Tuesday Night

Wine Snob Hubby worked yesterday and since he works 12 hour days, he eats all his meals at work, leaving me to fend for myself. I hadn't eaten dinner when he got home so he threw a couple of potatoes in the microwave and we each had one. We paired it with water.

Later in the evening, we pulled out the almond champagne we purchased last week at Morgan Hill Cellars/Pedrizetti. When we tasted it at the winery, I smelled the almond but didn't taste it. I liked the champagne overall, I thought it was crisp and very flavorful. Of something, just not almond.

Last night, it was still light, crisp and pleasant, but had no almond bouquet at all. Kind of disappointing. We didn't have anything to eat with it, but that shouldn't matter, because we didn't at the winery either. WSH didn't finish his, he was that unimpressed.

A Typical Monday

I spent a good part of the day waiting in a hospital cafeteria for my grand-daughter to have surgery on a fingernail. Yes, on a fingernail.

Then I went to physical therapy for my back problem.

Then I came home, curled up in the recliner and whimpered. A lot.

WSH fixed pasta with a cream sauce, garlic, and artichoke hearts. I had the last glass of the $2 Chuck, he had red.

I thought my wine went nicely with the artichokes, not so much with the cream sauce. I wish I knew why...

Lesson 1: Sauvignon Blanc

The wine: 2008 Robert Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc

The lesson: acid

The pairing: smoked salmon with creme fraiche, capers and dill (sort of)

Wine Snob Hubby printed off a ream of pages from the Culinary Institute of America's online wine classes and gave us a lesson in SauvBlanc.

We sipped the wine. It was tart and I definitely tasted the acidity. Then we took a (teeny) sip of rice wine vinegar, then another sip of wine. The wine was flat. It had totally lost the bite and the character.

We alternated bites of smoked salmon, the creme, some bitter lettuce and capers and dill. This is where it gets interesting.

WSH said eating a caper then sipping the wine was the same as the wine after the rice wine vinegar. Not for me. The caper cut the acidity somewhat for me, but not nearly to the extent the vinegar did.

So... who's palate is better? We don't have a clue. His is very sensitive, obviously.

The wine itself was nice, not as light as expected, so it stood up well to the smoke in the salmon.

I tasted pear and that's about it. The label said citrus and pear. I didn't get the citrus. But (and this is weird, I know) towards the end of my 2nd glass, I took a hearty sip and tasted pear followed by...(drum roll, please)...cactus.

I know, weird. I've had cactus once, in a salad, diced. I didn't know I remembered what it tasted like. Or maybe the wine tasted like I think cactus smells.

But there was cactus in that there glass. That's all this uneducated palate knows.

Late Night Risotto

So, we got home from the "Family Dinner that's really Dessert" last night. We had pie, cookies, cinnamon rolls, turnovers, and Brown Bobbies. I had 2 Brown Bobbies, 1 roll, 1 cookie. Not bad for hours of sitting around staring at the food. I also discovered that I can't take certain people for more than an hour if I'm sober. I raised my voice in irritation more times last night than in the last month. I have to think it's because I didn't have enough wine.

Anyway, we arrived home and unloaded, did a few chores. I read a chapter in my current book and discovered I was hungry.

Wine Snob Hubby fixed me a snack, the last of the leftover risotto, a bread stick, and a glass of the $2Chuck.

WSH recently discovered the joy that is risotto and has been experimenting with different combos in the rice. The last one was pretty simple: mushrooms and onion.

I had the last of it at 10:00 pm last night. It was beautiful. The wine with it... not as good as it was with the salad yesterday afternoon. Last night, the wine left a sharp tang on the back of my tongue. Not as enjoyable, in my uneducated opinion.

Tonight: WSH is currently smoking a salmon fillet and we're going to have it with some capers and a Sauvignon Blanc. The education continues.

First Pairing

It's a fall Saturday. We're going to my mother-in-law's home for dessert at 4:30 this afternoon.

I don't know why. Well, I sort of know why. Family is gathering from around the state and the country and she wants to have everyone together. Not all of will be at her home for Thanksgiving and she doesn't want to do two huge meals in a week. So we're all coming for dessert. I made cinnamon rolls because I have to take some to church tomorrow and it's just as easy to do two dozen as it is one.

Anyway, it's a typical fall Saturday. Rolls rising, laundry churning, lawn mower roaring. Because of the aforementioned 4:30 pm dessert, we had a late lunch.

Left over tri-tip on a green salad with sugar peas, red bell pepper, a plum tomato, and seeded cucumbers. With a thin ranch/gorgonzola dressing (the dressing was bottled and labeled gorgonzola but it tasted like ranch to me). Wine Snob husband thinned it with a little 2% milk to extend it over two salads.

We ate at 2:30. We had a glass of Charles Shaw Chardonnay with it. Two-buck Chuck. Beringer's White zin is now too sweet for me and this Chardonnay is just fine.

I thought it went very well with the salad. I could taste something along the sides of tongue. I'm not sure what.

The wine was light and crisp and the little bit of beef on the salad didn't overpower the wine. The dressing might have been too much for other whites but since it was thinned down, I thought it was fine.

But what do I know? I have the uneducated palate.

The Uneducated Palate

For years I've said I don't have a palate.

People can rhapsodize about the fruity flavors of wine, or the tar or oaky hints, and I nod but I'm faking it. I can't taste those things. Sometimes I can smell a hint of a strawberry or the oak. I had some almond champagne recently and I totally smelled almonds in it, but I really didn't get it in the taste.

I used to drink only Beringer's White Zinfandel. Or wine coolers. Then I found I didn't hate white wines.

This blog will be my journey to educate my palate.

My husband is taking wine classes and he's going to teach me a thing or two. Or three.