I am not having a great week. Boo to the cold inside my head. I was starting to feel sorry for myself when I remembered the incredible week I had last week. (See also why I haven’t posted in two weeks).
Last week started in Virginia celebrating my Father’s 60th birthday! Happy Birthday Daddy! We had a great time drinking scotch, smoking cigars, and eating steak. Basically sounds like we were trying to outsmart death.
60th Cigar and Scotch
Then Mr. MT and I went to visit some of my best friends in the world. Not a bad way to spend the day. When we came back to Boston we were picked up by another wonderful friend and enjoyed some delicious pizza and wine in juice glasses at Santarpio’s in East Boston. Tuesday night was no exception: I went over to Mudpie’s house where she had Huntington’s Petite Sirah (yes! back in stock at Menotomy) and cheese waiting on me. We decided to swing by Menotomy for a South African wine tasting event before heading downtown to see Wilco, our favorite band, at the Wang Theater. What a wonderful evening and quite possibly the most rocking Wilco I have ever seen.
Friday night Mr. MT and I along with some friends took a Vino Voyage around the Boston Harbor for three hours. Lots of wine and despite the weather, some nice scenery. I found a new favorite: Geyserville Zinfandel. Now if I could only afford a case of it I would be set. This was a fine event. I would say we got our money’s worth. We boarded at 6:30 and started tasting wine immediately. We played it cool and only tasted wines that we were interested in. They had over 200 wines to taste. We also had dinner and dessert on-board. We then spent a good hour listening to experts talk about burgundy wine. I sat there and listened to the expert while my glass kept getting filled with tastes while watching the beautiful Boston skyline pass me by. Would I do it again? Maybe.
Saturday was a nice day with the Boston “family”. We went over to Mudpie’s for an afternoon of football, bean dip, and a chicken soup that I whipped up to nurse the man who gave me this darn cold. I wanted my Mom’s chicken soup but she was over 800 miles away so I was left to my own devices. I had Mudpie’s help and even Mudslinger added her touch to the soup. It started with some seared chicken breast in olive oil. I removed the chicken and added chopped onion, celery, carrots, and garlic to the chicken oil. After that had reduced I added back the chicken that I shredded along with chicken stock, kale, large hot red pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage, peppercorn, white pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, and red wine vinegar to the mix to stew for about 90 minutes. What to do while you are waiting for the soup to cook? Well go to a wine tasting of course! After we came back from the wine tasting I added about a cup of quinoa to the soup to bulk it up. It was really good. Unfortunately it did not prevent the cold from spreading.
Saturday night did not disappoint. I went to a friend’s house-warming party that was complete with lots of wine and good times. I even broke out a reading to celebrate the Fall season.
Decorative Gourd Season!
No wonder I feel so crappy this week. I lived three weeks in one last week. Excuse me while I go take a nap.
Favorite moments from last week:
- Sitting on the back porch in VA with my family.
- Watching Mr. MT have his first, second, and third shot of moonshine.
- Visiting with 75% of my favorite people in the world in one week.
- Meeting a new member to my friend family otherwise known as the sweetest and smilingest baby Sullie.
- Wine, wine, and moar wine.
- Dancing and singing with Mudpie at the Wilco concert.
- Cruising with my man around the Boston Harbor and realizing how much we had shared together in just one week.
- Wine.
- College Football!
- Reading one of my favorites at a friend’s party by request!
Filed under: Music, Recipes, Red Wine, The Basics, The Wine Rack
