a99kitten's Musings

Saw the Travel Channel’s show on the Jucy Lucy. Apparently, this burger is a Minnesota specialty. I guess several places there lay claim to inventing it but the place that seems like the original (Matt’s) started it due to a customer wanting cheese in between 2 patties and it was so yummy, the put up on their menu ASAP and misspelled juicy.)

I love cheeseburgers. LOVE them. I don’t eat them too often but aim to enjoy them fully when I do. So when I saw this show advertised I had to watch it. And after watching it, had to try making them. Watching the show, they simply use 2 pre-made burger patties and put a slice of American cheese (more melty than other cheeses) and kind squish the patties around the sides to seal them into 1 patty. And then season with salt and pepper and they cook on their fry/grill.  Seems simple.

The other restaurant that claims they invented it use thicker patties and 4 slices of cheese. That seemed a bit too much for me. I’m sure delicious but simply too much food.

Now you can find many variations of this recipe, also all claiming to be original, online. They have various spices, sauces, additions to the burger meat mixture. But I decided to keep it fairly simple for my first try.

I bought the lowest fat ground beef. And American cheese. The mixture I used was a combo of 2 recipes:

1.5 lbs ground beef (used the 96% lean to balance the heart attack factor!)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 slices American cheese

This is for 4 servings/burgers.

Combine ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix well. Form 8 thin patties. Each about the size of a slice of of cheese.

Pre-skooshing

Cut each slice of cheese into 4 equal pieces and stack the pieces in the middle of a patty and put another patty on top. Tightly pinch edges together to tightly seal the cheese within the meat. I skooshed (I am totally TMing this word) them together. Do this to create 4 complete burgers/patties.

Post-skooshing

Preheat a cast-iron or other heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Cook burgers until well browned, about 4 minutes(ish) on each side. Turn the burgers and prick the top of each to allow steam to escape – remember the cheese is HOT and melty inside.

If you bite into it and burn yourself – you will need to sue yourself…so remember, this could get pricey…

You need to cook these more medium to get the cheese fully melted and delicious. So no rare or medium rare burgers here. The melty delish cheese will make up for it :)

It’s cold, windy and cloudy today so I went partial-white trash dinner and paired these with tater tots but then fancified abit with a Blanc de Blancs from the Cupcake Vineyards. I saw the name of this place in some Wine newsletter and have been searching for it locally since pre-Christmas. I mean really? How perfect for me – Cupcake Vineyards? :)  Finally found it in a store a few weeks ago! It very delicious, especially for the price. And the bubly went very well with the burgers. As it does with anything :) http://www.cupcakevineyard.com/

If you like burgers like I do, I recommend trying these. Although I would probably use 2 pieces of cheese (per burger.) But I LOVE cheese :) And I used no other condiments. They aren’t difficult and they are delish. The funny thing is they remind me of a burger McDonald’s used to sell a loooong time ago. The Cheddar Melt. I LOVED those. Like LOVED them. It was a burger patty with melty Cheddar cheese (sauce?) on top. I was addicted. Probably a good thing they stopped selling them but now I have these….uh-oh :)

UPDATE: Made the 2 leftover burgers tonight and added another piece of cheese on top. HOLY HELL. This change made this burger my absolute favorite yumminess! Rule: Don’t skimp on the cheese. :)

Yes please…

I just ordered this. I have to try it – I LOVE the Bellinis by Cipriani.

Had a fantastic lunch at Harry Cipriani on my second trip to NYC (risotto followed by chocolate cake) and I think 4 (5?) Bellinis. Oops. Thankfully I was not paying, driving or needing to be anywhere important :)

Every time I visited NYC after that I ate there again or at Cipriani’s Downtown (I highly recommend eating dinner in the summer on the rooftop!) And always had the daily risotto and chocolate cake for dessert. Usually some fish entree thrown to add some protein. Oh…and 3 or 4 (or 5?) Bellinis :) They are just sooo easy to drink.

You cannot get better risotto or Bellinis than at a Cipriani location. I’ve tried. Although I can make a mean risotto…using the Cipriani recipe :)

I doubt this will taste quite the same since the real ones are made with fresh white peach puree but hopefully close enough to it to be equally delicious. I think I sense a risotto and Bellini meal coming up soon…..

http://www.newyorkfirst.com/store/display.cgi?page=m077.html

I love this pasta sauce – a lot! But I make it like once a year. First, because I try to limit the number of times I eat plates of pasta but also because it is so delicious due to the ridiculous fat content. Not a light, summer-time bikini-season meal for sure. But hey – it’s a cold and snowy February right now!

I found this recipe online and have tweaked it a bit for my own tastes since. But the body of it is as found online and I take no ownership of it other than my own minor tweaks due to personal taste.

When I went to the store yesterday to buy the ingredients I couldn’t find the pancetta. So the meat counter guy helped me and asked me what I was making. I said pasta. He looked at me quizzically. I said you know – spaghetti. He said Ahhh…”fancy” spaghetti. OK, OK. Pasta/Spaghetti, tomato/tomahtoe. I wasn’t calling the whole thing off :) I guessed by looking at him that I probably could have said macaroni and gravy and he probably would have known and maybe even given me some tips!

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoos extra-virgin olive oil
Small minced onion (changed from 1.5 cups minced red onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
1 1/3 cups tomato paste
1/3 lb pancetta, minced
1.5 cups whole milk
2 cups red wine
2 2/3 cups tomatoes (I’m cheated and used canned)
4 cups meat stock (I cheated and bought it)
Kosher (coarse) salt
Freshly ground pepper
Shaved Parmesan
Ingredients from original recipe that I left out due to not liking them: 3/4 cups minced celery and 3/4 cup minced carrot

Directions:
Combine butter and olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat (keep in mind you will have 2 quarts of liquid going in so I use a 4qt pan.) Add the onion. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently until the onion (all veggies if including them) soften and begin to brown – about 15 minutes.

Add the garlic, then add the beef and pancetta. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is thoroughly browned, about 25 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Add the milk and simmer actively until the milk reduces and is absorbed, about 15 minutes or so.

(I lower the temp to low and simmer longer than the original recipe for this part) Add the wine and simmer until the pan is once again almost dry (liquid reduced). This can take some time – 1 hour or even longer.

Post wine, pre-stock/tomatoes simmering

Add the tomatoes and stock, adjust the heat so the sauce gently simmers and cooks for about 3-4 hours.

Pour yourself a glass of the red wine you opened to use in this and sip as you stir and keep an eye on your sauce (yes, this is one of my personal tweaks ;) )

You can use any type of pasta noodles you want. Traditional spaghetti (but not angel hair), fettuccine or penne noodles work best with the sauce consistently (in my opinion.) Pour sauce over your noodles (after you’ve cooked them of course…) and top with Parmesan. Mixing the Parmesan in right away gets it all melty and gooey :)

All of the simmering times are going to vary a bit depending on your stove (gas or electric) and pan. So use your judgment and not just a timer. Simmering longer is always a better option with pasta sauce – always tastes better!

The recipe is officially a Bolognese sauce recipe. By keeping the carrots and celery out and using red wine I tweaked it from that a bit but I think can still fall in the category – especially for this non-Italian whiter than white girl! :) I will also try adding some porcini mushrooms next time!

As I was cooking this today, I was thinking I wanted to see The Godfather, or even The Sopranos. Badda-bing badda-boom – I turn on the TV and on AMC they are playing a Godfather marathon: kismet :) One of my all-time favorite movies – amazing film full of great story and even greater acting.

It’s not a hard meal to make – just time consuming. Good for a cold Sunday afternoon! And it is DEE-licious! As a side note – do not wear anything white while preparing this :)

Yum…

Pasta hittin' the table...

As husband was taking his plate to the table, he slipped on the wood floors in his socks and all of his pasta almost slid off his plate as he went down. Storm’s eyes were like saucers imagining his upcoming feast! But alas…husband recovered with only a slight Parmesan dusting of the floor which Storm cleaned up better than I could. Even though I spent all day preparing this dinner…that would have been dang funny and Storm would have had a full belly :)

Ok, party is tomorrow!! Oh yeah – so is the Superbowl :) Kinda sad really…it’s that same feeling that I get on December 24th. Loving Christmas so, so much but knowing it will all be over soon. Same thing with football season.

But oh fiddle-dee-dee, I’ll be Scarlett and think about that tomorrow! Menu will be:

Today’s Macaroni and Cheese (Rick Bayless recipe)
Jambalaya (scoured Internet for recipe – found on that sounds good on Food Network)
Hogs in a Blanket with cheesy dipping sauce
Buffalo Chicken Hot Wing Dip (Hungry Girl’s healthier version!)
Chips and Salsa
Ruffles with sour cream dip – always the first thing to be demolished no matter what
Various cheeses and crackers (courtesy of @missmelon)
Veggies (have to offer them even tho always the LAST thing to go no matter what!)
Homemade brownies (courtesy of @sonya415)
Beer (husband’s one job since I don’t drink beer)
And of course bubbly for me :)

People will bring stuff I imagine so I have no idea what else will be added to this but this is what I am making or know will be brought. I just need to figure out timing on making everything though…

Making Cipiriani’s pea risotto tonight with some chicken for dinner. I ate very little yesterday and won’t eat much today in preparation for dinner and tomorrow’s food fest. Yikes….my stepper will be my friend next week I guess.

I like both teams. And would be happy for either team to win. I need a high-scoring game to win our office pool but doesn’t actually matter which teams wins – just lots and lots of points on the board! But Peyton Manning is my QB1 so I’m rooting for the Colts to win. And will be wearing my #18 jersey tomorrow!

I hope for a good game played by both teams. No blow outs. And of course looking forward to some good commercials. I always tear up at the National Anthem because I’m a goofball. But I hush everyone up for that and always stand for it – even in my living room. The half time show? Well…I’ll watch it I guess. I think I know a song or 2 by The Who. I think? I must, right?

Storm is quite excited for the Superbowl as well. He is strategizing his food stealing knowing that tomorrow’s guests will be easy targets :)

What are you doing for the Superbowl??

Husband brought home some lobster macaroni & cheese for me from a business dinner. He knows I LOVE mac&cheese.

It was ok. I mean even a “bad” mac&cheese is a good mac & cheese :)

Mac & cheese is like risotto it seems. Many chefs feel they need to fancify it for their foodie tastes. So they add all sorts of weird stuff that has no business in either of them.

I’ve had risotto that some people might rave about that I was pretty turned off by. But it’s the simple that I like – pea risotto made using the Cipriani recipe is better than any gross seafood risotto made by some stupid, self-important chef in SF.

And a simple baked, rich cheesy mac&cheese is way better than some over the top version looking to be less “middle-class”. I’ll be making a yummy one for my Superbowl party that’s much yummier…in my opinion. But truthfully…I prefer the Kraft blue box or Stouffer’s to most foodies desperate attempts to not be so middle class or regular. Meh.

Obviously this is a personal choice. Some people want the exotic. They choose the exotic or different when the simple is so much better.

So in the end, I had a couple bites but the huskies were pretty stoked on the doggie bag of fancy food. :)

What a stressful football weekend. My Gators won – yay! Keeping their perfect season alive and kicking. As Tebow keeps breaking moire records. I ordered my Tebow jersey last week – will be here this coming week – yay!

I won Survivor – chose MIN against DET. Should not have been a stressful pick at all. Although the first half was not so breezy. Won I survived. That’s what counts. But my last surviving opponent chose ARI and SEA looked like they were going to walk all over ARI at home…and then they started playing like SEA again :( So we both survived to pick next week – and we are getting down to the not so easy pickins’!!

In my weekly picks – I HAD chosen KC and GB to win when I made my picks on Tuesday night! But then I got stressed out since both OAK and KC suck but OAK is at home so went with the home team. Meh… And I bought the hype of DAL doing so well and coming back and blah blah. Should have known better. A Niners fan shouldn’t chose DAL…so lost weekly picks this week by 1 game when my original picks would have won easily. I also told my husband I wanted CIN over PIT today but took CIN. Again – dumb. Stupid. Idgit. Oh well.

In Fantasy – my 2 “star” wide receivers got me a combined score of 11 points. W.T.F? Hines Ward and Marques Colston = 11 points total. Thanks guys. I *almost* put in Cotchery or Bowe over Ward but then thought I’d be the idiot. No…would have been smarter.

Sidney Rice got me 80 points with 201 receiving yards. Amazing. Frackin’ amazing. And my BYE week pick-up of Ladell Betts looked dismal starting the day as he reportedly was still battling a sprained ankle…great…and then he got me 50 points! YAY! That’s more than any of my “star” RBs have gotten me all season. Nice.

My PIT defense got me 10 points. Not the 35ish they were projected. I swear if Polamalu isn’t playing (injured and out in 1st Q) the PIT D SUCKS!!!! Ugh.

Before the Sunday Night battle royale (IND vs NE), I made “The Waverly Inn Truffled Mac and Cheese”. Quite excited. Very simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1 lb. elbow macaroni
1 tbsp. salt
5 tbsp. unsalted butter
6 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1.5 tbsp. Dijon mustard
5 cups milk
8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese – shredded (2 cups)
8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese – shredded (2 cups)
1 tsp. table salt
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
White-Truffle oil to taste

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch over over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tbsp. salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander. Add a drop of olive oil to prevent sticking.

2. In the now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour and mustard and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes.

Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 tsp. salt until fully melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is heated through.

3. Top with bread crumbs and broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Drizzle truffle oil to taste. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

I made this with come cheeseburgers. YUM!! This was quite a tasty meal. And the mac & cheese was quite simple compared to some others.

Going into tonight’s game ahead by 30 points. I have my star TE – Dallas Clark. My opponent has Joseph Addai though. Stress….

I am watching tonight’s game wearing my Peyton Manning jersey :) GO CLARK! GO COLTS!

After trying the mac & cheese, I feel it is not as good as the others I have tried (all from my mac&cheese cookbook). Kinda bland. It’s mac & cheese. I’ll still eat it. It’s better than most food. But not OMGI”LLDIEYUM if you know what I mean :)

Good day today! A great walk with the buds to start it.  It was a gorgeous day out.  Blue sky with a few light, wispy clouds. Then the sun came up. Was breezy but not windy. The waves were crazy. Tons of sets coming in – great whitecaps and crashing into the rocks. Hard to get a good photo as the waves were much bigger IRL but I tried…

Waves 11.7.09

Then drove into SF and saw Wicked. My girlfriends and I have been trying to pick a date to see this show for months but something always came up.  But we finally just picked a date and did it. Not everyone could come :( but we ended up getting PERFECT seats! I think my friend Helen will never want to volunteer to be in charge of the ticket procuring again but she scored great tickets for this!! Center orchestra seats. Perfect view of everything. Close enough to see all details on every costume but not in the first section so you miss anything on the sides. So perfect. Yay for the flu (the original buyer of these tix had 3 of their 4 get the flu so they had to sell.)

The sick people behind us should have sold their tickets and stayed home as well. At least 3 of the people sitting directly behind us kept coughing. And not even bothering to cover their mouths. Who does this? Really? Were you people raised by savages? They were clearly not too bright as they were surprised by the some of the “reveals” of the play. Again…….Really? Yes…these are the same people that vote. Sigh….

But the show was too good and fun for that to effect the mood!

Seats for Wicked

The actress who played Elphaba (aka The Wicked Witch of the West) was so, so good. Her voice was so awesome. She was actually the Standby too. Amazing. Glinda was great too. Was imagining how Kristin Chenoweth was on Broadway – she must have been great in that role!  The cast really did a great job.  Didn’t like Nessarose (character or actress) much though – but since she was the Wicked Witch of the East, I guess that’s right.

I would see this show again. Thoroughly enjoyable. And it did remind me how much I love seeing plays and  musicals. I *hate* going into the city for any reason whatsoever but I would volunteer for a good show. The last play we saw in the city was Phantom. Front row balcony seats – perfect view. Husband fell asleep (?) So now I will just go with friends :)

Going back to the parking lot, we had to take an elevator from street level. The stairwells were locked to, I assume, keep the homeless out (man, I love the cesspool…I mean city…) Apparently we were riding with people who were raised by the same savages. This guy kept squeezing against me to let more people in. If he would have made one more move – I would have clocked him. As it was as soon as soon the elevator door opened I pushed him forward to “help him out.” My friends were across from me so they saw my face. Glad I provided amusement for them :)

After the show, we went and had dinner at Q. Very, very yummy. I got a spinach salad to add a healthy component to my mac and cheese with tater tots entree :)  But I didn’t eat dinner on Friday night and hadn’t eaten yet today so the calorie intake *must* have balanced out somehow, right? :)

Mac & Cheese with tots at Q

Came home to very happy to see me doggies. So I’m just hanging out with them now.  Why a matinee show and early dinner is great – not home too late so doggie time after!!  A great, fun day and then football tomorrow. YAY!

Last Sunday I missed my weekly day of football to go to a champagne tasting event. While I hated missing my football, the event was very, very fun. I meant to note my favorites earlier so will do so now while watching Sunday Night Football :)

We were able to taste some very nice bottles. Some of the “fancier” names/labels (for easy name recognition) were:

2002 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut
Pommery Brut Royal
2000 Moet & Chandon Cuvee Dom Perignon Brut
NV Veuve Clicquot Brut
NV Veuve Clicquot Rose
1998 La Grand Dame
Krug Grand Cuvee Brut
NV Taittinger

Now, there were many other but these are the names most people recognize. Sadly, the pourers for Cristal and Dom both said how people flocked to their tables and only tasted the “stars” and didn’t do the entire table tasting. Stupid. Yes, Cristal is delicious. One of my all time favorites for sure. But I am not going to open a bottle of Cristal on just any ol’ day. It’s a nice/special occasion bottle. So since you are here, and have the opportunity to taste over 50 champagnes, why not take advantage to taste and find new ones that can be opened any ol’ time? Find a good value. Or find a new favorite. Or try something you would have never tried before. It’s why I am here!

Now, my rating system for bubbly tasting is great, good and OK :) And I’ll have to say I only tried one that I wouldn’t buy a bottle of. And that’s only because I just don’t like super sweet ones. So some roses and extra drys don’t fit me.

My favorite was the Cristal. Yes – to me – it is *that* good. I was given a couple bottles years ago and opened one of them a couple years back. Yes – it really is that good. Still need to open my other bottle. But it’s not inexpensive. So for a nice, affordable “daily” drinker (OK, not really “daily” but you know what I mean) try the Taittinger line-up. And more specifically the NV Taittinger La Francaise. All 3 that they were pouring at the table were great. Plus the guy at that table was awesome – very funny and informative. Loved him. Plus they work with/own Domaine Carneros in Napa and I LOVE all of their bubblies (bubblys?) as well. Such a beautiful place to visit. I would highly suggest their flight from the day:

NV Taittinger La Francaise
Taittinger Prestige Brut Rose
2002 Taittinger Millesime

My second affordable favorite was the Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut. This was re-branded to this name this year. It used to be called Moet & Chandon White Star. Guess they didn’t want to be associated with the Titanic anymore :) I served this as the only bubbly at my wedding reception. So I know I like it. Very yummy. And fairly priced.

Obviously the big, established houses have great stuff. They have been in business since the 1700-1800s for a reason. I loved all of the tastes at Veuve. And Taittinger. And Moet. The widow’s is one of the only roses I actually *really**really* like.

The guy at the Pommery table sabered the bottle. He didn’t actually use a saber. But he used a glass. A regular champagne flute. Wha?? It was quite fun to watch! Interestingly, the POP was my least favorite at that table. I have 3 mini-bottles on my desk at work for those *really* stressful days ;) The art on these little bottles is GREAT! My good friend Helen has given all of them to me for various reasons/occasions. Enabler? What? :) They have fun with the art – that’s for sure. But it was a bit sweet for me. But not so sweet that I will turn it down :) Their Brut Royal was my favorite though.

The Nicholas Feuillatte “Blue Label” Brut was very good. And one of the least expensive bottles there. Their 1998 Palmes d’Or was also quite tasty. And the bottle is very pretty :)

Also one of the least expensive bottles was the Gosset Brut Excellence. Very yummy.

K&L Wines did a great job. Each table had a good amount of bottles, no one ran out, and the pourers were very interesting and knowledgeable. The entire parking lot was tented and they had, what looked to be, very tasty apps being served. I had eaten brunch prior to arrival so wasn’t hungry and didn’t try them. But they sure smelled and looked yummy! The huskies would have been very happy to be there :)

They also had an auction to benefit Pets N Need, a local animal shelter. A portion of the ticket sales went to them as well as all of the auction proceeds, which were donated. Husband and I bid on 2 and won them both. A guy tried to snake me on my bid – I smacked him down in literally the last second :) Silly man. I love bubbly and animals even more. So really, the best kind of charity auction for me :)

Tonight I am watching the NYG/ARI Sunday Night game and opening a bottle of Toques et Clochers Cremant de Limoux after a day of football & chores. I found this bubbly last year and really like it!

I won my fantasy week this week (unlike last week where I lost horribly!) I played my husband this week. He was out of town this past week/weekend and this was best for today…usually I do root for him to win but well…I’m competitive too :) I survived Survivor (NE). Only 2 of us left! Two girls might I add :) And tied in the weekly pool – I need a high scoring game in MNF! I used the line as my score/tie breaker so we need 38 or higher by PHI and WAS combined :)

Oh and p.s. my Gators won too!

Wheee!!! My Gators won!!!! Great game! And I got a football fix :) And having 3 TVs on in the house to make sure I don’t miss anything while doing chores is NOT an overkill :)

So I’ve just finished setting my Fantasy team (although will make a check Sunday AM as well), made my Survivor pick and made all my pool picks. I did all of this early because…dundundun….I will not be home to watch football tomorrow…ARGH!!!!! I will be able to catch Fox pre-game stuff and maybe 45 minutes or so of the morning games but made plans for an event on Sunday (while thinking it was on a Saturday – doh!) Plus we have to leave the house early due to our local Pumpkin Festival taking place this weekend and the 2 ways in and out of our little coast side hamlet become clogged with insane tourists looking for pumpkins, crafts, pumpkin-themed food and photo ops for their kids. They do have live bands all day long too.

Don’t get me wrong – I love the festival actually. It is quite fun once you brave the drive. But man…the traffic is actually mind-boggling. If you are coming over the hill from the peninsula or south bay, you are looking at a 2 hour sit in your car on 92 at the peak (12-2) to get into downtown to park. For pumpkins. And ponies. And arts & crafts. Yikes. But a lot of pumpkin-themed food which is quite good…

Anyway – due to this, locals usually either bike,  stay ensconced in their homes with provisions procured on the Friday before the festival, or they leave and are over the hill by 10:30-11:00am AT THE LATEST before the masses really clog the place up. And no coming back home until after 6:00pm (festival ends at 5pm on both Sat and Sun.)

BUT – on Sunday we are going to a very fun sounding event! The Champagne Tent Event at K&L Wine. And it benefits Pets N’Need – YAY! Here is a sample of what we will be tasting:

2003 Louis Roederer Vintage Brut Rosé Champagne
Fleury “Carte Rouge” from Magnum
Pascal Lallement Reserve (being shown in the USA for the first time)
1998 Pommery Brut ‘Cuvee Louise’ Champagne
Ariston Aspasie Cepages d’Antan Champagne (being shown in the USA for the first time)
Gosset Grand Reserve
Phillippe Gonet 3210 (being shown in the USA for the first time)
2002 Taittinger Millesime
Bruno Michel 2002 Vintage (being shown in the USA for the first time)
2000 Moet & Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Brut
Ruinart Blanc de Blanc
Baron Fuente 1996 Vintage (being shown in the USA for the first time)
1998 La Grand Dame
Bonville Belles Voyes
Charles Heidsieck Brut 2000
2000 Cazals (being shown in the USA for the first time)
Tarlant Cuvee Louis
Krug Grand Cuvee

With producers direct from Champagne, France here (yes, I will be polite about the whole champagne/sparkling wine thing…unless they are snooty first:) ) Here is what sold me on the event (besides the above list)…

“We hope that you will join us in welcoming eight great producers from Champagne along with representatives from ten other houses at this exciting event. We will taste well over 40 different Champagnes (including eight for the first time in the USA) at what we promise will be the Champagne event of the year. Joining us from Champagne will be Paul Vincent and Caroline Ariston of Champagne Aspasie, Bruno Lemoine of Fleury and Pascal Lallement, Chantal Gonet of Champagne Philippe Gonet, Bruno Michel of Champagne Bruno Michel, Eric De Brisis of Champagne Baron Fuente, Olivier Bonville of Champagne Franck Bonville, Delphine Cazals of Champagne Claude Cazals and Melanie Tarlant of Champagne Tarlant. Representatives of Krug, Pommery, Gosset, Feuillatte, Ruinart, Veuve-Clicquot, Moet & Chandon, Roederer, Charles Heidsieck and Taittinger will also be on hand to pour their Champagne (many of which are rarely poured at events!) and answer your questions. A portion of ticket sales will benefit Pets N’Need. The event will also feature a silent auction with 100% of the proceeds going directly to this worthwhile charity.“

I’m going to try another slow-cooking chicken dish for Sunday as well.  I’ll start it before I leave so I do not have to cook when I get home and can watch the night game! I’ll see how I like it and post the recipe tomorrow night or Monday if I like it :) Will also depend how sleepy I am after bubbly tasting all day ;-)

I am quite excited for it. Very, very sad to miss my football and RedZone Channel though. But I should make it home for most of the night game. All but 2 of my FF players are in the 10:00am games so oh well…what are you going to do :) If I’m losing that badly – I’ll know early to drink more bubbly :)

I went into my Sunday morning very stressed about my fantasy team. Of course, I always go in to my football Sundays like this :) Drew Brees is on his BYE week so I had to pick up a QB. There were a few decent ones to choose from – Eli Manning (but injured), Carson Palmer (but playing in BAL), Matt Ryan (but playing against my 49ers!) and possibly Matt Hasselbeck (coming off of injury.) I wanted Matt H. but his injury was stressing me out – what if he got injured again in the first quarter and I got cheesed?!

Now, this was on Wednesday AM. Our league puts all free agents on waivers starting at 10am PT Sunday until Tuesday at midnight (so early Wednesday AM.) I had originally wanted David Garrard actually but when I went in to pick him up, I saw that someone else already picked hm up. Dang! So this sent me on my QB deliberations. I ended taking Matt Ryan. He is a good QB but I was a bit stressed about the choice.

Then on Friday I saw that they were saying Matt Hasselbeck would be playing. He was still listed as probable but he had been practicing all week and would play. So I went with my gut and dropped Ryan and grabbed Hasselbeck. Apparently – I just needed a “Matt” in my line up this week :) Although I was still stressed about the injury. Even this morning, I almost dropped him and picked Eli but just said to myself – go with your gut. Whew…worked out well :) Now, Matt Ryan or Eli would have done almost as well for me too. But thank goodness someone else picked up David Garrard ahead of me! :) I got 69 points from Hasselbeck! Very nice indeed. He made up for the very (barely) average performances by my RBs.

Once again Yahoo projected Brandon Jacobs to get 45 points. All I read all week was how the NYG running game would open and Jacobs would go off. Well…they were half right. The running game DID open up…for Jacobs’ back-up Bradshaw! The reason this really sticks in my craw is that years ago I had Tiki Barber as one of my RBs. 2 years in a row actually. I love Tiki! BUT, our league awarded points for TDs and barely any for yards. So Tiki would run and run and run the ball but they would give it to the much bigger back Jacobs to punch in for the TD. GRRRRRRRR.

So then we changed the scoring in our league to reward yards run and not just TD hawks. And then Tiki retired. Boo :( So this year I drafted Jacobs, who stole numerous TDs from me in seasons past, and now HIS runs AND TDs are getting stolen from me! GRRRRRRR…

But anyway, Jacobs got me 18 points today. Far cry from 47. But my PIT Def finally showed up after choking every week since Week 1 (and losing Troy Polamalu.) 7 sacks! Very nice. They got me 40 points today. And Hines Ward did decently.

I replaced my old kicker, Bironas (TEN) with Scobee (JAX). JAX had 0 points today. No kicks. Zeeee-ro. Genius team maneuvering by me :)

In the meantime, I have been slow-cooking Kalua Pork since last night. 20 hours! This morning I woke up to both huskies upstairs by the kitchen. I think they were lobbying for Kalua pork for breakfast :)

The recipe for this is VERY simple. Anyone can cook this – anyone with a slow cooker/crockpot:

Ingredients:
1 4-6lb pork butt roast (so this is actually shoulder – the butcher thought I was funny)
1 1/2 tablespoons Hawaiian sea salt (yes, you need this and not just regular salt)
1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring

1. Pierce pork all over with a fork. Rub salt then the liquid smoke over meat. Place roast in the slow cooker.

2. Cover, and cook on low for 16-20 hours (I do 20), turning once during cooking time.

3. Remove meat from slow cooker, and shred, adding drippings as needed to moisten. The meat falls off the bone. Takes barely any effort at all.

I serve this over sticky rice with some Sriracha (rooster sauce!) for spice. Very, very delicious! And easy :)

My Gators won last night – very pleased. I’m sure the Gator Haters will have their usual crap to say but we won so *sticking tongue out* :) I also survived Survivor Football – I chose NYG at home over OAK this week – that was a very stressful pick ;) But no one else dropped out either. We’ve only lost 1 person so far. We all keep picking well!

And I am winning our weekly pool this week! My DEN over NE pick paid off!! I almost chose CIN too but chickened out – doh! Oh well. It all comes down to MNF. I chose MIA and everyone else has NYJ. If NYJ wins, then I tie with 3 others but I have the lowest score (for tie-breaking purposes) so we need 34 as the highest combined score! So send me your low-scoring, MIA winning karma please :)

So a full weekend of long, fun husky beach walks, good football, plus 2 nights of slow-cooking yummy food. I haven’t slept well but that’s fairly normal nowadays. And I baked some chocolate chip cookies during Sunday Night Football. AND finally finished Season 2 of Mad Men! Now can start watching the DVRed episodes of Season 3.

And I did win FF this week :) Beat my opponent 236 to 132. So I am now 4-1. Not so bad. But next week is a very, very tough (has AP, Wayne, Mendenhall) opponent – boo :( New week of football stress….