From the category archives:

Giveaway

After the Storm…

by agirlandhermutt on August 30, 2011

I’m happy to report that all is well in the AGAHM household. Not a flicker of lights or a puddle to be found in this house. Believe me…I’m so relieved and thankful after seeing pictures of damage and hearing of electricity outages. Knock on wood, we are in the clear!

Don’t get me wrong though. We definitely got our fair share of wind and rains. However, I tried to make the best out of it and get some house stuff done.

First up…dinner on Saturday! The Scientist and I were trapped inside because it was POURING outside so I whipped up some yummy enchiladas and spicy black bean & corn salad for dinner (recipes coming soon!).

We watched The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie and listened to the rain beat down.

Sunday came bright and early and so did the winds of Hurricane Irene. Since it was still raining we decided to redo our meal from the night before and make breakfast enchiladas. FAIL. I don’t know what happened but it just wasn’t working out. So open faced breakfast burrito it is! Winking smile It was complete with eggs, fakin’ bacon, grape tomatoes, shredded cheese and some Sailor’s Swagger Pineapple Hot Sauce.

We were stuffed and getting kind of antsy so I started The Scientist on helping me get some items crossed off the House To-Do list. We cleaned, we put furniture together, we took furniture apart. It was good to be productive! Our reward?! To get our homebrew beer going!

I bought a Mr. Beer kit awhile back for us and Sunday was the perfect day to dedicate to getting it together. It is now sitting for 14 days and then we bottle!

Oh, and we definitely drank beer during this process. Which may be why my next task became this.

Yea buddy. I needed to get my “natural” hair color back in gear so I got to work coloring the hair. This may or may not have been a wise choice since at any point the electricity could have gone out. Eh. It worked out in the end!

While the color sat, I ate. Sliced tomaters with string cheese, a little S&P and a drizzle of olive oil.

The tomatoes were from my CSA and they were so fantastic! I made the slices thick so that they were nice and juicy. Its amazing what a GOOD tomato can taste like.

Around 6 or so the wind died down and the rain stopped. Hurricane Irene had officially passed over us and we were in the clear. I couldn’t help but feel relieved. I got ready for the week like normal and went on with my day.

Oh, and wondering where the Mutt was during the whole fiasco?! Right where he always is. On the couch.

I heard him snore. At least five times. Apparently Korky isn’t phased by bad weather. Winking smile

Hope everyone stayed dry and came out safe & sound!

Giveaway Winner Time…Congrats to Megan Maibaum!!! Be on the look out for an email from the folks at Robert Mondavi to get your info to get your gift pack!

Have a great week kids!

{ 3 comments }

Discovering Wine Over the Weekend…

by agirlandhermutt on August 22, 2011

While many of my bloggy friends were off in Philly enjoying the 3rd annual Healthy Living Summit (remember I was there in 2010?!), I was at home boozing it up.

Kidding…kind of.

The kind folks organizing the Robert Mondavi Discover Wine Tour gave me the heads up that the tour was making a pit stop at Tanglewood, a music venue, in Lenox, Ma.

The tour was designed to bring wine to the people in an informational and interactive way. Mondavi’s belief was that wine was meant to be enjoyed by EVERYONE. No need for wine snobbery here. I could definitely got that welcoming vibe when I toured the Mondavi Winery in Napa so I was excited to check it out at the tour.

My buddy, Megan, and I showed up just in time to listen to the Wine 101 Seminar that was being held in a little classroom type set-up. Very cool for a pop-up location!

Lets go ahead and talk about something you’ve probably already noticed. Umbrella Girl! There are some peeps holding an umbrella over a few lucky folks heads to keep the sun off. How does one secure this job?!

Back to the wine tasting. We listened, started our tasting, and did a little looking around.

One of the main features of the Discover Wine Tour is the Essence Station. Visitors get an opportunity to do a little sniffing of some of the aromas that frequently show up in wine. Its pretty cool to smell each element outside of the wine so you can easier pinpoint it when actually tasting the wine. Its much cooler to say “Oh! I smell fresh pear and hits of spice!” than “Ohhh! I smell wine!”. Winking smile Guess which one I say the most?

Sniff, taste, sniff, taste. I felt a little like The Mutt on a walk with all the sniffing I was doing.

Once the seminar was over Megan and I just took our time tasting through the wines, enjoying the set-up in a beautiful setting, and relaxing. We also utilized the Interactive Ipad Station to enter to win a trip to Napa. Fingers crossed!

The tour had 7 wines for us to try, including a few of my faves:

Fume Blanc- Nice crisp acidity with a creamy finish. Plenty of pear and citrus notes too. #1 on my tasting list for the day!

Chardonnay- I’m not usually a Chard fan, but this lightly toasted wine was just perfect. It was light, fruity, long finish, and a nice creamy feeling that all Chardonnay lovers will enjoy.

Pinot Noir- This medium-weight wine is full of jammy flavors, hints of spice and a perfect red wine for the heat of the summer or the cool nights in the winter.

Megan and I also had some fun taking pictures of our beautiful surroundings and chatting it up with each other.

The tour also includes a few cooking demonstrations and info on pairing wine with meals. Fancy!

Thanks to the folks at the Robert Mondavi Discover Wine Tour for inviting us out. Be sure to check out if the tour is heading your way and stop by for a FREE tasting.

Also, because the tour peeps are so nice they are allowing me to do a little giveaway! Included is a water bottle, apron, keychain and a Ted Allen cookbook. Color me jealous.

To Enter GIVEAWAY:

1. Head over to Facebook and “LIKE” the Robert Mondavi Page.
2. Send an email to discoverwinetour@gmail.com telling them:

A Girl & Her Mutt sent me…I discovered the Robert Mondavi Facebook page and I LIKED it!

The Wine Tour group will pick a winner and I’ll announce it here.

This summer just flew by and kids in my hometown are already back in school.

Do you love school supplies as much as I do?!

{ 12 comments }

CSA Eats & Giveaway Winners!

by agirlandhermutt on June 23, 2011

Hello from rainy Boston! Whenever the weather changes really quickly I get the worst headaches. Luckily my migraines have seemed to take a break for a bit so I’m not complaining to much over a little headache. Does anyone else have these weather change headaches? Any advice?!

Fortunately Tuesday was beautiful so my trip with Karen to pick up our CSA goodies was perfect. This week’s box included a few new things and is showing signs of being a lovely growing season at the farm!

-Kale
-Baby Swiss Chard
-Sage & Parsley
-Asparagus
-Spicy Spring Salad Mix (I actually can’t stand this stuff. All that curly lettuce tastes like dirt to me!)
-STRAWBERRIES!

Karen and I decided to do our own version of Farm:Table and use a few of our fresh veggies to make a delish dinner.

WOOT! WOOT! Tuna steaks with a little EVOO, capers, lemon, S&P and baked in foil packets in the oven. Paired that with quinoa with sage & thyme and some grilled asparagus. The whole dish was absolutely delish and tasted so fresh!

Karen had a great wine in the fridge to pair with our dinner. Monarchia Cellars Hungarian White wine is crystal clear, light, bright, subtle citrus flavors with a slightly sweet nose. It was the perfect white wine for this meal because it was so refreshing and had a lovely finish.

For dessert we put these bad boys to work.

Fresh berries with a few scoops from one of those individual servings of vanilla ice cream. Ice cream paired with anything is fantastic. With these strawberries? Just sinful!