Musings

No reason for you to remember, but back in October, we cruised through The Real Cadillac, or the Old World version anyway, although we were focused on other than chateaux that day (we had MILES to cover—and the car worked only in kilometers…). Anyway, today’s shelf-check at the DFM reminded me of that day when we found this Chateau Cadillac Bordeaux. A quick google did not turn up info on the Chateau—I guess we’d have to go back to find out more…?? Oh, wait, hmm, there’s googlemaps—I realize we drove Right By the Chateau. The vines? Well, that’s mysterious.

Posted at 7:40 PM | Comments Off on Other worldly

Note: this was the yummiest, goopiest cheese I’ve had in quite a while.

Book club rocks!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

Sorry for the poor focus: the name threw me….

Looking for a wine to ring in the New Year with, a white that isn’t fizzy? Consider….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on TJ humor

The Guru set up a Photo Stream for us, which means I get insights into his excursions, like this image of the the famous and infamous order-desk at the Varsity from the other day.

That said, we’re headed for a COLD overnight. Brrr—where’s the duvet?

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Loving the scallop shells and sea-horses in the corner-art, and this particular shade of green ink. Do you suppose that’s Mount Etna?

This chocolate came to me via BRB-Santa. Although the main label reads Dark Chocolate Ginger Wasabi with Mediterranean Sea Salt—BTW, the salt is from southern Italy (no more geographic detail), the ingredients include Habanero chili powder, clearly unmentioned on the front. To my palate, I taste dark chocolate, the not-unpleasant grainy bits of sea salt, and a hotness that I think is a combo of the Chinese ginger powder, the wasabi powder (real or horseradish imitator? unclear), and the Habanero, but not predominantly any one of them.

Glad to have tried this chocolate but I suspect I won’t be traipsing about trying to replace it….

Posted at 5:44 PM | Comments Off on Santa surprise

PV: Sangria roja carafe and two glasses….

Sad-for-us news: Pura Vida is closing at the end of the month.

Tough on the staff, but Chef Hector Santiago will get the breathing room to create his next genius idea.

We sangria’d and postre’d and everything in between’d tonight—a happy (extended) family-of-five dinner. We tried nearly everything vegetarian (including feeeesh), and a few of the meat dishes, and, I think for the only time I’ve dined here…we had dessert.

Oh, yum.

Sigh.

Posted at 8:48 PM | 1 Comment »

I took a stroll down memory lane today, working on a double batch of bourbon balls. In my mother’s kitchen, we made what today I’d consider a huge variety of Xmas sweets, but I manage only one or two.

At the top of the list is bourbon balls. No bake.

I learned to make them in pre-food-processor days, and I remember crushing vanilla wafers in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, cookie dust seeping out here and there, making a bit of a mess. I remember long sessions with the Big Knife, chopping the pecans to the right size. I remember sifting the powdered sugar and cocoa together, wheeling the handle round and round, to leave tiny gravely bits in the screen.

Now I do each of those steps in the food processor, zip zip, and I’m left with the contemplative time, amidst the bourbon fumes, rolling the spheres and dredging them in more of the white powder, and putting them away, at least temporarily.

This year, the film cans, now lined with fresh wax paper, have come to my household from Mom’s kitchen, and once again they will store our bourbon balls and Xmas goodies for both bold and surreptitious hands to nab through the season.

If you’re so moved, here’s my version of the recipe, so you can assemble the ingredients and have your own version of reflective time while you roll the spheres. Optional: find one or more friends to do this in a group, talking and laughing.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Goodie prep

Now that some of the wine-geography of France makes more sense to me, I know just enough to ask for wine from specific regions that are a bit unusual for these parts (in the stores I shop in), that often seem to garner me a bit of respect from the store wine-stewards. Not that I ask merely to impress….

Up in MI recently, we were steered to a 2009 of this same Château du Donjon* red. From the Minervois AOC**. If you have an excellent memory and are a regular reader, you may remember that on 7 October we wandered the northern Minervois….

Here in ATL, the Guru tracked down the 2008 version of same. We will try it with our Sicily traveling companions tomorrow, I think….

Posted at 6:21 PM | Comments Off on Liquid finds (du Minervois)

The rain haunted us from immediately post-lunch on, well, off and on. The yellow has mostly leached away from the ground-leaves.

And those are my observations for today.

Fast-soup for dinner: large can of tomatoes along with fresh garlic liquified with a stick blender in a saucepan, dump in leftover rice, frozen edamame, some mushrooms, then zip up the flavor with the holy trinity of black pepper, worchestershire, and sriracha. Salt to taste. In 10 minutes start-to-finish the whole pot was too hot to eat. Oh, added a bit of parm as a topper.

Posted at 7:37 PM | Comments Off on Glistening leaves

Any historical rundown of technological ingenuity and innovation must include happenings in the Detroit Metro area. I have seen (and explored) drive-through liquor stores—and I don’t mean a drive-up window; I mean structures, some with solid doors to close out the weather, and other similar stay-in-your vehicle retail establishments. Here I note my first drive-through Sbux, and it’s in the the Detroit area.

We just drove-through once, but based on that experience, I’d hypothesize that the drive-through alley creates a Venturi effect that slows the staff dramatically. Or something. Gad, they were slow.

Food for thought: are these drive-through business establishments mostly vendors of food/drink?

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »