A perfect pairing

We've got a dinner party to attend tonight. It's with people who have been having monthly get togethers and we can finally make it to one of the parties. The hosts are making the food, the guests are bringing the wine.

Tonight's theme is Latin/Mexican. I'm excited to see what the hosts (strangers to me at the time of this posting) whip up and how our wines co-mingle with the flavors. It seems Latin food is a little hard to pair with. It's not an obvious no-brainer like Italian food or seafood. Mexican food is rich, fruity and earthy all at the same time. Our wine rack at home are currently filled with wines from St. James Winery, in central Missouri. The Norton from that part of the country is great. But we also have some dry white wines that I'm anxious to try.
So in anticipation of this dinner, and in hopes of making a good impression on strangers I stopped by the liquor store this afternoon. Cab sav seems too heavy and I've never been a fan of any zinfandels since I graduated from college. I finally settled on a mid-priced Syrah. We'll see how it goes. I think we'll take a dry white, just for added insurance. I checked a few sites before making my final selection from our wine rack. I usually just pair Mexican food with good beer, but adding the wine was a nice challenge. Wineanswers.com has a great site for pairings.
We're (maybe just me) are sort of wine dorks, snobs would imply we know what we're talking about. We have a wine journal. We write down the wines we drink, what occasion we drank them on like birthdays or anniversaries. We also write down what we ate it with and our impressions of the wine. We've got quite a little book going.

Some of our favorites include:
Cabernet Sauvignon, Three Rivers Winery, Walla Walla, Wash., $15 -- This wine is smooth, dark, oaky and all around tasty.

Norton, Stone Hill Winery, Central Missouri, $18-$20 -- This is a full-bodied red wine that is made from the Norton grape. It might not show up on fancy wine lists, but it's quite good. Dry with hints of oak and cherry. We had this one on Christmas Eve last year.

We sort of stick to red wines, I guess we're trying to grow hair on our chests or something. I feel like if I want something smooth and easy, I'm have a beer. However, I do enjoy a good Pinot Grigio -- especially in the summer.

One of my favorites is Barefoot...cheap, fruity and always a good choice.


Buen Provecho!

Well duh...

For the first time in nearly three years I've been at the house by myself all weekend. It's kind of nice not to have be courteous or quiet. But then after I've read all the old periodicals laying my chair and nightstand, it starts to get old. Nobody else is going to get up in the middle of the night and put the dogs out. Nobody else is going to take the trash...reminds me of a song by the Cars..."Who's going to drive you home?"

Beside the minor inconveniences of life that are often eliminated by having a partner in life, I've also realized that I don't like to be the one left out or waiting at home. This is a well duh moment that carries a little more significance for me. I'm always leaving, traveling for stories, working late, having meetings, book clubs and girls night out etc. I have a life outside of my marriage. I try to encourage my hubby to do the same. But I guess I wonder if I really mean it, or just say it to be polite. I'm always calling home and telling him about the exciting things I've done or experienced. It's not often that I'm home, making sure the dogs get fed and the trash gets taken out.

I notice has been a pattern in relationships in the past. I want to the one with a dynamic life, and by all means you should have one too...but can you spare 20 minutes to talk to me or make sure the dogs get fed?

The hardest part of it is not so much the separation. My husband compares to a cat...love me, love me... ok thanks, now go away. The part that is most difficult is that we have separate lives for a few days, We're experiencing different things and not sharing them. It doesn't help that he's in Austin, Texas, one of my favorite cities, seeing great bands, and great friends and I'm not.

Show Choir Moves

This is gem that a co-worker found. It's really so good that I can't help watching it, over and over. It reminds of the days in show choir. I can almost see them counting this out.

This church apparently is doing quite well because they've paid a lot of for their dance moves. Or they've been watching Billy Banks. Nonetheless, this should make you at least laugh out loud.

The Real Apple Pie

Maybe it's a Yankee thing, or my Wisconsin roots are showing. Apple pie with cheese. I'd heard about, thought maybe it was an urban myth. Now I know. It is legit and pretty darn good. The pie extravaganza began with a trip to my dad's in Rolla, Mo., where apples hung heavy from the branches of his tree. His promise was that they were ugly, but mighty fine eating apples. I took him up on the offer a little too enthusiastically. We brought home two pounds (or more!) of apples.

We made apple crisp. Threw them into oatmeal and just tried to plain eat some of them. But this may be their best use. It was once illegal in Wisconsin to serve pie at a restaurant without Cheddar cheese. It's the British way to eat apple pie apparently. But I'm sure their pie is served with a very sharp piece of cheddar, instead of shredded from a bag.

Nonetheless, pie has been conquered.

Here's the recipe if the urge should strike you.


6 lg. tart cooking apples
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. salt
1 (9 inch) pie shell

Peel, core, and thinly slice 6 apples. Toss with ingredients listed above and arrange them overlapping in pan lined with your favorite flakey unbaked pastry. Now, combine and pour over apples the following: 1/4 c. sugar 1/8 tsp. salt 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese 1/4 c. melted butter
Bake in hot oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until crust and topping are golden brown.

To be fair...

The Republican National Convention has come to end, to be fair I must weigh in. However, I'll admit my appetite for this this bout of patriotism and oration was limited. When McCain first came on the scene I was glad. His candidacy at least would be a change, a different kind of Republican. I was eager to hear his policies, but sadly politics or at least elections are really just a popularity contest based on few things that matter. "Is the candidate somebody I can sit down and have a drink with?" "Does she do laundry and cook too?" "Is he like me, does he know what it means to be 'working class."
Honestly to me, none of that is important. My questions would be more like, what is the policy on Iraq, taxes, is person going to think things through or simply have a knee jerk reaction? To me having a drink with them, or where they went to school is irrelevant. However, I realize my own feelings about the GOP veep are pretty petty.

Regardless of politics (or maybe politics are at the core of this)the difference in the conventions is this: Watching the Democratic convention was inspiring, gave me hope and a desire to affect positive change. Watching the Republican convention I was stunned by the devisive us vs. them rhetoric, and worried for the future of our country and military.

I think the best way to some the RNC up might be a few Haikus and choice photos.
Enjoy.

Sarah
A clip in your hair,
you talk of security,
fear is what I hear.

John
Veteran with high hopes,
bucking the system,
too smart for the machine.

Delegates
They're faces are red,
offset with hair so white,
this is my country?

Be the Change...

As cynical as I am, I'm always inspired by watching the Democratic National Convention. Every four years, regardless of who the nominee is, I'm inspired to dream bigger, do more and expect less. And when they pull Teddy Kennedy out to champion hope, who can't help but get on board. Unfortunately, it only takes about 24 hours for that to wear off and I get bogged down in the tedious details of daily living.

But what would it take to "Be the change that you want to see in the world?"
What would I have to do? What would I have to forsake and cast off? It's a curious thing to consider and dovetails nicely into a serman I heard Sunday. Are we living, in our hearts as God would want us to? Are we concerned with things that are eternal, not temporal?

I toured a juvenile detention facility today in Tecumseh. Oklahoma is one of the few states in the south where juvenile offenders are given a treatment based program, not a punishment sentence. They are expected to grow, progress, feel empathy and become productive adults. One girl I interviewed killed her mother. Her grandmother, her mother's mother, comes to see this girl every weekend. When she should carry rage, she carries forgiveness. Where she should harbor resentment and anger, she carries compassion and hope for this young lady. Eventually the young woman will leave the center. She will become an adult and she will likely spend the rest of her life trying to explain how she became who she is and how a grandmother cast off her own feelings in hopes the granddaugther would survive. Gives me chills.

As the newspaper industry flirts with downsizing I start thinking over things I could do outside of journalism. None of them for the money. Sadly, I'm not wired that way. I have been taught by my parents and family to serve things greater than yourself. To work for the common good and at the end of the day when you're tired and drained...do it some more. I have veterans, slained Marines and government employees in my lineage. I have a social worker mother who works everyday with the principle that people can change. People can grow and become better. The superintendent at the juvenile facility has seen his share of juveniles who take all the tools given to them and choose a life of crime. He continues to hope and believe that each child will make a different choice. I admire that courage and tenacity. I wonder if I could do more.

I called my Little Brother today. He's in middle school. He told me he's trying to save money to take a trip to France this summer with kids from his school. He's serious. How proud I am that my little brother dares to dream big and think about Paris, France, not just going to the pool over his summer vacation. He likes to cook. He reminds me that cooking at school has to be 'quick and easy.' I'm proud that he has cultivated other interests and frankly I'm proud of his nerdish tendancies. I'd like to think I have a little something to do with that. Teaching him to cook and showing him things. He might seem bored when we go to things like arts festivals or fancy restaurants. I like to think those were learning experiences.

What I admire most about his 6th grade mind, and what I lack in my own life, is the ability to believe in pipedreams.



Be the change that you want to see in the world. --Mahatma Gandhi

Dark Clouds

So I'm brooding and grouchy. Not sure why. Perhaps the BS of a job, any job really, is getting old. The attempts to stab people in the face with information...how can we package this different, better? Does the general public know where Georgia is? We don't want to spoil this Olympic swimming medal haze to actually think about a real crisis.

So there is that. There is the sad fact that I'm impatient. Have been and always will be. Being peppered with questions from people twice my age about things I can only profess to have a minimal knowledge is getting old. I'm getting old, I've realized. I don't care to "expand my portfolio" in an industry that seems to be flailing and bailing water. But I will expand because I love this profession and don't want to be seen as unyielding or unsure of how to progress in an ever-changing world. I tell my boss, "I'll do what you want me to do," but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

How did I get here, I don't know. But the general malaise, is becoming just that, a sickness that I'm quite sick of. I keep thinking of ways to be excited about a professional I've spent most of life pursuing. Maybe it is investing in new technologies and finding new ways to tell stories, different ways. Ways that I must be in control of and be willing to give 12-hours of my time to each day. There's the rub. That is the real root of all this. I'm not lazy, but I'm not interested in investing my free time to a skill, when I'm nearly a third of the way through my life span and I want to invest in things outside of work. There has to be a balance I'm sure, but what I've learned is that I don't know how to balance the time I put into my craft -- something I love.

So there is that. Just ranting. Thank you for reading, all three of you. :)