donk79

empty bottles... and... more empty bottles? hmmph!!! I'll have to listen along with you!

Ok, I'll broach the Bonny Doon bit. This particular wine, in the form of the 1998 vintage, was my first ever introduction to wine. I had just turned 21, and was walking around Costco for a good wine for my introduction. THe Vin de Glaciere, at close to $20 for a half bottle seemed the way to go. After all, it seemed expensive enough for me to escape the plonk range (how little did I know, though I was certainly safe with this choice), figuring that it managed to remain in my price range because it was a half bottle (I was still in college at the time). Being completely unfamilar with alchohol, the fact that there was a sign saying that this wine had received 90 some points from someone (wine specatator maybe?) also led me to believe that I would not fail with this wine. So I took this bottle back to the dorm, and chilled. That afternoon, following my last class of the day, I borrowed a corkscrew from a hallmate, and proceeded to fill a water goblet with half the bottle. I sat in front of my computer, listening to NPR and lifted the glass to take my first sip. Whoah! Frst the alchohol took my breath away! Then the boutique of the wine kept it away. Th wine was so sweet it was like drinking alchoholic syrup. But it was damn good alcholic syrup. My first thought was that this stuff was like fine perfume, made to imbibed rather than be worn. I took a second sip, and wished it wasn't quite so sweet, but decided that taken by small sips, I definitely liked this stuff. I didn't have any developed taste vocabulary through which to recognize flavor profiles in the wine, but in my mind we were talking seriously large fields of flowers condensed into one little bottle. Wishing to share my discovery with someone else, I poured a little into a glass, and took it down the hall to a friend I knew had a much more educated palate than my own. He took the glass, sniffed the wine, sipped, and then declared to my enjoyment, "This is some damned good wine!" I don't recall the rest of the story with that particular bottle, but I do know that it was sufficient to keep me enamored enough with wine that it was a full year before I even sampled beer or liquor. I went out with friends and merely smiled as they poked at me for ordering and slowly savoring a glass of wine while they downed beers and cocktails. Of course I've never had a wine sweeter than the Vin de Glacier, and it took me a while to get adjusted to dryer flavors, But for some time, a nice wine was definitely my drink of choice, all begun by one beautiful little bottle of an amazing dessert. Unfortunately, while tastings of later vintages of Bonny Doon's Vin de Glaciere proved just as sweet as my first, none of them have proved to contain that first mind-boggling complexity and perfume. I can only hope for another bottle like my first to lay in the future. Edited to say that I'm not so certain of the vintage as when I first posted. The wine was purchased Fall 2001.

I once was (very) briefly engaged to a young lady who was a strict vegetarian. That is, no Worchestershire sauce, etc. because of the anchovies etc. I'd guess you'd definitely have to say she was an ethical vegetarian. But somethimes her apetites overode her ethics. We would be sitting there nicely eating our lunch, her salad on bread, my steak and cheese. Then she would suddenly look at me guiltily and tell me how good my sandwich smelled. She would just stare at it, like a cat before a mouse. Then if a scrap of steak were to fall from my sandwich and I were to turn my back, the scrap would disappear. I should have taken a hint. Our relationship was long distance and food was not the only area where appetites overode ethics.

Does this bring back any memories for anyone? edited to mention that the link will only be valid for today.

Hunter S. Thompson? Was she (he?) also tortured by fizzy dimetap tasting stuff as a child?

Ok, I was at the gas station this evening, and decided that I would take on for the team. So I reached for the bottle of black stuff, with horrid flashbacks of grape Dimetap tasting soda flashing through my mind. I put on a brave face as I went through the line at the register, returned to my car, and cracked the seal. I could have sworn I head an evil cackle as a darm mist swept from the bottle an swiftly began to fill the car! I reached for the door handle to try to escape, but it wouldn't open. I tried to roll down the windows, but couldn't find my keys in the deep dark haze. I began to turn purple myself, holding my breath, frantically searching for a way out, when suddenly the air I had been holding in exploded from as though i had been punched in the gut. With a deep feeling of dispair, I began to leave my Clintonesque refusal behind and slowly inhail. And then things began to get pretty. The stars began to dance, and the gas pumps were slowly joining in. The fellow in front of me somehow was managing to revolve slowing around the handle of the gas pump as he poured lucious liquid into his vehicle. Then the most beautiful face I have ever seen came near, and held up a shiny badge. I was examining the badge closely, marveling at how it caught and refracted the neon lights in the stores window. It was positively amazing! first they twisted one way, then the next. Then with a flash and a jump they were gone as if they'd never been there before. Then there was the beautiful face again, and it looked like it was trying to say something. Unfortunately nothing but gibberish was coming out. I afraid the person wearing that beautiful face must have been either a raving lunatic or fresh out of their mind. Anyhow, they were nice enough. They helped me out of my car, and into another one. It must have been some kind of a limosine, because there was a barrier between the front and back seats. THey took me to somekind of high-scale hotel that even provided me with a change of clothes, when they realized I had none with me. They gave me a quiet room, which was rather unfortunate, because I rather felt like some excitement at this point. So instead I just laid back on the cushioned floor to rest... Ok it wasn't that bad. But it wasn't that good either. It was just kind of there, in the same way that soda from a fountain is just kiind of there when the syrup tank needs to be changed. I wouldn't refuse one if I was thirsty, but I wouldn't go paying for one either.

Yes - Drama and Tradition pretty much covers it. It covers a lot of other macho chest beating displays as well. It's just a silly fatuous display of some "specialized" skills. Like tossing a cabre. Hmmm... Caber... That'd be an interesting way to try to open a bottle!

The internal pressure of sparkling wine is also what keeps various crumbs and shards of glass from falling back into the wine. I wouldn't risk it with anything not under pressure.

Mayhaw, can't give any advice, there are few less qualified to give it than myself, but here's a cheer of support! Go for it brother! Amen!!

http://www.uga.edu/fruit/peach.htm

chefdavidrusso, are you being serious? Wafflehouse is the quintessential grease w/ grease w/ extra grease on the side, 24 hour breakfast diner chain. If you've never been there, you must go. If you have been there, you know better, but eventually you will go again anyhow, because there's no place else like it. Waffle House website

I find it very hard to beleive that this is a result of BST (bovine- somatotropin, cow growth hormone.) Not that I'm a big fan of the stuff. BST has strong potential for drastically increasin health risks to cows. I've watched healthy milking 3 year olds producing 150 pounds of milk a day disentigrate to walking skeletons on the stuff. Not to mention the extra stress on the udder and resulting higher incidence of mastitis (mammary gland infection, imagine a whole quarter of the udder slowly turning into one giant pimple and essentially rotting away if untreated. The farm supplement program is not the brightest idea in the world. There is no reason for millions of gallons of milk to be dumped down the drain daily. However, milk prices do need to supplemented somehow. On scale, few businesses require the capitol that a dairy farm does. This has been acerbated by farmers turning to BST. The cows do produce more milk overall, even if overall health declines. However, this also results in a greater supply of milk, dropping the prices that the farmer recieves from the milk (which has a very weak corrolation to what you pay in the general market). Not all dairy farmers are blind to this spiral, however, and a number of milk sales cooperatives have banned the use of BST on participating farms. Thus, "BST free" milk (all cow milk does have a certain level of BST naturally present) is pretty widely available. The difficulties that small dairy farmers have rise more from loss of production due to heat, high feed costs, and incresing real estate taxes (though many localities are trying to address this last issue through legislation). My point is mandated milk pricing is not really the problem here. In fact you can probably thank supplemented prices for the fact that there are still as many small dairy farms as there are. Otherwise, the forces of the larger economy would have probably wiped most small farms our long ago. Note the comment in the article that larger farms were unable to expand to fill the gap caused by the demise of smaller farms. Difficult conditions affect them too, making them unable to purchase the cattle being disposed of by the small farmer. Thus we just end up with a lot of bad hamburger, and a smaller milk supply. (please excuse the rambling manner, fighting flu right now)

My hand mixer also gets used for whipping cream, and whipping egg whites. Doesn't get used for much else, but I'd hate to be without it for these tasks.

roasted garlic, cheap smoked salmon, and balsamic on toasted white fluff (Hey, you asked!)

tryska, Your blackberries do sound like blackberries to me, just on young plants. Especially in heavily shaded areas, the plants tend to be much sparser, and never seem to get the great bushy effect that they do out in the sun.

Our first New Year's eve while we were dating. (Prepped in the dorm kitchen at college) Boneless Skinless chicken breast stuffed with Stovetop w/ chopped button mushrooms added Button mushrooms stuffed with aforementioned adjusted stovetop Button mushrooms poached in chicken bullion sugar peas stir fried in butter Served with some kind of peach wine, probably Boone's Mills or something like that. dessert, Tapioca pudding with too much peach schnapps added (I still liked it though) Haute cuisine it weren't but much nobler that most of my previous efforts (dwelling in the kippered herring and cream cheese on hard roll range). In all honesty, however, it was a meal built towards her taste preferences (chicken, mushrooms, peaches, snow peas), and she enjoyed it much more than more educated but less successful efforts since.

Breakfast is one are where my wife and I definitely do not agree. An extreme breakfast for her is to put milk on the cereal before she eats it. My preference is towards, scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, black coffee, etc. Whenever I make a fruit pie, I know to expect that look of disapproval the next morning, as I sit down with a slice. What is there more perfect in the world to open the day with? But to judge by my wifes reaction, you would think I was committing some henious crime. However, to tell the truth, what do I have for breakfast most mornings? Grab the bowl, reach for the cereal, pour the milk. yawn...

To find info on Ramp Festivals: http://www.callwva.com/travelplanner/calendar.asp Search here for keyword "ramp" Most of them seem to be at the end of April. edited for clarity's sake

Are the bird peppers were referring to tepins or chilepiquins? I'm seeing both called "bird pepper." For reference I am looking at the tomatogrowers.com website now. Edited for fumblefingers Edited again to correct misconceptions and assumptions

Does the cubanelle possibly go by another name? Never mind! I found it; forgot that it was asweet pepper.

Jason, my wife won't approve of my spending a minimum of $40 on pepper plants. So that means chileplants.com is out. Unfortunately she doesn't enjoy them half as much as I do. Where would you recommend purchasing seeds from? I'm becoming concerned about complaints against reimerseeds that I've seen online. Edited to say that i'm checking out tomatogrowers.com right now, thanks mabelline

Fimbul, The Fatalii sounds exactly like the type of pepper I am looking for. Where did you get your plants/seeds? Thank you for the advice on the rainbows, Jason. Thats all I need to hear to know their not the direction I want to go.

In terms of the bird peppers, is there any particular variety you would recommend? I'm tempted to go for some of the more colorful "rainbow" varieties, but I don't want to end up sacrificing flavor. After all, I've yet to see a pepper garden that wasn't a thing of beauty regardless of what peppers were in it.

I've heard of the peter pepper, and frankly am surprised to hear that it is so good. I had discarded it as a mere novelty for its shape with little other value. This is all great information everyone! Thank you, and please keep it coming!

memesuze, After a google, I'm guessing you're refering to Corno di toro. Can you describe this pepper a little bit? Google wasn't very helpful except to indicate that this is a sweet pepper.