Exploration Leads to Nice Discoveries

Yesterday afternoon, I woke up from my post-working-overnight slumber and ran to do some shopping before I had to retrieve my son from his grandmother's house. I decided to go and check out this place called Market Basket here in New Jersey. I've been missing my gourmet supermarkets that I had become very used to shopping at while living in Manhattan and I still haven't found anywhere around here that I like as much. I've heard good things about this place, so I plugged it into my GPS and away I went. Although it's not that far away, you have to take the streets there from my house, and it's a winding way - which ended up taking too long. The store itself is nice, and there were some great deals on fresh fish and steaks. However, I didn't like the vibe of this place. It's in a very rich neighborhood, where the local "houses" are about 6 times the size of my little hovel. It's the first grocery store I've ever been to where I felt like I was out of place. They did carry Cacio di Roma, which is a very important component of Cacio e Pepe - a pasta dish which is basically pasta noodles covered in this cheese and fresh black pepper - it's really good. And since I found it in this store, it's what we had for dinner last night.
I also went into the new Stew Leonard's Wine Store which just opened about 1 week ago near my house. I haven't been too happy with the wine shops around here, but in the past month this store opened and a new Best Cellars. So prospects are looking up.
I was happy to see that they had the wine I was looking for - Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi 2006. I've had this wine before, although the last bottle I had was a 2002, and I really enjoy it. So, I was thinking of something to drink with my Cacio e Pepe, and I wanted a nice Italian white. I don't know if this is the best wine to go with this meal, but I wanted it, so I found it and bought it. This bottle seemed creamier with more of a melon taste than I remember the last bottle having. Overall, I was very happy with it.
I was also happy with the wine store. I was a little skeptical going in - it is a chain store, but it wasn't bad. It's not the best store I've been in, but their sales were good and although it had its share of Little Penguin wines, they had a nice selection of more upscale wines as well.
I'd go back. Pretty soon I'll check out the new Best Cellars...

NP: Benigno and Roberts, WFAN

Otter Pops!

The other day I took my son to Rite Aid to pick up his vitamins, and what did I see when I entered the store? Otter Pops! I had to buy them. So now I've got Alexander the Grape, Sir Isaac Lime and the crew freezing away in the ice box. Perfect timing too. It's going to be in the upper 90's this week, so some nice cold ice treats will be just what the doctor ordered.

I Needed A Drink

If you read my previous post, you'll understand the title of this one. Tonight, I needed some wine.
Recently, we had a barbecue and I went out to the wine shop to grab some bottles for that day. While I was there, I grabbed a couple of new wines (to me) for myself. Tonight I opened up the Step Road Blackwing Shiraz 2005, Australia (screw cap). To be honest, I picked up this bottle because I liked the label. Not the best way to pick out a wine, but I thought it looked nice and wanted to try it. I wasn't disappointed. Tonight, I drank this with some spicy grilled lamb and roasted potatoes. I felt it went really well. To me, this wine started off with some red cherries, then hit me with a hint of tar and finished off with cranberries. Overall, I enjoyed this wine and went through 3 glasses with dinner. Perhaps it went better with my meal, but I think I enjoyed it a lot more than those who wrote the reviews of it I read on the web (which I read tonight while searching for the pic of the label). To me, this was a nice smooth wine, which went great with my meal and gave me what I really needed - a drink.
Another bottle of wine I bought during that same trip was Washington Hills Riesling 2005, Washington. I opened this about 1 week ago while we were eating some Indian take-out. I had really wanted a Gewürztraminer, but there were none in my house, so I opened this. It actually went very well with the meal because the food was really spicy and this was very sweet. The only thought I had while drinking this was "apple juice." I enjoyed drinking this with Indian, but it really did taste like apple juice to me. With a nice alcoholic twist.
On the day of the barbecue, I had bought a few different bottles on wine to drink. A couple different whites and some red. The first bottle of white we opened up was the La Delizia Pinot Grigio 2006, Italy. I don't really remember exact things about this wine, but I do remember really liking it. As did my mom and my wife's grandmother. It went pretty fast, so I'm assuming it was pretty good. Also, we didn't enjoy the next bottle of wine nearly as much (I don't remember what that was - I didn't buy that one).
The other type of white wine I bought for the barbecue was Kris Pinot Grigio 2006, Friuli-Venezia Italy (screw cap). I love this wine. It's never disappointed me and I've never bought a bad bottle. Of course it's not the best bottle of wine, but it's light, crisp and tastes as good as a Pinot Grigio is going to taste (I'm not a big fan of the Santa Margherita, which has somehow become some sort of standard for Pinot Grigio). Also, this wine is cheap. Always an added plus!
I also bought a couple of bottles of Rancho Zabaco Heritage Vines Zinfandel 2006, Sonoma, but this was heat-damaged and tasted like crap.

NP: Exit, Population 1

"What Happened This Time?"

Initially, I had a different title for this blog entry, and I had started writing it with a totally different beginning. However, when I went outside to grill some dinner on the barbecue (some nice lamb) my neighbor approached me with that horrible question: "What happened this time?"
For those not in the know, we recently renovated our basement. It was already a "finished basement," but we hated the way it was, so we just paid a construction company a lot of money to renovate it. New foor, ceiling, sheet-rock and a new storage closet. I had even started moving some things down there - the computer (not this one) and my flat-screen television. This was going to be a playroom for the kids/media room/office space. It was all planned out, with the current office to be converted to the new baby room/nursery (she's due in a couple of months).
Anyway... it was all finished about 9 days ago and then we went away to Martha's Vineyard for a family get-together (I was hoping my next blog entry was going to be about that trip, but it's going to have to wait). We got home last night and my wife threw some laundry in the machine to get ahead on the chores we had set for ourselves for the rest of the weekend. A couple of hours later, I decided to head to the basement to start setting up the desktop computer in the new office-space. That's when I saw it. Water. Everywhere. Somehow during my freakout, I threw on some rubber boots and headed into the mess. The water was at least 4 inches deep. My first instinct was to check the boiler, but it was fine. No... it was the washer. Somehow it was still running 2 hours after the load had started and there was water pouring out the back.
I was able to stop the flow and headed off to Home Depot to rent a pump. 3 hours later, my father, mother and I were able to get it down to a distinct dampness in the basement.
Today, the professional cleaners showed up at the request of our home-owners insurance company. They had to rip up the floor, take off all the molding and spray some anti-mold stuff in the basement as well as pump out the rest of the water. Now we've got what feels like 30 industrial strength fans running until at least Monday to dry out the basement.
Seeing the trucks outside our house is what prompted my neighbor's query. Unfortunately, we've already replaced our roof and dealt with a rodent problem (if you count one mouse as a problem), so our home is looking more and more like a money pit as the months pass.
We're currently accepting all donations to help with the current problem.

NP: Virtual Insanity, Jamiriquai