Movie Mania Monday - Delays, delays.

So Cleveland has been hit with the first significant snowfall of the season.  It's been snowing more often than not since Friday, I think. 

As such, Movie Mania Monday is closed for the safety of our readers.  In the meantime, click here for some helpful advice, in the event you've never seen snow before or have lived in sub-tropical climates for the last three winters.  For true-to-life advice, I prefer this one.

Cheers.

Let the awkward commence!

Ah, I can feel the awkward wash over me like a light spring rain. It's been quite the weekend in Cheesehead Displacement land, kiddies!

I may have implied, in Sunday's dinner recipe post, that perhaps Australia is not exactly the fine purveyor of wines they like to believe themselves to be. I just might have posted a link to Monty Python's 'Australian Table Wine' sketch. I may even have chuckled at the thought of 'this is a wine suitable for hand-to-hand combat'. I disparaged one vineyard in particular, as I was not pleased with the bottle I had.

And the winemaker called me on it. Well, not called, but they did leave a very polite and apologetic comment on the post, while informing me that I was drinking their wine incorrectly.

I feel bad. I never want to be the one to belittle one's life's work, unless you happen to be this guy:After all, not everyone's taste is the same.

Also awkward, I felt compelled to compliment another blogger last week, he'd put a lot of work into a beautiful chopper, and since I'd want someone to tell me what they thought of my work, I felt it only proper to convey my appreciation in kind.

However, since the blogger is from Japan, and the blog itself in Japanese, I had to fall back on a translation tool to give me something to cut and paste. Since then, most of my Google banner ads have been in Japanese. I've begun to correspond with another Japanese biker, and while he's informed me I can write to him in English, this only deepens my awkward feeling, when I think my translations must have been so awful, he'd rather fight his way through a non-native language than let me butcher his.

I feel bad about this, but given as he's continued to correspond in English, I can only hope for good things to come of it.

Speaking of good things coming, the winning-est awkward moment of the month goes to that girl in the car next to us at the light last night. Nothing like sitting stopped at a light, looking around, and then finding myself staring at a girl's butt in the window as the rest of her bobs up and down over the driver's seat. The windows were tinted, and as I was trying to decide how to point this out to Lori without simultaneously alerting my daughter in the back seat, a pickup truck on the other side of said vehicle made it very clear that my original perception was correct.

And there was much rejoicing.

Kids, Road Head is bad. It is a dangerous thing when the car is moving, and simply quite embarrassing when you decide to do such a thing at a red light, between two larger vehicles that get to look right down into your car. Do it while the car is moving, and every pothole could be the worst second of your life.
Plus, she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. And that's dangerous.

Should also note: Taku, my new friend, commiserated with me on the eternal weight gain. He also shared with me his height and weight, indicating that he's "a big eater and getting fat", at just under my height and 80% of my current mass. Thanks for that ego boost. I really do need to start working out.

Dinnertime - Low and slow, that is the tempo

Mmmm, Crockpottery goodness. Sometimes (often times, I suppose) simple meals are the best. Last night's dinner was no exception. It's 'cold' here in Florida, and the occasional tang of woodsmoke in the air just adds to that wintry feeling. I love comfort foods, slow-cooked meats and the unctuous mouthfeel of melted fat. Add to that a bottle of very nice wine and my Bitsy Pookums, and dinner was incredible. This is a little more involved than some crock-pot dishes, but well worth that last half hour of work, trust me.

In the morning, combine the following in your crock pot:

4# chuck roast
4 cups carrots, peeled and cut to bite-size
8 branches of fresh rosemary
1 unpacked cup flatleaf parsley (I just grabbed a handful off the bunch)
4 cloves garlic, slivered
1 cup slivered onions
1/2 cup red wine
1 Tbsp celery salt, sprinkled on roast
Salt & Pepper

Turn the slow cooker on low heat for seven or eight hours. When you're ready to finish the meal, you will need:

8-10 pearl onions
4 cups rough-chopped mushrooms (I used cremini, shiitake, and oyster)
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup red wine now
3-4 Tbsp flour
4 cups beef juices, divided (from the slow cooker, add water to supplement)
3 cups frozen baby peas, thawed
1/4 cup red wine later

Pierce the onions with a paring knife right next to the root end. Add to boiling water and boil for 10 minutes or until tender. My Julia Child trick, the piercing. I watched her belittle Jacques Pepin on national television for not piercing the onions, as they will expand uncontrollably without that release point. Drain and cool in ice water. Remove the root end and outer layers of the onions and reserve.

In a heavy saute pan, melt butter with olive oil until bubbling. Once bubbling subsides, add chopped mushrooms. You will want larger pieces, as they will cook down and you don't want them dwarfed by the other vegetables.

Something I learned about mushrooms that makes me very happy. DON'T TOUCH THEM. Let them sizzle away in one spot until you just can't take it anymore, then toss them. This allows them to take on a beautiful golden-brown crispiness instead of just steaming down. Do it. You will be rewarded.

Once the mushrooms are golden brown, add the pearl onions to the pan to allow them to soak up that delicious color. Sprinkle with two tablespoons of flour, and cook until flour has all but disappeared in the pan. Add 1/2 cup of red wine, and cook until all moisture is gone. Add half of the juices from the roast and stir, you'll see the sauce thicken. Because I don't separate the fat from the juices, this fat will rise to the top of the pan. Gauge this and measure 1-2 tablespoons of additional flour into a sealed container, then add the remainder of the juices and create a slurry by shaking the container vigorously. Add this to the saute pan and allow to simmer.

Remove the roast from the slow cooker and allow to rest, covered. Retrieve the carrots from the slow cooker and add to saute pan. Just before serving, add remaining wine and the peas to the saute pan and stir to combine. Spoon the sauce over shredded beef.

I love the egg noodles with this, but you can also serve over mashed or boiled potatoes. Parsnips and rutabaga would also be a nice addition. This makes four healthy portions, and you can adjust depending on the size of roast you buy.

As for the wine:

I had an open bottle of shiraz in the refrigerator, a Mollydooker Boxer if you must know. Thanks to early experiences and this Monty Python sketch, I've shied away from the Australians. The Mollydooker, when I opened it very long ago, was slightly reminiscent of cough medicine, so syrupy it was. But it still worked for cooking. From the same friend as the Mollydooker, I had an '05 Midnight Run Crow Eater, a blend of shiraz and grenache that was much friendlier than a full syrah. It was a bright, high-alcohol wine, and really stood out with the luscious earthiness of dinner. Certainly one of the best bottles we've had in a while.

Dinnertime - Beef, it IS what's for dinner.

I've been trying to cook more often again, especially since making nice dinners gives me cause to break out some nice wines. This week has been particularly beefy, since both grocery stores on my regular route had steaks on sale. And, since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I really wanted to relive some of the great meals I've had on the road in the last month or so.

Earlier this week I found beautiful filets, and I've been craving the oven-roast method lately. Add sauteed mushrooms, roasted butternut squash polenta, and a Brussels sprout gratin, and it was a perfect meal to compliment a lovely '98 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. This wine was the next-to-last bottle from the case we bought after our first trip to Rome in 2002. Having had a bottle every year or so, it has matured beautifully, still smooth with hints of apple, and overall, a warm, drinkable wine. This went from aggressive and peppery to even and mellow over the years. Still so happy we have one bottle left.

We never made it to the other bottle. What can I say, I'm a lightweight.

Tonight was a mix of ribeyes and green beans on the grill, with horseradish mashed potatoes inspired by the accompaniment to the scallop and beef cheek dish at the Flying Fig a few weeks ago. I cracked an '04 Amancaya, a cab/malbec mix from Chile. Delicious and quite drinkable, but I think it could have benefited from a few more years in the cellar.

These were such simple meals, giving you recipes seems counter-intuitive, so I'm just going to let you drool over the photos.

The Airing of the Grievances

A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines.

I'm okay with this. My experience with Australian wine, though not quite as disparaging as Monty Python's depiction, has not been good. And despite the existence of some fine quality low-priced wines on the market, I'm disappointed with what many of the big box vintners have to offer from down under.

In particular, I'm bothered by Yellowtail's aggressive marketing campaigns, trying to convince us that antifreeze and window cleaner are respectable wines.

What brought about this rant was their latest set of television ads, designed to fool the uninformed that their wines are tantamount to romance (hey, we both like crap wine, let's get married!), and evocative of the foothills of Tuscany.

Granted, two blokes named Bruce quoting Mick Dundee lines ("That's not a knife, that's a knife!") isn't going to make the vinoscenti go moist in their knickers. But what happened to truth in advertising laws?

Sure, if you're of the school that no publicity is bad publicity, this post is surely counter to my plan to warn you away from this swill. And I'm sure there are some high-quality wines coming out of Tasmania and New South Wales. For example, find yourself one of Mollydooker's bottles.

I guess the moral here is not to believe everything you see or hear, and to follow your own tastes and opinions.

As long as they don't run contrary to mine, because that would be wrong.

That's all I ask man, just two hours to sleep

Travel takes its toll on me. As it stands, I've been up since 4 am. My body think's it was 7, but even that's way too early to be up, or it would be if I were home. I'm working in my company's Henderson office this week, and it will be a slight adjustment.

Last night, eating dinner outside with Ron and Kathy, in the 'hot Nevada desert', it was 87 degrees and I was freezing my ass off until I got a beer in me. What do you know? It really IS the humidity.

I always thought that was just a line, small talk to keep people from talking about the things that really matter in life.

Am I getting deep here? I don't mean to, but I'm sleep-deprived, last night's wine is still muddling around in my dehydrated brain, and I could really use a Diet Coke. I like that my hotel room is at the back of the casino, I don't have to walk through the din of people slowly spending their childrens' inheritance. (Not that I'm opposed to that, my children stand to inherit 200 Hot Wheels and some old Architectural Digests from the '70's. Aren't they lucky?)

I'm onto the scam already, though. Beautiful hotel, but not what I'm accustomed to. No desk. No coffee maker. 10 channels on TV, and two of them are about the hotel. However, great view. Even now, as I look out to the east, the first glimmers of dawn are breaking, just the bare outlines of the mountains are visible. Here's my view:

And true to form, I've already found the Sonic. It's tradition. It's a disorder, actually, but hey, potayto, potahto.
Enterprise really came through for me, too.
Economy class, my buttocks. I love free upgrades, it's good to be the king.

Great road presence, good pickup and I really feel like I belong in it.

What? You don't think they'd actually upgrade me to a Camaro from whatever econobox piece of excrement the company booked for me? Well...In fact, they did not. Because rental cars being what they are, I always have to get out-of-state plates when I travel. This time, it's an Envoy with Arizona plates. And I do feel like I belong in it, since it's the GMC version of our TrailBlazer. But still, it was a free upgrade, and I'll take it.

And in case there was any question about what a talented driver I am, note this photo from my hotel room of my park job after checking in.
You think that's bad? You should see me color!

More later, skies are pink and full of wispy clouds, have to watch the sunrise before I go to work.