So somehow we're already half way through the month of October. This year really has seemed to fly by without a second thought. I guess that's a consequence of getting old... right.
So anyhow, we are having quite an amazing fall here in NE Ohio. Overall Ohio isn't where I'd like to be for the rest of my life, but I have to at least concede that it does have some redeeming characteristics - colorful, sunny, cool fall days would be one thing that comes to mind. The leaves are all starting to change colors, and there's a crisp chill in the evening air. It's time to visit orchards and pick apples and find misshapen bright orange pumpkins. Rows and rows of jugs filled with amber colored cider line cooler displays in all the grocery stores.
This weekend I'm going on a little road trip with one of my bestest buds, Libby. We're going to drive up to Niagara Falls, and then head south through New York and into the hills and valleys of Pennsylvania. Really this is the kind of trip old ladies from coast to coast delight in - leaf peeping I believe they term it. Winding through the Allegany State Park (NY) and the Allegheny National Forest (PA) - god forbid we spell things with any consistency here! - I'm sure we'll get to see our fair share of fall foliage.
The majority of the trip will focus around a portion of Historic US-6 which we'll follow from Port Allegany all the way back home. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of our adventure and make a special post/album that I can link from this blog.
In other news, life is going very well. I remain overjoyed with both of my jobs - the accounting and the bartending. I'm taking the Advanced level for WSET this fall, and sitting for the exam at the end of November. I'm really quite nervous about it, as this class is much more in depth than the previous level, and I need to continue comitting lots of geographical and viticultural information to memory. We've also got a blind tasting to conduct, but I'm not as concerned about that as I was initially.
Life continues.
Be well everyone.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Take Over the World w/ Tofu
So I cannot stop raving about this recipe. My friend Christopher passed it along to me from the Post Punk Kitchen.
Tofu Basil Ricotta
prep time: 10 minutes | cooking time: none | makes About 2 cups
Use as a filling for stuffed shells, mixed with tomato sauce in pasta or as a topping for pizza. By popular demand I edited this to say that you should press the tofu before preparing.
Equipment:
Tireless hands, a bowl
Ingredients
1 pound firm tofu, pressed
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
handful fresh basil leaves, chopped fine (ten leaves or so)
salt
dash fresh black pepper
Directions
In a large bowl, mush the tofu up with your hands, till it's crumbly.
Add lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and basil. Mush with hands again, this time you want it to get very mushy so squeeze through your fingers and mush until it reaches the consistency of ricotta cheese. May take 2-5 minutes.
Add olive oil, stir with fork. Add nutritional yeast and combine all ingredients well. Use a fork now, because the oil will make it sticky. Cover and refigerate until ready to use.
Direct link: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=5
I made this up last night and added some zuchinni, mushrooms, and spinach. Then I used the filling for some lasagna using out of the jar sauce and no-boil noodles.
Tofu Basil Ricotta
prep time: 10 minutes | cooking time: none | makes About 2 cups
Use as a filling for stuffed shells, mixed with tomato sauce in pasta or as a topping for pizza. By popular demand I edited this to say that you should press the tofu before preparing.
Equipment:
Tireless hands, a bowl
Ingredients
1 pound firm tofu, pressed
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
handful fresh basil leaves, chopped fine (ten leaves or so)
salt
dash fresh black pepper
Directions
In a large bowl, mush the tofu up with your hands, till it's crumbly.
Add lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and basil. Mush with hands again, this time you want it to get very mushy so squeeze through your fingers and mush until it reaches the consistency of ricotta cheese. May take 2-5 minutes.
Add olive oil, stir with fork. Add nutritional yeast and combine all ingredients well. Use a fork now, because the oil will make it sticky. Cover and refigerate until ready to use.
Direct link: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=5
I made this up last night and added some zuchinni, mushrooms, and spinach. Then I used the filling for some lasagna using out of the jar sauce and no-boil noodles.
I baked everything for 45 minutes at 375, and then let it sit overnight. It cut very nicely, holds together very well, and was an excellent lunch today. It is vegan, but you could easily add some TVP crumbles to give it more texture. I've learned that the "meat" crumbles are especially good in pasta/sauce dishes - I can hardly tell the difference - then again I'm a little more forgiving that other people I know!
Friday, August 15, 2008
France takes on the world... well, New Zealand, South Africa, and California at least
Last night I hosted a gathering for the Cleveland French Language Meet-up group at my apartment. The purpose of the meeting was to hold a wine tasting comparing French (old world) wines to some of their New World (anywhere but Europe) equivalents.
I chose three varietals - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir - and found some good couplings with the help of Maggie @ Whole Foods. Here's what we tasted:
Sauvignon Blanc
- Domaine Guy Allion – Le Haut Perron Sauvignon Blanc – Touraine, Val de Loire (2007)
- Giesen Sauvignon Blanc – Marlborough, New Zealand (2007)
Chardonnay
- Cave de Lugny Chardonnay - Mâcon-Villages (2006)
- Ondine Chardonnay – South Africa (2004)
Pinot Noir
- Domaine Michel-Andreotti Pinot Noir – Côte Chalonnaise, Bourgogne (2006)
- Parducci Pinot Noir – Mendocino Valley, California (2006)
We also had two other wines - a starter of Brut Spumante from Italy and then finishing with cheesecake served next to a Muscat from Samos, Greece (which was part of last monht's Counter Culture event at WF).
There were 10 of us there including myself and a friend, Angela, from my WSET course. She doesn't speak French, so I think she might have been a little uncomfortable at first, but as we moved through the tasting I think everyone relaxed a little and she was fine.
I poured everything (except the Spumante and Muscat) blind, placing them in paper bags. Evreyone got some information and then a little "score card" to indicate which of the two wines they preferred and to take guesses at whether each was old or new world, and what the varietal was. At the end we tallied everything up, and the person with the most correct answers received a bottle of Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon, a really tasty Cab from Chile.
With the counts completed for everyone's preferred wines, the French wines took first place resoundingly. Of the three new world choices there were a few votes for the Chard and the Pinot, but everyone agreed to liking the French SB much better than the NZ one.
This provided an interesting juxtaposition to an evening earlier this week when I went out with the people from the Cleveland Wine School. We got to see a screening of Bottle Shock, a movie chronicaling the events leading up to the famous 1976 Judgement of Paris. This was a blind tasting arranged by an Englishman living in France to try and expand his business in wine, and putting California wines up against the likes of some of the best from France. Surprisingly - especially to the French, who comprised the entire tasting panel - the top wines amidst the Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays sampled were from California! Starring Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman, the film was enjoyable and very well made - my favorite parts being some of the beautiful shots of the California landscape.
So, I've had a good week, and am excited to host future wine tastings for our French Language group. I'm even considering starting a weekly wine tasting group on Meet-up, but have to put a little more thought into it and see if there's any other interest.
I encourage everyone to go out and grab a bottle of wine you've never tried before - or better yet, find a knowledgeable staff member wherever you like to buy wine, tell them what you enjoy, and ask them to point you to something different that you might also like.
Cheers!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Warm days and warm nights
As suggested it's been rather warm here lately. Not necessarily in a bad way though. Up until today it was rather pleasant, getting hot but with relatively low humidity, so it was dry. I imagine this is the kind of lovely weather our friends to the West get to have day in and day out... bastards. Then again they have intermittent fires and earth quakes to contend with... hm, I wonder if it would be a worthwhile sacrifice.
That said, tomorrow I believe it is going to rain - I can feel the moisture building up in the air, condensing. I love the rain, but the inevitable humidity before or after is not my kind of weather. I sweat when I sleep, and that means my sheets are gross and need to be washed constantly. I suppose we could get AC, but I'm terrified about what that'll do to our electricity bill. I've not even gotten the first one yet, so until that comes I'm not in any rush to cool the place down with anything more than some well positioned fans. And it's not as if people all over the state, country, and world don't live without the modern convenience of air conditioning. We'll survive. There are far worse things that I could be challenged with.
Since my last entry I've seen The Dark Knight - actually, it was that night. Some friends and I went to a midnight screening at Severence in Cleveland Heights. It was a fantastic movie, and I can't wait to see it in an IMAX theatre. There should be a trip to Pittsburgh, or Columbus, or maybe Cincinnati in the near future. I'll be brief, but echo what everyone else has said, and note that I think Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was phenomenal. I'm not determined to see a posthumous Oscar, but more so let down that they won't be able to do any overlap with the next film unless they re-cast.
I went to a wine dinner last night at Whole Foods. The last Monday of every month they have a themed tasting for $45 called Counter Culture - it's held at their cafe-style prepared foods counter in the specialty section. Maggie, my wine lady, told me about it Sunday, and I signed up immediately. A tour of Greek wines and accompanying Mediterranean influenced cuisine. It was really stunning, but I won't go into great detail about it now - I have the menu which I can perhaps upload a photo of or transcribe. (Edit: I scanned a copy below.) In general Greek wines are tasty.
That said, tomorrow I believe it is going to rain - I can feel the moisture building up in the air, condensing. I love the rain, but the inevitable humidity before or after is not my kind of weather. I sweat when I sleep, and that means my sheets are gross and need to be washed constantly. I suppose we could get AC, but I'm terrified about what that'll do to our electricity bill. I've not even gotten the first one yet, so until that comes I'm not in any rush to cool the place down with anything more than some well positioned fans. And it's not as if people all over the state, country, and world don't live without the modern convenience of air conditioning. We'll survive. There are far worse things that I could be challenged with.
Since my last entry I've seen The Dark Knight - actually, it was that night. Some friends and I went to a midnight screening at Severence in Cleveland Heights. It was a fantastic movie, and I can't wait to see it in an IMAX theatre. There should be a trip to Pittsburgh, or Columbus, or maybe Cincinnati in the near future. I'll be brief, but echo what everyone else has said, and note that I think Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was phenomenal. I'm not determined to see a posthumous Oscar, but more so let down that they won't be able to do any overlap with the next film unless they re-cast.
I went to a wine dinner last night at Whole Foods. The last Monday of every month they have a themed tasting for $45 called Counter Culture - it's held at their cafe-style prepared foods counter in the specialty section. Maggie, my wine lady, told me about it Sunday, and I signed up immediately. A tour of Greek wines and accompanying Mediterranean influenced cuisine. It was really stunning, but I won't go into great detail about it now - I have the menu which I can perhaps upload a photo of or transcribe. (Edit: I scanned a copy below.) In general Greek wines are tasty.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Heard it on NPR
Very interesting look at the actual meaning of the infamous "jihad."
I wanted to share it with anyone reading, so I'll just link it up - as I don't want to get sued for re-posting copywritten material on my blog! (I'm still waiting for Paris to sue me over those Eiffel Tower pics!!!) Below is the opening paragraph with a link to the full article
What Does 'Jihad' Really Mean?by Jamie Tarabay
After years of using the word "jihadist" to describe terrorists who carry out attacks against civilians and the U.S. military, the Bush administration has finally realized that doing so actually pays those groups a compliment in the eyes of some Muslims. (full story...)
I'm sure this is probably nothing new to some of my more gloablly educated readers, but regardless I hope you find it as interesting and perhaps enlightening as I did.
Cheers!
Mobile Blogging
So after digging through all kinds of third party applications and other websites looking for some way to post to my blog remotely, I discovered that this entire time (well, I'm not really sure for how long) Blogger has it's very own Mobile Blogging service. So now I can blog from my iPhone without having to log in - or anywhere I can access email for that matter.
Hopefully this additional posting option will lead me to make more frequent postings.
So what's been going on in life over the last couple months... June went by so quickly. I can't believe it's already July, and half way through July at that!
June was our last month in Cleveland Heights, and we have now moved to Shaker Heights, about 4 miles away, to the upper suite ofa nice duplex on charming Winslow Road. Another friend, Dan, has also moved in with us, so we are now three. Things are working out well enough currently, though I think the whole move process was somewhat stressful and took some adjustments for everyone. You'll have that I suppose. Everything got in easily enough though, and now I'm focused on working on one or two rooms.
The main living areas (living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen - to some extent) are all arranged and unpacked. There are still some things that need to be done in the kitchen. My bedroom is mostly unpacked but things need to be rearranged and set in their place.
Shortly after moving in we got a visit from Rebekah, who was passing through Cleveland a few days before heading back to Spain. We spend a lovely evening with her and enjoyed a nice home cooked meal.
Later that week we had a sorta housewarming and 4th of July party at our place. Uneventful for the most part, but fun.
Working a lot lately, and listening to a lot of NPR.
iPhone got an update to the software (as well as a new phone, but I don't think I'm going to waste the money getting one). I've been playing around with the new features and applications that are available. Lots of cool stuff.
I want to start working on some ideas I've had for a wine website, an application of my own for the iPhone, and my consulting gig. I need to sit down with some friends who have expressed interest in helping - and I'll need it, given my lack of web/programming knowledge.
The advanced class for WSET starts in about 6 weeks. I'm busy reading through the text still. I'm hoping to do better on this exam than I did on the Intermediate, but that's going to mean devoting a lot more time to memorizing and really engraining information into my mind. Also need to start doing a lot of at home tasting (not to get drunk! lol) because we'll have a blind tasting as part of the exam. I'm nervous.
Winery is working out very well. We've had a busy summer, but it's rained on and off almost every weekend since it's been truly warm. Sort of odd. Vintage Ohio is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm kind of in the air about whether I really want to help. Cindy sounds like she's set on putting me in the special reserve tent for our Chardonnay, which is a wine that qualified for Ohio's new quality wine program.
Also, regarding wine, Tony - my former prof at Kent - is in need of someone to help him teach his classes this fall, and said he was interested in having me there. I'm really excited about that, and I think it would be a fantastic experience.
So that's about all for now. I signed up for a Twitter account, so if you're on there feel free to look me up.
Cheers!
Hopefully this additional posting option will lead me to make more frequent postings.
So what's been going on in life over the last couple months... June went by so quickly. I can't believe it's already July, and half way through July at that!
June was our last month in Cleveland Heights, and we have now moved to Shaker Heights, about 4 miles away, to the upper suite ofa nice duplex on charming Winslow Road. Another friend, Dan, has also moved in with us, so we are now three. Things are working out well enough currently, though I think the whole move process was somewhat stressful and took some adjustments for everyone. You'll have that I suppose. Everything got in easily enough though, and now I'm focused on working on one or two rooms.
The main living areas (living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen - to some extent) are all arranged and unpacked. There are still some things that need to be done in the kitchen. My bedroom is mostly unpacked but things need to be rearranged and set in their place.
Shortly after moving in we got a visit from Rebekah, who was passing through Cleveland a few days before heading back to Spain. We spend a lovely evening with her and enjoyed a nice home cooked meal.
Later that week we had a sorta housewarming and 4th of July party at our place. Uneventful for the most part, but fun.
Working a lot lately, and listening to a lot of NPR.
iPhone got an update to the software (as well as a new phone, but I don't think I'm going to waste the money getting one). I've been playing around with the new features and applications that are available. Lots of cool stuff.
I want to start working on some ideas I've had for a wine website, an application of my own for the iPhone, and my consulting gig. I need to sit down with some friends who have expressed interest in helping - and I'll need it, given my lack of web/programming knowledge.
The advanced class for WSET starts in about 6 weeks. I'm busy reading through the text still. I'm hoping to do better on this exam than I did on the Intermediate, but that's going to mean devoting a lot more time to memorizing and really engraining information into my mind. Also need to start doing a lot of at home tasting (not to get drunk! lol) because we'll have a blind tasting as part of the exam. I'm nervous.
Winery is working out very well. We've had a busy summer, but it's rained on and off almost every weekend since it's been truly warm. Sort of odd. Vintage Ohio is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm kind of in the air about whether I really want to help. Cindy sounds like she's set on putting me in the special reserve tent for our Chardonnay, which is a wine that qualified for Ohio's new quality wine program.
Also, regarding wine, Tony - my former prof at Kent - is in need of someone to help him teach his classes this fall, and said he was interested in having me there. I'm really excited about that, and I think it would be a fantastic experience.
So that's about all for now. I signed up for a Twitter account, so if you're on there feel free to look me up.
Cheers!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
WSET update
Just a quick update to let everyone know that I got my scores for my Internediate level WSET certification. I passed with merit - not the highest achievement, but 2nd in the rankings. I probably could have done a little better (not sure what the numerical score was), but I'm pleased with it.
I'm registering next week for the Advanced level which starts in September.
Bought a domain name: oe-no-phile.com - I'm going to set-up some kind of wine information site and start using the Ohio Oenophiles group/blog more seriously.
In other news we're moving at the end of the month - not far, but to a nicer place. I'll update later with contact info.
Cheers!
Ryan
I'm registering next week for the Advanced level which starts in September.
Bought a domain name: oe-no-phile.com - I'm going to set-up some kind of wine information site and start using the Ohio Oenophiles group/blog more seriously.
In other news we're moving at the end of the month - not far, but to a nicer place. I'll update later with contact info.
Cheers!
Ryan
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