Category: Food and Wine

They’re not all gems

We continued our exploration of Costco’s wines tonight, with the Kirkland Signature Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2004.  It was perfectly drinkable and innocuous, if a little sweet, but I’d rather have the slightly less expensive Cloud Piercer from Trader Joe’s.

And “less expensive” may be a more important consideration soon than it has been lately; we had a second roofer look at our roof, and he agreed that it’s not worth repairing.  He also gave us an estimate; inflation has hit roofing over the last 18 years! 

Serious birthday dining

Today is Diane’s birthday, and so, as usual, we’ve invited some friends over for dinner and New Year’s Eve TV-watching.

Diane does most of the cooking (somehow, this seems unfair, but no one ever said life was fair); she made “Michelle’s Chicken” (from the IBM Research cookbook), Butternut Squash with Ginger, and Amaretto Carrots, all of which were delicious.

I made dessert; at Alwin’s recommendation, I made the “Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake” from America’s Test Kitchen. But, rather than make the Creamy Milk Chocolate Frosting that went with it, I chose Hershey’s “Especially Dark” frosting on the theory that a dark chocolate cake deserves dark chocolate frosting (that, and the fact that I’d’ve had to buy a whole bottle of Karo Syrup for two spoonfuls if I wanted to do the milk chocolate frosting). The consensus at the table was that this was a good decision — even Sam, who’s not a chocolate person, had a slice (though he didn’t have seconds, so I failed to convert him). I inadvertently modified the frosting recipe by omitting the vanilla (the phone was ringing a lot as I was making the frosting), but no one seemed to mind.

The diet starts tomorrow.

Happy New Year!