Prim and Primal

  
looky here. she says without using caps like a proper woman who writes. 

Ok caps. Zinfandels have been a favorite of mine for a while. I like them. They have everything. Spice and fruit and leather and A Lot. They are the indecisive wine lover’s wine.

So naturally the fact that an ancestor of theirs is primitivo meant I needed primitivo.

This primitivo:

  
 The 2014 Tempo Vero Primitivo IGT

I got it on club w.

By the way if you want a free bottle of wine-any wine!-here’s my link. Clicky here:

http://www.clubw.com/eclifford

Very very smooth. Little tannins. Less spice. More berries. I picture strawberries and raspberries and a few blueberries and just maybe two blackberries.

The acidity is lilting and elegant, it’s the jaunty bridge to this wine’s ballad to berries.
I’d like to choreograph to this wine.

Girls on GIRLS hath arrived

Behold. Enjoy. I hope. You’ll learn to make an adult beverage!

If you did enjoy, then make the drink I teach how to make. If you didn’t ditto.

The Little Iowa
adapted from a cocktail I was taught by a “a nice bar man” at Bar Ama aka home of the best queso outside Texas
2 1/2 oz. Templeton Rye
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (I used Martini and Rossi)
3/4 oz. Cynar
frozen red grapes to finish
Stir over ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with frozen grapes.
Feel the Iowa.

Teen Witch

I was such a good goth in my teens. I guess I still can be. And I’ve got headshots to prove it. I wear mostly black, am pale as can be, and still listen to Skinny Puppy.

But I also occasionally sport some pink(crazy!) and will admit my ipod has a song or two by Justin Timberlake. Although Nine Inch Nails still occupies more bytes than any other group. Even Siouxie and the Banshees. Even The Cure. No really, I swear I’m over it. Let me just go blow out those black candles.

I did the requisite dabbling in Wicca that was befitting of my teenaged goth splendor. But now, I’m no witch. I appreciate the exultation of nature that is part of Wicca, but could never quite get behind the whole god/goddess thing. Although my friend Meow and I had some splendid nighttime rituals using the bench in the park as our altar. I’m surprised the cops never came to break up our candlelit honoring of the four elements. Hmm.

All this is to say I own The Wicca Cookbook. An old therapist of mine gave it to me. Don’t ask. She also gave me really cool dragon stockings.

The Wicca Cookbook is divided into chapters by the sabbats, or Wiccan holidays. Each recipe has some sort of explanation of a part of the holiday and how the food relates to it, often with a little chant or, um, spell to go with it.
I was flipping through the fall equinox chapter since that just happened last Saturday. I wanted to celebrate that from now on until December the night is getting longer. I prefer night. No really, I swear I’m not goth. Let me just finish this glass of blood and we can chat about it.

Oh, the recipe.

I realized I had everything I needed for the Enchanted Grape Salad. The Wicca Cookbook never quite explained the enchanted part but talked about fall and harvest of grapes and gave this last bit of advice before the recipe:

“Offer the grapes in this salad to the Great Goddess and, if possible, party in a vineyard with passion and abandon”.

I’ll take some passion and abandon. And some grapes.

Enchanting Grape Salad from The Wicca Cookbook by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt
1 cup of greens(I used spinach)
1 cup chopped green apple
1 1/2 cups grapes
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar(good balsamic)
Toss it up. Exult. Enchant. Ellen-ify. I have no idea what that means. Blow out your candles before you leave the house.