A trip to Virginia’s Wineries: A weekend of wine drinking in Virginia tastes best with good friends!

The majority of wine production in the United States takes place in 5 of the 50 states: California, Oregon, Washington, and to a lesser extent Michigan and New York. The last two may not be making wines the caliber of their west coast counterparts, but there are many good Rieslings and Ice Wines coming from Michigan and New York that are gaining national and international attention.

But what about the other 45 states?

For starters, wine (of some sort!) is being made in almost every state in the US. Idaho, Montana, Texas, Virginia and even Maryland have been producing wine for many years now. But you have to wonder: who’s drinking these wines and are they any good? I’ve been in Maryland for 4 years now and I know very little about the wines of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania- all of which have wineries less than 2 hours from my home. I have had a few bottles here and there that had me impressed (an Elk Run Gewurztraminer comes to mind), as well as one outstanding bottle of 1980 Byrd Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon that Kim and I had at Della Notte a few years back. Yes, a 1980 Maryland Cabernet, drank in 2005, that was very good. Sad to say I can’t find out any information on Byrd Vineyards and they are not around today (if you know anything e-mail me: michael@foodandwineblog.com). Read more

Recipe: Old Ebbitt Grill Crab Cakes courtesy of Ali Ehrlich!

This past weekend Kim, the dogs and I spent three days kayaking, fishing, swimming and relaxing at our friends Shenandoah River house. The company included our friends Dave and Ali (Ali is pictured here on the left, with Kim and Raja), who we met through the weekends host a few months ago. Great food was eaten, great wines were drank, and great stories were both told and written.

Ali and I got to talking about her website “Life as an E” (Ehrlich) in which she gives fun and well written commentary on her life since marrying her husband David Ehrlich (the “E”!). The blog covers much more than just what they did last Tuesday or who called them last night. In fact, it is a good source for random travel, food and wine information including tasting notes and recipes! After picking her brain a bit and going through her website, I’ve asked her to share some of her recipes with us since many of them sounded very good.

Below is recipe for “Old Ebbitt Grill Crab Cakes” which I’m going to give a shot as soon at the kitchen is finished!!! Don’t forget to check out her site which features more recipes and great food and wine ramblings!

From “Life as an “E” by Ali Ehrlich:

Old Ebbitt is a DC institution, and while this is about 99% their recipe, we have made it at home a few times and tweaked it a bit for our tastes. These are authentic Maryland style crab cakes -all lump meat with almost no filler added and tastes incredible! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

First, you will need:

1 large work bowl
1 small/ medium work bowl
a baking sheet
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons crab boil seasoning (such as Old Bay)
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon water
4 Saltine or Ritz crackers (or ¼ cup of breadcrumbs)
1 lemon (optional)

Got everything? Now, you:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet

Pick the crabmeat over to remove excess shells and cartilage.

Combine the mayonnaise, crab seasoning, parsley, mustard, and water in the medium bowl and mix until smooth. Add the mayonnaise mixture to the crabmeat and mix, being careful not to break up the lumps of crabmeat.

With your hands, break up the saltines into crumbs and mix into the crab mixture.

Form into patties and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, then turn the crab cakes over, and bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until nicely browned.

Plate and garnish with any extra fresh flat leaf parsley and lemon wedge, serve with tarter sauce on the side. Enjoy!

We usually get our crab and fresh seafood and fish from Cameron’s Seafood Market in Rockville. They have lots of locations in the DC area, and have daily and weekly specials available online.