Join us this Thursday night to help raise money for a good cause - disaster relief in Haiti. Our usual $8 wine tasting fee will be waived. Instead make the $8 suggested donation to help raise money for Haiti. All funds raised will be donated to ShelterBoxUSA.org. A great and effective solution to disaster relief.

Join us this Thursday night to taste the wines of France. This week we will be tasting single varietal wines - each wine is 100% of one type of grape. This offers the taster the advantage of being able to truly focus on and experience a single variety of grape, ie. cabernet franc, without any influence from another grape. Our good friend and sommelier, Brian Huse, will guide us through the following sequence.

taste:

Join us this Thursday night to taste the wines of Lake Chelan's own Vin Du Lac Winery. The newest AVA named in Washington State, the Lake Chelan area produces great fruit. Vin Du Lac's winemaker Larry Lehmbecker is truly a master of the blend. Come taste these delicious wines for yourself.

Join us Thursday Night to taste sparkling wines that will brighten your holiday table (or most any other day for that matter). Our sparkling wine selection continues to grow and is one of most varied and most affordable in the city. Our good friend, Vito Sergio Parente returns as teacher and guide.

Join us this Thursday night in welcoming Fall Line Winery and winemaker Tim Sorenson. Made right here in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. We are pleased to continue offering special discounted Tasting Only pricing and Case Discounts on these wines.

2007 Dos Pinots (Pinot Gris/Pinot Blanc blend)

Join us this Thursday in welcoming Walla Walla's Trust Cellars. The dream of husband and wife, Steve and Lori Brooks (both former CNN journalists), Trust Cellars is making some of the best wine in Washington State today. This Thursday night come to picnic to meet Steve and taste his wines.

Join us in welcoming back our good friends, Darryn O'Shea and Travis Scarborough this Thursday night, November 12th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm for their annual PICNIC Fall Release Party.

Join us this Thursday night to taste the wines of Thurston Wolfe and Yellow Hawk Cellar.

One of our most popular items at picnic is our housemade lasagne. Like everything else we do here, we try to make as much of what goes into our food ourselves. Our lasagne is no exception to this mantra. We make our own pasta, our own ragu, and our own ricotta cheese. Kneading the pasta by hand ensures that the cooked noodle will have a pleasing bite or chew to it. The ragu bolognese is lovingly made very slowly with great care (and plenty of white wine). And, last but not least, we make the fresh ricotta cheese that reinforces the lactic notes from the ragu as well as providing another opportunity to pack the lasagne with flavor. By adding a few items to the cheese - eggs, herbs, and a handful of assiago cheese we take the somewhat mellow flavored ricotta to new levels. In the end, the lasagne becomes something that is truly greater than the sum of its parts.

"Ricotta" means re-cooked in Italian and is surprisingly easy to make yourself. The end result is truly superior to the tubs of ricotta that you see at your local supermarket. Usually ricotta is made from the whey that results from another cheese-making process. Our version uses two common ingredients: fresh whole milk and buttermilk. Heated together the acids in the buttermilk cause the milk solids to coagulate and separate from they watery whey. In fact, most acidic liquids will have a similar effect. Try the recipe with lemon juice sometime (for 8 cups whole milk use 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice).

Fresh Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients:

8 cups whole milk

2 cups buttermilk

Equipment:

Candy or probe thermometer
Cheesecloth lined-colander or chinois
Large pot

Combine the milk and the buttermilk in a pot and place over high heat. Whisk or stir occasionally to prevent scorching on the bottom of the pan. Use a candy thermometer or probe thermometer to monitor the temperature of the mixture. As you approach 180F you will see the milk solids gathering together into bright white curds and the milky whey separating itself out. At 180F remove the pan from the heat. Gently ladle the curds into a very fine mesh strainer (we use a chinois at picnic) set inside a larger container or pot. Alternatively, a colander lined with cheesecloth works very well. Allow the remaining liquid to drain away and your done. Well done! You've just made ricotta cheese.

Ricotta is best used immediately, but if you have to store it for a few days be sure to wrap it well as it easily picks up other aromas from other food items in the fridge. Ricotta can also be frozen.

Makes 2 cups fresh ricotta cheese.

Picnic is now offering some of our products vacuum sealed for easy boil-in-bag reheating. Simply bring a pot of water to a boil, drop the number of portions you require and wait 15 minutes. That's it! We are currently featuring red wine braised short ribs as our first menu item featuring this convenience. It is sort of a tribute to my days at Crush restaurant where short ribs continue to be one of the their most popular items. It is a great dish that requires hours of long slow braising to make well. Picnic has done all that for you and all the time you need is 15 minutes!

Jenny and just had a refreshingly great meal at a new restaurant in the Wallingford neighborhood, Cantinetta. Open only a week they were doing a nice steady business during our visit. It is great to see people coming out to support a new restaurant.