A special guest

Last night, Craft Night had a special guest - my Mom! We had a delicious salad inspired by last weekend's trip to Cambria - mixed greens with pistachio-encrusted goat cheese, pink grapefruit, and a citrus vinegrette. Mom is a white wine drinker, so we had a bottle of

2005 Mokelumne Oaks White Blend Yeah, not such a great name, but surprisingly nice. It's a blend of chenin blanc, vionger, and pinot grigio, and you can certainly taste the melony stone-fruit. We'd picked this one up at the winery over at Vino Piazza in Lockeford. Here's what the winery says:

White Blend consists of 60% Chenin Blanc, 20% Viognier and 20% Pinot Grigio. This is a dry white blend, with a hint of sweetness from the Chenin Blanc. It has aromas of apricot, peach, apple, melon, nut and spice and a smooth, soft, crisp taste with a low to medium acidity. Its regions are from France, Oregon, and California. It accompanies: fruit, cheese, mildly spiced foods, salads, seafood and chicken.

Claire is getting really close to finishing her new, green bag. Mom worked on her legwarmers in that cool self-striping, self-patterning Grosso sock yarn, while I slaved away on the stupid baby sweater I need to have done for a baby shower this Sunday. Only one sleeve left, thank God; I might actually get it finished in time!

Craft Night?

Well, this week's Craft Night quickly turned into "drink too much wine and commiserate over crappy jobs and the general state of the world" night. Claire and I enjoyed my newly refurbished patio, with a bottle of 2005 El Dorado Mourvedre Estate Reserve by Holly's Hill, which arrived via wineclub delivery that day.

Here's what the winery says about the mourvedre:

Raspberries and cherries mingle with chocolate in this 100% estate wine. The aromatics are complimented with white pepper and mushrooms/forest floor (think wet pine needles). In the mouth, the wine is mouth-filling with nicely balanced acidity, velvety tannins and a long finish.

After the moquitoes started to brave our application of "Off", we headed inside, where Ken had graciously prepared pizza from "scratch" - feta, fresh tomatoes = mmmm - and a green salad. We opened a bottle of 2004 El Dorado Patriarche, also by Holly's Hill. This one is much more complex than the mouvedre, but as we were quickly getting to the trashed point, I'll be finishing the bottle tonight with dinner.

Here's the winery's take on their Patriarche:

This wine is huge and dark. Complex aromas of dark berries, cherries and raspberries along with toasty caramel, earth and game all come together for a broad mouthfeel and big tannins. It is very drinkable and will keep you coming back for more.

We did actually pull out our knitting; I got about 10 stitches cast-on for a baby sweater before we decided that soaking was a far better option. Hot tub and lime-water for rehydration. Happy times! I sure felt better about the world, that is, until trying to get out of bed this morning :D