Lilac Wine Is Sweet and Heady, Like My Love

(Make up for Monday, June 20)

Christopher and I went to a wine dinner at Legal Seafood Monday night, and it was absolutely lovely. Wines from Alsace, perfect seafood pairings, lovely company. Only slightly weird, as in, as I was listening to a conversation and twirling a strand of my hair, the gentleman next to me picked it up and began to twirl it as well. And then I got a phone number from the young married woman sitting across from us; she wants to grab a glass of wine with me at the Met Bar. Oh, and she and her husband want to double with Christopher and I, but REALLY, she wants to have a drink with me. Too funny...

Lots of joy in life these days. Even weird joy. It's all good.

Lilac Wine - Jeff Buckley

MP3 File

Red Red Wine

And not the UB40 version. The song is The Replacements. The reason is I'm off to a wine tasting fundraiser with some great girlfriends.

Red, Red, Wine - The Replacements

(Tinysong is awesome when you can't get an mp3).

Off to find something Spanish. Or Argentinan.

Things I Love Today

Things I love today...

This article about drinking wine. I love this article with all of my heart and soul. I spent too long dealing with one of the most ferocious wine snobs in the history of the free world, and know what all of these gadgets are (MY broken table top Rabbit sits unused on my bar; I've returned to the standard corkscrew), to the point that when I broke up with him, I actually stopped drinking/talking about wine. And I missed it. I actually know quite a bit about wine, granted, from hanging out with him so long (credit where credit is due). But not everyone wants a bottle analysis. Sometimes, they just want a nice glass of red that will go with dinner. And I can help with that, better than you think. So, every word of this article makes me happy. Read it. Save it. Live it. Drink it.

The posts at my other home. I was prolific this week, and the throwdown will be a riot, I'm sure. Once the dearly beloved PIC gets his up. I'll leave that line as is... ;)

Hot and Tangy almonds from Trader Joe's. Yum. Addictive.

The fact that I'm about to have Ozzy and an article about wine drinking in the same post. But, here we go--this song.

Happy Friday, kids!!

You Can't Kill Rock and Roll - Ozzy Osbourne

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Bastille Day

Vive la France, or at least Vive le French rose I'm drinking right now, with my garlicky chicken something or other I threw together.

Appelation Corbieres Controlee, Domaine de Fontsainte, Gris de Gris. Essentially a BONE DRY rose, just the way I like it, ice cold. Kermit Lynch importer. Yes, this Kermit Lynch.

I haven't done the wine geek thing in a while, but I went to BinEnds, and scored this, plus a really amazing looking bottle of Hermitage for a present. Happy goodness.

Bullwinkle for Dinner

No, seriously. Saturday night, I cooked moose for the first time. I have cooked venison in the past, in fact, I used this recipe, modified to make a roast. However, since I had the proper cut of meat, I decided to make the stew for my father and my friends from Australia. There's something romantic about cooking food you know the exact origin of, and the path it took to your table. The moose I prepared was killed by my father this past fall, and I was anxious to try some. And, since his moose was over 675 pounds, he had plenty of meat to spare.

I made some adjustments to the recipe, mainly in the mushrooms and the seasoning. I couldn't find dried porcini mushrooms, so I chopped up crimini mushrooms, and added extra stock to make up for the mushroom liquid. I also substituted herbes de provence for the cloves and the rosemary sprig (I used 2 teaspons of dried herbes de provence rather than the 2 cloves and the fresh rosemary), and instead of 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, I used the whole small can. These minor tweaks enhanced the flavor and made a beautiful rich, red sauce, very French in feel, and paired with a lovely Cotes du Rhone wine, was an excellent food wine combination. Here are some pictures of the fun:
Moose in process of cooking. Notice the bay leaf. Moose has a very mild flavor, similar to beef, and an almost sweet aroma when cooking. I could have sworn I smelled vanilla.
Finished dish on the table. Very savory and French, as noted. A Chateneuf de Pape would have also gone nicely with this dish.

All in all, a successful evening. I would definitely eat this again. For those of you adventurous foodies out there, try it, using the tweaks I described. You won't be disappointed.