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Month: January 2019

Enjoy not Analyze

Can We Simply Enjoy The Wine? Ever since I started blogging eating at restaurants or drinking a bottle of wine with Gary has become “a thing.” Don’t start eating until I get pictures is now the understood, unwritten rule when dining out. Be sure to give me your notes is the rule when drinking a new bottle of wine. While we always enjoy the wine, sometimes I see that pouty look on Gary’s face, and I know he just wants to enjoy what we are eating or drinking without the need to analyze. I have to admit; sometimes I feel…

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Hand Pies & Date Paste

This post was planned way before I got hooked on the Great British Baking Show. So I need to come clean right away. I did not make my crust; I bought it at Whole Foods back in December. But I did make the fillings for these hand pies, and I am quite pleased with the result. But before we get to the hand pies, we have to talk about the date paste because that is what started this entire post.   What to do with all these Dates A while back I bought a huge bag of dates at Costco.…

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Salice Salentino & The Indigenous Negroamaro

Unless you are an Italophile, I am guessing that the title of this post has you a bit stumped. Don’t be too hard on yourself, when I was approached to try a couple of wines from Salice Salentino made from the Negroamaro grape, I was stumped as well. What? Where? Huh? Like most of you, when I think of Italy, I think of Rome, Venice, Florence/Tuscany. The Amalfi Coast, if you are a romantic, and perhaps Milan, if you a fashionista. Lately, you can add Calabria to the mix after being bombarded by the Kelly Ripa, Ancestry.com commercial that ran every five…

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Life Lately with Favorite Things

January is always a mix of end of the year to-dos and new year ponderings. As such, my life lately has been a hotbed of busy. We have already done our taxes; thanks to the best tax guy in town, if not the world, Steven @ The Clem Collaborative. I have cleaned the studio and will do it again this weekend as it takes several passes to get it right. At some point in the next two weeks, I have got to tackle the piles of papers that I keep acquiring. No matter how hard I try to not make…

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Roussillon & Jura: Bottle and Background

Two Lesser Known Wine Regions in France One of the things that I love about wine blogging is that it forces me outside of my familiar. Before writing Strong Coffee, I drank pretty much just one varietal. I would drink that varietal from different countries and different regions, but it was always the same grape. In the last two years, I have opened my eyes to wines of every color (I tried a blue wine once. Yes, blue, real blue; it did not go well.), and style. From countries that I had no idea made such great wines. And the…

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Looking Back at 2018

Well, the family Christmas tree at my sister’s house came down yesterday which officially marks the end of the holidays for me. Holy cow, our celebrations were so much fun. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and many fantastic friends that put a smile on my face and joy in my heart. Looking back over the past year has reminded me of the highlights of a great year. Looking Back: 2018 Highlights Somm School at Edmund’s Oast Exchange Last Spring I went to Somm School at Edmund’s Oast Exchange. This entry level class was the perfect way…

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