New World Shiraz

...drinking new world shiraz 2010. ok, so if you've been following my blog you'll know that i'm pretty new to the world of wine...saying all that, this was one of the worst wines i've tasted, seriously...no lie!. i feel bad saying this because i know the company is out there somewhere (south africa) and they put their heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into stomping these grapes, however, it's just not good enough. oh oh oh i know, have you ever had ink in your mouth after a pen broke from chewing on it (yes, i know it is soooo high school, that's when it happened, of course hahahaha), well that's what this wine tasted like with a splash not a dash of black pepper! i know this may sound strange but i have a very clear palette, :D !!  this south african red wine retails for $12.95, a little pricey for peppered ink in a bottle, if you ask me. the wine is harsh, very dry with a strong bitter after taste (definitely not a good year for the new world, haha). i'm sorry but i really can't recommended this to anyone, not even my enemy (c'mon,  you know i don't have any of those)!!!

xo

Tied Knot Trail

...drinking tied knot trail riesling 2009. i think after this bottle i am officially a groupie for white wine (yes, i'm a groupie because i am more than a fan!)...this bottle  of wine was like a cool breeze on a warm summer day (exactly what i wish for on a day like today...a freezing cold spring day, c'mmooonnnn summer!!). tied knot trail is from the vineyards of california and could be bought for $14.99 from wineinsiders.com (thanks to another great groupon deal!!) now back to the good stuff... as i sipped on my glass of riesling, it was so refreshing, light, crisp with the hidden flavor of lemon, pink grapefruit and peach. i think this a great wine for pasta meal, however, i was eating chips and guacamole, hahaha (what!! don't judge me!!) i really thought this wine was so tasty, i put the chips and guac aside to savor the flavor of the wine...great wine!!! i definitely recommend....ok i think i'm going for another sip. lata!!!!!

xo

Thalassemia

...my parents told me that i probably have thalassemia...yup, it's a disease. i wasn't born yesterday or the day before, why am i only now being told this may be a possibility??!! you're probably wondering how this all came about? welllllll,  it all started in january, with all the tons of snow that we got, one morning on my way to work, i fell down the front steps of my house almost killing myself, or so i thought at the time. i really just broke my tailbone (or i seriously thought i broke it, it hurt sooooooo bad!!) i can laugh about it now, but that fall was no joke!! a week later, i felt a small lump above my breast. i called my doctor with the quickness because i didnt know what cancer might feel like and i needed to be sure...by the time i got an appointment, it was 3 weeks after my fall (still in pain, of course) and 2 weeks after i first felt the lump...i was dying to get in there to tell her all my ailments! during the visit, she sent me for a sonography of the lump and a full blood workup... i had to wait a month to get results, this is crazy!! all i could think about was, if this is cancer how fast could it spread in a month???!!!! of course when you want time to fly that when it says, "forget you, i'm going to take my time," haha! it was one of the longest months of my life!! when i finally went back to hear my results 2 weeks ago, my vitamin d levels were super low...low like it should be 50 and mine was 6!!!! my lack of vitamin d was the reason it took almost 2 months to fully heal from the fall. my iron levels were also low (i wasn't really surprised since i've always been told that i was anemic). she asked me if i was taking iron to which i replied that i was taking it last year but it didnt have any effect so i stopped. she then wrote me a presciption for iron (3 times a day) and vitamin d (3 times a week)--who knew doctors could write a prescription for vitamins? anyway, when i told my parents about what the doctor said all they said was ohhh, thats alot of iron. be careful iron tends to back you up if you don't drink alot of water...omgoodness!!!!! gee thanks! i really wanted to hear that (actually, i knew that already though). yesterday they called me to say that they don't think i'm anemic and that i have thalassemia and that is why the iron didn't work when i took it last year... i thought they were making it up 'til i googled it...thalassemia is a blood disorder passed down through families which  causes the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. i have a lot of the symptoms: constant fatigue (i could literally sleep allllll day, growth failure (is this why i'm so short??!!!!!!!!!!), shortness of breath when exercising, and yellow skin (i look almost sickly in the wintertime). well i'm off to find a hematologist (blood doctor), to find out if this is all true. wish me luck!!!!!


xo

Tajine de Poulet

...eating tajine de poulet with lemon and olives. i met a friend, jh, for dinner at babouche in park slope (i think i'm addicted to all the amazing food in the area). i was undecisive about what i wanted to eat because there were so many things i wanted to try. in the end, i settled on tajine de poulet aka moroccan stew chicken. i didn't know what moroccan stew was but i wanted to taste it and yooooo this joint was soooo a-mazing!!!  first of all it came out in the slow simmering pot it was cooked in...the tajine was piping hot, it steamed through the entire meal, i was blowing my food to the last delicious bit!!! it was soo good. all of seasoning, spices (cinammon, saffron, ginger, paprika, pepper, and turmeric) and flavor. the chicken was so tender, so soft, it melted in my mouth!!! they have tajine de d'agneau (lamb stew), tajine de poisson (fish stew), and tajine de legumes (vegetable stew)... so whatever mood you find yourself in, they have a stew for it!!

xo

Mussels Possilipo

...eating mussels in marinara sauce. lunch today was from mulino (5th ave, brooklyn), my boss's most favorite italian restaurant in brooklyn. i took a chance and ordered mussels as my appetizer. when i opened them, i looked at them with absolutely no clue of where to start, thankfully, my co-worker, rd, was kind enough to show me the proper way to eat mussles.
-use the empty shell to scoop the meat off of the attached shell
-scoop some sauce/gravy into the shell with the meat
-eat/drink/slurp the meat & sauce
-enjoy....or not!

i have never in my life slurped an ex-living thing out of a shell before. this kind of freaked me out but i powered through! it tasted like chicken fat dunked in the ocean!!!! this was the first time that i wanted a lemon to cut the oceany freshness. after eating three, they tasted even more fresh and though i didn't mind the consistency, i couldn't take the fresh taste. i gave the rest to my boss and moved on to my pizza margherita (sooo good!!) with a glass of chateau caffard medoc 2005 (i bought this for tc (my boss) for his birthday). this red wine is from bordeaux, france. it was full of red fruit, pleasant herb and currant tinged flavor...? yeah ok. it was a medium-bodied wine kinda tarty and dry with an aftertaste full of fruity flavor. i thought it was a great choice, thanks to the guy at fine wine of maryland! tc loved it and i enjoyed it as well!! it seems that i might be developing that classy, mature palette that tc was telling me about because i really enjoyed this bordeaux wine. i think i'm getting better at picking good bottles (with a lil help, of course), because, this one was definitely a good one!!!


xo

Red Velvet Pancakes

...making red velvet pancakes. i'm gonna share something with you....red velvet cake is my most favorite-est cake in the whole wide world!!!!! a couple months ago my friend, dc, posted on facebook that she had the recipes for red velvet pancakes so of course i asked her for it and she was nice enough to give it to me. now months later, i finally found the time and all the ingredients i needed (who knew buttermilk and red food coloring were so scarce in brooklyn) and i made my red velvet pancakes with a side of bacon....of course!!! they were unbelievably, deliciously, amazingly, awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! the recipe was perfect!!! the pancakes were the perfect combination of chocolate, cinnamon, butter and sugar!! they were seriously sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooddddd!!!! how could i have gone through life for so long without eating something so good???!!! i wish i could make red velvet pancakes for the entire world!!!! oh and you know the bacon was good too (my first favorite-est food of all time. love bacon- la la la bacon!!!)

xo

Ohyama Sake

...drinking sake. today for lunch, i felt like we took a short tour of asia. house special lo mein (chinese) with sake (japanese). ohyama meimon tobubetsu junmai sake is a rice sake from yamagata, japan. it smelled like apples and pears. when we had first started drinking the sake it was chilled so i thought it tasted pretty ok but as it sat and the sake slowly warmed to room temperature....the taste was less and less appealing. yeah...i won't be running home to have more sake... i really don't think rice wine is for me...though i may not like the drinks of the japanese, i definitely love the food of the japanese!! yum yum!

xo