In honor of our new book club, this edition of Let’s Get Boozy will be focused on the favorite drinks of some of my favorite literary figures.
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Walnut City Wineworks 2006 Viognier
Columbia Valley
Retail price: About $15
Some foolish people resolve each January to drink a little less wine. Pure arglebargle. How about resolving to trying some new wines and get out of your wine rut? Break free of your go-to Chards and Cabs and try an uncommon varietal.
Enter Walnut City Wineworks’ Viognier. This 100% Viognier wine is produced in Columbia Valley. The Walnut City guys are best known for their fabulous Pinot Noirs but don’t let that make you shy away from this delicious wine.
The Skinny:
When you take your first sip of this pretty straw colored wine you will be hit gobsmacked with aromas of wildflowers, granny smith apples and peaches. So heady are these aromas, you will swear that you are about to drink a sweet wine, but not so. This is a complex tasting wine and much like When Harry Met
Sally, you will notice more and more details as you revisit it. You will certainly be imitating Meg Ryan’s “Yes! Yes!” after drinking this treat. There are sweet hints of pineapple, apricot and along with ginger and coconut. Absolutely no oak in this baby. I drank this straight from my wine storage unit, so it was about 55-58 degrees. I wouldn’t serve it any colder or you will miss the richness and variety of the flavors.
Viogniers can be a bit oily on the mouth – they are the bluefish of wines — but this baby is full, soft, velvety and has a tiny bit of crispness in the finish. The alcohol level is a comforting 14.63%. Perfect after a rather trying parenting day, but drink it only after you are done carpooling. Walnut City Wineworks makes their wines with sustainable farming methods. So you can feel confident that drinking this wine is actually helping Mother Earth.
Crib Notes:
– Just so you don’t sound like a philistine at the wine shop, Viognier is pronounced vee-ohn-YAY. (To listen to a sexy Frenchman say it click here)
– Viognier is often blended with other white wines, like Chardonnay, to give those wines a softness they lack.
– Columbia Valley is the largest AVA (American Viticultural Area) in Washington state. It has a unique climate which produces wines which are fruit forward, yet they retain the balance known from European wines.
– Viogniers are great with spicy foods like Thai as the fruit forward and highly aromatic characteristics complement the heat of these foods. Perfect take-out food wine.
Hi Everybody!
Well, let’s see. It’s been a while since we talked. How were your New Years Eve celebrations? Codename:Stabby had a migraine and went to bed early, but I hung out with my nephews and niece and Stabby’s Sister. We stayed up late and I ate lots of junk food, so it was great. And I destroyed my Christmas present chew toy, so that was super fun. Also, it wasn’t raining.
I had two great sunny rompies also. I met a new friend, name of Mr. Crow. He was hanging out on the upper football field and I ran over to say hi. He said hi back and flew around and I chased him for a while. We had fun. Then he flew to the baseball field and sat up high on the fence and I barked at him and he said bye and flew home.
Yesterday it rained again and it’s raining today too. I rompied in the rain and mud on the football field. There are some BIG puddles up there, which are great to slip and slide in. Oh! There was a truck parked on the other side of the fence, so I stood watch over it and while I was there a van pulled up! It was so exciting! People got out and bustled around and I supervised them. They said hi to me and smiled. Then they got in their cars and drove away.
Here I am now. How great is my bed? I love flannel so much. Anyway, I get the feeling that there might not be a rompie today. It’s pouring so hard that when I went out to pee I turned around and came right back in, so…
This was part of an article in (I think) Southern Living from about 15 years ago. Submitted by Phyllis Vanhoy of Salisbury, NC. I’ve put my personal notes and tips in italics. It’s a freaking amazing cake!
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
2 C sugar
¾ C vegetable oil
¾ C buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
2 C grated carrot
1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 (3 ½) oz. can flaked coconut (I buy a bag and weigh it out)
1 C chopped walnuts or pecans (I use pecans)
Buttermilk Glaze
Cream Cheese Frosting
Line three 9-inch round cakepans with wax paper; lightly grease and flour wax paper. Set pans aside. You can use parchment paper as well and in fact you may find that it sticks less.
Stir together first four ingredients. Set aside.
Beat eggs and next four ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
Add flour mixture, beating at slow speed until blended. Fold in carrots, and next three ingredients. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.
Bake at 350 F for 25 – 30 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean.
Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze evenly over the layers; let cool in pans on wire racks 45 minutes.
Do not, DO NOT turn them out of the pans before you’re ready to assemble each layer of the cake. The cake is really moist and will come apart if you take it out of the pans before you’re ready to frost each layer.
Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between the layers and on top and sides of cake.
Yield: One 3-layer cake
Buttermilk Glaze
- 1 C sugar
- ½ c buttermilk
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ C butter or margarine
- 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Yield: 1 ½ cups
First of all, this foams quite a bit so don’t be alarmed, and be sure to use a pan big enough. A dutch oven is great, but any deep, heavy-bottomed pan should be fine. Also, I generally cook mine until it’s a lovely deep caramel color, which may take you longer than 4 minutes. Do stir frequently or it will burn.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3/4 C butter or margarine
- 1 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, softene
- d1 3-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
- 3 C sifted powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixture until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.
Yield: 4 Cups
A few additional notes from my years of making this cake:
I double the recipe for the frosting. It doubles just fine and who doesn’t like a little extra when everything is said and done? I don’t double the glaze.
I like to top the frosted cake with sliced almonds that I’ve toasted in the oven just a tad too long. Alternatively, I top with toasted coconut.
I have made this as a sheet cake as well, just keep an eye on it in the oven. If you do that, you won’t need to double the frosting, but you lose the layered effect, which is ridiculously delish. This past Thanksgiving, I made a double sheet cake since we were expecting 30 people. I had to double the glaze, and I quadrupled the frosting, but I could have gotten away with tripling it.
Also, regarding the layers—I usually insert 3 wooden skewers into the cake once the layers are assembled, before frosting the outside of the cake. It helps keep it from ending up looking like the leaning tower of Pisa.
I hope you guys enjoy this as much as my family/friends and I do!
ETA: One thing I forgot to mention is that you can make the glaze and use it to top any number of other cakes or breads. It’s especially delicious on bread pudding!
Remember when I posted about the Wake Mate alarm clock system?
Well, it was recalled because of the explosive nature of its USB charger.
Well, it is that time of year again. Even those of us who don’t regularly indulge usually toss a couple back, and for those of us who do it can often end like this:
No matter how good our intentions, New Year’s Eve is an invitation to taunt the liquor gods, and that means paying the price the next day. In the spirit of kindness, I am posting my time honored method of easing the hangover pain so that the first day of your new year won’t be utterly painful.
I know that there are many so called “natural” and vitamin remedies that are supposed to help a hangover, but they are all bullshit. Hippies don’t know shit about drinking, put down the crystal and let a professional help you.
Get all of this stuff together tonight. Once you are in the throes of a hangover you won’t want to leave the house and you probably shouldn’t because you will look like shit anyway.
For this method you will need the following:
36 oz. of water
2 anti-inflammatory tablets of your choice (I like Alleve).
2 pieces of bread
2 grams of decent weed
One comfy pillow and blanket
A cable TV hookup or a Netflix account
Phone number to a good pizza place or really good leftovers that are easy to reheat
2 cans of Coca-Cola (absolutely no substitutions on this)
The Night Before
It goes without saying that you can avoid this by not drinking excessively in the first place, but that is for little 
girls and it is a long time until the MLK weekend, so fuck it. I can also tell you to stick to one type of liquor, but you inevitably will mix bourbon with champagne and will end up doing a shot of absinthe that someone brought back from a holiday in Europe. Again, fuck it. You should drink some water before you go to bed, but if given the chance to get some nasty from whomever you wind up with, skip the water and go for the sweet loving. Rest easy knowing that you will survive the consequences of your foolish behavior. Again …
The Day of Battle
Step #1: Try not to sleep more than a couple hours later than your usually waking time because that makes your body confused and you’ve already pissed it off enough. If you are sleep deprived you can nap later.
Step #2: Shower, or at least wash your face. You smell awful.
Step #3: Drink one of the Cokes. It should be ice cold. Drink it slow.
Step #4: After 15 minutes, toast the bread and eat it (use butter if your stomach isn’t too upset). Drink 12 oz. of water with it.
Step #5: Wait about 20 minutes. Smoke some weed. If you smoke cigarettes you should have one at this point. I know, I know, you are going to quit, but today is not the day. Leave that shit for next week.
Step #6: Now is the time to take a tylenol or whatever. Your stomach will appreciate that you waited.
Step #7: Watch a couple of hours of TV while snuggled in your blankey on the couch. I recommend Law and Order, Futurama, the Twilight Zone, or Star Trek. All of these will probably be on marathons tomorrow or you can get them on Netflix. Avoid porn, horror movies (this is not the time to finally see Hostel), anything really sad (alcohol is a depressant). If you must watch sports you are going to have to choke down a couple of cans of mid-priced domestic beer to make watching your favorite team blow another great season possible.
Step #8: Take a nice nap. Try to keep it under an hour so you won’t fuck up your sleep schedule and turn into a vampire.
Step #9: Take the second anti-inflammatory with 12 more oz. of water. Return to the couch for more movies (maybe there is something good on Lifetime).
Step #10: Drink the last Coke and smoke some more weed. At this point you should be ok to eat some real food. Try cheese pizza, chicken soup, or pasta with a red sauce. Avoid carbonara, salad, Indian food, anything too spicy. Don’t make your stomach even angrier.
Step #11: Return to the couch and slowly drink 12 more oz. of water. See what Benson and Stabler are up to. Check in on CT and make fun of everyone else for a having a hangover.
Step #12: By this point you should be able to go on with your day, but if you can stay on the couch do it. Avoid phone calls from family, annoying internet arguments, or anything else unpleasant. This is the first day of the New Year, you have 364 more days to be irritated.
Step #13: Profit! You win at drinking. Now don’t do that again!!!
Have a wonderful New Year!
If you’re looking for some simple cocktails to make this New Year’s you’ve found the right place. With four ingredients or less these classic cocktails are quick to make, and easy to cater to personal tastes. Perfect for when you’re serving a crowd. Fair warning, while these drinks may seem easier to assemble than more complicated cocktails, they can actually be much harder to master. Everyone knows what they should taste like, and you have high expectations to live up to when serving them. So before starting to assemble your drinks make sure you have the appropriate hardware, and high-quality ingredients. So go make some ice, grab you cocktail shaker, THROW AWAY those pre-made mixes, and join me for this classic edition of Let’s Get Boozy. Continue reading
I understand that there are some animals that actually like to be outside in the elements. Cats are so much smarter than that. I am Sophia, a connoisseur of comfort.
Today I had Maggie wake up Mummy by purring in her face while I relaxed on the big chair. Maggie thinks she’s the boss of this house, but she isn’t. I allow her to do the dirty work because it makes her feel useful. After gushy noms and crunchies were passed out under my strict supervision (seriously, I love my Mummy, but she is forgetful about the crunchies sometimes and I have to remind her) I settled down on the cozy blankets on the sofa. I slept there for a while and then got up for some leftover gushies. Then I settled into the big side chair for a long afternoon nap. Mummy keeps a lot of cozy blankets around to snuggle in. She’s a useful creature, this human. In some regards.
Why on Earth would any animal in their right mind want to leave the couch?
“Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!”
Dom Perignon during the moment he discovered champagne
What is a better drink than bubbly for this time of year? Champagne, almost by definition, means celebration. Given the events of 2010, who isn’t going to celebrate that this year is over on New Year’s Eve? I know I am certainly going to raise a glass (or bottle) to toast to the demise of this past year.
So let’s talk turkey about champagne. First of all, champagne is only produced in the Champagne region of France. If bubbly is made anywhere else, it is generally referred to as sparkling wine. The primary grapes used in making bubbly are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Neunier – prosecco is a bit different as the Italian grape of the same name is the key grape. Champagne became famous in France out of necessity. The Champagne region was too north for grapes to fully ripen for red wine – producing wine that was very low in sugar and high in acidity. The wines were much lighter bodied and ‘thinner’ than those from their neighbors in Burgundy. In other words, the grapes and the weather are perfect for making dry, crisp champagne.
It is a myth that Dom Perignon created champagne. Say what you will about the Roman Catholics today, but Benedictine monks near Carassonne can take full credit for creating this delicious libation as far back as 1531. Dom Perignon did make some significant improvement to the production of champagne – most notably the characteristic metal wire cage or collar which holds the cork in the bottle during the fermentation process.
There are several ways of producing champagne or sparkling wine. I’m not going
to go into great detail here, but just to give you the basics. Grapes are harvested and pressed just like any other wine. Bubbly is fermented twice. The first fermentation produces a wine that is pretty acidic, so yeast and sugar are added for the second fermentation. True champagne is fermented a second time in the bottle, historically cork-side down in a device called a riddling rack. Prosecco and other sparklings often have their second fermentation in steel tanks which makes it far less expensive to produce.
Bubbly Terms 101:
Here are some terms to help decipher bubbly labels.
Prestige Cuvee: Usually the producer’s top range and generally the most expensive of the offerings.
Blanc de Noirs: A white wine that is produced from black grapes (grapes that make red wine).
Blanc de Blancs: Bubbly that is produced solely with Chardonnay grapes
Rose: Bubbly made by allowing the skin of the black grapes to sit with the wine for a bit, giving it a pinkish hue. Occasionally, it also refers to bubbly that has a small bit of red wine added.
NV: Non vintage, which means that it is from a mix of grapes grown from different years.
Bubbly can have varying degrees of sweetness and here is the order from driest to sweetest: Brute Natural, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Sec/Dry, Sec, Demi-sec, Doux.
I’m a big proponent of drinking wine in the proper glass. I’m not so nuts that each
varietal needs to have its own custom glass, but champagne really should be put in a glass for champagne. Use a white wine glass in a pinch, but I prefer champagne flutes. The ideal flutes are tall, narrow and taper at the top to concentrate the bubbles. The champagne glass, falsely attributed to the shape of Marie Antoinette’s breasts, isn’t ideal because the bubbly gets warm and flat too quickly. Same goes with flutes that do not taper in at the top.
Before I give you my recommendations, I have to let you know what my preferences are when it comes to sparkling, just to be up front. I don’t like Demi-sec and abhor Doux. Momof3 will never, ever, pop for a bubbly like Cristal – it is just too damn expensive. So with that in mind, here goes.
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Retail price: $17 Tribaut Brut
Rated 90 by Wine Spectator, this is a fine champagne and a good bang for the buck. Lots of citrus, apple with a bit of a yeasty flavor (that is good, btw). Nice and dry, the way I like it. Nice, long finish. Good with food. |
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Retail: $25. Piper-Heidsieck.
I love this wine! The bubbles are very refined and creamy. It is dry without being too crisp. Notes of apple and bit of berry. Medium body with a nice length finish. Rated 89 by Wine Spectator and in my humble opinion, this is under rated. |
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Retail $10. Gran Sarao Brut Cava Penedes
Ok, I didn’t talk about Cavas, but this is a damn good sparkler at this price point. Notes of apricot, tart granny smith apples, bread dough (the yeast flavor) and tiny, tiny bubbles make this a standout. Nice floral note and a long finish.
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Retail: $11 Clara C Prosecco.
I’m generally not a huge fan of prosecco because it has a bit of an aftertaste I don’t care for, but this is a gem. Big floral nose, mostly rose and wildflowers. The body is round and full with notes of apple and peach. The finish is crisp without being too dry. This is good as an aperitif or with a meal. YUM. Clara C’s Rosato is also very fine rose prosecco. |
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Retail $10-12. Cupcake Prosecco
If you are looking for something to toast with but aren’t looking to drink a lot of, then this is your bottle. The bubbles are very fine with notes of lemons and a lot of grapefruit (a little too much grapefruit for my taste). A bit of toastiness in the finish. It isn’t my favorite, but it is readily available in most markets and it will do a fine job if all you want is something to pop at midnight. |
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Retail: $20 Chandon Sparkling Wine Etoile Brut.
90 points by the Wine Enthusiast. Very dry but a silky drinking wine. Subtle notes of cherries and other red berries, peach and touch of vanilla. No apple here! |
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Retail is north of $100. Perrier Jouet Flowers
Yes, I know I said I’m not into expensive bubbly. This is truly an exception to that rule if it is a special occasion or an expense account situation. Rated consistently north of 90 points, this wine is such a treat. Known for a very rose-based nose (thus the flowers), this wine is creamy with vanilla and a little apple comes through in the finish. A delight to drink. I was proposed to while sipping on this wine at the Hotel Chevre-D’or in Eze France overlooking the Mediterranean. It was perfect for the moment and probably colors my appreciation for this wine. |
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Retail $10. Freixenet Brut de Noirs.
I wanted to end on an inexpensive note. This is the only Freixenet you should by, IMHO. Very light Cava wine and the salmon color is gorgeous. Spicy with notes of flowers and sour cherries. The finish is a bit creamy with a touch of vanilla. Again, this is a festive wine for toasting, but not for a lot of drinking. |
Let’s talk about the ones you want to avoid now. Unless you are a high school kid, please avoid any sparkling with the following words: Andre, Duck, and Boone’s Farm.
Champagne is the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it.
– Madame De Pompadour
Stay beautiful this New Year’s Eve! Salut!
Hi haters!! Well, it seems that Codename:Stabby got some hate mail because I called you Crasstalkers “dicks”. You Crasstalkers have some thin skin for such a tough name and that’s all I have to say on that issue.
Anyway, we didn’t go rompies today because it is raining. AGAIN. But, we did go rompies yesterday and it was AWESOME!! We went to our regular place but we took a different trail before the one that goes up the mountain, which is the one we usually take. So this new trail is flat and goes along the river. It. Was. Great! I got off the leash for four miles! Codename:Stabby did her intervals and we had a great time. Also, it was sunny and warm. No pics though because we left the phone at home. Then we got groceries and went to the post office and went home. I had tuna juice on my food for dinner and then I slept. It was a great day.
It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow, which I am not at all happy about. I think I’ll probably get a rompie on the upper football field at the high school again. That seems to be our rainy day routine.