Studio of Good Living

Attend a cooking class at Studio of Good Living in San Francisco and you’ll soon discover a new world full of culinary adventures. More than just a cooking school, the Studio of Good Living shares the art of living well with all its students!

Studio of Good Living offers exceptional cooking classes and events in the Bay Area and Beyond. Want to learn how to cook or brush up on your cooking skills? Take a class with us! Escape to San Francisco for a Taste of San Francisco or indulge yourself with Cook, Shop, Spa. Burned out? Drop into Live Well, Eat Well for yoga lovers. Continue the journey with the Art of Dinner Blog and view our video classes for new ideas to spice up your dinner table. . Need a change of scenery? Join us for a total culinary and lifestyle retreat in beautiful Maine. Discover the possibilities with Chef Phoebe Schilla and the Studio of Good Living. Life is Beautiful by Design.

Steak Salad and Chilled Rose

Posted July 23, 2010 under: Beef Recipes, What's In My Glass Tonight

Yup, it feels like summer in San Francisco and by that I mean an actual summer and not the cold and foggy kind.  Last night was actually too hot for blankets!! Can you believe it?  So today, as I was flipping through cookbooks looking for inspiration I caught a glimpse of a salad with filet mignon. It looked so enticing I had to make it almost immediately.  Sweet cherry tomatoes, cold, crisp lettuce, chilled steak that has been cooked medium rare, intense ‘Roaring 40’s’ blue cheese and a pungent mustardy vinaigrette has almost done me in.  The most wonderful thing about salads is the versatility of ingredients.   If you wanted to you could easily add hard boiled eggs, avocado, pickled red onion, cucumber, bacon or crispy prosciutto.  You could subtract the meats and add grilled or marinated tofu and more vegetable too.

The perfect wine for a dinner salad with complex flavors would be a glass of chilled rose.  (Check with your local wine merchant for recommendations, but I like Cote du Rhone Roses, and domestic producers that I have enjoyed include Bonny Doon, V. Sattui, Lewis Cellars and Etude.) White wine simply can’t handle the flavors; particularly the blue cheese and most red wines are too heavy.

When it is hot out, what do you like to eat?  I have a tendency to run out of ideas in the summer and just repeat old favorites.

What’s In My Glass Tonight: 2007 Craggy Range ‘Kidnapper’s Vineyard’ Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Posted January 25, 2010 under: What's In My Glass Tonight

I love a good chardonnay.  It’s such a likeable wine!  Especially when it’s not too oaky, has good acidity and moderate alcohol levels.  The 2007 Craggy Range ‘Kidnapper’s Vineyard’ really fits the bill.  And it’s under $20/bottle.

Campervan cookin'

Craggy Range is a very special winery located in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.  Hawkes Bay wines are typically fly under the radar in the United States.  However, the best wines are really wonderful.  It is by far my favorite wine region in New Zealand.. Craggy Range makes some of the best wines in Hawkes Bay.   They are incredibly passionate about the wines that they produce.

I was first exposed to Craggy Range about 7 years ago when I tasted (and was impressed by) their Bordeaux Style blend ‘Sophia’.  A year later my boyfriend (now husband) and I found ourselves on a plane to New Zealand with the purpose to check out the land from whence hobbits came (or at least where the movies were filmed) and to taste some wine.  We rented a campervan outside of the Auckland airport, and away we went.  The campervan was a little shaky, to say the least, the maximum speed was 40 miles per hour, and that was going downhill in a stiff breeze.  Pete proposed halfway through our trip so New Zealand remains a special place for the two of us.

The growing wine stash

Aside from being madly in love we were really impressed by the wines of New Zealand.  We hand carried a total of 3 cases home. (We were very lucky that we could bring liquids on board the plane and our luggage was heavy.  Very heavy.)  We did have an appointment to visit Craggy Range Winery and we were incredibly impressed by the technology, architecture and setting of the vineyard.  Steve Smith, Master of Wine showed us around the winery personally and when he heard that we were traveling and sleeping in a campervan offered to put us up in one of Craggy Ranges’ guesthouses for the night.  It was an unexpected and generous offer, one that I haven’t forgotten.  So I am very happy to declare the 2007 chardonnay delicious and delightful. It received 91 points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, so I’m not the only one that thinks so.

Serve this Chardonnay lightly chilled with chicken or white firm fleshed fish.  It was particularly lovely with Braised Chicken Thighs with Calvados, sautéed apples and cream.

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What’s in my glass tonight?

Posted November 20, 2009 under: What's In My Glass Tonight

Sometimes the simplest things are the best….I’m at the Mayacamas Ranch in Calistoga this weekend for a long awaited yoga retreat. This is my first night away since the baby was born.  The setting is beautiful—pristine, seemingly remote and what’s in my glass is tea as I sit by the pool watching the sun set over the Mayacamas mountain range.

mariage-freres-sachetThis retreat is my birthday present—detox weekend– to myself.  I find that the days are so busy and so hectic I forget about the small things—like a cup of tea and watching the sunset.   Chatting with friends and sitting in the hot tub under a starlit sky are the only things that I need to do this evening.

What I’m reminded of every time I make time to nurture myself is how important it is to stop and slow down.   We all need to take better care of ourselves and each other in order to make this world a better place.  Only from a place of inner peace and purpose will we be able to mindfully effect change in our world.

So what’s in my glass is my favorite caffeine free tea of all time –the Marco Polo Rouge from Mariage Freres in Paris.  It’s a rooibos tea, flavored with Chinese and Tibetan flowers (sounds decadent, doesn’t it?). It’s beautifully perfumed and entices you with aromas wafting beyond your glass.  The person sitting next to you will definitely ask what you are drinking.  I hope that you remember to make time for yourself….Enjoy!

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What’s in my glass tonight?

Posted October 26, 2009 under: What's In My Glass Tonight
Chateauneuf du Pape

The only answer is 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape.  What an amazing vintage!  I was at Beltramo’s Wines and Spirits in Menlo Park last night for their ‘Pape Till Ya Drop’ event.  Full disclosure—I worked at Beltramo’s for 6 years.  I started out on the wine floor as a consultant and when I left I was the domestic wine buyer.  I’m still good friends with the guys who work there and I help them out with Hors d’Ouerves for their wine events. Chateauneuf du Pape is an appellation from southern France in the Provence region.  Chateauneuf is a blend of up to 13 different grape varieties, but it is predominantly Grenache based.  The wines are incredible, complex, but friendly. The best examples are hedonistic and intense and lack the austerity of Bordeaux or Burgundy, a quality that makes them delicious and easy to drink upon release.  These are the wines that I like to collect. Once Chateauneuf ages it can have amazing bottle bouquet and for me, wine is all about the nose. The wines from the south of France are really good values too, especially Cotes du Rhone.  My favorite wine last night was the 2007 Beaucastel.  It was unbelievable.  The wine was a deep garnet color and the aromatics were intense—lots of black fruit, black tea, rosemary…Definitely a keeper.  Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I could drink it every night.

For hors d’ouerves last night, I made:

  • Risotto Cakes with Duck Confit
  • Spanish Lamb Mini-Meatballs in a Saffron Sauce
  • Prosciutto and Black Pepper Gougeres
  • Truffled Mushrooms in Cream on Toast Points
  • Filet Rolls with Horseradish Cream and Arugula
  • Artisanal Cheese and Salumi Selection

Whenever I pair wine with food I try to keep in mind the style and flavor of the foods of that particular region.  That’s why I chose to make food with beef, lamb, duck and mushrooms.  One of my favorite Hors that I make for wine tastings is the Filet Rolls with Horseradish Cream and Arugula.  It’s easy, goes great with just about any red wine and looks really spectacular too.

Here’s the recipe:

Filet Rolls with Horseradish Cream and Arugula (makes about 60 pieces)

1 ½ # piece of filet, seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked to medium rare.

1 bunch of arugula or watercress, washed and set aside.

Horseradish Cream

3/4c. Sour Cream or Crème Fraiche

2 Tbsp. Horseradish or to taste

1 tsp. Lemon Juice

2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine and set aside.

* Put the cream in a squirt bottle for easy assembly of the rolls.

Assembly

Slice the filet very thinly across the grain.  Squirt or dab a little of the horseradish cream in the center on the slice, and place a single arugula or watercress leaf at the top of the slice. Now, roll the slice up so that the greenery is just peeking out.  Serve and enjoy!

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