I've Been Sick . . .

I woke up on Sunday morning, got out of bed, walked to the kitchen, and got incredibly about-to-pass-out dizzy. I made it back to bed and tried to figure out if I had accidentally ingested vodka during the night but saw no evidence of it, so started exploring other reasons for a sudden onset of dizziness. While I was contemplating the bedroom ceiling, I became aware that I was really, overwhelmingly tired, even after about 10 hours of sleep. The longer I stayed in bed, the worse I felt, and finally blossomed out with a fever, cementing the undeniable fact that I had . . . a virus.

The thing with viruses is you're never sure just which direction they're going to take, so I dosed myself and my stomach gingerly all day and hoped that this would be a fly-by-night 24-hour variety that would just make me feel unwell and then politely go away.

Needless to say, I did no cooking on Sunday OR Monday, which was my fever-free day. I still felt like I'd been run over by a fleet of Ford F-150's. I had every good intention of going to work today, truly I did, but my body had other plans that obviously included staying in bed, so I did.

However, as an old-fashioned girl raised by a traditional Greek mother, I can vouch for the medicinal qualities of a good hard liquor when one's stomach is feeling less than stellar. MacAllen 12-year-old Scotch has been my best friend for the past two days -- not gulped, but sipped in order to soothe the Mt. Vesuvius that's rumbling in my digestive tract.

Even when I'm not sick, I like a good single-malt Scotch, straight up, no diluting ice or tonic or water. I love the smoky overtones and the different flavors; just like a great wine, great Scotch has a complexity that should be savored (even if you are sipping it to keep from throwing up). At this moment we have three brands in the liquor cabinet (a/k/a the top shelf of the pantry): Glenfidditch, MacAllen and Laphroaig. MacAllen is the smoothest and most delicate of the three, and therefore my choice for medicinal purposes. Glenfidditch has a stronger flavor with a more pronounced oak finish. Laphroaig is the bad boy of the trio. It is unabashedly peaty and vibrant with oak and sock-it-to-you flavor that some people find unattractive in a Scotch, but I appreciate because of the wild Scottish isle where it originates. Tasting that Scotch, you can feel the North Sea winds whipping the trees on the island, and the wild beauty that is part of Scotland's many charms. That's my go-to Scotch on a cold winter night after a leg of lamb or rib roast with Yorkshire pudding.

The Perfect Storm

Well, it's not a storm, but it is perfect. After attending Comic Con with the family and going to the grocery store with a nonexistent budget (can we say "credit card until payday"?), I came home and . . . relaxed. Fixed a rum and juice and cut up a whole chicken to marinate in white wine and white pepper for fixin' a la Kirby tomorrow. Cleaned 10 chicken breasts and froze them for use during the week. Waved goodbye to Jennie (Claire's house) and Chris (Darrell's house for the Cowboys game), traded extra 14-year-olds (Mark went home/Greg showed up), and made fettucine Alfredo with shrimp and peas (Required Vegetable) for dinner.

Somewhere in all this I opened one of the last two bottles of reduced-down-to-$6 Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Rosé wine and found out to my delight that "Music and Lyrics" was playing on commercial TV. (I'm singing along -- aren't you glad you aren't here with me?) I have eaten, am contemplating making some brownies (from a mix, no extra additives so get your mind out of the gutter), and life is good.

I watched "Top Chef" while cooking dinner, which is always inspirational -- great show. It's not the precise, write-it-down type of recipes that you need, but the spark that gets YOUR creativity going, and "Top Chef" does it for me. What did I like about that anniversary dinner? Basil? Then add it to the mix. Garlic is ALWAYS good. Got shallots? Throw it in. A little wine, a little cream, sprinkle in fresh grated Parmesan, and voilá! Dinner is served.

And at some point, some day, the temperatures in Dallas, Texas will become bearable. Cheers, y'all.

Thursday Night Wine Tasting At Parker Wine Cellars!

You know, I'm really starting to look forward to Thursday after work. Taekwondo lessons are done for the week, I'm not in a hurry to whip up a meal, and Jeff Stuart at Parker Wine Cellars has something delicious to taste on the way home. This week the wines were from Chile and VERY reasonably priced -- all three of them were under $20. Three wines from Vina Falernia were featured (and I'm quoting Jeff because he has better wine words than I do):

'09 Pedro Ximenez~ Pale straw yellow in color, brilliant with a very attractive nose with floral and aromatic notes that are fresh and clean. A nice medium body with a balance of acidity, minerality and fruit that finishes slightly dry with a lingering of aromatic fruit. Almost a perfect apertif, but will work well with seafood and light chicken dishes. MY NOTE: This is made with the grapes that are used for sherry, and it's a very nice, crisp wine reminiscent of a sauvignon blanc.

'06 Syrah Reserva~ Blended with grapes from three different vineyards, this nice little wine shows up with a bright distinct darkish red color with a nose that hints of violets and pepper spice. Medium to full bodied, the palate boasts of blackberry jam, black pepper, and hints of oak and a wee bit of mocha. The finish lingers and stays with you almost until the next sip comes along. MY NOTE: This is a very nice syrah and can hold its own quite well with higher priced bottles.

'06 Carmenere Reserva~ Using grapes that are partially dried, this fantastic little wine shows up deep and dark purple in the glass with a nose of sweet chocolate and ripe plum. The palate shows hints of vanilla, black cherry and some earthy pipe tobacco that finishes with a balance of length and depth that shows that this juice is far from wimpy and can work well on its own or with a hearty dish. MY NOTE: This was my favorite of the three, which surprised me. I've tried another wine made with partially dried grapes and I didn't much care for the overly intense flavor, but this wine had the most amazing aroma and taste. I would have been quite happy, like Ferdinand the Bull of childhood story fame, to just sit quietly and smell. (Ferdinand smelled the flowers, just in case you were wondering what kind of children's book I was reading.)

After that lovely oasis between work and "what's for dinner, Mommy?" I went home and made dinner. Jackson wasn't up for fish so he got chicken strips, steamed broccoli and French fries. The rest of us had tuna. Chris likes it blackened, so I did that recipe for him, with a side of sushi rice, and Jennie and I had spicy tuna sashimi. I couldn't find any nori to make the spicy tuna into a traditional roll, so I just served it over the sushi rice with sticks of fresh cucumber on the side. It was very light and refreshing, a good summer's day dinner.

I made it through another week of grim budgetary restraints without succumbing to the temptation to get take-out, so I shall go pat myself on the back now. À BIENTÔT!

Not Boring At All -- Yay Me!

Thanks to rush hour traffic that caused me to crawl home at an average speed of 15mph, I didn't have a whole lot of time to fix dinner before the taekwondo run, so as soon as I got home, the food started flying. I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, thawed out three chicken breasts and one piece of puff pastry, chopped a shallot and three cloves of garlic, chopped mushrooms, threw some noodles into boiling water, and got ready to cook. I cut the chicken breasts in half, seasoned them, and browned them on both sides while sauteeing the onions and shallots in the pan. I added white wine and actually did a pretty good reduction because I distracted myself by rolling out the puff pastry (after dividing it into six pieces). One half of a chicken breast went on each piece of pastry and then I added cream to the white wine reduction and made a nice little sauce, which I spooned sparingly over the chicken. The pastry was wrapped around each piece and popped into the oven. Olive oil, salt and garlic powder on the now finished and drained noodles. Mushrooms went into the pan in which I browned the chicken, with a little extra olive oil, so they could absorb what was left of the sauce. By the time they were done (added a little white wine to those too), the chicken was ready, so I threw everything onto plates and announced that dinner was served.

I didn't make enough chicken. The last time I did this recipe (my own invention, as far as I know), everyone said the chicken was really rich and no one could eat more than one half of a chicken breast, so I thought I'd have leftovers. I did not take into account Jackson's growth spurt and a hard second day at school. He inhaled three of the six, Jennie had two, and I was lucky to get one piece. Good thing Chris wasn't home for dinner or one of us would have gone hungry!

I like it when I surprise myself.

It's Going To Be A Boring Week

I mean, literally, what does one say about hamburgers and spaghetti? I made burgers on Sunday night and spaghetti last night. The budget is holding steady and I'm managing to feed the family -- the challenge is to be creative about it.

I bought the 1/4-lb. pre-formed lean hamburger patties from Albertson's (the ground meat they sell at the butcher counter is ground there in the store as opposed to the pre-packaged stuff in the bins that comes from God knows where -- see "Fast Food Nation" if you want a good scare) and seasoned them with Worcestershire sauce and Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Usually we each have our preferred way to fix our burgers -- Jackson and Chris like cheese (American), Jennie and I don't; Jackson likes his burger dry with no condiments; Chris likes his practically mooing rare with mustard, onions and pickles; Jennie likes to fix her own; and I vary between lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise, or mustard and sweet relish and onions.

Sunday night I decided to get mildly creative, so I sauteed mushrooms in one pan, and onions in another pan with a little balsamic vinegar thrown in. I put Swiss cheese on the burgers along with the mushrooms and onions and a little Dijon mustard. Nothing earth-shattering, but it was tasty and made a change. Corn on the cob and French fries rounded out a very American dinner.

Unfortunately, we couldn't wait for the salmon with cream sauce to open the chardonnay so consumed it with the burgers. Not a perfect match, but a lovely wine nonetheless.

Last night I did the absolute easiest dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and hot Italian sausage. A glass of chianti rounded that dinner off nicely, along with a loaf of hot Albertson's French bread. I believe Jackson and his friend Greg have entered the Bottomless Pit stage of their growth, so they finished their spaghetti and meatballs and most of the loaf of bread in record time, supplemented it with yogurt, and had a light snack after taekwondo.

Tonight will probably be chicken, so I may troll through Epicurious.com for inspiration, or fall back on old favorites. Ugh, I think I'll feel more energized about cooking when the weather cools off!

Let Them Eat . . . Peanut Butter

After paying for two unexpected prescriptions during the week, I found myself this morning with about $100 to spend on the week's groceries, and school is starting on Monday, which means 10 school lunches (2 children x 5 days). After last week's accomplishments, however, I set out with a confident heart and spent (wait for it!) $92.51! Granted, I didn't buy any meat except for four 1/4-lb. burger patties and 1 lb. lean ground beef for meatballs, so that helped, and Albertson's is now running their "10% off on Cowboys Game Day" special, which makes me follow football with more interest than I normally would. Oh, I don't dislike football, and I always associate football season with lovely golden autumn days, cool weather, and third quarter naps -- it's just not the entire focus of my life, except for the 10% off thing. I have to wear a football jersey to get the 10% off, though, but it's worth it.

Dinners this week are going to be kind of uninteresting, but I'll see if I can jazz them up a bit: hamburgers, spaghetti, chicken breasts (presentation TBD), seafood (tilapia and mussels), and nachos. Anybody who doesn't like it knows where the peanut butter is. School lunches will be kind of boring too, but all the basics will be there (sandwich, chips, fruit, dessert), so the kids won't starve despite inevitable protestations to the contrary.

Dinner tonight was an experiment. At some point a TGI Friday's frozen dinner had been purchased: Cajun Shrimp and Chicken Pasta. This seemed like a good night to try it out. It was surprisingly good, with only 280 calories per serving. The package served 2 1/2 people, which was pretty much correct. It satisfied two teenagers and one hot, tired mama, along with some garlic toast made from two-day-old Albertson's French bread. As a quick and good-tasting dinner, I'd recommend it and will probably buy it again. Wine recommendations? Whatever you have on hand that you haven't already labeled cooking wine!

Wine Tasting at Parker Wine Cellars!

You know, I'm going to have to start learning some of the handy words and phrases used by oenophiles to describe wine, because I fear I'm repeating myself, and I hate doing that. Furthermore, unless it's REALLY bad wine, I'm not going to sample and spit it out as I've seen others do. I mean, what a total waste of WINE! It's somehow sacriligious, at least in my most humble (and slightly tipsy on occasion) opinion. Oh well, I may spit if I'm sampling more than three wines -- yeah, right! I swallow.

Tonight's wine tasting at Parker Wine Cellars was quite intriguing and we liked two of the three wines well enough to purchase a bottle of each. The origin of the wines really fascinated me, and I'm going to be lazy and quote from Jeff's email invitation: "Venturing out into California Wine Country dressed as a pirate has its advantages, people eye you cautiously and the wines you find are ripe for pillaging. Treasure Hunter Wine is put through a painstaking examination process from a panel of nine called the 'De-Vine Nine.' Made up of top sommeliers, winemakers, and restaurateurs the panel is the top of their respective fields and they pour through hundreds of wines before they allow the Treasure Hunter name to be branded in blood on the bottle. 'The truth is wineries have excess supply so we ramp up our pirate gear and go through our review process – if it passes the De-Vine Nine process we buy it,' shares Andrew Lerner, Owner and Partner of 3 Finger Wines, the Corporate namesake of Treasure Hunter. 'Rather then bottle too much wine or try to lower their well-deserved price we “liberate” the wine and bring it under our Treasure Hunter label. You get great wine; the winery doesn’t lose their reputation or lower their prices.' Hunter Vogel, also an Owner and Partner of 3 Finger Wines goes on to say, 'It is a win-win situation. Who wins? The wineries win because they don’t to make more wine then they can sell, Treasure Hunter wins because we get world class wines for a bargain, and the customer wins because they get to enjoy wines at a price that is 1/3 to 1/5 of the normal price.' Remember, each wine is a one-time offering and represents an extraordinary opportunity. They hunt down the treasures and you drink the booty!"

The Dry Creek Chardonnay '08 was absolutely delicious and a bargain at $17.99. It had a wonderful bouquet and a lightness that was surprising for a chardonnay. Jeff says: "Opulent and toasty, the palate is full of white peach, honey and toasted almonds, and the finish lingers for what seems like minutes." Works for me. This is an OUTSTANDING wine, and you know I'm not a huge white wine drinker. My mind is already calculating what I'm going to cook to accompany the wine. I might make a Greek island recipe for shrimp that has red pepper flakes and feta cheese in it, if I can find the recipe.

The Castaway '07 was a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and syrah, and I wasn't that impressed. I've noticed that if there's too much of a blend, a defined flavor can be lost, and that's what I thought about this wine. It was just . . . red wine. It wasn't bad but I couldn't discern any particular flavors. Maybe my palate isn't that well developed, but HEY -- this is my blog and I write about what I like, so in this case that's what matters. And I didn't particularly like The Castaway, so I'll move on to Wine #3, which was a winner.

Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena Napa '08: This, like the chardonnay, really stood out to me. The flavors were perfect -- not too subtle but not overpowering, just a wonderful harmony of cherry and cassis flavors offset by a delicate hint of oak. It was over budget at $23.99 (my budget, anyway) but well worth it. Definitely a steak with this one (possibly herb crusted tenderloin, once I get off this budget crunch).

And I was good -- I went home and made dinner. As I drove home, I thought hopefully of leftover quiche. Nope. Jennie ate it for lunch. The vichyssoise was past its prime. Jackson ate the leftover fried rice for lunch yesterday and I was a little hesitant about the remnants of 3-day-old fried rice. So I offered nachos and was rewarded with "yes" by everyone.

Nachos are very family specific and what we like someone else may not. This works for us: the requisite tortilla chips spread with refried beans (I like Rosarita's Vegetarian Refried Beans because there's no animal fat in them, so they actually have some nutritional value), topped with Albertson's Mexican Cheese Blend (the one WITHOUT the jalapenos), and chunks of grilled fajita chicken from the freezer. Pop into a 400 degree oven until the cheese melts, and you're ready to eat. I made guacamole too, which provided another sort of vegetable to assuage my motherly conscience.

Here's another tip: When you buy a package of boneless skinless chicken breasts, it pays to clean and freeze them individually, but it's also handy to take a few of them and grill with fajita seasoning and THEN freeze them. That way you have already cooked chicken for any recipe that calls for it, like for nachos, or quick enchiladas, or grilled chicken sandwich -- the possibilities are endless.