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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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Pheasant’s Tears – Kakheti, 2015

  • Basic info: Pheasant’s Tears, Kakheti Rkatsiteli, Tibaani, Georgia – 2015
  • Type: Rose
  • Price estimate: $18 (Chamber Street Wines)
  • Look: Cranberry color with a hint of orange
  • Smell: Not much smell. Smelled liked wine.
  • Taste: Interesting taste – not much there. No real discernible flavors. Slightly woody on the back end, but not tree-bark like.
  • Conclusions: Eh. I thought it was fine.
  • Other notes: We had this wine on vacation with friends because we were really curious about it and it ended up with two very different opinions. Bob, John, and Erin hated it on the first sip – so much so that they would not go back for a second sip. Ed and I both thought it was fine. It wasn’t offensive and it didn’t have anything distinctive in the taste. I can’t say it was enjoyable, but I didn’t find it bad at all. I’m glad we tried it, especially after hearing about it on a podcast and on an Anthony Bourdain show. It was interesting but not something I need to try again.
  • From the bottle: No bottle notes, but from Chamber Street, “the wine shows an electric raspberry robe in the glass. Aromas of dried apricot angle with walnuts and wildflower honey. A crunchy acidity gives lip-smacking texture to flavors of red cherries, almond skin and ripe strawberries. Fine, grippy tannins make this rose perfect for a cool summer evening.” 11.5% alcohol by volume.

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Really, Mom?

We knew the end of August would be busy and hectic. We knew that Bob had to be away for business and I had some long days with the start of the school year. Despite this, after taking my exam for my Florida license (no idea how I did, results won’t be in for a while, but the test was nothing like the practice test the state puts out, or any of the review/study materials they publish. Given that … who knows) I decided to go look at kittens again. I figured Bob and I had been looking for a while and we didn’t come home with anyone, so we probably would not find a cat and that would be that. Well … we were wrong.

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Meet Ella (on the right) and Alinea (on the left). These about three-month old kittens stole our hearts almost immediately. Ella was super outgoing and very energetic. Alinea was shy and very skittish. They played well together (they are not from the same litter). We were a little concerned about each individually, and their impact on the boys, so when Bob suggested we adopt both (yes, two was his idea) I wasn’t going to object. And I have to say, he was absolutely right.

The girls both had a rough start. Alinea was thrown from a car and had a degloved jaw and road rash on her paws and tail. Ella was found as a tiny kitten in a barn all alone – no momma cat, no siblings. These two were incredibly lucky to be rescued by a great girl who runs her own rescue organization (and she is 23!!!) and rehabilitates cats so they can be adopted. She did an incredible job with these two and we just adore them.

The boys are still adjusting. Arthas is more interested in their litter box and food than he is in them. Tigger isn’t sure about them, but he isn’t objecting to their presence. I’m hoping once everyone settles in and gets comfortable with each other, they will all get along. We know it will be a while, but it will be worth it.

Personalities are still developing but already Alinea is more outgoing than we expected. Ella is curious, but shy with the boys and she likes her alone time. It will be very interesting to see how they change as they grow up.

(Ella got her name because of the dark freckle like marks on her face, and the darker smudge on the other side of her nose. Every time I saw it I thought of soot, so she made me think of Cinderella, hence the name Ella.  Alinea is both the name of an amazing restaurant in Chicago, but it is also the editing symbol that indicates a new paragraph. Since she had such a rough start, we want her to have a new beginning. She also LOVES food and eats constantly and voraciously, so the name definitely fits her.)

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Summer Salad

I love summer food. Tomatoes, peaches, corn, zucchini etc. are some of my favorite foods and they are fresh during the summer. Admittedly Florida is a little challenging vegetable wise in the dog days of summer, but there are still plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to be found.

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When I saw the dark cherry tomatoes at the farmer’s market, I knew I had to make a sale out of them. The ripe peach cried out to be paired with them, so I made an herbed vinaigrette using the chives, oregano and parsley from my garden. I roasted a little corn, chopped up some manchego and tossed it all together. It was lovely.

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PFAFFL – Gruner Veltliner, 2016

  • Basic info: PFAFFL, Gruner Veltliner “Vom Haus”, Niederösterreich, Austria – 2016
  • Type: White
  • Price estimate: $18 (? Weekly Tasting pack, so I’m not certain)
  • Look: Pale straw in color with minimal legs, even when warm.
  • Smell: Apple and vanilla. Not much smell to this one and I *think*  I got those two smells, but in retrospect I might have wanted to smell those.
  • Taste: Under ripe peach, salt, lime and white grape. (Yes, seriously, white grape)
  • Conclusions: This was a pretty amazing wine. It was light and clean tasting, but there was a lot going on in it. This was a wine you could drink and ignore as you sat and chatted (which is what we did the first night we opened it with a friend) or ponder as you sip it as I did the next time we had it.
  • Other notes: I think this wine goes on the list of favorites – right there with the Soter Pino Noir and Decoy or Haywood Zinfandels. It is that good.
  • From the bottle: “This classic, crisp and fine fruity Gruner Veltliner has a good pinch of black pepper. A great house wine that is incredibly versatile.” 12% alcohol by volume.

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Mock Chipotle Sofritas Salad

About once a quarter a group of us at work have a Friday in lunch together. We order something, pick it up and try to have a rallying lunch. One of our go-to places was Chipotle and I was pretty excited when then added a vegetarian protein. It ticked all the boxes for me – spicy, touch sweet and really filling. The lunch in tradition changed a bit this past year and we did more eat what we brought as we had lunch together, which is great for a variety of reasons, but I did somewhat miss the salad. Yes, I know Bob and I could go and get lunch or dinner one night, but I scoured the internet for for a way to make it at home and found a recipe that looked possible. I also found a copycat recipe for the chipotle-honey vinaigrette that I love on the salad. So … I decided to try it since I had a little time one weekend.

I didn’t use as much tofu as the original recipe called for, although I did make all of the sauce to cook it in. I didn’t want to have a lot left over if this didn’t work, so I just used about 7 oz. of tofu and that was enough for Bob, myself and one leftover portion. When I make this again, I will probably use one whole package of tofu so we have more leftovers.

For the meal, I recreated most of the salad the way I order it. I used red leaf lettuce, rice, diced tomato, cheese, the sofritas and dressing. I was going to fry up some onion and orange pepper, but decided against it, and the corn salsa I made wasn’t good – I think the corn had a bad case of freezer burn. But the overall effect was good. Very good. Better than Bob expected good.

I will say this – going out for this is way easier than making it. It isn’t hard, but there are so many pieces to it – blistering the pepper, making the dressing, making the sofritas, making all the parts that go on to the salad … and I cheated and used pre-shredded cheese! I’ll make it again, but it will not be in the quick weeknight dinner rotation.