Freak Three

 

We didn’t do too much socially this weekend because I was working and my husband was helping his best friend Cooper move into his first house. On top of that, we had a freak three-inch snow bomb drop on us out of nowhere. It was a wet snow, which made it stick to the woods in our backyard ever so prettily. My daughter and a friend sledded (slid?) literally all day long. While my husband and daughter helped out Coop with their gang of friends, I went over to Nicole’s to plan our trip to Madrid more. Her husband Hayes grilled chicken over charcoal and Nicole made her own BB-Q sauce, fries, and a salad. I brought over TJ’s Venetian Moon wine, vanilla ice cream, and praline encrusted pecans to top it with. Our plans are coming together nicely, but we still haven’t settled on a hotel. Today before work my mom came over for a while. I warmed up a bowl of lentils for her that I had made over the busy, snowy weekend. Then, since we were on the subject of good food, I decided to have a Trader Joe’s sampling moment with her using my most recent TJ’s purchases. First we started off with the Venetian Moon pinot grigio, which she liked just ok. Then we tried Zafrica’s pinotage. Wow! How interesting!! It sits on the taste buds like a spicy BB-Q sauce and leaves quite a “smoke-trail” down the throat like it absorbed the flavor of its fire-roasted barrel. It’s definitely not just a sipping wine. It would be great paired with a pulled pork sandwich or maybe hot-wings. Mom and I tried it with Mimolette Francaise (sharp French cheddar-like) cheese, aged six months. Yum! Of course you can’t have cheese without a good cracker, so I brought out the Wisecrackers roasted garlic and rosemary. Then onto dips: organic hummus and also artichoke parmesean cheese. As we were so deeply involved in our impromptu wine and cheese party, I was almost late for work. But I made it on time and had fun as always. And, surprise, surprise, I bought more food.