Favorite Wines

Now that spring is in full force, I'm getting excited about sharing wines with friends. Don't get me wrong, I love a glass of good wine year-round, but there's something extra special about enjoying a glass on a friend's porch while we bask in this wonderful California weather. Here are a few of my favorite wines, in no particular order:

I really like Merlot wine - but I'm very picky about it. Which is to say, I really like the Merlot wines that I actually like. I found this one by Bogle to be very enjoyable. My very favorite Merlot that I've had to date is by Lange Twins Winery in Lodi, but I don't know where they sell it so I've only ever had it in a restaurant.

This could very well be my favorite wine, ever. 6th Sense Syrah by Michael David Winery from Lodi, CA is delightful. It's full and velvety and everything good.

I'm not big on white wines, but Seven Heavenly Chards (by Michael David Winery) is great! This chardonnay has a smooth, full, slightly buttery flavor. One of my favorite treats is sitting down with a glass of this wine and a bowl full of fresh popcorn.

This Pinot Noir by Clos du Bois is excellent. Although I definitely prefer the 2008, the 2009 is also quite good and easier to find in stores. The flavor, again, is full (no watery wine for me, thank you very much!) and smooth.

(And yes, I do realize that it's painfully obvious just how inexperienced I am at tasting & describing wines. I know nothing of tannins and I'm scared of saying that wines are "fruity" or "nutty" or "oaky" because, honestly, I'm not 100% sure what those things taste like.)

Own the Night Tour

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I saw Lady A in concert! The photo above is of me and one of my best friends at the concert. It was a wonderful experience! I was never a huge Lady Antebellum fan but their latest album has several treasures and they're great performers.

The opening act was Thompson Square, a new country group that I really like. Unfortunately, it was pretty evident that they're inexperienced performers. But, I look forward to seeing them again when they've gotten more experience under their belt and know how to enunciate into a mic :).

Darius Rucker also performed and I'm not a fan of 95% of his country songs, but overall, the entire concert was awesome! I only wish it had lasted longer. If the tour happens to be coming near you, I highly recommend going to see it. It was worth every penny!

Here are a few of my favorite songs from the evening:

Love I've Found in You - Lady Antebellum

Dancin' Away With My Heart - Lady Antebellum

Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not - Thompson Square

A Wonderful Discovery

My friends, as if the glorious tasty goodness of chocolate covered strawberries, espresso beans, raisins, and pretzels weren't enough....allow me to present, the King of these delectable delights....The Chocolate Covered Potato Chip! I tasted a sample at Trader Joe's and I am hooked. How can you say no to $2.99 of pure bliss? Both sweet and salty all rolled into one delectable package?

Run, don't walk, to your nearest TJ's and procure a package (or three!). Your taste buds will thank me later :)

image of tasty goodness

Sadly, Trader Joe's does not know who I am. I am not being reimbursed for this product endorsement

Beer & Burgers at the Cascade Lakes Brewery

Since the racers had a criterium in downtown Bend late Saturday afternoon, we decided to go out to eat afterward at the Cascade Lakes Brewing Company. Nano and I had eaten there the year before with a different group of friends and I had really good memories of how great the buffalo burgers & beers were. Actually, I had a great memory of how one of the beers was, because I only tried one last year, the 20" Brown, and I had purchased a 6-pack that I stretched out until the end of May.

So when we went back to Bend this year, one of my priorities was getting another buffalo burger from this restaurant and getting the taster tray of all their beers so I could purchase a few to take home.

 

One side of the menu listed all the food dishes that were available. Although there was a lot to choose from, everyone in our group ordered a burger, and most of us paid the extra $2 to get the buffalo patty. It was worth it! Buffalo meat is amazing.

I am a woman of very plain tastes, so I always order my burgers "just the meat and the bun." If it comes with vegetables, I get them on the side and eat them separate from the main dish. The buffalo burger was delicious! I highly recommend getting a buffalo burger whenever you can - they can be hard to find and might cost a little more, but they are oh-so-tender and very tasty.

I tend to put a lot of ketchup on my hamburgers and hotdogs! Also, you can't eat fries without some ketchup for dipping!

The flip side of the menu listed all the drinks offered by the brewery. Since I was planning to buy a lot of beer after dinner, I decided to get the taster tray so I could have a clear idea of which beers I like and which I don't.

Since I don't like IPAs, I substituted the Riverside Red. Clockwise from 11 O'Clock, the beers in the tray are Blonde Bombshell, Pine Marten Pale Ale, Rooster Tail Ale, 20" Brown, Monkey Face Porter, and Riverside Red.

These two were my favorite of the bunch - 20" Brown and Rooster Tail Ale. I'm not a fan of really light ales, but I did enjoy the Blonde Bombshell and I thought it would be great on a really hot summer evening. I couldn't detect any distinctive differences between the Pine Marten and Rooster Tail ales, but the Rooster Tail seemed slightly more mellow and less "sharp" to me than the Pine Marten, though it was still quite enjoyable. 20" Brown was just as malty & tasty as I'd remembered and I once again decided to buy it. I'm not a fan of porters, but the Monkey Face Porter was by far the best one I've ever had and I considered buying it, but since I couldn't think of any occasion where I would choose to drink the Monkey Face over any of the others, I decided against it.

I really liked the Riverside Red, the first red beer I'd ever had, but alas! Cascade Lakes Brewing Company does not sell 6-packs of the seasonal brews! Sad face.

 

These were the notes I made to myself while tasting the beers. As you can see, I am quite the beer connoisseur - not! The numbers next to the beers indicate how many I intended to purchase. A 6-pack costs $7, and since my beer budget was $50, I planned to purchase seven 6-packs (which would have come to $49). However, when I got to the counter, I saw that a case was $25, so for only $50, I was able to get a total of eight 6-packs instead of just seven.

The taster tray came with this nifty little information sheet on the various beers. It was nice to be able to taste the beers and try to distinguish their characteristics, then read about them to see if I was right.

I brought two of those bad boys home - enough to last for a year with some to share! I asked if they could mix & match the cases for me, and sure enough, they could! So I got three 6-packs of the 20" Brown (still a favorite), two of the Rooster Tail Ale, two of the Pine Marten Ale, and one of the Blonde Bombshell. Cheers!

(In case I didn't make it clear, I highly recommend visiting this restaurant if you're ever in Bend. Here is a link to their website.)

A Few of My Favorite Books Part 3

After a short hiatus, here is the third installment of my series on my favorite books (see the first two here and here).

A few lighter reads for the end of the summer :)

I know you are wondering what a book on history is doing on a light reading list. But it reads like a novel - full of intrigue and backstabbing, with the backdrop of some of the most gorgeous works of art the world has known.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a bigger picture for The Two Gentlemen of Verona. This comedy by Shakespeare is hilarious! The hubs and I read it together a few years ago and laughed at almost every page. We went and saw the play last summer, which was also uproariously funny. (would you believe this is the only Shakespeare play I've read? shh!!! Don't tell anyone - they might judge me ;)

Food Review: Trader Joe's Vegetable Biryani

I freely admit that I am a Trader Joe's junkie! I love very nearly everything I've eaten that came from Trader Joe's and it is by far my favorite grocery store to shop at. I have by no means tried everything that Trader Joe's has to offer, that isn't really my style. I tend to find things I like and then stick to them, very rarely venturing to try something new. Recently, however, I decided to try Trader Joe's frozen Vegetable Biryani.

The rice was delicious and easy to prepare! The package had enough rice to provide a side dish for 3-4 people or a meal for two. I think it had the right amount of spice for the average American's taste, though I would have preferred it to be a bit spicier - one of the consequences of actually having been to India, I suppose! The only thing I did not like was that the rice has raisins in it. I like raisins in general, but they added a sweetness to this dish that I felt was out of place. The good news is that the raisins were pretty easy to pick out, so I'll likely purchase this again.

A Few of my Favorite Books

The other day I was reorganizing a few of the shelves of my bookcases, and I realized that I really do have a varied and eclectic taste in literature. If you were to come and glance through my books you would see everything from The Art of War to A History of the American People to Memoirs of a Geisha to The Count of Monte Cristo and everything in between. I thought it would be fun to share my favorite books from some of these various genres, helping you cull the good from the bad - or worse - boring. I'll highlight two books per week, so it doesn't become too much to wade through :)

Let's begin at the top of my bookcase with something thick and heavy:

I am a HUGE history buff. i frequently go to the library and peruse the history section, picking out a book based purely on if it fills a void in my knowledge (or in this case lack thereof). Knowing that about me, one of my professors gave this book to me as a high school graduation present. It's not the lightest read by any means, but after completing it I came away with a full understanding of 14th century Europe's intrigues, plagues, wars and the role the Catholic church played in it all. I would recommend it to anyone who would like to understand that era more thoroughly. I for one know that before reading this book I had only a shadowy knowledge of what occurred during this time period.

On the next shelf, you will find this gem:

I have a weakness for spy thrillers, so of course espionage was initially what drew me to this fast paced book. The $3 price tag at the used book store sealed the deal. I was pleasantly surprised at what an enjoyable read this was. It's always nice to find a nonfiction book that's as hard to put down as a novel :) And who would have thought a history of submarines would be so interesting?! But don't make my mistake - excited to learn more I went and checked out 4 more books on submarines. All were dismally dull. Stick with this one, it's a winner.

This book also gets bonus points because I've read it twice (I hardly ever read a book more than once). That's how good it was :)

Apparel Review: Gap Ballet Flats

For the last week I have been living in a pair of the Gap's city flat ballet shoes. I think I'm in love! They are sooo comfortable. I actually look forward to standing when I'm wearing them because it feels so good :).

I have seen a few reviews online saying that they fall apart quickly, but so far I haven't had a problem. But even if I only get one season out of them, it will be okay because I bought them on sale at the Gap outlet for $15!!

I highly recommend trying them out. To be honest, I was hesitant at first because when I looked at them they didn't look comfortable, but once I put them on I couldn't take them off. They seem to run on the slightly small side, I probably should have gone up a half size so I recommend trying them on before buying.

Click here if you would like to see them on the Gap's website - Gap did not pay for this review, but if they would like to send me another pair of flats I wouldn't say no ;).