Wente Vineyards Southern Hills 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon

I've had many lovely bottles of wine since my last wine review, and, since they're largely forgotten, they'll have to go unremarked. But I'm trying to get back on the horse, so here I am.
My wine-knowledgeable friend Jeff brought the Wente Vineyards Estate Grown Southern Hills Cab over for dinner the other night. We paired it with Greek bean soup (φασολάδα) and freshly baked bread. It was stellar!

Tour of Fancy Milk Chocolates

The population of Greece can be bisected cleanly down the middle. Based on what earth-shattering criterion? you ask. Based on whether they prefer Ion or Lacta milk chocolate! I am an Ion girl myself.

There is a fantastic purveyor of fancy foods just up the hill from us, called Lazy Acres, and we do almost all of our food shopping there. It carries probably a dozen brands of fancy chocolates, of which I am a huge fan, despite the incredible discipline I display when consuming it. While I realize that high cocoa dark chocolate is probably the standard by which to judge a chocolate maker, I happen to be a fan of milk chocolate myself. So I'm going to give myself a tour through the expensive milk chocolates that Lazy Acres carries and let you know what I think here!

A note about my taste in milk chocolate: I tend to prefer the very smooth, non-acidic, non-liquory type, so you'll see that bias reflected here. Also, I am less a chewer and more a melt-in-the-mouth'er.

Here we go!

Dagoba -- thumbs down, too much liquor, too little milkiness
Newmann's Own -- thumbs down, too much liquor, too little milkiness, and a funky fattiness
Endangered Species -- thumbs enthusiastically up

More coming...

Also, if anyone would like to sign me up for a chocolate of the month club, please do :)

Two fabulous reds

The 2007 Benzinger Estate Obsidian Point Cabernet Sauvignon (a wine from biodynamically grown grapes) is simply amazing.
Also the 2007 Chris Ringland Shiraz from Barossa Valley in Australia is the best Australian Syrah I've ever had.

Online recipes that work!

This is a selection of recipes that Dan and I have been blown away by over the last three months:

• Bacon wrapped dates (we made this for the New Year's Eve party)
• Paella (we've made this three times, the first was epic, the other two blew away our respective families -- pair with a dry white)
• Lemon Creme Brulee (we have a very prolific lemon tree in our back yard, so we've tried a lot of lemon variations to tasty-sounding recipes. This one is a consistent winner, and had my mom mumbling to herself for a couple hours)

Food blog inspiration

A disproportionately high percentage of my friends are foodies and I LOVE it! A small selection of their blogs to get you inspired:
Erica's: Apricosa
Dmitrii's: Cucina Bizzarra
Pradyut's: The Crazy Chef

Almost Meatless

Almost Meatless is a cookbook that was recommended to me by food-ethics conscious climber friends. I picked it up because the philosophy of cooking with a little meat, and in a way that doesn't centerpiece the meat appeals to me. It's what I do anyway! So far we've tried two lamb recipes: ragu with home-made gnocci, and albondigas with oatmeal. The latter turned out great, the former however was no less than a revelation. So based on our experience thus far, the book gets a thumbs up!

2007 Red Diamond Merlot

I was pleasantly surprised by this Merlot the other day. It's inexpensive, delicious and very stable. It remained consistent in taste and aroma over the customary 3 days or so it takes me to finish a bottle. I picked up a second bottle, so we'll see if it's also consistent across bottles, as it's common for cheaper wines not to be... Extra points for the label, which is unusually classy for a wine this price.