The Wine Makers Wife

we have a winner & dreams of a hen house

Please excuse this dreadful photo of The Rem, he's not a morning dog. There he was sleeping soundly at the foot of the bed, when I dash into the bedroom and shout "Hurry Remy, you have to pick a name for the book give away before I am late for work. I keep forgetting to do this and I said you would pick the winner!" Then little slips of paper, with commenter's name ,shower down upon his head. He looks a little startled doesn't he?

And the winner of Clotilde Dusoulier's Edible Adventures In Paris is:

Cassie Sheila of Gifts for Nonnie!

Cassie please send an email with your Mailing address to bonfirewines at gmail dot com.

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In other news ...

I officially want a chicken coop. After seeing Return to Oz on VHS in 1985, I have wanted to get a chicken. Dorthy has a pet chicken named Belinda that takes Toto's place in the adventure. More recently, I have read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and family. her family writes about their quest to eat locally, and eat from their own organic farm. Barbara's youngest daughter sends away for mail order chicks and start her own business of selling eggs and chicken meat at the farmers market. My puppy school teacher, Trish,  has a farm and told the class she was selling her Heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving, chicks and a chickens to anyone who had a coop!

After confessign my deep rooted desire for a hen house, Trish suggested I start with Backyard Chickens. I would need to learn about how to build a coop, and what type of chickens to purchase, as well how to take care of the chicks when they arrive.

A simple hen house like this one would be perfect. Now I just need to talk Ryan and Mary into it! Mary, who's property we rent, adores animals. She used to keep guinea fowl on the property to keep the tick population, on the property, down. It's The Wine Maker who need convincing. Pretty critical to have him on board since the idea of my building anything it pretty dangerous. I'm not allowed to use power tools since the staple gun incident of 2003. Maddy knows exactly what I am talking about.

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p.s. Thank You for all the comments about the Chardonnay wine label. The Wine Maker had further changes. I'll finalize the design so we can print it tonight.

which do you prefer

Imagine this label on a green Chardonnay bottle.

We are rushing around for Sunday's big tasting, trying to slap a label on the Chard. We have changed the name three times in the past four days. Wine partner B.K., likes one. While I chose another. Ryan likes both, but came up with a third! Frustrating! I really think we need a proper designer, and marketing director. With Ryan and I doing it all ourselves, I worry the overall image we display looks unprofessional. Ex-art student speaking, consistency is key! He and the wine are far from amateur, and the labels can not have the look and feel of a "garage wine". Our moody Red labels, which I painted, are vastly different from the white labels. Ryan is choosing lovely watercolors that evoke serenity. In short, Ryan is not thinking about design and marketing, but mood, and is being quite stubborn about the labels, enjoying their contrast.

The back of the label will describe how the wine was made, and that the painting was done by B. K.'s mother, while she was traveling through Ireland. My Irish family requested that their new Wine Making Nephew-grandson-cousin-in law make a Chardonnay after we got married. So this was Ryan's attempt to "appease" the Shyne family.

The blue lake stands out the most if you squint, and with a blue colored font I think the text will stand out more. But with blue, it certainly doesn't read 'Ireland' does it? Suggestions? Help!

i'm alive

No really, I am. Camping was so relaxing, just a few days of sun, friends, and smores! Life, this week, is super busy. Grandparents need to be visited, macaroons dropped off and taste tested at friends houses, manicure and pedicure, pick up my CSA veggie box, pay the corporate Amex bills at the office, plan my next business trip, go to the dry cleaner, make my Tuesday with Dorie and Whisk Wednesday recipes, take Remy to the groomer, the list goes on!!

I'll be back as soon as I can to post the winner of the Edible Adventures In Paris book!!

edible adventures, and alls well that ends well

On Bastille Day I strolled through Old Town Nice, and the port area. There is an antique bazaar most days of the week, taking place in a open city square a few blocks up from the water. Not to be vague, I just really stumbled onto it. So did I come home with loads of French linens and silverware? Sadly, no... the prices were much too steep!

Bastille Day was pretty much like any other day in French life, shops and eateries were open. But at 10pm the city gathers on the  shoreline, and on the promenade, to watch the fire works set off from the water by the Port.

We took the train on Tuesday to Monaco, and shopped in Monte Carlo for four hours. The Channel Boutique near the casino area is a place I had been before, about ten years ago.... I distinctly remember buying a nail polish, as that was all I could afford! They don't even sell their skincare, makeup, or beauty lines there in Monaco anymore. Steph and I had to settle for making a circle around the shop, ooh and ahhing over the handbags and amazing shoes. Unfortunately, there was an American couple making a huge fuss over buying a handbag, talking loudly, carrying on. Oh my goodness, it was so embarrassing.

After 24 hours of travel, we arrived home last night around 9:30pm. Before falling into bed, I went through the pile of mail Ryan had left me. He and Remy are hosting a camping trip for our close friends in Bear Valley California, the event is having it's ten year anniversary, so it is expected that I am up there this weekend. My bestie, Smooth, will pick me up at noon and it will be a girls road trip up to the camp site, about five hours from where we live. Anyway, in my pile of mail was a copy of Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris! The book arrived way too ate for me to enjoy it in France, so I thought I'd pass it along to one of you!

(here is Stephanie in the Mediterranean)

Please leave a comment if you have a need, want, desire for Clotilde's book. It is brand new, and just published this month. Loads of great tips on where to do your market shopping, where to dine out, where to assemble a fantastic picnic, and where to enjoy it.  I'll let Remy pick a name on Monday!

Glad to be home and love to all!
-S

Nice is Nice

We arrived in Nice, via train, after a five and a half hour ride. Settling into our apartment, we walked three blocks south, to the beach. Nice has a main promenade that lines the Mediterranean sea. Monaco is a stones throw away. A little country wrapped in the arms of France, about twenty miles from here, and we'll visit it's capital, Monte Carlo, on Tuesday.

The coastline is dotted with cruise liners, and the rocky beach is covered in sun burnt Europeans. French, German and Italian, all crispy red, and all topless. This isn't a good thing. As I mentioned to my father, if you have youth or implants, you keep your top on, otherwise, you bare all. Most of the children are naked, and SPF 4 is sprayed sparingly. If you know me, you can imagine a very pale Sara under an umbrella, with her movie star shades, a J.Crew beach dress, and SPF 45 applications are applied hourly. I freckle, therefore I apply.  Steph's Argentine genes  allowed her skin to glow after only an hours worth of direct, sunscreen free, sunlight. *sigh*

(our tour group on their final evening together, Steph is third in from the front, left. She stands next to our 12 year old mascots, the Jersey twins, Claire & Celeste. Claire in Blue and Celeste in stripes.)

To be honest, I'm not sure Nice is for me, sophomoric tourists, and on a whole, a bit too "colorful" for a snob like me. What I mean is, our neighborhood is a smattering of colors, cultures, and incomes. Right now, it's pushing 11pm, and I can hear the distant shouting of  adults, dogs and children as their echoes bounce off the maze of apartment building walls, and very thin alleyways. But hey, Angelina and Brad like the area well enough. Angelina gave birth to twins, here, this morning. I hear they just bought a house twenty miles west, an area the train snaked through on the way to Nice.

Here is what I jotted down in my notebook about that area:

Paris I can take or leave, but I have seen the rest of the country now. You'll have to ship my husband and my dog to me. I won't be at the airport on Wednesday. The countryside outside of Provence, and Nice, looks like it does in the movies. The water is blue, not gray or green, or in between. It is hot, deliciously so. And in the shade it appears cool and moist. Houses all have terracotta tiled roofs, and every other house has a substantial vineyard. A sea of vines outside the window, that ebbs and flows, and promises to swallow up the two story farm houses which roll upon its waves.

Paris seems a waste.

Provence is everything Peter Mayle described, no embellishment, no exaggeration needed. I don't see how I could ever come home.

au revoir paris

Hall of Mirrors, Versailles

Marie Antoinette's bedroom

Berthillon ice cream ( in the Jewish Quarter) , Steph had dark chocolate, while I had Mirabelle sorbet. (plum & cherry)  At Versailles I had Peche Blanch(white peach), which was heavenly to nip at while we lounged in the grass by the canal.

Versailles, back of the palace.

View of the gardens from the palace

Original city wall of Paris in the Jewish quarter

Toured a museum of old Parisian portraits, signs, and furniture in the Jewish quarter, loved this chair and wall color together.

And so Steph and I had better back our bags, and get our dresses on for dinner tonight. This is our last night in Paris. We'll have a quick bite of croissant and cafe au lait  in th hotel lobby tomorrow morning before zipping off to  Nice by bullet train!

More to come!

montmartre on tuesday

We spent the morning at Musee d' Orsay,  studying the great French Impressionists.

Once a train station, the museum has been converted to house art collections.

It seemed only fitting to have lunch in Montmarte, where many of the Impressionists had lived.

The specialty of the district is a grilled sandwich of cheese, with ham, called a Croque Monsieur. Wonderfully gooey and toasty after a great deal of walking through a museum and rainy Parisian streets.

A few of my fellow travelers awaiting their lunch.

We toured the neighborhood, taking in the old haunts, and apartments of Renoir, Van Gough, Picasso, and Henri Toulouse Lautrec. (Lautrec is responsible for those old Moulin Rouge posters...) We also bumped into Remy's Parisian cousin Louis.

All of Paris is on sale this month. No, I'm not kidding. So I ducked into an infamous lingerie shop for bit of 50% off "Ooh La la".

Smelled the flowers,

Munched on warm baguette, and ended the day with a splendid meal at a local cafe. Lobster Bisque and golden beet salad, with a glass of Sauv Blanc. Tomorrow we tour Marais, an eclectic shopping district and Jewish quarter.

Monday in Paris

Macaroons from Galeries Lafayette, made by Dalloyau

Ham, cheese and egg buckwheat crepe from the Latin Quarter.

Sainte Chappel windows

Mass at Notre Dame Chathedrel, shopping in the Opera district, and tripping up the stairs at the Metro station. Parisian Pizza, on the cheap, for dinner and a snobby local wine bar for dessert. Now to bed...

rue cler walk

How was your fourth of July?! Stephanie and I  are just now settling into our hotel room. It's quite small, but comfortable. Below is a shot of the wallpaper in the bedroom. We went out for a croisant and cafe de creme this morning, and dodged fat raindrops as we walked down the Rue Cler. A decandent stroll with the majority of shops being delicatessens, boulangeries, fromageries, chocolateries, and produce stands. La!

By dusk we were on the econd level of the Eiffel tour admiring the sunset...

Bon Voyage!

Off to Paris! I'll be back in two weeks, and blogging from the road!

Here is a shot of Stephanie and Maddy. (I have a lot of cousins.) On the right is Steph, and Madeline on the right, so you can visualize the youth and energy of my traveling companion.

I just know we are going to have a great time together.

Best!
-S