Thursday, September 11, 2003

September 11th , the September 11th, that is, was a day just like this – clear, beautiful September weather.  We had our big yearly tasting scheduled; all these winemakers were in town, and everyone was donning their best suits and rushing to get downtown when the horrifying news unfolded.  It doesn’t seem real today; it didn’t seem real then, really, except when the wind changed and the terrible smell wafted uptown the next day, where we were having dinner with some winemakers who were all alone and stuck in New York and unable to get back to their families.  And everyone, even those unaffected directly, wandered around in a stunned daze for a long while in the shocking afterwards.  But now we go to work today, ride the subway, see customers, try to sell wine, and try not to think about it. What else can we do?   12:41:49 PM    comment []

Busyness, Gardening, and other Distractions   Have kept me away for over a month.  Apologies!   We closed on our house on August 13th, which went more smoothly than could have been imagined given all the trauma and last-minuteness that led up to the date!   The house is lovely beyond compare. . . especially now that we committed mass murder of wasps (which were nesting in between the storm windows and casements in the BEDROOMS, yikes!) and started digging up weeds wherever we can find them, not to mention beginning the massive excavation project that is to be Philippe’s veggie garden.  I get great satisfaction out of yanking out weeds and hacking back choking vines and generally restoring the place to its former, more lived-in, cared-for glory.  Luckily for us it is more than livable, just a bit let go.   But it turns out to be true – a house is not a home, in and of itself.  We are seeing with amazement how each piece of furniture, each shelf of books, each weeded flower bed rearranges the empty house, organizes it into something welcoming and uniquely ours.  Up until this point in my life this process has been hurried and quick, simply a matter of settling familiar old belongings into a new apartment.  Now it is unfolding gradually, over time, giving me the chance to observe and appreciate each change (and re-appreciate the changes anew every Friday as we pull up to the house again after the work-week away.)  I’ll admit it – I jump out the car door before it has come to a full stop and run like a little kid to examine the flowers and open the doors!   The wine and food front is also in a process of change, as we get used to shopping for two places (yes, we have 15 shallots here and none there, because I can’t remember which house needs what!).  But the farm stands are full of late-summer things (corn, tomatoes, cukes, zucchini) which we’ve been playing with, in a simple way.  Mostly salads and grilling (because we love-love-love that Weber).  I also stewed a Dines Meats rabbit with tomato and Riesling and whole garlic corn cut off the cob – one of those meals where you throw a little bit of whatever you have on hand into a pot, except this time the ingredients I had on hand included the freshest, most tender rabbit that ever munched grass in the Catskills and corn that had been picked that morning.  Delicious.   This weekend we have less furniture to move and the weather threatens to be cold and rainy for at least one day.  So I’m planning to make a tomato tart inspired by last week’s NYT food section, although I’m not so sure about the mustard and I have lots of fresh thyme in the garden.  Mark Bittman also has a corn flan recipe that looks good if I can remember to bring some ramekins up.   On a side note, we also enjoyed a week of fine weather, sailing, and dining with my family in Santa Barbara, where the weather is almost always fine and the farmer’s market is enough to blow your mind!  This place would be paradise. . . .except who can afford to live there any more?  Lucky people like my dad, who homesteaded back when it was still possible on a professor’s salary!  We couldn’t believe how different wine prices are out there, too.  California wine, of course, is much less expensive – at least on the every-day drinking end.  You can get decent wines for under $5, which is certainly not the case here in New York.  And if you want to spend $8-$10, you can find lots of selection of decent wines (we found a good Cotes du Rhone at Trader Joe’s for $5.99!!).  The only thing hard to get down there is Kermit Lynch wines, at least in stores.  But I guess if you lived in Santa Barbara, you could just call the store in Berkeley and get it shipped.  <sigh>   But at any rate, we enjoyed drinking my father’s cellar dry of good wines!  Of course there was the night of eating “garlic-breath-guaranteed” pesto, a fine family tradition, and Brother-in-Law Jeff aka the Master Griller, made a terrific herb and spice rub for grilled pork.  Another night, Philippe pitched in with a dinner of Provencal stuffed tomatoes (obligatory trip to eye-popping farmer’s market  for the tomatoes) and the entire family (Uncle Teddy and Aunt Liz, down from Seattle, included) pitched in to make food for a gala party on the Saturday.  In case anyone wonders where I got my love for good eating, I guess that explains it.  There’s not a bad cook in the bunch!     12:10:17 PM    comment []