So, this past week, Kirsten turned 21, the great defining age of a college student... Hurrah. Now unlike your typical collegiate, we did not immediately hit the bars and get her shwasted. Instead, I took the day off from work and we slept in. Then, when we eventually got up and ate something (around 1:00pm), we went to the pool in my apartment complex and hung out there for a couple hours.
When we got back, we played with Zubitube for a while, and letting him meet a bunch of other dogs, including a Rotty that Kirsten absolutely adored. She was right out of the mold of Freya: A 90 pound puppy, sweet as can be, who thinks she's a lap dog.
Then we went to Kroger to get supplies for dinner, which was going to be Chicago-style pizza, made from scratch. Kirsten decided to pick up a bottle of wine to go with dinner. We had no idea what to pick, so she picked one that had dogs on it. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, it was pretty terrible, but will probably be used to make a spaghetti sauce sometime in the near future.
Then we got back and I started making the dough. It was about 9:00pm before I got the right consistency, and then it has to sit for about an hour as it rises. Good thing we ate late. We'd forgotten to get a large pan that would fit the pizza, so while we waited on the dough, we went back to get one. Unfortunately, they didn't have any big ones, so we settled on making a small one.
We got back and Kirsten fried up some Italian sausage and green peppers while I worked on the sauce. We decided to use canned tomatoes because they were probably of much higher quality than the fresh ones at Kroger. I added some garlic and a good amount of sugar, and like that, I had a near match for the sauce we had in Chicago.
I molded half the dough we made into the pan, and put the other half in a bowl and covered that and put it in the fridge for later. We then put in most of the almost pound of shredded Mozzarella, put in some of the sausage and green pepper, then topped it with the rest and popped it in the oven at 350. The remainder of our pepper/sausage mix we put into the fridge with plans to make another the next night (which we would).
After 10 minutes or so, the pizza was well melted and the crust browned. The crust had risen enough that I could put some of the sauce on the top before cutting it and serving it. It was a bit difficult, but we managed to serve the slices, adding a bit of sauce on top once they were on the plate.
As you can imagine, it was delicious.
We made the same thing on Wednesday night, and served it a bit more intact through our experience.
On Thursday, Kirsten went with Katie on a winery tour. They had planned on going to three wineries. Unfortunately they got lost on their way to the first in Floyd. Once they got there however, they absolutely loved it. The guy running the tour was very nice, and let them try almost every wine they had, rather than just the half that were designated for that day's tastings. Katie decided it was best to not go to another winery because Kirsten would hate them by comparison to Chateau Morrisette.
They each bought four bottles of the wines they liked. Unsurprisingly (at least, I wasn't surprised), three of Kirsten's four were three of the four sweet wines the winery makes. When she got back Thursday night, she was gushing about the winery, the wines, how much fun she'd had, and all that. Secretly, a knowledge and appreciation for wines is something I've always wanted to develop, so it was easy for me to catch Kirsten's enthusiasm.
On Friday night we had a softball game, which ran late. Normally that would be nice since it means we got extra playing time. Unfortunately though, we had made plans to meet Eric to see Transformers at 10:10. The game was supposed to end at 9:00, but went to 9:20. We had to rush to get back and change before bolting back to Christiansburg for the movie. We were late, and made it just before the end of the previews.
The movie was certainly entertaining, if not exactly difficult to predict. Some of the acting was on the goofy side, but I came for the explosions, not the acting, which Michael Bay delivered in spades. After the movie, we hung out in front of the theater and talked with Donnie and Eric for a while. Eric mentioned that the Vintage Cellar hosted wine tastings every Saturday and, considering Kirsten's new interest, suggested we all go.
So, on Saturday, we did. Kirsten took a break from painting the full bathroom and we met Eric over at the Vintage Cellar. I had no clue what the guy was talking about most of the time, but I really liked three of the five wines he had us try, the most expensive of which was $8.95 a bottle. The first two were whites, very smooth and easy to drink, and the last was a sparkling red that was essentially alcoholic sparkling grape juice. Kirsten got the sparkling wine, I got a bottle of a dry wine from Chateau Morrisette (which I saw at Kroger 10 minutes later for $3.00 less...), and Eric got the first bottle that we had tried. Then we made plans for him to come over and hang out after dinner.
Kirsten wanted to grill steaks for dinner, so after the Vintage Cellar, we went over to Kroger and got the food for dinner, along with a wine stopper and some wine glasses... Kirsten was excited to see that Kroger had all of Chateau Morrisette's wines in stock, some for less than they were marked at the winery.
We had baked potatoes (not fully baked... my bad...), grilled corn and our steaks, marinated with Lawry's Signature Steakhouse Marinade... which I highly recommend by the way. To go with dinner, we had one of the wines Kirsten had bought, a Blackberry Wine. Overall, a very delicious dinner, perfect for a Saturday.
After dinner, Eric came over, brought the wine he'd bought along with a few movies he was lending me to watch. We hung around, had some blueberries and yogurt for dessert and chatted until Katie could come over after she got off work. Then we started the movie, The International, which was completely the wrong movie to be watching while we talked off and on, tried wines, and cheese... and generally didn't pay full attention. I liked what I saw enough to want to watch it again though.
So, in conclusion... as Kirsten said, "God, we're old..." which is sort of my sentiment... but slightly more optimistic that this is an interesting hobby to have, and, so long as we don't start going through several bottles a week, relatively affordable.
All the best to you and yours,
-TES
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