Wine tasting

Mr. Aitch and I enjoy wine frequently.  We prefer reds though occasionally we’ll have white.Hullabaloo-wine-label

Last night’s dinner consisted of cheese and crackers, apple slices and cheesecake.  And a bottle of Hullabaloo Zinfandel.  This was our first experience with this vintner (Nine North Wine Co.) but we love other Zinfandels from the Lodi region of California so we had high hopes.

As my routine goes, I sniffed the bouquet first.  (For you non-wine drinkers that means I smelled the wine before I tasted it.)  I made a face.  Mr. Aitch asked what was wrong.  I told him it smelled like armpit.  Sweaty armpit.  It was just as though the smell from the weightlifter on the label and cork permeated the fermented grapes in the bottle.

Hullabaloo-wine-backjpg

Was the back label a clue?  Hurly burly!

Hullabaloo-wine-cork-and-bo

We thought it was perhaps the pairing of the food and wine that wasn’t quite right.Hullabaloo-wine-cork

But what do you pair with an armpit?

Hullabaloo-wine-002

The two best things about this bottle of wine are its cork and label.  Of course this is just my opinion.

It’s a love-hate relationship

Lasagna, that is.

I love to eat it but hate to make it.

At lunch today I suggested to Mr. Aitch that we either have spaghetti or baked ziti for dinner tonight.  He said that he was hoping we could have lasagna.

Well, baked ziti and lasagna are basically the same thing but with a different shaped pasta so I had all the ingredients for either one.

And since I love Mr. Aitch, we had lasagna.

With Italian bread.

A simple salad.

And, of course, wine.  =)

Another substitution

In the United States we just celebrated Thanksgiving.  The traditional meal consists of turkey.  The trimmings vary from home to home and region to region.  Do you still have any leftover turkey?

Last year I posted a chicken corn chowder recipe that I threw together.  The post was about substitutions in recipes.

Well, I substituted again using the same chicken corn chowder recipe.

I used some leftover Thanksgiving turkey instead of the chicken.

Delicious.

An open bag is an empty bag

I love sweets.  Chocolate in particular. 

Two of my favorites are:Hershey’s Nuggets Milk Chocolate with Almonds and Toffee and

5th Avenue candy bars

Too much chocolate and I am S.I.C.K.  Big time.  Occasionally I over indulge but for the most part I am careful with how much I eat at one time.

That doesn’t mean I can have some chocolate today and none tomorrow.  I do not do moderation very well.  When I buy chocolate, I ask Mr. Aitch to not to tell me that he’s opened the bag.  I will not open a bag of candy but as long as I know there is unsecured chocolate around, I will nibble, nibble, nibble. 

Because an open bag is an empty bag.

Or it will be empty very, very soon.