I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

wine

One Last Pour

Cougar Town Baby-1

Price and I are so, so bummed that the show Cougar Town is having it’s series finale tonight. We have loved that show from the start. We quote it a lot. A lot.

It has been ‘our thing’. We would watch with glasses of wine, a big element of the show. For awhile we used our big glasses. You know, the ones that can hold a whole bottle of wine! We’d split a bottle between our glasses to enjoy during dinner and while watching Cougar Town. But then mine broke in the dershwursher*. 🙁 Those were the best glasses. I need to get another.

You know how women would be a “Carrie” or a “Charlotte” when SATC was a thing. Well, I am Ellie. I am 110% Ellie. Watch Cougar Town and then you will understand me.

Cougar Town Baby-2

I even have a Cougar Town Penny Can signed by the cast. I nearly died when that arrived at my office after winning a Twitter prize from the Cougar Town account a few years ago. I thought I’d get a pen or a magnet but this delightful can showed up and I completely freaked. It’s amazing. hmm, maybe I should drink my wine out of there tonight?

Cougar Town Baby-3

So tonight, we will enjoy #OneLastPour as we watch the finale of Cougar Town after our Cougar Town baby goes to bed. And don’t mind me when I look like crap tomorrow. Just shrug off my minor hangover and puffy sad eyes. Wahhh!!!

Thirsty Thursday: Thanksgiving Wine Glass Decorations

I’m totally flipping things around for this week’s edition of Thirsty Thursday. Sorry no drink this time… wait! don’t stop reading! This is drink related and it is perfect for Thanksgiving! Trust me…

So the thing about any family gathering or party is that people often mix up their drink with another. It’s always about ‘wait, have you seen my drink?’ or ‘are you drinking my drink?’ when there are a bunch people all drinking white/red wine. Sure wine charms are cute but wait… ‘do I have the blue charm or the green one?’ See what happens when you are drinking?!?

 

So I created a template for you to use for this Thanksgiving to easily identify your glass while reflecting on what you are thankful for now.

Download the file here. Thanksgiving Wine Glass Decorations

(Amanda doesn’t have a Thirsty Thursday post for you this week but she does have a really great giveaway on her blog!)

Apple Picking At Russell Orchard in Ispwich, MA

Two weeknds ago I went apple picking with some coworkers and had a fantastic time together getting bags full of apples. We went up to Russell Orchards in Ispwich as it is one of the closest places to go apple picking around Boston. It was my first time going there for apple picking (Price and I had been there for berry picking years ago). The day was beautiful and we had so much fun picking bags of varieties of apples.

Prior to my friends’ arrival I took part in a wine & cider tasting in their general store from their own winery. For $5 I sampled 2 hard ciders, 2 fruit wines, and received a branded glass. They sample different ciders and wines (11% alcohol)every week. This week they sampled their Apple Cider, Perry, Jostaberry, and Dry Blueberry.

Apple Cider- “A very sweet and fruity dessert cider, great with apple pie” … This was very enjoyable. I liked the sweet subtle flavor.

Perry- “A slightly sweet hard pear drink” … I wouldn’t have even guessed this was pear. It was lovely but was not very fruity, esp pear like.

Jostaberry- “The berry is a cross between the gooseberry and the black currant. This wine has a tart, fruity taste.” … I loved this red fruit wine. It was tart but not pucker inducing. I liked the flavors, specifically the currant flavor,

Dry Blueberry- “Similar to the Blueberry, except this wine is aged in French oak. Bold like a Cabernet with a subtle berry flavor” … I didn’t finish my sample of this, neither did the 2 women next to me. They must not have been a fan of the smokey flavor. Had it been described as smokey I would have not had it as I for like smokey flavors, esp wine. If you like very dry and smokey then this is a great wine for you.

I’m glad my coworker picked Russell Orchard as it was convenient to get to, packed full of apples, and was a beautiful place.

Beautiful, beautiful apples.

It’s hard to go wrong with acres of apples, but they organize their PYO (pick your own) fields well. Everything was labeled with clear signs on each end of the row. Having gone to other orchards that just use flags as boundaries I found that Russell’s fields were very easy to navigate.

The fields are a short walk from the entrance so they offer hayrides to get to and from the fields. We deicded not to do this as the lines was l-o-n-g but it looked like a lot of fun. Personally, I think you should walk to the fields and take the hayride back after you (and your kids) are tired from walking around and carring a bag of apples.

For $15 you get a peck sized bag, which holds about 10-12 lbs of apples. I wanted a wheel barrel full but that was not an option nor, I assume, in my budget. I stuck with only picking apples that were good for baking, which were Cortland, Empire, Jonagold, and Honeycrisp. Their chart was helpful for picking which apples were best for baking, sauce, dessert (eating??), and juice. Their site says that it is cash only for weekends and Monday holidays but they did accept debit cards by the general store. You just need to buy your bag there at the store instead of getting it at the orchards

Before we left I got a loaf of cinnamon bread that we enjoyed for breakfast the following week. While there were long lines for their cider donuts I did not get any. I much prefer cider donuts that are coated in cinnamon and sugar while they are fresh from the fryer. Russell makes a plain donut and I just can’t justify the calories on something I don’t love.

I think this is great orchard to visit in the summer for berry picking and in the fall for apple picking. Don’t miss out on picking local fruit at the peak of season!

Gotta go get a pumpkin next, dontcha think?

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Russell Orchards

143 Argilla Road

Ipswich, MA

(978) 356-5366

open 9-6 daily

The best wine you will ever have…

is any wine you drink while watching Cougar Town!!!

I’m serious. Pull out a bottle of 2 Buck Chuck or whatever you have on hand and pour yourself a BIG glass of wine to enjoy while you watch.

Price and I are HUGE fans of the show. We started watching it because of my obsession with all things Friends related, including the fabulous Courtney Cox. It has been such a blast to watch it from the beginning to get invested in the characters and everything else involved.* We love all the characters (except we HATED Kristen… she was annoying and she killed Big Joe!!), story lines, jokes, and the amount of wine consumed.

The break between season 2 and 3 was excruciating! The 3rd season of CT was push from premiering in Nov 2011 to Feb 2012 all for that shit show call Man Up! to waste everyone’s time (it was canceled after 8 episodes). February finally rolled around, and to celebrate the 3rd seasoning premier and Valentine’s Day I bought us the most amazing wine classes to have our own ‘Big Joe’ glasses.*8 I named mine Lovely Lola. 🙂

Well during a work party we discovered my boss also watches Cougar Town so I ordered her glass. Well, that prompted this series of photos that I took during a recent Friday afternoon ‘buzz’ in the office since she didn’t really believe it can hold a bottle of wine. Well it does!!!!

 

 

Ta-da!! A whole bottle is in there!!

For reference, this is what a whole bottle of wine looks like in a pitcher.

Also, to compare its size, we poured a ‘typical’ glass of wine in a normal glass, then we poured that into the big glass…

*Truthfully, the show took some time to develop and find itself – hence why the show title doesn’t make sense now- but then found its groove and things got out of control from there. So if you didn’t love it when it first started you should give it a try again!! You can catch up on episodes on Hulu.

**The glasses we purchased are not the exact ‘Big Joe’ glass on CT. The Riedel Sommeliers Burgundy Grand Cru is the exact glass but sells for $105. We picked the more affordable DCI XL Wine Glass  for $10ish. I highly suggest that you order your own massive glasses and enjoy Cougar Town!!!!!

Cougar Town is on ABC and airs at 8.30pm. Steal the remote from your kids… Glee is crap now anyway.

Very Berry Sangria

Price and I recently had a party at our place for my birthday. It was centered around a Mexican theme so I’ll be posting a few recipes from that that works well for a fiesta or just a great gathering. Enjoy!

I love sangria so much because it works well year round and with so many different add in’s. You can do citrus, stone fruit, or berries, or an combination in between. I really prefer wine sangria but I have been enjoying red sangria more and more. Most of all I love to serve sangria when people are over. It works well for a crowd since you start with inexpensive wine, add fun fruit to it and it really transforms into a great drink.

 

This red sangria is packed with fruity flavor. All of the different types of berries add so much sweet, bright flavor.  Each of the 4 different types of berries provides a different flavor to the sangria. Then when you add the tequila you get a bit of a kick to it in the end. The seltzer adds a nice bubble to the the whole thing to finish it off.

 

Very Berry Sangria

Serves 12-16 people

Ingredients

  • 4 bottles of red wine
  • 1 pound of strawberries
  • 1 dry pint of blueberries
  • 1 dry pint of blackberries
  • 1 dry pint of raspberries
  • 1/4 cup agave, depending on the wine
  • 3 cups of tequila
  • 1 liter of seltzer, or ginger-ale

Process

  1. Divide the 4 bottles of wine into 2-3 pitchers, depending on the size of pitcher. Fill the pitcher about half way full.
  2. Wash all the fruit. Discard an bruised fruit.
  3. Slice the strawberries.
  4. Add all the fruit to the wine, divide evenly.
  5. Add the agave and tequila. Gently mix the wine to incorporate.
  6. Let chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
  7. Right before serving add the seltzer to the pitchers.

A Simple Mussels Dinner

I feel that a plate a steaming hot mussels that have been cooked with wine, butter, garlic, maybe even some onions, makes for a great appetizer to share with friends. Or to enjoy for dinner all by yourself. This is a great meal to make because it comes together so easily. All the while you are sipping some white wine. A splash for the mussels, a sip for yourself. Remember that.

I always just strolled into my local grocery store and picked up a bag of mussels to bring back home. But when I was in Maine over the summer we did things a little bit differently. We actually went out to pluck mussels right out of the waters around an island at low tide.

I had no idea how easy it would be. Just a few  fun steps and we were then feasting on fresh food. It was so satisfying to know that the mussels were fresh from the waters, no more than 30 minutes out of the water from when they were in the pot. Plus I think all our ‘hard’ work made them taste better.

1- Go to a place where you can get some fresh mussels. In this case E took us to a spot she calls The Hub off off Deer Isle, ME.

2- Meet a skiddish green crab along the way.

3- Spot some mussels. Target acquired. We came across a lot of mussels under the seaweed. Take a peek and maybe you will find a lot that way.

4- Pluck the mussels off their rocks. Pick a bit more than you think you will eat. Trust me.

5- Throughly clean the mussels. E removed some of the barnacles off as well prior to cooking them.

6) Enjoy with some wine, melted butter, and bread. We also had some corn that I removed from the ears and sauteed.

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Whether you get the mussels fresh from the waters yourself or you go to a grocery store, you should make mussels any time you can. A few ingredients and you have a great dinner that works for any time of year.

Steamed Mussels

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds of mussels, cleaned and rinsed
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 small white onion, sliced (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the bread
  • 1/2 stick of butter
  • 1 loaf of bread
  • paprika
  • salt and pepper

Process

  1. Starting with the bread, half the loaf lengthwise. Pour olive oil over the bread, sprinkle with paprika. Lightly toast in a 225 oven.
  2. In a large pot, combine the water, wine, 2 cloves of garlic, onion, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Upon bringing to a light boil, add the mussels to the pot. Cover and cook for 6-8 minutes, or until the mussels have opened.
  3. While the mussels are cooking, in a separate small saucepan, add the garlic and butter. Melt on low.
  4. Serve the mussels with the toasted bread, seasoned melted butter, and a cup of the cooking liquid from the mussels. Enjoy with a big glass of white wine.
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Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive. 

Sticky with Champagne (at The Urban Grape)

This past Sunday night, I went to a Champagne, Port and Oyster Tasting at The Urban Grape. They hosted the event for 100 customers. I was so excited to RSVP in time for this fun event.

  • NV Gaston Chiquet Blanc de Blancs D’Ay, Grand Cru
  • NV Guy Larmandier Blanc de Blancs, Grand Cru
  • NV Pierre Gimonnet & Fils Blanc de Blancs, 1er Cru
  • NV Marc Hebrart “Cuvee de Reserve,” 1er Cru
  • NV H. Goutorbe Rose, Grand Cru
  • NV Louis Roederer “Carte Blanche” Extra-Dry
  • Warre’s “Otima” 10 Year Tawny Port
  • Warre’s 2000 Late Bottle Vintage Port

I enjoyed the tasting and hearing about each champagne from owner, TJ Douglas. Of course I loved the pricest champagne ($66)… I have expensive taste like that. But really, if you are going to have champagne get something good and that you enjoy… Korbel is not Champagne, nuff said.

There was an Oyster Bar from Neptune Oyster, located in the North End of Boston. I’m not a fan of oysters, so that just ment there were more to go around to the people who love them.

The Urban Grape is a wine store located in Chestnut Hill, MA that approached wine in a creative way, by taste. They organize their wines by flavor and body, instead of region. This helps people expand their pallets and find new wines by finding a starting point they like. I like this system much more than other stores because a Chardonnay is not just Chardonnay, there can be light ones or ones that have a bit more bite, so this helps you pick a wine that you are more likely going to enjoy. Wine can be intimidating but they make the process of getting something new easily. Love them for it.

The Urban Grape
7 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

617.232.4831