wine Blog

How Racial Discrimination Changed This Wine Blog...

2010-03-23T04:12:00.000+02:00

Let me begin by saying sorry for the dramatic title, but as you read this blog post, hopefully you will understand.

Those of you who follow our blog know us to be a couple of wine loving individuals that are generally upbeat, and always passionate about sharing our love of the grape with others. Despite being trained wine professionals with accreditation from two well-respected wine institutions, we have a very laid-back approach to wine. Wine shouldn’t be intimidating to anyone, yet for many reasons, it is. A lot of what I have noticed through reading several wine blogs (including ours) is that the content is pretty bland. In many cases, I have found that wine blogs are misleading, and create an undesirable image of the Wine World.

Recently, Olena and I have been discussing how to improve the content of our blog to better serve you. Rather than do the same thing that many wine bloggers are already doing, we want the content we write and put on video to be entertaining, and informational. This is not to say that all wine bloggers are doing it wrong, it is just that we have a unique situation being a married couple who happen to be Sommeliers. Why not showcase it?

After several conversations about this topic, we have decided to be honest with ourselves. What’s the point of leaving out details? We want you to understand who we are, and what we are all about. We want to share with you our everyday trials and tribulations that come with making a wine business bloom in a market that is barely budding in terms of wine consumption. We want our blog to become a behind the scenes look into what our end of the Wine Biz is all about. Being the only two Certified Sommeliers in El Paso (a city of more than 600,000 people) sounds, and looks great on paper, but it comes with a daunting uphill climb that serves as a reminder that we have to work harder. We are trying to educate the #1 Bud Light drinking city in the Country about wine. Needless to say, we’ve had easier times.

To catch any newcomers up to speed, we recently took over the wine program in a friend’s restaurant in downtown El Paso, TX. We are currently carrying about 70 labels, and plan to grow our selection to over 100 by mid-summer. Rather than our customers paying astronomical restaurant wine prices, we offer retail pricing with the option to consume on or off premise. This is an innovative way to generate a larger interest in wine, without intimidating prices (which are often ridiculously excessive). In addition, we host Wine Socials every other Saturday at the restaurant where we informally educate people on wine regions, varietals, etc. under the helpful guidelines of a tasting. The response for this has been phenomenal, and we have been rather pleased with the turnouts. That brings us to why I titled this blog post what I did…

This past Saturday was our “How do you pronounce that?” Wine Social. We were tasting a collection of exciting varietals from all over the globe that people seem to have trouble pronouncing. Going into the evening, we were excited simply because the varietals we planned to taste, also happen to be delicious.

For me, everything changed when a party of three showed up an hour late to the tasting (which is no big deal) and sat down in the bar area where we were hosting the event. From the moment the group walked in, they had an air about them that put me off. Being in the service industry, this is not an uncommon occurrence. They appeared to be well-dressed, well-groomed, and that was all I knew of them.

As I welcomed them to the event, the lone female member of the group stared at me with a furled brow, and impatiently waited for me to stop talking. The man to her left blankly glared up at me with a disappointed, bored, annoyed gaze. The other man in the group just stared at the table, and didn’t acknowledge me in the least. I thanked them for coming out to the event, and asked if they had any questions. They all just sort of shrugged, and chuckled to themselves. I didn’t pay much attention to it (there was a fairly evident language barrier) smiled, and excused myself. As I walked away, I began to feel as though it may be of little use to prepare their glassware for the tasting. I knew they weren’t going to go through with it. I did it anyway, and while I was fetching their glasses, a fourth person joined the group. As soon as she sat down, a conversation between her and the first woman began. I know when someone is talking about me, and in this case, there was no attempt to hide that the topic of conversation was me. Because the continued glares, and disapproving looks continued to come my way, I casually paid attention to what was being said. The words that came out of woman #1’s mouth disappointed, and cut through me, leaving me with a bitter taste in my mouth. While looking at the man to her left, she said, “I don’t want to do this. They’re White.”

Moments later, Olena told me as she was returning the glassware to the bar, “they have decided not to take part in the tasting.” She went on to tell me that the man (who was staring at the table earlier) informed her, “We don’t want to do this. I already know a lot about wine. I know what I like. I like Cabernet.” Number one, we weren’t tasting a Cabernet that night, and number two, it turns out that the “How do you pronounce that? Wine Social would have benefited him after all. Cabernet is not pronounced, “Cahb-air-NET”. As Olena finished relaying that information, all I could say was, “I know.”

I generally don’t take too many things seriously, and I feel as though I’m pretty hard to offend. However, the events of Saturday night have really stuck with me these past couple of days. I have been kind of down on myself, and El Paso in general to be perfectly honest. I’ve been trying to break out of this funk, and it has proven to be a little bit more difficult than expected. We’re often the only ‘white people’ in the room, but until now, I haven’t thought about it.

To the people who I feel are ruining the beauty of what wine should be about by painting a picture of elitism, I leave you with a quote:

“In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well-being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary.” – Ernest Hemingway

Please share any similar stories you may have. Thank you for reading.

Cheers!

Zak

[Via http://creativejuicesllc.wordpress.com]

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Vegetarian On the Road

2010-03-21T16:49:00.000+02:00

My book, New Vegetarian, is the very good reason that I didn’t blog last week. I was in a two week-long period of travel, starting with a tour of Texas and ending in a stint in New York City. I had a great time cooking and demonstrating, and came back ready to take vegetarian to a new level.

Traveling, though, can be a time when you need your old hunter-gatherer instinct. Getting a meatless meal on the road can be a challenge, depending on where you go. From the disappointing airport options (cinnamon buns and pizza, anyone?) to the crapshoot of hotel restaurants, you end up spending some time scouting it out. I try to think of the time I spend checking out my options at the airport as aerobic activity, as I patrol the entire food zone, dragging my bag and sporting my stuffed laptop backpack, seeking something acceptable to eat.

Sometimes the Luna Bars in the backpack are the best option.

But when you get to your destination, you have to start scouting. This time around, I came up against a familiar question. Do I go to a place that calls itself “vegetarian”? Or do I go to a well-reviewed, well-respected restaurant and check out the veg option? Sadly, most of the time places that are dedicated veg are less interesting to me. I’m glad to relate that eating vegetarian was easy at all of the above.

Cosmic Cafe, Funky Vegetarian with a Texas Accent

My first foray was in Dallas. A little place called Cosmic Cafe was just around the corner from my hotel, with a funky paint job and a yard full of Indian statuary, it proclaimed its vegetarian status proudly in a city known for beef.

The outside, as you can see above, says Indian food. A safe haven for meatless diners, Indian restaurants are usually good bets, even when they don’t say anything about the v-word. Cosmic Cafe, though, is not really an Indian restaurant, as I came to find out. There in the home of Tex-Mex, much of the menu consisted of tacos, burritos and pizzas, all with Indian accents. The heady aroma of curry spices wafted from pots simmering on the stove, so I hoped for greatness. My pizza, built on a nan bread and bathed in sort of curry flavored tomato sauce, was loaded with vegetables and scattered with croquettes of a lightly spiced black bean burger.

The fusion of Dallas, India and vegetarian was a little odd, but it was a satisfying and tasty lunch. Vegetarian places always seem to be trying to stay afloat, and in Texas, making everything into a burrito must be a strategy for making the food familiar. Funky, cheesy, and often rebellious, veg places like this one are always unique and creative.

Fast forward to another vegetarian restaurant. In New York City, close to the famed Kalustyan’s spice shop, I had lunch with a friend at Pongal, an Indian place that proudly proclaimed its vegetarian status.

My Gujarati Thali Plate

Here, in the city that never sleeps, the chefs at Pongal have no need to update their vegetarian traditions. There were no burritos or pizzas, only authentic dishes from Southern regions of India known for their meatless cuisine. The food was excellent. One thing that stood out was that the fried foods were wonderfully un-greasy. Usually the deep-fried breads are a decadent treat, and once they cool you realize just how oily they are, but not here.

Can't you smell the dosa?

My dining companion had the Pongal thali, and we shared with abandon. Steamed Iddly, fried poori, carrot chutney, and medu vada, the little fried lentil donuts, were making their way across our table as we feasted. No melted cheese, no meat, nothing but pure Indian vegetarian, and it was delicious.

In the end, it is hard to compare restaurants, especially in far distant corners of the country. Each speaks to its community-Cosmic Cafe to the local yoga and veg crowd, comfortable with something a little more familiar. Pongal was crowded with Indian-Americans, and the serious ethnic diners that populate one of the most international restaurant cities in the world.

There is a place for both, the sincere and the authentic. The hippie and the immigrant, the political and the nostalgic.

[Via http://robincooksveg.wordpress.com]

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Great News

homenight

2010-03-21T10:58:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening we stayed at home and cooked together. Today is the last day before uni will start tomorrow

[Via http://eoik.wordpress.com]

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Sushi Party!

2010-03-21T04:15:00.000+02:00

My husband and I were invited over to the home of another couple who we are great friends with (Todd and Amy) to make sushi together a few weeks ago. I keep forgetting to upload the photos, so, here they are! Finally! The fish and most of the fixins were purchased at Asian Delight Marketplace. I highly recommend that you stop in there and take a look around. They have everything there; meat, produce, ice cream and other frozen goods, and several aisles with just about every Asian grocery imaginable. The candy aisle alone is worth the trip. We also had some amazing sake that Todd picked up; Coconut Lemongrass by Moonstone. It was refreshing and mildly sweet.

Making sushi rolls is actually really easy. The rice-on-the-outside kind is more difficult so we usually don’t bother with those. I learned pretty much everything I needed from this book, and have tutored lots of our friends at various at-home sushi parties. EVERYONE gets the hang of it after one roll. You should give it a try, too!

[Via http://eatinggrandrapids.com]

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SE Australian Firetail: A tale of fire...

2010-03-20T22:47:00.000+02:00

Firetail Estate Selection – Shiraz – SE Australia – 14%

Firetail - SE Australia

The smell of this one is of soft fruits, cherries and a hint of sweet raspberries, plus a bit of Cointreau in there too maybe? Fruity and fierce. It yields cloying sweet stickiness before I even tasted anything, yet it is at the same time deep and rich and very satisfying in the aroma department. I could get quite dizzy (and save tons of calories) not even drinking this – and still be quite happy tonight.

But here goes with the tasting.

Composed of unblended Shiraz at 14%, I am expecting some kick and, yes, it is certainly not a timid wine. I get redcurrant sharpness, followed by a sweet sensation of cherry, then the tannins hit quite severely drawing out moisture, followed lastly by a soft fruity liqueur taste which lasts a while. I feel like I’m breathing fire (tail?) out of my nose!

In appearance it is very inviting, a velvety deep purple-red, with good solid body, but the bottle somehow looks a little cheap (a minor point though).

Points: 8/10 for appearances, 9/10 for bouquet, then for taste I feel it should earn points for its teasing, it’s a wine that doesn’t exactly know what it wants to be. If being harsh I could say it’s both a bit too sweet and tannic, like cloying syrup which lingers too long and also dries out the tastebuds, yet it also is rather addictive. All round I think 21/30 for taste, not as multi-dimensional as some wines but holding up after a 4th glass! Total score 38/50.

Btw, the “Beautiful Firetail” is a small distinctive Australian bird.

I think this may be the wine producer website but it has no reference to shiraz variety which is odd. Also see this page for a reference on the Shiraz (Syrah) grape.

[Via http://mygrapevine.wordpress.com]

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Recommended Kosher wines

2010-03-20T16:27:00.000+02:00

“Today’s recommended wines are first and foremost food-friendly. In general, the overall quality of the kosher wine we tasted is better and more consistent than our last look two years ago. Though well-established Israeli brands were generally available, it was tougher to find French, Chilean, Spanish and New Zealand kosher wines this time.”

I didn’t know about the “U”, “K” or “P” labelling protocol. That’s really interesting.

“The label will carry the certifying organization’s symbol, often a circled “U” or “K.” In addition, wines labeled as kosher for Passover also carry a P to the right of the circled symbol.”

From the SF Chronicle, read more here

[Via http://winefeeds.wordpress.com]

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Fox News whip count: 212-219; Uh oh ...

Dining in Hua Hin

2010-03-20T10:56:00.000+02:00

There are plenty of good restaurants and fancy dining in Hua Hin, this seaside town about 3 hours south of Bangkok, which has become such a very popular destination for Bangkonians to spend the weekend.

During our recent workshop in Hua Hin we ate out a couple of times. I report about a not so famous place, called Pom Pom, where you can eat for very little money home cooked dishes. Some of the food is announced as “Italian”. The place was an insiders tip, which we could not refuse.

The participants of this dinner where divided as regards the quality of the food. Some thought it was awesome, other were appalled. There were few guests that night, a weekday, but the staff was very friendly and we remained seating and drinking wine for a couple of hours after the meal had ended.

We consumed many bottles of wine. Nothing fancy. Some of the wines were re-bottled and re-blended as the label in full honesty proclaimed. We drank “our way up price’wise” and did not regret it: We woke up the next morning without hangover. We had a jolly good time.

[Via http://themanfrommoselriver.wordpress.com]

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A Quick Fix for that Purple Smile

2010-03-18T16:52:00.000+02:00

Hauts Chassis 2007 ‘Les Galets’ Crozes-Hermitage….Sexy Wine. My purple wine covered teeth glowing when I smile….Not Sexy! Solution; a new product called Wine Wipes.

Developed by a company called Borracha LLC. (great name) these conveniently packaged to-go, moist towelettes remind me of finger wet naps, but more compact, about the size of a condom. Tear the package open, unfold the orange blossom flavored, thin cloth and start polishing.

I have to admit that it felt kind of funny rubbing the moist, slightly salty flavored cloth over my teeth (good thing I was in the ladies’ room so no one could watch me) but it worked! Pearly whites back in full-smile action. I highly recommend these little wine stain problem fixers. They are small enough to fit in your tiniest purse, or even in your wallet. More importantly they won’t interfere with wine tasting as they were developed with the help of a Sommelier and work as a palate cleanser.

Photo Courtesy of www.winewipes.com

They also now come in a small round container about the size of Burt’s Bees cuticle salve, which holds 20 wipes and has a mirror inside for a quick discreet swipe. $20 will get you 3 containers – that’s 60 wipes and there’s no shipping cost. Interested? I’m glad I tried them. You can order here.

[Via http://sipsbitesandsites.com]

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Lose Weight while eating out

2010-03-18T10:36:00.000+02:00

You are probably bored with your home cooked meals, and would like to visit a restaurant for a change. On the other hand, your doctor has advised you not to eat restaurant foods as it can result in weight gain. You simply don’t know which way to go, right?

Here is an article that will tell you how to enjoy restaurant foods while at the same time making sure that you don’t get any fatter!

Here is a rule of thumb for you: if a certain food tastes too good, it means it has been richly fried, and as such, not good for your health. Surprisingly enough, the raw vegetables and fruits, which usually taste awful, are the best foods for quick weight loss!

1. Visit vegetarian restaurants: In order to be on the safe side, visit restaurants which offer only vegetarian meals. This is not to say that non-veg meals are bad. With non-veg restaurants, you have to take extra care to make sure that you are not eating high-calorie or high-fat foods.

As an example, ordinary chicken meat which is served in most restaurants is usually laden with huge amounts of fat which is bad for you! Lean chicken meat, on the other hand, is good for you, but not all restaurants offer lean chicken meat as part of their menus. With vegetarian restaurants, you will be more often than not on the safe side!

2. Let the salad dressing go: You have heard it a zillion times that salads are good for quick weight loss. The reason behind this is that salads are nothing but raw vegetables in chopped form. Raw vegetables, as you might be aware, help you burn fat by boosting your metabolic rate. However, the salad dressing that is provided in most restaurants is rich in calorie. So whenever you ask for salads, make sure to instruct them to remove the salad dressing from the top!

3. Stay away from buffets: A lot of the foods you see at buffets are rich in calorie content. These foods are cooked in bulk with a large amount of oil, thereby making them unsuitable for those who are looking forward to shedding some pounds. If you really want to eat from buffets, make sure you steer clear of these fatty foods and choose the salads and other healthier alternatives instead! That way, you won’t accumulate an excessive amount of fat in your body!

4. Control your portions: Check the amount of food you are going to eat before you take that bite! If you think that the food provided to you exceed the portion control limit you are allowed, eat according to your portion limit and then carry the leftovers back home to be eaten on the next day. Ask for a box from the restaurant to help you carry the leftovers.

As long as you use your discretion, there is nothing wrong with eating at a restaurant once in while. So go ahead and appease your tastebuds!

Source: sensa-weight-loss-system.com

[Via http://douglasgreen.wordpress.com]

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15 Minute Stir-Fry Dinner

2010-03-18T04:00:00.000+02:00

When I’m tired from a hard day’s work but don’t want to cop out by having instant noodles, I go the wholesome route by doing a quick stir-fry. This time, a quick run through the supermarket got me some organic choy sum, mixed agro-tech mushrooms, ginger and some pork shoulder. Once I got home, I washed and cut the vegetables quickly, then sliced the mushrooms, ginger and pork. (I can never be bothered to wash them.) That takes about 10 minutes and then the stir-fry itself takes 5 minutes. If there’s leftover rice in the fridge, then a 2 minute microwave sorts out the rice. If not, it’s a 5 minute boil of noodles. No, the minutes don’t add up to 15 because a lot of them are done simultaneously. After that short time of quick work, a piping hot and very home-cooked satisfying dinner.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp oil

6 thin slices of ginger

handful mushrooms, cut into chunks

small piece pork, sliced

good splash Chinese shaoxing wine or dry sherry

salt to taste

soy sauce to taste

Method:

Heat your wok over the highest possible flame. Coat the wok with the oil and allow to get as hot as you dare. Make sure all your ingredients are ready.
Slide in the ginger (gingerly!) and stir. Just before the ginger burns, toss in the pork. Stir rapidly till just about cooked, then add the mushrooms and keep stirring furiously. Now add the vegetables and keep going till the leaves are completely wilted.
Splash in the Chinese wine and add salt and soy sauce to taste. Turn off the heat and serve over rice or noodles.

Serves 1.

[Via http://eatdrinkcooktravel.wordpress.com]

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Weekend Soup for the Soul

2010-03-16T22:53:00.000+02:00

I’m sure you’re aware of that highly successful franchise entitled “_____ Soup for the Soul.” They’ve filled that blank in with more drivel than the “_____ for Dummies” franchise. As such, I’m sure they won’t mind if little ole bloggin me lifts it for my own personal usage. Right?! Right!

As all three of my loyal readers know, about a year and a half ago I went through a separation that was perhaps the hardest period of my time here on earth to date. For those who have ever suffered through a separation, especially if kids are involved, you understand the range of emotions that one can go through. But as this new year has dawned, I’ve begun to feel the sun creeping through the darkened windows of my soul. Life just might be all right after all!

And so, it was with great excitement that back in February, I began preparations for a weekend getaway with two of my closest friends who we’ll affectionately call Starshine and Sugartoes (much like the military’s very misguided policy, we don’t ask and don’t tell when talking about these names except to say that it is to protect the not-so-innocent). Those early sketches of a plan eventually evolved into something that looked like it might just be what the doctor ordered.

In an effort to set the tone for the weekend, Starshine ordered up an electric blue VW Jetta (“ole blue”) to haul our butts up from sunny Southern California (Starshine in Newport Beach and me in Silver Lake) to first Placerville and then San Francisco where we would meet up with Sugartoes. I’m sure you’re wondering why the heck Placerville and well, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t too sure either. It quickly became apparent when ole blue showed up and Starshine’s puggle waddled it’s way out of the backseat where it had already managed to deposit enough hair to reupholster my sofa. I knew immediately that we were in for a great time!

By some point later than anticipated we hit the road with me behind the wheel and Starshine safely ensconced as the navigator. Given the lateness of our departure, I hauled ass (not that I don’t anyway, but I was definitely carried away with a stronger sense of urgency). What I should have hauled was a map, because before too long, we found ourselves on one of LA’s many freeways pointed in a decidedly less than North direction. Another hour lost. Once you’ve lost an hour, it never seems as though you can make it up, but damn did I try! Despite driving rains starting on the 5 somewhere before Stockton and continuing through Sacramento, we made it safely to Placerville where we dropped off Happy with Starshine’s gorgeous mom. Despite her pleas otherwise, we had to hightail it out of there. Deadlines are a b*tch sometimes!

Over at Sugartoes little place on these interwebs, you’ll find a recap of our time together in the City, that beautiful City by the Bay. I won’t regale you with stories of our time together because it’s already been done and better than I could. I will say that it was damn near perfect! I’ll start where Sugartoes left off -

After tooling through some beautiful neighborhoods with the sun shining on us, Starshine and I rushed over to SFO to pick up a colleague before heading up to god’s country, also known in these parts as wine country, or Napa Valley. Of course, said colleague’s flight was delayed and I was hungry. I know that Sugartoes said something about a food coma and not being hungry, but get real, I like to eat. No, take that back, I need to eat constantly. It’s a real miracle that I’m not some two-ton-bessie given my monstrosity of an appetite. For some reason not quite clear to me, it was decided that to properly view the gems and fabulous geegaws that have besplendored (and don’t tell me it’s not a word, it’s my weekend and it’ll be a word if I want it to be) the arms of so many of the uber-rich society matrons (you know, the ones who look like they’ve been sucking at the teet of the lemon tree), one should do so on an empty stomach. But, I’ve digressed. After circling the airport, we decided to park the car and find some food. Thankfully there was a little bitty food court that served up a lovely soup to go with some decidedly suspect pasta both of which soothed the raging beast that was my stomach.

Once we collected said colleague (who of course managed to show up as soon as my food did), we hit the road. Again, I hit it hard because, well, surprise, we were late for our first wine tasting/tour. Oh, you should probably know that said colleague attended college with a guy we’ll just call wine god who has proved to be quite successful at managing a little thing called a vineyard that produces some mighty fine wines, including a little Pinot that damn near sent me over the edge (more about that later). We did arrive in Napa, but late and as such missed our 3p.

Wine god said not to worry and with a flick or two of his phone had made other, possibly better arrangements. Wine god made it clear that ole blue would not be needed for the next leg of our weekend. Rather we should pile into the Porsche Cayenne parked on the side of the house. Now listen, here’s the funniest part of that deal, for the next 20 or so hours, we spent a great deal of time in that beautiful specimen of a sports car meets SUV and every damn time we hopped in, wine god made sure to tell us what a total “piece of sh*t” it was.

I won’t bore you with too many more details. We tasted some great Pinots at Etude, followed by a sunset tasting of some beautiful sparkling wines at Domaine Carneros after which we checked into our hotel (Avia Napa) for some quick spramping before our 7:30p dinner reservations. Dinner was at this fabulous new little place called Farmstead (part of the Long Meadow Ranch). There really aren’t words for the delightful (and lengthy) meal we enjoyed. And it’s here where that lovely bottle of Pinot was uncorked, allowed to breathe and then savored. Listen, I don’t know sh*t-from-shinola when it comes to wines, but this little bottle the wine god brought made me want to marry wine god! With visions of Pinots and Napa Valley weddings to wine gods meandering through my head, I somehow managed to climbed into my bed at the Avia and drift into a most beautiful dreamland.

Next morning dawned gorgeous (again…Starshine kept saying we brought the good weather with us) and, prodded by a call for the colleague, we hopped up, through back some coffee and headed off towards for a little winery up by Mt. Veeder called The Hess Collection. It was here at The Hess that I got my first real glimpse of the amount of blood, sweat and tears that go into making a beautiful wine. Following our private tour, I was left in awe and vowed never again to drink two-buck-chuck. It just wouldn’t be fair!

Speaking of unfair, at some point, I was reminded that I had to leave paradise. What to do though? Starshine had to stay for a conference and Sugartoes was dealing with work drama and I, well, I was stuck. Except of course I wasn’t. One of the many amenities of the Napa Valley was a lovely transportation service called Evans Transportation that had me out of Napa by 2:30p and at SFO by 4:00p giving me ample time to shop for the progeny (he wanted a key chain) and catch a 5:30p flight to LA. I was home allowing my dog to put a massive wreck job on my face (yeah, I look like I’ve been in a bar brawl) by 7:30p.

This morning, despite being awakened by a strong jolt (damn earthquakes) and stuff falling off the walls, I’m still blissful. I needed to get away! I needed a little pampering! I needed to spend a little bit of quality time with two of the bestest friends a boy could ever ask for.

Here’s to friends both old and new who enriched my life and provided the soup to sooth my soul!

[Via http://sleevenotes101.wordpress.com]

Hot Air » Blog Archive » The good news that went unreported on air ...

Late Mother's Day Special.

2010-03-16T10:15:00.000+02:00

It was Mother’s Day in the UK (which is probably where mothers were invented) on Sunday, so this post is in honour of all that NONSENSE.

The story today is likely to be a bit shit, so I’m giving you two photos for the price of one. The price, incidentally, is no pounds.

Terry the baby polar bear and his mum, Hagrid, went out shopping. It’s quite hard to go shopping in the Arctic because there are no shops, but they somehow managed to buy a bottle of wine and a Fruit Shoot.

Terry was thrilled to have a Fruit Shoot, because it made him feel like one of those kids off the telly that didn’t live in the flipping Arctic. He guzzled it down happily while his mum drank the bottle of wine.

Sadly, in no time at all she had finished the wine and was quite drunk. She kept telling Terry about how much she loved him, and that dad would be back soon. She did this every Mother’s Day.

Eventually she passed out hugging Terry tightly, so he couldn’t escape.

He couldn’t get out until the next day.

Thanks to Miriam for these pics, she got them from here.

Also, you may have noticed I just update this around midweek once a week at the moment, this practice is likely to continue for the time being.

[Via http://animalonanimal.wordpress.com]

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New weekly series: Everyday Gourmet

2010-03-16T04:30:00.000+02:00

I have added another page to my blog called Everyday Gourmet. The problem is that my newness to blogging means I cant quite figure out how to post weekly to that page…so I will give you a link here so that you can see installment 1 of Everyday Gourmet which you will not want to miss because it will make your mouth water…its called Garlic Naan Pizza. yep, you should go check it out!

[Via http://theonearmedchef.wordpress.com]

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Carmel Crawl

2010-03-14T22:28:00.000+02:00

Cozy B&Bs + equal ratio of dogs to people + Mediterranean eats = Carmel-by-the-sea. Given its sleepy atmosphere, we decided to shake things up for our Saturday night in Carmel by doing a foodie crawl of sorts through the quaint beach town.

First we stopped for a wine flight at Southern Latitudes Wines, where we enjoyed watching the resident beagle puppies nap in the window seat and play with their chew toys.

Out of the gentle Australian and Chilean wines we tasted, our clear favorites were the D’Arenberg Hermit Crab Marsanne/Viognier and NV Yalumba Antique Tawny Port. The viognier was buttery but light, and smooth on the tongue without the burning sensation of too much alcohol. The tawny port tasted like a swirl of brown sugar, and didn’t have the heavy syrup quality that can weigh down others. We picked up one of each for the road!

Next up, oysters and bubbly at Flaherty’s Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill (translation: sparkling wine for me, and beer for David). We chose to split our half shell dozen between the Chesapeake and British Columbia selections but in the end the Chesapeake oysters were much larger and flavorful.

Since the dominant cuisines in Carmel are Italian, French and seafood, we opted for Carmel Bistro Giovanni to replicate the “steakhouse” experience, as recommended by our friendly host at Briarwood Inn. We tried Giovanni’s own Zinfandel, and fought over my crab ravioli with scallops and champagne cream sauce. David’s choice didn’t meet his expectations, but fortunately I was too stuffed to finish my entree – leaving room for the surprise chocolate cake they treated us to.

But the star of the show turned out to be the “Giovanni Insalatina Greca” (greek salad). Beyond the typical flavors of a greek salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, kalamata olives), Giovanni adds dried cranberries (or dates, as listed on the menu). The combination of flavors – in complete balance since all ingredients are chopped to a similar size – was a surprising treat that would be very easy to replicate at home.

All in all, there are plenty of cozy, fireside restaurants to try. In fact, we had brunch at the Cottage Restaurant earlier in the day (they’re open all day for breakfast fanatics) and an afternoon coffee at Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Company (the name speaks for itself). And if you have a friendly dog, they will be welcomed with open arms.

[Via http://dinnerwithdavid.wordpress.com]

News is a social experience

Tasting: Matrot Puligny-Montrachet Chalumeaux 2007

2010-03-14T04:00:00.000+02:00

Tasted out of a half-bottle. Rich aromas of flowers and a bit of honey, none of the brighter citrus or mineral I’d expect from a 2007 Puligny, especially considering that Chalumeaux is upslope and a bit steeper than many of the other 1ers crus. No undue oak treatment apparent. A bit hot however and lacking the definition and structure of the vintage. About as low in acid as any white Burgundy I’ve tasted in this vintage. To be fair, Matrot has never been a producer I’ve liked very much and Chalumeaux is squarely in the second tier of Puligny vineyards, still I expected a bit more cut. Drink soon.

[Via http://stevegoldun.wordpress.com]

Betty White to host 'SNL' in May | EW.com

Hardy's Crest Chardonnay..a melon explosion?

2010-03-13T22:39:00.000+02:00

Hardy’s Crest Chardonnay 2009 – SE Australia – 13.5%

I think I have a genuine problem with Chardonnay – I don’t know if it’s just the trashy image or the dryness, or my stubborn preference for deep reds. But anyhow I opened it now so here goes.

Hardy's Crest Chardonnay

The first impression (after rasing an eyebrow at the impressive image projection on the Crest adorned label) was one of sticky alco pop or fruit pop, slight citrus but more predominantly melon – and actually the (somewhat feint) smell and melon taste backdrop is a nice feature.

The longer the sampling the more I found myself bored and the raw monotonic taste and bland dryness began to grate. If I’m being unkind I’d say it was drumming up memories of dentists or hospitals – mouth wash, the fragrance of hospital floor cleaner? Not sure, but whilst the crisp chilled-ness should be making me think of sunshine it somehow isn’t.

To give it its dues it’s not as dry as many a chardonnay and if you’re after an almost fizzy pop-py type of low-end wine it fits the bill. It has little depth but provides a warmth and a strange fizzy kickback.

The label says it’s creamy? Well, it’s a bit of an overstatement (huh marketing), but it does kind of expand in the mouth before delivering that raw punch and on a long lingering taste the explosion of melon is quite distinct, which I’m certain now is the wine’s strongest point.

It was a bad accompanyment to chinese food, but I’m not sure exactly what is the right setting for this one. (An 80’s bar? Ok I’ll stop there..)

Julie’s comment: “crisp but not flavoursome”

[Via http://mygrapevine.wordpress.com]

Richmond LIVE On Twitter: Local News, Sports, People

Palo Alto Reserva

2010-03-13T16:46:00.000+02:00

홈플러스 와인 클럽에서 쿠폰이 왔길래 와인 쇼핑을 나갔다 고른 와인(정가 16,800원인데 11,800원에 할인받아 샀다).

Conchay Toro 생산이라 해서 기대를 가지고 사서 처가에서 장인어른과 같이 시음을 하였다. 맛은 그다지 진하지 않지만 상당히 괜찮은 향을 갖고 있어 1만원대 와인으로 질리지 않고 즐길 수 있을 것 같다.

기왕 할인하는 김에 좀 더 사둘껄 그랬나…

[Via http://dongjun.wordpress.com]

O'Reilly Blasts Raines' Anti-Fox News Op-Ed: 'Shame on The ...

Frontera Sauvignon Blanc

2010-03-13T02:48:00.000+02:00

More from the folks at Frontera. This time a white.

Vineyard:     Frontera (by Concha Y Toro)

Vintage:       2009

Appellation: Central Valley – Chile

Price:          $6.49

Notes:         Nice citrus with floral notes on the nose. Core flavos for me were kiwi and lemon grass. Considering I bought this bottle on sale for $4.00, I have absolutely no complaints.

Important: I am not a professional sommelier or wine connoissuer. I have taste buds, however, and know what I like. Please do not consider my thoughts to be an endorsement or diminution of any particular wine. You should always judge for yourself as likes, dislikes, and taste are very subjective.

[Via http://joepeckblogarhythms.wordpress.com]

Former NYT Editor Howell Raines Drums Fox News Out of Journalism ...

Sip! 2010 - McMinnville Wine & Food Classic

2010-03-11T22:38:00.000+02:00

The experiment in direct marketing continues this weekend; Sip – The 17th Annual McMinnville Wine & Food Classic – will be held at the Evergreen Space Museum, in the heart of Oregon Wine Country.

http://www.macwfc.org/

I’m looking forward to seeing the Spruce Goose again. I used to go to Long Beach for the Formula One and IndyCar races every year and I toured it once. A wooden airplane, my kind of aircraft!

Looking at the event schedule, I see that local pianist Tom Grant is not listed anymore, but Ellen Whyte is playing with a trio on Saturday evening. Tom was scheduled to play on Sunday, something must have happened. I was looking forward to seeing him but Ellen on the line up was a surprise. I have been following Ellen’s bands for a dozen years. She had a fifteen piece big band at the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival this last July and played arrangement from her new CD. It was one of the best performances in the whole week and she also did a duo performance with local tenor sax player Renato Curanto that killed.

It has just started to pour down rain and they are saying that this storm is one of those slow-moving tropical systems that might bring us up to normal rainfall for the year. It hasn’t rained that much so far this year, and I saw on the news that we are only at 87% or normal for the snow pack. Good thing it’s inside. Now if I can just get all my stuff down there with our being drenched.

[Via http://knottraditionalwoodworks.com]

War of Words Continues Between White House, Supreme Court ...

Ailment #5: Athetes Foot

2010-03-11T16:47:00.000+02:00

Sorry its been so long since my last post. Life got in the way a little. Hope any of my loyal readers didn’t get mad, if i even have loyal readers. Tried to get a second job, my fiance’s car died so i have to get him to work and down to school for classes (he’s training to be a chef). So here i am with some time to add a post before I pick him up.

So, im sure many of you have had that burning itch between your toes or anywhere else on the body. It’s really a form of ringworm. The fungus loves dark, warm places, your toes or even your groin. And once you get it, it might take up to 4 weeks to get rid of it.

One suggestion is to simply go barefoot or wear open toed shoes. Even walking barefoot in the ocean will help. Drying out your feet and salt water will help kill the fungus.

It’s real easy to get rid of if you really keep at any of the recommendations.

If you can’t get near an ocean, soak your feet in solution of 2 teaspoons salt to a pint of warm water for 5 to 10 min. Dry your feet with a hair dryer and put on new clean socks.

Baking Soda Paste- One tablespoon baking soda and a bit of lukewarm water, rub on fungus, rinse and dry with hair dryer, dust with powder or cornstarch.

Wine!- This sounds interesting but someone swears by this method. 1 ounce Sage, 1 ounce Agrimony (herb, can find at natural food markets) and 2 cups white wine. Simmer mixture in covered pan for 20 min. Cool and soak the foot repeatedly. Theres no time on how long to soak. I’m guessing 20 min or so.

Garlic- this too may sound strange but i know this works. One suggestion is to add some crushed cloves to warm water and a bit of rubbing alcohol. Another approach is to cut cloves of garlic and directly place them between your toes, but your feet up and watch some TV for 20 min or so. Watch out, if the skin is broken the garlic does burn a bit.

Ginger- A less painful approach, add an ounce of ginger root to boiling water, simmer for 20 min or so and apply directly to area with cotton ball or cloth.

Teatree Oil- Some brands come with a brush, but if yours doesnt, Dilute with a bit of water and apply directly to the area, three times a day. DONT INGEST!!!!

Next Post….”A”….ADHD

[Via http://botan007.wordpress.com]

The Hockey News: Special Features: VIDEO: Bruins goaltending ...

El finale: Home is where you hang your head and sigh

2010-03-11T04:03:00.000+02:00

Okay. I have been told — and I fully realize — that I may be lingering far too long in the land of steak, wine, and dulce de leche. It’s a little self-indulgent, perhaps, and I get it! I totally do. While this armchair travel experience has been both hilariously entertaining and culturally educational for my readers, you are eager to get back to our dear homeland, where the grass is asphalt and the steak is hot dogs. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. Still amn’t. But I need to face facts and admit that we’ve actually been back in New York for the past month and a half, and no matter how hard I shut my eyes and hope against hope, the Fine Living Network isn’t calling to ask me to do an extended, intensive investigation of Argentina’s Ten Most Flamboyant and Revoltingly Luxurious Hotels.

As my grandmother used to say, here we are, so that’s where we’ll be. But before we got here, we were there: among the only hotel guests of a sprawling vineyard and resort in San Rafael, in the Mendoza (read: wine) region of Argentina. Our last three days of honeymoon bliss read like one of those ridiculous Celebrity Cruise lines commercials: we indulged in an outdoor cooking class with the hotel’s chef, I received an olive oil massage out on a patio overlooking the pool, we were given a complementary, 3-hour private wine-tasting class, and oh yeah, we had our own golf cart with which to freely explore the sprawling farm and untamed brush.

Pretty darn pretty

It was pretty perfect, in all, though the experience wasn’t without some valuable life lessons. For instance, while it may seem like too good an opportunity to pass up, one oughtn’t eat two consecutive meals featuring provoleta, chorizo, and half a bottle of wine (among other things). For if one does, one will wind up with a wretched case of “food poisoning” the day one is forced to wait 3 hours in a tiny airport and then make the 12-hour journey back to New York. And by food poisoning, I mean self-inflicted overdose, much like what would happen to a dog if you left the entire bag of kibble within reach. On the bright side, sun poisoning + food poisoning = honeymoon bingo! I win!

These plates represent the number of chorizo-topped grilled cheese blobs I consumed in a 12-hour period.

I also learned that after a 3-hour wine tasting, if one chooses to then consume half a bottle of rose poolside, one probably ought to wait a little while before jumping in and “swimming.” Didn’t my mother and camp counselors warn me about this when I was little? As it turns out, wine + pool = something of a mess, and I think I wound up consuming an equal amount of chlorinated water as I did alcohol. It was super fun, mostly because I didn’t actually drown to death!

You can't tell, but in all likelihood this book is actually upside-down.

Those sterling nuggets (ew) of wisdom aside, there was one exercise we just couldn’t master. We’d heard about how late people eat dinner in Argentina. And we tried to assimilate, tried to adjust our internal clocks and do as they did. But no matter how much effort we put into making late reservations, no matter how many times we were sure we’d gotten it right, we just kept winding up alone in restaurants. Fancy restaurants, trendy restaurants, wildly popular restaurants. We were always, always completely alone. We just could not figure it out. We’d show up at 10pm and leave at 11:30, never seeing another diner. We’d show up at 10:45pm and leave after midnight, and maybe catch a glimpse of an honest-to-god Argentinean couple sauntering in with a bright-eyed toddler in tow. At first, it was kind of nice. Two newlyweds, oblivious to others around us, absorbed in each other and our food and wine. No obnoxious table-neighbors drowning out our conversation, no competition for the water guy. But after the first couple of evenings like that, we both realized how awkward and uncomfortable it felt to be sitting in a big, empty establishment, with one guy waiting on us and the rest of the waiters milling around. Or worse, all of them serving us at once — sometimes we’d have a bread guy, a wine pourer, a water-glass-filler AND a crumber, all in addition to our server. Occasionally, there would be another family or couple seated, and we would perk up. Perhaps we’d cracked the code and been tacitly welcomed into the Forbidden City! But inevitably, within minutes their loud, American voices would reverberate across the room, serving as a sharp and shameful reminder of our lame tourist status, broadcasting our loserdom in our own heads. We are those travelers who really like to think we’re cooler and smarter and more sophisticated than your average Ugly American. I mean, we’re worldly, we’re from New York, we dig the restaurant scene, we’ve even been known to hang out at a hip bar or two. But throughout the entire country of Argentina, we may as well have been clipping coupons out of The Pennysaver for the early bird special. As silly as it sounds, it was humbling, but more than that it was just sort of frustrating. It was like all the Argentinians had conspired together to stay hidden until we were safely on the way back to our hotel. If only I’d looked in that urn by the bathroom.

Here’s the thing of it: Matt and I loved being on vacation together. We hardly fought, we typically wanted to do all the same things, got hungry around the same time, even our sleep cycles managed to sync up. But even traveling as a team, as closely knit as they come, being in a foreign country can feel very lonely. And when it seems like everyone is somewhere you will never find, it only heightens your sense of being an outsider. I’m aware that many people would pay for the privilege of emptying out a beautiful restaurant. But if I’m out in the world, I want the other residents to show their faces and be there with me.

So that brings us, inexorably, to the island of Manhattan. I’m back to spending my days elbow to elbow with far too many people. They cram onto the subway platforms, angling for a straight shot at the doors with no intention of letting people out of the car first, they dodge and weave aggressively around one another on the sidewalks, they groan and sigh loudly when a tourist takes too long making a decision at Cosi, they’re rude to customer service professionals and fiercely territorial at restaurants and bars. They’re loud, mean, impatient, entitled, and competitive, and they’re everywhere, all the time.

I guess it’s sort of nice to be home, jerks.

Fine Living Network, I work cheap.

[Via http://theschwajaks.wordpress.com]

Small Business News March 10, 2010 | Small Business Trends

Le Bistro de L'Hotel - Beaune

2010-03-09T16:57:00.000+02:00

I’ve been hearing about this place since it opened a few years ago but never bothered to check it out. For the most part, I’d only heard about the hotel it’s attached to and how expensive it was – instant turnoff – not the restaurant. When I finally did hear about Le Bistro, I was led to believe that the food was modern and overdone, exactly what I would expect from an expensive hotel in a small French town. We were booked at Ma Cuisine that night but Etienne insisted that we join him here for dinner, cancelling reservations at my favorite place in town and jeopardizing the potential to dine there at all on this trip. A couple of nights prior at another dinner, the subject of Burgundy restaurants popped up and the Bistro and when asked why we hadn’t been there, we told him. Apparently JW, another frequent visitor, had heard the same thing and wasn’t interested. Etienne insisted that what we heard wasn’t true and that this place was the real thing; fabulous yes, a bit pricey yes. But very traditional. He should know, he not only lives here but really knows food and wine. Now I was excited. The place certainly has the look of a luxe restaurant but the atmosphere is actually warm and inviting, just like a bistro should be. The main differences between this place and the great bistro’s of Paris like L’Ami Louis and Chez George, for example, are the noise level and the fact that your not seated elbow to elbow with total strangers. A small town luxury. The most important difference for me however is that the food is better here and the wine list is among the best in town. Very thoughtful list with great values and a good selection of older wines. There were a of prix fixe options but we chose to order à la carte since we were sharing different things.

I started with a dish of coques, a bit like our manila clams but smaller, sweeter and more delicate, that was elegant and light, a welcome break amongst all the rich food we’d been eating. Steamed in splash of white wine and served with parsley, garlic and a bit of olive oil, not the usual addition of cream. Almost identical to the vongole veraci aglio olio my aunt makes for me in Napoli but for the absence of dried red pepper. Here it’s replaced with fresh black pepper (you’d never use both) My dining companions started with a couple of black truffle dishes, one a coddled egg with shavings of truffle and the other a risotto with the same. The egg looked great, the yolk perfectly runny, and I did taste the risotto which was more than competent but hey, it’s not northern Italy. We washed this down with a Raveneau Chablis Valmur 2007, a real treat since it’s about as good as Chablis gets, a great vintage and I can’t find it at home. What followed was fantastic. We decided on two dishes which were prepared for two; Poulet de Bresse, a local delicacy, and côte de veau, both carved tableside. The veal was excellent. Cooked on the rare side, especially towards the bone, but tender which is an accomplishment since veal tends to be a little chewy if not cooked past rare to rosy in the center. Served with a a simple morel cream sauce in a gravyboat it was heartwarming. The real revelation here was the poulet. The bird was carved with what looked like a steak knife and I couldn’t believe how easy it was coming apart, just falling off the bone. If you’ve ever had Poulet de Bresse you probably know it as a meaty, fairly firm bird, almost dry, albeit with incredible flavor. This was something else. Unbelievably tender and rich, the white meat being every bit as delectable as the dark. Easily the best either of us had ever eaten. I asked Russell about this the next day and he let on a secret I’d never heard (then again I’m not a chef); you poach the bird first, mi-cuit and then finish it by roasting in a beastly hot oven until crisp. No problem. Etienne blinded us on one of his own wines. Amy and I guessed Côte de Beaune almost immediately and she wound up in Pommard, I in Volnay Chênes. She guessed a riper vintage, I guessed something a bit leaner like 95, 93 or 91. We were both right. It was the De Montille Pommard Pézerolles 1991. Earthy and perfumed with sous bois and cherries. Fantastic with the chicken and a real treat to drink old Burgundy with such great provenance. We were blinded on another wine with the excellent cheese course. This one was a little easier since it was white and fairly reeked of Puligny-Montrachet though, as JW pointed out, it could have been a Chassagne. I made my first ever winery visit to said commune the very next day so I would’ve pled ignorance. It was a Leflaive 2001 Villages in half-bottle, great cheese wine. All things considered, the cooking is top-rate though on the expensive side as Beaune restaurants go. I think it will become a regular stop for me. Highly recommended.

5 rue Samuel Legay

21200 Beaune (France)

33 (0) 3 80 25 94 14

[Via http://stevegoldun.wordpress.com]

Modern Warfare 2 hits 25m unique players News | Eurogamer

A little bit of France in the middle of Central

2010-03-09T10:31:00.000+02:00

A lovely little suprise how good this place is. No wonder it’s always full (lunch time as far as I know anyway) since it’s opened. Great atmosphere, quality food at a very good price. 3 course set lunch was $98 + 10%. At this price or even higher, you get a lot of crap food in this area where the restaurants look far better than the food they serve. I had the Chicken Caesar Salad to start, it was very nice, the lettuce was crispy and cold, sauce was just right, chicken was tender and juicy, not dry at all. My friend had the Cream Carrot Soup which was thick and creamy and can actually taste the carrot!

For main, we both had the Poached Sole Fillet with Butter Lemon Sauce. The fish was fresh and nicely poached. No excess water like some that I’ve had in other places. The sauce was quite light but tasty considering it’s a butter sauce. Even the side dish of grilled eggplant and zucchini was done perfect.

For Dessert we had the Walnut cheesecake which was to die for even though I’ve never been a walnut person.

All in all, this is a great place to hang out, get fed with great food, and I’m sure their wine list must be good too. I’ll try that next time. Menu changes each week. Be sure to check with the restaurant.

[Via http://sleeepy.wordpress.com]

Cromartie Contract News - Gang Green Nation

a flying dream

2010-03-09T04:54:00.000+02:00

Today my mind has been racing all over the place. Lots and lots of noise. Too much noise. I have to slow it down. Have to focus. So I thought I’ll sit and blog a dream I’ve had a couple times, the first time was about a month ago. I like this dream, even if it woke me the first time with my heart racing.

It starts in a present-day sort of setting, but I’m at a summer camp or boarding school of sorts. The dorms are set up sort of in an apartment style, several stories tall. But with an interior hall. There were four people to a room, there were no doors. The dorms are set up on a campus of sorts in the country with rivers and waterfalls. It is really pretty.

I am further down the hall on the boys’ end of the floor taking a shower in a friend’s room. Some crazy women, I think they are teachers or chaperones of some sort, but they are mad and angry and killing everyone. I sneak back to my room to get clothes but before I can the women are coming down the hall with carts full of body bags. Everyone I was just hanging out with on the other side of the dorm are dead. I tell my roommates we need to run, so I take off, no clothing on.

We get to the front gates, where there is a parking lot with the faculty cars. We find a group of people and rush to a car to hot wire it and escape. At this point, while in the car I am very aware of a choice I have. I know that I can wake up and end it and not be scared at all or I can keep dreaming and see what happens. I choose to keep dreaming. After that choice, some evil thing pushes the car into the river. We escape out of the sun roof and windows and are swimming in the river to find safety.

I am with one friend now. She and I go over a waterfall and the setting changes. It’s an older time. It’s more wild. The river splits ahead of us. Evil women keep shooting at us and two guys jump in. I know that they are bad but they are different, not evil. They have magic weapons and I know we need them to find safety. They have some sort of magical weapons.

They tell us to swim to the right. Once we’re over to the right, they try to kill us. But I get close enough to one of them to look him in the eyes. The eye contact was important and allowed me to convince them to not kill us. We agreed to help them. Once they saw we were not the evil women they didn’t try to hurt us anymore. I tell them about the evil women and why we are in the river. They tell us they have to find the wine.

We see an old building along the left bank of the river. We’re sneaking our way inside. Some sort of priest is after us. I’m still naked and barefoot so I am not running over the rocks as quickly. But I find a spot to start climbing a wall. One of the guys comes back to help make sure the priest doesn’t catch me. At the top I find a strange rack full of wine bottles in the ceiling. I hide up there so the priest can’t hear us. He walks past me and up a different set of stone steps.

The priest knows we are there. He tells us to all drink a bottle of his wine if we want to live. He has me drop down bottles from where I’m hiding to everyone. We start drinking his wine but find out it isn’t wine at all. They are bottles of blood. Something changes in us. We’re different, but the same.

There is an explosion outside. The evil women who had been chasing us die in the fire. We swim out from the building. The river is curling around farms, we see small run down homes. Poor homes. We are evil now. But not bad. We know there is a war of evil coming. We have wings. And we fly up out of the water through smoldering trees. There are others like us flying into the sky. We are getting ready for war.

[Via http://emacaroni.wordpress.com]

Report: ABC News faked at least one part of runaway Toyota report ...

Cellar Tasting: Giroud 2008 03/01/10

2010-03-07T22:37:00.000+02:00

I don’t think I’ve ever visited Burgundy without tasting here. Camille Giroud is a négociant house, a tiny one in the grand scheme of things, that owns very little in the way of vineyards but has privileged relationships with some of the best growers in Burgundy. They also have a fantastic cellar with wines dating back to the 1930’s and occasionally put some of these on the market. Unlike many négociants who take whatever fruit, juice or made wine they can get their hands on, often with little regard for anything but prestigious appellation, David chooses only the best. In fact, he recently stopped working with a grower in one of Volnay’s top sites, Taillepieds, because he felt the fruit was consistently problematic. This is a wine I’ve been a fan of for years (shows you what I know). This also means that you can expect excellent quality from lesser appellations, one of the reasons Giroud dominates my selection of sub $35 Burgundy.

David’s take on the 2008 vintage is that the low natural sugars required chaptalization, one of the few winemakers I know who openly talk about this sort of thing, in many cases but to increase alcohol by no more than a half point. He also felt that the pips weren’t quite ripe for the most part which meant that they needed to be handled carefully so as not to infuse the wine with green tannins. Phenolic ripeness was the key in this vintage and the September wind, the Bise , helped in that regard and was indeed credited with saving the vintage. These winds come out of the Alps and blow constantly and vigourously, helping to dry out fruit bloated from a couple of weeks of rain; often the difference between a disaster and an excellent harvest. All in all David feels that this a classic, terroir driven vintage a bit like 2001 but perhaps a bit more generous. A sentiment shared by every winemaker I visited with this week. Our tasting, like all tastings this week, focused on the 2008 vintage which is approaching bottling in the next couple of months and shipping to the US later this year. As a caveat, tasting at this stage may tell us much about the potential of the wine but these aren’t quite finished yet and any notes of reduction, disjointedness etc. are not judgements of quality as such. There are tasting notes for a couple of great wines from the cellar at the end with pricing, availability and ETA.

Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Au Crêtot

A bit closed but spice and flowers coming through along with notes of raw ferment, to be expected at this stage. High acid, a hallmark of the vintage, but supporting tannins and core of pure fruit. Low yielding plot at 30 hectolitres per hectare in the Hautes Côtes just west of the Côte de Beaune.

Bourgogne Rouge 2008

Always one of my faves here. Very floral, particularly violet, and a bit of spice with bright red fruit on the nose. Crystalline structure with crunchy red fruit flavors. Firm acid and ripe tannins. From a plot across the N74 from Volnay.

Cote de Beaune Villages 2008

Violet and crisp red fruit. More meat here than the prior two wines and a bit rounder with good punch. A bit taut with crisp acids and firm but not chalky tannins.

Volnay 2008

From the lieu-dit Les Grands Champs below Mitans. Deep, clayey topsoils which provide wines of richness if lacking a bit of finesse. Classic Volnay perfume of flowers and raspberry, very Chambolle-like. High-toned but detailed and precise with structural components in balance.

Beaune 1er Cru Cent-Vignes 2008

Cent-Vignes is in the northern section of the commune where the slope turns to face almost directly east. Lots of perfume and spice with a hint of oak. A bit of reduction as well. Taut but with good body and the roundness of good Beaune without the roughness.

Beaune 1er Cru Les Cras 2008

From one of the top couple of climats in the commune. Tight on the palate with some red fruit and mineral but very long and pure.

Santenay Villages 2008

I was wondering why we were poured this wine from the pedestrian Santenay appellation after the Volnay and Beaune until the moment I stuck my nose in the glass. Very expressive nose of violet and iron, big fat mid-palate with lots of meat and blue fruits. Great drinker. If it’s anything like this after bottling, I’m buying as much as possible.

Maranges 1er Cru La Croix Moines 2008

Pretty floral and red fruit notes. A bit more refined than the Santenay and certainly not as loud. More minerality, tension and length.

Pommard Epenots 2008

From the parcel Clos de Citeaux. Notes of rose, violet and mineral. Light in color. Floral, stony nose with a bit of toast. Rich, warm mid-palate with excellent, sappy length. Very elegant wine.

Gevrey-Chambertin Les Crais 2008

Les Crais is situated below the road next to La Justice. A zone where the slopewash from the grands crus above has deposited great topsoil. This wine hasn’t been racked yet so still a bit of CO2. Pretty nose, good sweet fruit soft structure and good length.

Vosne-Romanée 2008

Classic Vosne nose of spice and mineral. Richly textured dark fruit flavors, very dense and fine. Bright acidity but full bodied. Excellent.

Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru les Vaucrains 2008

Very expressive nose of rose and iron with hints of ripe red fruit. Dark and powerful fruit and dense, persistent mid-palate. Big and brawny, loaded with potential.

Corton-Rognets 2008

Quiet but dark nose of black fruit and mineral. Punchy and expansive on the palate with dense core of fruit. Well balanced for such a big wine. Grainy, prodigious tannins with great length.

Charmes-Chambertin 2008

Subtle but pretty red and black fruits on the nose. Nervy dense and elegant. Reminiscent of the great Bachelet Charmes.

Chambertin 2008

David started his career at Giroud in 2001 and his Chambertin from that vintage is one of the great Burgundy’s I’ve ever tasted. Though he lost the fruit source in the following vintage, the quality has remained excellent ever since. This one hadn’t been racked yet and showed signs of reduction but notes of oak and black fruit were there. This one seemed clean otherwise and with good length though lacking a bit of weight. Maybe it’ll flesh out after racking, we’ll see.

Clos de Vougeot 2008

All black fruit and toast. Big and punchy, not a shy wine. Good weight and balanced with decent acid and fine tannins though a bit four-square.

Meursault Clos de ls Barre 2008

Not many people know that Giroud produces any white wine which is a shame; the wines are excellent from the little stuff all the way up to the Corton-Charlemagne. This one, from one of the great deuxièmes crus of Meursault, is a knockout. Rich nose of toasted hazelnuts and mineral. Rich, almost tropical fruit flavors and firm acidity carrying through to a long, clean finish.

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Vergeres 2008

Rich nose of flowers, spice and toast. Lots of citrus and tropical fruits on the palate. Pretty ripe with fairly low acid and shortish finish.

Corton-Charlemagne 2008

Classy aromas of mineral, spearmint and white fruit, little in the way of oak notes. Tight and punchy, very dense with a strong phenolic feel. Almost tannic.

A couple of older bottles.

Saint-Romain Blanc 1999

I commited to 25 cases of this practically on the nose alone. David keeps finding these treasures in the cellar and he though it was time to get this to market. Just yellowing a bit. Luscious nose of toast, custard and citrus. Deep flavors of white fruit and hazelnut. Stylish and elegant. Great stuff, no-name appellation notwithstanding. 25 cases available @$33. ETA summer 2010

Volnay Carelle 1995

Beautiful nose of old Burgundy, a scent in itself. Complex bouquet dominated by sous bois and ripe red fruit with some mineral and rose. Great purity of fruit. Taut and long, still blossoming with a bright future. 5 cases available @$90. ETA summer 2010.

[Via http://stevegoldun.wordpress.com]

'24' Baby News! at The Insider

Fun Facts

2010-03-07T16:31:00.000+02:00

Eons ago when I was taking high school Spanish, I had a teacher who’d regularly write on the board a series of Spanish-themed “Fun Facts”, such as Spain is the #1 producer of olives in the world (random, but somehow I always remembered that one).

In addition to wine and certain spirits, another love of mine is trivia. So, I’m going to start posting a series of wine and spirits-related fun facts that I personally find interesting. For now, I imagine most of these will be France/Bordeaux-themed since this is where the majority of my wine exposure is coming from nowadays…

Hope you enjoy!

[Via http://lindsayduvin.wordpress.com]

Stocks in the News: Marvell, Apple, TiVo - DailyFinance

Wine Snob

2010-03-06T16:29:00.000+02:00

After waking up with a slight headache this morning, I felt a slight sense of shame for picking a completely horrible Sauvignon Blanc at the store last night; considering I used to be a cocktail waitress at very wine-centric restaurant.

From now on, I’m only going to spend $$ on wine that I know delivers, even if that means ignoring my craving at the moment (I wanted a chilled white, must be the warmer weather) and going for what I know from the selection at hand. (A perfectly good bottle of Louis Jadot Beaujolais still sits on the shelf there on sale for an incredible price.

While the closest I’ve been to Europe is Little Italy, Manhatten, I do consider myself a wee bit knowledgeable on the wine side for my age. At the very least, I know what I like.

Whites:

{Best Riesling}

K Vintners‘ Kung Fu Girl Riesling: I’ll be honest, most women who I’d serve who didn’t know a lick about wine (except that they like it sweet) would just pick the cheapest Riesling on the menu. I detested the stuff until I met this Washington Kung Fu Girl. Citrus notes like tangerine, lime and a slight peachy flavor create a balanced finish that, although sweet, doesn’t feel like your drinking a glass of sugar. This Riesling “kicks ass”.

{Best White Blend}

Sokol Blosser’s Evolution: Luck? Intention? A little of both went into finding this wine. With this blend, you will notice intense fruit flavors in the beginning, which slowly turn into a crisp finish (think about the way you taste an apple). Nine different whites go into this one bottle, including Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. It’s amazing with Chinese food.

{Best Sauvignon Blanc}

Nobilo’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc: Last night’s disappointment made only validated my love of Nobilo. This wine is proof that you do not have to spend a lot to get a fantastic bottle of wine. I think it’s won an award nearly every year it’s been in production. Like any good sauv. blanc, there are some grapefruit notes there, but then there’s almost like an extremely light spice finish that contributes to its dryness. Let’s just say no one ever tipped me less for recommending this wine.

Reds:

{Best Pinot Noir}

David Bruce Pinot Noir: This is definitely a bottle that will set you back a little bit of dough, but perhaps this is one to get at the liquor store and avoid paying the marked-up place at a restaurant unless it’s a special occasion. Usually, smoky wines aren’t my favorite, but this one is extremely subtle and is balanced nicely with the cherry notes you taste.

{Best Red Blend}

Folie a Deux Menage a Trois: Asking for this California blend at the store never fails to elicit a slight smirk from the guy behind the counter. While we may giggle about it on the way to it’s spot on the shelf, there is always a slight pause when it’s picked up and 10/10 times they say: “But seriously, this is really a great wine”. A trifecta of Zinfindel, Merlot and Cabernet, this blend is juicy, and almost has a fruit-spread (like jam) kind of quality to it, with a slight sharpness.

{Best Wine Produced by an Old Dead Guy}

Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages: Although this Burgundy is labeled “table wine”, it’s hardly close to the table wine you’d order anywhere. Maybe it’s because I’m a nerd, but I love to enjoy things with history, just knowing that people have enjoyed the same cherry and floral notes for centuries is pretty cool. Although this wine is dated in history, it’s certainly not something you need to keep around for years (you won’t be able to anyways!) because it can be drunk young and is very reasonably priced.

Enjoy!

{Note: These are just some of the faves of faves from tons of varietals out there, especially ones you might see at your favorite restaurant but have never tried. Feel free to ask me for more suggestions or to share your faves.}

[Via http://savorthesweet.wordpress.com]

Portal 2 due out this Christmas News | Eurogamer

Winemakers on the Net making 'Wine 2.0'

2010-03-06T10:37:00.000+02:00

Every wine tells a story, every winemaker has a story to tell, and the Internet provides new ways of telling those stories.

This phenomenon is beginning to be called Wine 2.0 – or Vin 2.0 as we like to call it.

Vin 2.0 means using “social media” or “Web 2.0″ tools or whatever they’re called – in other words, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and so on – to get your story out there and make new connections with, well, with people who like wine.

Vin 2.0 means things like:

Using the Internet to break down the barriers between producers (winemakers) and the rest of us
Creating direct connections between “citizen wine bloggers” and their audiences

New connections with Vin 2.0

Hardly a decade ago, this way of creating connections basically didn’t exist. But now a growing number of Languedoc winemakers are using Vin 2.0 to tell the story of their wine – their terroir, their families, the weather last week, the vendange next September.

Take some of the winemakers featured in our blog’s wine links. Iris Rutz-Rudel is based in Lisson in the Hérault, about 50km north of Béziers. I can follow her daily work and her dreams on her vineyard.

Things went quiet on her blog since November, but now after the snows she has been showing us her traditional wine press and explaining in great detail how she is pruning the vines.

We’ve never met Iris – we get all this information from her wonderful little Lisson Blog, and she’s a member of Les vignerons blogueurs.

ViniSud 2010

Or take a young winemaker based just north of Carcassonne in the Aude, called Ryan O’Connell. On Thursday Ryan posted another new video to one of his sites (yes, he has several), Love That Languedoc.

It was about a presentation he gave at ViniSud 2010, about the first steps winemakers can take to get into Vin 2.0.

J’ai fait cette présentation sur le sujet du marketing sur le net dans l’espace Agora du stand Sud de France a ViniSud 2010.

J’espère que cette video de vingt minutes pourra circuler parmi les vignerons de ma région. J’essaie de recadrer l’histoire et l’importance de l’Internet dans des termes simples et efficaces pour notre filière viticole. Je donne quelques conseils que n’importe quel vigneron peut suivre (tant qu’il comprend comment recevoir et envoyer des mails).

- Ryan O’Connell on the video of his talk at ViniSud

Ryan’s talk came at the end of the annual show in Montpellier, and while he didn’t get much of a crowd on the day, his presentation lives on through this video (isn’t the Internet great!), and it is now doing the rounds of wine blogs and finding a much wider audience.

He also sent a message out on his Twitter feed yesterday.

Ryan O'Connell on Twitter yesterday: "We can OWN the Internet"

It’s a great little call to arms. As he puts it, we can OWN the Internet (or “this interweb thing” as us old-timers still call it).

As Vinternet.net puts it, “Ryan est un pragmatique, il sait communiquer son enthousiasme et ça lui réussit.”

Ryan is very young - less than half our age. The two of us are old enough to be his parents. He’s American, and moved over to the Languedoc in 2005 with his mum and dad when he was only 19.

Yet he has a fantastic command of French that has us green with envy. He is enthusiastic and prolific and has the adventurousness, courage and sheer neck of youth to question the old ways and get out there and do things rather differently in the Vin 2.0 era.

It will be an uphill struggle, step by step, and there’s no point in getting seduced by apparently instant results, but this is where it’s all going.

Vin 2.0 is the new rock ‘n’ roll, with wonderful new tales being told by people like Ryan and Iris.

In praise of terroir
Wine 2.0 and wine bloggers

[Via http://irishherault.wordpress.com]

Sony developing iPad competitor - report News | iPhone | Eurogamer

Veggin'

2010-03-06T04:14:00.000+02:00

Happy Friday!~

I don’t know about you, but I’m soooo ready to get this weekend started! My guy and I went on a last minute trip to St. Pete Beach, FL last weekend (I’ll post some more pics in my next post), and while it was absolutely amazing, I didn’t really feel “rested” when Monday morning rolled around again. Don’t get me wrong though, it was totally worth every second of lost sleep to stay at the fabulous Don Cesar. <3 I’ve been wanting to stay here since the first time I laid eyes on it. My beautiful pink Barbie palace.

Since I’ve been a busy bee lately, I decided to lay low and stay in tonight. I have plans to go out for a friend’s birthday tomorrow night and I need some time to just veg before the work week picks up again!

While browsing the produce section in Wegmans last night, I grabbed up this package of veggies that looked perfect for roasting!

Nevermind that they’re intended for ratatouille. They look like roasting vegetables to me… or maybe grilling veggies if this wicked winter ever ends!

I just noticed the countries of origin. Nothing like having produce from USA, Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala all in one package! :|

Moving on… Even though I thought this pack of veggies looked awesome as it was, I also bought containers of grape tomatoes and baby bellas to roast along with them. Lord knows what countries these guys were from!

Since I wasn’t really feeling the ginger that came in the ratatouille blend, I set it aside to add to my juice tomorrow morning.

A little organic red wine for the cook…

After washing and chopping all the veggies, I tossed them with a little EVOO, minced garlic (two cloves came in the veggie pack), black pepper, sea salt, Italian seasoning, and thyme.

Before:

After roasting at 400* for about 30 min:

I plated about half of the cooked veggies and topped them with crumbled goat cheese. I also had a toasted wheat hamburger bun with a little butter.

So simple, and so satisfying.

I rarely have desserts in my house because I tend to go overboard, but I did pick up a carton of ice cream at Wegmans last night. I have a hard time resisting those free coupons! My flavor of choice was chocolate peanut butter sundae, and it did not disappoint!

Now that I’m happy with a full belly, I’m relaxing and watching a little tv. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be right now than sitting on my comfy couch with my blanket, laptop, and rockstar by my side.

And, of course, let’s not forget that second glass of red wine.

In case you were wondering what the coaster says…. I love.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more St. Pete photos! I may go into the office tomorrow, but I’m trying to talk myself out of it. I think I deserve a free weekend. Plus, I have plans to go to a winery with some friends for lunch tomorrow, then out for a birthday celebration later in the evening. I’d hate to miss out on valuable time with my girls over something silly like work.

Goodnight! Enjoy your weekend!!!

[Via http://thresholdofgreatness.wordpress.com]

Stocks in the News: Marvell, Apple, TiVo - DailyFinance

My Visit To Supermarket Nirvana- Whole Foods!

2010-03-04T22:54:00.000+02:00

So I am in Scottsdale for business, but that was not going to stop me from a side trip to supermarket Nirvana AKA Whole Foods Market. I know, it’s a supermarket. Fancy, but STILL a supermarket. Please indulge me for a moment here… I am a transplant from L.A. to a small (very small) town in Arizona. So now when I get a chance to visit a real supermarket it excites me!

The Whole Foods on Scottsdale Road is HUGE! And it has everything: all the great gourmet products, wine, etc. But it also has a wine and tapas bar, olive bar, 3 salad bars, pizza, sushi, sandwiches, coffee bar, gelato and more! And yes SAMPLES!

I went down every aisle, drooled over every dish and generally stayed in a foodie bliss for two hours!

So, what did I buy? Sushi, prepared salad, fabulous cerignola olives, drunken goat, jarlsberg & mouriber cheese, Phantom wine by Bogle (great, but let it breathe), organic Kalamata olive bread, golden beets to roast, a $20 bottle of olive oil (worth every penny), Thai spiced cashews and olive crackers. While shopping we consumed cafe mochas and an espresso gelato!

When I die, I hope heaven has a Whole Foods like this one…

[Via http://foodwinejunkie.wordpress.com]

Tropico 3 expansion on the way News | PC | Eurogamer

Queen Triggerfish

2010-03-04T16:35:00.000+02:00

The fish of the week is Queen Triggerfish.

This is a beautiful fish with an attitude. During the mating season they will try to take a chunk out of divers if they roam too close their nests. The males will protect the cone shaped nests by swimming out the top and chomping on anything near. The key is to swim horizontally because they shoot straight up to attack.

Its body is large and powerful, the eyes being set high up on the forehead. The base color of the fish is a light yellow while the fins are tinted in blue.

Why the name Triggerfish? They have the unique ability to lock their first two dorsal spines in an upright position, providing a defense against the larger predators of the oceans that try to make a meal of them. The first, (anterior) spine is locked in place by erection of the short second spine, and can only be unlocked by depressing the second, “trigger” spine, hence the family name “triggerfish”.

Queen Triggerfish is on the menu tonight at the Bistro. I have 2 wines that pair very well with this dish. Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc and Annabella Chardonnay.

See you soon…

[Via http://mariosbistro.wordpress.com]

Sony "surprise" sequel reveal this week News | PS3 | Eurogamer

Sonoma Wineries: Blackstone Winery

2010-03-04T04:45:00.000+02:00

Man, check out the scenes from Blackstone Winery. This place looks fabulous with some hearty reds for you to try.

It looks like you can visit and tour the vineyard on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays plus there are several other intriguing activities as well. I plan to swing by next time I am in town!

Link to Blackstone Winery

[Via http://sonomawineries.wordpress.com]

Sony acquires Media Molecule News | PS3 | Eurogamer

Master of Good Ideas

2010-03-02T16:38:00.000+02:00

You know those moments when you get a really good idea and you’re so proud of yourself for coming up with such a brilliant answer, you actually walk around with a smile on your face chuffed with yourself and being such a Master of Good Ideas.

Yeah? Well I had one of those a couple of days ago. I was ever so pleased with myself.

Refreshing my Twitter account mariannewhooley after months of hibernation, I added ladies from BMB and Judith’s room and all of a sudden a brand new world opened up. I struggled to keep up with it all. RT’s, @soandso’s and it was whilst I was coming to terms with all this new tech stuff on there that I noticed a Brand New Challenge.

A photography blog workshop!

Now I love taking photos. I don’t have a flash camera, I have no training about light and the how’s and when’s but I am snap happy when it comes to capturing moments. Returning from our holidays with 100’s and 100’s of images and dead happy with myself. Sometimes, very occasionally I take a good snap.

So off I pop to the site in question to check out the theme ‘Beauty’ A synch!

I allow myself to think about it for a while.. What shall I do? How will I show Beauty in all her glory.

My beautiful chess set. Of course!

Said chess set has lived in packaging practically every day since I bought it back in 1997 thanks to its fragility. I spotted it in Bolzano’s Christmas Market. I had had a couple of Vin Brule’s, or Gluhwein’s as the Bolzanese would argue, I was with a wonderful group of friends and we were having so much fun. We were meandering through the market filled with the most beautiful art and craft pieces, I wanted to buy the lot!

And there she stood magnificent. I made a bee line to the stall and listened to the softly spoken man explain what materials he had used (Swarovski crystals, cut painted glass) and his thoughts on the Elf Kingdom and the Fairy Kingdom.

Did you hear the scratched record noise halting this post just then?

Elf and Fairy Kingdom?

This guy, I’ll have you know, actually believes they exist. He showed me a photo of himself with an elf in his back garden (yeah right!) but we were enjoying the day and the Vin brule’ was warming us to the idea, ‘Look, a real elf’ we ahhhhrrred amongst ourselves, almost in tears of gratitude with this man for sharing something so touching.

I HAD TO HAVE IT

The chess set cost me £1,000,000 Italian lire, which sounds a massive amount. It was! I didn’t have a million Italian lire and I’d bargained with this man to trust me to pay in 3 installments paying the first there and then. He accepted, I wrote out three equal cheques the first with that day’s date and ‘Bob’s your Uncle’, the set was mine. About 300 quid’s worth in ‘97.

Each piece is individually crafted from ceramic, painted and fired. The knights are dragons, and the pawns are tiny fierce-looking elves. Each piece has been given a name, Re Elrond, (that’s King Elrond to you and me) of the Elves’ kingdom and his wife Regina Niamb, the Fairy kingdom instead has Re Finvarra and his Queen Regina Donagh.

You get the picture.

So excellent idea now all that needs to be done is the photo.

I unwrap each piece and place it carefully in place after a good clean and sparkle and set it up on the table, but I’m not convinced…

It’s a beautiful sunny day so I carry out the set to the garden and place it on the grass – a contemporary look – but none of the images are doing what I want.

None of my efforts come close to the image of beauty I have in my head.

And this is where I have become unstuck. I cannot translate the glorious image in my head onto my digital camera

It’s just not happening for me, and yet I could see it so well in my mind’s eye.

What’s happened? Why can’t I do it?

I think I’m going to have to miss out on this week’s Beauty theme these images aren’t the beauty I wanted….and in my haste and excitement of having such a good idea, I forgot to bookmark the site holding the workshop!

One day I’ll get it right.

[Via http://marisworld.wordpress.com]

The New News Junkie Is Online and On the Phone - Bits Blog ...

Orange, NSW

2010-03-02T10:25:00.000+02:00

One thing I love about my current job is the travel – I’ve been to places I’d have never made it to (for FREE!) thanks to the generosity of my bosses, and last weekend was another great trip to a pretty cool little country town. Orange is in NSW and is about 5 1/2 hrs drive from Newcastle (that part SUCKED). One thing I would like to comment on, in regards to the little town in the middle of nowhere (in my opinion!), is how INCREDIBLE their food culture is. As much as possible, the food is local (or at the very least regional – they love the ‘100 Mile’ thing in Orange), organic, handmade and REAL – and it’s not unusual, it’s just a given. I wish more towns/cities in Australia would take up this challenge, because it’s such a great way of eating.

We arrived pretty late on Friday and headed to the amazing Racine’s for a really incredible dinner. Chef Shaun Arantz of The School House fame (a once-hatted restaurant in Orange’s ‘CBD’ and previously at the Mayfield Vineyard) and team moved the restaurant to the new digs overlooking the La Colline vineyard; these digs could rather ungraciously be described as a big shed, though it’s much nicer than it sounds!

But really, it was about the food. I wish I’d taken photos, as the presentation was fantastic – I was too hungry to even think about it at the time! I ordered goats’ cheese puree with tomato sorbet – it was so light and fresh and delicate, I wish I was less tired so I could describe it better. The little cherry tomatoes that accompanied the dish were fresh from the Racine’s garden, and were so ripe and juicy, and the non-GF members of our dining party commented on how yummy the little bread sticks that accompanied their meal were – they reminded me of enoki mushrooms, and looked very crunchy, which would’ve been a great contrast to the soft textures of the puree and sorbet. We washed this course down with some lovely champagne.

My next course was the ocean trout, and I can’t even work out what they did to my trout, but by golly it was good! I can’t even remember the accompaniments, and as it’s not listed on the current website’s menu, I guess I’ll never know, but safe to say it was delicious. This meal was rather poorly paired with a gorgeous 2006 shiraz voignier from a local Orange vineyard, but I got over it and drank the wine anyway!

I had to skip dessert, but the darling waiter brought out little treats anyway to end our meal – macaroons with lemon butter and mini-cones of sorbet. Both were DELICIOUS, and I have a new benchmark for excellence in desserts! I am going to desperately try and recreate these treats at my next dinner party.

It was such a great meal, and if you get the chance, GO THERE!!

A quick drive to our B&B (Black Sheep Inn) and we were greeted with a fridge full of delicious food for the next morning’s breakfast and a lovely handwritten note from our hosts (such a nice touch!).

After breakfast and a meeting (and a snoop around the property!) we headed into downtown Orange, and bought a few treats. Lunch at the Union Bank restaurant was excellent, very fresh and yummy, and matched with a lovely local chardonnay.

We then headed out to Bloodwood Wines, and this visit quickly became a highlight of the trip for me! We met the winemaker, Steve, and got to help crush the pinot graps that had been hand-picked the day before, and then taste the wines at all their varying stages.

You would not BELIEVE how delicious the ‘wine juice’ from the various varietals is! I was adamant Steve bottle and sell the juice, my boyf and I even went so far as to say it’s better than ACTUAL wine…that is, until we tasted Steve’s wines. They were soooo good. We brought home a bottle of chardonnay and a sticky (we sound like retirees, with our weird taste in wine!), and I was impressed with Steve’s shiraz and reisling – if I’d had more money I would’ve bought a couple of each. I would say they’re real food wines – they had strong, interesting flavours and Steve and his wife seem to be very keen cooks, so I would imagine they have many a great recipe to pair with their yummy wines. They also had a GORGEOUS Australian kelpie called Biff, who lived in a cognac barrel, which I thought was SUPER charming!

After our arvo of drinking we headed home to take a nap (doing nothing to dispel the ‘retiree-ness’ you’re seeing in this post) and then headed out to a gorgeous little Italian restaurant. I think I ate FAR too much, as I got to the point of not even enjoying my wine I was so full, but the meal of smoked mozzarella, creamy garlic prawns and garden salad was delicious.

We polished off a few bottles of plonk back at the B&B and again hit the hay, seeing as we had another 5/6 hour drive ahead of us. Ugh.

The drive back was pretty fun, actually, we visiting some very kooky towns (rural Australian towns are SO BIZARRE) – this one called Gulgong was like stepping back into an episode of Deadwood! We also spotted some huge mines, which are so devastating to see up close – they’re terrible blights on the landscape, and such unsustainable behemoths.

We arrived home tired, well-fed and ready for a huge nap. It was a great trip, and if you get the chance, head on out to Orange, it’s a cool place to see and there’s an increbile amount of great food and wine waiting for you to eat it!

[Via http://twentyfiveproject.wordpress.com]

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Chef's Corner with Chef Jeff LittleField

2010-03-02T04:42:00.000+02:00

At The Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort, the Pacific Ocean is your playground with 8.5 miles of fun in the sun in the heart of Huntingdon Beach, CA…Surf City, USA! And this is where Chef Jeff Littlefield pulls out all the stops at Shades Restaurant & Bar. Check out their chef…

[Via http://journeypod.wordpress.com]

Now developers' PS3s are hit by system errors | Game Development ...

Croatian Souvenirs at Delicium Nostrum, Trogir

2010-02-27T10:39:00.000+02:00

In the past few years, the offer of our national souvenirs has taken a huge step forward! Wines, traditional alcoholic drinks and liquors, dry fig spreads and even chocolates are available in all better souvenir stores. However, the prices are sometime really high and preventing even better sales.

One of the better stores in terms of offer and price is most certainly Delicum Nostrum in Trogir!

Delicium Nostrum, Obrov 2, Trogir

Tucked in a small alley just off the main promenade, Delicium Nostrum even from a distance shows that this place offers nice collection of Croatian souvenirs.

Everything worth noticing can be found here: from traditional sweets to olive oils and modern, organic cosmetics

The offer

The store has a more spacious ground floor and a more exclusive second floor where a nice selection of wines can be found. Also, the prices are better than in other places of the same type. We have also partnered to organize some wine tastings at the store as well!

The second floor

Delicium Nostrum

For authentic Croatian souvenirs in Trogir, there is no better place than Delicium Nostrum and I just hope that they go national with the brand. The times are tough but with the right offer and good prices, they can really make a name and have a good and recognizable brand.

Connect to us on Facebook and Twitter!

[Via http://secretdalmatia.wordpress.com]

News from Apple shareholder meeting: Apple opening 25 Stores in ...

Syrah=Shiraz

2010-02-25T22:52:00.000+02:00

Six Syrah/Shiraz

Wine 101.

MJ Sommelier.

Amavi Restaurant.

Santa Fe.

French syrah,

Australian Shiraz.

Same grape.

(Not so

Petit Sirah

From California.)

French Femme.

Spicy, smoky,

Animal element.

Complex style.

Woman-like.

Down-under bold.

Fruit forward.

Raw power,

Blockbuster qualities.

Wine #1

Laurent Combier

Crozes-Hermitage

France

2008 $ 22

Warm ruby,

Transparent color.

Nose:

Red cherry. Strawberry.

Red Plum.

Apricot. Carnation.

Herbaceous. Honeysuckle.

Palate:

Baked earth.

Cinnamon. Tannins.

Overripe cranberries.

Earthy. Peppery.

Feminine. Elegant.

Quick finish.

Wine #2

Qupé Syrah

Central Coast

California

2007 $18-20

Opaque Ruby,

Purplish color.

Nose:

Black cherry.

Raw blackberry.

Rhone-style.

Black pepper.

Jammy. Cigar.

Palate:

Ripe, black

Jammier fruit.

Chewy compote.

Toasted barrel.

Burnt wood.

Wine #3

J.Vidal Fleury

Crozes-Hermitage

France

2006 $ 22-25

Dark ruby,

opaque color.

Nose:

Hermitage terroir.

Jammy. Plummy.

Black fruit.

Figs. Dates.

Ripe Raisins.

Mushrooms.

Palate:

Tannic grip.

Ripe fruit.

Complex. Yummy.

Very yummy.

Three stars.

Pair with:

Game, grouse,

Venison, lamb.

(2006 2nd

hottest year,

yields ripe fruit.)

Wine #4

Bonny Doon

“Le Pousseur”

Central Coast

California

MMV $18-22

Crazy winemaker,

the great

Randall Graham.

Dark garnet,

almost opaque.

Great Nose:

Fruit forward.

Jumps out.

Feminine. Elegant.

Black cherry.

Currants. Gunpowder.

Peppery compote.

Palate:

Lighter tannins.

Soft. Elegant.

Oak. Yummy.

Three stars.

Wine #5

D’Arenberg

“The Footbolt”

McLaren Vale

Australia

2007 $?

Dark color.

Nose:

Black fruit.

Licorice. Candy.

Cherry. Coffee.

Chocolate bon-bon.

Juicy. Lip-smackin’.

Palate:

Smooth. Chewy.

Few tannins.

Leather. Yummy.

Wine #6

Marquis Philips

McLaren Vale

Australia

2008 $22

Shake well.

Release esters.

Inky-black color.

Nose:

Gamy, meaty.

Bacon fat.

Dark chocolate.

Bittersweet.

Palate:

Luscious. Full.

Not sweet,

but sweet.

Barely tannic.

Powerful bold,

yet Soft.

Big. Thick.

Juicy. Jammy.

Four stars.

[Via http://2chew.wordpress.com]

Analysis: ABC News report shouldn't panic Toyota drivers — Autoblog

National Chili Day

2010-02-25T16:54:00.000+02:00

February 25th is National Chili Day. With Spring is not too far away and a chill still in the air, the notion of cooking up something warm and spicy is appealing. Everyone has their own favorite recipe, many handed down from generation to generation.

The name Chili con carne ( literally chili with meat) often known as simply chili, is spicy stew. The name “chili con carne “is taken from Spanish and means “peppers with meat.” Traditional versions are made minimally from chili peppers, meat, garlic, onion and cumin, along with chopped or ground beef. Beans and tomatoes are frequently added. Variations, both geographic and personal may involve different types of meats as well as a variety of spices and other ingredients. Chili can be found worldwide and also in certain American style fast food restaurants.

The variant recipes provoke disputes among afficiandos. Chili lovers and cooks defend their personal resipes and hence why many host chili cook-offs in the spring. Speaking of Chili-Cook off, Partners in Wine and Rocky Hill Inn will be hosting a Spring Chili -Cook off. Stay tuned for more information.

Now to the wine pairings: Try a Chilean Malbec or even a Spanish wine. For a complete list of chili recipes or more wine pairings visit Chef E. for suggestions

[Via http://partnersinwineclub.wordpress.com]

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Michigan Edelwicker

2010-02-25T04:26:00.000+02:00

Fenn Valley Vineyard

Fennville, Michigan

Lake Michigan Shore

60% Gewürzteraminer

40% Riesling

Warm hue.

Beautiful golden.

Afternoon sunshine.

Ripe tangerine.

Ripe apricot.

Juicy peach.

Light, crisp.

Green apple.

Floral nose.

Soft Lily.

Honeysuckle honey.

Bean sprouts.

No, really!

Nice palate.

Icy cool.

Fresh air.

Beach breeze.

Slight grapefruit.

Crisp apple.

Thompson seedless.

Quick finish.

Missed already.

Pair with:

Spring rolls.

Think sprouts.

Think Vietnamese.

Complement spices.

Quite refreshing.

Where’s beach?

Which way?

Happy bellies.

[Via http://2chew.wordpress.com]

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WINE & TY

2010-02-23T16:40:00.000+02:00

As an inexperienced wine drinker, I have quite the problem on my hands: I can’t stop buying wine. Like…lots of wine. It started with ordering bottles based on the trendy packaging (I know, I know…a big slap on the wrist from any wine connoisseur). But c’mon, you gotta ’go with what you know’ and I KNOW trendy packaging when I see it;) Ever since jumping on the WineLibrary.com bandwagon (see post) I have been shamefully ordering many bottles of the juicy stuff. SO folks, I have decided to bust out my wine dictionary and begin adding wine reviews using my crazy/quirky palate. Please do not be offended if I describe a Pinot as tasting like Beyonce’s rehearsal shoes. Thanks!

To get us started, I thought I would pick a grape that I know little about but find myself ordering all too frequently: MALBEC. And to be more specific, Argentinian Malbec from the Mendoza region. Todays pick:

Label: 2006 Tierra Divina Old Vine Malbec Valle de Uco

Price: $14

Color: deep ruby

Smells Like: bright citrus, jammy, berry

Tasting Notes: rhubarb, light bodied, full flavored. fruity but not gay – much like Jason Mraz. so..a metrosexual wine.

Best song to pair it with: “Lucky” by Jason Mraz

Lucky Jason Mraz (on tour) We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2009)

[Via http://designandty.wordpress.com]

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French Wine - Truly World-Class

2010-02-23T10:19:00.000+02:00

French intoxicant has been renowned worldwide for hundreds of years, and ease enjoys a strange reputation today.

France’s climate is perfect for viticulture, and intoxicant is produced all over the country in different regions such as Rhone, Provence, Loire, Lanquedoc, Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Alsace.

The most famous of all land intoxicant is Champagne, embraced all over the concern as a celebratory tipple. Strangely enough, the fizz and pop that Champagne is famed for was originally deemed to be a intense thing, and something that land intoxicant makers strived to eradicate, without success.

Now of course, the bubbles are Champagne’s main selling point. Champagne itself is mostly very expensive, although in past times supermarkets have partaken in toll wars which have seen many bottles of Champagne being oversubscribed at half price.

Even if you don’t want to spend a aggregation of money, you can ease savor some fizz because France produces some great sparkling intoxicant that isn’t Champagne, and therefore has a far cheaper toll tag.

This sparkling intoxicant isn’t of poor quality, it’s got a huge following in its own right. Only intoxicant produced in the region of Champagne is permissible to feature Champagne on its label, and the intoxicant producers of this region fiercely defend this rule.

French intoxicant is famed for both its red and white varieties of wine, and it would be wrong in some ways to feature that land intoxicant has its own distinct identity. It is much more genuine to feature that each region has an identity as the wines vary greatly from region to region. The grapes grown in each region are very different and there are also differing production methods.

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Celebrate the new Calistoga AVA with Chateau Montelena At Press Club (tasting)

2010-02-23T04:46:00.000+02:00

If interested in California wine, here is a tasting.

————————————————

Celebrate the new Calistoga AVA with Chateau Montelena

Chateau Montelena would like to invite you to join us on March 11th in celebration of the newly appointed Calistoga AVA, the 15th appellation in the NapaValley. 7 long years ago our winemaker, Bo Barrett, on behalf of Chateau Montelena petitioned to have Calistoga formally recognized as an American Viticultural Area, and as of January 2010, we are proud to say that it has been approved.

To celebrate this achievement, we will be pouring a 3-year vertical of our acclaimed Estate Cabernet. One of the most significant contributing factors to making a wine unique is the place that the grapes are grown, and our vineyards in Calistoga and their diverse soils are what make our Estate wine special and exemplary of the essence of the Calistoga AVA.

For our vertical tasting we will be pouring the 1997, 1998 and 1999 vintages of the Montelena Estate Cabernet and will be offering a charcuterie selection to accompany the wines. In addition we will have maps and information to educate you about the Calistoga area and how it influences our winemaking style.

This is a rare opportunity to taste 3 highly acclaimed vintages side-by-side and space will be limited. Tickets will go on-sale Wednesday February 24th and will be $40 per person. The tasting will take place in the Private Dining Room at Press Club and will begin at 6pm and we will pour until 8:30pm. Tickets will be available exclusively at Press Club from the Chateau Montelena representatives or through a retail associate.

*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Wine by Cush Magazine blog and published early in World of Cush also.

[Via http://worldofcush.wordpress.com]

Bad News for Film Fests: B-Side Shuts Down - Cinematical

STILL LIFE Flemish Baroque Painting Inspired Grape Necklace

2010-02-21T22:21:00.000+02:00

Available at my Etsy shop:

Magical Laboratory of Fashion

© COPYRIGHT NOTE: All of my designs, photos and descriptions are protected by copyright. They may not be duplicated, copied, reproduced and/or republished without permission or notice. All rights are reserved.

[Via http://tianache.wordpress.com]

@pc2010: Sporting News To Charge For Online Content | paidContent

Could it Really Be? Pinch me...no don't ...I don't want to wake up!

2010-02-21T04:01:00.000+02:00

This is my second attempt at writing for the day. I started a few hours ago, ready to comment on how Rocket and I went to our winery wedding venue for our walk through…which despite the snow covered fields and hills, is set for our nuptials in three weeks.

The Vines at the Winery--- the snow is unlikely to melt in three weeks.

Instead, my evening took a very immediate turn a few hours ago. Rocket’s humble abode has been on the market since the fall. Month after month, I have been nervous about it selling (or not) and how it would impact our starting our married life together. In many ways, his wonderful house was becoming my nemesis. I should be clear–I love his house. It is beautiful. But it is nestled in the woods, more than an hour away. And as much as I love Rocket, I am not the type of girl that appreciates waking up to watch the deer in the forest (now, if Nieman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue were visible—that, that would be heaven).

So tonight, we got a phone call—from a realtor (a real live realtor!!! ) The couple that came for a showing on Thursday and then again on Friday was making an offer….an actual offer—and it was within the range of his asking price! You would think it would take a while to read a 63 page sales contract….but there is an art in skimming–and we perfected it (I also perfected the art of jumping up and down in excitement—there may have also been some shrieking!).

Waiting an hour to hear back from the realtor about our counter offer was grueling–but so very worth it when the call finally came. It is as if today was a day that will go down in Cara Mamma and Rocket history— a wonderful walk through to plan our wedding, an impromptu tasting by our caterer of very very very yummy tapas, a visit to our future home site to find the construction site buzzing with activity, and then… the planets and stars aligned.

Not even the black mud of the winery parking lot could dampen my spirits today.

I know I know, nothing is ever a guarantee with real estate until the ink has dried on the closing forms—but really…this is tremendous. And for the first time in a long time, I feel elated. I have written alot about in the last few months about the power of positive thinking–but sadly for Rocket, I have not always been the best model of this when it came to his house and how we would transition into married life with two homes. It did not help that wedding plans seemed to be unraveling with Rabbi Cool’s back surgery or that my many family members and friends were going to be unable to join us for the wedding—but somehow today….everything changed. And now, I can officially say— life is good, very very good.

[Via http://caramammasdayinthelife.wordpress.com]

The Big Picture » Blog Archive » News Dots

Being Arty

2010-02-20T16:40:00.000+02:00

… That’s probably one of my favorite pastimes. One of my most exciting arty projects has been my cork board. Made of real corks. A lot of dedication went into it to get all those corks, but in the end, I couldn’t be happier. It has been completed for a little while, but as I was going through my photos to try to organize (another of my favorite pastimes) I found these… And realized I never posted them. So here is a run down on how this magnificent art piece was created.

I first needed to get all my necessities set out…

corks – check

beer – check

hard working assistant – check

Then the assembly process began. I used a frame from Ikea that originally had glass in it. After I broke the glass in a move, I decided that would be the perfect frame for my cork board. I started in a corner and hot glued them all together from there. If I was to do it again, I would probably put a backing on the frame and glue them to that as well as the edges. I noticed that the corks started to bow a bit as I got more towards the center. Not so much that I cant use it but enough that it was a bit annoying when putting more corks into the board.

And another shot of my assistant. He was a helper when it came to trimming corks to fit in the tiny nooks. But more so, he just made cork towers.

And the final product! Complete with a glass of wine from the last bottle needed to complete the project. Thanks Charles Schaw, for being so delicious!

[Via http://jmnphotography.wordpress.com]

Peggle and Peggle Nights on Euro PSN News | PS3 | Eurogamer

Reading The Lovely Bones

2010-02-20T13:20:00.000+02:00

Hostess: Mary 2

Book Selection: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Food: Hummus, pita, veggie tray, cheese, shrimp Best Wine of the Night: Zinopolis, California Zinfandel, 2007 $17.99 Month: February I am not sure what I expected from this book – I know that when it was first published and flying off the shelves, I was reluctant to read it, although everyone I knew was raving about it. It seemed like it was going to be depressing, and I wasn’t in the market for sad at that time. So when I read it for book club, I was surprised it was not as depressing and bleak as I had thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a disturbing topic, the rape and murder of a young girl. But I think Sebold wrote this novel in such a way that the reader is able to distance themselves from the horror of the act, by writing the book from the viewpoint of Susie Salmon as a heavenly narrator. I loved the heaven aspect, the fact that Susie could watch people, and design her own heaven. And I loved that Holiday was there with her eventually. I know as a pet owner, that I hope my animals will be with me in eternity one day. So I liked that part. The novel raised many questions in me, and in my book club companions – it was an interesting discussion. All of us felt that the book started out strong, it fizzled out near the end, and seemed to just run out of steam. But perhaps this was Sebold’s intention as well, people move on, large life changing events remain large and life changing, but in time they become the past, literally and emotionally, as newer large and life changing events take place. For Susie, that was it for her; she never grew up, moved on, had other experiences, while her friends and family did move on, grow up, lead lives, never forgetting Susie, but dealing with it the best they could. Except for the mom, in my opinion. I was so angry at her! I could not believe a mother could leave her other children like that- it is so completely wrong to me. I felt she was a weak woman, who had to run away from her emotions rather than face them and raise her remaining children. I realize I have no idea of how it would feel to be in her position, and I hope if I have children, I never do. I hope though that if I would eventually be strong for my other kids, even if inside I were struggling and wanting to run away and disappear. Buckley and Lindsey lost not just a sister, but a mother too. And Mr. Harvey! What a villain to create. I was waiting on the edge of my seat for hard core justice, which never came. I sympathized with the father, who was obsessed with finding evidence that Mr. Harvey was the evil monster that he believed he was, and his desire for Mr. Harvey to get what he deserved. All those girls, all those women, all the families in their lives lost as well. I didn’t think what happened to him was enough, but Alyssa pointed out that he didn’t matter anymore; the damage had already been done. And maybe that is the case, I can see that. I don’t necessarily agree, but I can see the point. I compare this to Joyce Carol Oates’ novel Rape: A Love Story, and what happened to the rapists in that story, and I feel that although I thought their punishment was too strong, at least there was a consequence. Parts of the novel were a little weird, parts were a little obscure; but no matter what this novel made you feel, anger, disgust, wonder, sympathy, sadness – it definitely made you feel something. I don’t think it is possible to read The Lovely Bones without leaving with some sort of feeling about it one way or another; it is impossible to be ambivalent.

[Via http://cinnamonowlgirl.wordpress.com]

Saturday News: The Tools of Ignorance - Pinstripe Alley

Kindnesses, Week 7

2010-02-18T16:44:00.000+02:00

This is actually Random Acts of Kindness Week, so I hope you tried doing something nice for someone. The Kind Over Matter blog has some suggestions if you’re stumped.

My Happiness Project is more about nonrandomness, although random is OK, as long as it makes someone smile. And without further ado, here are my week’s nicenesses:

NRAoK 43: Hosted après-ski for two ski bunny friends, both of whom I’ve known since boys had cooties (and one of whom is my much-missed Roomie). It was nice to catch up!

NRAoK 44: The Sherpa and I had a little Valentine’s Day celebration, and I made him a mix tape (OK, a CD) of a lot of my favorite songs and gave him some treats from Cherry Republic (a cherry-based food empire based in the Michigan town I go to in the summer). What made him smile the most about it all was the card that came with the cherries, which was a handwritten version of the greeting I typed, but mixed up so that it looked like it was FROM him. What, so a woman can’t get a man chocolate for Valentine’s Day??

OK, and on a side note, something that made us both smile on Saturday was the bottle of wine that he brought to dinner. He said he’d been saving it for a special occasion, but we discovered that the wine actually made the occasion! (Thank you again!)

NRAoK 45: Introduced The Sherpa to the better-than-average sushi at Wegman’s. I think he was pleasantly surprised!

NRAoK 46: Signed up for the March of Dimes, in honor of the Chicken Noodle. Natalie was born 8 weeks premature on 12/29/09 and thankfully her NICU physicians and nurses took amazing care of her and she’s happily and healthily chugging along at home now! I’ve set a goal of $200. Donate here or click to the right!

NRAoK 47: In the course of watching LOST with the Chicken, I typed the answer to a trivia question for her on ABC’s LOST blog while she fed the Noodle. We won! Sweet.

NRAoK 48: Had a nice laugh-in with a friend over sushi. I think we both needed it.

NRAoK 49: This one’s about me, and I’ll post more about it later, but I got on the scale this morning and was down a couple of pounds from last week! With all the bike time in my future, being a little lighter will help (especially since I’ve had those heart issues while trying to climb hills), so this made me smile.

And now that we’re at the magic number 50, I’m going to start updating about the Happiness Project only every 50 days. So look for a post about my First 100 Days in another 50.

[Via http://thesatisfiedmind.wordpress.com]

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Knitting Class at Mass Ave Wine Shoppe: Week 3

2010-02-18T04:35:00.000+02:00

Casting on a new project at the start of class on 2/13/10

This past Saturday was our third week of knitting class at Mass Ave Wine Shoppe, and our first week with finished knitting projects! We had a brief hiatus last week while I took the day off for my birthday, and that gave plenty of time for a few finished projects. I’m so proud of these knitters who didn’t know a stitch when class started one month ago!

Eleanor with her first finished project: wrist warmers!

The first week of class we focused on learning the knit stitch and the second week on perfecting the purl. Eleanor (above) is showing of her ribbed wrist warmers, and Karen (below) shows off her knit scarf!

Karen shows off her knit scarf!

We had a really good time this week. Some of us enjoyed snacking on a goat cheese, basil pesto, and sun dried tomato torte with toasted batard, while others had croque mermaid sandwiches or cheese and crackers. Of course we all enjoyed various wines. This week I split a bottle of La Marouette Chardonnay with some of the ladies. Everything was fantastically fun!

The delicious, organic La Marouette

This coming Saturday, class will kick-off at 4:30. $15 will get you a glass of wine and a knitting lesson. This week the “regulars” will be learning how to knit on circular needles to make a hat, but you don’t need to know anything about knitting to come. Any one is welcome at any time and I am there for constant coaching and one-on-one lessons and help. I hope you will join us!

[Via http://sundayafternoonhousewife.wordpress.com]

Who's Going to Make Your News? And Who's Going to Pay Them ...

Update from taste cookies...

2010-02-16T16:45:00.000+02:00

February has been a busy month here at taste cookies. The double chocolate, espresso brownie has been a HUGE hit! Lots of orders for Valentines Day.

Last week I was involved in a great event- Wine and Chocolate- at Hudson Terrace. This was an event where chocolate and wine were the main focus. I took along my triple chocolate chip with pecans; old fashioned chocolate chip; white chocolate macadamia nut with dried cherries; chocolate with dried cherries and my double chocolate espresso brownie with and without walnuts. I gave away around 1,000 samples. People seemed to love taste cookies! The favorites of the night were the old fashioned chocolate chip and the double chocolate espresso brownie. The triple chocolate chip with pecans was a close third (it is my favorite too). I must say, it was a great night. I want to thank Cari at Discosushi for inviting me to be a part of the night. I look forward to working with Cari and her team again.

Next week I am going to be involved with The Bailey House ( www.baileyhouse.org/auction ) Benefit Auction. This is a great cause and I am very excited to be invited to be a part of this event. I will be providing around 1000 cookies for dessert for the auction attendees. Tickets are still available if you are interested in supporting this organization.

At the end of March, taste cookies will be providing cookies for the Wine and Wishes Benefit Auction which serves the Make a Wish Foundation ( www.metrony.wish.org/ ). This is an amazing organization and I am honored to be involved with this event.

Then in May, taste cookies has signed on to take part in New Taste of the Upper West Side. This should be a fantastic weekend of events. taste cookies will be at the Divine Desserts portion on Friday May 21st from 9pm-midnight. I am very excited to be able to be involved with this event. As a 12 year resident of the Upper West Side, this event is very important to me. Tickets are on sale now at ( www.newtasteuws.com ).

Another event in May that taste cookies will be supporting is the West Side YMCA Strong Kids Campaign. Each year the tendercare program of the UWS branch hosts a Touch a Truck fundraiser. This is a great event for the whole family. West 64th street between Broadway and CPW is closed off and teh street is transformed into a street fair. Last year there was an ambulance, mail truck, garbage truck, ConEd truck, live music by Hot Peas and Butter, a bouncy house and lots of food. This is a great event and a great cause. taste cookies will be set up selling cookies with the proceeds going directly to the Strong Kids fund. As soon as I know the exact date I will post it here.

I need to sign off for now. My kids are out of school this week on winter break and I need to go get them ready for swimming class. After that, it’s back to the kitchen I go. trying out a few new recipes this week- looking for the March cookie of the month!

[Via http://tastecookies.wordpress.com]

Bioshock 2 takes number 1 position in UK chart | News

Coming to Fruition

2010-02-16T04:28:00.000+02:00

It’s truly awesome when plans come to fruition. All that hard work, sweat, tears (in some cases) adding up to success.

I’m of course talking about a couple of things: my sister coming to visit, my dinner party going without a hitch, and a good Valentine’s Day.

My left shoulder is finally healed from the trip I made to the grocery store on Saturday where I ended up getting 61 pounds (I weighed it when I got home) of groceries and carrying it back from the Harris Teeter a mile back to my apartment. Near the end, it did become a struggle!

The dinner party did not go as planned, as my attempts to clean my apartment, get groceries, and prepare the food went with a few hitches. For one, I had bought dry chickpeas that day and started boiling them. They took… forever. Three hours, in fact, before they softened up enough to be pureed in with the rest of the ingredients for the hummus. Luckily, my sister arrived at the party in time to help me set up everything else. I was able to get the brownies and roasted/curried nuts done, and was in the middle of preparing the chicken for the chicken cordon bleu when the first guests arrived. Not thinking properly, I answered the phone (hooked up in my apartment for the doorbell) with chicken covered hands. Yes, I know, gross. And at that point, the party was on!

I was still stressed, running about the kitchen (which only has about 20 square feet of room) getting this ready and that cooked, when one of my friends chipped in to help. Haha, he works next to me at my job too, so we were used to working in close quarters! With his help and my sister’s help, we got most of the food out to my guests. After the rest of the chicken cordon bleu was cooked, all that was left were the corn soufflés. I don’t think I’ve ever made something so fast, with lightning quick moves to separate all the 6 egg yolks, then get the mixture ready, and lastly put it in the oven. My friend asked me, “Hey is there anything else I can get you?” and I immediately said “A beer.” It was definitely satisfying.

The food ended up being a hit once it had gotten to everyone. It went well with the assortment of wines that everyone had brought. On a side note, my fridge is again filled with alcoholic beverages. Once the corn soufflés were ready, everyone loved them. I had the Olympics on for people to watch (muted) from time to time, with conversations pausing when a crazy trick was made in moguls or a crash in speed skating. With the moguls, I think everyone that watches it feels the pain in their knees from the competitors!

All in all, it was a great party. Lessons were learned about preparing food ahead of time, but a lesson from my previous party was also learned. There was absolutely no parking chaos to be had, as I was recommended a certain church parking lot by my dad and it worked out perfectly. Another lesson: before boiling chickpeas, soak them in water the night before!

Sunday I spent with my family, showing my sister the Kettler and even watching the end of a Challenge Cup game (junior women’s hockey) that had some hard hits but a lopsided score (an 11-1 beatdown). I eventually made it to my parents’ house for the first time since the snowpocalypse. I would spend 5 hours (with a break in the middle) shoveling out a parking spot in a 4 foot tall snow bank. I have finally stopped feeling sore from that a full day later.

Picked up the game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All Stars and I am absolutely loving it! Basically if you’ve never heard of the game it’s exactly like the Marvel vs. Capcom games with 2 on 2 tag based gameplay. The characters and environments, however, are made in complete 3-D with cel-shading. I was really happy to recognize some of the old Tatsunoko anime characters that I have only seen at past Otakons where I had no idea who they were at the time. There’s a lot to unlock in this game, so I’ve got a lot to do with the game!

This weekend was absolutely awesome, but now I must get to bed for another day of work. Here’s to another good set of days!

Currently listening to (and watching): Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All Stars

[Via http://bobco85.wordpress.com]

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Acts of Love: In Vino Veritas

2010-02-14T22:55:00.000+02:00

As the adage goes, “It’s not how we love someone when we love them, but how we love someone when we hate them that counts.” How easy it is to love someone who conveniently fits into and aligns with our values, ideas, purposes or interests. The challenge and opportunity comes when we’re faced with a choice in that moment when it may be difficult not to react or to send them love. The light that is revealed when we disarm someone with love is tremendous. It is easy to imagine what we might do or say in a potential situation where it is extremely difficult to love somone; however the true test comes when the situation presents itself and that goodwill we were sure we would have suddenly feels stripped away.

If we shifted our perspective when it came to how we view other people’s behaviors in situations it would be much easier to transform and heal the events around us that are taxing or difficult to understand. At the risk of oversimplification, it is true nonetheless: Every thing anyone ever does is either an act of love or a cry for help. This family was sitting down to dinner and robbed at gunpoint. In that moment, they had a decision. To act from fear or to act from love. The outcome of their decision was powerful.

Intruder Pulls Gun on Dinner Party, Then Asks for Hugs

(AP) July 13, 2007

WASHINGTON — Washington, D.C., police are baffled by an attempted robbery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood that began with a handgun put to the head of a teenager and ended in a group hug.

It started about midnight on June 16 when a group of friends was finishing a dinner of marinated steaks and jumbo shrimp on the back patio of a District of Columbia home. That’s when a hooded man slid through an open gate and pointed a handgun at the head of a 14-year-old girl.

“Give me your money, or I’ll start shooting,” he said, according to D.C. police and witnesses.

Everyone froze, including the girl’s parents. Then one guest spoke.

“We were just finishing dinner,” Cristina “Cha Cha” Rowan, 43, told the man. “Why don’t you have a glass of wine with us?”

The intruder had a sip of their Chateau Malescot St-Exupery and said, “Damn, that’s good wine.”

The girl’s father, Michael Rabdau, 51, told the intruder to take the whole glass, and Rowan offered him the whole bottle.

The robber, with his hood down, took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese. He put the gun in his sweatpants.

The story then turns even more bizarre.

“I think I may have come to the wrong house,” he said before apologizing. “Can I get a hug?”

Rowan, who works at her children’s school and lives in Falls Church, Va., stood up and wrapped her arms around the armed man. The four other guests followed.

“Can we have a group hug?” the man asked. The five adults complied.

The man walked away a few moments later with the crystal wine glass in hand. Nothing was stolen, and no one was hurt.

Once he was gone, the group walked into the house, locked the door and stared at each other — speechless. Rabdau called 911, and police came to take a report and dust for fingerprints.

Police classified the case as strange but true. Investigators have not located a suspect. The witnesses thought he might have been high on drugs.

“We’ve had robbers that apologize and stuff but nothing where they sit down and drink wine. It definitely is strange,” said Cmdr. Diane Groomes, adding that the hugs were especially unusual. “The only good thing is they would be able to identify him because they hugged them

Sometimes through the courageous act of choosing love over fear that light completely dissolves the darkness. I remember when my brother finished medical school and he had to focus on under-served areas under the stipulations of a scholarship. He spent some time volunteering in homeless shelters, seeing patients in ghettos (and the coup-de-grace), imagine my reaction when he told his big sister that he – fearless as he’s always been - was toying with the idea of doing work in prisons. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but this is where I draw the line. You are not working with ex-convicts. You don’t need to martyr yourself to help the world.” Of course, I was petrified at the thought of what I perceived as his naivete, but he taught me something very valuable. In situations where most of us would act in fear (being closed, choosing self-protection and “safety”) he walks straight into the darkness without judgment and in love and utter fearlessness, and the sum of what he produces is always beautiful. People who, for most of their lives, have been treated as outcasts or hardened criminals greeted with fear, are given trust and love and miraculously that dissipates a lot of the darkness and illusion. Through his fearlessness, non-judgment and respect, the respect and love they showed him in return was double. Every last trace of fear around the situation, gone.

That is exactly what this family did. One could read this story and think, “Are you out of your mind? Are you naive? This man has a gun and you’re going to invite him to sit down to dinner?” But this fear is an illusion and it’s a bubble that can be popped with arrows of love and kindness. For every argument someone gives against matching fear with more fear, there are a million other examples where love won out and created light in a seemingly hopeless situation.

[Via http://maia1111.wordpress.com]

News: Olympics, Ryan Reynolds, Vietnam, Alexander McQueen ...

Goal Update: Week 6

2010-02-14T16:13:00.000+02:00

The end of Week 6 of 12 in my goal to find a job has come to a close, celebrated by my least favorite holiday… Valentine’s Day. While things have been looking up for quite some time now in my love life, thanks to Miss Fancy Boots, my employment life is also starting to take shape albeit slowly.

Tomorrow I have an interview with Currituck County Emergency Management for a position as an EM Program Assistant. I’m excited to see what opportunities come out of the interview since there was not much information provided in the position listing, including a salary figure! The location is pretty sweet in terms of proximity to the beach but not so much in terms of proximity to friends. The closest friends would be Miss Sassy Pants (the original who I highly recommend) in Raleigh– but only for another 5 months, Sir Sailor up in Norfolk, and Frenchy (akaClassy) in VA Beach. Neither of those locations are really within “go out for the night” driving distance, in fact their more like “spend the weekend visiting” distance. This really puts a big ole fat negative on the list of pros/cons for this particular job. So like I said, we’ll see what comes out of the interview tomorrow morning and I’ll keep you updated. By the way… anyone else find it a bit ridiculous I’m interviewing with a local government on a Federal holiday?

In other news I’m looking forward to staying with Park Ranger in his sweet new condo for my interview on the 27th in DC with Fund for the Public Interest. This is an opportunity I’m really excited about so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Bring on the vino! Check out this bottle from one of my new favorite wineries Oveja Negra (Black Sheep) who puts a unique spin on a white blend combining Sauvignon Blanc and Carmenere (yes that’s a red grape). So how do they keep the wine “white” if there’s a “red” grape in it? Well my friends they simply avoid skin contact with the Carmenere to avoid tinging the wine with the red color. This is an interesting and exciting blend I highly recommend.

Until next time, cheers!

[Via http://coastalwind.wordpress.com]

Stabroek News - Marketing and small business

On New Discoveries in the Worlds of Food & Drink

2010-02-14T03:56:00.000+02:00

The past week has seen me foray into new culinary territory, some of it much-hyped, some not. In order of ingestion:

1. 2007 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Cuvée Côt: I recently sampled this small vineyard’s 2008 Cuvée Gamay and really enjoyed it (so much so, in fact, that I am enjoying a glass from a second bottle as I type). I am no expert –– far from it –– but my oenophile friend T, on learning that I was impressed by the Gamay, suggested I try their Cuvée Côt, or Malbec, and so I picked up a bottle at Slope Cellars here in the hood to bring to a dinner last weekend. What an odd, flowery, decidedly funky wine, filled with hints of lavender and herbs and mushrooms and parma violets. I loved it, but I couldn’t imagine pairing it with food.

2. Stumptown Coffee: This coffee has earned many column inches (if one can still talk about such things these days), but the two cups I’d had to date –– at Brooklyn’s Trois Pommes and Baked –– had not left a lasting impression. So when R said he was going to pick up beer supplies at the new Brooklyn Homebrew just round the corner from us, I asked him to pick up a bag of Stumptown so that we could brew and test it for ourselves. He chose their organic Holler Mountain Blend, which was smooth and tasty and all things good, but still left me wondering quite what all the fuss is about. It is more expensive and less expansive that our usual brew (Gorilla’s Poco Fundo). We finished the bag in four days. Now I admit this might say more about our caffeine habit (we have a five-month old! cut us some slack!) than the quality of the beans, but still.

The relationship between items 1. and 2. is as follows: I would rather drink bad wine than bad coffee. In certain situations, I am quite happy to down plonk; I am never content to swill sock juice coffee.

3. Jasper Hill’s Winnimere, a raw cow cheese aged 60 days and washed in lambic. Delicious.

4. SCRATCHbread’s chocolate chip scone. I’ve been eager to sample a SCRATCHbread creation since reading that the baker does all his work overnight, using the oven of a local pizzeria. So when I was at Gorilla this morning with H and saw that they are now carrying the stuff, I let myself forget about the postpartum weight loss (yeah, like the aforementioned wine and cheese didn’t screw that already) and indulged. Perhaps my mistake was to go with my primal chocofiend urges, rather than opting for the more interesting ginger & lemon offering. It may be that I was underwhelmed because I had to juggle scone, coffee, groceries, stroller and icy sidewalks all while performing the puddle ballet required of New Yorkers after a significant snowfall; however, underwhelmed I was. ‘Twas a dry, crumbly and insipid effort –– the kind of thing one might qualify as meh –– even if the darker-than-usual chocolate chips were a pleasant surprise.

[Via http://desbelleslettres.wordpress.com]

Foreclosure "good" news may not be so good after all

Valentine vignette #1: Kids, don’t try this at home

2010-02-13T16:48:00.000+02:00

We were young, we were broke….we were living in rural Iowa, for God sakes.

My roommate Jim had a girlfriend, and one Friday night he was going to impress her with a nice, home cooked meal and an evening of romance. This necessitated me finding somewhere else to be for the night, which was no problem, but his plans also included a bottle of wine to go with his home cooked feast. This was a bit of a problem.

SEE: ‘we were broke’, above.

A plan was concocted to overcome both limited funds, and lack of quality and variety (fancy-schmanzyism, as the locals might say) in the local municipal liquor store wine selection. Keep in mind this was Marshalltown, Iowa 1979 – stocking both Mogen David and Boones Farm qualified as ‘wide selection’. Part one of our scheme was to procure the container, and Jim had a friend who worked at a nice restaurant and got Jim an empty French wine bottle – cork included.

French! Even better than Jim had hoped for – and it had the cork, to boot.

Jim cleaned out the bottle, then we made a trip to the grocery store for the ingredients necessary for one bottle of Jim’s date-night wine; Welch’s grape juice, a bottle of vodka, a box of Alka-Seltzer tablets, and a funnel.

Returning home, Jim poured a couple of small glasses of the grape juice, in varying amounts, then added the vodka. A quick sampling led us to the conclusion that a 50/50 mix was pretty close (remember, our young palettes were far from being developed) to real wine – real FRENCH wine – save for the fizz.

Taking the funnel, Jim filled his empty French wine bottle half-way up with the Welch’s, then he filled the remainder of the bottle with the vodka. He then opened the Alka-Seltzer, and opened a pack of two tablets. We had to break them to get them down the neck of the bottle, and once inside they began to fizz and foam, threatening to overflow the bottle, before settling down. Two tablets didn’t seem to add enough fizz (maybe for a domestic, but not for French wine) so he ended up opening two more packets of Ala-Seltzer and repeating the procedure until his concoction seemed to fit the bill. A couple of sips convinced him that he had hit upon the recipe for date night success, so he was able to get the cork in the bottle, and the bottle in the fridge for proper chilling.

1 bottle of Jim’s Impress-A-Chick; vintage, Thursday, under four dollars.

Jim’s date night went off without a hitch – his home cooked meal, the accompanying wine both a big hit – though their evening ended a bit earlier than he might have wished. You see the wine was cheap and easy, the girl wasn’t.

[Via http://poetluckerate.wordpress.com]

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs News 2/13 - Arrowhead Pride

Last Minute V-Day Cocktails

2010-02-11T16:45:00.000+02:00

So you have put off your plans, got no idea what to do, and are scrambling for someway to celebrate V-day. Okay, here are a couple quick easy last-minute, no frill, but really cool and sexy drinks.

Cinn-ful Love

1 oz cinnamon schnapps
1 dash peychaud bitters
5 oz sparkling wine

Build in a champagne flute and garnish with a couple of heart-shaped hard candies (Ya know the one you bought cause the drugstore was out of chocolates)

And since you missed out on the chocolates…..

Sexual Chocolate

1 oz Godiva White chocolate
1 oz Frangelico
1 oz Vodka

Combine in a shaker with ice and shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass decorated with hearts drawn in chocolate syrup.

Hope everyone has a wonderful celebration with their loved one. And if you are not spending Valentine’s day sans another, remember, your significant other doesn’t have to be a person. Personally I have a date with my girl for lunch and the evening I will be spending with my other true love……my bar.

[Via http://santafebarman.wordpress.com]

Game revenues down at Disney | News

Olympic Torch Relay Day 102: Mission to Langley, British Columbia

2010-02-11T04:32:00.000+02:00

Chris spends part of his morning as a guest of the Sto:Lo Nation in Mission, British Columbia. He tours the original 9,000 year-old village site and the Xa:ytem Longhouse before turning his hand to make a traditional First Nations drum. Chris then heads to Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery in Langley where he learns the art of fine winemaking from the Fraser Valley’s oldest and largest winery. He remains in Langley to catch up with the Olympic Flame at that community’s Torch Relay Celebration.

[Via http://chriswheeler.ca]

NBC's Todd: Fox News Trying To 'Undermine' MSM | NewsBusters.org

What Buying Tea Taught Me About Selling Wine

2010-02-09T16:54:00.000+02:00

In addition to wine I like tea. Well, coffee too, but this is about tea. And wine.

In a moment when I felt like splurging (the trip to Paris was out, a new car was out, buying first-growth Bordeaux was out), I thought I would go to a very high end tea specialist to purchase some interesting teas that I cannot get at my favorite tea store. (I don’t want to mention the name as that would be unfair free advertising for them. But if I did want to mention them, I would say Peet’s Coffee and Tea.)

So I head off to Oxbow Market in Napa, home to my favorite suppliers of exquisite provisions (love that word, provisions), and immediately went to my favorite store there, Kara’s Cupcakes. Oh, wait, this is about tea. I meant Tillerman Teas. Their tea list is extraordinary. “Tea List”? WTF is a tea list? Obviously it is a list of their teas. But they don’t just have black tea, green tea, oolong tea, etc. They have 9,000 Darjeelings, 4 million Oolongs, even more green teas, and so many black teas that a list of them cannot be printed without destroying all the remaining forests in the world. And believe me, I am not one prone to exaggeration.

I was sniffing, smelling and deciding what Oolong tea to buy. Did I want Alishan Spring Harvest or Alishan Winter Harvest? Was I interested in Jade Oolong or Roasted Oolong? Was my preference an Oriental Beauty or an Oriental Concubine? (Well, both, but never mind that. This is about tea.)

The person selling the tea began to explain a tea ceremony, the proper preparation of tea. The pot, the cups, the water temperature. He asked how I heated the water. Well, I said, I put the water in a cup and put it in the microwave…..OMG, he collapsed on the floor. “A microwave? Oh, no!!” he cried. “Never boil water in a microwave. This destroys the oxygen!”

All I wanted was some nice tea to enjoy on a cold and damp day (of which we have many lately). And now I was told I couldn’t simply enjoy the tea, but I had to do it properly or it doesn’t count.

So this leads me (finally) to say that is this what we wine people do with wine? Do we take all the pleasure out of drinking wine because we tell them the proper temperature to serve the wine, the proper balance of flavor, mouthfeel, tannin, acid? Do we explain why this vintage is better than that vintage? Do we do all this ad infinitum until the poor person who just wanted a nice bottle of wine is totally confused?

When we pair wine with food, do we insist that only an unoaked Chardonnay will work or a Pinot Noir from the Russian River? Do we say a wine should be cellared because it will be better in 2 ½ years? Do we just take all the enthusiasm out of a wine purchase just because we know about wine and know what we like?

Might it be better to ask what they have liked before and find something similar without going into historical references and flavor profiles? Does someone who does not like Cabernet be told that this Cabernet got 95 points?

I know why we say this. But does it turn some customers off and they figure they’d rather not appear ignorant and serve or order the “wrong” wine?

At a tasting one man was explaining to a novice wine drinker that you never ever hold the glass by the bowl, only by the stem, so as to not heat the wine. Well, bull. Maybe the wine is too cold. Maybe the customer likes it warm. Maybe it’s just easier to hold the glass by the bowl and not worry about it. I wonder if that novice wine drinker ever went to another tasting.

If a customer wants to know the trellising system in the vineyard where these particular grapes come from fine. Tell him. But if someone else just wants a good red wine, ask him what he liked in the past, and find something you think he’d like now. He may enjoy it far more not knowing anything about it. And maybe you can turn people into wine lovers. Enjoying wine really shouldn’t be work.

[Via http://overabarrel.wordpress.com]

AMERICAblog News: Wall Street shifts contributions to GOP

Allocation time

2010-02-09T04:02:00.000+02:00

This is one of the most expensive periods of the year, when allocations seem to come in droves. In the last few weeks, I’ve been hit by Aubert, Marcassin, Kosta Browne, Turley, Linne Calodo, Saxum, Carlisle, Rivers Marie, and Outpost. Sine Qua Non is probably right around the corner. It usually evens out for the next several months until the rush come August/September. I kind of wish I could commit to the wines in advance, but pay over the course of the year–it sure would make it easier on my credit card

Many people are asking themselves why the would buy allocations, given the ever-increasing prices, the terrible economy, and the fact that often, previously hard-to-get wines can be had for less-than-retail prices in shops. For me, however, the mailing lists are mostly worth it. Don’t get me wrong–I get frustrated if I pay $X and hear that the same wine is available for 10, 20, or 30% less. But I like knowing that I’m going to get the wine for sure. I like the fact I do not have to chase the wine, running from shop to shop, begging for a bottle here, and a bottle there. I used to do that, but life has gotten busy enough that the small premium I pay is worth the time I don’t have to spend. Not to mention that I am assured of provenance.

I do wish the prices would come down, however

[Via http://motleycru.com]

Another week of GW News, February 7, 2010 : A Few Things Ill ...

Tyler Wine Tasting & Auction, Off The Vine

2010-02-07T22:02:00.000+02:00

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Please join Ikal 1150 vineyard proprietors, who hail from Tyler, as they pour their award winning Ikal 1150 wines from Argentina at the 2010 Off the Vine, Wine Gala and Auction.

The event will benefit The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) of Smith County, Parents Anonymous® Inc, and All Saints Episcopal School.

Join chef Dean Fearing, of Ritz-Carlton fame for a pairing of his creations with the Ikal 1150 and over 30 other wines from around the world.

WHEN: Saturday, September 27, 1:00PM-3:00PM WHERE: KE Bushman's Winery & Celebration Center 2418 Sunset Blvd Houston, TX, 77005 (713) 524-6318 www.offthevinetyler.com

Join Texas Winemakers

Join Ikal 1150’s vineyard owners, two Texans, as they pour all three of their 2007 release wines from Mendoza, Argentina.

For more information please visit Off The Vine, Tyler Texas Wine Gala, Tasting, and Auction.

[Via http://ikal1150.wordpress.com]

Miadhu News – Weekly address: President discusses economy

Bodega Septima - 2007 Gran Reserva

2010-02-07T16:35:00.000+02:00

Single varietal wines are probably the ones most American consumers have historically identified with and looked for. There now seems to be a growing segment in the US that realizes the power of blended wines. As we mature as a wine consuming culture in the US there are more and more folks that are comfortable straying outside of their safe zone and experimenting. Blended wines, whether classic Bordeaux style blends or otherwise can offer many positives. Of course at their best the goal is to achieve the best possible wine using the highest quality fruit a producer has available. In addition to that sometimes its as simple as some Merlot being blended in to a Cabernet for additional complexity. In any case while the single varietal expressions have their place too, blended wines are their own unique discipline. Today I’ll look at one from Bodega Septima.

The Bodega Septima 2007 Gran Reserva was produced using fruit sourced in several distinct parts of Mendoza. This wine is a blend of Malbec (50%), Cabernet Sauvignon (40%), and Tannat (10%). Each varietal was barrel aged separately in a combination of French and American oak. After 12 months in barrel the final blend was assembled prior to this offering being bottled. The suggested retail price for this wine is $25.

When this 2007 blend is poured, the deep purple hue is striking. Blackberry, blueberry and vanilla aromas waft enticingly from the nose of this wine. The palate is loaded with intense layers of fruit flavor. These are joined by spice and chocolate notes that coat the tongue and back of the throat with flavor and good intensity. Espresso, earth and mineral reference points make up the lengthy finish. This wine has firm tannins and good acid structure. In it’s powerful youth this wine will work best paired with hearty, full flavored dishes that can match its intensity.

What I like best about this wine is the balance on display between the Malbec and the Cabernet Sauvignon. The lusty fruit of the Malbec shines through, along with the depth of flavor and structure that the Cabernet provides. The softer and lighter bodied Tannat acts as a bridge, bringing it all together. While this wine is delicious now, particularly after a solid decanting, it will undoubtedly improve for the next 5-6 years and drink well for several after that. A nice wine and a very good value.

Please take a moment to vote for my blog.

[Via http://gabesview.com]

News from across the pond: Madonna's kids plead for Guy Ritchie ...

moon over my (aching) hammy

2010-02-07T04:48:00.000+02:00

First of all, I have to give a big up to my neighbor Butch for snow-blowing our driveway this morning. I think I’m going to bake him some cookies.

I ran five miles in the snow and now my left hamstring is killin’ me. Actually, it was a little tender before I ran and now it’s worse. (Though, on a lighter note, my ankle doesn’t hurt at all! Meh.)

Sidenote: There’s a dude in my neighborhood who I see running all the time. He’s middle-aged, a little thick, and pretty slow but he’s dedicated as hell. I didn’t even know where he lived until I ran past his house today while he was shoveling the driveway. He yelled to me, “good job!” and gave me a salute. It totally made my morning. Maybe I’ll make him cookies too. Health cookies, because he’s a runner.

Even though we got about 7 inches yesterday, the run wasn’t too too bad. There were a couple of deep drifts (and some 30 mph wind gusts, ick) but the plows came through last night so the snow was pretty packed down in most places and there was minimal ice.

I actually felt pretty good after running but I probably didn’t stretch enough and I’ve been getting progressively stiffer all night. I’ll probably close out the evening by icing my thigh in bed with a glass of wine.

And we’re supposed to get even more snow next week –

It’s supposed to start around 1 a.m. Monday, so my drive into work Tuesday should be just FANTASTIC.

And, just a few thoughts about the Super Bowl:

A) I hate the Colts;

B) I think it’s lame that the Super Bowl has turned into a platform for social commentary. I know some people are complaining it was unfair for CBS to reject the ManCrunch ad, and I’m inclined to agree, especially since they did choose to air FOTF’s Tebow pro-life ad, but if you’ve actually seen the ManCrunch ad, it’s just kind of silly and ridiculous. I just don’t think it’s meaningful enough to be a significant setback for the gay rights movement.

My theory? ManCrunch made an idiotic video on purpose. They knew CBS would reject the ad and the ensuing shitstorm combined with the “REJECTED” video going viral on the Internet would be much more effective (and cheaper) advertising than a Super Bowl ad could ever be. It’s almost too easy.

But what do I know.

[Via http://cheaperthantherapyblog.com]

Perfect Dark XBLA showing at X10 News | Xbox 360 | Eurogamer

Tasting Plešivica: From Above & Below (Part 1)

2010-02-06T22:31:00.000+02:00

Tasting Room, Korak Winery

A FIRE softly glowed, warming the rustic tasting room at the Korak winery. Polished wine glasses stood like good soldiers on long, wooden tables, ready to obey.

Outside a damp low-hanging sky clung like layers of smoke on the upper slopes of the hills of Plešivica. I imagined that Ernest Hemingway, sitting here sipping a glass of wine, would have called them “hills like white elephants”. But that’s another story….

This story is about two of the most respected winemakers in Plešivica, and I had just pulled into the driveway of one of them: Mr. Velimir Korak. Mr. Korak, who has been making wine for over 20 years and released his first proprietary vintage in 1991, has a reputation as one of the finest winemakers in Croatia. His wines have won multiple awards and medals in domestic showings.

www.vino-korak.hr/

Plešivica is a wine-growing region along Croatia’s northwest border with Slovenia (see previous blog for map and more info). From his winery, Velimir Korak enjoys a breathtaking view from atop one of the region’s many summits; here the hills reach as high as 1,300 feet (400 meters) above sea level, with Alpine-styled chalet houses and family farms adorning their undulating peaks and terraces. True enough, from the front door of the Korak winery, the wine hills of Plesivica roll away like autumn-colored waves into the misty distance.

Korak Vineyards

Walking among the vines in front of the winery, nibbling on a few forgotten yet sticky-sweet berries, all I could think was: What a great place for a summer picnic! Sit outside, eating lamb or wild boar roasted over an open fire, drinking some of Plešivica’s best wines, talking, joking and eventually singing with friends.

Velimir Korak

Back inside the cozy tasting room, I was ready for a glass.

Mr. Korak is a distinguished-looking gentleman with jolly eyes, a mischievous smile, and a quietly reserved manner.

“What would you like to taste”, he asked.

“Whatever you would like to show me”, I answered.

He smiled that wise and assuring smile. Without hesitation he began to move about the room, reaching into cabinets and crevices, pulling out bottles and corks. Every once in a while he would hold one up like a proud father and glance at me without a word – just a shy grin, as if to say: “you will like this one”.

Korak winery is perched atop a high hill in Plešivica. Directly in front of the winery and the adjacent house where the Korak family lives, rows of 15-year old Riesling vines arch down the hill and descend into the valley below. In addition to Riesling, the Korak family grows Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Sauvignon Blanc on his 5 hectares (12.36 acres) of vineyards. Annual production hovers around 40,000 bottles, primarily white wines.

One of these wines, the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc ‘Ljetno Vino” (“Summer Wine”), swirled in my glass and awoke my palate. It was lean and crisp, showing light citrus, hay and floral notes. At only 12.9% alcohol, it would make a great picnic aperitif. In contrast, the 2008 “Vrhunsko” Sauvignon Blanc, aged for 10 months in neutral oak vats, clocked in at 14% alcohol and delivered richer stone fruit (nectarine) and dried hay notes. However, it was still closed and austere, needing more time to develop and open up.

In general I would describe Mr. Korak’s wines as pure, crystalline expressions of fruit nurtured in a stunningly beautiful, eco-clean environment. Think of table grapes that you sometimes get at the supermarket that are crunchy yet packed with juice; they crack and burst when you bite them. I imagined that Mr. Korak’s grapes, picked in the cool Plešivica mornings and covered in dew, taste even better.

Next was the 2008 Riesling with its green apple and citrus aromas, wet stone minerality, refreshing acidity, and a fruity, crisp finish – perfect with brook trout sautéed in butter and herbs.

More impressive was the 2006 Chardonnay “Sur Lie”, a barrel-fermented, non-filtered, unsulphured beauty that glows with a richly gold, amber-tinged color. The nose was exquisite with baked apple and brioche aromas, laced with warm spice and oak notes. A taste revealed a round, creamy and slightly oily texture with flavors of ripe apple, caramel, and buttery pastry, all set pleasantly ablaze by good doses of acidity and alcohol.

While his white wines are the crux of his portfolio, the most memorable wine for me was the 2008 Pinot Noir, freshly bottled and still without a label. This was classic Pinot: delicate and elegant; pure red fruits and a pretty floral note; clean, refreshing yet complex. Even though it was only three weeks in bottle, it was already showing great potential. I can’t wait to go back and try it again.

Glowing now from the inner warmth that only fine wine can deliver, we talked for a time while nibbling on locally-produced cheeses and savory pastries. The subject matter drifted between the state of the wine industry in Croatia, hail storms and vintage variations, and how Croatian wines should be marketed in the United States. But none of that really mattered. In the end, it was the wines that spoke to our hearts.

So, it was time to bid farewell to the Korak winery and drive down the mountain to a very different place: the Tomac winery in Nova Reka, a village just outside the town of Jastrebrasko, at the foot of the Plešivica hills, where a mystery buried in the ground waits to be discovered.

(to be continued…)

Bye for now...Korak Winery

Photos and text by Cliff Rames, www.winesofcroatia.com

[Via http://winesofcroatia.wordpress.com]

SWIMNEWS ONLINE - Swimming News, Swim Meet Results, Swimming World ...

Is Your Cellar Full of Wine Racks?

2010-02-06T16:48:00.000+02:00

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to enjoy a bit of a boozy weekend in Dublin. My other half had been invited over by one of the suppliers his firm does business with. Everything was paid for and all that we had to do was make our way to the airport for our flight.

We were met at the airport by our host and he swiftly whisked us off to his house so we could unpack. My jaw nearly dropped when I first saw how large his house was – it was huge. He had everything you could ever imagine – a swimming pool, sauna, tennis court, gym and even a home cinema.

Waiting for us in his kitchen was some beautiful Australian wine, nicely chilled in a wine cooler and bottle openers all ready to go.

Our host was a real wine buff and has his own wine racks down in his cellar. A lot of his wine is imported from Australia and he was telling us that the cellar temperature has to monitored all the time. He went on to say that if conditions aren’t correct, then that’s when problems can happen. One example he was telling us about was if the humidity is too high then this will make the corks dry out and this in turn allows air to get into the bottle and oxidise the wine, which would of course be disastrous.

After we had finished our drinks we were off for a night in the Temple Bar area. We had a brilliant night and the Irish are so friendly. Nothing is too much trouble and they are really genuine people. Hubby was in his element knocking back his pints of Guinness. Mind you I think the next morning he wished he hadnt drunk quite so much.

We had a brilliant weekend and it is certainly something I would love to do again. Next time though maybe we might need to lay off the alcohol just a little bit!

[Via http://hotsexygirlspics.wordpress.com]

Silent Hill composer joins Grasshopper News | Eurogamer

www.kolkataonlineflorists.com

2010-02-06T04:36:00.000+02:00

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Add zing to the special occasions of your acquaintances in Kolkata by sending our fantastic flowers and tasty cakes. Our expert team affords excellent customer service support for the delivery of our flowers and cakes to Kolkata. Our supreme delivery networks all over Kolkata, Same day delivery option to Kolkata and punctual delivery of flowers and cakes to Kolkata have helped us to be more proficient. Moreover sending flowers and cakes to Kolkata online with us is 100% secured.

Please visit:

www.kolkataonlineflorists.com

[Via http://poulamimajumder.wordpress.com]

News Ticker: Michael Jackson, Thom Yorke, Pitchfork Festival ...

Wine in a Ready-to-Drink Glass

2010-02-04T22:35:00.000+02:00

Attracting new consumers is crucial for winemakers, as consumption has been declining in most mature markets. And so the ubiquitous 750-milliliter glass wine bottle has gotten competition from new types of packaging primarily intended to make wine more accessible to new consumer groups and to extend drinking occasions.

Following the success of bag-in-box formats and innovative initiatives that range from pouches to mini barrels, wine in an aluminium can has surfaced as a potential means from which to escape the rising cost of glass bottles, while at the same time increasing one’s green credentials.

But whatever the high-sophisticated printing and quality of graphics you can’t deny that wine in a can or even a can-bottle gives you the feeling of consuming a cheap wine, an ordinary table-wine.

So what are you supposed to do when you bought yourself a nicely presented upscale ready-meal to be supposed to be eaten from a china plate, as described in my previous post. Let’s be honest you can’t seriously accompany that with wine in a can, whatever the brand-name printed on the side.

The prestigious French Château Roubine comes up with the perfect answer.

Château Roubine’s Grand Cru Classé Côtes de Provence has gone on sale in the UK in foil-sealed 175ml single serve ready-to-drink PET-glasses manufactured by 1/4 Vin in France, providing a similar appreciation of the wine flavour as with a classical glass. The shape of the PET-glass was designed especially for Chateau Roubine with personalised marking.

Both red and white wines of the Classique Chateau Roubine are currently available in ‘One Glass Wine’ PET ‘glasses’ at the Sketch Pierre Gagnaire pop-up café at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. UK agent Eminent Wines is also looking to place them in other outlets, for example, high end lunch boxes, airport and train lounges etc.

The concept is based upon the use of a heat-sealing aluminium compound to seal the specially treated glasses in a low-pressure. The head space prevents the opening and drinking phases from any drip. This head space is inert and contains an average rate of residual oxygen lower than 0.8% (1% maxi). The wine is therefore not facing any oxidation.

The depression effect results in a concave lid. The characteristic ‘pop’ noise made by air entering the glass ensures the product quality.

The product is totally airtight and protected from the outside environment. The thermo sealing process preserves the flavours in the wine for many months and maintains the roundness and elegance of the tannins. The seal is easy to peel and leaves a clean lip (rim). Being lightweight and 100% recyclable the One Glass Wine also contributes to the environment.

OneGlassWine is a technology for packaging wine in a ready-to-drink glass. It guarantees the conservation of the original organoleptic properties of the wine, on the flavour side as well as on the taste side. The wine is kept under inert gas between its initial container and the final packaging, almost free of air. This process ensures an amount of dissolved oxygen lower than 0.5mg/litre. OneGlassWine requires no additive nor preservative and no specific work on the wine.

The wine is delivered ‘ready-to-use’ and does not suffer any transformation. It is packaged at room temperature. The inerting equipment is entirely patented.

1/4Vin is the inventor of the innovative and patented OneGlassWine technology, which uses heat sealing by conduction to assure a long-lasting, easy-to-remove seal of the lid. The glass does not leak and can be carried in a bag or a pocket safely. The technology is suitable for any still wine as well as for spirits and aperitifs.

100153

[Via http://bestinpackaging.wordpress.com]

Mark Cuban May Hate News Aggregators, But He Also Wants To Invest ...

Mad about Madison

2010-02-04T16:27:00.000+02:00

I’m moving to MADISON, WI

state st.

and I’ve been a bit preoccupied researching the city and planning the move. I’m so excited about all of the little treasures this city has to offer. Below is just a taste… a few ideas for my first weekend there.

Happy Mouth and Busy Hands

I’d never heard of a coffee shop and yarn store combination before, but it seems logical, hence why Madison has a few:

The Sow’s Ear 125 S. Main St., Verona, WI

located in the near by town of Verona this little shop offers fresh brews, yummy cafe fare, including a few vegan friendly options, and all the knitting supplies you’ll need to take one of their classes. I feel like I could lose a few Saturday afternoons to this place.

Lakeside Fibers 402 W. Lakeside St.

Has a beautiful view of Monona Bay and the Capitol skyline and in addition to a large selection of knitting supplies and classes they have a selection of wine and beer. Evening knitting?

Splurge and “Dig”

Of course a girl has to look good at work and since I will no long need to wear business attire it seemly like a good time to spruce up the closet.

Bop 222 W. Gorham St.

is a location of the online store Shop Bop that I have lusted over for a long time. It’s nice to know that a little city like Madison still has access to the latest trends and with an actual store to visit maybe i finally will splurge since I am try the clothes on and maybe find a sale rack.

“Dig & Save” St. Vincent De Paul 1900 S. Park St.

,where clothing, books, and household items are sold by the pound. After splurging at Bop it might be time to spend the rest of the afternoon digging through the bins here to see what treasures I can afford with the change.

Domicile Dreams

For the first time in my life I will have an apartment that is MINE with my things in it. But here in lies the “problem” I don’t own anything to hang on the walls, or put on the coffee table… wait I don’t even own a coffee table. The following places seem like good places to start. There are others… but they seem a little out of my price range.

Satara 5621 Odana Rd.

has organic bedding and towels. At the very least I intend on spoiling myself with a bamboo towel.

El Kiosco 1348 Williamson St.

is suppose to have vintage and salvaged furniture and house wares… even if it’s not in top shape maybe I can find something to refinish

BEER and food

does this really need a clever title or explanation? In a town with multiple local breweries it only seems to make sense to end a busy weekend afternoon with a few suds and a bite to eat.

Great Dane Pub and Brewing Co. 123 East Doty Street

*much thanks so Design*Sponge for many of these recommendations in their Madison Design Guide

[Via http://nobicycle.wordpress.com]

Teens prefer reading news online to Twitter | Media | guardian.co.uk

Adios Spain! Hello Nevis!

2010-02-04T04:33:00.000+02:00

Adios Spain! Hello Nevis!

Well my dream honeymoon of roaming around Spain in search for exquisite wine, tasty tapas and bullfighting is yet another victim of the bad economy. If I was working right now we could have pulled off the ultimate Spanish vacation but… I’m still looking.

The airfare alone was $1,400 per person and with only one income for the time being it didn’t make sense to go there.

So Elizabeth decided the next best thing would be the island of Nevis in the Caribbean. The honeymoon will still be fun and I have never been to the islands that were once inhabited by pirates, ARGH Matey!

We used my miles so my flight was free but Elizabeth had to pay to get some miles, it was still a lot cheaper than the flight to Barcelona.

I am a little worried about going during Hurricane season but everything I read says that most of the storms do not occur until later in the season.

Oh well… I guess I’ll try to go sometime next year, I’ll try and make it to a futbol game while there and catch a bullfight as well.

Now its time to find a place to stay. If anyone has any recommendations please let me know.

[Via http://adventuresdowntheaisle.com]

Everybody Forgets The Readers When They Bash News Aggregators

I LOVE to eat & drink!

2010-02-02T22:23:00.000+02:00

There, I said it… I feel better now! In a world governed by weight loss commercials, scary restaurant calorie facts & an ever growing list of foods you shouldn’t eat, it has become almost taboo to admit that you eat & drink not just solely for nutrition, but also for pleasure & entertainment. Now, I am not talking about emotional eating, I am talking about going out to dine or preparing a meal as an activity. Like some people go to the movies, I eat. And drink.

That being set forth, I will write here about good & bad meals. Both my own and those I ate at a restaurant. Great and not so great wine. Chefs I love. And those whom I wonder who they are screwing to become so popular. And even food related shows. Some are good… But I have a feeling that the Food Network is trying to fill the airwaves with perky Rachel Ray/Sandra Lee clones. UGH!

I hope you find this interesting, thought provoking, irritating, inflammatory and strange. Anything but boring! Also, I hope you leave here HUNGRY!

[Via http://foodwinejunkie.wordpress.com]

skippy the bush kangaroo: environmental news stories sunday

Mass Ave Knitting Class: Week 2

2010-02-02T16:03:00.000+02:00

This past Saturday at Mass Ave, the knitting class met again at 4:30 p.m. Everyone enjoyed various glasses of wine, and some enjoyed cheese and cracker trays. There were 8 people in attendance this week, so the setting was a bit more intimate than last time. Of the 8 people that came, 5 were returning from class one, and 3 were new attendees. It was great to see every one again and meet new people. Can you believe I forgot to take pictures again? When class 3 gets here, I promise, promise, promise to take pictures of the class and hopefully even of some completed projects! Week 2 was spent relearning to cast on, how to cast off, and almost everyone learned the knit stitch last class has now also learned how to purl. The week 2 knitting pattern was for a pair of wrist warmers. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s progress. There will be no class this Saturday, as I am taking the day off for my birthday (!) but in two weeks, on February 13th, we are going to learn how to increase and decrease stitches and make a hat. After class ended this week, several of us made a trip next door to The Best Chocolate in Town for boxes of handmade truffles.

The sweet ending of a trip to the chocolate shop was the perfect end to a fantastic knitting class.

If you would like information about the February 13th class (remember, no class on February 6th), you can download the week 3 flier right here: KNIT One Week three flyer

[Via http://sundayafternoonhousewife.wordpress.com]

Firedoglake » Paul Krugman Calls Fox News “Deliberate ...

Wine Temperatures: How to get it perfect

2010-02-02T10:52:00.000+02:00

In an earlier blog we noted that white wines are ideal usually just slightly cooler than reds, but still around around 10 – 12 degrees.

In his next blog l’ortolan Sommelier Stephen Nisbet offers some guidance as to how to arrive at the perfect temperature for your bottle:

Guidelines as to how to arrive at the correct temperature

Remove bottle from heated locations – At this chilly time of year the best thing to do is to place your bottle upright in an unheated, but insulated area like a porch, a well insulated garage whilst you prepare your meal, avoiding areas where the average temperature is outside of 10 – 15 degrees.

Move in the wine before your guests – Move a red wine to the room that it will be served in half an hour before the meal – away from radiators and direct sunlight – so that it can acclimatise before serving. Do not allow the wine to reach room temperature.

Put wine in the fridge at least one meal time before – A bottle of white wine would normally only take a couple of hours to chill, but in your household fridge, the temperature won’t be stable because people open and close the door! So if you’re having wine for lunch, put it in the fridge at breakfast time.

Do not store your wine in a fridge – It’s not recommended to keep wine long-term in a very cold fridge, especially if it is bottled with a cork, as you run the risk of the seal drying out and your wine getting oxidised.

Do not put ice in your wine – although this will cool your wine down it will dilute and taint all the flavours. Unless you want to make a soft-drink out of your wine it is an absolute no-no.

Use mainly water and a little bit of ice – don’t just fill a bucket with ice, to maintain the temperature of a bottle as you dine place it in a container filled with water, with a little bit of ice. This will keep the temperature of the whole bottle constant. Consider using this for red as well as white wine, particularly if you have a warmer room.

Don’t fill your glasses – most modern wine glasses are big enough to hold between a quarter and two-thirds of a bottle, so half-fill them. That means the wine isn’t warming up in your glass waiting to be drunk.

Keep it in the bottle – Keeping the temperature of wine stable is always easier in the bottle as it is designed to be a good insulator. There are also great bottle insulators on the market that are great to keep the temperature of both white and red wine stable.

Use your windowsill for a Dinner Party – A windowsill is actually the ideal location to keep a red wine during a meal (providing there is no sun, and no radiator) because of the cool air around the window which can actually have a stabilizing effect on the wine.
Household appliances should never be used to heat/cool wine.

Keep household appliances away – never use microwaves, ovens, dishwashers or very hot water to warm wine. I’ve seen some restaurants warm wine in a dishwasher, particularly if they don’t have suitable wine storage… But you can cook a salmon in a dishwasher, so just think of the havoc it plays to the delicate flavours in wine! Avoid.

In Stephen’s next blog he’ll explain how to get your wine to the ideal temperature even if time is short.

[Via http://lortolan.wordpress.com]

President Obama's $3.8 Trillion Budget - Political Punch

A Blind Mencia Tasting

2010-01-31T22:43:00.000+02:00

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Gathered around a few white cloth-covered tables under brighter than usual Saturday night lights, I hosted a group of 17 New England tasters to evaluate a dozen wines made from the Mencia grape. Finally, the opportunity to examine Mencia in a critical environment presented itself and I looked forward to validating my developed preference that I have unleashed on restaurant wine lists across the country.

Having never met a Mencia wine I didn’t like, I wondered what might happen in a blind, varietal peer group format. We assessed a decent range of wines from vintages spanning 2003-2008 sourced from the Valdeorras, Bierzo, and Ribeira Sacra growing regions in Northwest Spain. The wines ranged from 12%-14% alcohol content and retail price points started at $12 (2005 Flavium Crianza) moving all the way up to $80 (2007 El Pecado). The event confirmed what I was discovering piecemeal trying these wines one at a time accompanied with food; strutting its stuff without attempts to hide anything, Mencia displays a combination of bright red/blackberry fruit, exotic and herbal aromas, rustic characteristics, and a richness that never feels too ripe. On this evening, the wines seemed to organize themselves into two broad categories; (1) rustic earthiness combined with exotic, spicy aromas (2) deep fruit core with berry flavors and floral aromas relegating rustic, garrigue hints to the background.

Before a lineup rundown and some words on the group’s favorites, it’s worth remembering that this grape is indigenous to these Northwest regions of Spain and not grown anywhere else. There was a school of thought that the grape was related to Caberent Franc, but the speculation has been suffocated by negative DNA tests. As we gathered around our glassware, a friend and fairly steady tasting partner, Glen, reminded us that he has visited his son-in-law’s family who hails from these parts, and not to forget that Ribeira Sacra and Valdeorras (getting famous for the delicious white wines made from Godello fruit) are part of Galicia while Bierzo, 70 miles to the east of Ribeira Sacra, buts up against the same unique environmental influences that the Galician ocean and mountains offer. The vineyards are found in both valley floor and terraced hillsides, with soils of stone and clay down below and granite and schist composition up top. The wines are products of their home, and I noticed as we tasted that some of the wine, including the overwhelming crowd favorites, started moving in a riper modern style wine, slightly departing from the brighter berry and herbal terroir driven qualities of the hills and ocean influences that Glen’s son-in-law is also a product of. These few wines, while delicious, seemed to lose some of the tell-tale berry characteristics we were discovering through the evening.

Here are the wines we tasted and some approximate retail prices:

Bodega Jesus Nazareno as Chas, Valdeorras $13

2003 Ribas Del Cua, Bierzo $20

2003 Tilenus, Bierzo $25

2005 Baltos, Bierzo $15

2005 Flavium Crianza, Bierzo $12

2006 El Castro de Valtuille, Bierzo $16

2007 Losada, Bierzo $20

2007 Vina Caneiro, Ribeira Sacra $28

2007 El Pecado, Ribeira Sacra $80

2007 Petalos, Bierzo $25

2007 El Cayado, Bierzo $20

2008 Pena do Lobo, Ribeira Sacra $17

Jay Miller at the Wine Advocate reviewed nine of these twelve wines and gave all of them 90+ scores. He rated the El Pecado 98 points, saying:

Its ethereal aromas are reminiscent of a great vintage of La Tache (readers will surely think I’m exaggerating) leading to a layered, sleek, elegant wine with tons of spice, that seems to melt in the mouth.

The extraordinary wines of Raul Perez must be tasted to be believed. Words simply cannot do them justice. The problem is that they are produced in minuscule quantities.

Interestingly, the El Pecado did not finish in the top 3 of the group’s favorites. It was fifth. I was surprised. It showed its dark black color, was restrained in its ripeness, had deep black cherry flavors with a little pepper spice, tobacco leaf on the nose, and a sweet long finish. It was in the evening’s first flight, and was my third favorite of that flight and fifth favorite overall. Yet, the notes were consistent with the first time I tried this wine at Casa Mono (which you can read about in this post) when I sang its praise;

…intense aromas of rich black fruit, raspberries, and earth with other stuff I could not even recognize in the nose. Tasting this wine with dishes like bone marrow, fideos with chorizo and clams, pumpkin and goat cheese croquetas, crispy pork belly with apple salad, and duck egg with mojama (salt cured tuna) created a competition for aroma definition that had my nose raising white flags of surrender. But, the intensity of the wine was something I had not experienced in a very long time…pure elegant fruit, laser point focus, and the silkiest mouthfeel imaginable for a wine as packed as this. And the finish…wow that finish…..went on for minutes and the depth of flavors and fruit hung in there with rich blackberry, spice and earth filling my head and chest….I thought of some of the great Paulliacs I’ve tasted in classic vintages where gobs and layers of fruit packed elegantly into silk purses of soft supporting tannins, all with finishes to remember.

The group’s, and my own, favorite was the 2007 Losada. I loved this wine the first time I tried it at Toro, in Boston’s South End, which concluded in a search and destroy mission that had a dozen bottles land in my cellar. On this evening, the wine showed its unusually dark black/purple color and meaty gamey aromas. Amanda, one of our tasters and budding wine writer, discovered exotic barbeque duck spice and someone else reported tar-like flavors. In past tastings of this wine I also noted cinnamon and fruit cake aromas. The wine’s finish, as usual, was long and rich.

The least favorite wine of the night was from the cooperative of Bodega Jesus Nazareno as Chas. Lightest in color of all the wines we tasted, it exhibited a barnyard, animal, manure smell that actually appealed to me, but repulsed a lot of the other tasters. I turned my head to the wine’s lack of fruit and middle depth. The wine was not horrible, but it was not in the same league as the others. It might be nice to drink with some barbequed pork or heavily herbed salmon. Not to be totally dismissed, but t was the only wine that was met with any real objection. As such, all the wines in the lineup are recommended and represent strong values for the most part.

Taking second place was the 2003 Tilenus. It was good to see one of the wines with a little bottle age perform well. It was black in color with sweet floral perfume, tobacco leaf, garrigue and lead pencil aromas. Interestingly the center of the the wine was in need of just a bit more fruit, leaving me a little surprised and expecting lots more considering its intense aromatics.

A wine that did not place in the group’s top three, but was my second favorite of the first flight of six wines was the El Castro de Valtuille. A rich purple color with amazingly true Mencia character shining through, the wine had red berry crossing into strawberry and pomegranate seed aromas, sweet flower petals combining with a slight mustiness, and rich red and blackberry fruit flavors in the finish. The wine is multidimensional and constantly changed in the glass showing its kaleidoscope character. It did secure a few 1st place votes by the group.

Third on the group’s overall list was the other 2003, Ribas del Cua. The color of the wine was deep purple, with tar and cigar wrapper on the nose. Deep black cherry flavors dominated.

Worth noting in my top 5 was the Vina Caneiro from Ribeira Sacra. The color was light purple with an alluring bright black cherry, cola, pinot noir-like nose. The 07 Vina Caneiro delivered a rich fully coated mouthfeel, with one of the longest, velvet-like finishes of all the wines we tasted.

With the tasting accomplished, I was restfully satisfied that these wines are for real and worth buying. Wines with seven years of bottle age were showing well, there was a definite varietal streak that carried through all the various styles, and even when modern wine making gets introduced, the resulting wines are released with acceptable alcohol levels and restraint allowing for true recognition and enjoyment of the region’s special terroir. I still love Mencia, even after the battery of tests we put it through this evening.

[Via http://winezag.wordpress.com]

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|Saturday| Wine Quotes

2010-01-31T04:45:00.000+02:00

Here’s to the corkscrew – a useful key to unlock the storehouse of wit, the treasury of laughter, the front door of fellowship, and the gate of pleasant folly.

W.E.P. French

The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken.

Homer

When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.

Aristophanes

Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.

Ernest Hemingway

If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good?

Cardinal Richeleu

Wine is the drink of the gods, milk the drink of babies, tea the drink of women, and water the drink of beasts.

John Stuart Blackie

I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.

Oliver Goldsmith

God made only water, but man made wine.

Victor Hugo

Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Nymphs offering Bacchus Wine (1670-78) : Caesar Van Everdingen

[Via http://vinumvine.wordpress.com]

News Corp Pays $500M to Valassis in Price-Fixing Lawsuit | The Wrap

Next tasting: New wines just in - 4/2/2010

2010-01-30T15:56:00.000+02:00

The next tasting at The Wineyard & Deli will be held on Thursday 4th February, and will feature some of the best new wines to arrive on our fine shelves in recent weeks. We’ll be covering both red and white, old and new world wines. There’s some fantastic stuff lined up for you all, as the following provisional wine list* demonstrates:

Chateau Nicot Bordeaux Blanc 2008 (Bordeaux, France) – £9.99
Kendall-Jackson Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (California, USA) – £11.99
Peter Lehman Margaret Semillon 2004 (Barossa Valley, Australia) – £13.49
Lawson Dry Hills Gewurztraminer 2007 (Marlborough, New Zealand) – £13.49
Azpilicueta Reserva Rioja 2003 (Rioja, Spain) – £11.99
Trinity Hills Pinot Noir 2008 (Martinborough, New Zealand) – £12.99
Peter Lehman Mudflat Ebenezer Shiraz 2004 (Barossa Valley, Australia) – £13.49
Cecchi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2006 (Montepulciano, Italy) – £15.99

If this has suitably whet your appetite for more, get in touch with us pronto to book your tickets. Places cost £10 each, and are in limited supply, and all tickets must be bought in advance. You can contact us in one of the following ways:

Email: Barry@thewineyard.co.uk
Telephone: 01524 400011
Visit us: 23 Princes Crescent, Bare, Morecambe.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/thewineyard
Facebook: Search “The Wineyard & Deli”

*Wines named are subject to change dependent on stock availability and attendance – the more people attend, the more we can spend on the wines. Encourage your friends to join you and we can show you nicer wines, it’s that simple!

[Via http://thewineyard.wordpress.com]

Apple A4 SOC unveiled - It's an ARM CPU and the GPU! - Bright Side ...

Weight 30 Jan 2010

2010-01-30T10:00:00.000+02:00

Start: 81.0 kgs

Target: 80.0 kgs

Actual: 80.8 kgs

Next Week’s target: 80.0 kgs

(All figures are based on the average daily weight over the week)

Finding it really hard at the moment. I am very good during the day, and generally stick to my Slimfast for breakfast and lunch, and no other snacks. But we’ve been having big portions for tea, and then snacking in an evening, as well as drinking a few glasses of wine!

Still getting up a 6.00am to do 20 minutes on Wii Fit Plus. Not sure if that is really helping the weight loss, but step, boxing and a quick jog really wakes me up.

Actually the figure above are averages for the week. My weight today is 80.6kgs, but because I started the week on 81kgs to overall average is higher.

So for the 5th week in a row, my target weight is still 80kgs.

And to make things worse, I’ve got an old friend coming down for the weekend, which will mean a few beers and at least one meal out – calorie-fest!

[Via http://magicradish.wordpress.com]

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green News Report -- January 28 ...

Valentine Gifts from the Wine Country

2010-01-29T08:14:00.000+02:00

Picking out the perfect Valentine’s gift can be a difficult task. Don’t stress! We have affordable gift ideas for you and your loved one to share.

WINE

1.) SWEETHEART TASTING PACK from RANCHO SISQUOC

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, our Sweetheart Tasting Pack is the perfect treat for your loved one. It includes the following favorites:

1 bottle Riesling

1 bottle Syrah

1 bottle Chardonnay

This tasting pack is priced at $45.60 – a 20% savings. Visit their online Winestore to order or call the tasting room at 805-934-4332.

2.) Wine-inspired jewelry and fashion at COSTA DE ORO:

Choose from a variety of grape and wine inspired jewelry and women’s fashion at Costa de Oro. If that doesn’t do the trick, there are always many other gift choices in their tasting room ranging from chocolate sauce to brittle to wine stoppers. Costa de Oro is also having a sale (while supplies last) on the following wines:

2007 Sauvignon Blanc $8/btl, $80/cs

2006 Vintage Red $10/btl, $100/cs (Blend of Tempranillo, Syrah, Cab, Petite Sirah)

3.) Sparkling Chardonnay from RIVERBENCH

Riverbench is releasing their brand new sparkling wine on February 13th–just in time for Valentine’s Day!

HOTELS

1.) ROMANCE PACKAGE from the RADISSON HOTEL

The Radisson Hotel in Santa Maria is offering a “Romance Package” at $249, which includes room, dinner for two, turndown service with chocolates, breakfast for two and evening entertainment throughout the weekend with a live jazz band “The Storm” and “Carole McNeil” on Valentine’s Night! Call 866-292-4676 to book this incredible deal.

2.) A SUITE DEAL from BEST WESTERN BIG AMERICA

• A two room mini suite with a king size bed

• Deluxe continental breakfast served in our beautiful lobby

from 6am – 10am

• Heated outdoor pool & spa

• Early check in at 10am and late check out at 3pm

• A certificate for $30 from A.J. Spurs Saloon & Dining Hall

Enjoy this incredible hotel package for only $99 (plus tax) any day throughout the month of February. Call 1-800-426-3213 to reserve this deal today.

3.) VALENTINE’S DAY WEEKEND at THE HISTORIC SANTA MARIA INN:

The rate of $229 is valid Friday, February 12, Saturday, February 13 or Sunday, February 14. The package includes an overnight stay in a deluxe Original Inn room, a chilled bottle of champagne and box of chocolates upon check-in, $75 dinner voucher toward our featured menu in the Garden Room Restaurant, Full American Breakfast Buffet for two in the morning, late checkout at 2 p.m., and complimentary entrance to the Tap Room featuring live music by Steppin’ Out. Rate includes all taxes and gratuities. Guests may upgrade to our Champagne Sunday Brunch for an additional $30. The Historic Santa Maria Inn is located at 801 S. Broadway in Santa Maria. (805) 928-7777. www.santamariainn.com

[Via http://onthewinetrail.wordpress.com]

Fox News Breaks From Obama In Order To Criticize Obama | TV | Mediaite

Survival tips for ice storms (don't forget the liquor store run)

2010-01-28T16:42:00.000+02:00

Recommended wine for today’s entry: Covey Run Reserve Simillon Ice Wine. I choose an ice wine as much of the country is bracing for an ice storm today. While it looks like we’ll dodge the bad weather this time, we weren’t so lucky last year. This dessert wine sounds like a good one to grab on your “hunker down liquor store run.” It boasts “intense aromas of pineapple, citrus and vanilla, a luscious mouth feel, and rich, concentrated flavors whose sweetness is balanced by crisp acidity.” To make ice wine, apparently vintners leave the grapes on the vine until they freeze. This web site http://www.northwest-wine.com/Covey-Run-Semillon-Ice-Wine.html says that means temperatures of 19°F or below. Yikes. The 2005 got 92 points from Wine Spectator.

On this date last year, we moved into our winter vacation home — well, it was actually our friends’ basement, but it was as close as we get to a vacation home.

Luckily, the digs were quite nice, because we ended up staying there for almost a week.

Yes, it was the Great Ice Storm of 2009, and, in a nutshell, it sucked. Don’t get me wrong — we actually had a lot of fun during the family sleepover party — but not having power for an extended period in the winter is even worse than not having power for an extended period in the summer; we know, THAT memory was fresh in our minds. At least in September the days were longer so you didn’t have to go to bed at 6 p.m. when the sun set.

We tried to tough out the loss of power last January. Well, (here’s a shocker) our teenage daughter wasn’t home when the storm hit. So I trudged out to a main road to hand off her essentials to a friend’s dad. Her retainers, her perfume and cash.

On the way back, I actually RAN, which is a testament to the fear level I was experiencing, because trees were cracking loudly and slamming to the ground behind me. I imagined this looked similar to when military brides and grooms walk through the arch of swords, and they drop closed behind them.

It would be just like my daughter to get me flattened, face down in the snow, by a giant birch branch. At least her teeth would be straight and she’d smell good at my funeral. But I ran, swiftly and gracefully in my husband’s hiking boots, and made it home in one piece.

Once home, my husband and I began our preparations for survival. We knew not to open the fridge or freezer except for emergencies. Well, there was an emergency at about 5:30, so we got all the coolers and loaded them VERY QUICKLY with all the beer, wine and cheese.

After some brainstorming, which to a stranger might have sounded like a screaming fight, it was decided that the basement was the easiest place to seal in the heat from the fireplace. So we transported all of our necessities for the evening. Here is the photo I took of my evening necessities:

All I need is this paddle game, ... (credit to Steve Martin, The Jerk)

See, I had read a number of articles on small space decorating and so I was clever and used a roll of toilet paper for a bedside table. This was used to wipe my nose which inevitably begins to run if the temperature goes below 65 degrees, to take off my eye makeup before bed and to give the fire a jumpstart in the event it began to dwindle during the cold overnight hours.

The wine not only reflects the firelight, adding a nice ambience to the dungeon-like room, but it offers the added benefit of helping us go gently into that good night. Lest you think that I was only intending to drink one glass of wine while freezing my butt off, fear not — the bathroom sink was filled with snow, the rest of the bottle and two beers. Lest you think we wouldn’t be able to wash our faces before bed, don’t judge until you’ve walked in our shoes. We were hanging by a thread and we had to prioritize.

The book. Well, I don’t normally read thrillers, but this is the book that I was in the middle of when the ice storm hit. It offered the added bonus of having ITTY BITTY words that took like five minutes each to discern in the flickering candlelight.

The radio, which still sports a wad of gum or something that one of our little geniuses must have shoved through the holes during a tumultuous time in their young lives, provided us with up-to-the-minute news about how many other poor slobs were also hunkered down in their basements with snot rags and wine.

The candle. Again, adding some charm to the otherwise dismal situation. Except I awakened at least five times during the night to check, double-check and obsessively check that I had, in fact, extinguished the candle, because it was perched strategically under a wooden ping-pong table.

And last but not least, the little pink Benadryl. Again, dual purpose: Because the woodpile, teeming with all the molds it had accumulated in the 3 years since we’d last had a fire in the fireplace, was a mere eight inches from my head, I figured on allergies kicking in. Also, if a Benadryl doesn’t knock you out, nothing will. Breathing and sleeping aid all in that little pill. Smart.

What you can’t see: Two dogs and six cats, thrilled that Mama is sleeping on the floor with them. So thrilled that they intermittently chose to do happy dances on my sleeping bag, apparently oblivious to the fact that my torso was esconced therein. This display included an impressive moonwalking episode by the Labrador at about 2 a.m. that I really wish I had on tape.

The next morning, freezing, crabby, but alive — I called my friend Beth:

Me: Hey, how’d you do without power?

Her: I’m not dead yet. (She’s a fan of Monty Python’s Holy Grail)

Me: Yeah, me either.

Her: Hey! My power just came on! You should come over!

Me: Be there pronto.

After hanging up, I immediately packed up all my toiletries, my jammies, clothes for three days, my husband’s toiletries, his work clothes, his play clothes, his boots, my laptop, the entire contents of our freezers, well, you get the idea. I arrived in the early afternoon, my four-wheel drive SUV packed with essentials.

It wasn’t until later that I realized she’d never actually said I should come STAY there. I think she probably meant come over for a cup of hot coffee.

Anyway, it was a fun week. The guys went off to work every day and Beth and I did the chores around the homestead, like on Little House on the Prairie — went to my 33-degree house and fed and played with the nearly-frozen pets; took care of her horses; oh, and went to Kroger and the liquor store every day.

It was almost sad when the vacation was over.

But still, to commemorate the anniversary of the Ice Storm of 2009, we signed a contract yesterday for the Permanent Generator Installment of 2010.

I think Beth’s family would have chipped in on it if we’d asked.

[Via http://ashleyolsonrosen.wordpress.com]

Fox Is Most Trusted Network News Operation – 24/7 Wall St.

iPost iNevitable iPad iNanity

2010-01-28T10:06:00.000+02:00

Me and my love were sat up waiting for a first glimpse of the iPad (this is not true, the news was on last night and we were watching), and she beat me to the flippant response by noting:

“iPad – sounds like a self-perpetuating digital sanitary node”

which is a little nod to Brian Blessed’s legendary quote about the Palm Pilot, of course. I was disappointed to discover that I was also beaten to the tape with my breakfast time gag “Steve Jobs Shrinks To Size of Mouse: Miniaturisation App Backfires At Launch of iPhone 3GS”, to go with this photo:

by at least half the world. The early bird, (insert Apple-don’t-do-viruses worm joke) and all that

Anyway, the new Apple half-laptop might well change the world forever. This is something I think should be encouraged, because planetarily we need a break from the old routine, as Oui 3 once suggested.

Whether digitising everything to achieve it is a good idea is another point for discussion, a discussion in which people who still like to go to the cinema, read a book without switching something on other than a lamp, etc, etc, probably will have no ultimate say, given that they do not tweet or blog, even disliking neologistic terms such as tweet or blog, have just got round to thinking animated cats are a pretty neat idea, perhaps even consider the interweb to be, like Spinal Tap, a passing thing.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not a Luddite. The last week or two has seen me become expert on mobile phone offerings in the UK market, in the hope of not getting stuck with a battery-eating lump of unused applications and tiny buttons again (although I expect this too is an expiring sigh of consumer idealism). I embrace stuff that makes it easier to do worky things, it’s just the whole ’saving me time and effort in my leisure cycle as well’ thing. Why would I need to have 64GB of films, books and music with me anyway? May I never be so distracted.

If asked to choose between an evening watching films on a glorified Etch-a-Sketch and partaking of actual social intercourse in the laudable manner of Shelby Lynne… I think it’s got to be a wine, vinyl and doobie party all the way.

[Via http://themortalbath.wordpress.com]

EA's Moore excited by new iTablet News | iPhone | Eurogamer

Well aren't you the intellectual.

2010-01-28T04:51:00.000+02:00

Reeaaaalllly. Come on now. This site is barely started!

The umbilical cord is practically still attached!

Thank you kindly for dropping by, but you should never poke around in new construction before it’s completed.

Someone could get hurt!

Or worse: maimed. By a blog.

Regardless; fight the good fight. Drink the good wine.

I’ll deal with you when I’m more prepared.

[Via http://spmagnus.wordpress.com]

News Ticker: Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Katy Perry, Muse ...

Wine Journey: Paso Robles

2010-01-26T15:17:00.000+02:00

Do you remember feeling giddy when you “discovered” U2 years before The Joshua Tree was released? What about the rush you got from telling your friends about hearing Arcade Fire at some small club “before they were big?” If you do, then you’re going to love exploring Paso Robles wineries.

Paso Robles

Paso is the upstart younger brother of Cali wines, clamoring for attention from its overachieving older siblings, Sonoma and Napa. While Paso’s potential has been touted for years, it is starting to grow into its own and quickly becoming recognized by the broader, international community as a top-notch region for syrah and other rhône varietals: Copain, Booker, and Saxum all make highly-touted wines from Paso vineyards.

Linne Calodo

I’ve witnessed part of Paso’s growth first hand. Two years ago I visited the area and stopped by Linne Calodo. The tasting room: a folding table in a working winery. I loved it. When I went back a few weeks ago, I was surprised to find that Linne Calodo’s continued success has spawned a beautiful new tasting room. I felt a tinge of sadness realizing that this sleepy little wine nook is all growns-up.

Even though Paso is no longer a well-kept secret, there is still a lot of room for experimentation. There’s a young and vibrant wine community here, as witnessed by a tasting of the Italian varietals from Giornata Wines (see earlier post here). And there are plenty of folks willing to push the envelope, creating some bold and unorthodox red blends.

PLACES I VISITED

Over the past couple of years, Paso began pushing out some big and brash zins and syrahs, but like many places, there is a noticeable trend towards more restrained wines. Here are four places I visited recently that will give you a little of everything. I’ve also created a Google map listing these places, and a photo album with add’l pics from my visit. This is not meant to be a selection of “the best” in Paso — simply a random sampling of places I enjoyed, and which I thought provided a good variety of wines and tasting room experience.

Terry Hoage

Terry Hoage Vineyards

Terry Hoage used to cause me nightmares. As a defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles, he often clashed with my hometown Washington Redskins. Now, thankfully, Terry has turned his attention to winemaking, and is producing some dreamy, well-balanced syrahs and other rhône varietals. In 2008, Wine Spectator, called Terry one of the promising new syrah producers, and a visit to his winery will show you why. The tasting room is in an old barn-style building using refurbished wood that gives it a lot of character.

Denner

Denner Vineyards

At the opposite end of the specturm, Denner has created a bit of Napa in Paso Robles by erecting a posh members-tasting area. Thankfully, the wines are also up to the task. I tend to like the Denner blends — The Ditch Digger, The Dirt Worshipper — but they also do some good (and well regarded) 100% syrahs. $10 tasting fee, approx 8 wines poured.

Linne Calodo

Go big or go home. That may well be winemaker (and former college DJ) Matt Trevisan’s motto. He pumps out some unbelievably rich zin and syrah blends, all of which can be described as pure hedonistic pleasure. And how can you resist picking up blends Matt has labeled as “The Problem Child,” “Slacker,” or “The Outsider?” While I miss the folding table, funky / modern tasting room fit the wines. $10 tasting fee, aprox. 4 wines poured.

Villa Creek

Run by the family that also operates one of Paso’s most well established restaurants, Villa Creek reminds me of what Paso used to be: a little isolated, a bit understated. The tasting room is in a working winery (i.e., warehouse feel), and its a little dark inside, but how can you complain when’ you’re tasting wine sourced from some of the most well-known vineyards in Paso: James Berry, Denner, and Booker Vineyards?

NOTE: One place I really wanted to visit, Booker Vineyard, was sold out of their wines, and had closed its tasting room. Booker is expected to reopen soon, and (from what I hear) it’s well worth checking out. In addition, I skipped the usual suspects and most established wineries in the area — Turley and Tablas Creek — though you should consider stopping by if you’re in the area. Tablas Creek also offers tours of the vineyards twice daily (at 10:30AM and 2:00PM). Call ahead for reservations.

Also, you should stop by 15 Degrees C Wine Bar, just south of Paso Robles in the town of Templeton, and near many of the wineries. Its a friendly spot, with a selection of tasty small dishes and panninis, along with some fantastic wines by the glass. While I was there, they were pouring both a Silver Oak Cab and a Hanzell Chardonnay by the glass — I was stunned. Having these highly-sought after wines by the glass was a real treat!

View Larger Map

EVENTS

If you’re tempted to visit Paso, consider visiting coming down for the following events

March 19-21, 2010: Paso Robles Zinfandel Festival
April 29 – May 1, 2010: Hospice du Rhône – Rhône Varietal Festival
May 21-23, 2010: Paso Robles Wine Festival

OTHER RESOURCES

Check out the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance website — a great resource for maps, tasting room hours, and events in the area.

Finally, here are some other blog posts re Paso Robles which you may find helpful in planning a trip:

Cherries and Clay
The Delicious Life

[Via http://sfwine.wordpress.com]

CBB Rolling News: Day 23 | The Sun |Showbiz|Big Brother

Interesting and Unexpected Wine Region: The Republic of Georgia

2010-01-26T10:44:00.000+02:00

Continuing my fascination with unfamiliar wine regions, here is another one. Though with such a long history of winemaking, I can’t really call it “new”!!

Along the eastern border of the Black Sea, beautiful countryside, deep valleys and flourishing vineyards define the Republic of Georgia. The nearby Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea both influence the climate, creating fantastic conditions for wine cultivation.

Republic of Georgia (photo: gobe67)

Over 75% of Georgians earn at least a portion of their income from wine, and each village specializes in a particular type of wine. Kakheti is one of the most popular villages. If you make a trip to Kakheti in October, during the wine festival, you can see a town overflowing with grapes. You may even be offered a drink from a ladle lifting wine from a kvevri, a clay jar buried underground where all of Kakheti wine ferments. This sounds like a party I would love to attend!

Georgian vineyard (photo: Morieli)

Formerly part of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Georgia is a relatively small country with just under 5 million people, but their history of winemaking is incredibly long. They recently discovered some ancient wine vessels there dating as far back as 5000 BC!! There are nearly 500 different grape varietals grown in Georgia, making a wide range of sweet, dry, fortified and sparkling wines. Some even say that this small country may have been the birthplace of wine, the first location where man (or woman) may have fermented grapes!

-Rocio

[Via http://rocioosborne.wordpress.com]

Poker News in Brief Jan. 18-24, 2010

Matt the Miller's Tavern

2010-01-26T04:06:00.000+02:00

I had a student when I taught 2nd grade–Christopher Miller–I could have adopted that kid. He was polite, funny, smart and caring. He had a crooked smile and dark-rimmed glasses and a slight lisp and an older brother named Matt, but not the same Matt the Miller for whom this restaurant is named. At the Matt the Miller Tavern on Avery-Muirfield Road in Dublin Ohio, you can get flatbread pizzas, fish and chips, pastas, or a host of entrees that are Weight-Watcher friendly. Any of Matt the Miller’s entrees can be served with sweet potato fries–my favorite, but I can’t eat those every time we go if I want to stay on my WeightWatcher plan, so I opted for the double order of grilled vegetables. The mahi-mahi was lightly breaded and then grilled, making it a little higher in point value than broiled fish, but still lean and definitely worth the few extra points. Really delicious. But I love more than just the food at Matt the Millers…they have fantastic Happy Hour specials, a wide variety of quality wines, and seating that makes you feel like you’re in a much more expensive pub. On Sundays, you can have a scrumptious brunch after church…or instead of church…I’m not here to judge! Enjoy Matt the Miller’s in Dublin, Ohio!

[Via http://411forfoodandfun.wordpress.com]

AMERICAblog News: White House adviser Plouffe fails to mention ...

Powerbalancing

2010-01-24T22:51:00.000+02:00

While in New Zealand I have made a major discovery.

In recent weeks Jo and I have been doing our best to support the New Zealand wine industry. This, along with an occasional dabble in some of the local beers and a few cocktails has led to the occasional hangover.

In addition to the drinking I have have also been getting into the healthy lifestyle and going for a run most days along with a bit of surfing, kayaking and general exercise. This was soon followed by the inevitable inflammation of my knee as I seem to be the proud owner of a pair of knees that aren’t too fond of exercise and protest by doing convincing impressions of flesh coloured balloons. This led me to go to an acupuncturist and give it a try as western medicine seemed unable to help with ballooning knees. I am happy to confirm that acupuncture works and it was all a great success. I also learnt about other interesting stuff about acupuncture like in China they do open heart surgery using acupuncture as the anaesthetic.

Anyway getting back to my big discovery. The lady who does the acupuncture also sells these things called Powerbalance bands. Apparently they vibrate at a frequency that compliments your body and they help with flexibility, strength and balance. Lots of sports people use them to help in this regard. My discovery is that as well as all the sports stuff they also help with hangovers. Since I have been wearing the powerbalance band my hangovers have been very mild. Luckily I have the control group of Jo to attest that these results are not to do with weak measures or a reduction in drinking capacity.

Usually I would say all this is a load of mumbo jumbo but I have to admit the power balance band really seems to be helping my hangovers. So all you professional sports people, and more importantly professional drinkers, get out and buy one of these beauties. They are awesome bro.

[Via http://fromthefar.com]

CableJive rolls out duaLink sync cable for iPod, iPhone | iLounge News

Australian Wine

2010-01-24T10:18:00.000+02:00

The Australian wine industry is the fourth-largest exporter in the world,exporting over 400 million litres a year to a large international export market that includes “old world” wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain. There is also a significant domestic market for Australian wines, with Australians consuming over 400 million litres of wine per year. The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy through production, employment, export and tourism.

Noteworthy Australian Wines

Australia’s most famous wine is Penfolds Grange. The great 1955 vintage was submitted to competitions beginning in 1962 and over the years has won more than 50 gold medals. The vintage of 1971 won first prize in Syrah/Shiraz at the Wine Olympics in Paris. The 1990 vintage was named ‘Red Wine of the Year’ by the Wine Spectator magazine in 1995, which later rated the 1998 vintage 99 points out of a possible 100. Wine critic Hugh Johnson has called Grange the only First Growth of the Southern Hemisphere. The influential wine critic Robert Parker, who is well known for his love of Bordeaux wines, has written that Grange “has replaced Bordeaux’s Pétrus as the world’s most exotic and concentrated wine

[Via http://multiculturalcookingnetwork.wordpress.com]

AdMob: iPhone OS dominating Oceania, Western Europe markets ...

Wines for Humanity Event

2010-01-24T04:00:00.000+02:00

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing a wine tasting event by Wines for Humanity, a non-profit organization that helps the homeless in America through the sale of wine from private vineyards around the world. Their wines are as great as their hearts! I was incredibly impressed by both Susan and Anton who served as the representatives for Wines for Humanity. Please check out their website http://www.winesforhumanity.com to help by hosting a tasting, purchasing wine or making a donation. I’ll post some pictures once they’re ready…keep watching!

[Via http://brandiimage.wordpress.com]

Fox News, Tribune Newspapers Beat NYTimes.com In The Numbers

Boun Giorna Italia

2010-01-23T16:39:00.000+02:00

September 28th – Riomaggiore, Italy.

So I’m up at the break of dawn and meet a few other travellers who are off as well today after a quick breakfast. And we make our way down to the train station.

I book my ticket to Milano and the others booked theres the other day. I’m heading a few stops down, where I get off and wait for my train to Italy.

The train in Switzerland was awesome. Then we get to the border and we have to switch trains. Its pretty uncommon to have to switch but its life. The italian trains are pretty run down and derelict. But it’ll do.

Not long and we’re pulling into Milan (fashion capital, big city, famous footballers, and the last supper). I was originally gonna stay here but I bailed on that idea as there isn’t a lot to do there. Instead I get on another train to Genoa. It doesn’t take too long.

Then another train and we end up going through the 5 villages that make up the region I’m spending the next few days exploring. I get to Riomaggiore and follow the directions to my accommodation digs. I didn’t know it was gonna be a massive hill and stairs. That sucked.

The digs are just lovely, so lovely that I feel like I’m going to break the bunk bed and land on the person below.But it does the trick. I won’t be here for a lot of the time.

I hop down into the village and walk up the main street. It doesn’t take too long to walk around, it might be tiny but it is gorgeous.

Riomaggiore.

I head down to the harbour with the intention of going for a swim at the nearby beach. But I get a bit captivated by the amazing scene before me. And end up sitting on the edge of a wall and watching time pass by.

Sunset in Italy. Can't really beat it.

A few cute girls come, and Katja actually asks if I’d like to share a bottle of wine with her. So of course I say yes and we get stuck into some classy vino and watch the inspiring sunset come down.

Plastic Cups and Vino. We're all class.

A quick food stop after we run out of vino. And I grab my first of many many pizza’s. Classic Italian Margherita. And then we grab another bottle of vino. A quick top up and we change seating points to across the harbour and polish that off.

We head up into town and try to find a bar. Theres one open – a patio with a store that has drinks and ice cream. Cannot complain about that. So I mix my first love – beer. With one of my newest loves – Italian Gelato.

We organise to meet up tomorrow to do some of the walk. The main reason I am here. And we go our seperate ways.

[Via http://thirstybackpacker.wordpress.com]

Fox News: Apple Tablet Will Be Sold By Both Verizon and AT&T ...

McLaren Vale Wine - d'Arenberg Wines (Part 2)

2010-01-23T10:44:00.000+02:00

d"Arenberg Road Sign

This is part 2 of reviewing the wines from d’Arenberg Wines – they have far too many wines for 1 tasting. Part 2 does not cover them all either – I will just have to go back this week to try the remainder of the wines at the cellar door.

The cellar door area also has a collection of vintage winery and vineyard equipment, which can make for interesting viewing.

Vintage Vineyard Equipment

2008 The Feral Fox Pinot Noir ($A30)

Made from Adelaide Hills fruit with lots of red fruits (particularly strawberries) on the nose and palate. The palate also showed sour cherries and soft tannins with quite a long finish. I am not normally a Pinot Noir fan however this one that could change my mind. Well done d’Arenberg team.

How about duck breast with sweat & sour cranberry chutney to go with this wine?

2006 The Custodian Grenache ($A18)

True to the variety this grenache shows lots of red fruits (both on the nose and palate). On drinking it also showed red current flavors, silky smooth tannins and an interesting sour cherry/tannin finish. As readers will know I have a thing for McLaren Vale grenache and this could quite easily be a frequent visitor to my home bar. Bring on a big plate of Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry to have with the wine.

Also note that d”Arenberg has released a museum release of a series of three 2002 Custodians from separate vineyards that fave different soil types – the $60/pack is very reasonable for a museum release. I will do a video tasting of this 3 pack in the coming weeks.

2006 The d”Darry’s Original Shiraz Grenache ($A18)

This wine has been made now for many vintages (the 2006 is the 64th consecutive vintage) and I remember about 25 years ago the wine was not very popular even though the quality has always been high. Today this has turned around with the original “Red Stripe Wine” being a big seller. Also note this wine is frequently available in bottle shops for less than the above price.

The nose is a marriage of pepper, spice, cedar (from the oak), and red fruits. The palate has sour cherries dominant red fruits with pepper running down the palate onto the long finish. At this price point (and possibly cheaper) the 2006 vintage Red Stripe is punching above it’s weight! I am thinking of wood oven fired pizza to bring out the best in the Red Stripe.

2006 The Footbolt Shiraz ($A18)

A typical shiraz nose of black fruits and pepper. The palate is an infusion of plums blackcurrants with a good acid length combined with soft tannins. I have also seen this wine cheaper at liquor stores and particularly at the lower price is a good buy. Try a grilled skirt steak to complement the wine.

2006 Cadensia Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre ($A25)

The Cadensia project is a McLaren Vale initiative to promote the region’s Grenache and Grenache based blends as regional champions. I applaud this initiative and I believe McLaren vale Grenache is a joy for the initiated.

There was a little alcohol tingle on the nose (indicating reasonably high alcohol), some perfume from the Mourvedre enveloped around plum characters. As expected spicy stewed plums dominate the soft palate with grainy tannins on the lingering finish. I like this very much – even better with a steaming bowl Beef & Black Bean Sauce.

2007 The Twenty Eight Road Mourvedre ($A25)

Mourvedre is not normally produced as a varietal wine but instead blended such as the previous wines. Thus the Twenty Eight Road is one of the unusual items that d”Arenberg is known for.

Perfume on the nose is the character normally found with this variety and it is here in spades. It is a dry wine but the palate shows almost sweet fruit compote of cherries and plums combined with integrated oak into a lingering finish. If this is what straight Mourvedre is like then we should make more of it! How about trying it with Beef Bourguignon?

2005 The Sticks and Stones Tempranillo Grenache Shiraz ($A29)

Not just unusual names but also unusual blends. The earthiness typical of Tempranillo comes through on the nose. As for the above wine the palate shows a fruity sweetness with the spiciness expected from Grenache and Shriaz and finishes with long fine tannins. A big plate full of pan fried mushrooms with a vina cotta reduction would be a treat to have with this wine – bring it on.

2007 The Cenosilicaphobic Cat Sagrantino Cinsault ($A29)

First of all the definition of Cenosillicaphoba is the fear of an empty glass! I have not tried Sagrantino before – so I was looking forward to this – even before I heard the name.

An unusual fruity nose and the sweet fruit palate is shown again with red fruits (predominately cherries) with grainy tannins on this long finish. This wine was by far the biggest wine so far on the list – lots of fruit and tannins and probably needs more time to bring together. When ready let try a slow cooked beef with red wine, garlic and rosemary.

2006 The Ironstone Pressings ($A60)

I found the nose a little closed but had hints of cherries, plum and chocolate. The palate was multi layered – a fruit layer of intense red cherries, plums with spice overtones. The next layer has herbs and flowers with the final layer of minerals, tannins and good acid. The wine needs many years of maturation to be at it’s peak – whenever you drink it then please decant and let breathe for a few hours before serving with a Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Maderia Sauce.

2006 The Dead Arm Shiraz ($A60)

The nose was a little closed – maybe the bottle was only opened for a short period. There was hints of pepper with plum and cherries. Rhe red fruits (plums and cherries) continue on the palate with essences of licorice and black olives. Lots of oak tannins that are almost chewy. Another wine that needs a considerable amount of time and please decant and let breathe for a couple of hours before serving with Individual Beef Wellingtons.

[Via http://lonelygrape.com.au]

NBC News Files Complaint with White House Over ABC's Access ...

HELLO!!! CAN YOU FUCKING HEAR ME?!

2010-01-21T22:43:00.000+02:00

Well, that wasn’t so painful.

There was no water slide though. In 2 seconds flat I’ve been digitally reborn. I didn’t feel a thing. Actually I was a Cesarean Section baby, so I’ve never slid down that particular water slide. The difference between then & now is that I want to get out. Out & about. The first time they had to drag me kicking, screaming & cut the rope that I’d tied to the big squishy rock for security.

I’m Adzhe, I’m a 22 year old, male Downunderer, who is engaged to a Finn. Subsequently, after being ensnared in her lovely trap, got shipped via airmail to Finland. Great place Finland, Santa actually lives here you know. But more of that later.

I’m your regular guy who has a broad range of likes & interests. These things are, but not limited to, the like of beer, guitars, red wine, reading, traveling, fishing, camping/hiking, video games & PnP RPGs (if you don’t know you probably don’t want to know). I’m interested in smoking a pipe, building guitars, creating comics digitally (if you stick around long enough you might see some), songwriting (same thing applies as to the comics) & cooking.

My fiancee & I are embarking on a journey around Europe, we have no idea where we’ll end up & this is my travel blog.

SMELLY VAGRANT HIPPY…OUT!!!

[Via http://smellyvagranthippy.wordpress.com]

AMERICAblog News: PPP analysis: 'This was a repudiation of Barack ...

Ladies and the '80s

2010-01-21T16:16:00.000+02:00

Last night, our regular Wednesday girl’s night took a road trip

Our mission : to find some awesome ’80s attire and accessories to wear for my friend Courtney’s 30th birthday party on Saturday! I’d say we were pretty successful in our quest. I can’t wait for the party and to post pictures of it afterwards!

When we finally got back it was late for dinner, so I had to break my 9:00 rule. Hey, rules are meant to be broken once in a while, right?

While dinner was heating up, I enjoyed a class of Ravens Wood Zinfandel, my very first one!

I really liked it. Usually I prefer red wines that aren’t quite this dry but it still had a really good taste. Unfortunately, here again I found another brand that is not vegan friendly. I had no idea that so many animal products were used in making wine, did you all? I’m going to print out a list of the ones that ARE, I’m sure it’s rather short in comparison, but maybe not.

Dinner was taco soup (yum), bread and some tortilla chips too (not pictured).

Confession : I am still struggling with getting some of these last remaining non-vegan products out of my life (such as the wine and bread above). I guess since I started this whole thing for health reasons, I didn’t see the need to be so strict. But as I am learning more and really experiencing began vegan, my health is improving and my heart is changing so I am feeling more inclined to get rid of everything containing animal products. But it’s been a process as you’ve seen. I’m not perfect by any means, nor do I think I ever will be. But I’m trying my best!

[Via http://seesaraheat.wordpress.com]

AMERICAblog News: At least Democrats finally realized there is an ...

Storage Tales of The City

2010-01-21T10:50:00.000+02:00

If you’ve been following the Vinfolio fiasco over on Mark Squires’ Bulletin Board http://www.erobertparker/bboard.com then you know that some collectors either have pulled their wines from VF’s storage facilities, are planning to in the next week, or are contemplating doing so soon. I’ve already made arrangements to have my wine picked up from Vinfolio at no cost by a third party and transported to its Bay Area wine storage facility. Since I live in the Bay Area and know the “scene” choosing alternative storage has been relatively painless. What about the Vinfolio storage clients who live as far away as Hawaii, Massachusetts or abroad? To help them I spent the day investigating Bay Area wine storage possibilities including interviewing owners and managers of several facilities. I’ve selected just a few of these firms to highlight the diversity of services offered. I’m not endorsing any particular outfit on this list nor is the absence of any facility meant to be a criticism of a given company.

In no particular order:

1) For secure, temperature-controlled storage at an affordable rate; full online access to your wine inventory, account history and downloadable reports; ability to purchase wines at retail on the company’s website and store them for six months free; and opportunities to consign wine for auction through sister company, Wine Commune for a reasonable commission:

JJ BUCKLEY

7305 Edgewater Dr. (Wine storage located in facility next door)

Suite D, Oakland, CA 94621

(51) 632-5500

Toll-free (888) 85-Wines (888-859-4637)

Contact: Cory

N.B. Transfer wines from Vinfolio and receive free pickup from Vinfolio to JJ Buckley OR 3 months storage free. Oh, and currently a 1500ml bottle of ’06 Chateau Ausone is on sale on JJ Buckley’s website – $600 off!

2) For secure, temperature- controlled self-storage and all brand-new facilities including a beautiful lounge and event spaces for clients’ private use; special storage member events, a “club-like” atmosphere; direct sales of boutique wines in a relaxed, “industrial-chic” setting; and an upcoming wine education program in a state-of-the-art, onsite classroom environment overseen by a Master Sommelier:

SAN FRANCISCO WINE CENTER

757 Bryant Street

San Francisco, CA

(415) 272-4046

Contact: Brian

N.B. This is the only storage option where you can drop by and get hands-on with your wine collection, touching and “admiring” it and then, immediately after selecting a bottle, taking it to your table in the members’ lounge to share with friends and maybe other members before going out to dinner and/or a show in San Francisco. (I should mention that some of the other Bay Area wine storage facilities will ship your wine to you in-state overnight, usually, but not always for a small fee in addition to the UPS or FedEx cost). Pickup from Vinfolio is free if you’re relocating a small collection to the San Francisco Wine Center. For larger collections, the Wine Center will cover “a chunk of the charge.”

3) For secure, temperature controlled storage; Napa and Sonoma winery and hotel pickup of your wines; in-state and out-of-state shipment with no fees (other than what UPS or Fedex charges you); automatic weather tracking to make sure that your shipment doesn’t travel under inclement conditions; online cellar management software, selling/trading opportunities w/approx. 2,800 other clients including automatic updating of your inventory with no commission charged; assistance w/auctioning through Hong Kong, Acker Merrill, Zacky, etc.; the ability to purchase wines including new, “unknowns” (past examples include Robert Foley, Hundred Acre, Robert Sinskey):

55 DEGREES

1210 Church St.

St. Helena, CA 94574

(707) 963 -5513

Contact: Neil or one of his very capable staff

N.B. 55 Degrees stores all the wines and also handles proxy bidding for Napa charities. The facility is attractive and located in the heart of Napa wine country, not in an out of the way warehouse district. In other words it is a place you may want to visit when making your rounds through Northern Napa. Call to arrange pickup from Vinfolio and check to see if any charge. The lack of “added-on” fees here is worthy of note and brings down the overall cost of storage here.

4) For secure, natural, underground storage with naturally-controlled temperature and humidity, immune to power outages, system breakdowns, or attendant negligence, and requiring no air-conditioning:

PRESIDIO WINE BUNKERS

Located in San Francisco’s Presidio just south of Rob Hill on the site of Stotsenburg and McKinnon batteries.

Tel: 415-221-4440

Contact: Paul

N.B. There are only a few 10-case units as of this writing. No pickup from Vinfolio. You need to arrange pickup and drop off yourself.

5) For secure, underground storage with controlled temperature and humidity and all brand-new facilities:

STORAGE SAN FRANCISCO LLC (sister company to Presidio Bunkers)

435 23rd Street

San Francisco, CA

(415) 314-7675

Contact: Christo

(415) 221-4440

Contact: Paul

N.B. They are brand new and open as of next week to accepting shipments from Vinfolio. No pickup from Vinfolio. Call and they can help you arrange for pickup with a local company at your expense.

[Via http://winewatcher.wordpress.com]

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Good news: Obama to take “combative ...

Vina Matetic

2010-01-19T22:48:00.000+02:00

As you enter the San Antonio Valley, the landscape is composed mostly of dry brush, baron land of trees and scrub, and little green. However, as you come closer to the Matetic Vineyards, the landscape explodes with vines. As far as you can see, the vines expand into the region. Once you reach the winery, you are surrounded by a new and enticing looking building.

Matetic was founded in 1999 by the Croatian Matetic family. The family’s main staple is not the winery, but they are very concerned with leaving as little impact on the environment as possible. The vineyards were originally white grape varietals but have since switched to whites and reds of Syrah, Cabernet, Gwertz, Reisling, and Sauvignon Blanc. Matetic has been able to achieve one of the highest rated Syrah’s from a region so close to the ocean, a task that has not been able to be repeated by other wineries.

The winery is certified organic by the CVS of Germany, a feat not easily achieved. In order to maintain their organic certification, Matetic produces their own fertilizers and brings nothing onto the property that does not naturally exist there. By using the manure of animals on the property, having chickens graze through their vineyards, the vines are well fertilized with essential nutrients and insect control is never an issue. Having chickens on the property also allows Matetic to filter their red wines with the whites of the eggs, a natural way to achieve “clean” wines. The main goal of the winery is to prevent sickness, not to find a way to cure it.

Of the 15000 total hectares the property sits upon, the 170 hectares of vineyards produces approximately 14000 cases of wine. This is achieved through their gravity flow production facility, using no pumps or artificial flow. The building you first see upon the property is designed in a very unique way. This building is built into the ground, with a roof of native plants. This serves not only as a natural way to keep the facility cool, but also helps in their effort to achieve complete biodynamic production. The building is also designed to allow warm air to escape during the day, and the cool air can flow in at night. Being able to control the temperature of your aging room is essential to producing the kind of wine you want.

I was most impressed with the quality of not only the wine, but the production of the wine itself. At Matetic they have almost perfected organic growing and biodynamic production of fine wines. This is clearly evident in the wines, and I found their Winemakers Blend of 2007 to be their best wine. I would recommend everyone to go and see how a winery is achieving organic and biodynamic production of fine wines.

[Via http://crobitaille.wordpress.com]

Michelle Malkin » In other news: Judicial Watch sues over smelly ...

Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Night

2010-01-19T16:32:00.000+02:00

I have found the best fried chicken.

It’s in Yountville in Napa Valley fifty miles north of the Golden Gate. It’s served every other Monday night in Thomas Keller’s amazing Ad Hoc. The fried chicken is by far the best I have had. The skin is crispy, the meat is moist, the chicken is perfectly fried with an incredible aromatic flavor, which I was told comes from lemons, the key ingredient used in the chicken brine. They brine their chicken overnight before they are coated in buttermilk and spices and then deep fried.

Ad Hoc offers a topnotch 4 course family style menu that changes everyday using the freshest, local and seasonal ingredients. The wine list is accessible and outstanding. The staff is accommodating and friendly. The dining room is casual yet elegant: hardwood floors with tables lined with a metallic top that beautifully reflects the light toward the ceiling. Our dining experience truly reminded us of the warmth of dining at home.

The buttermilk fried chicken was amazing but there were also other noteworthy highlights throughout the evening.

Our fried chicken night started with a salad of baby mixed greens: living watercress, shaved brussels sprouts,  red radish, nantes carrots, polenta croutons  and sweet fennel vinaigrette. The greens with a light drizzle of the sweet fennel vinaigrette was refreshing but the real star of this dish is the polenta croutons, which is simply fried polenta, a delightful discovery.

The chicken was served family-style with roasted cauliflower and carolina gold rice, hot smoked pork and  cranberry beans. The roasted cauliflowers came with  capers, golden raisins, and pine nuts. The dish was so simple yet so delicious. And the rice, pork and beans dish was amazing as well.

The cheese course was Pedrozo Dairy Northern Gold  with sweet butternut quickbread. And a trio of cupcakes, devil’s food, lemon curd, red velvet nicely capped off the evening.

Ad Hoc is an hour and a half away from the city but saying that it’s well worth the drive is seriously an understatement. I highly recommend the place to both locals and visitors alike.

Fried chicken night is every other Monday night. You can check out Ad Hoc’s daily menu at their site to find out what’s for dinner.

[Via http://blog.junbelen.com]

App news & reviews: Trapster, Observation, Foto Brisko and more

Rocca delle Macie - Chianti Classico Riserva

2010-01-19T04:50:00.000+02:00

Producer: Rocca delle Macie Name: Chianti Classico Riserva Region: Tuscany, Italy Appellation: Chianti Classico Vintage: 2004 Price: ~ $23

Okay let me first start by saying what shitty pictures these are. I think that by the time I took them I was already a few glasses deep and thought they looked blurry but it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. Apparently they actually were blurry… (iPhone where are you?!)

This was a nicely bold chianti from the old world. The bouquet smelled of forward spice with a lingering ripe black cherry scent. On the palate the wine was equally quite bold. It had a hearty full body that was complex and intriguing and carried flavours of chocolate, bark, leather and subtle notes of cherry. The whole wine wrapped up with a long dry finish. Mmm…

In the terrible pictures you can see the shape of a silver medal award for Wine Access’s International Value Wine Awards.

In other news the Golden Globes were yesterday and Tarantino was robbed of best picture yet again! In 2009 Inglorious loses to blue aliens. In 1994 Pulp Fiction loses to a retard from the south who farms shrimp… “Lieutenant Dan! Lieutenant Dan!”… bah! Drives me nuts…

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Wino Blogger

[Via http://winoblogger.wordpress.com]

TRAIL BLAZERS Blog | The Dallas Morning News

Lord Bath at Thornbury Castle for Wine Tasting

2010-01-17T22:16:00.000+02:00

Lord Bath at Thornbury Castle for wine tasting

Lord Alexander Bath arrived at Thornbury Castle on Wednesday to taste the locally grown wine.

Manager Brian Jarvis of Thornbury Castle quoted.

“His Lordship was a very pleasant and friendly man, who very much resembled the Greek god Dionysus. His entourage were a very colourful, artistic and extroverted group of well manner people.”

“I believe Lord Bath enjoyed the food and many bottles of fine wines we had to offer, as they were happily contented to the late evening.”

Lord Bath is a colourful aristocrat and custodian of the fabulous Elizabethan Longleat Estate. A painter whom studied in the ateliers of Paris he used his talents to decorate the walls of his stately home with his own vibrant erotic brand of graffiti. A painter, author, poet and musician, Lord Bath, has become the most artist and famous Lord of the Longleat Estate.

Thornbury Castle currently has about half an acre of Muller Thurgau vines growing within the castle walls. The walls provide protection from damaging winds and create a unique microclimate that aids the growth and ripening of the grapes. There wine is produced by Three Choirs Vineyard in Newent, Gloucestershire and is sold in Thornbury Castle’s restaurant. It is a medium-dry, white wine and brand amongst the large collect it has to offer dinners.

For further details please do not hesitate to contact Brian Jarvis at Thornbury Castle:

Tel: +44 (0) 1454 281182

Photographs attached are taken by Boston Kane & Matthew John.

www.mattjohn.co.uk

Thornbury Castle

www.thornburycastle.co.uk

Lord Alexander Bath,Susanna Zaliskyj

Lord Alexander Bath, Susanna Zaliskyj

Lord Alexander Bath at Thornbury Castle with Brian Jarvis

brian_jarvis,_matthew_john,_lord_bath

Brian Jarvis: Manager of Thornbury Castle

Matthew John, Olympus Productions, producer of “Perfect Woman”

www.thornburycastle.co.uk

www.olympus-productions.com

www.lordbath.co.uk

Alexander in KB Hancocks glasses!

[Via http://zevents.wordpress.com]

How to Help Haiti « FOX News Sunday

Wine Events: Week of Jan. 17

2010-01-17T16:00:00.000+02:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend. I’m in Tahoe, enjoying time with friends, having some aprés-ski red wine to stay warm, and otherwise taking advantage of the extra day off.

I’ve reposted some of the info re the Haiti fundraisers hosted by some folks in the wine industry (earlier post here) and added additional tasting events below. Also, I’ve added a “look ahead” section for future events that may be worth putting in your calendar now or buying tix now before they sell out.

Off to the mountain. Enjoy, and hope El Niño doesn’t dampen your weekend!

********************

Mon. Jan. 18: Wine for Haiti SF Charity Drive @ Presidio Cafe (Presidio)

300 Finley Road

San Francisco, CA 94129

5:00pm – 8:00pm – suggested donation of $50 / preferred donation of $100

***Over 50 wines to be poured***

Charitable Organizations: Sirona Cares Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Partners In Health and the American Red Cross.

The following importers have generously donated to this event: Vinos Unicos; International Vineyards; Blue Danube Wine Company; Sienna Imports

********************

Wed., Jan. 20: Bin 38 Fundraiser for Haiti (Marina)

3232 Scott Street

San Francisco, CA 94123

4:00pm – 1:00am

Charitable Organization: The What If? Foundation

According to the foundation’s website, “Founded in 2000, the What If? Foundation funds food and education programs for children in Haiti.”

Donation Plan: Bin 38 will donate $2 for each glass of wine or bottled beer sold, and will be collecting donations at the door (so bring our checkbook).

********************

Thurs., Jan. 21: Bi-Rite Market’s New Year, New Wine @ 18Reasons (Mission)

593 Guerrero

San Francisco, CA,

7:00pm – 9:00pm – Suggested Donation $10 ($5 for 18Reasons Members)

If you’re familiar with this blog, you know I’m a big fan of all-things BiRite, and have discovered some great wines by trusting their wine department, headed by Trac Le. Join Trac and his team as they present some of their latest and greatest wines — a phenomenal opportunity to try something new.

********************

Sat., Jan. 23: Austrian/German Wine Class @ Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant (FiDi)

Port Commissioner Hearing Room – Ferry Plaza

San Francisco, CA

4:00pm – 6:00pm – $55

Reserve by calling FPWM at 415.391.9400 or email Debbie@fpwm.com

There are a lot of personalities in the wine industry. And then there’s Terry Theise. Here’s a description of the king of riesling from Michael Skurnik Wines:

If it is true that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom, Terry Theise has been there and back. A brief perusal of his writing makes it quickly apparent that the man has no reservations about conveying his thoughts and feelings on wine, life, sex, philosophy and general cosmology. In Terry’s world, it’s all inter-related.

Join Terry and the team from Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant as they walk you through a dozen wines and tell you more about great wines from Germany and Austria.

********************

LOOKING AHEAD:

The Cheese School hosts great classes on all things cheese (go figure) but they also do a great primer on wine and cheese pairing. The next one is on February 10, and if past experience is any indicator, it will sell out. ($65 per person, 6:30-8:30pm). For you AP level cheese heads, there are classes on cheese & champagne, new world wine and cheeses, and port & british cheeses.

SF Beer Week is from Feb. 5-14. So why am I writing about beer in a wine blog? (1) Because I also like beer and (2) because Bin38 is doing a good spirited Beer v. Wine Pairing challenge on Feb. 11 and (3) delicious seafood boite Bar Crudo is doing a similar beer and wine pairing dinner on Feb. 7. Details to follow, but worth blocking out the date!

And plan a trip up north between Feb. 22-28 for Sonoma County Restaurant Week. A slew of restaurants are offering three-course meals for $19, $29, or $39. Make you reservations early (participating restaurants include Dry Creek Kitchen and the girl & the fig).

[Via http://sfwine.wordpress.com]

Dallas Cowboys Blog | Sports News | News for Dallas, Texas ...

Seafood and animal fat, an evening of complete decadence!

2010-01-17T04:52:00.000+02:00

I believe that food is about the daily joy of eating and living. Simple, tasty, and clean. It shouldn’t have to be too fancy or too expensive. When I opened my first restaurant in San Francisco called Sweet Heat my goal was to apply gourmet cooking principals to food that tasted of the world but in an easy to enjoy format. It was inexpensive and straight forward which allowed me to see my customers several times a week. No matter what was going on in their lives when I had them they were in heaven for 40 minutes. They spent less than $15 and had a blast. That is what the restaurant business is all about for me.

With that said there are times when I want to be transformed to another place via food. When the food comes together properly that place is what heaven must be like! I feel an outer body experience as I taste food that consumes all of my attention. Food that fills my mouth with such perfectly balanced flavor and texture that I find it hard to open my eyes as I eat. Too many times I decide to spend that chunk of money for that experience and it falls short. My visit to Marea in Manhattan this week was one of those times when I got my moneys worth and then some! Five course tasting menu with wines to match. Here we go!

First Course – Sea Urchin, lardo and sea salt crostini. It was like sea custard with melted lardo that almost vanished under the heat. Just when I thought it could not get any better the bits of sea salt melted on my tongue and re-ignited the entire flavor profile all over again. A glass of yeasty sparkling Italian chardonnay was the perfect balance. The yeastiness of the bubbly played nicely with the rich flavor of the sea. The acid in the bubbly provided the perfect cleansing balance to the richness of the lardo. The “finish” would not end! I felt guilty finally extinguishing the never-ending finish with a bite of oil rich house made focaccia.

Second course – Three raw bites – bay scallops with mandarin orange and wild baby arugula. Skate with lemon thyme, and a beautiful gem of big-eye tuna with an herbed oyster cream and crispy slice of sunchoke. I was able to fully taste the flavor of each ingredient yet they all came together to be something more than their individual parts. A glass of Verdicchio was the perfect balance. The wine accelerated the mandarin orange flavor brilliantly.

Third course – Lobster, burrata cheese, basil seed, eggplant and tomato salad. Whoever said seafood and cheese don’t go together has never had this dish!! One of my favorites of the night. Tender, perfectly cooked morsels of lobster tucked into a fresh mozzarella “comforter” were the pinnacle of decadence. The basil seeds with the tiny chunks of fresh, sweet tomatoes cut the richness and brought that perfume that make you say “ah, yes, I recognize that caprese flavor profile”. The tiny cubes of slightly firm eggplant provided a firmness that kept me from slipping away forever in the otherwise creamy cloud of flavor. This dish was truly the best of seafood and dairy together. It was like a cold “melt” if that makes any sense. The Vermentino was not a good wine match. The wine was way to full bodied and full flavored. It overwhelmed all the delicate nuances of the dish.

Fourth course – Veal tongue, seafood sausage, cabbage and hazelnuts. The chef is brilliant at combining seafood with animal fat. This was a great example. The richness and full meaty flavor of the tongue married brilliantly with the seafood sausage. The seafood sausage ate like a pork sausage but with the delicate flavor of seafood. The meat and the seafood swapped places as the seafood provided the firmness and the veal tongue was the soft texture. The cabbage provided the always necessary acid balance and the toasted hazelnuts brought you back full circle with their rich, nutty crunch. A Loire Sauvignon Blanc from Quincy was a tasty match. The herby quality of the wine played nicely with the vegetal character of the cabbage and the acids cancelled each other out and brought the flavors of the food to the forefront.

Fifth course – Octopus Bolognese with bone marrow. Bursts of rich pleasure from the marrow. The tomato sauce was spicy and the octopus had great texture but unfortunately you could not taste the flavor of the octopus. The tomato and bone marrow completely buried it. The Nero d’ Avola red wine was a great match but again was more of a red wine with meat profile that overwhelmed the octopus even further.

A glass of raisinated sweet Italian dessert wine was the perfect finish. It was like an after dinner drink and dessert all in one. I enjoyed this while practicing my Spanish with an awesome couple on vacation from Mexico. The wife promises to send me a famous family recipe from her grandmother. I will share that one with you when I get it!

Although this is not a meal I can afford very often I was so grateful to have it be one that felt worth every penny. There are chefs that truly know how to coax the best out of each ingredient and create flavor combinations that you never thought of. Thank you Marea.

Eat well, Enjoy life, Be happy

[Via http://jeffreysaad.com]

LBS News - All Points Blog

JRDN, A Modern Oasis In PB

2010-01-16T22:49:00.000+02:00

PB equals Pacific Beach, CA, a beach community just north of San Diego’s Sea World. We have pals in San Diego, so we like to play in the surf and eat at ocean side restaurants.

Tower 23 is a fairly new spot on the beach walk; sleek, modern and spirited are words that come to mind when we had dinner at this hotel last night. JRDN is a twitter ready name for a restaurant that is hard to sum up in 140 characters.

So Raw,Way Cool, Getting Warm, Pure Sizzle, Burning Up are menu chapters.

Valerie took the waitress’s advice and ordered a Way Cool beet salad to start and the Pure Sizzle Arctic Char, a fish Valerie is very fond of. The salad was large and filled with sweetened nuggets of yellow and red beets, dark leafy greens, goat cheese and pickled cauliflower. A Spanish Granache was a perfect pairing.

The Arctic Char, pale salmon in color was perfectly cooked, which means not over cooked, and tasted clean, fresh and sweet. It was served on a bed on green lentils, flavored with raisins, country ham, small shreds of onion and sauteed brussel sprouts, amazing! Valerie had a french chardonnay with it but she thought it was a bit too mild for the lentils, a Pinot Noir would have worked better, I think.

Ah the leftovers!!!

The menu is focused on meat that you have options of playing with, and Chef, David Warner gets his all-natural meats from Meyer Ranch. This is also true of the build your own salad. The raw bar menu is also extensive and inventive.

This is a high end place and is a bit noisy because of the very active bar scene spilling into the dining room, but the service is impeccable and we had a table that looked out onto the darkened patio and that reflected the changing wall sculpture and made people watching easy!

It’s a paws up from me!

[Via http://winedogreview.wordpress.com]

The Longtail of News: When Should Editors “Unpublish” Online News ...

Wine topic of the day - Petite Sirah

2010-01-16T16:46:00.000+02:00

Neither petite (in terms of body and color) nor syrah (often confused with Petite Syrah which is a small-berried syrah found in the Rhone), this grape was long thought to be a relative or variant of Durif, an almost extinct minor French varietal. According to Jancis Robinson, this has been disproved by modern DNA analysis, although this isn’t held universally. See this site for additional information about the parentage:

http://www.winelabels.org/artsirah.htm

Confusing matters more is the fact that Petite Sirah has been occasionally spelled Petite Syrah.

Petite Sirah has been an important blending grape for years, and recently has come to the forefront as a varietal worth bottling on its own, much as Cabernet Franc has become fashionable. For instance, Petite Sirah is useful for adding color and spine to weaker Cabernet Sauvignon vintages and it’s been used to add body and color to washed out Pinot Noirs. In fact, Petite Sirah has been planted in Californai since the late 1800s. If you’ve drunk Ridge’s zinfandels, you have likely experienced Petite Sirah as part of the blend. they use Petite Sirah extensively to augment their excellent Zinfandel program. And, they bottle it independently as well.

However, it’s a very nice grape on its own. At its best, it produces an inky, almost black color and offers a reasonable alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon, offering a slightly lighter body and tannic structure. For someone who finds Cabernet Sauvignon too big, Zinfandel too “earthy” and Pinot Noir too light, Petite Sirah can be a good offering. when I serve a Petite Sirah, I always mention that the color doesn’t betray the body, that its darkness and opacity isn’t a true indicator of its body. Sure, it’s full-bodied, but it’s generally more “drinkable” than a big, sandpapery Cabernet, at least for people who find them just too big. This means that you can pair it with large-flavored dishes, and, an additional advantage is that it’s somewhat obscure to the average wine drinker and it offers a different flavor profile.

The problem? Most wine lists don’t even have a Petite Sirah. And if they do, you’re usually stuck with just one or two choices. If you are interested in this wine, you might lobby your wine buyer to add one or two to the menu. Of course, if you do that, you’ll need to personally try to sell it because it’s not going to sell itself.

What are the general characteristics of Petite Sirah?

As I’ve mentioned, it has an extremely dark, black color. You won’t be seeing through it as you examine it in the glass. Some fairly frequent notes are similar to Cabernet Sauvignon – pepper, cedar, coffee, plum, blackberries, dark cherry, i.e. “dark fruits”.

Some wine experts find it lacking in distinction, a little lacking in character. But that’s what makes it good as a bridge for the uninitiated. What it lacks in “character” it makes up in “drinkability”.

Bogle and Concannon are probably the best known of the California vintners. They offer low cost versions that are fairly reliable. Ridge, as I have mentioned, is a higher-end brand. Stag’s Leap has another bottling that will set you back some coin (I believe that they spell it with a “y”).

So what would you pair with Petite Sirah? Pretty much anything you’d pair with Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel or Syrah. Big, meaty, fatty meats. Rich stews. Roasted meats. Game. In my opinion, it would be a better match with tuna and salmon than any of the aformentioned varietals.

If you google the name, you’ll find some interesting information that can not only help you navigate the “controversies” swirling around the grape, but you might also get a bit confused, but don’t let that stop you from exporing this nice alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon and Meritage and, yes, Syrah.

[Via http://teleburst.wordpress.com]

Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!: Good News, Bad News

Calistoga is Good for the Soul

2010-01-16T03:56:00.000+02:00

Happy weekend!

So last I wrote, we were on our way to Cyrus for a drink. It was a great place for a pre-dinner drink because it was just a block or two from our hotel.

Sure enough, I got the Meyer Beautiful! The egg white foam on top of the drink was so unique… in a good way.

After that, we headed back to the plaza for our reservation at Scopa. We had a hard time finding the restaurant because there was no sign anywhere and the restaurant was really small. Luckily, the address popped into my head and we found our way.

We ordered the lupini beans (which reminded me of edamame) and the polenta special to start.

I really wish that I had a better camera, if only so that you guys could see how delicious this polenta looked. It was bubbling and sizzling when it arrived in its scorching hot cast iron skillet. To the point where the leftover cheese got that good, crunchy texture to it. OMG, you guys. The cheese! The cremini mushrooms! After my first bite, I forgave Tobey for over-ordering.

We shared the pizza special, which had leeks, ricotta insalata,marinara and homeade sausage on it.

This morning, we went to the gym and then I walked over to Flying Goat for coffee.

I needed coffee after last night – random tangent here – somehow we got a room next to a bar that had Thursday night karaoke. This was annoying because our hotel was definitely nowhere near being full and they had to know that the bar next door has Thursday night karaoke. It was funny at first, but not when I was trying to fall asleep! Frustrating, right?

Anyway, there was a long line for coffee and somehow I ended up talking to a girl about blogs that we read. Fast friends in a coffee shop line? I love it.

I got a soy cafe au lait (coffee and steamed soymilk).

Tobey and I met back up at the karaoke bar hotel for breakfast. I always look forward to their housemade granola- it has almonds, pecans, walnuts, peanuts, coconut and brown sugar in it. I don’t know what else is in it, but it’s so addicting.

Relaxing after breakfast…

Tobey, at his fancy winery- this picture cracks me up because he looks so serious.

We headed over the mountain and now we’re in Napa Valley… we’re staying in Calistoga for the night before we head over to Yountville. Calistoga reminds of an old Western walking town… it doesn’t seem like much changes here, which totally adds to the charm.

We had lunch at Bosko’s, an Italian restaurant.

I had the minestrone soup and we shared a quattro formaggio (mozzarella, fontina, gorgonzola and pecorino) pizza. Pizza for dinner and pizza for lunch!

We hated it–

Then, we walked over to the Sharpsteen Museum of Calistoga History.

I learned that Calistoga became a popular vacation spot in 1850, after people realized that they had access to stock ticker tape and telegraph service. It seems like people gravitate towards places with hot springs, which tells me that people have always been somewhat interested in healing methods.

After our little history lesson, we checked into the Chanric Inn. The innkeeper, Ric, was very welcoming & hospitable. Places like this make me love bed & breakfasts.

I am so looking forward to the 3 course breakfast tomorrow morning after seeing this…

Do you prefer staying in hotels or bed & breakfasts?

I like a mix of both… sometimes, I like the predictability of hotels, and other times, I like the unpredictability of bed & breakfasts.

-Laura

[Via http://lauradishes.wordpress.com]

Jewlicious » Jewish News Roundup

stuffed peppers

2010-01-14T16:37:00.000+02:00

Last night we had some friends over for dinner, and I made my most favorite dish – stuffed peppers!

It is a fun, easy, and pretty dish to serve to guests. I like mine a little on the spicy side, so I kicked them up with some spices, but you could omit them if you like your food on the milder side.

There were 4 of us for dinner, but I made an extra pepper just in case someone was a little hungrier. Turns out, it was a good idea I did!

We started with some chips and salsa to get us in the mood while I cooked.

And, drank some wine of course!

Which was from Spain…

…and delicious!

One of our Christmas gifts this year was a rice cooker from my brother and sister-in-law. This was only our second time using it, but it did not disappoint! This cooker is definitely idiot proof and cooks the best rice ever! I put 2 cups of rinsed brown rice into the cooker, filled it to the #2 line (for the 2 cups of rice) with water, closed the lid and pressed start. One hour and 30 minutes later, my rice was cooked to perfection!

While our rice was cooking, and our guests were enjoying their chips, I got all of our ingredients ready to cook.

I started with 5 peppers.

We like to use a variety of colors to up the wow factor .

and cut the tops off of each one.

I chopped up those tops to add to the filling once ready.

Also in the mix were onions, garlic and spinach.

I added some olive oil to a medium sized saute pan over medium heat until hot. I chopped the onion and garlic and added them to the pan. They sizzled as the cooked. Unfortunately, my camera decided to take fuzzy pictures of the steps, so I didn’t include them here…oh well, I think you get the idea.

After a few minutes, I added the peppers, some paprika, essence (which is a blend of salt, pepper, garlic and chile powder), and salsa and cooked until done.

By this time, my rice cooker was singing to me that it was done (no, really – it plays a song to tell you it is done)! So, I added 2 cups of rice along with the spinach and mixed everything together until the spinach was wilted, a few minutes. One cup of mexican cheese was added as well.

Viola!

At this point, I filled the empty peppers with the rice mixture, topped them wich mexican taco cheese, and placed them in my preheated oven (at 375°F). Cook the peppers for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted, and the peppers are tender. (Tip – I precooked my peppers while I was preparing the rice mixture to get them a little more tender.)

Once done, I pop the peppers under the broiler for 1-2 minutes until the cheese gets browned and bubbly.

You can make this your own recipe and add any kind of veggies you want to the mix. In the past, we have added corn, peas and broccoli.

Alongside the stuffed peppers, I served warm crusty bread. I took this whole wheat bread, sliced it, brushed each slice with a little olive oil and sprinkled it with italian seasoning.

Wrap in tinfoil, and place in the oven while you cook your peppers. It will come out warm, crusty and delicious!

Our meal was a thumbs up from all 4 of us! Give it a try sometime, you won’t be dissappointed!

Spicy Stuffed Peppers

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice (any other grain will work as well)
6 medium peppers (any color)
1 medium onion
4-5 cloves garlic
1 package baby spinach
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1-2 tablespoons essence, depending on spiciness!
1/2 cup medium salsa (or hot, or mild…)
1 cup cheese, any you like!
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Cook 2 cups of brown rice according to package instructions. If you have a rice cooker, definitely use it!
While the rice is cooking, prepare your vegetables and if desired, place peppers in the oven for a few minutes to pre-cook (I find that this makes the peppers more tender).
Wash peppers, and cut tops off of each. Chop up tops. Set peppers aside.
Chop onion and garlic.
Add olive oil to a medium saute pan over medium heat. Once heated, add onion, garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook until onions are tender.
Add the chopped pepper tops, paprika and essence (or other spices). Cook until mixed and peppers are a little tender.
Once rice is cooked, add it to the saute pan mixture. Also add salsa and spinach. Mix and cook until the spinach is wilted.
Mix in 1 cup of cheese.
Spoon rice mixture into the peppers and top with a little cheese.
Place in a baking dish and bake for 10 minutes, until peppers are tender and cheese is melted.
Place under broiler for 1-2 minutes to brown the cheese.
Serve immediately with warm crusty bread.
Enjoy!

If you have any other fabulous stuffed pepper recipes, please pass them my way! I am constantly making varieties of this recipe, because we love them so much! I have been told to try them with poblanos…maybe next time!

[Via http://healthylaps.com]

News Corp. Shakes Up Top Fox Executives

Day 9 is All About Wine - A Spirited Discussion

2010-01-14T10:04:00.000+02:00

Michael Green may have one of the most enviable jobs around. For 19 years, he’s been Gourmet Magazine’s Wine Consultant., learning, sipping, tasting, traveling, discovering and reporting on the best vintages from the finest vineyards.

Today, Michael gives us a small taste of his life experience as part of TEN Design Days. He helps us set our designs on fine wine and anything else that helps us outstep the parameters of our daily comfort zones.

Click here for the full inspiration.

…and with Day 9, we’re near the finish line! Join us for one more day of TEN tomorrow!

[Via http://elevateyourspace.wordpress.com]

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