A Week of Dieting

Of course, I am always on a diet.  But, waking up on Monday, I was at my highest since I was down to 160--227!  And Sunday night, I'd felt so heavy and bloated that I really was not expecting to wake up Monday morning.  So, I had to get drastic on this body!

Of course, it wasn't just last week-end that got me to that point.  Friday we had gone out to lunch with the swimmers and then to Cost Co, so I skipped supper.  Saturday night we had steak and I pulled out Vidal Blanc from Buckingham Valley Vineyards to go with it.  It is a light semi-sweet wine that went well with the steak.  Later that evening, I pulled out the last of the Raspberry (made from 100% real raspberries--raspberry tart and intense) from the Buckingham Valley Vineyards.  Another problem with tasting is you just get a little bit.  You have no idea how the two glasses that we each get out of a bottle will effect you.  The Raspberry started to come back on me the last time we'd had it which is why we'd vacuumed it and returned it to the refrigerator.  This night, the one glass was perfect.  More is unnecessary.  This is a wine we just can't drink a whole bottle of in an evening.

For breakfast on Sunday we had Barefoot's sparkling Pink Moscato.  Inexpensive and delicious for breakfast.  Sunday I made a spinach soup...with some left over sweet red wine and vinegar as well as water, the left over pea soup from earlier in the week, some celery and onion.  Not great, but edible.  I don't remember what I had it with--it is a blur.  I felt so bad, I said...OK.  Down to business.

I continued all week to eat breakfast--Fiber 1 Bran cereal and low fat cottage cottage cheese with a little of TR's soy milk.  I had a bit of the spinach soup for lunch and a couple of slices of lean lamb for supper.  Tuesday we went to Cost Co, so I didn't eat supper.  Wednesday I had a cup of the spinach soup for lunch and two talapia fillets for supper.  Thursday, spinach soup for lunch and steak for supper with New Age (one of our favorite wines).  Friday, Cost Co, so no supper.  I think I had 8 raw almonds to take my Metformin with.  This morning, when I woke up, I weighed 220.8.  So, six pounds lost during the week. 

I made eggs for breakfast this morning and we had more of the Cerise, which I am still drinking now.  I am so full, I doubt I will eat again today...  I want to lose enough weight so I can breathe again.  Breathing, I have found, is really nice!

Pairings for the Week

Last Sunday we had eggs and Tiara, a sparkling wine from Crown Winery in Tennessee.  It was a case of, OMG, I must have had too many tastings when I tasted this one and thought it was good.  It was dryer than we usually like, but we drank it....

Monday with sausage and sauerkraut, we had a Texas Moscato from Homestead Winery in Ivanhoe, TX.  This is a bit sweeter than we usually like, but It was very nice with the sausage.  Tuesday we had lamb.  I paired it with Texas Sunrise, a blush wine that had been blended by the wine club at one of the blending parties.  It was lovely.  It has been replicated and bottled at the Triple "R" Ranch and Winery in Whitesboro, Texas.  We bought it at the Lone Star Wines tasting room in McKinney, TX.  It was semi-sweet, but full bodied enough to stand up to the lamb very nicely.

Thursday we were planning on going to a Wine 101 class at D'Vine where we would have been fed several wines, cheeses, and great information.  We started early thinking we'd stop by Homestead on the way.   About fifteen minutes after we started, Chad called to cancel out.  We had been the only people to sign up.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE????  So, we turned around and came back home.  Unfortunately, I hadn't planned on anything for dinner.  I pulled out some chicken and cheese quesedilla appetisers and some cheese, crackers, and almonds.  Took them out to the back porch with a bottle of Landon Winery's (McKinney, TX) Yellow Rose, a sweet/tart yellow wine with the flavor of peach and pineapple.  It was beautiful weather.  We just read, talked about our books, and noshed until dark.  Great evening.

This morning I had poached eggs and ham on fiber crackers and TR had creamed sausage on biscuits.  With it I served another bottle of the Cerise that we bought at Leonard Oaks Winery near my brother's house in Gasport, NY.  It is a lovely wine...

The Week's Pairings and Paella Night

I made one of those 7-bean soups you buy in the dry bean section of the store on Monday.  I had expected it to cause me to gain weight, since it has so many carbs in it, but I lost weight both days we had it.  I think I'll make it a lot more.  I'm also going to get a soup cookbook of some kind--maybe a low fat/ low carb soup cookbook.  We just had the soup and a salad both Monday and Tuesday nights.  We varied it with the wines.  Monday we had Summer Rain, a light fruity off-sweet wine from Su Vino.  It has the flavor of grapes and green apples.  Tuesday we coupled the soup with New Britain White from Peace Valley winery north of Philadelphia.  This winery is near a large state park built around a lake, also called Peace Valley.  We went to the park and I bought some jewelry (what else is new), then stopped and just watched the birds.  They have a number of feeders and houses intended to draw the many different birds that live in that area.  We are not bird watchers by intent, but sometimes, both in our back yard and camping, I think we are by nature.  This wine is another Niagara grape blend, semi-sweet, fruity, with a marvelously tart grape finish.  Both wines paired really well with the soup.  I'm beginning to think that our favorite wines will naturally blend well with all kinds of soups.

On Thursday, I did my "Buffalo Chicken" dish.  It uses the Buffalo Wing Sauce, but on boneless skinless thighs (for me) and breast (for TR.)  Most of the sweeter wine blurbs I've read suggest pairing them with spicy foods, so I took one of our most unusual wines from this last trip--Cherry-Cranberry Wine from Brooks Hill Winery in Brooks, Kentucky.  This comfortable winery and vineyard has a charming, down to Earth host and hostess as well as a large lovable greeter dog named Lily (I hope I am remembering right.)  It is directly on our route to visit my folks, so we have stopped there before.  We've had good luck finding wines we love there, but not the same ones...the ones we liked this time were different from the ones we got last time.  This wine tastes exactly as it sounds--a bright semi-sweet cherry start with a tart, refreshing, cranberry finish.  It was perfect for the spicy chicken and I wish I'd gotten more.

Last night we went to Paella Night at D'Vine wine in Grapevine (TX.)  It was more poorly attended than these nights have been in the past, but Chad (the manager) said that Friday nights during high school football season in Texas are hard...  Yep, that's Texas!    When we got there, we were offered a red or a white to start--the white was their unoaked Chardonnay which is lovely, light and crisp.  They serve a wonderful salad with mixed greens and a beautiful vinaigrette dressing to begin the meal and Chad paired that with a Savinon Blanc that was light and a lovely pairing.  The only problem was I was only about a quarter of the way through the glass when I'd finished my salad, so I wound up pairing that with most of the Paella as well.  This particular Paella has, in addition to shrimp and mussels, chicken and chorizo and is topped with asparagus.  Chad paired it with a Temperanillo which pretty much just sat until I was nearly finished with the Paella, but there was quite a bit of time before dessert was served, so I got to savor the Temperanillo while I still had the taste of the Paella.  TR enjoyed the Paella so much, he got a second helping and I don't think he was alone.  For dessert, they served us five brownies (2 1/2 each) and their Chocolate Cherry Port.  Last night, instead of tasting portions of the wine, they served us a full glass of each wine.  The Port was marvelous--sweet and smooth and complemented the brownies beautifully.  Even more fun, the Paella chef came over, sat with us, and chatted for some time.  He must have stayed there chatting for at least half and hour...we had a great time.

A NY Wine, a PA One, and an Old Favorite

Tuesday I served a pork roast, crocked with this marvelous Mexican meat seasoning called Anato Paste.  Jeff and Rose had told me about it and now it is a staple in my cooking.  I wanted a wine that would stand up to the albeit mild flavor of the superb roast and still be crisp and refreshing.  I chose a Niagara Escarpment wine, One Hundred Windows White Wine, from The Winery at Marjim Manor in Appleton, NY.  It is a blend that uses the Niagara grape.  The winery was fun to visit--a huge old manor with a great ghost story (the TV show, Ghost Hunters had a episode there.)   They produce a lot of wines, but we, surprisingly in NY, found only two we were fond of.  We definitely enjoyed wandering about the house, checking out the "hundred windows" the manor is partially known for, and hearing the ghost story.

Thursday, we had steak and I pulled an old favorite to go with it--Funf, a German Riesling that is delicious, light, crisp, and inexpensive (about $6 a bottle.)  We get it at Walmart, but it is also sold at Market Street.  For us, a good crisp German Riesling has no trouble holding its own against a good sirloin.

Last night, I was doing my take on rosemary roast chicken.  I had just gotten back from rehab and was tired.  Our dining room is sunken (though built in 2003, this stupid design trend from the 60's was used--to get to the dining area there is a step down, which means a step up to the kitchen.  To get to the guest room area of the house there is another step down.  That same step repeats to go to the front entry, and to the master bedroom and another to the master bath.  So, getting up in the middle of the night, you have to go up a step to get to the bath and then back down in the bath!--a recipe for disaster.)  I had just brought the dishes to the dining table to set it along with the wine, and had stepped around the table to plug in the wine chiller (a step up and another down to get around the table).  I had my bifocals on, which is bad for judging steps.   Stepping back up to go back around the table, I caught my shoe on the lip of the step and started to stumble.  I might have been able to catch myself, but turning to catch the chair, I fell forward back down the other side of the table and smashed my face into the brick fireplace.  At that point, I was definitely going down.  Now I have a pretty good shiner to sport at the Democratic Party fundraiser I am going to tonight. 
The wine I'd selected was Pink Catawba from the New Hope Winery in Bucks County, PA.  It is a delicious semi-sweet blush produced from the native Catawba grape.  It helped the pain from my fall and even complemented the chicken nicely.

More Wine from North of Philadelphia

Last night we had a concoction I'd picked up from Costco.  They had been demo-ing it and I found it delicious.  It was stuffed white meat chicken with asparagus and Havarti.  The nutritional stats on it were good.  It turned out to be harder to carve than I'd anticipated and TR was so stuffed by it (I'd given him about 2/3 of it) that he saved some for lunch today along with his salad.)  I had no idea what wine to serve, but it seemed fancy enough to serve a wine with.  So a pulled a wine made with the Niagara grape from Chaddsford Winery in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.  I'd had an argument with the winemaker while there--he was saying awful lies about Obama expecting everyone to agree with him.  I called him on them and he threatened not to sell me the wine.  I said, "Okay" and shrugged and then he changed his tune.  What, he thinks I need his wine.  I wonder who these gentlemen winemakers think their clientele is.  The ultra rich?  Or people like us--middle class folk.  Why would you be supporting people who want to destroy the middle class when most of your clientele comes from them?

The Niagara grape is a cross between the Concord and a white grape and has a very refreshing, light, sweet, Concord-y flavor.  It was trying to overpower the delicate flavor of the chicken and, I think, if I get that chicken again, I'll serve it with Riesling.

We have champagne with breakfast on Sunday mornings, and this morning I chose a "Methode Champenaise Brut,"  Forest Cellars.  The labels says it is "produced and bottled for sale in Pennsylvania only by Buckingham Valley Vineyards, Buckingham, PA".  TR's stepson had pointed out this winery as a great one to visit because tastings are free.  I am somewhat ambivalent about free tastings since I usually walk out spending more money and buying more wine when I've been given free tastings.  If I have to pay for tastings, I'm quite likely to walk out with no wine.  But, if I've been given free tastings, I will buy at least one bottle, even if I don't like it.  From Buckingham, we walked out with nearly a case--they had lots of wine we liked.  I'll be blogging about them this fall...all fall, I am sure.

Two bottles this week

Monday, I was serving steak.  Steak is a little problematic because TR is convinced that reds adversely effect his diabetes and we don't tend to like the dry reds.  They may taste good with the steak, but the second glass in the living room is disgusting.  So I pulled a Riesling that we picked up on our trip, specifically from the Spring Lake Winery in Lockport, New York (Niagara Escarpment.)  Several New York winemakers, noting that New York's weather is very similar to Germany's, imported Riesling vines from Germany and started growing them on the Niagara Escarpment.  It has only been within the last 5-10 years that the Rieslings have come to maturity and the wines are being sold by a burgeoning number of wineries.  When we were up there two years ago, we went to every winery open in the area.  This year there were twice as many or more, and we couldn't possibly make them all.  (The wine industry appears to be better off than it was four years ago.) 

This was a strong flavored Riesling, and it held its own against the steak.  It proved to be an excellent choice.

On Tuesday, I served chicken (boneless, skinless, but flavored with Buffalo wing sauce.)  This is one of TR's favorite things I make.  Again, wine can have a hard time holding its own against the flavor.  When the flavor of the food has a bite, I go with the sweeter wines.  This time I chose Poolside Blanc from D'Vine Winery right here in Grapevine.  This is one of our favorite summertime wines.  It is made with grapes and infused flavors of cantaloupe and kiwi.  So delicious.  And, it worked nicely with my "Buffalo chicken."

Sunday in McKinney, Texas

Yesterday we went to McKinney to pick up our wine club selections.  Both wineries we went to allow us to taste the selections and get something different if we aren't enamoured of their picks.  Lone Star is the hardest, because they don't have very much that is semi-sweet or even semi-dry.  They usually have one or two wines that we love, but they are often out of them.  Yesterday, we got the last bottle of our favorite,  and we had two month's selections to pick up--four bottles.  We did get one of the reds--the one that had more flavor and was more complex--a Meritage.  Our son-in-law's birthday is coming up...  :-)  We managed to find a couple others that we thought would work nicely with lamb (a challenge for us since we don't like most reds and we need wines that have enough flavor to hold their own against lamb and still be delicious for our second glass which we will have in the living room after supper.

Landon presents other problems because they won't adjust the price even if we don't get the expensive wine they select for the red.  Most of the wines we love at Landon (and there are usually six or seven that we adore) are their least expensive wines.  The complex red that they selected was much more expensive, but, if we substitute the wine we like, we have to pay the higher price of the wine we refused.  So, we took the more expensive wine, again a Meritage, which was full bodied, dry and complex.  Chris' birthday again...    :-).  It is good to know someone who will appreciate these fuller red wines.

Disappointments and Good Wine

There were a couple of wine disappointments this week--with wine events.  The first was D'Vine Wine's Wine 101 class which I made us reservations for.  Chad called the day before the event to tell us it was cancelled for lack of interest... :-(   So, I thought I'd sign us up for Su Vino's Wine 102 class.  Nope, sold out already!  Su Vino needs a larger space!  Their wines are too good to be limited by that tiny room.

But, wine this week has been a fairly good experience.  Thursday I served steak and had it with New Age, a slightly sparkling Riesling (I think) from Argentina.  This is one of our favorite wines.  We discovered it a couple years ago on our way back from visiting TR's family.  Sitting at the Sacramento airport, we learned our flight was delayed over two hours.  Looking about, I spied a tasting room.  We got two flights, a sparkling flight and a semi-sweet flight, and wound up buying a bottle of the New Age to take home with us.  Low and behold, we then found it here, carried by Market Street and Central Market.

"With a steak?" my purist friends say.  The steak was a mild choice sirloin and the New Age has enough flavor to not be drowned out by it.  They complement each other perfectly.

Last night I served chicken sausages in whole wheat buns with Cheeky Monkey, a pineapple infused grape wine from Su Vino.  On the sweet side of semi-sweet, the wine probably went better with TR's jalapeno sausage that with my much milder sausage, but a good wine is a good wine and the whole wheat bun had enough flavor to help my sausage hold its own.

This morning, as is our tradition usually on Sunday (but tomorrow we are considering going over to the wineries in McKinney), we had wine with our eggs.  We brought with us from our recent travels a case of the Cerise, a sparkling tart cherry wine from Leonard Oaks Estate Winery in Lyndonville, New York.  This winery is about ten minutes away from my brother's place on the Niagara Escarpment.  This is the wine I get my sister, Amy, to send me for Christmas every year.  It has an almost sweet cherry burst followed by a wonderful tart cherry finish and is marvelous for breakfast.

Thirty Mile Point

While on the Niagara Escarpment a week ago last Saturday, one of the wineries we went to was Schulze Vineyards and Winery in Burt, NY.  I know we bought at least two wines there, one of which was the one we had last night.  This is a sweet Catawba wine called Thirty Mile Point.

I served it with plain old hamburgers and a salad.  The wine starts sweet, but has a fruity, tart finish.  Very refreshing and it made those hamburgers special.  The second glass, after supper, was even better.  This is how we enjoy our "at home" wines--the first glass adds to the meal, the second glass is delicious after.

The Catawba is a native grape to the northeast and has been used to make wine for a long time (though not as long as the Concord.)  Needless to say, we are not "premiere grape" snobs.  We enjoy the local grapes we have encountered throughout the US.

TR's Birthday Dinner

Chris and Julie took us out to Pappadeaux Seafood Restaurant last night.  Julie and I shared a bottle of  Riesling from Chateau St. Michelle--it won't take long for my reader to catch on that my food wine of choice is Riesling.  She and I both had shrimp and scallop skewers and the wine was perfect. 

The occasion was TR's birthday.  He had a salad and gumbo deliberately saving room for dessert--he had about the largest piece of cheesecake I ever saw! 

As if taking us our for dinner wasn't enough, Chris and Julie gave TR an electric wine chiller.  We tried it out this morning on our Almond Sparkling that we had with breakfast.  (We like, on Sundays, to have breakfast of eggs and sparkling wine.)  The wine came out of the refrigerator and I put it into the chiller.  The chiller decided it was 75 degrees going in (room temperature)...it could not sense the temperature the wine actually went in at.

It did keep the wine cold throughout the morning, which means it was doing what it was supposed to do.  But, two hours later, it was still registering just 55...its target temp for the wine was 45, probably close to the actual temperature that the wine went in at.  So, it did what it was supposed to do, but, the only way for it to accurately report the temperature, the wine would have to be room temperature when it goes in, and then it would take a long time to bring it down to optimum temp.  So...I keep using the refrigerator. 

Wow!  Finally, after 5 hours since I set the wine in the chiller, it now reads 49--oops.  It is supposed to get to 45!  However, it is still every bit as cold as it started out...so, it's ok.

Age Improves With Wine

Anyone who knows us knows we love wine...  We drink water, some Coke Zero, and mostly wine.  People give us wine as gifts and take us wine-ing.  We wine when we travel and we wine when we are home.  We wine on the back porch while we read and we wine in the living room while we watch TV.  We wine while we eat.  We go to wine events and we go wine-tasting both at home and while we travel.

We just returned from a two-week trip in which we wined all the way up through Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, wined for a day on the Niagara Escarpment, wined a couple days north of Philadelphia, and raced back with over 4 cases of wine.  As I think back on the trip, our wine-tasting is a bit of a blur (whose isn't?), so I figure I will tell about the wines we bought and the locations we found them in while we drink them.

On the way home, I got a call from the broker telling me we had a cash contract on my house that was reasonable and I thought nothing could go wrong and the house would be sold by the end of the month.  Wrong-o.  On Thursday, we were notified that the buyer had changed his mind.  No reason given.  I'd been avoiding wine with dinner since we got home, because we had had plenty while gone, but I needed to break out a bottle that night.  The bottle I broke out and served with our steak was Blueberry wine that we had bought at Lone Star Winery in McKinney.  It was a dark red fruit wine, sweet, but not too sweet--not a dessert wine.  The second glass (after dinner) was better than the first.

Our wine philosophy is that we like light semi-sweet or semi-dry wines that are okay with foods (we usually have the first glass with dinner), but stand up when dinner is finished and we retire to the living room for the second glass.  This is not true when getting wines to go with meals for more people than just the two of us, when we will pair wines with courses.  We also love to have meals of just "nachkies" (kind of a combination Yiddish/Mexican term that I made up)--cheese, shrimp, appetisers, and wine.  For these, our light, crisp, semi-sweet or semi-dry wines are perfect.

This blog will document our wine adventures and our favorite wineries.