Here’s a nice easy recipe for our busy days staying at home.  It takes a little bit of preparation in sautéing the onions, carrots and celery, but really the prep work takes less than 30 minutes.  Then into the crock pot, and don’t think about it for 7-8 hours.  When ready, open a bottle of wine (no shortage of wine in our house), and enjoy your dinner!  The recipe is here. 

For the stew, I opened the wine fridge and grabbed a bottle of 2014 Luminous Hills Estate Grown Pinot Noir, Oregon, Yamhill-Carlton.  We visited Luminous Hills sister winery, Seven of Hearts, about 3 ½ years ago, and wrote about that fun visit.  That trip was my first time spending a long weekend tasting Oregon Pinot Noir, and I loved it.  The Luminous Hills Pinot was one of our favorites, with a really nice balance to it when we first tasted, and again when we opened the other night with the stew.  Not overly fruity, but a good balance between the fruit and the acid, slightly lighter body, with a bit of earthiness to it.  It showed well with the stew, or the stew showed well with the wine, or they both paired quite well, depending on your point of view. 

I occasionally get a bit of writing help from our kitten, Pepé (black and white and named in honor of Pepé Le Pew, my father’s favorite cartoon character).  Here you can see him looking over my shoulder checking my work. 

L’Chaim,

Larry