pseudo-hiatus

as part of my pharmacy experiential rotations, i have been exiled to chillicothe for a month, similar to napoleon and elba. i don't have real internet access (ie. not blocked by va constraints) so blogging will be limited to weekends.

so sad.

p.s.

i forgot to mention, i think i have it down now. swirl, sniff, then taste. i'll look like a pro before i know it.

oliver winery - bloomington

i am fairly inept at wine tasting. there are several reasons.

1) i drink quickly.

2) i make a wildly inappropriate faces when i taste a wine not pleasurable to my particular palate.

3) swirl, sniff, taste or sniff, swirl, taste? i can never quite remember.

4) i don't believe in wasting. nothing gets poured or spit out.

5) i describe things as 'pretty good' or 'like church wine', ignoring relative sentiments involving tannin, body, acidity, etc. you get the idea.

6) i drink quickly.

my ineptitude was readily apparent when amy, jessie and i went wine tasting at oliver winery in bloomington. we arrived about 45 minutes before closing, so unfortunately we only had time for tasting and no time to enjoy a bottle on their porch, drinking in the...scenery.

the wine list suggested we 'enjoy responsibly by selecting 6-8 varieties for tasting'. i selected 10. luckily, our....whatever the $4 word is for the guy who pours the wine....had a good sense of humor and poured away. he was also very knowledgeable and able to offer helpful tidbits, like that a wine had been fermented in a steel barrel under cold temperatures, that screwcaps are coming back in vogue, and that the best way to win a chicken wing eating contest was to not have the spiciest sauce. he was also very patient in teaching me to pronounce gewurztraminer, which i love but never order because of my embarrassing mangling of german.

here's the line-up:

valdiguie 2007: this was the winner of the malapropos grimace.

chambourcin 2007: estate bottled

shiraz 2007

zinfandel 2006: a favorite

gewurztraminer 2007: another favorite

traminette 2007: estate bottled. i liked the gewurztraminer better.

muscat canelli 2007: a great summertime wine

sky dog rose: one of their new wines that i actually saw just last week at the country fresh market in western hills. a blend of muscat, french colombard, and concord. as our pourer said, it's not complex. i thought it was a little boring.

catawba 2007: estate bottled. i bought a bottle for my dad, as it is his favorite wine. he's very manly.

port: yummy!! dare i say, robust? i don't know if i want to chance a fancy wine-word.

so there you have it. we did keep the poor folks a little late, because we needed to buy some bottles to go. (yes, i'm that asshole) the bottles were ardently enjoyed with cheese (a two-year old cheddar amy recommended and some havarti), processed meat, and pretzel crackers, while in our pajamas watching movies. slumber parties sure have changed.

working for slugworth?

since beth and i started this blog, i have become increasing irritating to my husband and friends as i now photograph every meal. because they love me, they have accepted this as a quirk, like wearing socks with sandals or listening to michael bolton (um, neither of which i do), and patiently humor me. i don't know if the exasperation stems from them waiting, forks poised, for me to be satisfied i have appropriately represented a piece of flourless chocolate torte, or the fact i don't photograph them anymore. somehow i feel it is the former.

i also have my own self-induced anxiety about taking pictures of my food. i'm not so much worried about other people at the restaurant wondering what in the hell is wrong with me. my greater concern is interrogation at the hands of a stuffy manager who catches me snapping shots of the restaurant's artistry. as my friend amy says, i am afraid someone will shout, "she works for slugworth!" and tackle me, wrenching the camera from my fingers and dashing it to the ground. not only would this be embarassing, i would also be out a digital camera.

i really just need to get over it.

wannabe on the road - turkish food in bloomington

our friend amy is starting law school next month at iu. she just finished getting her master's there. i am a terrible friend because she has lived in bloomington for over two years and i have never visited. until now.

the first thing we did when jessie and i arrived was eat, of course. we decided on the turkuaz cafe. the decor is straight up arabian nights - the floor/seating is carpets and pillows, the tables are low. my feet were bare.

for starters, we shared the potato koftesi, which are potato pancakes with yogurt sauce and much more appetizing than this photo suggests.

our meals came with extras: red lentil soup and a trio of salads. the coban salad of cucumber, tomato and parsley was my favorite. very light and refreshing on a sultry afternoon.
i had a sour cherry as a beverage (non-alcoholic). it was quite tasty. for my main entree, i ordered the eggplant pide, which is a type of turkish flatbread. the eggplant was mashed and seasoned with garlic and paprika. the pide was very good, but the eggplant filling was a little bland. i have included a fork in the photo for scale. it is a half order. i have also included a photo of my lounging legs to illustrate the full experience.

dessert was turkish tiramisu, which the three of us shared. it was good because it was not soaked in liqueur and the cream was smooth and delicate.
the most amazing thing? my bill was under $12. they also had the most wonderful, polite service that i've seen in awhile.

we ate it, might as well rate it

one particularly blistering sunday afternoon brian and i left the reds game early. they were losing, sweat was pooling under my sunglasses as well as everywhere else, and we were hungry. so even though it breaks burger rule number 1, this is a review of rock bottom brewery's burgers.

first, we shared an appetizer, the asiago cheese dip with beer bread. i have always enjoyed consuming the hundreds of calories this starter provides.

on to the main event - brian had just a plain cheeseburger (not pictured) and i had the bourbonzola burger, blossoming with fried onions, gorgonzola cheese, and jim beam bbq sauce. this is far from the realm of things i would normally order, but it just sounded good. add about another thousand calories to the running total.
like i said, normally i would not order anything with bbq sauce, but this was actually pretty good. sweet and tangy sauce, flavorful cheese. an overall satisfying combination of flavors. brian said his burger didn't have much taste as a sandwich, even though the meat itself was good. the bun was unusual; very starchy and dense. this was both a pro and a con, as it stood up well to the burger and didn't disintegrate as some buns are wont to do, but it was very filling. we averaged our rating out to be a 3.5. acceptable, and will do in a burger-craving pinch.

how is your garden growing?

for the past few years i've only had a few tomato plants, which i put very little work into. they have been good to me though. this picture was taken right before my first canning experience last year. that was an adventure, but a successful one. i feel that in the future i will have a better grasp on the process and it shouldn't be as timely. yes, those buckets are full of tomatoes as well. this year my plants look healthy but i don't appear to be having many red tomatoes, 12 so far. there are plenty of green ones, but something seems to be holding them up......

i also built a garden box to expand the garden even further this year. basically this year i have have nearly tripled the size. i have also expanded into a few other vegetables, including cucumbers, eggplant, and loofah (this is just an experiment to see if i can really make my own sponge like product). so far so good.

my basil is oddly not liking the sun as i have read it would, but its staying alive and should be a wonderful combination when all the tomatoes coming out of my ears. i will not be eating them with homemade mozzarella.

oh and i did not update on this before, but my two tomato plants in my front garden are doing wonderfully (tomatoes hopefully on the verge of turning red that is). only one neighbor has commented and that was nearly seconds after i finished putting them in the ground. she asked "oh, what kind of flowers are those?" to which i had to immediately explain they aren't flowers, but a tomato plant. in the evenings we have been walking and i have noticed at least 3 other houses in my neighborhood with edibles plants in their front yard as well.