Wednesday night I met Chris after work for some Thai food and afterwards we stopped by Best Cellars to do a little impromptu wine shopping. Now, I’ve always been a big fan of Best Cellars. Previously I’d perceived the store as having a very Gary Vaynerchuk vibe and always thought of it as an approachable and unpretentious place to find and try new wines. Except this time. I innocently inquired of the salesperson if they happened to have any Beaujolais Nouveau leftover from November and was greeted with a seriously disdainful tone and informed that it was out of season. Um…Ok. Excuse me for living. You’d think I’d asked for a glass of Merlot from Paul Giamatti’s character “Miles” in Sideways. After being put in my place I sulked off to the corner, picked out my wines and left.

Well tonight I opened one of the bottles I’d purchased (yes, mostly because it had a pretty label) and it was so delicious that I think I can finally stop being annoyed at my bitchy clerk. Be warned wine snobs — it has a screw top, but it can’t hurt you to try it at least once. So make sure to add Kiss Chasey to your wine journals. Dear Best Cellars, I forgive you — this time.

PS: If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you can now add ErinCooks.com to your home screen and a pretty pretty icon will appear. Yay!

There are some things about living in Maine that I will always miss: a complete lack of traffic, living 20 minutes from the outlets in Freeport, and Ham Italians from Sam’s Italian Sandwich Shop.

Like many people born in Maine I grew up eating these tasty sandwiches. Almost every beach trip from my childhood and beyond began with a stop at a Sam’s store for delicious Italians that we’d pack in a cooler to eat while laying on the hot sand. I was a super picky kid and I would only eat ham, cheese, and pickles. Typically they also come with onions, tomatoes, and green peppers — all of which I do very happily eat now. Once at the beach we’d all split a bag of Munchos potato chips and try not to ingest a cup of sand along with our picnic lunch.

What will always stand out to me is the bread. The rolls are extremely fresh and have the consistency and texture of large bakery style finger rolls. I’m also a huge fan of the American Cheese the store uses. I know it sounds ridiculous to gush about American Cheese, but honestly all of the ingredients put together and splashed with Sam’s special blend of oil tastes completely unique. It’s impossible to duplicate these sandwiches at home. They’re amazing and I’m happy to report that I got to eat one along with a perfect chocolate whoopie pie (that I split with CK) on our way back from a brief weekend visiting my family. I unfortunately left the camera at home but once again my iPhone came to the rescue.

I know that people have very strong feelings about brands like Apple and Starbucks, inevitably you either love them or hate them. Personally I’m a lover not a hater and I’m not entirely sure if I could survive my work day without frequent white mocha and passion fruit iced tea excursions.

Now Apple and Starbucks have partnered to offer you an even bigger incentive to stop by for a latte. Coming soon to a Starbucks near you, you’ll be able to receive free Wi-Fi access to the iTunes Store and the Starbucks “Now Playing” content via your iPod touch, an iPhone, or a computer with the latest version of iTunes installed on it. This means you can shop for music while you wait in line. In addition, if you happen to love the song currently playing in the store you’ll be able to access the title and artist info, as well as purchase it on the spot via a nifty Starbucks button that will appear on your particular device. This feature will also offer a detail of the last 10 songs played in the store and a special section dedicated to music from the Starbucks collections. I’ve got my iPhone poised and ready to download? How about you?!

This feature rolls out in the following cities and will be available in most major metropolitan areas in the U.S. by the end of 2008.

New York — October 2, 2007
Seattle — October 2, 2007
San Francisco Bay Area — November 7, 2007
Los Angeles — February 2008
Chicago — March 2008

Don’t worry, if you don’t own a wireless device you aren’t going to be left out of the fun. Starbucks and Apple will be offering numerous promotions to kick off their new wireless venture. Including, according to The Unofficial Apple Weblog (tuaw.com), 1.5 million “Song of the day” cards to be distributed across 10,000 locations. Each card will provide a free single from predetermined artists such as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Dave Matthews for you to use on iTunes.

So I guess now you can get your coffee buzz and download it too.

(Originally posted on the Well Fed Network’s blog A Nice Cuppa)

About a million years ago, ok I’m exaggerating, but way back in 1992 my mother and I started reading a series of culinary mysteries written by Diane Mott Davidson and we’ve both been huge fans ever since.

Each book takes place in the fictional Denver town of Aspen Meadow where Goldy’s catering of events for the upper class denizens of the city always coincides with a shocking side of murder. Goldy than sleuths her way through clues and bizarre interactions with suspects, while simultaneously making us drool with hunger over each new recipe concocted in her state of the art kitchen. After-all, the catering business doesn’t stop just because some poor soul got bumped off in the first chapter. The original recipes used to be dispersed throughout the book as they were introduced as part of the story, but in the last few novels they’ve been compiled all together in a section at the end.

Excitingly enough, Diane’s new Goldy Mystery, Sweet Revenge, will be released on August 21. According to the publisher’s website, “Goldy Schulz is thrilled to be catering a holiday breakfast feast for the staff of the Aspen Meadow Library. But little does she know that on the menu, alongside the Great Expectations Grapefruit, Chuzzlewit Cheese Pie, and Bleak House Bars, is a large helping of murder.”

This description cracks me up, and is really just too tempting to pass on since I’ll actually be starting my Master in Library and Information Science in just three weeks. Plus, who doesn’t love themed food?! In addition, if you have an iPhone you can read a specially formatted excerpt of Sweet Revenge at the HarperCollins website.

In anticipation of my next book purchase I decided to make the crustless Asparagus Quiche (alas no quirky name) from Davidson’s most recent novel, Dark Tort.

Steam & Layer	Top With Cheese & Eggs
Bake Until Set	Enjoy Your Own Culinary Mystery

Asparagus Quiche (As Previously Published in Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson)

8 ounces asparagus, washed, trimmed of all hard, tough stalks, and cut into 1 1/2 inch lengths
4 large eggs
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more, if desired)
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 cup small-curd cottage cheese
1 cup grated Gruyére cheese
1/4 cup grated imported Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch pie plate.

Using a small sauté pan that has a cover, heat about half a cup of water just to boiling. Pour in the sliced asparagus, cover, and turn off the heat. Allow the asparagus to steam, with the heat turned off, while you prepare the other ingredients.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until they are very well blended. Blend in the cream, mustard, salt, pepper, and paprika until well combined. Using a heavy wooden spoon, stir in the cheese, stirring until they are well combined.

Drain the asparagus (it should still be bright green, with a tender, slightly crunchy texture). Put it into the bottom of the prepared dish. Pour the egg mixture over the asparagus. And place the quiche into the oven.

Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until the quiche has puffed and browned, and is set in the center. Allow to cool 5 minutes before slicing.

I love my iPhone. Honestly, if Apple designed and released a toaster I’d be first in line, but in all seriousness this phone is a fantastic gadget with countless uses beyond making phone calls and listening to Mandy Moore’s fabulous new album while I’m walking to the T. Surprisingly, a lot of the functionality of the iPhone is very kitchen and cooking friendly. For instance the “Notes” application allows me to make grocery or ingredient lists on the fly. You can keep the list on your phone or email it to someone else so that they can do the shopping. This is a great feature for me since I tend to make elaborate lists and then leave them tacked to the magnetic pad on the refrigerator (a habit I seem to have inherited from my mother).

Since the iPhone comes with Safari you can actually search the internet for recipe ideas. I like to google randomly for ingredients I have on hand i.e. sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and chicken and see what turns up. You also have full access to all of your favorite food websites, or even the option of shopping for your groceries online. I’m an avid Peapod user (because getting things delivered makes me giddy with happiness). Now instead of reading old Glamour magazines at the dentist office I can get my groceries ordered and scheduled for delivery or plan the menu for the week. I’d like to see you do that on your Blackberry.

Some food blogs have even begun creating iPhone optimized editions. One of the best examples of this is located at the 101 Cookbooks blog. There’s also a free magazine portal at Texterity.com that allows you to read full versions of popular titles on your phone. So far they have Rachael Ray and Taste of Home available in the cooking category. I’m pretty excited about this since unfortunately when I moved last month my copy of the June/July issue of Rachael Ray didn’t follow me.

Pretty brilliant, right?! I suggest you put the iPhone on your wishlist immediately. It really is as fantastic as everyone says.