odds n ends....

Flying to Berlin Germany today - so hearing about the Air France crash was not cool. My flight is horribly overbooked, but Debbie at Newark's President's Club was an angel and nabbed me an aisle seat....if I have to take one gin to a desert island, it would still be Beefeater's...anyone know a decent restaurant in Berlin??? I love mobile blogging.

Director Crush

Do you have a favorite director?  When you see that his/her films are coming out (or on TV), you make time to watch?  My director crush is Sidney Pollack.  Apart from the fact that there is a part of me that found him attractive (that cute intellectual Jewish guy look), I just LOVED his movies.  How could you not - especially if you're into man/woman relationship movies?  For example:

• The Way We Were
• Out of Africa
• Tootsie
• Bobby Deerfield
• Sabrina
• The Electric Horseman
• The Swimmer
• Absence of Malice
• Jeremiah Johnson
• They Shoot Horses Don't They?
• The Natural

He was so great....

There was an episode of the Directors about Sidney and then they showed the Natural - I just had to post.  

Who is your favorite movie director?

An Education

Tonight is one of those wonderful nights where I get to hang with my teenagers and they're not incredibly sullen.   We had a great dinner (lamb steaks in a sherry reduction, yellow rice and sautéed kale), a 2002 Rioja reserve - for me, okay???) and actual conversation.  I dropped my son off to his Spanner meeting and my daughter and I are listening to Lastfm.com - it plays songs based upon your selections - tonight we're going from Led Zeppelin to Ricki Lee Jones to Grand Funk to James Taylor to Walter Becker and Dionne Warwick- while chatting about her band.  The neighbor's kids are wandering in and out,their parents may wander over later to help me finish the Rioja.  This is the Friday night I love and crave - relaxed, chatty and fun.   I was a big 70's music fan (having grown up and come of age in the 70s) and sitting here and listening to it with my kids brings a whole new appreciation.  They ask what I was doing when these songs were popular (as overly honest as I am, I do censor a thing or two), and more importantly, where was my head when these songs were all so important.  It actually gives me a little more perspective on their likes, dislikes and challenges.  Sometimes it's a pain in the ass to parent teenagers, sometimes it reminds you why you went down this journey in the first place.  Today is most cool.

Help me!!!

I'm carbbing and I can't give up.... about once a month I go on a bread kick (translates into three slices of bread in a day when I might eat one and a handful of tortilla chips.  How do I avoid this??

An aching back, sore feet and purple hands....what a wonderful day!

Today we bottled a new Bordeaux blend at Amalthea; Europa VII, 33% Cab Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 33% Cab Franc.  This has been in the barrel since 2007 - Licorice,  plum and black cherry on the nose, it will be a powerhouse.  We bottled 130 cases - give or take.   Because we're such a small winery, everything is done by hand. Basically, we form a line, hook up the pump to a dispensing mechanism that fills 4 bottles at a time, and corking machine, (both of which have wonderful French names and writing on them, but don't ask me). The dispenser is calibrated by the bottle size.  One person hands over 4 empty bottles for hooking up on the dispenser, and as they are filled, they are handed to the person manning the corker, then over to the wipers who wipe off any excess wine and pack them in the cases.  I was a wiper today.  By the end of the tasks, my hands were purple! 

It was hot as Hades today and I was glad to be in the cellar where its always cool.  What I really liked best was being part of something that will eventually become a work of art to be enjoyed with friends over a wonderful dinner.  We took turns figuring out what this wine will eventually pair well with. 

BTW - we got a profile in the Newark Star Ledger!1  http://www.nj.com/insidejersey/index.ssf/2009/04/vintage_jersey.html

Upstairs in the tasting room, it's been so much fun to see how the current vintages are evolving.  The Merlot is just perfect, forming nice, spicy notes and a little leather and clove in the bouquet.  The Cab Franc is at the mellow stage, nice balance of spice and strawberry. The Cab Franc Reserve continues to mature into one of the best Francs I've had....tons of strawberry and rhubarb with a slight spice just starting to develop (and this one is still a baby, only two months in the bottle - just wait until next year!).  The Cab Sauvignon is all red raspberry, bright and fruit forward, but subtle.   The Europa IV - 66% Cab Franc and 34% - has turned the corner and is ripening into what will be a wonderful vintage.  

I was so beat when I got home, it was all I could do to throw together dinner, but I managed to grill steaks.  I took Cindy's suggestion at Figs, Lavender and Cheese and put a smoked paprika rub on a couple of T-bones and grilled them, serving them with brown rice and steamed green beans.  I paired it with a 2002 Llewelling Cab...perfect age, and mellow, raspberry, black cherry and tobacco......yum. 

I'm catching up on old movies on TMC - a good night :)

Lazy Friday Night...and Shrimp Mediterranean

The kids are at their father's, my brain was full from a hectic week from work, so when Friday rolled around, I knew I needed a quiet night and a little cooking to chill me out.   I poured a sherry fino (Thanks to my friend Paul for turning me back on to this wonderful stuff!) and started to make dinner.  I had seen a recipe for Baked Shrimp with Feta on Simplyrecipes.com, and knew that was what I had to have.   I opened a lovely Pinot Grigio (small Italian vineyard) and cut a slice of crusty Italian bread - it was heaven!

 

I Have NOT Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth.....(it just looks that way)

I work in a business that is a quarter by quarter race and our end of quarter was just insane.  This quarter is off with a bang, so the daily pace hasn't slowed a bit.  The winery has been super busy as well - I was in the fields stripping vines, which entails following the winemaker as he prunes the vines and pulling all of the cuttings off the wires so that they can be picked up by the tractor.  If not there, then pouring tastings, stacking glasses and preparing to bottle.  Forget about picking up a golf club, or even getting to the gym. I need a weekend to sleep and better calendar management ;-)

More when I have time...I have LOTS of recipes to share...