Astute Applesauce readers will recall Global Entertainment officials tend to not be forthright with information regarding mysterious press conferences. That’s why I sort of already knew what was going to happen when I decided to probe further into an e-mail I received earlier today containing a press release from Amy Gensinger, the premium seat coordinator for the Greater Wenatchee Regional Events Center.

The body of the e-mail read:

We wanted to make sure this got to you J

Hope to see you tomorrow!

The press release, which you can view here, states there will be a news conference at the GWREC at 3 p.m. Friday. The public is invited to the news conference.

Since I am a reporter and my job is to ask question (also, since the press release more or less says nothing), I e-mailed Amy back asking what exactly what might happen at the news conference.

Will there be a new sponsor announced? Has a company purchased naming rights to the arena? A new tenant? Has the GWREC booking team landed a big name blockbuster event or performer to open the arena? Surely Amy would want to share some vague details about what will go down at during the news conference.

Here’s how the rest of my e-mail exchange with her went:

Thanks Amy. This release is a little vague. Any word on what is going to be announced? A new tenant? Sponsor? Event? Any additional info would be appreciated. Thanks.

Best,
Travis

Amy’s response?

I’m sure it would be appreciated J See you tomorrow!

So yes, you guessed it, tomorrow I will be walking blindly into a press conference that is about something that may or may not have to do with the GWREC. Stay tuned for more details. That is of course if there are details given at the press conference. Who knows what the press conference will be about given Global’s coy nature regarding dealings with the media.

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Russ Hemphill, my metro department editor, sent me the link to a 2005 New York Times article on Washington’s growing wine industry. The article praised wines from Leonetti Cellar and Abeja, among others. Both wineries are in Walla Walla. I just happened, the day before, to run across an article I had clipped from the New York Times (yes, real paper) that had been written in 2004 about the Washington’s red “stealth” wines that were just then beginning to make their mark among East Coast critics. It also touted Leonetti’s wines and others made from grapes grown in the Red Mountain region near Walla Walla. I’m not sure why or how that article resurfaced, but it was well timed since I had just been out to visit Rob Newsom at his Boudreaux Cellars in Icicle Canyon. The story runs on Monday’s Ag/Biz page. Newsom learned his wine making skills from Leonetti’s owner Gary Figgins and Abeja’s owner John Abbott. His wines are made from grapes grown in many of the same vineyards as their wines. Newsom’s wines are making a mark of their own these days, but he’s not the only one. Luscious reds from other local wineries like Fielding Hills, Saint Laurent, C.R. Sandidge and others have been making their way on to various top 100 wine lists. The word is getting out. North Central Washington wineries are producing the new “stealth” wines.
A couple links of interest:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E7DB1F30F933A15754C0A9639C8B63
http://www.washingtonwine.org/press-room/acclaim.php

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I’m sure all of you (there are soooo many of you, ya know) are tired of my zucchini posts. But, I don’t care, I’m going to write about zucchini again. Really, when all of that zucchini in your garden is ripe, you’ll be happy I provided some recipes for you.

One of the recipes we received for our request for zucchini recipes was one for Zucchini Turkey Lasagna from Janet VanHorn. It’s a pretty healthy-looking recipe and I love showcasing veggies in a meal.

I also love croutons, which this recipe calls for. Janet says she uses crushed garlic croutons that she finds at Costco. My favorite croutons come in the form of “Bellaterra Crostini” made at Top Foods. I crush them up a bit and use them as a topper for my salads. I pulsed the crostini in my food processor to make quick crumbs for Janet’s lasagna recipe. I’m sure you can use seasoned bread crumbs too if you would rather.

Here’s Janet’s recipe. To be honest, I used more cheese when I made it, but I’m sure it will still be really good if you decide to use less cheese.

Janet’s Zucchini Turkey Lasagna

4 medium zucchini, sliced lengthwise to about ½-inch thick
20 ounces lean ground turkey
1 chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper
1 quart (32 ounces) tomato-based pasta sauce
1 cup crushed croutons
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 large fresh tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheeseSpray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray, lay out slices of zucchini, sprinkle with salt and roast at 400 degrees until tender and lightly browned about 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside. Saute turkey, onion and bell pepper until turkey is browned. Season with salt and pepper. Add pasta sauce.
Put a layer of meat sauce on bottom of dish, then a layer of zucchini. Sprinkle with ½ cup crushed croutons over zucchini. Layer with sauce and sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese. Add another layer of zucchini and sprinkle with the rest of the crushed croutons. Top with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese. Add fresh sliced tomatoes to cover and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes until top is browned and bubbly.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Thanks to Joanne for alerting me to this tasty-looking zucchini blog post at one of my favorite sites, 101 Cookbooks.

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“Russ, do you need a headset?” Dan Lee, king of all things technoid at The World asked me today. I had ventured into his domain to turn in my cellphone as part of a change in carriers.

A vision of a headset crept into my head. It looked something like this:

“Sure,” I said, thinking about how it’s illegal now to talk on your phone while driving, unless you have a hands-free set.

Lee gave me a box. It had a picture of a 20-something, prematurely graying guy with a device attached to his head. The device kinda looks like this one:

(My wife later gives me some advice: “Don’t wear it in the grocery store.” My son says: “Oh, so you’re going to be one THOSE people.” Sigh.)

While Jared, one of Dan’s tech minions, messed with my phone, I looked at the old Mac computer with a tiny screen in Dan’s department. It was on a shelf, ready to be used as a bookend.
I felt a pang for the good old days as a night cops reporter when cell phones were the size of your forearm and weighed as much as my laptop.

You could jam one of these babies into the back pocket of your jeans and, sure the pocket would eventually give out. But with a strong belt, it stayed there just fine through months of wear.
I wonder how my ear will fare with this new headset.

Oh well: One to beam up.

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Yesterday’s post mentioned Gary Vaynerchuck’s Winelibrary.com daily web video show. In case you want to check it out, here’s the link: tv.winelibrary.com. The show featuring Boudreaux Cellars wines from Leavenworth can be found at this link.

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I like Middle-Eastern food. It’s usually garlicky, spicy and full of savory flavor. So when I was reading David Lebovitz’s blog yesterday and saw Baba Ganoush, I wanted to make it. I’ve been wanting to make the eggplant dip for a few years now, but this time, his photo really put me on the prowl for eggplants.

So, I walked down to the farmers’ market today hoping to find an eggplant or two. I didn’t find any. I guess they probably don’t ripen until about the same time as tomatoes — they are both in the same plant family, you know. But I did find a host of other yummy-looking, ripe fruits and veggies.

Here’s what I saw available today: zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beets, salad greens, yellow peppers, onions, peas, potatoes, dill weed, tomatillos, cantaloupe, watermelon, cherries, apricots, peaches and summer apples. There were also flowers for sale from Lek Perkins. (Full disclosure, Lek is my father’s cousin’s wife. See, I’m related to almost everyone here.)

I ended up buying green beans. I love snacking on them raw or sauteeing them quickly with a little olive oil, garlic and salt. I also bought some yellow banana-ish looking peppers. I plan to stuff them with something, probably cheese, and possibly make them into chiles rellenos, one of my favorite Mexican dishes.

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Take a look at the map below. Find the little blue dot in the middle of Washington state and you’ll have found the earthquake near Entiat that we wrote about today.

The map documents 850 quakes in the past week. Want more? Check out the USGS Web site. 

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I was browsing through the new book section of the Wenatcee Library the other day and came across Gary Vaynerchuk’s book “101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight and Bring Thunder to Your World.” Vaynerchuk is a wine celebrity of sorts, who directs the Wine Library and Wine Library TV in Springfield, N.J.
Looking with interest through the book after I got it home, I was surprised to see number 10 on his list of 101 wines, what he called “A monumental wine from Washington.” It was a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Boudreaux Cellars in Leavenworth, owned by Rob Newsom. It’s the only Washington wine on his list. Vaynerchuk writes: “When I sit down to my finest steak dinner of the year — a nice aged rib eye maybe — this is the one wine in this book I would most like to have at my side. I really can’t think of a bigger compliment than that.”
Many local folks will recall Newsom’s wine ramblings when he was a radio personality on KOHO’s morning bluegrass show a few years ago. I wrote a feature story about his adventurous life as a musician, rock climbing guide, sport fisherman and radio DJ. Now Newsom has once again reinvented himself as a premier winemaker. Guess it’s time for me to pay that bluegrass boy another visit.

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“Damage and Remainder”
Michael Carlos Band, $9.99

Michael Carlos is not one to rush. Many of the songs on his sophomore album, “Damage and Remainder,” were conceived years ago.

Carlos strives to accomplish a few things on this new record: make a connection to his Latin roots, address some recent personal tragedies, and establish a more hard rocking sound than what can be heard on his 2004 album, “Yesterday’s Icons.”

His influences are apparent in some of his songs — Carlos channels Los Lobos and Tom Waits, among others (he even throws in a riff from The Knack’s “My Sharona” near the end of opening track “Out of Control”), through a variety of musical styles. He experiments with many different sounds on the album (especially where percussion is concerned), leaving it fresh and surprising at every turn.

Carlos’ lyrics leave the songs feeling a bit esoteric; though songwriting affords him catharsis for his personal conflicts, the specific meaning is lost on the listener. The words remain broad and impersonal. In “Winning Streak,” a song about a successful person being humbled by a catastrophic experience, Carlos sings, “Payback showed up to collect/ slide uphill and watch the wreck/ feel the ground beneath you getting colder/ your little winning streak is over,” along with a superspy theme sound.

Portions of the album were recorded at Eric Frank’s studio in Wenatchee, while the rest was contributed by Ethan Sellers et al at a studio in Chicago. Sellers provides a lot of the string, horn and percussion orchestration that boosts the caliber on several of Carlos’ compositions.

One of the most successful tracks on the record is “Jenny’s Cumbia,” which holds its own without Sellers’ touch. In a tribute to the memory of Carlos’ late companion Jennifer Reese, he taps into his Latin blood with a danceable, Spanish-language tune. The most engaging and inventive track on the record — which incorporates the talents of players on both sides of the Rockies — is “More Than One Way Down.” With a swampy bayou beat and dark vocals, the tune seems tailored for radio play.

Former band member Darik Peet has a small role on the record, providing electric guitar for “Out of Control,” “She Doesn’t Like Me Much” and “Wear It Well” — songs that Carlos has had in the works since Peet was a major player in the band, and have been featured at several of the live performances since Carlos recovered from his late-2006 car accident. Peet still makes appearances at some Michael Carlos Band concerts, ripping up the stage with the lead singer. Other band members joining him on stage and on the album are (everyone’s favorite) percussionist Vern Smith, bassist Eric Frank, and drummer Darren Reynolds.

Carlos’ next live show with his band is at this weekend’s free Acoustic Music Festival in Leavenworth. The band plays the first set of the day on the Waterfront Park stage at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Following shows include: 7 p.m. Aug. 22 at Centennial Park in Wenatchee, free; and 8 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Vogue Liquid Lounge in Chelan, free.

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A shout out to readers this month for their favorite zucchini recipes resulted in lots and lots of zucchini recipes landing on my desk. Reading recipe after recipe for zucchini this and zucchini that, I’ve come to realize just how prolific zucchini can be around here. Almost any gardener has lots of ways to rid the kitchen of the green — and sometimes yellow — squash.

One of the recipes that looked especially good was Zucchini and Granola cookies submitted by Joyce Dronen and also by Avis Scharlau. So, I made those last night for Mike Bonnicksen to shoot a photo of for the upcoming food page about zucchini. They do taste pretty good, especially when using butterscotch chips.

I over-estimated the amount of zucchini needed for the recipe, which called for 3 cups shredded zucchini, so I decided to make dinner from the stuff. Among the recipes submitted were two for zucchini pancakes. I didn’t have these recipes with me, so I decided to make my own recipe up. It was loosely based on a recipe for okonomiyaki my Japanese friend, Aki, made for us when she was visiting a few years ago.

Here’s my little recipe. Add spices as you like. Both the zucchini and the onion are watery after shredding. Based on how watery your zucchini and onion are, you might need more or less flour or milk in the batter.

Zucchini Pancakes

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 shredded sweet onion

2 cloves minced garlic

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried parsley

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

Oil for frying

Combine zucchini, onion and garlic. Mix together dry ingredients. Add egg and milk to dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Add batter, should be pretty thick, to zucchini and onion mixture. Mix with a spoon until well-combined.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to coat bottom. Ladle zucchini pancake batter into oil, spreading until about 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through. Drain on paper towels.
Serve with ketchup, sour cream or mayonnaise.

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