08 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted in Music, The Basics
Coffee, laundry, quiet this is what I am doing this morning. Looking forward to catching up with Mudpie tonight over a bottle of wine. Wonder what we will chose. Tune in.
For now I leave you with this picture I took while riding back from Virginia after Christmas. And a song off Wilco’s new album Whole Love: One Sunday Morning. It is a gorgeous song but on the depressing side. I promise I am not depressed but rather I am winterized. 
Enjoy your Sunday!
07 Saturday Jan 2012
Posted in The Basics
Tags
Last Fall I took Mr. Trap home to Virginia to celebrate my Father’s 60th birthday and to meet the family. We celebrated with many types of liquor. The next day we were not our freshest. We were dragging slightly. We went to visit with my grandparents. Papa (my grandfather) is quite the character. My sister described his accent as almost Cajun. It is sing-songy, muddled, and fast. Mr. Trap had a hard time adjusting and understanding what he was saying. At one point he asked if Mr. Trap wanted something to drink. And he responded by saying no and moonshine was rough. Papa answered “I don’t have any moonshine, all I’ve got is that gov’t liquor.” I thought nothing of this but Mr. Trap couldn’t believe that is how he described store bought liquor. In Virginia the state government runs the ABC stores that sell liquor. Papa has many stories from his youth of running from the “federal men” while trying to sell his shine. Our neighboring county is the birthplace of hooch!
Fast forward to Christmas. Daddy thought it would be fun to give Mr. Trap his very own bottle of government liquor. Enter the Virginia Lightening. Corn whiskey that is 100 proof and approved by the government. It is meant to resemble white lightening aka moonshine.
Word is still out if Mr. Trap will like it! Thanks Daddy… I think.
06 Friday Jan 2012
Posted in Red Wine, The Basics, The Wine Rack
Mr. Trap and I spent the end of 2011 having a lovely dinner at this blog’s favorite restaurant Hungry Mother. I hadn’t been there in over a year! How did that happen? Time really is flying by. We have written about the restaurant several times like here for example. I wish they would just go ahead and sponsor this blog already. At least feed us once a season. That is fair right. No? Fine. We will still keep going.
Mr. Trap being the kind gentleman that he is let me pick the wine. I narrowed it down to two choices: big California or Italian without giving him any details. He chose Italian! I am glad he did because this wine went with every single one of our food choices. We ordered a bottle of Gran Sasso 2009 Montepuliciano de Abruzzo. This wine was bright and juicy. Medium bodied with light tannins. Just a joy in the mouth by being big enough to entertain your mouth alone and pairing well enough with all the food to let the food shine without the wine getting in the way.
What did we order? (What didn’t we order is an easier question.)
In our defense they serve very reasonable portion sizes. However, this was a huge splurge and our reward for Christmas and the New Year.
What did you do for your New Year’s celebration?
05 Thursday Jan 2012
Posted in The Wine Rack
Tags
Oporto Portugal, port, red port, tawny port, Taylor 20 Year Tawny Port, vintage port, white port
It was 12 degrees yesterday morning. The “feel temp” was like zero or subarctic. I don’t care really since it isn’t snowing. That is my favorite weather forecast. All I would need to do is turn on the weather channel and they would say “hey there, no frozen water from the sky today” and I am a happy girl. But it is cold. I am not complaining and I am just saying this to say that I shouldn’t be finding more ways to walk around in the cold chills that come off of that Charles “Windy” River. However, my work buddy was all about a Port tasting downtown. Ugh. I have to go. I love Port. Port will keep me warm. So off I went.
What I learned:
Among the other ports I tasted:
Ramos Pinto Collector
2005 Taylor LBV
2005 Ramos Pinto LBV
Fonseca 10 Year Tawny Port
Ramos Pinto 20 Year Tawny Bom Retiro
Do you love Port? What Port should I try next?
29 Thursday Sep 2011
Posted in Music, Recipes, Red Wine, The Basics, The Wine Rack
Tags
Chicken Soup, Colin Nissan, decorative gourd season, Geyserville Zinfandel, Huntington Petite Sirah, moonshine, Santarpio's, vino voyage, Virginia, Wilco
I am not having a great week. Boo to the cold inside my head. I was starting to feel sorry for myself when I remembered the incredible week I had last week. (See also why I haven’t posted in two weeks).
Last week started in Virginia celebrating my Father’s 60th birthday! Happy Birthday Daddy! We had a great time drinking scotch, smoking cigars, and eating steak. Basically sounds like we were trying to outsmart death.
60th Cigar and Scotch
15 Thursday Sep 2011
Posted in Music
I used to be terrified to fly. Like drug-taking, listening to the pilot radio channel, constant watch on the flight attendants, horoscope reading, arm rest clinching, heart racing, talking to my Mama on the phone until boarding terrified. TERR.A.FIED. But something changed. It had nothing to do with the amount of flights I took but rather my attitude towards flying. Disclaimer Alert! I am about to wax poetic and talk a little crazy. Continue at your own risk…. Continue reading »
13 Tuesday Sep 2011
Posted in The Basics
Tags
Snapped this with my phone on my walk home tonight. Boston is one of the most beautiful cities when the weather cooperates… So like 30 days out of the year. Cheers B-town!
12 Monday Sep 2011
Tags
baking stone, brunch, manaeesh, Mouse Trap, tiger lillies, Tomatoes, whole wheat pizza dough, za'atar
I am not sure of the correct spelling but Mr. Mouse Trap (MT) tells me this is the phonetic way to spell it. Man-a-eesh. Yeah, something like that. Manaeesh is a dish that his Mama (Lebanese) made him for breakfast on regular occasion growing up. She thinks we are silly for praising this dish because she thinks it is “poor people’s food.” But all the best recipes come from invention from necessity combined with limited resources. Basically this is a dough topped with za’atar that has been combined with olive oil and baked. Za’atar is generally prepared using ground dried thyme, oregano, marjoram, mixed with sesame seeds, salt and sometimes sumac. After the dough is baked it is then served much like pizza. Mr. MT likes to eat it with fresh tomatoes, olives, and coffee.
I thought I would share our pictures from our latest Manaeesh session: Continue reading »
10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted in Recipes, The Wine Rack, White Wine
This gallery contains 7 photos.
Drunk Mama has mentioned before that Friday night’s are pizza-and-movie nights around these parts. Well it is true for myself …
01 Thursday Sep 2011
I am starting to obsess over some new music! Yeah me. I love falling for new music.
Here is a couple of samples of songs I would like to listen to on the back porch with friends this weekend while sipping on some wine:
The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
JJ Grey and Mofro -The Sweetest Thing
Butch Walker – Synthesizers
Danger Mouse featuring Jack White – Two Against One
This song would need a big wine. A wine so big that you can barely take tiny sips. The wonderful rare glass of wine that takes an hour to get through.
Some of my favorite lines from the song are:
I get the feeling that it is two against one, I am already fighting me so what’s other one?
I keep my enemies closer than I let my mirror ever get to me.
The more I think about it… I may need to drink some bourbon while listening to these songs. These all suggest a tinge of fight or country to them that isn’t very civilized for wine drinkin’. Yes I used civilized and drinkin’ in the same sentence.
Just go watch/listen to these songs. They are good. The end.
