Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Wino Wednesday


This week I treated our whole work team to a Wino Wednesday. (And no they are not toasting, I had them hold the glasses up so I could get this shot)

Why? Because...
1. We need a break
2. I like to give
3. I wanted to hear what they would say about the wine.

The wine this week is the following:
Hamilton-Steven's
2009 Pinot Noir
Russian river valley

First smell:  Dark juicy plums
First taste:  Plumy richness, chocolate, cherries
Here are some group observations from us novices:
"Fruity"
"earthy" (said with pinky up)

"very drinkable...i'll drink to that"
Where I bought this?  Trader Joes, of course, for $8.99

What we ate with this wine?
French bread, cheese (dubliner sharp chedder, triple cream brie with bleu cheese) dried apricots, almonds, grapes and dried salami, way in the back dark chocolate covered pretzels.  Uh YUM!

What the bottle said?
Deep garnet red with spicy sweet aromas of dark plum, cedar, and anise. Rich, complex flavors of cherry pie, spice, and bittersweet and chocolate finish silky smooth.

Cellared and bottled by our cellars in Healdsburg, California

Friday, February 11, 2011

Pinterest


Ok I found this new favorite site that is all about pinning up your interests.
I'm addicted.
The design of this site it is lovely.
I saw one of the art buyers in my office with this open on her desktop. 
I forgot everything I came by to ask her and was fully absorbed in this. 
She signed me up and showed me how it works and well I'm still playing collage,
which I've always loved and now I am making my own digital collages.
Seriously hours of fun pinning up all these lovely idea starters we see everywhere.
It's like organizing my mind, which I haven't been able to shut down this week.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

First Wino Wednesday

Kona - A wine from New Zealand, Marlbourough Sauvignon Blanc

So I'm a seasonal drinker.  I like white wines in hot weather, well I also like a gin and tonic, but this is a wine post. Sorry all you mid-westerners and east coasters, and British, it's sunny and warm in So. Cal.

Here's my observations
First smell:  apples
First taste:  pears and apples
After eating a bit and letting the wine breath then I tasted white peaches
It was crisp with a little tangy taste.

Here's a wine makers official notes: Marlborough's free-draining, alluvial loams over gravelly subsoils provide ideal growing conditions for our KONO Sauvignon Blanc. With the abundant sunshine, cool nights and a long growing season in this region, this wine is vibrant with intense citrus and gooseberry flavours and notes of capsicum and passionfruit.

Seriously who talks like this.  I have no idea what capsicum is, so I looked it up, and apparently it's like a bell pepper or chili pepper.  Honestly I would equate the tangy taste I noted with a mild bell pepper.

I drank this wine while I ate french bread and brie supreme super creamy cheese, followed by baked wild caught salmon and asparagus for dinner.  This also influenced my choice of a white wine.

I bought this wine at, where else, Trader Joe's.  I paid a wapping $7.99.  Not a bad wine for that cheap.

Next week I will address the whole ideas of box wine, screw top, corks, etc...

Monday, February 7, 2011

Superbowl


So what did you all eat while watching the superbowl?

I had two friends over, very casual, and I served Trader Joes concocted dishes.
The first one I had at my friend B's house.  It's not her usual fair, but I call this trailer trash cheesy goodness.  Please do not be offended, I have many lovely friends and family that live in trailers, love it and embrace it.  But this is a sharp cheddar pub cheese in a plastic container.  I heat it up with a vegetarian chili that I swear taste like it has meat in it.  Serve warm with nice sturdy corn chips, chips need to be strong as the cheesy goodness is thick.  

The other concoction is another demo at Trader Joes.  Beef and pork meatballs with bbq sauce.  At the store then were microwaving, I usually only use mine for warming up stuff.  So I baked mine for 30 minutes and warmed up the kansas bbq sauce, mix and serve with toothpicks.  Seriously was the best stuff.   We ate other good things too, this was just the start, but fun stuff to munch on.

And of course I made cosmo's for us girls and the boys drank beer, as usual. 
Cheesy goodness and meatballs, YUM.  BOO that the Steelers lost. 

I know I should talk about the ads, it is Superbowl, and I am in the ad business.  So here's my two cents, loved the car ads.  Chrylser with Eminem, epic, emotional, edgy, awesome.  Longest spot, 2 minutes, was riveted from the beginning.  For moms and anyone with kids, and all of us that grew up in the 70's, loved VW's Darth Vadar ad.  That kid was so expressive, and with a DV mask.  What does it tell me about the car? Well other than you can start the car with your key chain fob, not much else.  Who cares, love Star Wars, loved that the mimic the opening shot of that movie and love that kid.  There you go.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wino Wednesday

So, starting January 1st, I made an oath to myself that I would not have any alcohol for one month. This was inspired by a Andrew Knowlton, a writer for Bon Appetit.  He says he goes alcohol and meat free every January. So my plan was, alcohol none, meat yes.  While I'm not really a big drinker I am a social one.  I love to have a glass of wine with a good meal, usually only on the weekends.  Occasionally during the week, if there is a work function or the meal just screams for it.

I thought this would be easy.  NOT SO MUCH.  So my plan included SB he said he'd do this with me, only he wasn't sold on the 31 days.  He suggested one week, I didn't think that was much of a challenge.  So he reluctantly agreed.  Did he make it, NOT SO MUCH.  After one week, we went out to dinner to Ye Olde Kings Head.  Nice English pub, he didn't last a minute.  I told him he was "weak" he said that wasn't true that I had to look at it as he made it one "week."  Whatever, I was not to be deterred.

So here's where I remained strong:

1. Company Potluck function -  This happened the first full week in January. Everyone brought a nice french dish to our bosses house, and our lovely host served the best champagne and someone brought a few really good bottles of wine.  How I handled this:  I thought ahead and gave myself a "talking," to remain strong.  So I bought a bottle of Martinelli's Apple Cider, you know the ones in the nice Champagne looking bottle.  My host graciously gave me my own ice bucket to keep it chilled, he filled up my Champagne flute constantly and, voila, no peer pressure as everyone thought I was having a cocktail.  I do have to say it was interesting listening to conversations when your the only one not drinking.

2. Ye Olde Kings Head - I spent so many of my single days here.  Having a nice black & tan pint.  Making fun of my friends for ordering wine in a PUB, who does that, apparently my friend did. I had a Rootbeer, it's all psychological, right?

3. The very next week - We had friends over and I offered them many choices of booze.  The girls wanted to try the Sparkling Mandarin.  Seriously hard, as I have yet to try it.  I made it, they loved it, I drank water, ooooh this was hard.  But I did make Tiramasu, yes I reverted to the 90's favorite dessert.  The ladies fingers were soaked in rum and espresso, I did have some, but technically this is NOT drinking, right? 

4. Drinks after work - An old co-worker wanted to catch-up and share with us her new job endeavor.  So we met at the Alibi room. Thankfully they have a decent food menu of Kogi truck delights.  I reverted to my 7 year old self and ordered Shirley Temples.  Didn't they use to pour in the pink sweet juice from the cherry's.  I only got one cherry.  Come ON people don't you know this is a poor substitution for a Gin & Tonic?

So the month is over, I made it, if you don't count the tiramasu.  Tuesday, February 1, I had my first glass of wine in a month.  A glass of Pinot Grigio.  Was delightful, and I immediately turned red, this never happened in the past, but I guess the detox made me a bit sensitive.

What I learned?  I have more will power than I thought.  It's really about setting your mind to a goal and anticipating the situations that may tempt you and determining alternatives before you get there.

What am I going to do now?  Well a much loved radio station, no longer on the air in L.A., (called Indie 103.1), use to do a segment called "Wino Wednesday."  They'd have a wine maker come in, try wines and talk about it every Wednesday at 8am.  Can you believe that was part of their job, made my morning commute so much more enjoyable.  While I am NO sommelier I am an average Jane.  So I will officially make Wednesday's, "Wino Wednesday."  I will pick a wine and give my very average observations.  I'll tell you where I got it, how much I paid, if I ate anything with it.  I may throw in a few of my co-worker's observations, as they will be willing if unknowing participants in this.  I have one observation for you already.  As CC said: "we're no wine snobs here, so shut up and drink the wine."  That's what we intend to do.

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