A South American Adventure

I finally downloaded the pictures from October's wine club ... which means it's time to share. October was all about Chile and Argentina - and I happened to be hosting the little venture this month. I have to admit, it was a little harder to pull together a course menu, but thanks to Bon Appétit and Food & Wine, it was still possible!

The first course was banana black bean empañadas paired with a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc.  

The empañadas were delicious - the tiny hint of banana provided just the right amount of sweetness and the dry Sauvignon Blanc was the perfect compliment. This was a very dry Sauvignon Blanc and definitely had a hint of citrus common to most other Sauvignon Blancs that I've enjoyed. While it wasn't my favorite, it will do in a pinch and was actually a decent white for a cool fall evening.

Our second course was a bean, corn and squash stew paired with a Chilean Chardonnay.

This was a fantastic fall stew. A very hefty stew, but also a very healthy treat. The layering of flavors will make any fan of squash soups very happy. The Casa Chardonnay was, however, my least favorite wine of the evening. To be fair, I'm not a big fan of Chardonnay in general ... but this one really did disappoint. I found it heavy on the lime notes, and just a little too oaky for my tastes.

The third course delivered a surprise for the evening and introduced me to a whole new wine.  We enjoyed a



quinoa, artichoke and hearts of palm salad paired with a Torrontes from Argentina.

The crisp, clean flavors of the grain salad were just what we needed to cleanse our palates halfway through the meal ... and the Torrontes! It was like the perfect blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier - spicy, fruity, floral goodness. It was new and definitely one I will return to again and again. It is a perfect wine to sip if you just want to unwind and relax. My favorite of the entire evening.

Our fourth course was a lovely, but very rich spinach cannelloni with bacon and walnuts paired with a Malbec.

Both were rich and hearty and definitely signaled the meal was coming to an end. The cannelloni was so delicious, that I will have to keep it in my arsenal for a cold evening meal - because it definitely warmed you to the bone and was really satisfying. The Malbec paired very nicely with the dish. Overall, it was a decent malbec that definitely represented its blackberry profiles, but the food elevated its flavors making it more memorable.

We finished the evening with a red wine merengue and custard sauce made and paired with a Carménère.

The merengue melted in your mouth and making it with the Carménère was the best idea. It was such a good ending to the whole affair. The dessert was light and airy and made you feel a little less heavy from the four earlier courses. This Chilean wine is a perfect spicy fall wine, when the air is crisp and you need something to take the edge of the cold off. I highly recommend it as a stand in for a Zin during tailgating!

Oh, Sinuses - Really?

I am cursed. Cursed with horrid sinuses. Earlier this week, I was hit with a monstrosity of a cold - sore throat, plugged ears, fatigue. It was disgusting. Now it's migrating all too my sinuses. Every year, I get hit with this sinus cold - borderline infection catastrophe. It's unfair. I pray my boys don't get hit with the same thing.

Secret Smiles

Somewhere along the line, I truly became an old lady. If you define an old lady as someone who prefers talk radio over music radio. There's a local radio station called. My Talk 107.1 and I just love it. Every chance I can, I try to listen to it. And I realized something the other day as I was listening to it on my way home ... it makes me smile and sometimes I don't even notice it until I question why my cheeks are pulled up. I probably look like a crazy woman to anyone who looks at me. I don't care. There talk about hot topics, cheesy topics, good food, shopping and trends and sometimes just trashy gossip.

It's just what I need to start my day and end it after a hectic day at work. It's mindless and thought-provoking at the same time (well ... sometimes it's thought-provoking!).

And of course, I must shout out Happy Halloween! It's O's first Halloween and we'll do our usually gig and trek it down to the MN Zoo for their members-only event. We like that this is a somewhat limited event (less crowded than Zoo Boo) and is inside for the most part and not so scary for the kids. It's also fun because you get to do a ton of costume watching -- more than if you were just trick-or-treating in your neighborhood.

K woke up so excited for today, so we'll watch a bunch of cheesy, non-scary Halloween movies (Thank you Disney channel and ABC Family) and then get ready to go for the evening. Yes, the holiday season officially kicks off with Halloween and I am so pumped!!

October - where have you been going?

Okay, I don't know why it's so crazy busy right now that I can rarely find the time to hop on this blog and post something. But alas, apparently, it's crazy busy.

The exodus has started at work, we've lost three PR managers and a senior specialist in the last month. I anticipated it happening at some point after the reorg, and so I'm not surprised the momentum has started to pick up. It will be fascinating to see how the rest of the year plays out. Of course, this is the time for performance reviews. I get to give a total of six next week. I know, you're jealous aren't you? They should all go well, at least, I'm assuming they will.

We had our first parent conferences with K's preschool teacher. He's academically brilliant (no surprise there) but when it comes to social skills. Well, he's a tad bit bossy and dominating. Yeah, no surprise there either. Of course, now that parents have met each other, D is relegated to a few afternoon play dates. (And I owe an email to a mother of another young kid to set up one with K, yet.) It's a lot of pressure having children.

I'm hosting wine club tomorrow - the flavors of Chile and Argentina -so I'll definitely post after that and share how the evening goes!

Good Writing

What is good writing? As part of my profession, I'm expected to write a lot. And being in the lovely sector of front line management, I am expected to critique others writing. This is, of course, expected of everyone at my level or at a higher level. So, I find it quite delightful when the topic surrounds who is a good or great writer and who needs to improve. And now that I am finally diving into reading my 1001 books, I find the topic even more humorous. The first book I decided to tackle was The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

This is supposed to be good writing. However, if I were to write like Mr. Bunyan, I can guarantee I would be called a terrible writer with much improvement needed. So, how objectively can we judge writing. Is it based on the pure grammatical notions. (That does not appear to be the case because we have a former English teacher in our department and oftentimes he is in disagreement with the grammar rules our superiors are following ... so what gives?) So if what accounts for good writing is truly subjective, then how are we fairly and accurately assessing people's writing abilities?

This is a tough call, and one I have to deal with on a daily basis. Because I also am from the school of thought that there are many ways to write one good sentence. (This believe is not followed by everyone, as there are many who feel their way is the only way.) I wonder how many times I will ponder this as I read these books.

And while The Pilgrim's Progress is a little hard to follow at times, the imagery is splendid and the story is quite good. I can imagine it being read out loud to a church and being used as a way to get people to follow the laws of Christianity. So, even though the writing is quite difficult, I don't argue its place on the list.