Ingredients:

1 lb. chicken breast
1 pear peeled, cored & halved
1 T. olive oil
4 strips bacon cooked & crumbled
4oz. gorgonzola cheese
4 T. pinenuts or sunflower seeds
4 c. mixed baby green lettuces
Red onion, tomato & carrot garnish
S & P to taste

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 T. shallots minced
1 T. Dijon mustard
1/4 c. honey
1 c. balsamic vinegar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. olive oil

Procedure:

Brush seasoned chicken & pear with olive oil & grill until just done, set aside.

Make vinaigrette in food processor; slowly emulsify oils last in thin stream with machine running. Assemble salad by tossing greens gently with vinaigrette. Divide onto four cold plates, top with warm chicken & pear cut into strips, bacon, Gorgonzola, nuts & other garnishes. Serve immediately. Serves four.

Wine Tonneau

The French "tonneau" is the same as the Englis "tun" or "ton", a measure of wine described as "XII score and XII gallons" (i.e. 252 old - or American - gallons, or 900 liters). This size of cask is unmanageable, so it is broken down for shipping into two "pipes" or four "hogsheads" (now usually called "barriques") or 225 liters each. In modern terms, a tonneau equals 100 cases of a dozen 750 ml bottles of wine. A barrique is 25 cases.

In the Middle Ages all ships were gauged by how many tons (of wine) they could carry. It was the practice in ancient times and is still in use today - although for bulk carrying a ship's "ton" is 100 cubic feet. A "metric tonne" is 1,000 kilograms weight. A hectoliter is 100 liters.

Excerpted from Story of Wine by Hugh Johnson (1989)