoons of olive oil.
-2 tablespoons cup of sugar (It sounds crazy but well its not just trust me here)


WHEW! while you are at it grab the kitchen sink its going in there also!

so here we go grab your mixing bowl and lets start combing some cheeses this will be your filling to making creamy cheesy ziti!

combine and fold together with spatula:
3/4 of the 15.0z. tub of ricotta cheese
1 cup of mozzarella
1 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 cup of cottage cheese
1 small entire package of goat cheese.
1 large egg
(salt and pepper to taste)

now set this delicious mixture aside

SAUCE TIME!

start by using a large sauce/ soup pot heating( med/ high heat) your 3 to 4 table spoons of olive oil.
while the oil is heating up go ahead and start by dicing the medium onion, and mincing the 2 cloves of garlic. Your oil should be hot enough now to place both of these items in they'll begin to sizzle. You'll want to let them start to caramelize a little not to too much sitting frequently. Once the onions and garlic are caramelized add in your meat choices, remember the combination of the of the sausage( they make sausage style meat in chicken and turkey) will help add flavor to your dish. You will want to make sure the meat is fully browned before going forward.
Once your meat has browned you are going to want you are going to drain any fat that is remaining, don't worry if any of it is a little stuck to the pan thats what the wine is for. Once all the fat is drained go ahead and add some wine to the pot  about 1/2 -1 cup of wine to deglaze the pot. On medium heat lets start adding all of our tomato products (sauce, diced tomatoes, paste). Add your bay leaf and Italian seasoning start stirring it gently with a kitchen spoon bring this to a simmer (it should be bubbling a little). Lets chop up our mushrooms here and add them in along with salt and pepper to taste.

Nows the time to lower the head to a low/med simmer. We just want the flavors to blend and be delicious it should be a little chunky.

So I personally am not great at cooking pasta or making it al dente. The box says to bring water to a boil the pasta with water and wait 10 mi till firm? So thats what I did. I'll let you be the judge of your own pasta, I like mine a little firm since it's going in to the oven covered in sauce. 

After your pasta has come to the cooked-ness your happy with, remove from the stove and drain also run some cold water over it(this helps stop the cooking process so your pasta isn't mushy).

The bowl you have had sitting to the side with the cheese comes in to play now. Combine the cheese mixture and the pasta. Why? you might be asking yourself? This way all the pasta gets fair play in the cheese.

** start pre heating oven to 375**

After the  cheese are all combined ad 2 cups of the see mixture to the bowl this way its becomes gooey and its not just noodles covered in cheese.

In your casserole dish put two spoonfuls of the sauce thats heating on the stove in the casserole dish (spread it evenly) you want this layer so that the pasta doesn't get stuck to the bottom of the dish.

start scooping out the pasta mixture in to dish smoothing it out evenly across the dish. Once its all in there add the remaining part of the sauce on top smoothing as you go. Use that remaining 1 cup of mozzarella on top of the sauce. The oven should be preheated to 375 degrees. 

Bake for 10-15 min till golden brown it should look like this (i put the oven on broil for a minute or two just to create a crust) 

Personally I wanted to dig right in. But contain yourself. Let it rest for about 5 min then go ahead and tear it up.

ENJOY!