The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

For readers who don't know, the column Wine & Country Living is several years old now. But did you know, I began covering our farming community and local winemakers ten years ago in a column titled, "The Val- ley Gourmet," published in Walla Walla's original lifestyle magazine, Foyer.

If you remember, the Valley Gourmet column was similar to today's Wine & Country column covering everything from creature comforts, small family farming and regional winer- ies; always closing with an original recipe, a scrumptious food photo and a local wine pairing suggestion. The column, like so many other marketing projects of the time, helped launch a young Walla Walla Tourism and was the highest hit webpage among chamber members for its years in existence.

So why tell you all this? For readers asking for another cookbook, I recently gathered the recipes from columns writ- ten over the past fourteen years and compiled them into a new cookbook titled, "The Valley Gourmet Cookbook." The book will be available in spring in paperback and POD, (print on demand) through Boarders Books and online through Ama- zon Books. Three years ago I published and posted a cook- book on Amazon Kindle. The swift sales of that cookbook, "Edge of The Plate," inspired this second online published cook book for Chef Judith Henderson.

Today a friend came by with a bottle of Fjellene Cellar's 2011 Rose, a wine developed with fall foods in mind. Of course, anxious to get a whiff, my friend handed me the bottle where a plethora of marshmallow juicy-fruits bathed my nos- trils. With the first swirl, a wonderful sassafras spice climbed the rim of the glass. With first sip, a squiggle of alfalfa honey swooshes the cheek, leaving a complex musk melon, citrus zest to puddle the tongue.

Fjellene Cellars winemaker Matthew Erlandson was an American parks and trail guide before becoming one of Washington State's newest winemakers. Naturally, Matthew developed the luscious "fall" rose' wine to round out the Fjel- lene wine portfolio. Chilled just twenty minutes before open- ing, the 2011 Rose is wonderfully complex counter pointing the ying and yang in today's spicy hot, salty sweet stir-fry noodle dishes or a highly seasoned Cajun blackened roast holiday turkey. Fjellene Cellars: 150 Merlot Drive, Walla Walla: 509-526-0229.

Readers, until next week, "Eat Art ,Drink Imagination!"

Oriental Noodle Sauce

½-cup dark corn syrup

½-cup soy sauce

¼-cup corn starch

¼-cup white rice vinegar

¼-cup sherry

1-teaspoon ground ginger

1-teaspoon garlic granules

2-cups beef broth

In a quart jar stir together corn syrup, soy sauce and corn- starch. Stir in vinegar, sherry, ginger, garlic and beef broth. Cover jar and shake to mix. Store in refrigerator until use. Re-stir before adding to hot and spicy blacked grilled foods, Chinese noodle stir-fry of tofu, broccoli and red pepper flakes and pair with a bottle of Fjellene Cellar 2011 Rose.

For more recipes, color photos and Moveable Feasts Ca- tering ideas see: www.chefjudithhenderson.com.