Hello, Wine

Hello everyone!

My classes were great today—-especially WINE! No tasting today (our first tasting is on Wednesday) but I already learned so much and can tell I will really enjoy this class. I’ve always wanted to learn more about wine and be able to actually hold a conversation at a dinner party with someone else about wine (and not sound like an idiot), so this is perfect. We will be learning about all the different regions, wine making, how to properly taste wine, and basically everything that goes into it. Here’s my lovely textbook:

It’s a gorgeous book and will have a permanent place on my future coffee table for sure. We also have to do a wine project where we pick any wine region, write a paper on it and make a menu that we pair with different wines. I’m actually pretty excited about this because (dork alert) I actually LIKE writing papers! Hi, I was an English major! I think I am going to choose the Pacific Northwest region to research mainly because I know nothing about it and have always had somewhat of a fascination with that area of the country. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

By the way, when we were doing introductions in class and I mentioned I was in school to become a food writer, my Chef said that she has a blog and I was like “woahhh me too!” so we exchanged blog addresses. How funny is that? This is where you can find her—the mac & cheese recipe on her site looks pretty divine.

As for the kashi soft baked bar I had this morning—YUMO as Rachel would say! I really really liked the flavor of the Blackberry Graham. It is definitely not going to keep me full if I were to eat it by itself, but as a component to other snackie things, it will work well. It tasted kind of like a nutrigrain bar but the blackberry flavor was very strong and tasted like delicious Bonne Maman preserves. I ate my string cheese and strawberries around 8:45 and on my next break, around 10:00, I had the bar. I was okay for the next hour and a half but then I was staaaaaarving and could hardly wait to get home for lunch. I’m not used to eating this late!!

As for lunch, I had a soup, apple & sammie combo today. I reheated a cup of my Chunky Lentil Soup from last night and had an open faced turkey sandwich on Pepperidge Farm’s Honey Flax Whole Wheat Bread. I liked this bread a lot and will definitely buy it again. It’s pretty soft and delicious.

As for my sandwich, I used organic turkey, a light laughing cow, jalepinos, dijon mustard and two bread and butter pickle slices (LOVE these). It was super good and totally hit the spot.

Today is my “active rest” day and I think later on when Oprah is on, I will meander my way to the gym and walk on the treadmill for awhile so I can watch it. Oh the joy of being too poor for cable. It forces me to go to the gym. 😉

Have a great afternoon!