Pesto chicken stuffed shells

I don't know about you but I need a little break from the long posts about Sonoma.  While it's wonderful to relive our trip, I need something else in my life.  I will have the final 3 posts for you next week.

So, for now, pesto stuffed shells.  Cheese, pesto, pasta...baked...yeah it doesn't get too much better than that.

After the mess that Hurricane Irene left behind in Richmond, we got a phone call Sunday afternoon from dad - he and the dogs were on their way.  Twenty-four hours without power was enough for him.  Mom had been in Cumberland with her sister visiting some aunts of theirs and joined the party Monday.  I had already bought food for dinner, and luckily the recipe was flexible enough that I could easily add 2 more.


Source

 These shells were delicious and totally easy.  You can adjust the recipe to add whatever you'd like - tomatoes, red peppers, nuts, sauce...whatever you have on hand.  They are also great to make ahead or freeze.

I found the recipe originally while doing some blog jumping around, and am so glad I did.  We'll definitely make this again - and it would be great to take to a friend when a baby is born or if there's a death in the family - it would travel really well.

Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells

12-16 jumbo pasta shells (I ended up cooking about 26, which made 24 after 2 shells ripped during production)
4oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese + 1/4 cup for topping
3 tablespoons prepared pesto (homemade or store bought)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I baked 3 chicken breasts, but next time might use a rotisserie)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I skipped this part since my store bought pesto was garlicy enough)
salt and pepper to taste

 In a large pot over high heat, boil water and prepare pasta shells as directed on package. Cook pasta shells only until al dente. The pasta will finish cooking when the dish is baked. Drain the pasta shells and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, except the 1/4 cup of cheese for the topping. Fill the pasta shells with the filling and place in a baking dish (this is the messy part).  Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over filled shells.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake shells for 30 minutes or until shells are bubbling hot and cheese melts.  


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I didn't cover the dish while they baked and the pasta was a little dry - I think covering them would make a big difference in keeping everything nice and tender.  Also, you can make the dish up until you sprinkle it with the remaining cheese and stick it in the fridge for later in the week or freeze it.  Just let it warm up for about 30 minutes before baking it. 

Anderson Valley and Rosso Pizzeria

Still not adjusted to west coast time, we were up early again on Friday.  After another 2 mile walk to Starbucks, we headed out of the hotel and up the 101, past Healdsburg to Cloverdale.  We were off for a day in Anderson Valley!

But first.  Valdez.

We found a bottle of their wine a few trips ago at the Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa, and decided to give it a try.  And we're so glad we did - it's wonderful.  In February, they just opened a huge facility in a warehouse space in Cloverdale.  There's not much else in Cloverdale...

Ulises Valdez moved to the states from a small town in Mexico in 1985 when he was 16.  He started farming the vineyards, and had dreams of making enough money to move back to Mexico and open a small business, maybe a grocery store.  Little did he know that 25 years later, he'd be managing over 1,000 acres of vineyards and making some delicious wines. 

They just bottled their first set of magnums, and he was so excited to show them off.

We had an amazing visit with Ulises, his wife Adelina, and the winemaker Mauricio.  Not only did we get to taste their delicious wines, but we got a full tour of the brand new facility, and a trip to a nearby vineyard.  

He was so proud and excited to show everything off, he jumped in his truck and had us follow him a few miles away to one of his vineyards at St. Peter's Catholic Church in town.  He passion was palpable.  It was just so amazing to spend so much time with him.

These are very old zinfandel vines, and Ulises was explaining to us how short and stocky they are, and talking about how fat and chunky the bases of the vines are.

Compared to these Petit Sirah vines. 

"Take a picture of Senor and me!" 

We hated to say goodbye, but knew we had to let him get back to work, and we needed to head on north to Anderson Valley.


First stop - Mary Elke vineyards.

This tiny tasting room was homey and full of wine barrels.  There was another couple there from Alabama - it's always fun to talk to some other people to see where all they're visiting.  The tasting room manager Dan was very nice, and the wine was good.  We didn't spend too much time there, but we were glad we visited.


We headed to Boonville General Store to get a quick sandwich, before heading to Goldeneye.

We grabbed our sandwiches and headed back out.  They were exactly what we both wanted.  Light, fresh, and delicious handmade sandwiches.

Goldeneye was beautiful!  They greet you at the door, chat for a few minutes, then ask you to go find a good spot on the patio and bring your wine out to you.

The grounds were just amazing.  You could definitely tell that they are related to Duckhorn in Napa.

Their wines were delicious.  They also brought some roasted almonds, 2 cheeses and a few small toast crackers to enjoy with the wines.  We shared a tasting, which is something we often do.  It helps with costs when there's a tasting fee, and then you're drinking a lot less.  This makes it possible to visit several places in a day.

Then we headed way up the hill to Esterlina.

I've been struggling with how to tell you about this winery visit.  I don't just want to skimp over it, but also don't want to drag on about it.  I feel that I need to be honest about the visit, but am not going to go into too much detail.  I have never been so upset about any winery we have ever visited, and we've been well over 100 at this point, including some of the very best in the Santa Barbara area, Sonoma, Napa, Virginia and Washington.  In a nutshell, the views are beautiful, but the wine bland.  The tasting fee is extremely high, IF they decide to charge you for it.  Their customer service is horrible, and their policies are completely inconsistant.  I will never recommend for anyone to visit that winery, which is really something I take extremely seriously.

After we left there, luckily we had 1 more place to visit...it saved the day in Anderson Valley.  Back down the hill, we stopped into Lazy Creek Vineyards.

The tasting room was small and unassuming but very lovely inside.  It had a beautiful combination of rustic chic furniture.  The lady who was there, Vicky I think, was wonderful.  Come to find out, she's married to Dan we'd met earlier in the day at Mary Elke!  Her friend delivered her new kitten while we were there, and it was very fun to be apart of their exciting day!  The wines were wonderful and the glasses they served their wines in were completely beautiful.  You can almost see the red glass in the picture below, the big tulip shape.  We really enjoyed talking with the ladies and tasting the wines!

After the long drive and our adventurous day in Anderson Valley, we wanted pizza and a casual dinner. Husband had heard about this great local pizza place in a strip mall, so off we went in search of Rosso.


And it was fantastic.

Their wine selection was awesome. They had so many small producers that we had visited before, as well as lots of new things. They also had options for different amounts of wine - 6oz, 250ml, 500ml, or a whole bottle. We opted to share the 500ml of the Horse & Plow Pinot Gris, which was just perfect. We wanted something crisp and cold, and weren't up for a whole bottle. It was just the right amount.

We (of course) sat at the bar - there was no wait, and we met the awesome bartender and manager. They were very chatty and wanted to know all about our trip and where we were eating/visiting.

The food was fantastic. We got the bruschette + burrata + prosciutto di Parma, which was so good. I was too tired to take pictures - but it was 2 big toasts with the soft cheese and prosciutto on top - delicious and just enough for a first bite. Then, since I was dying for some veggies, we shared the delicious caprese salad, and a pizza - the Roman Style Porchetta. It was a red base with roasted stuffed pork, house made mozzarella, coriander tomato sauce, garlic and herbs. YUM!

The place was pretty big but packed. Luckily we grabbed the seats at the bar or it would have been about a 30 minute wait - we were too hungry for that! They're expanding, opening 2 more in Petaluma and Sebastopol this fall.

I'd love to have a place like this around the DC area - great, fresh food with a casual atmosphere and delicious wines! 

Petite Syrah, the restaurant

After a full day of wine tasting in Dry Creek Valley, we were starving!

We went a different side of Santa Rosa that we hadn't been to before, and wandered into Peitie Syrah without reservations.  The restaurant is revamped, it used to just be Syrah.  They have a new concept now with smaller plates.  We sat at "the bar" - which isn't a typical bar.  It's 3 seats at a huge concrete bar, looking over the tiny kitchen.

We had a great evening.  We got to chatting with the sous chef, pictured here as he's making the grilled squid salad that we had.  The small/medium plates were perfect for us.  We were able to try a few different things.

We started with the heirloom tomato salad, which was so different.  It was on a long skinny plate and served with tofu and watermelon balls.  I'd always been very skeptical of tofu, and in this salad it was very good.  It was also topped with different powders, peanuts, and "Hempseed 'Soil'" - whatever that is.  Who cares, it was good!  


Then we also got the grilled squid salad and the sea bass.  The salad was wonderful and very 'California fresh.'  It's something we normally wouldn't order but so glad we did.  The sea bass was our least favorite - it had good flavor but the emulsion cooker left it with a funny, spongey texture.  

When they brought us desert menus, all we were thinking about was the starter of potato gnocchi.  And thank goodness we ordered that - it was delicious, and my favorite dish of the dinner.  It had this fresh lemon curd that was such a different flavor with gnocchi.  It also had roasted cauliflower and pine nuts - yum!

After Petite Syrah, we went a few blocks over (but I'm glad we didn't try walking, it's farther than it seems) over to Russian River.

We love stopping at Russian River every time we're in Sonoma.  Husband loves their beer, and we can't get it in our area.  It's not fancy at all, and we probably stick out like sore thumbs with the very local crowd.  We usually get a little bar table in the back, which can be tricky because the place is always packed.  After a trying a few different beers, we were yawning so much we decided it was time to head back.

Friday was our Anderson Valley day!

Dry Creek Valley day

Thursday morning, after a walk to Starbucks for some exercise and caffeine, we headed to Mauritson Winery for our first appointment of the day.  We had a wonderful visit - it was one of our favorites of the week.  Mary did our tasting and then Jessica gave us the full tour.  It was great.

This was so cool.  So most big wineries have a space like this - a lab.  You can't really see her but there's a girl in the chair in the left corner...that's Emma, the assistant wine maker.  She was tracking things from different grapes in the different vineyards that they source for.  They had been out looking at grapes that morning, testing sugars, acidity, and a couple of other things, and tracking them just in a regular spread sheet.  They test several times and compare the differences to help determine perfect picking time.

You can see on the right side what looks like high school chemistry - that's exactly what it is.  They have a girl who's great and was doing all these tests and boiling things and doing fancy lab tests.  It was really cool.  Also hard to see (sorry, I didn't want to stalk them with the camera) - on the island are glasses of the current vintage of their wines.  Behind and beside those glasses are baggies full of grapes that were just picked that morning, and beakers of their juices.  We tasted a couple of juices and they are so different!  The juices were brown/tan in color and were tight and sour.  The grapes still have a few weeks to go on the vines before they can be picked.  The weather in 2011 has been very challenging, and harvest is looking to be 3-4 weeks behind most years.

After a walk through their tanks, lab, and on site vineyard, we went into their barrel room to do some barrel tasting.  Jessica was great - we tasted a few different wines straight from the barrels...and then went back into the tasting room to taste the last wine of the list, comparing the barrel to the finished product.

After spending too much time at Mauritson, we were late and raced to Unti for our tasting.  They were in the middle of bottling, and were very busy.

Most wineries don't have their own bottling lines.  They are huge, expensive, and require people who can run them and fix them.  You saw Wild Hog's mini-line from the day before.  This is a little more traditional.  They bring this big tractor trailer, back it up to the tanks, and bottle.  Most of them bring their own team of people...and go from wine in a tank to bottles sealed and boxed.

We had their wine at dinner the night before and were really excited to visit because of all of the great things we'd heard.  They were just a little too busy, I think, to have visitors there.  The wine was great, but the experience was a little disappointing, especially after the first stop was so welcoming and extensive.

We were starving after Unti, so we stopped at the Dry Creek General Store for sandwiches.

We ate lunch on the porch, looking out at beautiful vineyards.  The sandwiches were delicious, and exactly what we wanted - fresh, light, and yummy.

We had to get in some dog love!  This adorable pup was just hanging out in the truck, greeting all of the customers.

After lunch, we stopped at Quivera.

It was nice, but we are learning after so many visits and trips that we really enjoy the smaller production wineries.

We were right down the street from Bella, one of our favorite Zin producers, so we stopped in.

It's a beautiful property on West Dry Creek Road.  We visited them on one of our past trips and loved tasting in the caves - the entrance is in the curve of the hill on the left.  It was awesome - they were picking grapes from that hill while we were in there, and the winemaker was unloading grapes when we left the cave.  This time, the tasting fees had increased, they were offering a new line of Pinot Noirs, and were very sales-y.  The Zins were still great, but otherwise we were a little disappointed.  Sometimes you just need to be really good at what you're really good at.

Then, we made our final stop at Woodenhead.

Up high on River Road in Santa Rosa, the small rustic tasting room has a great view.  The wines were wonderful.  We'd had a couple before, and had been hearing over and over how great all of them were, so we had to stop.  And everyone was right - they're great.  So great that we joined their wine club!  We're really excited to get our first shipment this fall.  We decided on the Pinot-Zin combo - they're all great!

We finished just in time for dinner in Santa Rosa.  We had plans for Petite Sirah, followed by our traditional stop at Russian River Brewing Co.

Dinner in Healdsburg

After our crazy day on the coast, we were starving, and headed to Healdsburg for some dinner.

Healdsburg is a wonderful town with beautiful shops and some of the best restaurants in the county.  We had reservations at Scopa for 7:30, but wanted to see if we could get in early.  The line of 20 waiting when they opened told us to keep the reservations, and get a snack elsewhere.  First, though, I wanted to poke around the shops!  We found this great one called Clutch...and wandered in...

I had been looking for a Longchamp bag.  I was having trouble deciding on large or medium, and on a color.  So husband and I looked at them (they had a huge selection) and decided on large and black.  It would be the most versatile and great for traveling.  We were about to wander on, and I decided I was ready to buy it!  And I would much rather support a small, local shop than Nordstrom's (sorry Adam!).  As part of my birthday present, mom had given me the money to go pick out the one I wanted...so I bought it!!!  (Thanks Mom!)  It's my first....and won't be my only!  I'm already thinking about my second...  

I used it on the trip home and LOVE it.  It holds so much!  Yes, Emily, I know we totally made fun of these when I was in England, but I'm telling you.  I love it.  Now I just have to figure out how to best 'use' the bag - things seem to get lost in it!

Anyway.  Bag in hand, we stopped at Healdsburg Bar and Grill and pulled up a chair at the bar.  We each enjoyed a Russian River Brewing Damnation and some snacks...we had yummy chorizo fritters and their delicious garlic fries.  We've been to HBG a few times before, and knew about the fries...they're amazing.  

After relaxing for a bit, we walked back to Scopa on the other side of the square, and took our seats.  The place is tiny, and was packed! 

One of our favorite things to do is to get an appetizer, salad, and entree and share everything.  That way we get to try several different tings.  We had the Burrata cheese with toasted bread - it was delicious - and a fresh salad to start.  Then we had an amazing sausage and cheese pasta dish...my pictures aren't great because I don't like to use a flash in a restaurant (just taking the pictures makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes, that's why I don't do it often).  

Even blurry, just look at all that amazing cheesy yumminess.  Mmm hmmm.....

Scopa was great - definitely put it on your list and be sure to make reservations way ahead of your visit!  

Thursday was Dry Creek Valley with some awesome winery visits and amazing dinner in Santa Rosa...