After listening to the pundits prepare and obsess before Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democrat’s National Convention, I thought there was no way she was going to pull this off. I was pleasantly surprised by the grace, enthusiasm and conviction that she displayed. I have never thought of her as an engaging speaker and believed that it was a big reason behind her loss. Tonight, she engaged the crowd, especially with her tales on women’s voting rights, Harriet Tubman’s instruction on the Underground Railroad to keep going, and the No way, No how, No McCain declaration. She even injected humor into her speech with her traveling pantsuit line among others.

Although she was upbeat and repeatedly stated her support for Obama and Biden, she did not abandon her own platform for health reform. I definitely felt that she was throwing down the gauntlet when she said how proud she would be when Obama signs into law, health care coverage for everyone. I got the “OK I am doing this speech for you to rally the team, this is what you need to do now” vibe. Although her enthusiasm seemed sincere, at least for a politician, she did not reverse her prior criticism about Obama not being ready. Her speech wasn’t about him being the best man for president but it was all about the Democrats doing what it takes to take back the White House. McCain supporters are all over her that she didn’t say that he is the one you want to call at 3am that but I actually have more respect for her for that.  She focused on his strengths instead of reversing her opinions on his weaknesses. If she had, the Republicans would have jumped on her just as fast for that.  I thought it was a very generous speech, one that engaged the crowd and one that maintained a high degree of integrity for a political rally speech.

Talk about your birthday beer! I started with an African spicy mead, which was good but not as good as I had remembered it. Ed started with Silver City Whoop Ass. A bright and hoppy beer, designed for the “IPA lover”, Silver City Whoop Ass Double IPA was a great choice for a delicious summer brew. They say

More than 50 lbs. of Washington State Cascade and Columbus hops are infused, injected, or otherwise inflicted…

Well, thankfully that was per batch and not per keg! Although Ed may disagree, I do believe a beer can be too hoppy. But this one didn’t cross the line. It had a bite but it didn’t take a bite out of me!

For my second beer,

Read the rest of “Uber Bier: Sweet, Sour, Spicy and Hoppy” »

I hold long resentment and anger about the hypocrisy of telling adults they are old enough to decide who should lead our nation but not old enough to drink. I get infuriated that these young adults are asked to serve and die for their country but are not deemed mature enough to handle a glass of wine.  There is a growing debate about our country’s drinking age and I am delighted to see this debate on the table.  Lowering the drinking age is gaining support from college presidents where they argue that the law is not working to decrease drinking amongst young adults and has resulted in a high degree of binge drinking. They contribute this behavior to the means these young adults are undertaking drink on the sly versus legal drinking similar to the increase in violence the country experienced during prohibition. Opponents argue that lowering the drinking age will just push this fugitive drinking into the high-schools.

Read the rest of “Lowering the drinking age? When is an adult an adult?” »

On a 107 degree day, Chef Leo Haas and his staff labored to prepare an exquisite feast. Icicle Ridge family and staff scurried about to transform the pond side lawn to a summer spectacle of lush flowers, foliage, lighting and exquisite table settings. All of their efforts paid off in a delicious feast, that delighted the eyes, tongue and nose. Oh, did I mention the wine?

Diners were greeted under the arbor with a glass of chilled Icicle Ridge Three Blondes Gewurtzaminer and escorted to their tables. The feast began with a grilled prawn and saffron crab cakes that was paired with Icicle Ridge Chardonnay. This 2007 Chardonnay was just released in time for this meal. Aged in stainless steel the Icicle Ridge 2007 Chardonnay was crisp and light. A wonderful pairing with the seafood and refreshing on a very warm summer evening.

The second course included pasta rounds with wild boar and eggplant ragout, and drizzled with pesto. It was accompanied by a nice wild green salad. The wine for this course

Read the rest of “Under a Tucson Moon: Icicle Ridge Winemaker’s Dinner” »

2006 Ken Wright Cellars Chardonnay, Celilio Vineyard is continuing its winning streak of being the perfect wine to enhance certain foods.  (Read about some other great Ken Wright pairings here and here.)Last night, I whipped up up a salad of bitter greens, blue cheese crumbles and sweet red cherries. I cut the fresh red sweet cherries in half to remove the pits. Then I tossed the cherry halves with a half price/red tag salad bag of greens. I dumped my last 1/4 cup of blue cheese crumbles onto the salad. Right before serving, I tossed it with 2 TBS of Chukar Cherry Cherry Balsamic Viniagrette.  Intensely flavored, just a bit of the viniagrette was enough to dress the salad exquistely. 

WOW! The bitter greens, sharp blue chees and the sweet cherries was a great combination. The flavors just popped when paired with the 2006 Ken Wright Cellars Chardonnay. It was so good!

NOTE: While looking up the link for Chukar Cherry Cherry Balsamic Viniagrette,  I couldn’t find it on their web site! If this upsets you as much as it did me, let them know at http://www.chukar.com/contact

It’s been over a month since Washington state cell phone while driving law went into effect. Passed last winter, the law was delayed six months to give people plenty of time to get themselves a headset.  Drive down any main drag today and you are more than likely to see someone holding a cell phone to their ear. Well no more excuses, now there are free to low cost head set options for cell phones. FreeHeadSet, a non-profit organization, is distributing cell phone head sets for free or greatly reduced prices. FreeHeadSet was initiated in 2004 when Matt McAdams witnessed a fatal car accident due to the driver fumbling with their cell phone. He buys the headsets in bulk and passes the savings on to promote head set usage. He charges a nominal shipping and handling fee of $3.94 on the “free” headsets. There are a number of other more expensive headsets, but most of the headsets available are greatly discounted. They offer a variety of headsets for 20 different cell phone manufacturers.

Is this too good to be true? Herb Weisbaum, consumer advocate, thinks this is the real thing. He purchased several models and had them tested by friends. Although he concedes that these are not top of the line models, Herb Weisbaum and friends were pleased with sound quality and price of the models available. Herb Weisbaum does caution that the bluetooth models may be available for cheaper at other discount sites but that the wired models were priced best here. For my $3.94, I want to support the non-profit that goes about spreading the word for saftey and caution!

Tiny, yet plump Manilla clams served in an aromatic pesto broth are one of the highlights of the 13 Coins restaurant in Seattle. The clams are magnificent, with a delicious freshness. The pesto broth is garlicky and sumptuous, a beautiful green from the finely minced basil. The pesto is full flavored and without care could cross the line to overbearing. But here, the chefs at 13 Coins prepare it with care and is in perfect balance. Your attentive waiter/waitress will offer extra bread to enjoy every last drop of that broth. This is not the time to be counting your carbs! Indulge and save your carb counting for tomorrow.

This was the second time that I have feasted on these delicacies but it won’t be my last!

I looked out my living room window, from my sickbed on the couch, to see a beautiful teenager busily shoveling poop. It was a gorgeous sunny Sunday and this lovely child has seen a need. You know that you are truly blessed in this life when someone is cleaning up after your dogs just because she loves you and wants to help you out. She knew the dogs needed a good romp and wanted to give them a good run for their money. A week of my being ill had resulted in an unpleasant and unsightly accumulation of dog poop that was a direct obstacle to her goal of dog exercise. Instead of finding something else more pleasant to do on her sunny Sunday, she got a shovel and a bucket and went to work. She never said a word, she just saw a need and got the tools to get the job done. I didn’t even know she was in the yard until I looked up. Slightly embarassed when I thanked her for helping me, she told me she just wanted to do something helpful today.  She cleaned up the yard, exercised and brushed the dogs for me on a whim and a random act of kindness.

She comes by it naturally, raised by her parents that are loving people and frequently help me out. Earlier in the week, the mom went to the store for me, bringing in a much appreciated supply of fluids, popsicles, jello and soup. Yes, I am truly blessed indeed. I am going to be so proud to be at her middle school graduation tomorrow. You go girl!

The best wine of the night was Lowden Hills Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. It was one of five Washington wines we tasted during our first week of our Washington Wines and Wineries class, taught by Dieter Schafer at South Seattle Community College. The class was refreshingly funny and non-pretentious as we learned about the nine viticultural areas of Washington. We’ll review the class after we finish it, but so far so good! We tasted five wines, starting with a Madeline Angevine 2004 from Mount Baker Vineyards. This cool weather grape is well suited to the Puget Sound AVA and produces a fruity wine with a crisp taste. This particular bottling was sweet with a very light color and taste but a strong fruity aroma.  Ed really liked it, but to me  it tasted ‘cheap’. Like it would be a good wine to picnic with a sandwich but nothing that I would spend more than a few dollars on.

The second wine of the evening was Canoe Ridge Gewurztraminer 2006. Created from Snipes Vineyard Grapes grown in the huge Columbia Valley AVA, this wine had the characteristic nose of heady fruit aroma. Strong on melon and lychee, the sweetness of the aromas of this dry wine give it an impression of sweetness. Since it is actually a dry wine (less than 1% sugar), not a sweet wine, it had a very refreshing taste. It was a nice Gewurztraminer, but not as great as the Lake Chelan Gewurztraminer that we had last summer.

The third wine was Dungeness Red from Olympic Cellars Winery. This wine was made from Lemberger grapes from Champoux Vineyards in the Horse Hills AVA. A relatively unknown grape, probably due to its name sounding like a stinky cheese, Lemberger grapes make a ruby red wine with soft tannins. Since 1979, Olympic Cellars has been marketing their Lemberger wine as Dungeness Red to circumvent public resistance to grapes they neither understand nor can pronounce. This was a nice wine, that would make a great accompaniment to a pasta dinner with friends. It isn’t a special occasion wine, but something to round out a meal.

Washington has some really atrocious and some really nice Syrahs. Our fourth wine of the night, was a good one and the best Syrah that I have had for under $20. Terra Blanca Block 8 Syrah was the only redeeming feature of last year’s Bite of Seattle but it was pricey. This Syrah was half the price and still boasted a full mouth of smooth fruit flavor and was well balanced. The 2002 Terra Blanca Estate Syrah had a lovely long finish.

It was the Cabernet Sauvignon that won me over though. It was a deep, dark purple color with nice clarity. It had a delicious blackberry flavor up front, followed by complex tannins and concluded with a long and luxurious finish.  It was a wine to savor and enjoy. Too bad it was poured in the last 15 minutes of class. It was a wine that I would like to have lingered longer over.

When I think of sweet succulent seafood, it’s not a brew pub that comes to mind. Maybe fish and chips at a pub, but plump mussels in a superbly seasoned golden Thai broth? Not your typical brew food, but then again Elliot Bay Brewery is not your typical brew pub.

We decided to stop in for a bite to eat before class. We felt only slightly ashamed at our audacity to have a beer before our wine class and knew we would need some grub before the evening ahead. I was intrigued when I saw a new appetizer of Mussels in a Golden curry broth. I have had mussels in green thai curry broth on occasion and am usually unimpressed but this caught my eye. We ordered a Westside Witt, Dry Hopped IPA, some nachos and those mussels.  Oh my God! They were glorious! The mussels were plump and cooked to perfection, not shriveled and over cooked like I have experienced in green curry concoctions. The broth was this gorgeous saffron color which unfortunately we managed to get all over ourselves as we succumbed to the hedonistic delights of this dish.  We used our empty shells to spoon broth into the mussels still waiting to be consumed.  We dunked the accompanying fries into the broth and debated the best dunking technique to maximize absorption. It packed some heat, not overwhelming at all and well matched to our beers. So much so, that Ed tried a second IPA,  the Elliot Bay IPA in nitrogen cask. This one was sweeter than the dry hopped (d’oh!) but still well matched to the mussels and nachos.

Yes, the nachos were tasty as well but frankly overshadowed on the blog and on the table by those amazing mussels. The nachos came piled high with jalapenos, cheese, beans and meat with salsa, sour cream and guacamole on the side. Ed also had a gingered pear phyllo tart. I admit I turned my nose up at the tart and beer combination, but he declared delicious and a great combination.

We don’t get out to West Seattle that often but we have two more Washington Wine classes and two more opportunities to be in the neighborhood of Elliot Bay Brewery Pub.  Woo hoo sounds good to me. I am beginning to think that Elliot Bay is going to win out for my vote for Seattle’s best brew pub. You can vote at http://www.nwsource.com/peoplespicks/2008/vote/?section=fooddrink&lid=546355