Monthly Archives: September 2017

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Summer Caprese

Now that school is back in full swing, the last bit of summer starts to fade. Yes, it will be hot in Florida for a while yet, but fall is beginning to make its presence known. The mornings are just a touch cooler, the evenings have a nice breeze and the afternoon rains, while still here, are not arriving every day.

It was with this as a backdrop – that first morning when there was just a hint of chill in the air – that I decided to have one last celebration of summer. At the farmer’s market with mom I picked up some beautiful red and yellow tomatoes. (Not Jersey tomatoes, because those really are the best, but you can’t get them in Florida, but these were far better than grocery store tomatoes.) I found a not so pretty, but definitely ripe, peach to add to the salad and picked up some little mozzarella pearls at the store. To this I added some basil from my garden and a touch of salt and balsamic glaze. It was the perfect summer salad.

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Adelsheim – Pinot Blanc, 2015

  • Basic info: Adelsheim “Bryan Creek Vineyards”,  Pinot Blanc, Willamette Valley, OR – 2015
  • Type: White
  • Price estimate: $25 (from vineyard)
  • Look: Very pale yellow – almost no color. Some legs.
  • Smell: Lemon, honey – very light smells.
  • Taste: Crisp. Apple, lemon, light stone fruit.
  • Conclusions: Excellent. This wine was clean, crisp, refreshing and very tasty. It had a touch of sweetness, but was definitely not a sweet wine. It was super easy to drink and didn’t taste of alcohol at all. Bob and I had this with a friend over our cheese box dinner and all three of us loved it.
  • Other notes: I’ve had Pinot Blancs before and have never been really impressed with them. Generally I find them cloying or with very little flavor. This one was different. While the flavors were light, they were present and enjoyable. This was a wine you could sit and think about or just drink and both methods would make you very happy. I was a little concerned about how easy it went down when I realized the alcohol content, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it.
  • From the bottle: “This 3 1/2-acre AVA at the 800-foot level delivers richness balanced by the wine’s racy acidity and bright, focused fruit.” 13% alcohol by volume

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Eyrie Vineyards – Pinot Noir, 2012

  • Basic info: Eyrie Vineyards, Oregon Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon – 2012
  • Type: Red
  • Price estimate: $40 (from vineyard)
  • Look: opaque – black cherry in color with good legs
  • Smell: Strawberry and cherry on the nose. (Bob only got wine.)
  • Taste: Black cherry, current, hint of ripe plum with a touch of vanilla and granite. Beautiful, long finish.
  • Conclusions: This is one of the rare perfect wines. On the first sip it was just eye closing perfection and the wine only got better as it opened in the glass. While a little expensive, this wine was worth every penny.
  • Other notes: When we went to Oregon last year, we tasted this at the vineyard and fell in love with it. The wine got better over the last year and I think we drank it at the best possible point. Even better was sharing this bottle with Ed and Erin since they love Pinot Noir. Ed’s comment was simply, “This is what a Pinot Noir should be.”
  • From the bottle: Vineyard notes, “this Pinot noir is an embodiment of the vintage, offering 2012’s richness while also taking advantage of its lively acidity. The layers of dark fruit notes combined with the earthy spice of this lush wine make it difficult to resist drinking now.” 13.5% alcohol by volume.

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Two Weeks In

It has been about two weeks since we brought the kittens home and I have to say, it has been wonderful to have a full house again. I loved Jessie, Leia and Gracie and I will never forget them, but Alinea and Ella are also pretty special and they needed a good home as much as any of my babies.

The first week, with the kittens quarantined in the spare bedroom, was the hardest. The boys knew something was there and Tigger got a little stressed. I started thinking I made a mistake when he stopped eating a little, but we pushed through. Once he met the kittens, he was back to his old self. He seems to like the girls – he hangs out with them in the third bedroom and doesn’t get upset when they come up to him or sniff his food or play with his tail. I think he likes having them around in a weird way. He still follows me to bed and he insists on his cuddle time, so he is still Tigger, he’s just Tigger with company.

We were a little worried about how Arthas would react to the kittens, but I think Val was right – he is perfectly ok with the tiny kittens, more than he would be with a new full grown cat. If he gets too close to her, Alinea will hiss at him, but he doesn’t do much other than stand there and stare at her. Ella tries to sniff him frequently, and he is ok with it unless she gets really close to his head. He hasn’t done anything more than growl and he sometimes seems curious about them. Mostly he wants their food and we had to alter the gate situation as he did manage to get into their room once. Yes, he ate the whole bag of kitten food – we probably had about 1/2 a bag before he got to it.

So personalities … Ella is a curious and she has almost no fear of anything or anyone, but she is cautious. She is a little slower in her explorations and she likes to find a place to curl up and rest. Shiny puff balls and sticks are her favorite toys and she seems pretty determined to make Arthas like her. (She does not care when he growls, she just stays where she is and turns up the cute.)

Alinea is apparently very aptly named. She is a daredevil – very different than she was at the rescue. She likes people and she is only mildly afraid of Arthas. She will hiss at him if he gets too close, but she stands her ground. She likes to follow me around and she will leap from one piece of furniture to another. She eats everything and the tiny kitten looks more like a cat every day. She has checked out Arthas’s food bowl (before he began eating) and Tigger’s food (while he was eating). She is now bigger the Ella, and I am really hoping her coloring doesn’t change as she gets her adult fur in.

We apparently did this transition right and everyone is getting along well. As the girls get a little bigger and I stop worrying about Arthas or Tigger stepping on them it will get even better. We had all three cats eating dinner in the kitchen for the first time recently, and it was great. I’m so glad we could give these two a good home and that Tigger and Arthas are ok with them. I”m hoping the kittens are good for Arthas and he gets as use to them as he was with Leia and is with Tigger. I know it will take time, but for now I can come home from long, crazy days at work and just enjoy the furry family.

 

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TMP Sandwich

There are days when I surprise myself, sometimes even in a good way. I was thinking a lot about lunches to pack when school starts back up again (and kittens, but that is another story) and kept trying to think of things I could take that do not require a refrigerator or a microwave. I don’t know about anyone else, but work-place fridges and microwaves are a little suspect most days, and in all honesty, I really don’t want most of my lunch time to be taken up with waiting for the microwave.

So the sandwich. Yes, I’ve done versions of this before, but I may have hit on perfection with this one. I tried a new way to make eggplant bacon and a new pesto concoction and the combination was incredible. Bob said the balance of flavors was perfect and he didn’t mind eating the same thing for lunch two days in a row.

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For the eggplant bacon I used the marinade recipe from Oh My Veggies. Instead of cooking the eggplant in a frying pan (which I’ve done and they come out great) I cooked them for about an hour in a 200 degree oven, sort of like dehydrating. The texture was prefect and the eggplant held up for the next day. The slices need to be very thin for this method, but for eggplant bacon, thinner is better no matter the method.

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I forgot to take my kale pesto out of the freezer and I didn’t want to make a tomato mozzarella sandwich without some pesto. I had a little basil, but not enough to make a full batch of pesto, and I had spinach in the fridge that I needed to use up, so spinach pesto it was. And oh my goodness was I glad I did this. The pesto was bright and tangy and pretty much perfect.

The sandwich is your basic tomato-mozzarella sandwich combined with a vegetarian version of a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich. Start with a good bread – I like ciabatta bread myself, but any you like will do. I toasted the bread under the broiler for a few minutes to get it nice and crispy and eliminate any issues with stale bread. To the bread I added 1 tablespoon of spinach pesto to each slice then topped with the eggplant bacon, mozzarella and tomatoes. That is pretty much it. I made these as open-faced sandwiches to keep a good balance of bread to filling and it worked well.

Spinach Pesto:

  • leaves from two stems of basil
  • 1 large handful spinach leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 oz. walnuts
  • 2 oz. toasted almonds
  • <1/4 cup grated pecorino cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • olive oil (about 3 tablespoons)

Place basil, spinach, garlic, lemon juice, nuts and cheese in a food processor and pulse until the leaves of the basil and spinach as fine. scrape down the sides and add oil, salt and pepper and pulse until the pesto is well combines.

 

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La Source du Ruault – Cabernet Franc, 2011

  • Basic info: La Source du Ruault, “Clos de la Cote” Loire Valley, France – 2011
  • Type: red
  • Price estimate: $25 (Chamber Street Wine)
  • Look: Plum, black cherry in color with significant legs
  • Smell: mild earth
  • Taste: mild earth, unripe raspberry and slightly harsh. Dry, short finish.
  • Conclusions: Drinkable. Not bad, but not the best Cab Franc ever.
  • Other notes: Ed, Erin and Bob made the tasting notes for this wine. We all had it with dinner, but I didn’t care for it as much and found it a little hard to drink. Ed is a huge Cab Franc fan, so it was his opinion I was really interested in. He found the wine good, but not great.
  • From the bottle: No tasting notes on the bottle or from Chamber Street. 12.5% alcohol by volume.

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