Funny Farm Wine List: Trumpeter, an Argentinian Malbec

Trumpeter Malbac. It's what all the cool cats are drinking at the Funny Farm.

As you have probably guessed, when it comes to the finer things in life, I’m a bit of a hick. I am, after all, the woman who thinks wearing scrubs to work constitues business casual.

So you might find it funny that I occasionally drop into my local family-owned liquor store (in Country Club Plaza, Fairport Road) and pick out a new wine to try. Over the years, I’ve found a few wines I like and have bought regularly, but in the spirit of getting old, I’m getting more adventurous. (Maybe my year of adventure should have involved a new wine a month. I could stick to that schedule, I think.) I go into the store and tell the sales person to suggest a wine under $15 or $20. (During the holidays, I had quite an adventure sampling spirits and am now hooked on Gran Marnier. Maybe I’m not quite so unsophisticated after all.)

Some wines I’ve liked and tried again – Mark West Pinot Noir, for example, or a lovely Primativo I can’t find again. Some, not so much; I didn’t even get through the whole bottle of a red wine called Lab from Portugal. It was a little bitter for me, with a slightly bug-spray aftertaste. (Don’t you like my professional wine terms?)

So on tonight’s Funny Farm wine adventure list: Trumpeter, a Malbec from Rutini Wines in Argentina.

Julie, the salesperson who helped me tonight, asked me how I felt about Malbecs. Never heard of them, I said. So she suggested Punto Final, another Malbec from Argentina that she really likes. I also got the Trumpeter because she said she’d heard it was good and it was on sale. I figure if you’re going to try something new, jump in with both feet. Or at least one glass for each hand. We’ll try the Trumpeter tonight, and the Punto Final tomorrow.

So far, so good. It’s a lovely shade of purpley-red, not too sweet, not too bitter, and nice and smooth. It goes  lovely with popcorn fresh from the air popper (topped with butter), especially the kernels that Bandit has slobbered all over.

Trumpeter – goes lovely with popcorn and dog spit.

Goodbye 2010, and may we never meet again

Less than six hours left in 2010, and I am ending it so far much like I began it: hanging out by myself, waiting for darling husband to come home from work, dogs barking, cat meowing, TV on in the background.

This is a picture I do not want to repeat next year.

I’m not good at resolutions, but I am fairly good with goals, and as you know my goal for 2011 is adventure. If I was really adventurous, I’d have made plans to go out tonight. But I figure what the heck. Might as well end the year with one good and final, get it out of my system, pity party.

Boo hoo, bring on the drinks!

Because starting tomorrow, I vow to do things differently, to not wait around for other people, to try and do more on my own. And dammit, to finish what I start.

And for starters, I am going to finish one of these damn book proposals. I’m not good at much and I don’t have a lot to offer anyone, but I can write. When I actually sit down and write. And I need to finish something. SOMETHING!!

Ray Bradbury says that every day he writes a short story. Even if most of them are crappy, at the end of the year he’s written 365 short stories. And there has to be something good in there somewhere.

I don’t know if I have the discipline to do that. But I need to at least try.

I have realized that I write better in the early mornings and late at night. Since I am not – repeat, NOT – a morning person I think it’s time I started writing at night. Setting that schedule will free me up to do other things during the day and not feel guilty. So let’s try that. No trying to write during the day, but instead setting aside specific hours to write. Like a job. When it’s time to write, I write. Otherwise, I clean, get outside, etc.

As for adventure? I got nothing for January yet. For me, it would be adventurous to go to the county park alone and hike with the dogs. I’m comfortable in our little town park. But in the woods? By myself? That’s definitely out of my comfort zone.

Baby steps, right? And a Midnight Martini*. Happy New Year!

(*Midnight martini: 1.5 oz vodka, .5 oz Chambord, garnish with a lemon twist. That’s the official recipe; I skipped the lemon and put the whole thing over crushed ice, so it’s not really a martini. More like a vodka icee that tastes a bit like cough syrup.)

Where did your breakfast come from?

My breakfast sandwich. Do you know where your breakfast came from?

I was just thinking about my food and where it came from. For breakfast this morning, I had a toasted mini pita with ham and cheese and an egg.

Mini whole wheat pita- from Father Sam’s bakery, Buffalo, NY,. Ingredients: whole wheat flour, enriched unbleached flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin, mononitrate [vitamin B1], riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), water, sugar, salt, yeast, l-cysteine, calcium sulfate, fumaric acid, calcium propionate added to retard spoilage.

Ham - Wegmans Ham Off The Bone. The only thing I know about is what’s on the Wegmans’ website: “The best ham sandwich. Fresh, naturally delicious double-smoked ham is smoked 10-12 hours using real wood chips. Made with natural juices with no water, binders, fillers or sweeteners added. Natural juices. Fully cooked. Off-the-bone. 97% Fat free. U.S. Inspected and passed by Department of Agriculture.” The pig could have been farmed in Guatemala for all I know.

Egg – From my backyard. I don’t know which chicken laid it. But I know what all of the chickens have eaten and that the egg was laid within the last few days.

Cheese – Kerrygold Dubliner Vintage Irish Cheddar.  I love this cheese, made from milk from small farmers in Ireland. For all I know “small” could mean leprechauns milking leprecows. Not that I would care. They’ve ruined me to all other cheddars. But you’ve got to try the Vintage; it’s harder than the other two types, much like a Parmesan in texture.

Butter, in which I fried my egg - Organic Valley. I’m a firm believer that the closer to real food you can get, the better. So I don’t use margarine, and whenever possible only organic butter or butter from grass-fed cows. I promise, you’ll notice the difference. More expensive? Absolutely. But I use less so I eat less, so it’s healthier all the way around.

The cheese  may seem to violates my normal “made in America” food policy, but it doesn’t. Dubliner is a company that pays attention to the quality of its product, unlike most things made in China. So don’t feel guilty about enjoying some imported from Ireland.

31 days without Walmart – the night before

Here's my red pepper from Belgium. Isn't it pretty? I wonder how many miles it traveled to get to my pizza.

Tomorrow morning I kick off my “31 days without Walmart” adventure, and today I got a glimpse at how it might affect my husband.

This weekend is his family Christmas party, and he and his brothers are playing host. It’s held at a lodge in the park, and he asked me a couple of weeks ago to get plastic tablecloths. Except he didn’t know what size the tables were or if they were long rectangles or rounds or if the lodge even supplied the tables.

So today, I told him that if he needed me to go to Walmart to get the tablecloths or any other party supplies, today was the day. Because tomorrow Walmart was off limits to me. I told him that I probably wouldn’t shop at the Dollar Store either, since that kind of defeats the whole purpose of the project.

If we need tableclothes, I’d try Wegmans. “Never mind,” he said. “I’ll do it myself. I’m glad I’m not the one doing this little experiment.” Hmm. This little project could come in handy in ways I’d never imagined.

But I do have a dilemma: even though I’m skipping Walmart, can I still shop at Big Lots? I think I can, since my goal is to skip my usual go-to discount StuffMart so that I can at least think about purchases.

And here’s my second dilemma: I went to Wegmans, our locally-based, first rate grocery chain to get my prescription filled (strep throat, lovely) and while I was there picked up some stuff to make pizza for dinner. I like red peppers on my pizza, and I usually buy enough during the summer to freeze them and get me through the winter.

But I’m fresh out, so I grabbed one while I was at the store. Where was it from? Belgium. The orange peppers were from the Dominican Republic and the yellow ones from Mexico. So, do I skip the peppers? I could drive over to Lori’s Natural Foods and get an organic, locally grown pepper. Starting tomorrow, that’s what I would need to do in order to stick with the spirit of my adventure.

But today? I bought a red pepper from Belgium. If I’m going to buy a foreign vegetable, I might as well get the most unusual one, right? I’ve never even had chocolates from Belgium, let alone a pepper. I do wonder, though, how many chemicals it took to keep the pepper fresh on its journey.

RELATED POST: Fair trade, engaged consumer holiday shopping, and 31 days without Walmart

Fair trade, engaged consumer holiday shopping, and 31 days without Walmart

I don't normally shop specifically for "fair trade" items. But a 4 oz. bottle of all natural vanilla for $5.99 was too good a deal to pass up. That it's also fair trade and organic? The perfect purchase.

For the record, I do not consider myself a tree-hugging liberal, which is what I think some of my friends are beginning to think I’ve morphed into. No, I’m a Jesus-following, love-my-neighbor American with a Libertarian-leaning political bent.

So it shouldn’t surprise you that I pay attention to what I eat and where it was farmed, as well as where the products I buy are made.  Being an engaged or educated consumer doesn’t start with reading labels. It starts with loving people.

And I’m not a bandwagon issue kind of gal. I think that oftentimes what starts out as a good idea becomes a marketing ploy to make consumers feel good. If you buy yogurt with a pink label you think you’ve somehow done our part to help breast cancer research, when all you did was increase the sales for that dairy company and made yourself feel a little better without doing anything other than what you’d normally do.

But I digress. For today. Because tomorrow, I kick off my “31 days without Walmart” adventure. No big box, discount, dollar store shopping for the entire month of December.

Understand this isn’t about Walmart specifically. That’s just my go-to discout store when I need something quick and cheap. The goal is to avoid all of those super cheap StuffMart stores, focusing my dollars and time instead on local businesses and products made in the U.S.A.

This isn’t something new for me, necessarily. Whenever possible I avoid the “Made in China” label if I can find a product made locally instead. It’s not easy. And I’m not opposed to foreign products. But when it comes to shirts made in Vietnam or shoes from Indonesia, I just don’t know what companies are treating their employees well or working them like slaves. Literally.

This is all Kelsey’s fault. Kelsey Timmerman is the author of the book, “Where Am I Wearing?” We met several years ago at a writers’ conference. He went on to write the book; I got another dog so I had an excuse to not write.

Before I met Kelsey, I never cared about where my clothes were made or  how those workers were treated. Then Kelsey and I became pals and I read his book (if you  haven’t read it, maybe Santa can stuff it in your stocking) and those clothing labels began to have faces. I began to think, “I know this shirt cost $5.  But I wonder who made it? How many hours a day do they work?” I confess I go for the bargains sometimes, but more and more I find myself putting the product back on the shelf. I don’t need half the stuff I buy anyway.

Being an engaged consumer is important to me, not because I’ve switched political parties, but because Jesus would want it that way.

If we really love our neighbors, we’ll care about their working conditions. We’ll want to support our local communities. We’ll care that people have healthy families and medical care and safe working conditions, whether they’re around the corner or around the world.

For you Christians, let’s call it “missions”.

So for the next 31 days, no Walmart, no Big Lots, no Dollar Store, no Target. Not because those stores are bad – you can find good quality products made in the U.S.A at reasonable prices. And those stores support local economies by providing jobs to our neighbors. But in order to make a point, I’m going cold turkey on the StuffMart.

It’s Christmas. This isn’t going to be easy.

My Thanksgiving baking adventure

I like baking. I’m just not that good at it. In fact, I really can’t cook at all. I try, I really do. But inevitably something happens that screws up the whole dish. Martha Stewart, I am definitely not.

Today I was making pies for Thanksgiving. Since I’ve been having such good luck with my pie crusts, I decided to make crust from scratch – rather than buying the Pillsbury already-made crust that you just unroll.

I also decided to use canned organic pumpkin. For the apple pie, I used organic cameo apples. I thought it would be nice to use some higher quality ingredients.

Big plans for the holiday dessert. Of course, things never turn out the way I plan.

Problem #1: I just can’t roll out a pie crust big enough for a big pie. I’m good with the tart sized dishes. So I ended up having to patch together the crust. The edges are all uneven.

I can't roll out a pie crust to save my life. So I just patch the dough together and hope for the best.

Problem #2: I followed the directions on the pumpkin pie can, but for some reason the filling didn’t seem right. The eggs were a little bit … unbeaten. The directions called for me to add “lightly beaten” eggs and mix just until the ingredients were mixed. After it was baked, it seemed a bit spotty. Thank goodness for whipped cream!

I think those spots are from where the eggs weren't totally mixed.

Problem #3: While I was mixing the pumpkin pie filling, Bandit licked both empty pie shells.

Problem #4: After peeling the apples, I realized that I was a little short. I peeled and sliced 5 apples. I needed 6. I bought six. But I ate one yesterday. Damn.

Problem #5: After baking the pumpkin pie, I forgot to change the temperature on the oven from 350 degrees to 425 degrees for the apple pie. So after the required 40  minutes of baking, said apple pie was raw. I changed the temp and baked for another 1/2 hour.

Let's hope the apple pie tastes better than it looks!

Hopefully, the pies taste better than they look. At least Bandit liked the pie crust.

Food adventure: Romanesco

Isn't Romanesco the most interesting vegetable? Looks like something from outer space. But it's not. It's Italian.

After yesterday’s trip to the natural food store, I was feeling adventurous when I went to Wegmans to get something for dinner tonight. The plan was to make hamburgers and I needed buns.

But one of my favorite Wegmans’ employees, Al Springer, was working in the produce section so I changed my mind.

It started when a little girl picked up a strange looking vegetable and asked her mom what it was. Al explained that it’s Romanesco, an Italian cauliflower.

Al’s a wealth of information, so of course I asked for more information. Not only does he know all about food, he’s got great tips and recipes that even an idiot like me can prepare.

I asked if it was a novelty vegetable, something designed for the holidays, seeing as  how it looked like little Christmas trees. In fact, if you break it apart instead of cutting it with a knife, the flourettes look just like little trees. Nifty for a holiday veggie tray.

Al explained that Romanesco has been grown for centuries in Italy, but this bunch came locally from a farm in Clyde. So not only was I going to try something new, I was buying locally grown food.

Cool!

Even though Al shared a few ways to prepare this new vegetable, I opted for the easiest: I ate it raw. And let me tell you , it’s yummy. Sweeter than cauliflower with a nicer texture.

And while we were talking, Al mentioned making greens and beans. To be honest, I don’t know that I’ve ever had greens and beans, and I know I’ve never used a cannellini bean. So he told me how to make greens and beans, and viola. Dinner tonight is meatloaf with baked potatoes, leftover acorn squash, and greens and beans.

I enjoyed it all. In fact, I’d venture to say it was one of my favorite meals in recent memory. Not so sure about Cassie and David. Cassie doesn’t love meat and David doesn’t like vegetables. Bummer for them, eh?

Why I don’t eat organic more often

I was at a local natural foods/organic store today because I needed cheese puffs.

I’ve been eating cheese puffs for the past few days, in fact have gone through two bags of the flouresent orange delights. Don’t ask me why I gave in and bought them to begin with; I normally eschew foods with artificial colors and flavors, and this stuff is loaded with both. But I had such a craving that I made a special treat to Wegmans to buy some. And once I started eating them, I couldn’t stop.

Of course, the craving for cheese puffs was accompanied by cravings for other crap food – which is probably why I was so cranky last week.

So today, I thought I’d head out to the natural food store to see if there was such a thing as organic or natural cheese puffs.

And what do you know? There is! Yay for me!

While I was there, I got some dried cranberries and an orange (I’m now craving cranberry orange scones), a squash, apples, some turbinado sugar, organic popcorn, beets, potatoes, and some loose tea. Total bill: $14. A little more than Wegmans but better in the long run.

Which gave me pause: Last summer I bought most of our food at the public market. This summer, I haven’t been once. And you should know that our public market was named best in the nation. It’s a great place to get locally grown, organic or sustainably farmed food, including meat.

So as I wandered the aisles at the natural food store today I thought, Gee, I really should come here more often.

Then I remembered why I don’t: I don’t know what half this stuff on the shelves is.

Quinoa?  Bulgar wheat? Couscous (not in a box already mixed with seasoning)? Basmati rice? A bazillion different kinds of flour?

Seriously, my cooking skills are limited to the basics: instant rice, flour in a bag, stuff like that.

I asked one of the store employees if they had an recipe cards or did cooking classes for people interested in exploring new foods. She kind of looked at me like I was an idiot and suggested I go online to a recipe website.

I wouldn’t begin to know what to look for. The idea of going vegetarian boggles my mind. I wouldn’t know what to eat.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to find organic or local alternatives to most things I know how to cook, even though I’d like to experiment with some new stuff. Tonight, I’m roasting pork tenderloin (not organic, but from Palmers) stuffed with apples (organic). I’m going to roast an acorn squash (organic) and some beets (organic) and make David potatoes (organic, locally grown).

And for a late night snack: organic cheese puffs. I may not know much about grains. But cheese puffs? Now there’s something I can sink my teeth into.

Adventure girl makes (another) pie

My most recent attempts at pie crust from scratch. It's not a pretty sight.

Since I’ve been without a car for most of the month and was out of shortening, I’ve been making pie crust using oil. Tastes better but is much harder to work with. Especially for an idiot like me.

This most recent attempt at pie crust from scratch ended up with me just patching together pieces to cover the filling. (And you guys want me to go whitewater rafting? I’m dangerous enough with flour and oil!).

It wasn’t much to look at, but after it was baked it looked a little better:

Fortunately, the baking process hides a lot of the crust flaws. And appearance has no impact on taste – because these apple and blueberry pies were YUMMY.

Adventure Girl makes a pie

Look! I made a pie!

As part of my Year of Adventure warm up, in which I will attempt to have 12 adventures in 2011, this week I made a pie. Actually, a few  pies.

It’s not as if I’ve never made a pie before, but whenever I make pies I use pre-made crust. You know, the kind that comes in a  long box, and all you have to do is unroll the crust into a pan. Which is basically cheating. I mean, at that rate, why not just buy the pie already made and save the effort of peeling and slicing apples?