Archive for the ‘Health and Wellness’ Category

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Life interlude: The Negress officially becomes an orphan

May 16, 2011

The Negress doesn’t usually wander from the blogiverse for long periods but there’s a good excuse this time. Six days after the last post, her mother died. This turned out to be slightly worse than expected. Her Mom had been in dementia’s cruel grip for about eight years or so. For about the past five years, there was no recognition on her part of the Negress or her sister. It’s very weird to lose someone who is, essentially, already gone. Initially, much felt fine. Mom had been in and out of hospice three times in the past year and a half. Funeral and burial were bought and paid for. The Negress was prepared. Or so she thought.

The Negress and some other activists

The people of faith on their way to the Capitol

The Negress's Mom at college graduation

Mom in her prime

Then came a weird phone call from the nursing home. Many of the caregivers are West African and their speech is lilting but not fluid in English. Something about the funeral home needing to pick up the body. The Negress asked for a repetition, got one and then asked, “So are you telling me my mother is dead?” Yes came the answer. More phone calls to the funeral home and her sister ensued. Sleep was unlikely so flights were booked so quickly she got the departure date wrong and had to rebook. The Negress then staggered through insurance orientation for the next two days feeling sort of weird and disconnected. Then she hopped on the Schoolbus of the Sky, stayed with friends, got through the funeral and burial, had dinner with her sister, picked up the original of her Mom’s will and felt grateful that you can settle an estate by mail in DC.So back to Chicagoland and work. Somehow the energy that made all the DC time possible dribbled away and left the Negress stuck in herself, unable to do her job and unable to realize that all grief is different. There was a quota to be met at work and it didn’t happen so she was called into a corner office. After being discussed in the third person for a while, she agreed to drop off the career track with the company but continue to broker  their products. The Negress was prepared for this, even bringing bins to clean out her desk that morning with a certain prescience.

Since all that, she’s done some freelance writing for Foodservice Daily and Uncorked, become more involved with local politics through Community Renewal Service and done some charity knitting. In short, it’s getting better and sometimes it’s even OK. But I still miss my Mom. A lot.

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Fellowship at Silverado Vineyards

February 22, 2011

The Negress believes in full disclosure so she will note here that she is only at this year’s Symposium for Professional Wine Writers thanks to the generosity of the folks at Silverado Vineyards. She was delighted to find out that the winery is friendly with Gary Fisch of New Jersey wine retailer Gary’s  Wine and Marketplace (if you live in New Jersey near Gary’s and aren’t shopping there, you must be a glutton for abusive customer service and high prices). Fisch may have been relaxing in the Silverado guest house while general manager Russ Weis and winemaker Jon Emmerich  were letting her taste some barrel samples.  It doesn’t matter except to note that the Negress likes their taste in retailers.

Silverado Cabernet sampling

Silverado winemaker Jon Emmerich samples some Cabernet

She also liked their wines. In fact, her relationship with Chardonnay was irrevocably altered by their 2009 Vineburg Vineyard offering.  She had tasted barrel samples from their stainless steel barrels as well as the older oak barrels. Emmerich said he used mostly the INOX wine in the ’09 with a touch of the juice that had seen oak. The wine was lean  but well-structured with a touch of pineapple and honeysuckle but a nice hint of minerality. Consider the Negress sold. She will buy some to take home with her. Other faves included the 2006 Zinfandel from Silverado’s Soda Canyon vineyard. at 14.6 abv, it’s nearly ethereal as Zins go but still has the plummy quality that the Negress favors.

Silverado makes an excellent case for blending, a practice the Negress thinks got shoved aside a bit unceremoniously in post-Mondavi American wine. Some wines need a helping verb and a good example of this was a comparison of a barrel sample of Silverado’s 2010 and 2009 Miller Ranch Sauvignon Blancs. The 2010 has about 4 to 5 percent Semillon, and is slated to be bottled in the middle of next month. It’s somewhat more lemony than the ’09 and a bit green. Emmerich noted that the vineyard workers grow tomatoes on some of the unoccupied land and thinks this is a great indication for soil that is SB-friendly. The 2009 has 8 percent Semillon and has more notes of green apple and pear.

Emmerich and Weis went over their learning curve that led to the 2007 Mount George Vineyard Merlot. They only make about 5,000 cases of it, and it’s the antithesis of every indifferent Merlot that leaves your palate feeling fuzzy and dull (The Negress has likened drinking substandard Merlot to chewing on an Army blanket). The Silverado duo realized they had spent a very long time trying to make Merlot behave like Cabernet Sauvignon. Upon changing their thinking, their Merlot became brighter, with red fruit  and a delicacy that’s addictive. The Negress rates this a strong buy, but that’s only likely if you’re in the Silverado wine club. Production is only 5,000 cases.

Her tasting closed with the 2007 Solo, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon grown on different parts of the property. It runs about 14.9% abv, which makes it a lightweight compared to some Napa heavyweights. But this wine can cozy up to food and not instantly induce a headache. Well-balanced and with enough tannin to guarantee some real aging potential, this one is also a keeper. Bad news for the Negress’ Chicagoland pals, Binny’s doesn’t carry Silverado wines. Call them up. A lot.

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In which the Negress attempts to earn a living and help people

February 20, 2011

The Negress had to do something. Her money was dwindling and being out of work for a nearly two years was dulling her ability to embrace reality without sweating and wincing. So she started going to gang interviews with insurance companies. Insurance agents are salespeople, and she had done some of that in Maryland while working for the state’s oldest winery. She also knew the writing thing was not exactly a way to earn a living anymore with content mills and people writing all over the Internet in a masturbatory, worthless fashion that had reduced payments even for those who knew better. Knowing better doesn’t seem to count for much these days. So now the Negress is selling insurance and spends much of her time with the people who keep the country running –home caregivers, bell operators, sheriff’s office people, day care providers. Many of them are union folks, and their friends and family are also part of her daily landscape. The Negress hears heartbreaking stories and hopes what she’s selling can help. In some cases, she knows for sure that it can.

My home away from home

A place of good food, fine wine and great use of space

The hours are long and, perhaps a related event, she’s on new medication which requires liver function tests every now and then. Fatigue is a companion but she works for people who deride yawning and want her to work very hard so she can kick back in 10 years on her residuals. The Negress would love to do that, but some days she’s not sure she will live long enough to make it happen.

As Livia Soprano would say, “Oh. Poor you.” Clearly, a renewal of purpose was essential. So the Negress decamped to California since she won a fellowship to the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. Her liver has mixed feelings about the trip, but her spirit is soaring even though she is exhausted. She’s been to the Ferry Building, eaten at Gott’s Roadside (a turkey burger this time since her butt is now spilling over into neighboring airline seats), had that amazing chicken coconut milk soup at Manora and is resting comfortably at the Palace, which is responding to the recession by deeply discounting its lovely rooms. The Negress hasn’t had much wine since the Equality Illinois gala  and a trip to Gino’s North for yummy thin crust pizza (thin crust is the real food of Chicago, not that deep dish crap). She did manage a pair of Pisco sours and a $6 margarita and they felt lovely. But she’s conserving her strength to the point of even having a Diet Coke at Gott’s.

She returned to the Palace using her Muni transfer to take another of those lovely historic trolleys on Market Street (the Negress passed two from Milan, which kind of made her want to knit something) . Well fed and dosed with Peet’s Coffee, a nap was in order. There’s also a larger question to ponder in the next post, which will most likely be from the Silverado Vineyards, the sponsor of my fellowship.  Do my liver’s misgivings need to be taken seriously?

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An agonizing Albariño holiday with surprise happy ending

January 2, 2011


My introduction to the seductive joys of Albariño  had an element of triage attached. A pair of dear pals in New York had shipped me a couple of bottles of  Adegas Gran Vinum ‘Mar de Viñas’ Albariño (the Negress is pretty sure it was NV). As some time passed, I had encountered some other wines with this varietal, and my initial conclusion was this was a task-oriented white, crying out for food pairing in the same way as one of my faves, the  2009 Bonny Doon Ca’ del Solo Monterey Muscat does.

Well, unlike baseball and much like John Boehner, there is crying in wine. The Negress plopped a cut-up whole chicken in the slow cooker and decided to try out the jerk spice she bought at a local market. The 10 ounce jar looked like it would be the right amount so it went into the cooker with some chicken broth. Eight hours later, the chicken was ready. The Negress was not. The fiery explosion that occurred in my face was tasty but devastating. Also, since the food budget has been downsized as the Negress was, there was no way the incendiary bird could be consigned to the ranks of inedible. I made some brown rice, rather a lot of brown rice to help stanch the heat. (Note to other amateur cooks: the recommended dose of jerk spice for a whole chicken is 1-2 teaspoons PER POUND. This particular bird was maybe three pounds tops.)

The Albarinos at the scene of the jerk chicken crime

A delicious way to salvage an incendiary chicken

Clearly, some kind of a solution was called for. Perhaps an aromatic, somewhat fruity white wine with a touch of minerality and a hint of residual sugar? Could it be….Albariño?

It could indeed. The out-of-town bottle was the first to go and the wine made the chicken infinitely more palatable during the two meals it took to consume the bottle. The Negress also ate some vegetable samosas with all the Albariños and they also fit nicely with the wine. So she explored the local Whole Paycheck and Binny’s for some more options. The 2008 Paco and Lola Albariño from Rias Baixas had a little more fruit than the  Mar de Vinas but also danced well with the spice that was holding the chicken hostage. The 2008 La Cana Albariño also melded fruit, stone and a tinge of sweet in a pleasing fashion. The Negress actually began to look for to those heated encounters with the overjerked chicken since the wine went so nicely with the disaster she had wrought.

During a period of about three weeks, she finished the chicken intermingled with leftover chicken and sides from Thanksgiving. Much sausage was featured and a fair amount of the case of the Bonny Doon Muscat was quaffed.

While overdosing on the various gospels of bird, the Negress knew that being out of full-time work for more than two years had to stop, even if it meant a hair net and unpleasant grease stains on polyester. So she renewed her work search with more online postings of cover letters, resumes and the usual drill. To say the process is dispiriting is an understatement. It feels like shouting your accomplishments into a windstorm and expecting an answer. But the recession is over, right?

Happily, for the Negress, her personal employment drought ended when she accepted a sales position with an insurance company founded by a guy who helps fund the decidedly progressive Texas Observer (the late Molly Ivins worked there for a bit).  Her training starts on Monday and she’s pretty fracking excited (that one is for the Caprica fans). She spent a quite New Year’s Eve watching Bette Midler (who is now the second most famous haole Hawaiian in the world) and toasting her good fortune with 2002 Schramsberg Reserve sparkling fabulousness. The New Year brought hoppin’ John accessorized with smoked bacon, cumin, paprika, curry powder, a touch of molasses (after the jerk incident, the Negress quickly got over her fear of condiments in jars), onion, garlic and peppers. She had some more of peas and  rice tonight with some of the 2005 Gann Family Cellars Petite Sirah from the folks at Cellars of Sonoma. That joyously full-bodied but nicely tailored red made her think one thing — next time add some hot sauce to the peas. In moderation of course.

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The Negress gets her groove back

December 15, 2010

While the Negress was in DC this past weekend for the New Organizing Institute’s Roots Camp, she drank a nice White Hall Vineyards Virginia Pinot Gris. But this weekend wasn’t entirely about wine. After arriving in Chicago and realizing that being underemployed left her with ideas aplenty and time to burn, the Negress volunteered for the Jan Schakowsky Congressional campaign. Schakowsky is a dynamite woman, smart, funny and committed to progressive issues. I walked through neighborhoods hanging door tags and talking to people. I watched some awesome break dancers perform at the last weekend of one of Evanston’s two farmers’ markets (markets here do not stretch into December with temperatures in the single digits being a major deterrent). I called voters and made my case for Schakowsky and most of the rest of the Democratic slate. I had people hang up, get profane and decline to talk. But for all those outcomes, there were some moments of genuine connection. She won here race easily and is now giving the Fiscal Commission the hell they so richly deserve.

So, the Negress thought, why not use her skills for good instead of mere commerce (although there is nothing wrong with that, of course)? So she headed off to Roots Camp where she and about 1,000 progressive activists networked, caucused, held sessions, swapped contact information, Tweeted up a storm and felt, for a couple of days anyway, like we could make a difference.

My new Corporate American identity

You can buy this valuable person

 

I’ll put in a plug for an effort you can be part of in your community. The Coffee Party (you can find them on Facebook and through this link) are planning a “For the People” effort to unpack the negative consequences of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which declared corporate “speech” as no different from citizens’ speech. So, from Jan. 20-22, many of us are declaring ourselves a new ethnicity/gender/orientation. We will all be Corporate Americans, and the preamble of the Constitution will be changed to reflect  “We the people, and the corporations,” etc.  Satire is encouraged and planning is going on now. The Negress is in the process of putting out bids for the naming rights to her new identity. Enough with being the Chronic Negress. I could be the true Go Daddy/7-11/Yoplait girl.

Go thou and do likewise.

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The annual Thanksgiving Zinfandel blog post

November 22, 2010

At Thanksgiving thoughts turn to Zinfandel. You’ve read all the dead-tree media stories about serving this American wine with the most American of meals. Well, as is usually the case with any American legend, some pertinent facts have been omitted. First of all, like the Pilgrims, Zinfandel is an immigrant to these bounteous shores. It’s pretty much the same as the Primitivo grape from Italy. In Italy, there are something like 500 varietals that someone somewhere is making wine from. So you can see why Primitivo emigrated and changed its name, by passing Ellis Island for California and various other parts of the country. Frankly, the Negress loves Zinfandel though she

Two Dry Creek Zinfandels we love

The blog research aftermath

does finds some of the overly alcoholic ones don’t go well with food, but they do pair nicely with achieving a comatose state. She’s also not sure that with the bewildering flavors of Thanksgiving that Zin is the best wine to serve on that day. However, she recently tasted a pair of Zins that might fit the profile for a Thanksgiving wine better than most. All of the information about them is available at Cellars of Sonoma, which is where I got them in the first place. The two things that the 2007 Bonneau Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel ($26) and the 2008 James Family Cellars Dry Creek Mounts Vineyards Zinfandel ($30) have in common is a relatively low ABV (14.1 each) and the Dry Creek Valley location. The Bonneau is robust, with some nice black fruit and a light, plum scent and shouldn’t overwhelm food even some of the Thanksgiving heavy hitters (thanks a recent “Glee” episode, the Negress is thinking about adding Tots to her menu). The James Family is young and is almost transparent. The Negress suspects she could have cellared it a little longer, since it drank with a decided lack of heft. There was also more red fruit on the palate and a very short finish. This wine will get better but it’s drinkable now.

The Negress does wish to recommend Life’s A Cabernet, a Wicker Park wine store with some lovely value wines and a slightly crazy proprietor. The store supplied the wines for a Thai food cooking class at Naveen’s, a catering and cooking class establishment about three blocks from the store. Naveen is a recovering engineerer who gave up the life of startups and burn rates to cook full-time. He prepared with the help of several MIT and CalTech alums, chicken and vegetarian Thai springs, Thai vegetarian and ground chicken stir fries. The evening opened with Chateau Renni demi-sec cava ($18.99) followed by Castro Reggio white blend that was 80 percent palomino($14.99). The light musk went well with the spice and heat of the food.  Lastly, Casamatta ($14.99), a blend of Nebbolio and Sangiovese was poured to go with the chicken. The Casamatta was a hit with good body but not so much tannin as to club the chicken into submission. Also, thanks to Julie for pouring me that 6.

The Negress is roasting a chicken for Turkey Day and is planning to put sausage in a lot of stuff by way of accompaniment. Have a great Turkey Day and don’t forget to think outside the Zin.

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When the palate goes South, the Negress heads West

September 19, 2010

Instead of blogging to live, the Negress has been living to blog. Once a decade or so, the Negress gets a whopping summer cold and 2010 was the year for this particular malady to revisit her. As a result, she couldn’t taste much in the way of wine since she couldn’t smell anything. The one exception was Caymus Conundrum, which is a pretty ripe and scented white that seemed to cut through the catarrh. Anyway, while coughing and sniffling and drinking the occasional beer, the Negress finalized her plans to move to the Chicago area. She found an awe-inspiring apartment in Evanston, and started the machinations of mail forwarding, moving goods and what have you. A trip to the Windy City yielded some potentially interesting opportunities that should bear some kind of fruit sooner than later. A detour to New York, New Jersey and environs

My newest favorite team

South Side rules even though I will live on the North Side

blended great friends, great food and some serious business involving the sale of art (if you know anyone who wants to buy a Sam Gilliam, e-mail me and I’ll put you in touch). The Negress is weary but did find time to visit Sushi Cherry, a gluten-free sushi place in Lakeview that’s lovely and excellent and cozy. It’s BYOB so she procured a bottle of Casa Lapostolle 09 Sauvignon Blanc, which paired perfectly with the sushi.

This much is sure: The Negress will remain a fan of the Nats, the Raiders (sigh) and the Devils, but will add the White Sox to her teams of choice. How can anyone root for the Cubs?

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Baseball and beer: Greenville Drive division and Strasburg Nationals

August 19, 2010

It could be suggested that the Negress was following in Tom Glavine’s  footsteps but slightly out of chronological order.  She and a few other SABR members journeyed to Greenville, SC for a minor league game between the Greenville Drive and the Rome Braves. This is the South Atlantic League, low A ball where none of the players look old enough to be playing anything other than T-ball. Fluor Field is a replica of Fenway Park (the Drive are a Red Sox affiliated team). It’s nestled in downtown Greenville and is right across the street from the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum. Jackson’s story is so American regardless of how you feel about his being banned from entering the Hall of Fame. The small house where he spent the last 10 years of his life is the museum. The Negress met Jackson’s great grand-nephew who was wearing his uncle’s World Series ring. Jackson had the ring made from the watch charms that were the standard of the day. Outside of the small house was a local youth baseball team handing out goodie bags and cold water to the visitors. The kids were lively and cute. All were wearing those braided neckbands that are all the rage in the pros.

The Greenville Drive are truly the lads of summer

Boys at play in Greenville

Across the street, the Drive and the Braves played a game that was something of a typical single A mess with pretty good pitching on the Drive side. I had some butter pecan ice cream which was so rich it ought to be illegal. I also had a Jim Rice Bowl, which was tasty and almost healthful compared to other ballpark fare. I also had a Yuengling draft, which wasn’t exactly local but it wasn’t Bud.

Travels in beer and baseball concluded at Nationals Park when Steven Strasburg got torched by the free swinging Marlins on a sauna-like night. The Negress enjoyed two Leinenkugel Summer Shandys and a bottle of water, but not the game. For the first time in her recent memory, she bailed on a game early. Bigger adventures await.

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Baseball and beer: Atlanta SABR division

August 17, 2010
Tom Glavine gets number retired

Note the missus over his shoulder

Although you may have read that the Negress took quite a bit of wine out of Northern California, it’s been beer and baseball of late. She attended the Society of American Baseball Research convention in Atlanta in early August. While there, she fell in love with the local brew SweetWater 420 Extra Pale Ale. The convention presented one minor downer (the Negress was not deemed fit for the executive director job but may have found her calling as a full-on seamhead elsewhere) but loads of fun, especially a lovely but slightly obsessive presentation of Peanuts baseball statistics as gleaned from the strips. A lot of things about SABR are lovely and obsessive simultaneously, but it allows the chronic seamheads a place to babble senselessly at length about their love of the game. We are something of a dying breed and I am often only one of two or three flies in the buttermilk (one of the other flies pointed out there were more minorities at Tea Party events, a grim but accurate observation).

However, the Negress was happy to get soaked to her drawers to see Tom Glavine’s number retired by the Braves. Glavine is one of her favorites since she saw him pitch at Richmond when she lived there and was one of the worst sportswriters ever to draw breath. Besides his being a lefty, she loved him as a union spokesman. Oops,  is the red diaper showing? Anyway, Glavine and his drop-dead hot missus brought the five kids to the ceremony. The four Glavine men threw out the first pitch. Only the youngest is a righty. Dad will take care of that we bet. Another reason for swoonage was seeing Billy Wagner pitch even though he blew a save (full disclosure: the Negress hates the Braves and considers Glavine and Wagner an example of when bad teams happen to good people. She’s rooting for the Phillies in the East since the Nats are out of it) and the Giants won. Wagner is a lefty, who was born a righty. We like it when they come over to our side.

I did drink some indifferent wine at the hotel bar and met with members of SABR’s Dead Presidents Club for some lamenting and catching up. Sometimes trips to the bar were maneuvers of avoidance of members whose inability to grasp reality makes them impossible to stomach. Speaking of indifference, Turner Field is one of the more forgettable major league ballparks around. The stench of corporate ownership wafts over the place. The Negress wonders why baseball hasn’t grokked to the locavore thing. Other than the Sweetwater and some ice cream, everything edible and potable was the usual crap (Woodbridge wines in little bottles, Bud everywhere). Hey, baseball marketing people, you might get some different paying customers in the place if you offer something people can identify with.

Also, in case you need more evidence that Atlanta is a bipolar baseball burg,  during the hour plus rain delay the team advertised their final series of the season with the Phillies, offering a free REO Speedwagon concert for the last game of the season, which if the present standings hold up, could have postseason implications. Don’t they trust the product on the field to make people show up? Geez.

Best overheard line: As Braves hotshot outfielder Jason Heyward made a one-handed catch and an older black man shouted from the 200 seats: “Don’t you nonchalant that son. You ain’t been around long enough. Catch it with two hands.” Advice to live by.

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The wines that followed me home. I’m going to keep them.

July 24, 2010

While taking time to walk part of the Napa to Sonoma half marathon,  the Negress amassed wine for shipping back to the boiling East. She ate at Cyrus (much more about that later) and went to some places she doesn’t usually go and discovered one-stop shopping for some less prominent but delicious vintners. She mentioned Cellars of Sonoma in a previous post. Some 11 bottles of wine — from Bonneau, Gann Family Cellars and a few other spots are finding their way to the usual undisclosed location from this store in Santa Rosa. They recently hosted winemaker Heidi Barrett (La Sirena Syrah) for one of their weekly live video streams. The Negress also ran into fellow wine blogger Mike Madigan (read his blog here and it’s being added to the newly trimmed and update blogroll) at Cellars and pouring at St. Francis. She capped her stay in wine country by touring the caves at Schramsberg and buying and shipping back some more bubbly. With the candles and bottles, the tasting was amazing but the Negress is doing a little test.

Where bubbly goes to live and die

Occasionally some of these explode. Inside Schramsberg's caves.

Rather than make notes during this tour and tasting (she got some vintage bubbly at Gloria Ferrer too), she’ll do all that when she opens the wines in the future near or far. Frankly, a lot of wine tastes glorious on a sunny terrace relaxing with friends. But once you’re back home with some usual and unusual stressors, how does the wine hold up? The Negress isn’t too worried about the wines she bought (she is of the mind that there is little wrong with Petit Sirah) but it will be interesting.

Also, it’s appropriate to add here that while she took advantage of trade discounts and courtesies at various places, the Negress took no samples. Part of her travel was paid for by CCFA Team Challenge (or some of it will be. Stay tuned. The DC chapter has to meet its fund-raising goal by Sept. 1 and we need some serious help). No junketing or sampling here. To be blunt, she thinks not paying for wine makes you too forgiving in your assessments. The Negress is well aware she doesn’t fit in with the prevailing winds in wine blogging, but she was raised a print journalist and like to hold on to some shred of that dignity.

Also, with the Tour de France ending tomorrow, bring out the bubbly, no? With Contador’s victory all but certain, it would have been nice to have some cava on hand, but Lamarca  Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene NV will do the trick.

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