MAD HOUSEWIFE CELLARS
YEY, Mad Housewife Cellars!
They wrote about and linked to my blog (on DC Metro Moms) on their blog!
Check it out- Mad Housewife Cellars Blog.
It’s the power of the Internet… and more importantly… MOMS !
MAD HOUSEWIFE MERLOT
I am a Maryland girl, woman, mom. I’ve lived in Maryland almost all my life. I rarely cross the bridge into Virginia.
But I happened to find myself in Virginia the other day and couldn’t resist going into Wegmans (if you haven’t been, go) and found a little treasure- Mad Housewife Merlot.
My 4-year-old son and I walked into the warehouse size grocery extravaganza and he summed it up, “Wow Mommy, look at this grocery store!” Wegmans is a Giant or Safeway plus amazingly high-end everything.
It’s that grocery store that you could enjoy shopping in for over an hour thinking, ‘Cool, I’ve never seen that cheese before but I’ll get it, it’s gotta be good with something’, or ‘they even have loose tea you can get by the bag or pound’. Even though I am a HUGE tea drinker, I refrained (although I did end up getting about a 6-month supply of boxed teas I’ve never seen anywhere else, both inexpensive ones and not-so-much).
Which gets me to my find, worth blogging about… In their wine section I noticed Mad Housewife Merlot. I cannot remember if it was on sale or regularly priced but it was- drumroll please- $6.99… And bigger drumroll please- it was GREAT!
I wouldn’t be writing this if it was just okay. It was the best bottle of wine I’ve had for under $10 dollars.
As soon as my husband saw it he said, “Let’s try out the Mad Housewife tonight!”
We had a great time with our taste test.
It’s smooth, dry, and even impressed my guy. He couldn’t remember drinking a better bottle of wine for under $10 either. So then we got serious… I asked him how he thinks it compares to more expensive ones. “Well, it doesn’t stand up to an Opus One ($300).”
Uh, yeah, we’ve had that once, and come one, we’re getting serious, you know what I mean.
We swirled it, drank, smelled it, drank some more and decided it can stand up to a $20 bottle of wine. And that’s saying something.
I love the name and more importantly, it’s a good tasting wine. I went to their website and they are donating to breast cancer research for every bottle of their NEW white zinfandel.
So… good wine, good research and good motto-
“Somewhere near the cool shadows of the laundry room. Past the litter box and between the plastic yard toys. This is your time. Time to enjoy a moment to yourself. A moment without the madness.” – The Mad Housewife
This is cross-posted at DC Metro Moms Blog… It’s a cool site. I’m a contributor!
GOOEY COOKIES
This blog article can also be read at DC Metro Moms. I’m a contributor… it’s a great site!
I wasn’t kidding the other day when I questioned how to make cookies stay gooey, or even soft, and therefore edible…
My cookies resemble bricks.
I’ve never been a big cookie maker. It just never occurred to me to bake my own cookies when I can buy great ones from the Giant bakery…
Is that wrong?
Now, my son has his own baking set, complete with rolling pin, whisk, cookie cutters and cookie sheet and he LOVES to bake cookies because we get down on the floor of the kitchen and mix up all the ingredients and cut out the cookies on a sheet.
Yes, the sheet is on the floor… but the cookies are on the sheet, so they don’t touch the floor…
No, you don’t have to sample any cookies when you come over!
We’ve been baking a lot lately, producing lots of hard, almost candy-like cookies.
My son doesn’t even want to eat them. He just likes baking them.
And then, a breakthrough- soft cookies, like a grandmother makes!
I did it! I found out the secret to soft cookies!
How you ask?
I mentioned my desire to know the magical formula to tender cookies to my mother-in-law. How does one achieve the wanted texture? How do I make cookies that don’t harden enough to hurt the teeth?
What’s the rub- practice?… a secret ingredient?… maybe just more of an ingredient, like butter?
My mother-in-law looked at me and very matter-a-factly said, “Oh, just cook them a minute or two less than the instructions say to.”
What? Are you kidding? That’s it?
So I tried it… and it worked.
So… I feel good for succeeding in my discovery of good cookie making.
But on the other hand- Man, do I feel silly!
This is not a physics theorem. This is not hard. Does everyone know this?
Am I the only one who DIDN’T know this?
Wow.
But, regardless of how non-chef-like I feel, I am now inspired. My next venture- CAKES!
GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT
Lots of people and events make me smile. ‘Girls’ Night Out’ makes me smile… and laugh… and relax.
I love sitting down with these girlfriends I’ve known since high school- and some grade school. No introductions, No ‘you know my neighbor from soccer’. All we do is share stories, food and drink.
I also appreciate all we went through to get there- sitters, driving, rearranging schedules. It can be hard to organize. Sometimes it takes weeks. But it’s worth it.
Kids come up, of course. A lot of good information comes up too- instant mom reviews of a certain toy, or stroller, or new show. But the beauty of the ’Girls’ Night’ is the spontaneous light bulb that happens every few minutes. My friend sitting across from me had one of these moments and got the biggest smile on her face. I just looked at her and said, “What?”
“I almost forgot to tell you,” she yelped. She ran into a guy who knows the guy she dated in GRADE SCHOOL. The guy ran into her old ‘boyfriend’ at a high school reunion and we all haven’t seen this guy in 20-plus years. Her GRADE SCHOOL ‘boyfriend’ asked about her…
She smiled at me and said, “Maybe he still likes me.”
We laughed till our sides hurt and I said, “I can’t believe we’re talking about this!”
But that’s what happens when old friends get together, and new friends too. Girls can talk about silly stuff and a lot of times that is wonderful and necessary.
Women are put in charge of socks, and school shoes, and mittens, and colds, and what to bring in for show and tell, and soccer practice, and family, and life.
If you don’t have a ‘Girls’ Night’ planned, do it. If you’re thinking of setting one up- call me!
Blueberry- The New Banana!
Bananas have always been a favorite fruit. They’re a staple, a stand-by. They’re good for you and easy to eat. You can hand one to your kid and that’s that. Bananas are ‘old school’ nutrition.
Now blueberries are making news. After starting BananaBlueberry, I quickly learned how chic the blueberry is now. It’s like it’s just dawning on people how good blueberries are for them (like any fruit is bad for you).
Everything old is new again…
American Indians ate blueberries, and used them for cold medicines too. Believe it or not, Native Americans even used blueberry tonics to relax expectant mothers in childbirth (that’s great, but I’ll take an epidural over a blueberry any day).
Even back then, the blueberry was heralded as an anti-ager. It is crammed with antioxidants, the highest antioxidant ability of any fruit, thus, preventing disease, improving memory and boosting your immune system.
Blueberries have zero… ZERO fat, are low calorie and high fiber.
So, the blueberry lives up to the hype it’s getting right now. And it should stay in the spotlight as a stellar fruit. In fact, the blueberry is finally getting its due.
Okay, I’ll be the first to say it…
Blueberries are the new Bananas!
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