Would always love to have more to say about records management, but the thing is, as much as I love it I love food and drink even more!!
Today was a great adventure: forays to my 2 fave pubs in the ATL and a pre stop to one of our favorite beer stores.
1. Hit Brew City - No Dogfish Head Bitches Brew or Squall available; no worries, we procured some wittekirke (wit AND framboise), Allagash Interlude, Yakima Glory, Double Bastard, Tres Pistoles, Weyerbacher Fireside Ale, and Terrapin Moo-Hoo. Yes, we have a problem.
2. Hit The Porter Beer Bar - as always the food here is incredible. We only ordered a cheese tray and were 'gifted' some spent Sweetwater grain bread, but it was very lively and the local cheeses were incredible (thanks sweet grass and my fave flat creek dairy). They were out of the listed Dogfish Head Bitches' Brew (but luckily we had already procured a couple of 750ml bottles earlier in the year when the first distribution was released - btw it's tremendous!) So I ordered a Rodenbach 2008 vintage. It came in a 4 or 8 oz glass, which seems pretty small, but it is a vintaged version and I must say a bit smoother than the regular or Grand Cru you might get in a bottle. Have to agree with some frequent beer reviewers on Beer Advocate that it would be nice for the US to advocate bottling/production dates on beer so we could compare these types of things, especially because I've had some Rodenbach Grand Cru in the past which has been a mere one click sweeter than salad dressing!
Next was the Mikellar Green Gold. You can procure this at Hop city, but it will run you about 5.50$ a 12oz. And it will be totally worth it. It was served in a beautiful tulip glass and was honey colored with a dense, high tan head. The smell was floral and fruity and the hops were quite evident. This IPA is extremely well balanced; it is supposedly made in the style of an "american ipa" but it is super hoppy without being overpowering and tasty from the first to the finish. Try it.
Last was an out on a limb beer for me, the Kasteel Cuvee Du Chateau. Listed as a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, it is not exactly in my wheelhouse, but the Porter's description listed it as fruity and complex. It was MUCH lighter than expected, despite the dark color, and had a tremendous cherry presence and very disguised alcohols. It was served in a chalice which gave it a large surface area for aeration.
Somewhere in there I think I had a taste of someone's WakeNBake and Stone Cali-Belgique - nothing disappointed.
After The Porter we moved onto:
3. The Brick Store - Looking for Bitches Brew, but none on the main menu. I had to settle for Stone Vertical Epic 101010; Very nice balance, and I was able to take my time with this one, but in between that and the Dogfish Head Squall we spotted in a 750ml in the cooler, we had nice spinach, chick pea and potato soup, with the most incredible pierogies on the side....I always consider The Porter the winner in a food war with Brick Store, but that soup was an unexpected surprise...
The Squall was even better than we'd expected: it is basically a bottle conditioned 90 minute ale, and the smoother for it. That's all I can really say. 90 minute WAS my favorite beer, and this is my favorite incantation of it so far. Good luck finding it if you are in the ATL.....
4. Home and a standard Brooklyn Chocolate Stout from the stash. Spouse hit the Oban, and that was OK by me. We checked out the movie "Up in the Air". Don't watch many movies, but I'm so glad we picked this one. Great acting, great story, great message, script and execution....wow. Love to see it when Hollywood exectues well. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.
Anywhoo, overall, a great day.
Talk atcha later: tomorro is an NFL day, so a good day to report on Local ATL beer offerings!! Stay tuned.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Friday, May 07, 2010
Flat Creek Lodge
Just got back from Flat Creek Lodge in Swainsboro, GA earlier this week. I always have a magical time there (I don't throw around adjectives like that lightly) and this year was no exception.
I brought back some cheese with me, but not as much as I'd like: Flat Creek, you need to make more available to us on site!
Anywho, tonight is wine and cheese night featuring only Flat Creek Cheeses. Tonight we're having Drunken Deer, Low Country Gouda, and Uneenodae (this one I had to get at Alon's).
I hadn't planned to have Italian wine, but that's what the spouse wanted, so we're also having an amazing new-ish supertuscan called Brancaia. This wine was ranked number 10 in the Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2009. I've tried this in a previous vintage and was unimpressed, but this 2007 is truly super at a super price. Strong fruit that holds up to food without being overly tannic. In fact, it's a bit much for these cheeses. Next time I'll pair it with some pecorino and maybe a robiola. Thanks to our friends for giving us a bottle to try out!
The Drunken Deer is beer cheese with chunks of smoked deer jerkey that was washed in some home brewed beer throughout it's aging. This I like. It is just as good as I remembered, but still smoky and probably better suited for beer drinking. It tastes like a mild cheddar and is semi soft. Very nice smoke flavor, without being overwhelming. Luckily, I bought almost a pound of it, so I will be able to try it with some porter or IPA next time.
The Uneenodae wasn't something that I was able to get at the Lodge, but I've bought it from Alon's before. It is really tasty. Mild, but with quite a bit of flavor. Somewhere between semi soft and hard, with those little calcified chunks in it which are the sign of a spectacular cheese (in my book anyway.) This cheese is 50% sheep and 50% cow milk, and is the first Flat Creek cheese I've had with sheep's milk since they took on the flocks. (Lacaune-East Friesian mix sheep, in case you are interested.) If I were the cheese producer, I would consider this one of my masterpieces...and it's produced somewhat locally. These sheep's milk cheeses are only produced in limited quantities because of the lower yield of milk in these smaller animals. Flat Creek also recently lost their main cheesemonger, which worries me that we won't see such strong sheep's cheeses for a while, but I'm hoping if I get on their list the new cheesemonger will start producing great cheeses soon (and I will get some!!)
Kudos as always to Alon's for their fresh baguette, awesome marinated anchovies and olive tapenade. We also added a favorite of mine, olive and almond paste, along with some grilled artichokes, peppardew and topped it all off with some olives and greek salad.
Pictures to follow....a nice low-key night. Thanks Flat Creek Dairy! Can't wait to be able to bring home some of your award winning Blue Farmhouse, Cypress Cheddar. Also looking locally for Aztec Cheddar, Smoked pepper and Cilantro Leiden cheeses!
I brought back some cheese with me, but not as much as I'd like: Flat Creek, you need to make more available to us on site!
Anywho, tonight is wine and cheese night featuring only Flat Creek Cheeses. Tonight we're having Drunken Deer, Low Country Gouda, and Uneenodae (this one I had to get at Alon's).
I hadn't planned to have Italian wine, but that's what the spouse wanted, so we're also having an amazing new-ish supertuscan called Brancaia. This wine was ranked number 10 in the Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2009. I've tried this in a previous vintage and was unimpressed, but this 2007 is truly super at a super price. Strong fruit that holds up to food without being overly tannic. In fact, it's a bit much for these cheeses. Next time I'll pair it with some pecorino and maybe a robiola. Thanks to our friends for giving us a bottle to try out!
Back to the cheese!
The Low Country Gouda isn't as strong as I remembered - especially when paired with the wine - but it's still tasty.The Drunken Deer is beer cheese with chunks of smoked deer jerkey that was washed in some home brewed beer throughout it's aging. This I like. It is just as good as I remembered, but still smoky and probably better suited for beer drinking. It tastes like a mild cheddar and is semi soft. Very nice smoke flavor, without being overwhelming. Luckily, I bought almost a pound of it, so I will be able to try it with some porter or IPA next time.
The Uneenodae wasn't something that I was able to get at the Lodge, but I've bought it from Alon's before. It is really tasty. Mild, but with quite a bit of flavor. Somewhere between semi soft and hard, with those little calcified chunks in it which are the sign of a spectacular cheese (in my book anyway.) This cheese is 50% sheep and 50% cow milk, and is the first Flat Creek cheese I've had with sheep's milk since they took on the flocks. (Lacaune-East Friesian mix sheep, in case you are interested.) If I were the cheese producer, I would consider this one of my masterpieces...and it's produced somewhat locally. These sheep's milk cheeses are only produced in limited quantities because of the lower yield of milk in these smaller animals. Flat Creek also recently lost their main cheesemonger, which worries me that we won't see such strong sheep's cheeses for a while, but I'm hoping if I get on their list the new cheesemonger will start producing great cheeses soon (and I will get some!!)
Kudos as always to Alon's for their fresh baguette, awesome marinated anchovies and olive tapenade. We also added a favorite of mine, olive and almond paste, along with some grilled artichokes, peppardew and topped it all off with some olives and greek salad.
Pictures to follow....a nice low-key night. Thanks Flat Creek Dairy! Can't wait to be able to bring home some of your award winning Blue Farmhouse, Cypress Cheddar. Also looking locally for Aztec Cheddar, Smoked pepper and Cilantro Leiden cheeses!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
March Madness!
It’s been a great March so far – some great weather in amidst the bad, some awesome Cinderalla stories in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, and also some great opportunities to taste some new beer and scotch.
Macallan Tasting
A couple of weeks ago, Macallan held their marketing roadshow here in Atlanta. I get pretty excited for these even though they are marketing focused, because I’ve had a tough time finding non-marketing Scotch whisky tastings since I moved here. It was a well done event – not as intimate, warm & fuzzy as the last time they came around, but still pretty good and represented “The Macallan” well.
The event was held in one of the beautifully restored Biltmore ballrooms. They jazzed it up a bit with pop music (like black eyed peas), lots of monitors showing media presentations with maps and factoids, tricks with ice cubes, and a rep/speaker with a headset and jazzy presentation reminiscent of a motivational seminar. Seems that they are targeting a ‘broader market’ and by that I mean younger and more urban. I can’t wait to see how that pans out for them – I’d love Scotch to appeal to a broader market. What I didn’t love was the guy telling me all about his golf game at St. Andrews and the subsequent touring around Scotland in his rental Bentley. Who cares- we’re here for free scotch buddy! Thankfully, the whole event was only about an hour and a half long.
Anyway, despite the hype, the Scotch offerings were great. Here’s what they had:
10 year Fine Oak
12 year (sherry oak)
15 year Fine Oak
17 year Fine Oak
18 year (sherry oak)
They were all quite good, and I had never realized they were marketing a 17 year, but I did discover that I by far like the traditional sherry oaked variety better than the Fine Oak or American Oak or whatever they’re calling it these days. It seems much more complex to me and sort of warmer with less “bite”. This is a bit of a generalization (since I can’t find my notes from the event), but that’s my summary. For my money, I’m going to stick with the 12 year. It is well worth the money and this free event has helped me prove that it’s my favorite (besides the 18, but at ~$150 that’s a bit out of my budget for regular purchasing.) The 12 year remains about $40 and may not have the 95 rating by wine enthusiast, but it’s in the low 90s and I happen to love it.
In case you don’t understand the “Oak” distinction, The Macallan is traditionally matured in sherry casks made of European Oak which are pretty expensive to make. They are hand selected and only come from Jerez, Spain. The rep threw out the $ amount of the cost of one of these casks but I can’t remember what it was, but it seemed like a lot. Conversely the fine oak line is matured in a combination of European & America Oak casks which previously held sherry and American Oak casks which previously held bourbon and are purported to be lighter and fruitier with more citrus and vanilla tones. These are evidently cheaper to procure, but they give the scotch it’s own distinct flavor which is very different from the traditionally produced variety.
Other bottles Macallan was marketing but not offering in the free tasting:
Fine Oak - 21 & 30 year
“Traditional” Sherry Oak – 25 & 30 year
Prices are all over the place for these 30 years – if you can find them. Looks like there is not much hope of procuring a 30 year Fine Oak for much under $400 or a 30 year Sherry Oak for under $900. If you’re in the market, good luck, and send me a dram!
Sweetwater “Brew your cask off” Charity event
The Sweetwater brewery continued heir “good guy” role by facilitating and hosting a really cool charity event on March 20th. Here is what they did:
1)Sweetwater came up with a set of base beers
2) They invited all their distributors (bars, restaurants, liquor stores), charitable organizations they were raising money for (4, but only one would “win” via an attendee vote ) along with a few local celebs and various other volunteerees to participate – these were the entrants
3) They held a pre-event event in which each entrant was tasked with to each brew a cask conditioned beer of their choice
4) Then they held a big party and charged a fee for entry where there would be voting on the best cask by a panel of judges and by the attendees
Pretty cool. What was really cool was that each entrant got to add creative flavoring of their choice and come up with a creative name for their brew. I can’t remember how many there were and am too lazy to get up and find my guide (maybe I’ll edit this later) but I would say that there were about 150 different selections including the base beers.
There were beers made with chocolate, there were beers made with hot peppers, there were beers made with chocolate and hot peppers. It was true March madness. Some other ingredients which come to mind were dates, figs, vanilla, mint, tequila – you name it and someone tried to put it in their beer. I tasted beer that was like thai iced tea, beer that was like a peppermint patty, beer that was like a tootsie roll; and also a beer that I actually had to pour out it was so undrinkable. My personal fave was a saison style beer that I had early on. Can’t remember who made it, but who cares?
The vibe was pretty good. We got there early and left early, so mostly all I saw was people having a good time and things not getting ugly. Probably some drunkards hanging around after we left, but I’m glad we missed them and honestly I don’t know how you would have gotten drunk unless you were power chugging your 1oz servings. Then again, Sweetwater was supplementing with one of their own brews (try their new Dank Tank BSP Quad – quadruple style done well.) What a fun day.
You can find the winners here: http://www.brewyourcaskoff.com/
None of these were ones I tasted, except the loser (hey, there were so many, and they actually ran out of some of them!)
They donated a good portion of the profits from the entry fees to the charitable orgs, and the most to the winning one which turned out to be the Atlanta Humane Society).
Miss Know it all time:
Cask conditioned ales are generally unfiltered, unpasturized beers which are “conditioned” in their own casks only and served directly from them. This means all fermentations take place in the cask – they’re not moved to different vessels. They don’t have any pressure added to dispense them as with regular draft beers, but instead are hand pumped. You can see these at some of the good beer bars here in the ATL like the Brick Store or the Porter where they generally have at least one cask ale offering that needs to be pumped by hand. This is how it was done back in the day.
In the midst of all this we’ve been spending quite a bit of time at Taco Mac watching the real March Madness – and this year it is indeed madness - so I’m gonna get back to it and update on the Brick Store Single Hop Mikeller event later. Stay tuned….
Macallan Tasting
A couple of weeks ago, Macallan held their marketing roadshow here in Atlanta. I get pretty excited for these even though they are marketing focused, because I’ve had a tough time finding non-marketing Scotch whisky tastings since I moved here. It was a well done event – not as intimate, warm & fuzzy as the last time they came around, but still pretty good and represented “The Macallan” well.
The event was held in one of the beautifully restored Biltmore ballrooms. They jazzed it up a bit with pop music (like black eyed peas), lots of monitors showing media presentations with maps and factoids, tricks with ice cubes, and a rep/speaker with a headset and jazzy presentation reminiscent of a motivational seminar. Seems that they are targeting a ‘broader market’ and by that I mean younger and more urban. I can’t wait to see how that pans out for them – I’d love Scotch to appeal to a broader market. What I didn’t love was the guy telling me all about his golf game at St. Andrews and the subsequent touring around Scotland in his rental Bentley. Who cares- we’re here for free scotch buddy! Thankfully, the whole event was only about an hour and a half long.
Anyway, despite the hype, the Scotch offerings were great. Here’s what they had:
10 year Fine Oak
12 year (sherry oak)
15 year Fine Oak
17 year Fine Oak
18 year (sherry oak)
They were all quite good, and I had never realized they were marketing a 17 year, but I did discover that I by far like the traditional sherry oaked variety better than the Fine Oak or American Oak or whatever they’re calling it these days. It seems much more complex to me and sort of warmer with less “bite”. This is a bit of a generalization (since I can’t find my notes from the event), but that’s my summary. For my money, I’m going to stick with the 12 year. It is well worth the money and this free event has helped me prove that it’s my favorite (besides the 18, but at ~$150 that’s a bit out of my budget for regular purchasing.) The 12 year remains about $40 and may not have the 95 rating by wine enthusiast, but it’s in the low 90s and I happen to love it.
In case you don’t understand the “Oak” distinction, The Macallan is traditionally matured in sherry casks made of European Oak which are pretty expensive to make. They are hand selected and only come from Jerez, Spain. The rep threw out the $ amount of the cost of one of these casks but I can’t remember what it was, but it seemed like a lot. Conversely the fine oak line is matured in a combination of European & America Oak casks which previously held sherry and American Oak casks which previously held bourbon and are purported to be lighter and fruitier with more citrus and vanilla tones. These are evidently cheaper to procure, but they give the scotch it’s own distinct flavor which is very different from the traditionally produced variety.
Other bottles Macallan was marketing but not offering in the free tasting:
Fine Oak - 21 & 30 year
“Traditional” Sherry Oak – 25 & 30 year
Prices are all over the place for these 30 years – if you can find them. Looks like there is not much hope of procuring a 30 year Fine Oak for much under $400 or a 30 year Sherry Oak for under $900. If you’re in the market, good luck, and send me a dram!
Sweetwater “Brew your cask off” Charity event
The Sweetwater brewery continued heir “good guy” role by facilitating and hosting a really cool charity event on March 20th. Here is what they did:
1)Sweetwater came up with a set of base beers
2) They invited all their distributors (bars, restaurants, liquor stores), charitable organizations they were raising money for (4, but only one would “win” via an attendee vote ) along with a few local celebs and various other volunteerees to participate – these were the entrants
3) They held a pre-event event in which each entrant was tasked with to each brew a cask conditioned beer of their choice
4) Then they held a big party and charged a fee for entry where there would be voting on the best cask by a panel of judges and by the attendees
Pretty cool. What was really cool was that each entrant got to add creative flavoring of their choice and come up with a creative name for their brew. I can’t remember how many there were and am too lazy to get up and find my guide (maybe I’ll edit this later) but I would say that there were about 150 different selections including the base beers.
There were beers made with chocolate, there were beers made with hot peppers, there were beers made with chocolate and hot peppers. It was true March madness. Some other ingredients which come to mind were dates, figs, vanilla, mint, tequila – you name it and someone tried to put it in their beer. I tasted beer that was like thai iced tea, beer that was like a peppermint patty, beer that was like a tootsie roll; and also a beer that I actually had to pour out it was so undrinkable. My personal fave was a saison style beer that I had early on. Can’t remember who made it, but who cares?
The vibe was pretty good. We got there early and left early, so mostly all I saw was people having a good time and things not getting ugly. Probably some drunkards hanging around after we left, but I’m glad we missed them and honestly I don’t know how you would have gotten drunk unless you were power chugging your 1oz servings. Then again, Sweetwater was supplementing with one of their own brews (try their new Dank Tank BSP Quad – quadruple style done well.) What a fun day.
You can find the winners here: http://www.brewyourcaskoff.com/
None of these were ones I tasted, except the loser (hey, there were so many, and they actually ran out of some of them!)
They donated a good portion of the profits from the entry fees to the charitable orgs, and the most to the winning one which turned out to be the Atlanta Humane Society).
Miss Know it all time:
Cask conditioned ales are generally unfiltered, unpasturized beers which are “conditioned” in their own casks only and served directly from them. This means all fermentations take place in the cask – they’re not moved to different vessels. They don’t have any pressure added to dispense them as with regular draft beers, but instead are hand pumped. You can see these at some of the good beer bars here in the ATL like the Brick Store or the Porter where they generally have at least one cask ale offering that needs to be pumped by hand. This is how it was done back in the day.
In the midst of all this we’ve been spending quite a bit of time at Taco Mac watching the real March Madness – and this year it is indeed madness - so I’m gonna get back to it and update on the Brick Store Single Hop Mikeller event later. Stay tuned….
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Had to re-post this for the other cooks out there
I had been thinking about what to make for dinner and stumbled across this link on the delicious hotlist. It's 5 meals in one chicken, or how to creatively (and deliciously) make 5 meals for 2 people on 25$. Pretty cool.
http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2009/02/1-chicken-17-healthy-meals-26-bucks-no.html
http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2009/02/1-chicken-17-healthy-meals-26-bucks-no.html
Monday, February 15, 2010
Stranded in the Garden State
well, after a long weekend of getting flights cancelled and arriving a day late, we've had some fun things going on.
Saturday night we had dinner at 90 acres - great space and great food: I would recommend! http://ninetyacres.com/
Sunday night we went to see Jersey Boys on Broadway with the family and ended up having dinner at Park & Orchard in Rutherford, NJ. Excellent food and amazing wine bible, but wierd space and service.http://www.parkandorchard.com/
We got stranded today here (no planes and it's snowing AGAIN tonight), so we ventured out while the sun was shining to create some adventure. We headed to a Beer Advocate top-rated liquor store Oaktree in S. Plainfield that is a Buy rite. Check out their impressive inventory here: http://www.oaktreewines.com/InventorySearchBeer.aspx.
All I can say is I finally yelled - "We have to get out of here!" I felt like a kid in a candy store...luckily their prices were tremendous. They even kicked in some cool microbrewery pint glasses because we made such a large purchase. Unfortunately, they, along with the beer we did not get around to trying, could not be brought home with us, but I did take a chance on Delta losing my luggage and smuggled a single Dogfish head 120 minute IPA back with me. More on this once I actually get to taste it (yes, it AND my luggage survived!)
We stopped to get some tremendous pizza at Cosimo's in Westfield, NJ. Rated the best pizza in NJ by the Star-Ledger. I have to admit that it was pretty great. We got a broccoli rabe/sausage/onion pie, and it lived up to the hype. http://www.cosimosrestaurant.com/
Then we drove through a bunch of beautiful towns I've never been in before, saw lots of snow and deer and sledders, and generally had a fun day. If I get inspired, I'll embed my sledder pix in here later.
We came back with a bunch of beers to try as a group (and ordered some more pizza!) Many we've had, many are things we can't obtain in the ATL. Here is the order we tried them in:
Duchesse De Bourgogne
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Hitachino Nest White Ale
21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon
Southern Tier Raspberry Wheat
Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
Lagunitas Brown Shugga
The Bruery Dark Orchard
Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Troeg's Nugget Nectar
We left behind some Southern Tier chocolate stout, a dark rye and a few nice IPAs in 750 ml bottles. Also, our extra Nugget Nectar and 21st Amendment Watermelon. I have a sneaking suspicion none of it will make it until our next visit, but that's OK - we love to spread the beer love.
As fun as it was, I'm happy to be back in my home sweet home...it was snowing buckets today, and I thought there was no chance our plne would take off (it did.) Time to hit the gym to work off all the pizza and beer!!
Saturday night we had dinner at 90 acres - great space and great food: I would recommend! http://ninetyacres.com/
Sunday night we went to see Jersey Boys on Broadway with the family and ended up having dinner at Park & Orchard in Rutherford, NJ. Excellent food and amazing wine bible, but wierd space and service.http://www.parkandorchard.com/
We got stranded today here (no planes and it's snowing AGAIN tonight), so we ventured out while the sun was shining to create some adventure. We headed to a Beer Advocate top-rated liquor store Oaktree in S. Plainfield that is a Buy rite. Check out their impressive inventory here: http://www.oaktreewines.com/InventorySearchBeer.aspx.
All I can say is I finally yelled - "We have to get out of here!" I felt like a kid in a candy store...luckily their prices were tremendous. They even kicked in some cool microbrewery pint glasses because we made such a large purchase. Unfortunately, they, along with the beer we did not get around to trying, could not be brought home with us, but I did take a chance on Delta losing my luggage and smuggled a single Dogfish head 120 minute IPA back with me. More on this once I actually get to taste it (yes, it AND my luggage survived!)
We stopped to get some tremendous pizza at Cosimo's in Westfield, NJ. Rated the best pizza in NJ by the Star-Ledger. I have to admit that it was pretty great. We got a broccoli rabe/sausage/onion pie, and it lived up to the hype. http://www.cosimosrestaurant.com/
Then we drove through a bunch of beautiful towns I've never been in before, saw lots of snow and deer and sledders, and generally had a fun day. If I get inspired, I'll embed my sledder pix in here later.
We came back with a bunch of beers to try as a group (and ordered some more pizza!) Many we've had, many are things we can't obtain in the ATL. Here is the order we tried them in:
Duchesse De Bourgogne
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Hitachino Nest White Ale
21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon
Southern Tier Raspberry Wheat
Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
Lagunitas Brown Shugga
The Bruery Dark Orchard
Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Troeg's Nugget Nectar
We left behind some Southern Tier chocolate stout, a dark rye and a few nice IPAs in 750 ml bottles. Also, our extra Nugget Nectar and 21st Amendment Watermelon. I have a sneaking suspicion none of it will make it until our next visit, but that's OK - we love to spread the beer love.
As fun as it was, I'm happy to be back in my home sweet home...it was snowing buckets today, and I thought there was no chance our plne would take off (it did.) Time to hit the gym to work off all the pizza and beer!!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Winter Weekends full of cooking!!
Been a great weekend for cooking!
Friday
A friend came over for wine and cheese on friday - and i remembered that I really need to start logging these events. I wish I had starting taking pix of wine and cheese night 8 years ago - I would have some great photos and archives to look back on!
One of the wines we had was excellent and a gift from Mom -http://winelibrary.com/wines/32998-2005+Tir+Na+Nog+Grenache+750ML
Another was a bottle our friend brought over, Lyeth Cabernet Sauvignon...can't remember the vintage on that one.
The cheeses we had included a Talleggio, aParranno, a Boule de Perigord with black truffles.
We had some olives, steamed atrichokes (I need to work on my technique with these), and fresh roasted red peppers, along with some hot soppresatt and regular peppered salami. Pepper shooters and peppardews, too. We also had the usual array of dips, this time featuring my favorite mint and pistachio pesto and some almond olive paste.
Saturday
I also made several casseroles for a baby shower I co-hosted saturday. I made a chicken and spinach manicotti and eggplant parm. Did not make my own sauce due to time restrictions, but got rave reviews on both nonetheless!
We also made some chili for a chili cookoff at a friend's house. It came out "OK". Better luck next time, I think. We really need to work on our chili skills...
Sunday
Breakfast was a fritatta made with anaheim, poblano and red pepper surplus from the chili making yesterday. It was excellent with some added colby cheese and fresh cliantro.
Currently, I am making a lamb and eggplant stew based on a recipe I found online. So far, it smells good, but I'm not convinced it's going to come out as well as expected....well, I guess we can always fall back on leftover cheese! And if it turns out well, I will post the recipe.
I have been doing a TON of dishes today : )
Friday
A friend came over for wine and cheese on friday - and i remembered that I really need to start logging these events. I wish I had starting taking pix of wine and cheese night 8 years ago - I would have some great photos and archives to look back on!
One of the wines we had was excellent and a gift from Mom -http://winelibrary.com/wines/32998-2005+Tir+Na+Nog+Grenache+750ML
Another was a bottle our friend brought over, Lyeth Cabernet Sauvignon...can't remember the vintage on that one.
The cheeses we had included a Talleggio, aParranno, a Boule de Perigord with black truffles.
We had some olives, steamed atrichokes (I need to work on my technique with these), and fresh roasted red peppers, along with some hot soppresatt and regular peppered salami. Pepper shooters and peppardews, too. We also had the usual array of dips, this time featuring my favorite mint and pistachio pesto and some almond olive paste.
Saturday
I also made several casseroles for a baby shower I co-hosted saturday. I made a chicken and spinach manicotti and eggplant parm. Did not make my own sauce due to time restrictions, but got rave reviews on both nonetheless!
We also made some chili for a chili cookoff at a friend's house. It came out "OK". Better luck next time, I think. We really need to work on our chili skills...
Sunday
Breakfast was a fritatta made with anaheim, poblano and red pepper surplus from the chili making yesterday. It was excellent with some added colby cheese and fresh cliantro.
Currently, I am making a lamb and eggplant stew based on a recipe I found online. So far, it smells good, but I'm not convinced it's going to come out as well as expected....well, I guess we can always fall back on leftover cheese! And if it turns out well, I will post the recipe.
I have been doing a TON of dishes today : )
Monday, January 25, 2010
Quote of the Day 01/25/2010
"To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter." - Aleister Crowley
What do you think Mr. Crowley would have thought about social networking and web 2.0?
What do you think Mr. Crowley would have thought about social networking and web 2.0?
Nice AIIM Article on E records management implementation
Got this Carl Weise article via @juliecolgan RT @BethMayhew
Implementing Electronic Records Management: A lot more than software http://ow.ly/109Ez
It may be very handy for communicating our process to colleagues; sometimes users have a tough time understanding why we "can't just throw up a folder structure" and let them have at it. It's a liiiitttllle more involved than that.
Implementing Electronic Records Management: A lot more than software http://ow.ly/109Ez
It may be very handy for communicating our process to colleagues; sometimes users have a tough time understanding why we "can't just throw up a folder structure" and let them have at it. It's a liiiitttllle more involved than that.
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