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Wine Review: Quail Creek Cellars 2007 Sauvignon Blanc

We received this wine (with many other bottles) at our recent housewarming. I have to say that everyone who had a glass was quite impressed. Light and mildly fruity, this wine is excellent for people who don't particularly like wine.

The flavor is very light with nearly no aftertaste. We paired it with whole wheat pita chips and a roasted red pepper and artichoke hummus.

Overall, a great little wine for a summer or spring afternoon. It was a little too forgettable to become a regular on our wine rack unless we're trying to turn more people on to wine.

Christine

Restaurant Review: Facci

Facci
Ristorante, Wood Fire Pizza, Wine Bar
7530 Montpelier Road Laurel, MD 20723
(301) 604-5555

I had the day off work, so Jason and I decided to grab lunch together. At the last minute, we changed our plans from Subway to Facci. Even though we were a little under-dressed, Facci was absolutely the right choice.

Ambiance: The waitstaff wore all black and gentle music washed over the entire restaurant. We sat at the bar, which was empty at 11:30 PM on a Thursday. The decor is a modern take on old world Italy. Pictures of old wine barrels adorn the walls while there are also flat screen TVs on top of the bar, completely blocked from view from the more secluded restaurant side of Facci.

Food: We were incredibly impressed with the food we picked. When we sat down, we were immediately presented with garlic herb bread. The buttery, garlicy, lightly herbed bread was just what we needed while perusing the menu. We decided to split the Garden Fries as a starter.The garden fries are lightly battered and fried eggplant, zucchini, and sweet potato fries served with a side of mint cucumber yoghurt and a side of red pepper coulis. Although I was afraid that the coulis would be too spicy for me, I had nothing to be afraid of; it was perfectly mild. For a main, Jason ordered the 10 inch margherita "artesian pizza." It comes with DOP San Marzano Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and extra-virgin olive oil. Apparently the DOP in the name means that the sauce comes to us from Europe. Jason was very pleased with the pizza- especially the crust. I can agree with him, seeing as I snagged a slice. However, my main was definitely the winner of lunch. I had the veggie grilled flatbread, which was to die for. The veggie flatbread was brushed with olive oil and garlic before piling on chopped tomatoes, zuchini, artichoke hearts, wood-fired peppers, mozzarella, goat cheese, with a zig-zag of balsamic glaze across the top. What a rich, flavorful meal.

Cost: Our appetizer was $8.00 and each of our main dishes were $10, for a grand total of $28.00 before tax and tip.

We would absolutely recommend Facci for anyone looking for delicious Italian food with more variety and flavor than Olive Garden. We are already making plans to return to Facci in the evening for drinks and food. We wish we could have tried some of the wine with our meal (it is a wine bar, after all), but felt it unwise in the middle of a work day.

Oh the things I will do year two-zero-one-two!

• Turn 24
• Graduate with a Master's degree
• Buy a house
• Get married
• Honeymoon in Europe
  

Things I will hopefully do:

• Get a job
• Sleep
• Wear my high school prom dress to my bachelorette party in August
• Get in shape (see above)
• Read everything
• Take a baking class
• Learn to make freezable portioned casseroles
• Get a dog after the honeymoon
• Smile more than I frown

It's so on.

Alternative Uses of Ramen

As a graduate student I've found myself still attracted to college-style food that is both filling and affordable. I'm talking, of course, about ramen, easy mac, and generally anything that involves just adding water and microwaving. However, it is a bit sad to be 22 years old and savoring "cheese food" biweekly. Which brings us to:

Today's Topic: How to make college food look and taste like adult food.

You will need:

• Individually wrapped pasta (ramen, cup of noodles, easy mac, etc)
• Garlic powder
• Basil seasoning OR 'Italian Seasoning'
• Bag 'o frozen broccoli (chopped works best)
  
• Butter-like spread
• Water
• Sense of danger
• Optional: parmesan cheese

1. Cook up the pasta on its own in the microwave like you always do.
   
2. Put frozen broccoli in a bowl (1/2-1 cup depending on how much you love broccoli) and sprinkle garlic, basil, and/or Italian all over.
3. Scoop a dallop of the fake butter on top of the well-seasoned broccoli.
   
4. Microwave the broccoli for 2-3 mins. Steamy!
5. By the time the broccoli is done the pasta will no longer be the temperature of the sun. Yay!
6. Add the easy-mac cheese to the noodles if you used easy mac. Add a little butter to the noodles if you used ramen or something else.
7. Combine the broccoli with the noodles.
   
8. Top with some parmesan cheese if you want. Cheese is delicious.

If you're feeling super fancy you can lightly stir fry some chopped up onion and add it to the dish. Head a skillet with a little bit of oil. Once it's hot just throw on the onions until they turn clearish brown. Bon appetite!

Just a Nibble

Today's topic: My [Beloved] GPS

I was in quite the bind the other day and my GPS saved my glass. Yes, my glass. Allow me to explain....

Normally, I need to get from point A to point B and would be helplessly lost and late without my trusty GPS. In that way, my GPS is always saving my gas. This time, however, my GPS did so much more.

Recently, my rear-window wiper blade has met its maker. Sadly, Mini Coopers have very short and uncommon rear wipers. The blade is about 13 inches long (giggity). Walmart's shortest was 15 inches, Target's section was nearly empty of blades completely, possibly because this is Maryland's monsoon season. I was getting desperate and my Dad told me to go to Jiffy Lube and told me about one not far from the Walmart I was calling him from. Sweet!

I get to the alleged destination to find.. no Jiffy Lubes. I call him- he insists that I should be facing one, so I pull out my trusty GPS. I search for points of interest near me only to discover that I can search for business names! So I find a local car shop, am about to plug it in.. when I see a phone number on the GPS screen. I nearly dropped the GPS right then. All those times I called up people, "Quick! I need the number for the place I'm driving to- I can't find it!"

Long story short, I called a place, only Mini dealerships carry the wiper, so I looked up nearest dealership (all the way in VA), called, and had them mail me a new wiper blade for less than what it would have cost me to drive there.

A Fresh Jar of Peanut Butter

Hello world!
If you've found this blog via ppp, I hope you like what you see. If you've found this blog via livejournal, you're going to see something different. If you found this blog some other way... hi!

Today's topic: speed cameras.

In Maryland, Gov. O'Malley has approved new speed camera legislation, frustrating lead-footed drivers statewide. I had my own near brush with the law recently when a new camera flashed as I cruised past a bit over the speed limit at 3 AM. Thankfully, the camera that scared the speed right out of me was not yet active.

After that encounter, I learned my lesson: slam on your brakes before a speed camera. Like any smart area resident, I now know where all of the speed cameras are and keep an eye out for new cameras by their tell-tale lines on the road.

However, some people take the braking a little too seriously. People are so fearful of speed cameras that, regardless the speed limit in that area, drivers will break until they are sludging along at 20 to 25 mph. Bad drivers. No cookie.

Another way people are coping with the cameras is by driving completely around the areas under speed supervision and at breakneck speeds in order to catch up for the time spent on the detour.

My personal favorite method of coping with the cameras is to glare at them while approaching, then shaking my fist at them as I drive on by.