Supplanting my garden with a carden

It's nearly June, which means my garden of herbs that I planted in early April should be flourishing by now. Or not. After a rollercoaster of fickle weather, my poor plants aren't sure what season it is. My basil is a pale green color and keep seeding as if its easing into Fall. The thyme is growing, but yellowing here and there. And the cilantro, well, that's another story. Since it was planted, the cilantro had been growing at an explosive rate. So much so that I could snip some for use in some Cinco de Mayo recipes. Well, upon checking on the plants a few days afterwards, I noticed someone or something had mowed my cilantro down to stems. Mere stems!

I have seen a rabbit slinking around behind the bushes in my courtyard. Was it him? Or was it the drifter who lives in the stairwell near the courtyard? Or maybe it was one of my fellow residents in a tacky display of neighborly charm?

Or maybe I will have better luck sustaining my patio garden on my car. Yes...my car garden, er "carden" is looking good, folks. My 13-year old car, that is slowly starting its transformation into a full-blown beater. It's missing a signal headlight, has tape on another main headlight that has now burned out, has a back fender sticking out slightly, has a busted grill from an accident, hasn't been washed in a couple years and now, has plants growing out of the trunk.

What do you think these will grow to be? I think one of them resembles a maple tree. That's not gonna work out well!

Cobbling

I was cobbling last night. I had intended to cobble a strawberry rhubarb delight on Sunday for Easter dessert, but the timing got the best of me. I haven't made a cobbler in over a year, and before then had a bit of an OCD issue with making them every weekend in the summer months. But it all came back to me with ease. This is only the second time I've made a strawberry rhubarb cobbler and I think this time, it came out better than the first time.

Not unlike my first time making it, I had to go to several grocery stores before finding rhubarb. But, unlike last time where the rhubarb I found was thin and scraggly, this crop was luscious and abundant.

I was sure to slice up the rhubarb very thinly this go around and was glad that I had enough to have even parts rhubarb to strawberries. The first go around, there wasn't enough rhubarb, so the finished product was a bit too watery.

Voila!

Spring has sprung

I can't get enough of the lovely view outside of my patio. I wish spring would last forever. Up next is the bloom of the azalea bushes at the base of this blossomtastic cherry tree!

Chicken cookies

On Sunday, I attended my coworker Cody's annual chicken cookie party at a lavish row house in Georgetown. Yes, chicken cookies. Packed with protein (in the form of butter), these delicacies are legendary. In fact, my coworker could easily start a dessert company based on her baking prowess alone. For her party, held every year on Palm Sunday, she bakes ~200 of these butter cookies, prepares yellow and red icing for decorating and offers several tasty finger foods and beverages. The guests then mingle over vats of the icing and decorate cookies to bring home. Cody even prepares a bin full of "giblets," which are the scraps of dough left.

My first icing attempt wasn't legendary. For one, I used too much icing, struggled to put the chicken's red gobbler on and totally ruined the eye. The rest were improvements. Cody told me that I can now say I have iced a chicken. I will report that none of the chickens survived to meet a new day.

Still here, still eating

I don't know WHAT is up with me in 2012. My creative side has fallen victim to other distractions, I suppose. But luckily, my food intake hasn't suffered one bit. In fact, I'm still *shockingly* fighting the never ending battle of controlling my impulses to eat myself to death and exercise with regularity. But, in the meantime, I wanted to let you know that I've planted a crop of herbs on my patio to help jump start my trip to incorporating more raw fruits and vegetables into my diet.

I love herbs. I love how they smell. I love how easily they grow. I love how they punch up my cooking. And I love how they look. I can't wait till mid-summer when they will have exploded with growth and I can make a salad of just herbs.

Here we go, from left: Garlic (I simply planted three cloves that had started sprouting in my kitchen), cilantro, thyme, basil and rosemary. C'monnnn summer!

Crackpotting

It's 2012 and I haven't blogged once. I've been too busy eating and using my crockpot like it's going out of style. My crockpot is my crack. Correction: I have three crockpots; my crockpots are my crack. They're all so cute when you line them up next to each other as they are all different sizes. While I would like to share some of my favorite crockpot recipes attempted thus far, instead I will share with you my latest obsession.

My "Crack of the Week," and possibly (hopefully) longer than that is a certain kind of Triscuit. Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil. I cannot get enough. I am this close to finishing an entire box I purchased this morning. If it weren't for the fear of total calories consumed by this feat, they would've been gone by lunch time. They're peppery, but not overly...and just the right amount of spice and bite to each cracker. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the hottest drug on my market.

Day 3: Rain, Mountains and Sunshine

We started off Day 3 of our Napa trip with a quick breakfast at the house of yogurt (goldfish for me) before heading to Pride Mountain for the sole tour of the trip. It was a cold, grey and drizzly day and winding in circles up the mountain did nothing to stave the woozy in my stomach. I have mild motion sickness that usually appears on metro train rides, on boats or with lots of stopping and starting in traffic when I'm sitting in the back seat of the car. So this particular morning, I was miserable.

But upon reaching the top of this mountain, the views helped level out my upset stomach. We headed indoors quickly, as I was also severely under dressed. We began the tour sipping Pride Mountain's current release Viognier. It was pretty good, but it wasn't as memorable for me due to my current state. Our tour guide learned us on soil types, explained how the grapes on the top of the mountain are smaller due to the fact the rain water runs down the mountain into the valley and how this means the juice flavor is much more concentrated as a result. After that, we headed over to the caves where they stored their wine barrels.

This is where we did some barrel tasting and learned more about the wine-making process. We learned that the Obama's order Pride Wines for all of their state dinners. We also learned that if the wine tastes bitter, our palates are not as refined yet. Friend Christine was already annoyed with our tour guide at this point and this comment sent her on a rampage through the rest of the cave tour. Luckily, she and our pompous tour guide made nice at the end of the tour and we left the place without taking any bad juju with us.

After more picture taking, we set off for some much needed grub. I didn't buy any wine at Pride since it was pricier and my palate didn't particularly take well to it. Our next food stop was a match made in heaven for my palate.

We pulled over at Gott's Roadside for some comfort food. I ordered the "Wisconsin Sourdough" burger that had griddled mushrooms, bacon, cheddar, mayo and bbq sauce on toasted sourdough bread. Wow. Christine and Susan ordered juicy chicken sandwiches and Sheri ordered a classic burger. Then Christine and I washed our meals down with a pumpkin milkshake. WOWWOW!

Happy again, we piled back into the car and headed to Chateau Montelena. Famous for it's blind taste test years win years ago against storied French wines, Chateau Montelena was a sight to see. Despite the continued cold temps and dreary rain, we still managed to keep good spirits.

The wine tasting was fine, but nothing struck my fancy. Somewhere between the parking lot and the tasting room we had lost our spark for exploring the compound and snapping a million pictures. Instead, we headed back to the car and pondered our next move. Our last winery of the day was to be Cakebread, but our tasting appointment wasn't for another couple hours.

So we drove to the famous Napa sign and took more pictures.

We then headed to Cakebread for our tasting, which to our surprise was comped! Victory. While I didn't take any pictures at this visit, it was the one winery whose wines I loved the most. After a day full of rain, frigid temps, motion sickness and overall blah, the Cakebread visit was the sunshine we had all so desired. The tour and tasting dude was great. The winery was also unique since they had bookmark-size cards for each of their wines describing the wine and on the back pairing it with a recipe. Fun, great idea. I particularly loved the vintage Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and of course, the Pinot Noir.

After sweating out my decision, I came away with a bottle of the Zinfandel. After this purchase, I only had one more spot left in my 6-pack wine carrier to be checked as baggage on the flight home. Sunday was surely going to be a gamble. Of the three wineries to visit, when do I buy my last bottle? At the first stop? Or wait to see if the last two are better? Stressful.

But before the day ended, we browsed through Dean and Deluca and a Napa soap shop before heading back to our house to change for dinner at Mustard's Grill. Bad decisions about, we indulged in hummus, cheese, crackers and more before heading out the door again. I was angry with myself at this point, because I was full heading to dinner. I still managed to shovel food down the gullet, but know I would've appreciated it more had I come with an empty stomach.

My meal? Baby back ribs, apple and golden raisin slaw, cornbread sticks and butter.

Sheri and Susan ordered their roast chicken breast with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted artichokes and this special sauce.

Christine ordered yet another chicken sandwich, but her side was my pick for the winning item of the meal. Roasted and grilled sweet potatoes (yellow, not orange) with an avocado tomatillo sauce topped with creme fraiche. The combination there was unbelievable. I hope to attempt to duplicate it sometime soon.

Sadly, no one had room for dessert, so we paid the bill and trolled home for some rest before another big day.