Tootsie

This Dark Red Chocolat Rouge wine tasted like merlot with a tootsie roll melted into it.  Not my thing, but strangely not awful.  It was gifted to me by a coworker who likes the total opposite sort of wine from me, and decided that this fell into the "dry as hell" category.  It didn't, but it was interesting and very sweet of him.

Fizzy

It's a bit too stinkin' hot out for me.  This fizzy lemonade is one of my go-tos when it's like this out.  Not too sweet and so good! Le Village Lemonade - or the other version French Limonade (not that I can tell much of a difference).

Dark

I've always been a fan of dark beers (well at least since my junior year of college after I graduated from Boones Farms wine and Bud Ice beer.  But we all go through awful phases like that in the beginning, right?).

Summer beer is problematic.  I love a good summer ale, but nothing matches up to the lovely stouts that are generally just too damn thick to drink when its hot.  Well, I've found a delicious dark beer that I'm drinking in July.

21st Amendment Brewery's Back in Black.  Yum.



My other new fave is Breckenridge's Vanilla Porter.  Pretty heavy but so dessert-like with that vanilla finish to it.

Both so good that they had to be shared!  And available year-round!

Recent culinary adventures

The boy-o and I recently hosted a PB&J potluck with some adventurous friends (including the amazingly talented Andrea!)

We made these dishes:

Spicy Peanut Soup - Makes WAY more than four servings!
PB&J Wings - can't find recipe but seriously good
Prosecco Jelly with Nectarines & Blueberries
Deep-fried rolos - the next great fair food?

We also did loads of beer tasting, and two of my new faves are Wells Banana Bread Beer and Rogue John John Ale.  Love our potlucks!

Obsessed

My current must-keep-in-stock-at-all-times bottle of wine is Apothic Red.  It's a blend and is so good!  Had to be shared!

Gunsmoke

Currently loving Masked Rider Gunsmoke Red Wine.  Bought a bottle on a whim, and may have decided that this needs to be my new red wine of choice.  Quite delicious. 

Glowing

Made this forever ago and I don't think I ever posted it.

Grasshopper
1 part green creme de menthe
1 part crem de cocoa
1 part milk

Intensely minty.  The color is the best best part.

Wine woes

I am far and away a drinker of red wine, but every now and then white is called for with a certain dish. I was so pleasantly surprised recently with a delicious bottle of Francis Ford Coppola Pinot Grigio. So citrus-y and good! Highly recommended!

It made me brave enough to grab another bottle of pinot grigio the other day. I waked into the shop thinking, "I just need a good pinot grigio." and this was the first thing I saw:


Unfortunately this was some false advertising. Not good at all. Bleh. So I finally decided that my fancy phone needed a fancy wine app to help me remember the good and the bad wines. Today I downloaded Drync which seems pretty useful. We'll see if it holds up. And yes, I've already logged these two into the app.

Sultry

My current favorite.