We are very much enjoying this Placido Chianti 2008. We bought this wine at our local grocery store for $8.95. It’s very good. Placido Chianti is a fun, light-hearted quaff with a touch of floral on the nose. The taste is dry and slightly tannic.

For dinner tonight, we are having some leftover casserole that I made a few nights ago. The casserole was made with ground beef, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, cheese, etc.,. . .all yummy ingredients. That is reheating and I am making a fresh salad with lettuce and green onions from my garden (and my homemade vinaigrette).

Tom: This Placido Chianti 2008 is a very pleasant red, quite dry, with a floral (I’m copying Melody’s word) and peppery nose and a medium body. Very drinkable. I’m sure this wine is very Italian food-friendly: fragrant, pleasantly acidic. A fun discovery for $9.

I am now the proud owner of a little stuffed koala and kangaroo (on my desk at work). Thank you, Jay! It’s a bloody ripper to have you in the USA!

For a spaghetti dinner, I chose this Italian Castello Montendoro. It’s a lovely deep red in the glass. The nose is plummy and the taste is a vivid blackberry with some cherry notes. The finish is oak and cherry.

It’s my brother-in-law’s birthday today. Happy Birthday, Bob! Can’t wait to see you in July.

This will go well with our dinner. I had a pound of ground chicken in the refrigerator. I mixed it with 2 eggs, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, oregano, salt & pepper and made meatballs, which I browned in a hot cast-iron skillet. Then, I removed the meatballs for a bit, and sauteed onions and garlic, added tomatoes and pesto and then put the meatballs back in the skillet. This has been simmering for an hour. I am also making a salad to go with our spaghetti and meatballs. It smells so delicious!

It’s nice to start the work week with a relaxing evening and good dinner. The week ahead will be busy so this will get us off to a good start.

So, it’s snowing in Michigan and I am glad to have made it home safely. I heard from two people that there was a fatal crash on M-14, which is a highway that I pass but don’t have to drive  on my commute. The roads were very slick tonight.

For dinner, I am making a penne pasta dish with pesto, tomatoes, onions and — I know this will sound strange — but, leftover meatloaf.  I had about a half of a meatloaf in the refrigerator and rather than reheat it I decided to crumble it in a tomato sauce; it should take a lot like meatballs. I added some penne pasta to cook right in the sauce. I am going to steam some spinach and make a salad, as well.

We had a martini and now are having a glass of this Languedoc. A lovely French wine — not particularly fruity, but full of flavors like bramble, a touch of blueberries, oak and spice.  Fairly complex, this wine offers grippy tannins and a strong finish. Tom is making happy faces with his wine so I know he is loving it; so am I. A great choice for a snowy, cozy night in Michigan.

I chose this wine from our wine club shipment for tonight. This is very much like a Zinfandel — but Italian style. Fruity yet astringent. Rich color. Plummy nose. Lots of fruit on the palate with a dark chocolate finish and velvet tannins. This will be a good choice for our pork loin/mashed potatoes/sauteed spinach dinner. Nothing fancy but comforting food for tonight.

While I was at the game today, our son, Tony, Skyped from Ecuador. I am so sorry I missed his call, but at least Tom was here to talk to him. He is doing great and I miss, miss, miss him!

For dinner, I made a double batch of meatballs, using one pound of ground beef and one pound of ground turkey. I froze half of them for another night. The other half has been simmering in a spicy tomato sauce for our dinner tonight.

I have been saving this bottle of wine because it was a gift to me from a very special person. Amy Watkins gave me this bottle of wine on the last day of our class in December. Amy is a highly-intelligent and dedicated teacher who just finished her Master’s degree. My class was her final one in the program. I so enjoyed reading Amy’s papers and her final research project. What a special young woman! I had Amy two times during her master’s program and she was pregnant both times! Now that is dedication!

I chose this Italian wine to go with our Italian dinner tonight. It is scrumptious. I can see why Amy liked it so much. The color is bright purple with an abundance of fruit flavors and some pepper on the nose. Full-bodied, I can taste cherry coke and blackberries on the palate. The finish is long with minerals and spice. This is luscious and such a treat for our Saturday evening.

Thank you, Amy Watkins! I love the wine and I loved having you as a student.

Tom: This is a really nice red wine from the Salento peninsula, the heel of Italy. It has a big dark-fruit taste and nice dry tannins. This is very good as a sipping wine and will be great with spaghetti. Italian wines (at least the modest ones we drink) sometimes seem stingy on fruit to me, but this one is big and rich.

We heard from Tony today: he’s now staying in Montañita, Ecuador, and learning to surf.

Medium-bodied, and medium-dry/dry. Nothing striking in the nose, but also nothing off-putting.

I think we got this at Trader Joe’s and probably under $10.

An altogether pleasant Italian table wine.

Our chair, Kurt, and fellow committee members Katie, Janis, Jeff, Nicole and I all went to dinner together at “Charlie Gitto’s Downtown” restaurant. We chose  the Chianti Gabbiano (of which we ordered and consumed three bottles).  The wine was light and pasta-friendly with a nose of berries and tobacco.  The six of us had a lovely evening. . .processing and discussing the day’s meeting together, sharing bits of our personal lives (e.g., children, nieces and nephews choosing colleges, dogs, student loans, meeting our mates) and enjoying delicious Italian food and wine. It was a great way to wrap up a long day. The wine was reasonably priced at $29 (or was it $24?) a bottle.

To my fellow “NCAA Research Committee” members, until next year. . .cheers! 

Although I noticed from my notes that I really enjoyed this wine the last time I had it, my experience is different tonight. Tonight I am finding that the nose is musty and I do not like a musty nose. The nose is a big part of the wine; so it is difficult for me to get past it; however, in spite of this, the taste of the wine is typical Italian and very good.

For dinner, I am roasting a fresh chicken that we bought at the local farmer’s market yesterday. I also tossed some fresh, diced potatoes into the cast-iron skillet with the chicken. I am baking an acorn squash and will make a salad. (I harvested the remaining lettuce from my garden today so I have some wonderful, baby-leaf lettuce for dinner tonight.) I am going to hand over the computer to Tom so he can write his tasting notes, too.

Tom: To my palate this is a pleasant Italian with a taste common to many Italian wines: an Old World, slightly vegetal quality. It has a light-to-medium body and is fairly dry. (This is the opposite of, say, a fruit-bomby Australian. Each has its place, depending on one’s mood and food.