The sweet potato and fresh ginger pies are cooling, the stuffed bird in cooking, the table is set for six (just enough room, good thing we all know each other well), and all the side dishes are set to go. This would be the time when I would go and watch a football game and drink beer and eat Fritos, but here I’ll settle for a small Kir and read the news online.
The wine tasting went very well. It took us nearly an hour to get there due to heavy traffic and stupid drivers when it should have taken 20 minutes. The event was held in the Director’s apartment and my what a lovely apartment it is. It is on the tenth floor of a twenty story modern building with views that seem endless. The sun was setting and it illuminated all of the glass buildings in the distance with a bronze glow. The apartment is decorated beautifully, a tribute to the director’s wife I’m sure. Tons of gorgeous carpets collected over their years overseas set off the lovely wooden floors. It was a beautiful place to have a party.
When I went to set up the computer I noticed that the connection was not the right one for the Mac so all of my lovely slides and photos were not going to be available. Luckily, I’ve done this a lot and my old grey matter actually was working well and I could remember all the exact dates and details of my two-hour presentation without the aid of the computer. We sampled seven Chardonnays from six countries, starting in Australia and moving on to Argentina, Chile, California, Italy and two locations in France. I started with the basics of tasting, the five S’s, see, swirl, smell, sip, and savor - and then proceeded to go through all of the Chardonnays as I talked about the history, cultural, religious, moral and ethical implications surrounding wine. It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to have a grand time. At the end I brought out two bottles of the Nouveau Beaujolais, gave them a brief history on the marketing of this wine and allowed everyone to just sit and mingle and finish off the rest of the wines while enjoying marvelous appetizers that were provided by the school.
From CC: An aside is needed from a semi-neutral party: He was brilliant! The Director introduced him as a “Renaissance Man” – how did know?! Wm was all dressed up in a blazer and slacks with a beautiful tie with matching pocket scarf, and the lack of a computer didn’t faze him a bit. There were a few times when a photo would have been a nice adjunct to the presentation, but overall we didn’t miss a thing by just listening (and tasting). Everyone was so impressed and I am so proud to be his wife! And by the way, I was an excellent wine fairy, pouring samples with my well-practiced quarter-turn (learned from the master renaissance man) and also collecting the dregs and giving them a bit of water to rinse their glasses. It was so much fun.
Back to Wm: We got home around seven and I was too beat to go out to dinner so I changed clothes and made a quick, but rather delicious pasta with a tomato, garlic, basil and butter sauce. We stayed up for as long as we could be I’m sure we were sound asleep by nine-thirty and stayed that way for the next eight to nine hours. We woke up to a blanket of snow with the temperature at 17 degrees. We dressed for the occasion and headed out on a neighborhood walk, which lasted only about thirty minutes since we hadn’t counted on the rather brisk northerly wind. I started working on tonight’s dinner while Cindy braved the elements and went out to get us fresh hot croissants and bread.
From CC: The croissants went directly from the oven pan into my little sack, thanks to the really nice young baker at this store. The bread was too hot to handle – I had to wait a few minutes before she took it out of the oven. Timing is everything. Wm’s pasta last night was superb – it tasted like it had cream in it when I knew without even asking that there was no cream – the mix of butter and olive oil with a little cheese was absolutely dreamy and reminded me of being in a really fine restaurant in Italy.
So, since this is our Thanksgiving Day Feast and your all eating leftovers, I’ll bid you adieu with best wishes for a lovely Sunday. Cindy and Wm.
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