All You Need is a Freezer

I was in Portland a couple weeks ago visiting my dear friend, spending lots of time in her pretty little garden, walking the dog and cruising around the town. It was SO hot the only thing that sounded good was cool and delicious ice cream. We had a mound of homemade creme fraiche and some serious motivation to make a cold and creamy treat. One problem: no ice cream maker. Turns out you don't need one. You just make the custard, put it in the freezer and blend it every now and again so that it doesn't get all icey. Not that we didn't have to do some experiments to figure this out. You can see one the useless methods above (swirling the custard in a big pot of ice water). Totally unneccesary but amusing.

Just when I thought that there was no way that homemade ice cream could get any better, I came across a recipe that combines my two favorite foods: butter and cream. I'm from the Mid-West and love me some dairy. Oh sweet lord, what a combination....we used that beautiful creme fraiche instead of cream. It was so rich and gorgeous, I could only eat one tiny little scoop! There is an awesome recipe (with pictures!) at this great little food blog.

In Seattle my folks were hit with the craze (it was scorching hot there too) and we made a tangy blueberry variety. Now that I'm in Hawaii, my host family is also completely mad about the good stuff. They've been doing a passionfruit and goat's milk version that is so sour and sweet and reminds me of orangesicles from when I was a kid. Funny how life has these recurring themes. I'm really grateful that my life themes have switched from shattering self-doubt and misery to ice cream and traveling. Things are looking up.

Wine Makes Me Feel Dumb, But It Sure Does Taste Good!

Having friends in the wine business really pays off. My lovely friend Elly, co-owner of Proof Wine Marketing, has been a major blessing in my life in so many ways, and I'm not even talking about all the cool wine events that she manages to get me invited to. Last week we both found ourselves in Portland. She was there for the International Pinot Noir Festival. I was there on my way from San Luis to Seattle. Lovely lady that she is, Elly invited me to come wine tasting with her at a few places before the festival officially commenced. Being unemployed, free and socially acceptable drunkenness in the middle of the afternoon sounded like a fine idea indeed.

We visited three wineries specializing in Oregon pinot noir. Apparently Oregon pinot is like manna from the gods if you're a wine geek, which of course is why the festival is in Portland. Here I must insert that I know absolutely nothing about wine. My decisions about purchasing it boil down to two very simple questions: 1) does the label look cool? and 2) is it under $10? I cannot tell the difference between a fine wine and 2 buck chuck. Personally, I think this makes me the ideal tasting companion--I can be effusive and complimentary to any winemaker because it all tastes great to me!

This tasting tour was not your run of the mill, 5-varieties-in-30-minutes-while-getting-your-wine-poured-by-an-20-year-old-viticulture-student-"don't-you-want-to-join-our-wine-club?" schpeel. We actually got to hunker down with each of the winemakers for a couple of hours, walk through the vineyards and taste from the barrels. This was insider wine tasting. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the process, of particular interest since I've been boning up on my plant knowledge for my farming stint in Hawaii.

Here are just a couple of things that I learned about wine that maybe you didn't know either:
1) Everything from the mineral content of the soil to the amount and timing of rainfall effects the flavor of the grapes
2) That contraption they use to taste from the barrels is called the thief and the hole in the barrel they draw it out of is called the bung-hole. (Here my inner linguistics geek rapturously squeals!)
3) When they treat the wooden barrels for wine fermentation, it's called "toasting" the barrel. This makes me think of warm buttered toast and makes me really happy. I started imagining that I could taste it in the wines and frankly it made me like them even better. (This was sign number one that I should have spit like everyone else.)

Forgive me if you know all this already, but frankly I found it fascinating. It was amazing to see these winemakers who control everything from the vine to the bottling with such care and attention. These artisans were way passionate amassing knowledge about agriculture, new technology, marketing and of course good wine and food. I had no idea wine making was so cool. I love folks that really geek out on shit and everyone we met was totally freaking on making the best pinot noir possible. My inner dweeb felt a kinship. It could have been the six solid hours of guzzling wine, but I choose to believe that I simply have an appreciation for folks with a passion.