Wine, Food & Kittens

 

Happy Monday! We took a mini-trip this weekend to visit Aunt Connie. Despite the dreary weather, we still did a lot of visiting, playing with kittens, eating, wine tasting, & shopping.

First up, playing with her new kittens, Martha & Quinn. They have SO much energy & were into everything. We left them home to get into mischief while we did some shopping.

As usual, we went to Lowe's, Trader Joe's & Roots. After last weekend's trip to Trader Joe's, I didn't need much, but I didn't have to look hard to find a few things. :-)

For dinner, we went to El Azteca. The service was super prompt, almost to the point of speedy. We were in & out in less than an hour. Plenty of time for a margarita, though!

I enjoyed the Plato Salud which was mixed veggies, Mexican rice & black bean soup. The veggies were cooked just the way I like them & were nice and crunchy. I usually feel like Mexican is too laden with cheese & glop, so this was perfect for me!

Both restaurants we visited this weekend had an entire vegetarian section on their menu! Yay for ethnic cuisines!

The Bup got the Vegetarian Dinner, which was a vegetarian burrito, cheese enchilada, bean taco, beans & a side salad. His was the more stereotypical cheesey dish.

Connie got Crab & Shimp Enchiladas which came with Mexican rice & refried beans. The picture got washed out cause of the lighting in there, sorry.

After dinner we went back to the house to play with the kittens some more. Martha was on the prowl, ready to attack!

They were both interested in the Bup's tools & our Trader Joe's bags. Any cat that likes Trader Joe's is a smart cat!

He just couldn't resist & had to climb right up and sniff around.

They loved my pants with the drawstrings at the bottom. So cute!

Look at that picnic spread Connie prepared for us! We had veggie pitas, hummus & pita chips, pesto penne pasta, and green bean chips.

Elk Run was the first winery we visited. 10:30am wine tasting, anyone?

It hadn't started to rain yet, so we were able to step into the vineyards for a quick peek. The bunches of grapes were almost black & so pretty.

As we were driving down the road from Elk Run to our next stop, we spotted a sign for Loew Vineyards. I'm so glad we turned around & went to check it out! Their wines were very good & the people were friendly.

Our favorites were the Country Classic, which has blackberry undertones, & the Apples & Honey, which was just that - apples & honey flavored. When we both agree on wine, it must be good! The Bup likes dry & I like sweet. Maybe our palates are maturing...

Our final winery stop was Tarara Winery. It was by far the most sophisticated & established of the 3 stops.

They had gorgeous stonework & nature surrounding the tasting room. This area even smelled like wine, and they were just storing their equipment there. It was neat to see it & compare the crusher in size to Dad's. Their crusher sure will smash a lot of grapes! 

We started out with 2 white wines, both on the drier side. The Charval 2009 was billed as the white wine for red wine drinkers because of it's layers of flavor.

I actually drank all 4 tastings of the dry reds! The real question is, were they that good, or had I already had a lot of wine? I'm going with a combination of the two. :-)

Our plan was to have a picnic on the deck at Tarara, but the rains spoiled that.

We ate in the car, but that didn't stop us from having a gourmet feast! My pita had mushrooms, lettuce, carrots, bell peppers, and hummus in it. On the side, we had penne pasta with pesto & green bean chips. Everything was delicious!

A little bit down the road was a tent that was making and selling kettle corn. Connie had been there before and remembered that it was amazing. This bag was HUGE! It went all the way to the floor of the car. We're still eating away at it, and it's the best we've had.

We headed to the Leesburg Outlets & then to dinner at a little Thai place near Connie's house. I got the Tofu Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce (YUM! I could eat that with a spoon.) & Coconut Soup.

Yes, that's how I feel, too. So sleepy!

Thanks for the fun time & company, Connie!

Poppity Popcorn for Rainy Weather

For those of you who don't live around me, or haven't heard, Central PA got hit hard with the rains yesterday. I work about 15 minutes from my house and they had us leave at 2pm because there were so many warnings.

I knew I was in trouble when we opened the door to exit and there was 2 inches of water covering the parking lot. I took off my shoes to walk to my car, but then a co-worker offered to drive me over. The road out of the parking lot was like a river. My car was parked about 4 cars up from a mini-pond of water. I don't know how the people parked there got their vehicles out.

It took me 2.5 hours to get 1/3 of the way home. Traffic was at a standstill everywhere and there were tons of emergency vehicles on the road. That car ride was one of the most stressful drives that I've ever made. There were no traffic directors because everyone was needed for emergencies. No blockades were really up because the water hit so hard and so fast.

I saw fields flooded with water, cars submerged up to their windows and a man on his bike trying to ride through water up to his mid-calf. At one point, I drove through a puddle that was so deep I thought I'd lose my brakes, but there was no other place to go. A tractor trailer turning down a side road that I was on came within inches of my front bumper while I gripped the steering wheel and prayed he wouldn't hit me.

Finally, when I called my parents to let them know I still wasn't home, I found out that all roads that led home were flooded. They had friends trying to get home that came to their house because they couldn't get any further. Thankfully, those friends have a sister & bro-in-law who were kind enough to let me come in for dinner rather than me sitting in traffic. The Bup got home from work safely and walked to my parents' for dinner since I wasn't home.

Around 9:45pm, almost 8 hours after I left work, I was able to get through and get home safely. I didn't take any pictures...I was too busy gripping the steering wheel!

Today, I spent part of the morning using the Shop Vac to remove water from the basement (it wasn't too bad, but we got about 15 gallons) and the other part calling the members of the choir and cancelling practice for tonight. 

Then I made popcorn. Because nothing makes a more perfect snack on a rainy day than some warm, freshly popped popcorn.

I made it on the stove top, which is the very best way. I may never eat microwave popcorn again, at least not when I'm making it! My favorite topper is nutritional yeast, which is what I used, because it makes it taste cheesy, like that white cheddar popcorn that comes pre-popped in the bags.

Poppity Popcorn

Adapted from summerharms.blogspot.com

Yields about 15 cups

3 T coconut oil

3/4 c popcorn kernels

~1 tsp sea salt

Optional toppings: pepper, nutritional yeast, cinnamon sugar, Old Bay seasoning, garlic powder, cocoa powder, Italian seasoning

8 quart pot with lid

Add coconut oil to the pot and melt over medium-high head. Once melted, throw in 3 popcorn kernels. The kernels will pop when the oil is ready. Add the rest of the kernels and cover with lid. Using pot holders, begin to move pot back and forth to keep the kernels moving on the bottom of the pan.  Kernels will start to pop, keep shaking the pan until the popping slows down. When there is about 2 seconds per pop, turn off heat, but keep moving pan until popping ends. Season with salt (or other toppings) to taste and enjoy!