Life 2.1

At least it was three weeks ago when I went there! Three weeks to get a blog post up {shaking my head in disgust}. Yowsers.

Being that September and October are the busiest months for both Dave and me (and with Harvest 2011 being so late, we might as well throw the first couple weeks of November in there too) we made a point to make the most of our intermittent days off.

That said, we took a day trip to the beach on a random Tuesday almost a month ago. We went to Whole Foods in the morning to stock up on picnic-y things like fruit, baguettes, cheeses, marcona almonds and scharffen berger chocolate, because neither of us have any willpower when it comes to chocolate. We picked up a bottle of wine and it was then we realized we forgot wine glasses. Whole Foods didn’t have any disposable ones, so we may or may not have taken plastic cups from the olive bar at Whole Foods to be used as wine glasses. Mostly because we’re classy like that.

Uber Classy Wine Glasses

We drove to Bolinas, bundled up of course, because it is a Northern California beach, after all, and enjoyed our picnic. We threw tennis balls for the handful of dogs whose owners had long since gotten bored of the throw-fetch-repeat routine. Then we realized the dogs were more interested in sniffing around our picnic than fetching so that ended that game.

A gray day at the beach didn’t bother us one bit

We continued our drive until we hit Hog Island Oyster Company, where we stopped on the way home to pick up dinner. (Delicious.)

picking up dinner

It was the best random Tuesday I’ve ever had.

2 Comments | In: Social Adventures | tags: beach. | #

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine from high school, whose music I have always enjoyed, told me his bad was releasing a new album and asked if I would take a listen.

Flattered, I received an email with the latest releases from Uncle Daddy and a little while later and began listening to the new album Psalms Before The Storm. I have played the handful of songs over and over again, determining my favorites. Bless his heart, he told me it was ok if I didn’t like it, though I knew that wouldn’t be the case. I know Noah to be a heart-felt musician, putting all of himself into his music and no doubt he wouldn’t align himself with bandmates that wouldn’t do the same.

Now, let’s be clear. I’m no music critic. I just know what I like. And I really like their first single ‘Fade Away’ which I’m sharing here:

Again, I don’t even know music terms that well but the baseline/intro pulls me and I knew I would like this song from the get go. The guitar-that-builds-to-drums-that opens up into the rest of the instruments coming in to contribute to the sound immediately had me keeping the beat right along. It may sound cheesy, but it’s the type of song that grabs you in the pit of your stomach from the onset and like a home-cooked meal, sticks to your ribs and makes you feel good.

I’m a fan.

Of course, I’m always a sucker for a poignant ballad-y tune so the track ‘Beautiful’ is lovely. The lyrics make me pause and I always love a song that can come up with new ways to describe a person’s admiration for the object of their affection….even more so when the song lyrics recognize the qualities that anyone else might overlook that make the person more endearing to the other.

“She’s beautiful like sunrise but she…she burns like moonshine and I’m feeling just fine, anyway;
She’s soothes like a sunset but she’ll turn your eyes blood red…”

For fun, Noah sent me a download of a Katy Perry cover “E.T.” which is an extremely unique rendition. I almost didn’t recognize it, it was such a departure from the original, but with familiar lyrics.

Over all, I continue to enjoy Noah’s music and the soul that is put into the album. I like the mix of the soulful guitar and deep, resonating baselines. Check out more of their music online at GoUncleDaddy.com and let him know what you think, but I think it’s to be enjoyed, especially because the passion that he and the rest of his bandmates have shines through and how can you not respect the efforts of someone following their passion?

No Comments | In: CL's new beats, Social Adventures | tags: guitar, Music, Noah Needleman, Uncle Daddy. | #

Every girls needs a hero. Someone in a metaphorical cape to rescue her from some precarious situation.

I found mine a few weeks ago when I was sitting perched on a forklift, stalled out and staring at a large macro bin of grapes that somehow needed to get from our cold room at work to our crush pad for our grape stomp event.

I sat on the forklift for a good five minutes staring at my phone, debating on whether or not to call him for help. I have never been good at the damsel in distress thing. I’m stubbornly independent that way. But I had a sneaky suspicion he would come to my rescue. On one hand, I didn’t want to bother him on what would inevitably be one of the last Saturdays he would have free before harvest.

On the other hand, he has a great smile and talking to him always made me feel wonderful.

I called. He came. He saved my event and my sanity in the process.

After the people had cleared off the crush pad, following rave reviews of how much fun they’d had, he and I cleaned up the gigantic mess of stomped Cabernet Franc that had been created.

He hooked up the cellar stereo, put his iPod on shuffle and we raked pumice from the half barrels that had been used for stomping to the sounds of Foster the People. He watched me on the forklift again, patiently instructing as I dumped macro bins of pumice into the large dumpster on the edge on the property (I got the forklift right this time) and 3 hours later it was clean.

I thanked him profusely for his help, telling him there was no way I would have been able to tackle this on my own. I made small talk for the sole purpose of not letting the conversation end, asking questions to which I already knew the answer, hoping he couldn’t pick up the apprehension in my voice as I tried to work up the nerve to ask him for a beer. Coming to my rescue again, he threw out the suggestion of heading to the Brewing Company, sending a rush of relief and excitement through me. My nervousness turned into a huge smile as I agreed immediately, grateful to continue spending time with him.

Walking the vineyard

Almost another 3 hours went by, as we laughed and talked, over food and blonde ale. He had dinner plans he couldn’t get out of that night but asked if I wanted to get a post-dinner drink. I said yes and grinned like an idiot all the way home, and I waited for him to call.

We went out again that night and have been together ever since.

It’s wonderful. I have seemingly floated through the last month.

Scoping out pumpkins for possible Halloween carving purposes

Last Saturday, we both got done with work, wanted to enjoy the little bit of the sunshine that the day had left so we walked the vineyards in south Napa. We stopped at the pumpkin patch to look around, take a few photos and enjoy each others’ company.

It was a perfect Saturday in October.

1 Comment | In: Social Adventures, Thoughts & Ponderings | | #

It is clearly the busy season in my world. I know this because yesterday was supposed to be my day off this week and I still felt like I needed to get things done so I put in an appearance for a few hours in the morning before coming home to nap, falling asleep with Food Network in the background.

The lobsters lost this battle…and they were delicious.

To that end, I have tried to make time to improve my meals so that they are no longer spent hovering over a sink at 10pm, stuffing my face with whatever is available and needs no cooking. There seriously was a time in the not so distance past that triscuits and pepper jack cheese served as dinner because I was just too damn tired to make anything. Even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

A few nights ago (I can’t tell you which, because in truth, I don’t even know what today is) I had a craving for lobster macaroni and cheese. I know, right? I couldn’t just crave something normal like spaghetti or a burger.

So I took my recipe from Market Restaurant in St. Helena (a lovely parting gift received when I moved to New Orleans) and added some lobster…with the help of someone who does crustaceans way better than I do. I can’t really get past the idea that they are alive, trying desperately to get out of the stainless steel kitchen sink that is pretty much the equivalent to a slippery ice rink for them. I know they aren’t gonna get out but live creatures with pinchers in my sink y’all.

So.much.food.

So I handled the mac and cheese and my crustacean keeper dealt with the two lobsters that tried (unsuccessfully) to avoid their large stock pot fate.

It wasn’t half bad but it was so decadent and I maybe enjoyed too many pita chips and roasted red pepper hummus while I was cooking it to truly enjoy it. Luckily I have no idea about portions in cooking and we made enough to last us multiple nights of lunches and dinners. And you may note that, according to the picture, we ate at what is known in my family as “Jean Ray time,” mostly because my great aunt would have us for holiday dinners and tell us to arrive at a ridiculously early time but not serve dinner until closer to 8pm. 5 hours of Chex mix later, I would have a beautifully prepared meal that I wasn’t much hungry for. Kinda like this night.

Success!

The mac and cheese turned out pretty well, although it was a lot of rich things in one pot….fiscallini cheddar cheese, lobster, all in a rich sauce. I will say it held up for lunches and dinners in the coming evenings so score one there since I’m fairly picky about what leftovers I will eat. I may have actually OD’ed a bit on it, as the craving was sufficiently satisfied and there was still some left in the fridge, but honestly, I might turn into a bowl of mac and cheese if I eat anymore.

I kept within the genre of cooking massive portions of comfort food last night with tomato bisque (that started out as soup) and grilled cheese but the tomato soup bisque debacle is worth telling in a post of its own, mostly because it ends with me needing a new food processor. I’m sure more kitchen disasters will pop up from time to time and Gordon Ramsey would probably be appalled by some of my methods but at least they make for decent blog posts. I hope to get around to telling it before the week is out. We’ll see how that works out for me.

No Comments | In: Delicious-flavored foods | | #

This is all been floating around in my head for a while, with no time to actually post it until today…

• a cup of coffee on my desk on the morning of a 2 (big) event day
• a little teamwork, for which I am grateful.
• dinner at the end of a long day
• getting gelato afterwards

No Comments | In: Get Meaningful | tags: Get Meaningful. | #