Oh, Belly!

Covered California issues $37 million in grants to 48 organizations to help educate Californians about the new healthcare law.

Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange, announced $37 million in grants Tuesday to begin the massive task of educating millions of Californians about the new healthcare law.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/features/health/~3/TDc2SqRbddc/la-me-grants-20130515,0,4661979.story

Storing Wine in a Wine Cabinets List of Components in Wine Rosé Champagne What is Vintage Wine? Chianti Choosing Wine Glasses Castel del Monte

I have been loving being a born again Detroit Red Wings fan these past few months, and, of course, the red Rhônes that we sample while rooting on our home town heroes are always carefully selected and quite enjoyable. Red Wings fans everywhere were extremely pleased to see the boys wearing the winged wheel on [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gangofpour/uncZ/~3/VhsHF_4lCyY/red-wings-and-red-rhones-2013-playoffs-baby

Nero d Avola Sparkling Wines Dehlinger Merlot Sonoma County Qupe Syrah Central Coast Falanghina Sherry Wines Barbara d Alba

Right-hander has irritation in his pitching elbow. Phillies’ Chase Utley to have an MRI exam.

Milwaukee right-hander Kyle Lohse will miss his next scheduled turn in the Brewers’ rotation because of irritation in his pitching elbow.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/sports/~3/GOfD60ImBvc/la-sp-0523-baseball-notes-20130523,0,5433671.story

Super Tuscans Quincy Burgundy (Red) Marsanne Merlot Basics Of Scoring Wine Great White Wines in The 2006 Vintage

On a cold, frosty morning like today the idea of diving into a cold garden pond for a swim isn’t my idea of fun. But these natural swimming ponds are becoming quite popular as people like the idea of swimming in clean, chemical-free water. Perhaps in the summer when the water temperature was higher I might be tempted.

They function and look exactly like a pond but have a large plant-free area which is the swimming zone. This can be deep or shallow and usually has steps down into the water. The planting is confined to a ‘regeneration zone’ outside the swimming space and that is where the filtering and cleaning of the water takes place. Crucially this is also the area that any wildlife stays, as the thought of coming face to face with a frog during a morning swim isn’t my cup of tea!

These specially designed ponds first appeared in Germany and Austria during the 1980s and have since become popular across the Continent. They arrived in the UK about a decade ago and there are now an estimated 20,000 across Europe including several open to the public.

Despite my reservations, we are currently designing a natural swimming pond (NSP) for a client in the New Forest and so have been finding out a bit more about them. The two zones need to be roughly equal in size to achieve a balance and a pump keeps the water moving around the system.

The plants and the gravel they are grown in act as biological filters so that the water in the swimming area is clean and soft on the skin and hair. No chemicals need ever be added making the running costs significantly lower than a conventional pool as well as much more environmentally-friendly.

We are designing the pond to look as natural as possible with soft curves and lawn, gravel and rocks around the edges to make it look as though it has always been there. You can also make them more formal with decking or paving. We’ll make sure there is a seating area next to the water because it is likely to get plenty of use either as a diving platform or for those who don’t want to swim but who can’t resist the temptation to paddle or sit with their legs in the water.

Both styles will look amazing after dark with careful lighting. The planting in the regeneration zone can be selected from a huge list of suitable moisture-loving plants. We are choosing low-growing water lilies as well as huge leaved arums and hostas, with flag irises and bullrushes for height.

Regular maintenance will be reduced compared to a normal pool but leaves still need to be skimmed off and there will be need for some gardening to be done as the the regeneration zone does need to be tended like any garden area. Some plants will have to be cut back occasionally, some lifted and divided as they grow too large and there will be some weeding.

My biggest concern is what the water temperature will be and how often swimming in the pond would be comfortable. It seems that the larger the body of water, the more it will retain warmth during the year but there are also options to add some background heating through the use of solar panels or ground-source heat pumps. We are going to find out more about them and that might just be enough to persuade me that I want a natural swimming pond too.

Janine Pattison MSGD is a award-winning garden designer.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/gardening/2011/11/natural-swimming-ponds.shtml

Wine Accessories Pinot Blanc Chinon Petit Rouge Pinot Noir Nero d Avola Sparkling Wines

All three of my kids have been eating more grains and sugar than I would like at breakfast, so I recently did an internet search for no-cook, high protein breakfast options.  I was QUITE disappointed. Every single blog and website in the search results had the same suggestions over and over and over.  Bleh. We [...]

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Valpolicella Spotting a Faulty Wine What is Tannin in Red Wine? Rosso Piceno Types of Wine Glasses Cabernet Sauvignon Frascati

I figured since Easter is only a week away that I should do a weekly round up to help with Easter meal planning. Here are some of the best from fellow foodie bloggers: Orange, Brown Sugar Glazed Ham via Simply Scratch 3 Variations of Deviled Easter Eggs via Not Eating Out in NY Rosemary Roasted [...]

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Quincy Burgundy (Red) Marsanne Merlot Basics Of Scoring Wine Great White Wines in The 2006 Vintage German Riesling Auslese

The Dodgers manager in recent days has cast so much blame on his players and, implicitly, on the team’s front office that he must suspect his time with the club is nearing an end.

If the Dodgers’ owners have not already decided to fire Don Mattingly, the manager all but fired himself on Wednesday.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/sports/~3/Y020WclqHUk/la-sp-dn-don-mattingly-dodgers-fire-20130522,0,6113343.story

Syrah California Wine Tasting Tour How Cork is Made Sparkling (Brut) Reading Italian Wine Labels Madeira Wines Build Your Own Wine Cellar

Washington Syrah compares favorably with the best in the world. Washington Syrah generally falls somewhere in between the jammy Shiraz of Australia and the more austere Syrah of the northern Rhone. It generally has good acidity and tannins. Last Friday, we featured Washington Syrah from the 2009 vintage in our wine tasting dinner. All six [...]

Wine Tasting Dinner: 2009 Washington Syrah was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps – Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

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Vinho Verde Vernaccia di San Gimignano Liebfraumilch Charles Shaw: Inexpensive Wines Pouilly-Fumé Côtes du Rhône Crozes-Hermitage Edelzwicker

The first three apartments I lived in had no dishwasher — except for me, that is. For that matter, none of my early apartments had kitchen windows either.

I really felt like I had arrived by the time I owned my first dishwasher. Of course, saving quarters for the communal laundry machine in my apartment building went on for many more years to come!

If you have a dishwasher, I don’t need to tell you how wonderful they are!

However, it surprises some people to discover that there is a right and a wrong way to load a dishwasher. Do it wrong and you’ll end up with dishes not getting washed properly and possibly even breaking a few in the process.

Loading a dishwasher is easy as long as you follow a few simple rules:

First, quickly rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher in order to remove big chunks of food. Dishwashers can choke up unless you pay attention to this, and paying for a plumbers’ visit to unclog them can be expensive.

No need to fuss too much with this step (let the dishwasher do the washing!) but don’t leave it out.

Next, be sure to put glassware, coffee cups and plastic containers on the top rack, which was designed to hold them. If you have a lot of glasses that need washing, you may be tempted to put them on the bottom rack, but there is a higher probability that they will break there.

Since it’s generally hotter on the bottom than it is on the top, even dishwasher-safe plastic containers may melt on the bottom rack. Proceed with caution.

Plates, bowls, and anything that needs a stronger wash put on the bottom rack. Did you know that the top and bottom racks often have a different amount of water pressure? Who knew? You obviously need to exert less energy washing a water glass than a plate with dried-up tomato sauce on it!

Naturally, silverware and utensils go in the special holder. Some people clump spoons together, forks together, and knives together. Others say, no, “nesting” the utensils means they don’t get cleaned properly — mix them up. Be warned: how one does or does not put silverware in the dishwasher can break up a beautiful friendship or marriage!

It’s important, in my view, to put sharp, pointed things (like knives and forks) pointing downward. (There is nothing worse than being impaled by utensils while loading – or unloading – the dishwasher!)

You should never put your good knives in the dishwasher. Something that big and that sharp just should not go in there — and it’s easy to wash good knives by hand. Small, inexpensive paring knives are often dishwasher-safe.

Always empty the bottom rack first. The glasses and cups on the top rack will often drip as you are unloading them (so many seem to have those little crevices on the bottom that accumulate water.) You won’t get the plates on the bottom all wet if you have already unloaded them first.

Never turn the dishwasher on and then go to bed. You never know when there could be a leak or a problem with your dishwasher! Turn it on after dinner so that it has finished running before you go to bed. (That’s actually a tip from most fire safety experts.)

Many people don’t turn it on until every square inch of space is filled, but I turn the dishwasher on every evening. It’s just too icky (technical term!) to think of dirty dishes hanging out in a sealed box overnight. If it’s not full, I just use the light setting.

Many dishwashers have several settings. The settings on mine include: ‘pots & pans’, normal, light/china, quick/glass, ‘rinse & hold’, sani-rinse, and an ‘energy saver dry’.

The pots and pans cycle is the longest running cycle for really tough jobs.

The sani-rinse is a very hot rinse useful for really killing germs. I use it if someone in the house has a cold or the flu.

‘Energy-saver’ means the heating element to dry the dishes is not activated, and the dishes will take longer to dry on their own.

Inevitably, once you start the dishwasher you always find another glass or plate or spoon that needs to be washed. Generally speaking, in the beginning, while the water is heating, you can open the dishwasher and add that dirty dish. Then re-push the start button. Many dishwashers will have an indicator of some kind to tell you what part of the cycle it’s in. Some even have a pause button. If it’s already in the wash cycle then it’s too late to open the door, and you may flood the kitchen if you do. Alas, you may have to wash that last item by hand!

On a final note, here’s some personal advice if someone you really care about loads the dishwasher for you, but does it incorrectly. The first time, say nothing, thank them and turn out the lights. You want to encourage them to pitch in and help right?

By the third time they do it “not quite the way you think it should be done”, gently offer suggestions — with reasons. No-one likes being criticized, but if you use it as a form of education “By the way, did you know WHY they say you should…….?” You may get away with both your goals: getting it done right and keeping your relationship strong!

Does anyone else have any advice (or questions) about using dishwashers?

Source: http://startcooking.com/blog/37/

Edelzwicker Storing Wine in a Wine Cabinets List of Components in Wine Rosé Champagne What is Vintage Wine? Chianti Choosing Wine Glasses

As we ring in this New Year, I want to personally thank everyone that has checked in on my blog and my Facebook page in 2012. My New Year goals for 2013 are to explore more Texas wine and to write about our experiences and wine finds. Texas grows each year with more wine and […]

Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2012/12/31/happy-new-year-2013-texas-wine/

How to Cook with Wine Chenin Blanc Wines Frascati Secco Top Rated White Meritage from Napa Valley Letting a Red Wine Breathe Understanding Wine Labels Best White Wine Regions in the World

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CookingBooks/~3/abxP_emvMh4/herb-and-vinegar-potato-salad.html

J. Lohr 2005 Estates South Ridge Syrah Gewurtztraminer Sparkling Wine 1917 Wine Trivia St. Emilion Vino Novello Pairing Wine and Pizza

Source: http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/thestew/2011/03/22-lunches-33-dinners-at-chicago-chef-week.html

The Basics on Cooking with Wine Chiroubles Leonetti Merlot Washington Provençal Rosé Verdelho Chardonnay Unusual Wine and Food Pairings

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Ribera del Duero Mourvedre Know Your Wine with this Varietal Table Montepulciano d Abruzzo Albarino Bandol Rosé Reading Portuguese Wine Labels

Betcha didn’t know that June is National Iced Tea Month.

Well, now you do, and there’s no better beverage to enjoy on a hot summer day!

The way the story goes, Richard Blechynden, a tea plantation owner, attended America’s first World’s Fair in St. Louis. He had planned to give out free samples of his hot tea, but it was such a warm day that no one was interested! So, he threw in some ice and offered his beverage “on the rocks.” The treat was so refreshing, he quickly had a long line of people waiting to taste it.

There are many ways to make iced tea, and countless variations on the basic recipe. If you haven’t tried iced tea before, maybe one of these variations will pique your curiosity. And if you’re not a fan of iced tea, it’s worth trying a new version – there’s probably one out there that suits you.

The basic method for making iced tea is:

• Boil water (the amount depends on how much tea you’re making!)
• Steep tea (loose or bagged, whatever flavor you like)
• Strain the tea if you used loose leaves, or remove the tea bags.
• Add sugar to taste. Some people prefer unsweetened, and some people use up to 2 cups of sugar for a 2 quart pitcher. It depends on personal taste.
• Cool. Some people refrigerate it, others pour it over ice (which also dilutes it a bit), and some people mix it with ice water.
• Serve and enjoy.

Sounds simple (and vague) enough, right?

Right! Anyone can make iced tea and its variations:

• For a true Southern Iced Tea, read this entertaining recipe by Lemon Tartlet. She adds a bit of baking soda to the water before boiling. This cuts down on bitterness from accidental over-steeping and reduces cloudiness in the tea.
• There’s a step-by-step guide to making Lemon Iced Tea (with photos) at Cooking For Engineers.
• Poppytalk gives us the easiest method of all. Brew loose tea in a special pitcher that has a removable diffuser, remove the diffuser, and refrigerate. No sugar, no flavoring, just pure iced tea!
• Tea Party Girl, an advocate of loose leaf teas, gives us a simple method for making loose-leaf iced tea, which ends up costing pennies per pitcher.
• But if you’re a tea bag person, you can try CFWhitney’s mother-in-law’s tried and true tea bag method.
• Thai iced tea is made from a specially flavored tea and is absolutely delicious. Try topping it with coconut milk or sweetened condensed milk for another twist on this Asian favorite!
• If you’re into more exotic iced teas, try tea sangria, which has fruit mixed into it.
• Rhubarb iced tea sounds amazing – it calls for rhubarb stalks to be boiled before adding tea and sugar.
• Ginger peach iced tea is one of many delicious-sounding iced tea recipes

Whether you brew for 3 minutes or overnight in the fridge, prefer a simple black tea or a raspberry herbal, enjoy your iced tea this summer!

Tip: You may have heard of “sun tea”, which is made by starting with room-temperature water and tea bags in a jar, then brewing the tea by placing the jar in a sunny spot for a few hours. This method, however is not recommended.  Bacteria can develop in the tea and it can become a potential health risk. Sorry!

Source: http://startcooking.com/blog/418/

Chateauneuf-du-Pape How Champagne is Made Fleurie French Study Says Wine Drinkers May Be Healthier Rioja Top Five Common Misconceptions About Wine Sushi and Wine

Covered California issues $37 million in grants to 48 organizations to help educate Californians about the new healthcare law.

Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange, announced $37 million in grants Tuesday to begin the massive task of educating millions of Californians about the new healthcare law.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/features/health/~3/TDc2SqRbddc/la-me-grants-20130515,0,4661979.story

Oaks Barrels in Winemaking Icewine Champagne Wines Pinot Grigio Pinot Gris Etiquette for Wine Tasting and Serving Tafelwein

Gilt City is offering a five course meal paired with one glass of wine at the Mandarin Oriental Boston’s Asana restaurant for $65. The going rate for their 5 course tasting menu is $85 and this offer includes a glass of wine (that I’d estimate at being worth around $10 minimum) so this is a value of around $30 per person. A good way to try out a swanky restaurant at a swanky hotel if you’re interested.

But the deal comes with an interesting kicker that can make this deal quite compelling if you’re into spa visits. It includes a $50 gift certificate good towards a treatment at the Mandarin Oriental Spa. Beware that most treatments run north of $200. But if you’re interested in getting to know this hotel and its amenities, and can navigate the restrictions that accompany this deal it can be a good one.

But wait, there’s more! You can whittle the price of the Gilt City voucher down a little more with a couple tricks.

First, buy the deal through a cashback portal like FatWallet which is currently offering 4% cashback on Gilt City purchases.

Second, if you’re not a Gilt City subscriber you can get $15 off your first purchase by being referred by a friend. Like me! I’ll also go $15 off my next Gilt City purchase if you sign up so thanks in advance for using my referral link if you so choose.

Alright, got it? $65 – $15 = $50 plus 4% cashback from FatWallet. That’s $48 for the meal with a glass of wine and the spa gift certificate as an added bonus.

Just make sure you check out the restrictions on the offer page to make sure you can take full advantage of this offer.

Here is a link to the offer on Gilt City
Offer expires 1/21/2013.

Related Reading:

• My Mandarin Oriental Boston hotel review
• My Mandarin Oriental spa review

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/ZUaWKpzvjyA/deal-alert-65-five-course-meal-wwine-at.html

Buying Wine as Host Gift Vouvray Wines for Summer Grilling Nuits St George J. Lohr 2005 Estates South Ridge Syrah Gewurtztraminer Sparkling Wine 1917

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2012/07/tales-of-the-cocktail-2012-the-varnish-wins-best-american-cocktail-bar.html

Paloma Merlot Spring Mountain District wine types Chateauneuf-du-Pape How Champagne is Made Fleurie French Study Says Wine Drinkers May Be Healthier Rioja

  We have had several Lost Oak wines over the years and we were excited to finally pop open this Lost Oak Dry Riesling. My wife has always been a dry wine drinker and for me its been a long road till a couple of years ago. I have stated to many people how much […]

Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2013/04/06/texas-dry-riesling-lost-oak-2011/

A Look at Wine Bottles Inexpensive Spanish Sherry Wine Beaujolais Blanc 2005 Cline Cellars Syrah Cool Climate Sonoma Coast Barbara d Asti The Story of a Cork Belvedere Merlot Alexander Valley Robert Young Vineyards

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Paloma Merlot Spring Mountain District wine types Chateauneuf-du-Pape How Champagne is Made Fleurie French Study Says Wine Drinkers May Be Healthier Rioja

It is that time of year when all sorts of wine competitions take place and announce their annual procession of gold, silver and bronze medal winners. Countless self-congratulatory press releases, blog posts, status updates and adverts will blast out in a storm of activity that will effectively drown out the benefit of any one win and [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/Ug0t31hWNMQ/

Top Australian Tawny Port Syrah California Wine Tasting Tour How Cork is Made Sparkling (Brut) Reading Italian Wine Labels Madeira Wines

The problem with sleuthing out good wine under $10 is the recommendations usually come with provisos like, “This is pretty good for the price,” or “This isn’t bad for the style of wine.”  Rare is the time that a wine recommendation for vino under $10 is just, “This is a fantastic wine.”

Who can blame the wine recommender for their caveats and written sleights of hand when they’re left to tout the middling amongst the insipid; the redemptive within the felonious?  It’s like the back-handed compliment from the parents of an axe murderer who note plaintively from the front stoop, “He has a good heart.”

Adding insult to this injury, it seems like nearly all domestic wines under $10 are manipulated to appeal to a demographic.  Far too often, they are oak chipped to a formula, softened, vortexed and plumped back up into a wine beverage complete with a label that screams, “Benignly vague and blandly appealing.  I am inoffensive to a large group of people.”

And, forget about pairing under $10 bottles of vino with food.  Do so only if your idea of wine pairing centers on condiments with artificial coloring and HFCS, so duotone are the wine flavor profiles.

When it comes to what should be reliable international value wines, forget about it – most of them aren’t even has-beens, they never were.  France and Italy – I’m talking to you.  For a sawbuck, these are sad, middling, barely potable wines evocative of an athlete whose entire identity is wrapped up in jockdom, but for whom life’s fate never provided him acclaim beyond the local playground. The fact that these wines often taste like a sweaty gym sock may, in fact, be no small coincidence.

Harrumph. 

What I want is what most wine consumers want: A non-spoofulated wine with quality that stands on its own—a good wine at $9.99 that is a good wine, period.  No half-hearted caveats associated with it.  If the wine pairs with dinner, instead of being a digestif, all the better.  Tie me up, spank me and call me Shirley if this mystical and elusive under $10 wine also has any of the following characteristics: Organic, old vines, unfiltered, native yeast, judicious oak, and complexity whilst being food-friendly.

I’m pretty sure I won’t have to have any dalliances in the wine S&M dungeon save for one emerging country.

Recently, I started to see glimpses of where quality, inexpensive wines might be coming from in the future when I tasted through a sampling of wines from the Navarra region of Spain. One $5 bottle of wine was so screamingly good it defied the law of reason. 

And, then, I received a recommendation for Masia de Bielsa’s 2009 Garnacha, a Spanish wine from the Campo de Borja area in the Aragon region of Spain, southeast of Navarre and La Rioja.  Adam Japko, a wino friend and author of Wine-Zag, and I did some horse-trading on bottles and he threw in a bottle of wine in a wine shipment to me and noted, “Curious what you think of this…”

What do I think?  I think I owe you favors to last a month of Sundays for turning me onto a beauty.

Of course, wine recommendations don’t happen in a vacuum and the Masia de Bielsa 2009 Garnacha is no different even if it follows a certain circuitous Internet-borne dynamic that seems unusual even in this day and age of “brand vs. land, there are no secret wine values anymore…” online battle.

Jose Pastor is a wunderkind (30 years old) wine importer with a fast growing reputation amongst wine insiders for his portfolio of Spanish wines that are typically natural in style – producers who farm organically when possible, emphasize terroir, use ambient yeasts, filter sparingly and use minimal oak.  In other words, his wines, and especially his inexpensive wine selections, are the anti-brand.  Or, should I say, “They’re the antidote to brand wines.”  The good stuff. 

Jose’s wines won’t have an end-cap in stores with promotional materials, nor will they follow you on Twitter or ply you with faux-flattery for a “Like” on Facebook. Ditto that for Pastor playing the points scoring game.  He doesn’t do it. The wines and wineries in his portfolio simply represent something good and honest and rely on smart trade buyers who know good juice when they taste it and are interested in paying that forward to consumer’s one bottle at a time.

This formula isn’t a recipe for getting rich, but it is a recipe for long-term, slow-burning growth based on a purity of vision.

When Richard Schnitzlein, a longtime wine buyer in the greater Boston area, took over the wine section at Ferns Country store in Carlisle, MA in early 2011, he started to remake the selection of wines on offer and that meant much more diversity, spreading the selection from two distributors to 14 over a seven month period.

A part of that remaking was to engage Genuine Wine Selections, a wine distributor in Massachusetts, who carries the Jose Pastor portfolio.

When Genuine Wine Selections partner Dennis Quinn showed up at Ferns in the spring with samples to taste, the ’09 Bielsa was a part of the mix.

Enamored, Schnitzlein started stocking the wine.  “Initially (the Bielsa) was a hand sell, but (it) soon became a wine that people were asking for,” he noted.

Japko was turned onto the Bielsa from Schnitzlein and mentioned the Bielsa on his site in June.  A September Ferns promotion dropped the price on the Bielsa from $11.99 to 9.95 and that yielded 15 cases of the Bielsa moving through the door for Ferns including a stock-up from Japko.

Within a week of receiving my bottle from Japko, I had taken to the Internet to find this wine and I bought a ½ case online from Marketview Liquor in New York state who sells it for $7.99 a bottle.

I’ve gifted a bottle to a friend at work, and, well, I’m writing extensively about this vino, too – my own pay-it-forward juju for having been tipped off to this wine.

The moral of this story?  Finding a gem of a wine for $10 or under isn’t a hopeless process, but you do have to sift a lot of muck to find the gold nugget.  In my opinion, you’re more likely to find a gem by keeping your ears open for word of mouth recommendations from wine-inclined friends or a local wine shop then to take to the wine aisles of your supermarket wine section playing brand roulette.  Here, the internet and Wine-searcher.com is your friend, as well.  In addition, Spain is a country that is producing some excellent wines across all price tiers, and my very recent and very anecdotal track record at the lower-end has been very good.  And, finally, it pays to know people.  It pays to know what Jose Pastor is all about, and it pays to know the Richard Schnitzlein’s and Adam Japko’s of the world who freely share where to find the good stuff, even if finding the good stuff requires an Importer in California, a wine buyer in Massachusetts, a generous friend and internet ecommerce.

2009 Bielsa Vinas Viejas Garnacha

Huge, pure nose with mulberry juice, black cherry, orange peel, earth and a meaty savory quality that gives way to an expressive palate with plum, black cherry, spice and fresh squeezed orange juice.  The finish lingers with plum, pepper and earthiness.  This is a varietally correct, gorgeous, natural, unfiltered wine that screams for food and would be a bargain at 4X the price.  Highly recommended.  At under $10 a bottle, you’d be foolhardy not to find this wine.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/shut_the_front_door_a_vinsane_pay-it-forward_drinks_4x_the_price_wine_recom/

Great White Wines in The 2006 Vintage German Riesling Auslese Winemaking in Bordeaux Plan a California Wine Tour Top Australian Tawny Port Syrah California Wine Tasting Tour

My oldest child has been requesting banana bread for weeks, and this past Saturday we finally had 5 bananas on hand that were ripe enough for baking. This of course led to a batch of banana bread muffins, an impromptu baking and math lesson for my 6 yr old, and a delicious brunch. I’m sorry [...]

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Corking Your Wine Bottles Bordeaux (Red) Cirò 2005 Sauternes Dessert Wines How to Clean Wine Glasses Dôle Most Expensive Wine in the World

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2012/07/how-sharp-are-your-kitchen-knives.html

Pinot Nero Wine Preservative: Sulphur Dioxide Soave Clarendon Hills Merlot Clarendon Brookman Valpolicella Spotting a Faulty Wine What is Tannin in Red Wine?

I love breakfast. My family loves breakfast. If you do a search on my website for “Breakfast”, 45 pages of recipes will show up.  Per usual, I have included a few of the best recipes I could find from fellow foodie bloggers, as well as a few recipes from my own CDSM collection. Read on [...]

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Ribera del Duero Mourvedre Know Your Wine with this Varietal Table Montepulciano d Abruzzo Albarino Bandol Rosé Reading Portuguese Wine Labels

Ilyse Hogue says Pennsylvania case shows how denying women safe abortions risks sending women into substandard care of a murderer like Kermit Gosnell

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_us/~3/1rNZjVNzx2c/index.html

Great White Wines in The 2006 Vintage German Riesling Auslese Winemaking in Bordeaux Plan a California Wine Tour Top Australian Tawny Port Syrah California Wine Tasting Tour

KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y., May 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – BOREAL WATER COLLECTION INC. – (OTCQB: BRWC) a high end private label bottled water company from NY just signed a private label deal with the very prestigious DEAN & DELUCA company, also headquartered in NYC. BOREAL will be…

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A chocolatey twist on a Bengali classic

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Sauteed spiced bread kicks 2013 off

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Nail biting encounter with the grand dame of Indian Cooking

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Inexpensive Australian Dessert Wines What Are Organic Wines? Super Tuscans Quincy Burgundy (Red) Marsanne Merlot

Mark Ellis returns to active duty after three weeks on the disabled list because of a quadriceps strain. Catcher Tim Federowicz is sent to triple A.

ATLANTA — Second baseman Mark Ellis was activated from the 15-day disabled list Sunday, having been cleared by the medical staff to return to the lineup after playing in two minor league games.

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In the movie Ratatouille, the little chef Remy rejoiced in discovering the pleasures of combining certain foods to maximize their flavors. He would have certainly done his happy dance after trying this Pear and Blue Cheese Salad!

When brought together on one plate, the five simple ingredients used in this recipe create an explosion of taste and texture that put it in my top five list of the best salads ever!

As true with many salads, you can adjust the amounts according to your tastes. To make enough for two people, I’m using:

• 3 ounces of salad greens
• 1 pear
• 3 ounces of blue cheese
• 1/4 cup of pecans
• 2 Tablespoons of salad dressing

You can choose your favorite variety of pears, just make sure that it is really (really!) ripe.

I used Stilton blue cheese. There are many varieties of blue cheese available at the grocery store, all with a slightly different flavor; some much stronger than others. The price of blue cheese can vary dramatically depending on where it is from.  If in doubt as to which one to buy, ask the person in charge of the cheese counter to explain them. They may even offer you a taste test!

Whole pecans look nice on the plate, but you can use chopped pecans as well.

A simple vinaigrette salad dressing is all you need for this salad. You can make it yourself or buy your favorite brand.

Slice the pear in half and remove the core. I used a small paring knife and a melon baller to remove the core.

Once the core is removed, you can cut the pear into slices or chunks. To add a bit of a fancy touch to the look, I cut the pear into slices, leaving 1/4 inch at the top uncut. You can then fan the pear out on the plate.

Assemble the salad right on the individual serving plate. Start with the lettuce, then add the pears. Crumble the blue cheese and dot it around the plate, then sprinkle on the pecans. Finally, drizzle on some salad dressing.

You can serve this salad with some crusty bread and a glass of wine.

Lunch is ready!

Enjoy!

Source: http://startcooking.com/blog/292/

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A firefighter was trapped early Monday in a six-alarm blaze at a Dallas condominium complex, the city’s fire department said.

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I have been loving being a born again Detroit Red Wings fan these past few months, and, of course, the red Rhônes that we sample while rooting on our home town heroes are always carefully selected and quite enjoyable. Red Wings fans everywhere were extremely pleased to see the boys wearing the winged wheel on [...]

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Burgundy (Red) Marsanne Merlot Basics Of Scoring Wine Great White Wines in The 2006 Vintage German Riesling Auslese Winemaking in Bordeaux

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I recently grabbed a bottle of San-J Thai Peanut Sauce and used it to make a delicious, vegetable-filled meal that we served al fresco. We had just arrived at a beautiful Virginia state park after a long day of driving and I needed a quick meal. After a brief shopping trip  I headed into the [...]

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FOLSOM, Calif., May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — In 1993, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published landmark research from Loma Linda University showing the heart protective quality of walnuts.  In the two decades since, 91 studies and counting, worldwide, have linked numerous…

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Pinot Gris Etiquette for Wine Tasting and Serving Tafelwein Vinho Verde Vernaccia di San Gimignano Liebfraumilch Charles Shaw: Inexpensive Wines

Aviation fans have already named it Dreamliner 2.0.

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In the increasingly close quarters of our global village, Europe is responsible for bringing at least three different substantive and prodigious professional wine journals to market over the last several years.  Each is written by a ‘Who’s Who’ of wine experts.  Meanwhile, stateside, the U.S. has experienced an explosion of pithiness with amateur wine writers writing online.

This juxtaposition becomes relevant after reading a recent post titled, “Are wine blogs going tabloid” by professional wine critic and writer Steve Heimoff.  In his brief post, with a decidedly American point of view, Heimoff summarizes his thoughts with the rhetorical query, “Why do certain bloggers revert to sensationalist stories that don’t, in the long run, matter?”

Good question.  The easy conclusion suggests that controversy and hyperbolically bombastic articles lead to attention and traffic. 

Certainly, two recent books that I’ve been reading bear out this discouraging notion:  Newsjacking:  How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage and Celebrity, Inc.

Both books cover similar ground in examining how brands can subvert the 24-hour news cycle for business benefit and how the 24-hour news cycle has been subverted by celebrities using easy technology while leading our news culture into tabloidesque territory.

When considered with Heimoff’s point, it is an easy deduction to suggest that 1 + 1 does in fact equal 2 – the sensational does sell and, by proxy, online amateur wine writers are a reflection of our larger media culture.

However, in suggesting this, there is at least one bigger contextual point being missed as well as a caveat.  First, it’s an exclusive view that doesn’t take in the totality of the global wine media village and second, while sensationalism may sell, the lascivious isn’t always what’s shared.

No, it seems our schadenfreude and more primal instincts are kept private, while our shock and awe comes to the fore, at least according to one study.

The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania recently examined the most emailed articles on the New York Times web site in March of this year (link initiates a PDF download), looking for the triggers for what causes somebody to share an article, what makes one thing more viral than another?

Their conclusion?  Positive content is more viral than negative content, but both, in general, are driven by “activation” – the notion that high arousal (emotive pleasure or outrage) drives shareable content.  According to the research abstract:

Content that evokes either positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions characterized by activation (i.e. high arousal) is more viral.  Content that evokes deactivating emotion (sadness) is less viral.  These results hold (dominance) for how surprising, interesting, or practically useful content is, as well as external drivers of attention.

This brings us back to my earlier mention regarding the European wine journals that have come to market in recent years.  Simply, they’re an antidote to the U.S. proclivity for the vapid.

The World of Fine Wine, the family of Fine Wine magazines based in Helsinki and Tong based in Belgium all represent an Old World counterpoint to what can be deemed as the extemporaneous and superfluous coming from the New World.

As Tong publisher Filip Verheyden notes in the Tong manifesto (link initiates a PDF download) :

We live in times of “instant” gratification.  If we want to talk to someone, we pick up our mobile phone wherever we happen to be.  If we want to know something, we click an internet button.  We’re going at 200 km per hour. 

…The articles that appear in Tong demand the reader’s attention.  You can’t read them fast and put them away; you have to take the time to understand.  I’d say it takes an evening to read and think about each article.  These are not issues to put in the recycling bin.  Even after five years or more, each will continue to convey the essence of its theme…

The World of Fine Wine and Fine Wine magazine are both similarly endowed with length and verve.

My takeaway based on the Wharton research and the stunning dichotomy between what we’re seeing in the U.S. vs. European wine content is two-fold:

1)  The sometimes sensational aspect of online wine writers, especially domestically, should heed the research and focus their pot-stirring ways on matters that provoke an emotional response from readers, ideally with a positive consequence – like HR 1161 for example instead of tired, lame attempted zingers aimed at Robert Parker.

2)  In addition to a legacy sensibility about the nature and style of wine, the Old World is also drawing a culturally defining line in the sand in how they view and report on wine – it’s with substance, permanence and integrity.

The conclusion is anything but.  However, as the world becomes a smaller place and the U.S. and our wine media becomes a part of the world chorus, losing lead vocal, I would hate for our place in the gallery to be rendered completely voiceless based on a lack of substance which is the seeming trajectory that we’re on. 

It’s just a thought…

If you’re interested in seeing an example of Tong’s long-form think pieces, you can see examples here, here and here.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/old_world_vs._new_world_in_more_ways_than_just_the_wine/

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That sound you hear? It’s the fall of our leaden footsteps now that we’ve consumed dozens and dozens of doughnuts in our hole-y crusade to find the area’s best. In our first six weeks, we checked out familiar national chains, ambitious upstarts and longtime neighborhood favorites. In Week 7, we hit up a pair of small Virginia bakeries with, apparently, different marital statuses.
Milan Bakery & Miss Donuts

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CANTON, Mass., May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Dunkin’ Donuts, America’s all-day, everyday stop for coffee and baked goods, announced today that the company is recruiting franchisees in North Carolina markets, including Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh-Durham, Wilmington and…

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A 1997 Cadillac plowed into a parade crowd in Virginia, injuring dozens of spectators and leaving others pinned underneath the car.

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The poinsettia could have been specially designed for Christmas with its bright-red halo and festive green foliage. However that red halo is not just a pretty face: it’s the secret of the poinsettia’s popularity. It can last for months because the red halo consists of long-lasting leafy bracts rather than soft petals that shrivel up quickly. This allows the poinsettia to look regal for up to twelve weeks or more. Not surprisingly these ornamental lovelies have been used as Christmas ornaments for almost a hundred years.

Poinsettia

Poinsettias come from Mexico and they were discovered by Joel Poinsett in 1825. They were already associated with Christmas however. An old legend recalls that a poor Mexican boy, unable to afford a proper present to take to church, picked some of these colourful red ‘weeds’ as his Christmas gift.

Their ability to grow and spread in warm countries has seen them colonise lots of different areas throughout the world. In the Canary Isles, for instance, they grow as low hedges all along the roads. They also thrived in the canyons and scrub close to Beverley Hills and Hollywood.

A young rancher, Albert Ecke, admired them and planted them on his own ranch. Ecke began selling poinsettias from Californian roadside stalls in the 1920s. Their Hollywood glamour soon rubbed off and homes all across America wanted their own poinsettia at Christmas, especially when they saw them in the Christmas movies.

Albert Ecke’s ranch still produces 80% of all poinsettias grown in America, but the soldier-red ones are still the most popular by far. Thirty different poinsettias have been named and bred, but others seem insipid by comparison.

Looking After Your Mexican Beauty

Don’t panic: poinsettias are easy to look after as long as you remember their Mexican provenance.

Keep them warm and away from draughts and don’t place them on the windowsill where temperatures and light fluctuate widely. Give them bright light and a warm position instead.

Conjure up the canyons of California in your mind’s eye when you water. Feel the pot by pressing your finger into the compost. Water from the top, but only if the compost feels dry, always allowing the water to drain away. You may be able to lift yours out of its cache pot: if it’s in a basket water it very sparingly indeed.

These members of the Euphorbia family are short day plants induced into flower by twelve hours of equal day and night length. Once the days begin to lengthen the bracts drop, so expect two or three months of colour.

Can I Keep it For Next Year?

You can, but your second year plant will be completely inferior because poinsettias develop into woody, leggy shrubs. It’s much better to save up your pennies and buy another that’s been cosseted and encouraged into flower by a regime of good food, greenhouse lights and heat.

Poinsettias are expensive to produce, so much so that British growers are abandoning these high-maintenance Mexican beauties in droves. Despite that, I hope the poinsettia endures for another hundred years at least, for nothing is quite as striking as a poinsettia at Christmas. The last part of its Latin name, Euphorbia pulcherrima, actually means the most beautiful euphorbia of all and there are 7500 species. So that’s quite a compliment!

Val Bourne is an award-winning garden writer, photographer and lecturer and she gardens on the wind-swept Cotswolds at Spring Cottage.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/gardening/2011/12/poinsettias-for-christmas.shtml

Choosing Wine Glasses Castel del Monte Chenin Blanc Aligoté Port Wines Auslese Inexpensive Italian Sweet Wines

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Happy Monday and Happy Anniversary! It’s been seven years since I started blogging, and I wanted to take the opportunity today to look back at some of my favorite dishes I’ve posted through the years. These don’t fit into any one category or any one theme; they’re just things I love and would eat 24-7 if given the opportunity. Thank you guys for being a part of things around here for all these years. I’ve…

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