Winery Good Times and Such..

Greetings peeps!

 

Over the weekend I went on home to Tennessee and me and The Boo celebrated 42 years of marriage with my parents. It may sound weird, but I actually like hanging with my parents because they're pretty freakin kool. I get to go do fun stuff like go to winery's and do tastings, and have a picnic of yummy snacky foods with white tablecloths, real picnic baskets and wine glasses.

 

 

 

 

It took about two hours to do the tasting, but it was worth it. In the meantime we got to chill out, walk around and listen to this great jazz band. I've been before to this particular winery when I was less knowledgeable about wines, so I was kind of worried when I found out that most of their wines are dry. I don't particularly like having cotton mouth and spit corners (spit corners: spit that has gathered in the corner of your mouth and is stringy and sticky and nasty looking), but hey if that's your thing.... that's kool. I prefer a nice sweet wine and preferably one where I don't really taste the alcohol! I really like their dessert wines such as the raspberry as shown above and their blackberry is totally delish too. Oh, and if you like Port then they have a nice one as well!

 

It was a really beautiful day as you can see. All kinds of people were there that day sitting on the lawn with their blankets and chairs, some brought full out table decorations including table cloths, flowers, centerpieces, and Fall themed items. While walking around I even saw some in full out Halloween costumes and tables decorations to match! 

 

Baby grapes!

 

Going through the vineyard and seeing the tiny little baby grapes was great all in itself! You always see grapes in the grocery store ready to go, but never on the vine where they grow, so it was pretty awesome to see nature at work. Walking through there they even had signs telling you not to pick the grapes! HA! I wonder how many people actually heed to those directions? I know I wanted to pick one or two. :)

 

So that was my weekend adventure! What was yours? 

 

*PEACE*

 

A. Sparkle

Moving into Summer

Salutations!

     I’m so glad that Summer is finally here! I really reeeally don’t like being cold, plus you get to go out and do all kinds of fun stuff. I want to have a picnic in the park with a badness now. Maybe something like some finger foods, take some chilled wine, sit under a shady tree with a blanket. Picturesque, right? Yep. So let me show you what I've been working on lately. 

These little sparkle babies were requested to be made. 

You can see more pictures or own them too by clicking ---- > right here!! < ----

Speaking of food adventures, I cooked a new dish last night from SkinnyTaste.com simply titled Thai Fried Rice. I must say that I've been very apprehensive to make this dish. So apprehensive in fact, that it’s taken me months to even make it. You must understand that me and rice… we aren't always the best of friends. Mainly, because rice likes to get an attitude and be all finicky which isn't kool. However, you have to face your fears at some point right? Right!

 The recipe calls for chicken, so I decided to take the easy route and bought canned chicken, because it takes less time and sometimes raw chicken kinda gives me the creeps! I think it’s all the fat and veins and blood & junk that you have to deal with. I have the same trouble with fried chicken. It just gets gross. If for some reason the world went through anything like on the show Revolution where there is no more electricity… Which means no more nicely packaged meats… I’d have to just become a vegetarian, because there is no way I could slaughter an animal, drain the blood, clean it, and then cook and eat it. Nope!  Anywho, now that we've gone all off subject! So I followed the instructions of making the rice on the dry side and voilà! I had fluffy rice. I was extremely proud of myself. Chopping and adding all of the vegetables weren't too bad, especially since I have a bad ass knife to do it with! Add fish sauce & soy sauce to taste and wham you have a pretty quick, easy & healthy meal. Definitely a repeat performance.

So until the next time kiddies!

A. Sparkle