Wild Mushroom Ravioli
10 ounces mushroom ravioli or cheese-filled ravioli
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced
4 ounces button (table) mushrooms, sliced
¼ cup of chopped walnuts, shelled and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese


Directions: Prepare ravioli according to package directions; drain. Next, over medium heat, pour olive oil in a skillet (or spray Pam Olive Oil) and cook mushrooms until tender. Next add 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts, add garlic and brandy, and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly stir in heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. When cream has thickened, stir in 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. Then, stir in cooked ravioli, and gently simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Serve with parmesan, garnish with walnuts and serve with garlic bread, and salad. Makes 2 servings.

Apple Cinnamon and Walnut Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup shortening

1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup chopped California walnuts

1 cup apples – peeled, cored and finely diced

1 cup raisins

¼ cup milk

1 ½ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon butter

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ½ tablespoons half-and-half cream


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Beat shortening and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and blend thoroughly.
Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
Stir half the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Stir walnuts, apples, and raisins, then stir in remaining half of dry ingredients and milk. Mix well.
Drop from tablespoon 1 ½ inches apart onto lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in the preheated 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from oven, place on racks to cool slightly, and while still warm, spread with glaze.
To make glaze: Combine powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and enough cream to make glaze of spreading consistency. Beat until smooth. Spread on warm cookies.

 Papagni 2011 SYRAH
RED WINE
Our Syrah displays heady aromas and flavors of an array of concentrated dark fruits including blackberry, plums and some black cherry wrapped up in bittersweet chocolate and spice. Full bodied and superbly balanced with velvety tannins and a ripe cherry finish that seems to go on forever. This wine was aged in 25% new French and American oak barrels. 750 ML ALC 13.7% BY VOL

Papagni 2003 ALICANTE BOUSCHET (PORT STYLE)
DESSERT WINE
Our 2003 Alicante Bouschet is a sumptuous dessert wine. Rich and flavorful with a nose dominated by sweet, toasty black fruits and white pepper that carry through to rich, mouth -filling flavors with soft tannins and a very silky finish. Aged for 9 years in our cellars, this Alicante Bouschet is ready to drink now. Only 95 cases of this exquisite wine were produced. 750 ML  ALC 18.5% BY VOL

 "Our Papagni Red Blend is made from grapes grown mostly from our vineyards located in the Madera AVA. Alicante Bouschet, Zinfandel, and Petite Sirah grapes give aromas of black cherry, plum, cedar, and herbal sage with rich flavors of fruit wrapped in medium body and round tannin.

Our intimate crew shows a passion for making wine and it shows in this bottle.  Pair with BBQ ribeye or Bolognese sauce pasta."

California- Concentrated with multiple layers of dark fruit, spice, and oak. The upfront richness is nicely balanced by a crisp finish laced with firm tannins. Additional notes of pomegranate and smoke.

Our Papagni Red Blend has been handcrafted in California,fully balances with aromas of black cherry, plum, cedar, and herbal sage with purely ruch flavors of fruit enveloped in a medium body and rounded tannins. Pairs well with barbecued ribeye, or a nice red Bolognese sauce. 

A California Blend, Our Papagni Red Blend is fully balanced with aromas of black cherry, plum, cedar, and herbal sage with purely rich flavors of fruit enveloped in a medium body and rounded tannins. Pairs well with a variety of meats such as pork, roast beef, barbecued ribeye, filet mignon,  or a nice red Bolognese pasta sauce, cheeses, pizza, and so much more. 

Our Papagni Red Blend has been handcrafted in California,fully balanced with aromas of black cherry, plum, cedar, and herbal sage with purely rich flavors of fruit enveloped in a medium body and rounded tannins. Pairs well with a variety of meats such as barbecued ribeye, filet mignon,  or a nice red Bolognese sauce pasta. 

Sicilian Girls, a fictional story by Gina Meyers

 My mom always said that San Francisco is such a beautiful city that you could fall in LOVE anywhere there.

San Francisco the city by the bay was my home. Me, Gina Marie, born June the 8th, 1971 in San Francisco, California at Saint Luke’s Hospital.

I’m third generation Native San Franciscan and proud of it. No matter how much the city landscape changes, it always remains a vibrant, fun, picturesque city.

My grandparents met at a big band dance while my grandpa chig’s naval ship was docked at Pier 39 back in the 1940’s.

It was a night like no other. My Sicilian grandma Rose, who resembled the movie star Rosalind Russell, dressed up in her latest black tight knit dress from I Magnins.

Red lipstick, her jet black hair upturned on the ends, high heels, click clack,  headed with her sister Mary to the short walk from their parents’ flat on the corner of Mason and Lombard.

Mare and Roe what a sight. Both lookers for their day, and as they stopped by their father’s crab stand to have a bottle of coke a cola-- before the dance, they ran into their Uncle Nunzio who was working the six to midnight shift, “up the wharf.”

“Hey Mare”, Rose cried. “Wouldn’t it be neat if they played Artie Shaw’s in the mood and we danced all night with a naval officer?”

“Get your heads outta the clouds Roe,”  Mare said.

Rose ever the dreamer, was dreaming that night of finding her love and sure enough, a tall and lanky fellow by the name of Harold E. Hill, just like the main character in the play, The Music Man asked Rosalind to dance. 

North Beach is home to Saints Peter and Pauls where Joe Dimaggio and his first wife wed. You hear the church bells chime every hour. Weird part is the address: 666 Filbert Street, sounds more like the devil’s calling card then an address for a cathedral. 

Mason and Lombard is one block from the crookest street in the world, also known as  zig zag Hill, and you can hear the cables from the cable cars running all night long. With no air conditioning, the flat was equipped with wooden framed, single paned windows which rattled in the night, followed by fog horns which sounded and resounded like clock work.

Cue in the rain.