B-day Part ? : California Syrah, Roast Chicken, & Boosh
The other night my friend Meghan came over with a free range bird, homemade guacamole, fresh baked sugar cookies, and a 2004 Clos Mimi Petite Rousse in response to my reminiscing about it a few posts back. Were my hands broken? No. Did I come down with Polio? No. It was a(nother) belated birthday celebration. Any one of these items will normally suffice as an entry fee to my domicile. Now I feel I must name one of my pans after her (the Le Creuset fry pan, of course. I’ll have a plaque made.).
So we drank some Prosecco, massaged the bird, cut some turnips, and ate guacamole until the little sucker was done. Dinner was awesome, and relaxing. And the Petite Rousse was rich, dense, and blackberryicious. Not too alcoholic–check. Pepper–check. Woody, sweet spice–check. It’s memory will be protected in my mind as one of the best values in California Syrah.
I should note that my friend Meghan is like the living, breathing Food Lover’s Companion, an endless fount of culinary knowledge. She does things like…oh, I don’t know, whip up a half rack of lamb on a whim cuz she has a craving. She’s also got mad baking skills. See that cookie? That’s a matcha (powdered green tea) sugar paste she just thought up. Still other cookies had a pine nut paste or shaved Vahlrona on top. Who thinks of this stuff? She does.
With dessert we watched one of our favorite TV shows: THE MIGHTY BOOSH on BBC America. If you haven’t seen it, there’s no fracking way I can describe it. Accept to say, it’s one of the funniest things on the tellie. If you like British humor, musicals, mods, zoo animals, or Gary Newman–give it a go.
February 16th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
There you go with another Central Coast wine. You really need to get down here some time!
February 17th, 2006 at 12:16 am
Glad you liked the chow, thanks for the company! The cookies…..yes, the cookies. Not so much a “sugar cookie”, but more specifically, a “Sable” which apparently means “sandy” in French, referring to the texture of said cookie. Kinda like a sugar cookie that went to college, and majored in BUTTER. Thanks for the kind words!
February 17th, 2006 at 7:20 am
I love those free range birds-yummmmmy. I wonder who you get the “birthweek/birthmonth” tradition from…hmmmmm.
February 17th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Matcha on cookies is a rad idea. When I was in Japan last year, lots of cafes trying to be French tried to use creams and filling that were semi Japanese, like green tea cream in croissants and sour plum paste inbetween cookies. Some were really good, some not so much.
February 17th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
You must be charmed. Could my life be like yours if I up and moved to Seattle?
February 18th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
wineguy - Iknow, I know!
Meg - “majored in butter” Bwah!
Mom - say hi to dad for me
Ravi - Yes! I ate similarly bizarre things. Some were hits, and some I involuntarily spit right back out.
Feemo - Charmed? Hmmm…don’t know about that. Freelancing is its own yoke.