Dinner Menu Paired with Recommended Wine:  Merlot

      Soup or Appetizer - Roasted Eggplant & Garlic Soup

      Entree - Braised Veal with Portobello Mushrooms, Celery Root & Toasted Pecans

      Side Dish - Wild Rice or Buttered Wide Egg Noodles

      Dessert - Carrot Cake

Recipe for:  Roasted Eggplant & Garlic Soup

1 large globe eggplant (about 1 lb.)

Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 whole head garlic

Olive Oil

1 3/4 cups chopped red onions

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil (1/4 cup dried)

1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme (1/2 tbsp. dried)

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3 cups seeded, chopped tomatoes

4 1/2 cups chicken stock

Garnish: Basil sprigs, chopped red bell pepper

Preheat oven to 375 °F.  Trim ends of eggplant; leave skin on.  RInse, pat dry, and cut into 1/4-inch rounds.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Place on paper towels for 20 - 30 min. to remove excess water.  Cut the top off of the garlic head and sprinkle lightly with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Wrap in foil, leaving it a little open at top.  Please eggplant and garlic on a lightly oiled baking sheet and roast for 15 min.  Remove eggplant and continue roasting garlic for 35 min. more.  Chop eggplant into 1-inch pieces.  In a large soup pot, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions, basil, thyme, and pepper flakes and saute′ for 5 - 6 min., or until onions are translucent.  Squeeze garlic out of head, making sure that teh flaky peel does not get mixed in, and add it to the pot.  Add eggplant, tomatoes, and stock and bring soup to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove from pot and transfer to a food processor or blender.  Puree in batches.  Soup can be refrigerated at this point.  Heat thoroughly before serving.  Season to taste.  Top with basil sprigs and chopped red bell pepper.          (Serves 8 as an appetizer or 4 as an entree)

The soft, supple quality of Merlot makes it an ideal choice for braised dishes that combine a lot of complimentary flavors, the softer tannins and medium weight of the wine blend well with the savory veal, earthy mushrooms and celery root, and the toasted nuts, as a white wine alternative.  It’s surprising how well the richness of a full-bodied Chardonnay pairs with this dish.

Recipe for:  Braised Veal with Portobello Mushrooms, Celery Root & Toasted Pecans 

1 3/4 lbs. veal stew meat

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 ounces pancetta, chopped

2 cups sliced portobello  mushrooms

2 cups peeled and diced celery root

1 cup chopped yellow onions

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1 tsp caraway seed

1 tsp chevril herbs

1 3/4 cups veal or chicken stock

1/3 cup white wine

Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup toasted pecan halves

1/2 cup shredded soked mozarella cheese

Cut veal into 1-inch cubes.  Sprinkle with flour, salt & pepper.  In a large saute pan over medium heat, saute veal in butter and pancetta for 6 - 7 min., or until lightly browned.  Add mushrooms, celery root, onions, garlic, paprika, caraway, and herbs and continue cooking for 8 min.  Add stock and wine and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 1/4 hours.  Season to taste.  Spoon veal stew onto plates while very hot.  Top with pecans and mozzarella.  Serve with wild rice or buttered wide egg noodles and sauteed spinach.

With the real estate market, being the way it is, what are the options for selling today?  As a Realtor® I am faced with this question, and the ensuing challenge, quite frequently.  As you can imagine, selling a property today is not as simple as it may sound, the rules have not changed, they are just being enforced more firmly. Realtors® have always been in a position of finding the middle ground, a) getting the best possibly price got the client and b) sell the property in a reasonable amount of time. In the past few years, that was not a big challenge, as buyers would generally write offers, on any property they could get close to. Today, the buyer have far more properties to look at, and time to decide which one they like. This makes pricing the property right, so much more important, and unfortunately “Right” currently means a good deal lower than what any seller would like. If you are negotiating the listing of your property, have the agent show comps (comparable sales in the past 3 months), ask for an explanation about how the price was arrived at, and keep in mind that listing at a higher price than the market will bear is currently not a good idea – if an agent suggests this, consider if you wish to sell, or just to hang a sign in your yard? Recently I wrote a little about shell shock for sellers in today’s market, the other part of the shell shock, is increased amount of marketing an agent have to commit to. It used to be that a sign would sell a house, now, you must have a Virtual Tour at the very least. Tools such as property specific 800 numbers and web sites also help promote your property. Realtor.com just added an option for a Video Tour, so that is becoming a needed item, ask your agent if they have those capabilities and are willing to pay for it.  In addition to the pricing, marketing exposure, there is the condition of the property, my general recommendation is to keep your property in showing condition (that is a nice place to live) and should you find yourself in need to sell, it will be much easier to get the property ready.  Factors that sell a property:Price, price, price… It has to be priced right.Marketing of the property, the MLS is NOT enough.Condition of the property, make sure it looks great. Recap: The market is slow, but not dead. Selling is more difficult today, however, selling your property is very doable with the right Realtor®. If you have questions or want to know more about your options, call me, Terkel Sorensen, at (951) 805-773l; Century 21 Award, Temecula, CA or visit me at www.terkelsorensen.com.

Six major lenders have agreed to widen their efforts to help borrowers of all loans – not just subprime – and allow seriously overdue homeowners to suspend foreclosures for 30 days while affordable loans are worked out.  The plan, Project Lifeline, has been announced by the Treasury Department and the Dept. of Housing & Urban Development.  On a pilot basis, the plan will initially involve six of the largest mortgage lenders, in hopes that more lenders will sign on.  The participants are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup, Inc., Countrywide Financial corp., JP Morgan Chase  Co., Washington Mutual, inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.  All six are involved in a deal that the Bush administration brokered late last year with the mortgage industry to freeze rates on some high-cost subprime mortgages for five years to aid borrowers whose introductory “teaser” rates are jumping sharply higher.  Since then, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has urged lenders to expand that effort to cover struggling homeowners with conventional mortgages.The new plan applies to seriously delinquent homeowners, those whose mortgages are 90 days or more past due.It is not clear whether a separate announcement from Countrywide is part of the same effort.  It’s latest initiative, brokered with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform now calls for Countrywide to try to manage payment plans for borrowers that are already behind in payments, regardless of which type of subprime loan they have.

I clearly have an answer that would work … Do You Want To Hear It???  Do You Thing The Feds Would Listen To Me?!?!?!

If the Feds would only reduce the indices, (plural for index) across the board, which affect Adjustable Rate Mortgages, also know as ARM loans, this would solve the problem at hand.  ARM loans are comprised of an Index (ie: Libor, COFI, 1 Yr Treasury, MTA, CODI, COSI, etc.) plus a margin (the profit the bank earns) together this totals the current rate.  With ongoing and rising Indices, this sharp rise in interest rates will continue to increase.  Borrowers with ARM loans would be back to an affordable payment, if only the indices would decrease.  An affordable house payment sets a pattern of consistent and timely payments.  If we can afford our mortgage once again, we would also have more disposable income available.  More money circulated into the economy is a very good thing and equates to more spending and more jobs. 

I don’t get it … this is such a simple concept to incorporate, a no-brainer you could say. Why does our legal and banking system allow so much devastation to take place with the past and present foreclosure process?  Why does this process have to be so complicated, costly, devastating.  It seems that the system in place is not working and unfair to those losing their homes, not to mention the deterioration of the U.S. economy and job market? I just don’t get it … ???  Do you? Some information obtained from The Californian – Tuesday, 2/12/08