Sunday January 02, 2011
Icelandic horses and Scottish Highland cattle seem to live for winter!! One would think that they'd head for the shelter of their barn but instead they stand facing the wind, bangs blowing, snow piling on their backs in complete peace with nature. It's a magical sight!
I'll remember this in the middle of summer when they are miserable - they hate the heat, and they hate the flies more.
Sunday January 02, 2011
Saturday Evening Toast 1/1/11
Perhaps today’s commentary should be dubbed “Sunday morning brunch with toast! Not the most auspicious first entry for 2011 but, alas, I persevere even with the reminder of last night still plaguing me a little bit!
The new year brings along with it so many hopes, wishes and possibilities. I am of the firm belief that one should drink copious amounts of sparkling wine all the time yet we seem to drink it only on special occasions, why? I have no good answer for this as in every sparkling wine making region in the world, Champagne in France, Penedes in Spain, Santa Catarina in Brazil, all over Italy, they drink the “bubbly” all the time. Sparkling wine, especially those that use “method champanoise”, which adds a “dosage” makes people happy, gregarious and quite talkative. A dosage is an addition of either sugar or yeast to cause a second fermentation in the bottle.
When I worked for Perrier-Jouet Champagne in Epernay, France, at the very beginning of my wine career we drank Champagne all the time. I found this strange but, of course, went along with it. The Champanoise, people who come from the Champagne region of France, say: Champagne makes women’s eyes sparkle and men fall in love”. Pour me another glass!!!
This year we ushered in 2011 surrounded by great friends, delicious food, perfect wine and lots of bubbly to keep all of us sparkly and in love. We talked of the events of the year gone by and, privately, about our individual hopes for the coming year. Ever hopeful, I enter into each year with vim and vigor knowing it will be at least as great as the out going year.
I, personally, had a great 2010. I made new friends, met a perfect partner to share my life with and launched my private label wine…I consider myself blessed in many ways. I must drink not only to the new year but to the past year and all the years that came before that have allowed me to get to this point in my life.
So, despite my inauspicious start this year(it is still the first day of the year and Saturday) I toast each one of you with a glass of something bubbly, be it Champagne, Cava, Proseco, Spumante or whatever tickles your fancy, makes your eyes sparkle and allows the love to flow! My first recommendation for 2011 is to drink sparkling wine at least 3 times per week. I am positive that there is something that each one of us can celebrate, at minimum, 3 times per week. Sometimes, I like to have a glass of bubbly because I know that I have completed all of my tasks for that day…that, in itself, is a reason to celebrate! Life is a celebration, make it a “resolution” this year that celebrating life is as important as washing your hands.
CHEERS!!!!
Alex
Friday December 31, 2010
Closing the book on one year and opening a new one is always an interesting concept. I try not to make resolutions; I try to make a plan!!
So here's my new year's concoction/plan:
Eat real, in season foods, cook often for my family and friends, take care of myself, pay it forward, be open to the possiblities.
And regarding Heirloom Meals - we'll continue to provide more tried and true recipes, stories and tips!!
Happy New Year!!
And just in case - Here's a great menu for tonight with some concoctions!!
Thursday December 30, 2010
Ok, let's get the sayings out of the way - it'll help set the stage for this week's blog.
1. "The best laid plans...never actually work out the way you want them too."
2. "Murphy's Law, if it can go wrong, it will go wrong."
3. "When it rains, it pours."
4. "This, too shall pass."
5. "It's all good." (Say this one with a rueful smile on your face, as you realize beyond a doubt something is about to or has just gone unbelievably wrong.)
Guess what kind of week I had? Great! No, really it was. Army boy (aka Curt, my oldest) was home for Christmas, my Uncle and his entire family came up as well and I had a wonderful visit with everyone and gave tribute at my Grandfather's memorial. That's the broad overview. Diving into the different days in detail tells a little different story, but still a happy ending.
So, back to the sayings - number 1 – The Plan – clean out the barn, move the feeders around, finish erecting pens, fill the gutters and bed the barn with lots of dry, fluffy shavings, pull up all of the fencing that is still outside and frozen into the ground, make marmalade and egg nog for gifts and have it all done by Christmas. Yeah, right… I did manage to get the girls into the barn just as the snow was beginning to pile up during the blizzard.
The girls seem quite comfortable, but the cost of shavings for bedding just might put me out of business, really. I’m used to a deep pack bedding system where you put down a thick layer of shavings (once), then lots of straw and keep adding straw on top of any manure. Doing this makes a warm, solid and dry place for the sheep. Of course you need to clean it out in the spring with a tractor, but I have a tractor, so that isn’t really so important. The important thing, is to be able to get into the pack to clean it out. I can’t do this in the barn I am renting for the winter, so I need to put down shavings and clean it all out every week. Okay, more work, but where else do I need to be aside from being in the barn with the sheep? Only problem is, the 21 bags of shavings I put down Sunday outlived their usefulness by Wednesday. 21 bags of shavings from Tractor Supply Co. cost $126, not sustainable! If this keeps going at this rate, I will need to clean and bed the barn twice a week and financially I won’t make it through the winter. I called three people who deal in and deliver wood shavings, but the stuff is so expensive and hard to come by (thanks to all the wood pellet stoves out there), that it has taken repeated phone calls over three weeks to get any answers. Best we can do is get loose shavings, 30 yards at a time (BIG pile I need to cover) and that will be about ½ what it costs for bagged. Still, very expensive and certainly not an expense I had planned for.
Number 2 – Murphy’s Law – that kind of says it all doesn’t it, so I’ll just top off some of the gaps – Home Depot (where I am recognized and called by name) wrong size nuts, bolts, drivers, etc – having to make multiple trips. My printer deciding it didn’t want to talk with my computer anymore because it was no longer networked (all the system and program CDs were in storage of course, but I didn’t know that and kept looking all over the house and garage in every box for three days because I couldn’t find them, until I realized where they were).
Number 3 – Mechanical trouble. I Gave Curt the truck to drive while he was here since it is his favorite vehicle (who doesn’t like to ride high up in a Diesel powered F350) and the Turbo dies – that means the truck won’t go and stalls every few seconds. Jenn crasheD her little Ranger pickup into a tree, Christmas night on the way back from my parent’s in Becket, backwards no less and under 20 mph thank goodness! And now her truck needs a new taillight, tailgate and rear quarter panel, and of course she now has another concussion. Once my big truck was out of commission, Curt and I shared the VW and the night before he left (as the blizzard was ending) he ran over a piece of a snowplow that was hidden in the snow in the middle of the street. Had the car a higher clearance, it probably would have been ok, but since it is a Passat and sits low to the ground, the blade punctured the transmission pan, so that is now sitting at Flynn’s in Pittsfield awaiting diagnosis to see if it is salvageable or if it damaged the transmission. The truck turbo should be under warranty, so that is the good news, the bad news is they can’t even look at it until sometime next week. So I borrowed Gregg’s truck and on the way to the airport to get Curt on his plane, the windshield got dinged…
Number 4 – did I mention my Uncle and his family came to visit for Christmas and we had the Memorial for my grandfather? I do love my family – they are great, generous and loving, but they are all nuts in their unique and individual ways (and I am sure they think the same of me, in a loving way of course) so repeating number 4 was the mantra of the week.
Number 5 – Army boy has drilled this one into my head. Whenever something would go wrong, he would quote, “It’s all good.” It was his way of keeping his cool under pressure. Basically, no one got hurt (too badly) and no one was dead (yet) and whatever it was we were experiencing at the moment was not going to be something insurmountable. I started saying this one when he told me he was trying to get into a Unit that was stationed in Germany that was part of Special Forces and he would be gone for three years. Basically he would live in Germany and go wherever and whenever into harm’s way doing things I would not know about, but might read about, for several weeks at a time. His wife Nichole should be able to go with him and be stationed there too, but that is not guaranteed and I get the dogs…
Here’s wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year! It’s all good…
Wednesday December 29, 2010
Molly O'Neill spent ten years collecting recipes and stories across America. Her book, One Big Table, A Portrait of American Cooking is the result of her journey. It's a tribute to the home cook, a history book, a reference, a tome of sorts....Molly suggests that it's a well-balanced portrait of American cooking. I can't wait to make some of the recipes!
Tuesday December 28, 2010
The tradition that I created was simplicity -- make a few fish dishes that are a snap, set up a buffet table and then enjoy each other around a roaring fire!!
