A new shift. Anew!

Good day bloggers!

Well, everyone has a blog. Even me. But, I am going to shift my blogging to a bit more passion driven, than shape driven. I have now discovered my passion, and that passion is wine.

Starting at 5 years old, I remember vividly writing a menu for my family- a simple meal, hamburguesas. To you English speakers, hamburgers. I framed how many tomatoes, lettuce, and condiments we needed to have, etc.

At 12, I tried to invent my own cookie recipe. Didn't work. But, not long after that, I was making pizza from scratch, then on to Mexican food, having high school friends over for dinner. I would not forget my spaghetti dinners by my lonesome self, while everyone else was at the high school football game. I made espresso, and even imbibed on a small glass of hearty burgundy...(I would never do the hearty burgundy thing again). These thoughts of food weren't necessarily cultivated as a child, so I opted for a business degree, complimented by Spanish. I abhorred the frozen, then unfrozen tomatoes, the hot dish, and their forms of chili. When I say their, I mean a small lunchlady land of bumpkins in Decorah, Iowa.

Come Sophomore year in college, I was buckled down with school, work, choirs, and a family. But I would still invite people over for a feast of my own making, sometimes 8 or more people, in the span of a 500 square foot apartment. This tradition continued three years afterward, in couple, single, and divorced forms.

So what has changed? I must say, the day that I thought that Nathanson Creek or Yellow Tail was good, is long gone. We all have those stories of drinking bad wine. My days of drinking cooking sherry at the end of the meal are gone. But, if it wasn't for 9/11, I would have never had Spaghetti dinners with a good friend of mine from New York, or sipped (YES, SIPPED) Tequila from Cabo Wabo, with my best friend Phil.

Wine taste has changed. I am so much more educated and in tune with my palate. I can remember tastes and flavors much better. My style of cooking has refocused itself to cast iron and European country style of cooking, like stews and soups, rather than elaborate or somewhat involved procedures. I have started using fresh vegetables and wine, with very little use of cooked veggies. I guess my style is a mix of rustic Colorado and country french cooking.

So, wine. Wine is not a Panacea, according to the ATF. It is a social lubricant, an open invitation, and a taste of humanity, as I have stated for the Burgundy School of Business and for the Royal Agricultural College. It is history, flavor, and terroir.

Pick of the week: Portugal or Austria. These wines are lesser known, but have a quality about them that many people in the US do not understand. Austrian wines are excellent with your heartier winter fare, while portuguese wines are a great sub for anything Spanish or even Argentine.