It is Wednesday night and we are having a glass of this California Zinfandel to round out our evening meal. We have had this wine before but it has been a quite awhile. I retrieved this from our stock in the basement.

The wine is pleasantly spicy with pepper and rich with the taste of juicy, ripe berries. This is a lovely red wine and it is perfect for grilled meats of any kind.

For dinner tonight, I marinated a thick, boneless pork chop. My marinade was simple but delicious: Olive oil, rice wine vinegar, spicy brown mustard, salt & pepper. After it was marinated, we cooked it on the grill at a high heat so that it was cooked through and  crispy on the outside. We split one chop and also had brown rice and a really yummy salad (we are having salad almost every night because I keep harvesting my fresh lettuce and onions and don’t want it to go to waste — and, it tastes fresh, sweet, crunchy & delicious)!

All in all, a satisfying cocktail hour and mid-week meal. Cheers!

It is Thursday, July 2, and another unseasonably cool night in Michigan. So I am taking advantage of the cool weather and using my oven. I have prepared a meatloaf, which is baking in the oven (made with ground beef, ground pork, spicy mustard, oatmeal, A-1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, onions, celery, green pepper, milk,  salt, pepper, eggs and a little mixture of ketchup and brown sugar for a topping). It smells good. I have also harvested lettuce and green onions from my garden and added yellow peppers and avocados and will mix with my salad dressing (olive oil, red wine vinegar, spicy brown mustard, basil, oregano, rosemary, savory & thyme). So, there is my dinner. . .now on to the wine.

I chose this South African pinotage because it is a new bottle that we haven’t tasted, yet. This wine is 14.5% alcohol (most wines are 13 or 13.5%) but it does not have an alcoholic taste. This is a gutsy tasting big red with a whiff of smoke on the nose and palate. It’s a bit rough around the edges — the oak finish is a little on the harsh side, but even still, this is a very drinkable big red and I think it is a good choice to accompany our meatloaf dinner.  We have four bottles of this wine from our wine club and each bottle will be enjoyed.

Tomorrow is a holiday and Tom & I are off so (once again) we have found a reason to celebrate! Cheers!

(Happy Birthday to Steve Bono, a faithful reader and long-time red-wine enthusiast!)

It is a summer Wednesday night in Michigan, the first day of July. We have a cool front with some rain so it is quite cozy tonight. So, I decided to take advantage of the cool weather and use my oven. I baked a batch of double-chocolate, walnut brownies (Tom loves these) and I made a stew out of leftover pot roast and some vegetables, which I put in a cast-iron skillet in the oven. We’ll have a comfy night and a comfy meal tonight.

I chose this California Zinfandel for our post-martini cocktail! (The martini was wonderful — served in an icy cocktail glass with just the right combination of gin & vermouth.) I am happy with this wine. I generally do not gravitate to Zinfandels — only because I am such an avid, die-hard Cabernet Sauvignon fan. But, I thought this would be a good selection for our dinner and I am pleasantly surprised at how good this is. A pleasant burst of raspberries and spice and a mellow mouthfeel. The finish is true oak.

I just finished the bottle of this Italian Rosati Barbaresco wine. (I blogged about it yesterday if you would like to read my tasting notes.)

What I want to blog about tonight is my wonderful group of students who finished their last class in their Master of Educational Leadership program tonight. I am so proud of them. They are dedicated educators and have spent the last two years of their lives taking night classes and conducting a research study. This class was their last class where they (all but three — who are still working feverishly!)  handed in their final research report (and did an oral presentation on their findings). Congratulations to Linka, Tammy, Corrie, Richard, Yolanda, Denelle, Christian, Kristie, Mary & Eric!

Before class, I had put together a pot roast (I browned a chuck roast in hot oil, then added fresh garlic cloves, chopped onions, red wine and chicken broth and then covered it and put it in the oven at 225-degrees). By the time I came home from class, the meat was fork tender. I added potatoes and carrots to the roast while we had our cocktail and read the paper. By the time we were done reading the paper, everything was tender and delicious.

Cheers to the new Masters! Clink!

It is a Monday evening and Tom opened this wine to celebrate! Celebrate what (you may ask)? Well, we’re celebrating the fact that Tom finally figured out why our newly-installed (by him) ceiling fan was making noise. We were getting to the point where we were saying “This fan is really nice. We just can’t use it at night because it keeps us awake.” It clicked and rattled. But, he thinks he has it fixed, now. So, cheers to a quiet ceiling fan!

I purchased this wine because it was “discontinued” and on sale. The regular price for this wine is $40 but it was on sale for $19. So, I wanted to see what a $40 bottle of wine tasted like. Here are my tasting notes:

The color is cherry red (not inky black like many of the wines that I like). The nose is floral and sweet. On the palate, the wine has a velvety texture with not a lot of body (typical old-world Italian, in my opinion). The taste is woody with magnificent tannins. This is a delicious wine and I like it very much. I am glad I was able to try it; I wouldn’t have purchased it at its regular price of $40.

The weather has cooled off a bit since our latest heat wave, so I am making spaghetti for dinner. This wine will complement our dinner perfectly. Can’t wait to fall asleep under our quiet fan. . .

This is a Spanish wine that recently arrived at our house as part of a wine club shipment. This wine is made in the region of Tarragona on the Mediterranean, near Barcelona.

I chose this wine for our summer Sunday night dinner. This is a deep red, delectable and elaborate big red. The texture is smooth and the finish is woody.

I didn’t know what to expect from this wine because the label did not reveal any grapes or varietal for which I was familiar. Well, is is sumptuous. This is a complex wine with layers of fruit and oak.

I didn’t feel like grocery shopping today so I took  two steaks out of the freezer. We grilled those and I made steamed brown rice and sauteed mushrooms (in Malbec wine) and a salad from my garden (with my homemade viniagrette [olive oil, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, horseradish mustard, basil, oregano, rosemary, savory & thyme]). Dinner was delicious and the wine was a perfect match for a steak.

Tom chose this lusciously delicious Argentinian Malbec for our Friday evening. Malbec happens to be one of my favorite all-time reds and this one does not disappoint.  The color is deep and opaque and the nose makes me think of ripe, concord grapes. The taste is sumptuous: dark chocolate, plums and pepper. I am enjoying this wine very much.

For dinner tonight, I made homemade tacos. We haven’t had them for a long time and I had a pound of ground beef to use. I browned the ground beef and added onions and peppers and pinto beans, along with cumin, oregano, and  chili pepper. The toppings included chopped avocados, chopped onions, chopped lettuce (yes, of course from my garden), shredded cheese, sour cream and salsa.

A fun meal for a fun, Friday night!

It is a steaming hot Wednesday evening in Michigan. The temperature outside is in the high 80’s (although in the sun, our temperature says 114-degrees). It is beautiful, though. Green & lush. . .

Tom chose this California Cabernet for our dinner tonight — I think because it is midweek and so we are having an everyday type of wine. He purchased two of these bottles for $10 at our local grocery store and we both are enjoying it (I believe this is our second bottle and I had blogged about it previously). The taste is overwhelmingly blackberries along with some earthy flavors (I’m thinking  rich, black dirt). This is definitely a fruit-bomb kind of wine.

Tonight we will grill some burgers, which I have stuffed with bleu cheese and cracked pepper. I have also harvested some fresh lettuce and green onions from the garden and I will make a salad.  (As I write this, I am wondering if Tammy will read this and take my recommendation for her celebratory trip to Niagara Falls. . . you go, girl!)

This wine is perfect for a mid-week meal of grilled burgers and salad. Cheers!

This is our second bottle of California Forbes Creek Cabernet Sauvignon (from our 4Seasons wine club). It is a Monday evening and we are grilling marinated pork loin chops on the grill. It is so gorgeous outside tonight! I love Michigan summers! I have to say, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite wines. I love this one. It has everything I love in a wine: Big flavor, fruity but not sweet, dry with plenty of black pepper (and a little oak) on the finish. Absolute yummyness.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers reading this today. Here we are, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. It was a hot and sunny beautiful day.

We chose this California Stone Cellars tonight (following an icy gin & tonic) to go with our dinner. This wine was on sale  at our local grocery store (2 bottles for $10) and what a value. The wine is a  concentration of summery ripe berries and a bit of dark earth. This is a good summer wine to enjoy while reclining in a hammock, watching the sky and  feeling the breeze!

For dinner, I brined chicken in saltwater and then made a barbecue marinade. I put everything (minus the brine) in a ziplock bag for the afternoon. Now, we are grilling the chicken and I am making a salad from lettuce and onions from my garden along with cucumbers and avocado from the store. I will also make potatoes and a vegetable. I want to be sure Tom has a great Father’s Day meal!