Opening a bit of History the Night Before

When we returned from our October 2006 trip, we stowed a bottle of Mitterhein Riesling in our luggage, wrapped in socks (a tip from our flight attendant friend who was pictured on the "4F and 4G" post). While in Oberwesel, which is smack dab in the Mitterhein area, we had an amazing bottle of halbtrocken (half dry) Riesling. We weren't able to buy any while we were there, but in Berlin we found some bottles at KaDeWe and bought one.

We brought it home and on every anniversary, Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, or random German meal, we were tempted to open it. We never did. It's a 2004...and finally...tonight we opened it.

Tastes of apple, earth, lime, grass, even vanilla and a hint of star anise. Haha, yeah, right, I wish I could smell and taste all those flavors, but that's sort of what it reminds me of...woohoo, special things like that are always cool.

We leave in the morning, we're pretty much all packed, house is somewhat clean, and the fun nerves are starting. Gotta get a good night of sleep!

Tschüß!

Dinner with Mary

A few posts back, I mentioned a fabulous dinner with Mary at our house, followed by wine-induced iTunes searching (we rocked out to Shoop) and then a stumble to the Horseshoe for more...last night was her going away party at The Belmont and besides having a good time, I'm sad that she is leaving. I am super excited for her, but selfish because I miss her already. I'm glad she has reasons to come back, though, so I know we'll see her.

Conversatin'


Yummy Dr. Oetker Lava cakes

iTunes DWI (Downloading While Intoxicated)

We'll miss you Mary but good luck in Seattle!!

Tschüß!!

Looooong weekend

Today feels like a Sunday. Got up early, ran to Einstein's for egg sandwiches (and saw Andy Roddick there eating...he is so damn hot in real life!), read the paper, then dinked around on the computer for a while before we showered and went shopping.

I don't like getting up early for the post-Thanksgiving shopping, but I love going to the mall to see how crazy and busy the stores can get. It was fairly busy at 3 when we got to the mall and generally everyone was in a good, albeit dazed, moods. Our Thanksgiving meal was fantastic -- went to Claudia's for an amazing meal followed by some games of Bunco. It's a fun dice game that's been around for a long time. I ended up winning and took 75% of the pot while Ryan lost and took 25% of the pot. Yehawh! $40!

We didn't really take any leftovers home, but were craving some turkey and decided to have a mini-Thanksgiving meal tonight. The turkey breast is in the oven, mashed potatoes are ready to go, glazed carrots will follow, and a nice yummy gravy as well. Drinking a George DuBouef Beaujolais Nouveau and it's pretty damn good. Ryan's sipping on a Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon. We are watching Sommersturm (Summer Storm) a german "coming of age" gay movie. I hope it's good and not too sappy!

Tschüß!!

Wir haben viel zu tun!

The holidays are coming quickly -- I'm starting to feel the pressure of finding suitable gifts for my parents, Ryan's parents, etc. While I normally get pegged as the "lazy, uninterested" half of the relationship I honestly have good intentions! I don't know if it's that I lose attention or just plain forget. I'll simply have to work harder this year.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday is all the food and drink that come with it. We're going to my cousin's house for Thanksgiving and I volunteered to bring the wine -- mostly because I love picking it out, hoping it matches the food, and then enjoying drinking it. While at Specs, a really neat "beverage store" in Austin, I also picked up a Pinot Noir from the Alsace region in France...it's to the west of Baden -- where my Spätburgunder comes from...and it was fantastic. The winery was "Secret Valley" and Iiked it's dry solidity quite a bit.

Last night, I made Chicken Parmesan (it was really good!) and we watched Transamerica. Went to bed around 12:30 and woke up to another grey day. Today should be a good amount of shopping...

Tschüß!

Another Sunday

Another Sunday goes by...we bought new plates at Crate and Barrel, thanks to a very generous housewarming present, and are so excited to use them. We host the next "Mira Monte Originals" dinner, which consists of current and old (us included now) members of the neighborhood. It's always a fun event. Ours will be an Oktoberfest theme (go figure!) so now we have 10 new dinner plates, low bowls, and coffee service for four. We have plenty of other cups for espresso service, etc. so we should be just fine. And won't everyone be drinking beer anyways??

I have been savoring a fantastic German wine that Central Market (an Austin central market chain) has been importing...it's a red wine, which isn't the normal German wine you see...mostly you'll find Riesling or Gewürztraminer...but there are some fantastic Pinot Noir grapes from the Baden region.

The wine I've been liking is called Spätburgunder (which translated could be "late burgundy" as in a late harvest of Burgundy grapes but really does mean Pinot Noir). I want to buy a case and I know they have 2 1/2 cases left...perhaps I will have to splurge a bit and do so.

Time to prepare for Monday...

Tschüss!