You are here: Home / Archives for Jeanette

Wine Wednesday: What I’ll drink for the Super Bowl

January 31, 2013 by

It’s not secret I like, or love, white wines.  While I’m always thrilled to pair that perfect red wine with a great medium grilled steak, I don’t always enjoy sitting down at night, back on my laptop finishing up work stuff, sipping a big red wine.  I’d rather enjoy a crisp, chilled white wine while I finish answering emails!

I also think wine is a great drink to enjoy during the Super Bowl!  You don’t have to drink beer with your food choices.  Plenty of white cheese dips, appetizers and main dishes go well with wine!

While at my industry’s fall board meeting, held at Bloomington’s Oliver Winery, I had a chance to try a new wine they had recently released.  I was hooked about bought 3 bottles immediately!  I just drank the last of those three bottles and need to go buy more.

III is a blend of Vignoles, Vidal Blanc and Chardonel. I love all three of these grapes as a standalone wine.  Blended they are nearly perfect!  

According to the Oliver Winery website:


This wine is the result of the winemaking team drinking too much coffee and brainstorming about the possibilities of a white blend from Creekbend.  Various white varieties were barrel fermented on an experimental basis in hopes that a nice blend would develop. The final wine from those trials is a blend of  barrel fermented Vignoles and Vidal Blanc, along with a fraction of stainless steel fermented Chardonel. All three portions underwent complete malolactic fermentation.

This wine has delightful aromas of pineapple and tropical flowers.  Its flavors of pear and apple resemble those of a good Viognier.  III has a rich mouthfeel and delightful lasting finish.



Creekbend III

Because this wine carries the Creekbend label, that signifies these grapes are grown in Oliver’s Creekbend vineyards, just a few miles from the winery.  

This wine retails for $22/bottle.  It is more than worth it to buy a bottle, or two, or in my case…maybe six bottles!  It won’t take me long to enjoy this wine!  I’ll encourage you to buy some to, but not until I get mine purchased!

1 Comment Filed Under: wine, Wine Wednesday  

Random Monday Randomness

January 29, 2013 by

It’s been one of those days.  Since I spent last week at my industry’s annual meeting and was out of the office, today I tried to do the last weeks worth of work in a 12 hour work day.  I left the office with stacks of papers piled high, phone calls to return and unanswered email.  The emails, by the way, are being answered now, long after I left the office.

My brain drifted to a ton of random thoughts today.  So bear with me as I jot a few of the random things that popped through my mind at any given point during this crazy day.

My cat snores.  Loudly.  She is 16 years old.  I suppose she is allowed.

Trying to eat healthy makes me hungry.  

A classic for baby: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I am a neat freak, and yet my office never looks very organized.


I managed to feed three kids supper, pack their lunches and forget to eat something for my supper.  So I had wine for dinner.




I may have the world’s only 6 year old who eats frog legs like most kid eat chicken nuggets.

frog legs


My 9 year old daughter told me she weighed herself tonight.  I nearly threw up.  She is an athlete with the metabolism of a hummingbird.  And she’s already worrying about stuff she doesn’t need to think about.

I am blessed beyond measure.

blessed beyond measure

I love my Mom!! We don’t talk everyday, but at least a few times a week.  

I love my mom :)


And finally, I have had the words “Hear I am, Lord Send Me” stuck in my head for weeks.  I assume I’m being prepared for something.  I don’t know what.  But I want God to do with me whatever He wants!  Maybe someday I’ll get a small tattoo that says this verse!  I’ve never wanted a tattoo, but maybe I’d reconsider if it was a Bible verse!

Isaiah 6:8 ~ God asked " Whom shall I send? And I said "Here I am, Lord...Send me!"



1 Comment Filed Under: family  

Wine Wednesday: Heading to Michigan!

January 24, 2013 by

This week my industry’s annual meeting is taking place.  It’s why this Wine Wednesday piece is actually getting posted on Thursday!


One great part of our annual meeting is the chance to hear from other wineries around the Midwest.  This year the winemaker was from Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay, Michigan. And he brought some great wines for us to taste!



The first flight we tasted was a selection of Rieslings.  These are 2006, 2008 and 2011 dry Rieslings.





 





This tasting of three wines took place at 9am!  Don’t I have the best job?



Only the 2011 vintage is still available for sale.  Riesling does not have to be sugary sweet, as some may be familiar with. This is a dry wine, meaning its residual sugar level is very low.  When you smell this wine you will notice citrus and stone fruits aromas followed by very subtle minerality. When you taste it you should find fresh apple, orange and apricot fruit flavors combine with a hint of spice for a crisp and refreshing finish.

Since this wine isn’t sweet, it can be stored away for a few years in a cellar to age. Any wine that has a sweetness factor cannot be stored for years! The sweeter the wine the faster it should be drank. The winemaker said this could be cellared for five to ten years. Personally, I always try to cellar wines but get too thirsty and drink them instead!

This wine is $18 a bottle and pairs well with Asian fare, curries, and seafoods!


If you find this wine near you, I’d recommend picking up a few bottles.  One to drink, and one to save!  If you don’t get thirsty in a few months!


1 Comment Filed Under: wine, Wine Wednesday  

Wine Wednesday: Heading to Michigan

January 24, 2013 by
This week my industry’s annual meeting is taking place.  It’s why this Wine Wednesday piece is actually getting posted on Thursday! 

One great part of our annual meeting is the chance to hear from other wineries around the Midwest.  This year the winemaker from Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay, Michigan. And he brought some great wines for us to taste!

The first flight we tasted was a selection of Rieslings.  These are 2006, 2008 and 2011 dry Rieslings.



This tasting of three wines took place at 9am!  Don’t I have the best job?
Only the 2011 vintage is still available for sale.  Riesling does not have to be surgary sweet, as some may be familiar with. This is  a dry wine, meaning it’s residual sugar level is very low.  When you smell this wine you will notice citrus and stone fruits aromas followed by very subtle minerality. When you taste it you should find fresh apple, orange and apricot fruit flavors combine with a hint of spice for a crisp and refreshing finish. 

Since this wine isn’t sweet, it can be stored away for a few years in a cellar to age. Any wine that has a sweetness factor can not be stored for years! The sweeter the wine the faster it should be drank. The winemaker said this could be cellared for five to ten years. Personally, I always try to cellar wines but get too thirsty and drink them instead!

This wine is $18 a bottle and pairs well with Asian fare, curries, and seafoods! 











Leave a Comment Filed Under: wine, Wine Wednesday  

Butchering a Freezer Full of Meat

January 19, 2013 by
One of my most favorite memories from my younger days involved butchering.  When I was little, my grandparents, parents, uncle, sister and a few cousins would take at least two days to butcher hogs.  

If you have a weak stomach, this probably isn’t for you. But animals are raised for food in our world. And I was always raised to understand that the pigs we raise are feeding the world, except for the one we butchered for ourselves every year.

When I was young, the process started with my Dad and Grandpa taking care of the killing and skinning of the pig.  They would then take all the insides out and hang the meat to cool.  It would have to hang until it was cold!  And you could only butcher when it was freezing cold outside, so the meat didn’t warm up and create bacteria.  


Today, this is what the process looks like.  We butchered a few weeks ago.  We selected pigs from the farm that weren’t going to our normal markets we sell to.  My husband loaded up 10 hogs and they were processed quickly.  And, like old times, they were hung in my Grandpa’s barn to cool.

After they had hung for a few days, it was time to start “working up the meat.”  To  me, “working up the meat” means deciding how you are going to cut up the hog.  Do you want pork chops, hams, pork loins, shoulders, bacon (who doesn’t want bacon?) and sausage?  Some people don’t want all of the individual cuts of meat, so whatever cut they don’t want we just grind into sausage.

I typically want all of the cuts mentioned above. The only pork product I don’t really need are the ribs.  I might be the only hog farmer who doesn’t eat ribs.  They just don’t like me very much!

Below, my Grandpa is cutting the pork chops out of the hunk of meat.  Yummy!!


All of this works takes place in my grandparent’s garage. They have meat saws, big knives, a meat grinder and enough freezer paper to wrap a house. 

When I was little, around five years old, one of my first memory is helping my Mom and Grandma wrap the meat.  Dad and Grandpa would make roughly one pound lumps of sausage and hand them to the women.  We’d wrap it in freezer paper, tape it and write on the package what it was.  I did alot of wrapping and taping, and not so much writing until I learned to write a spell a bit better!

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been allowed to work the meat saws and grinders, but I still end up wrapping and labeling a lot of meat!  My Grandma is shown below, showing our very simple process to get the meat wrapped.


We don’t waste much of the hog.  The skin is fried to make cracklins.  Sounds disgusting, but oh so tasty!  We make lard from the fat as well. And I can say from years of experience, the secret to making an exceptionally flaky pie crust is lard. Forget butter.  Uses real lard!  I don’t use lard often, but sometimes you have to fry an egg in it too!  Normally after I’ve run 5 miles.
We can’t sell the meat we butcher for ourselves.  Laws don’t allow it.  So we butcher only for our family’s consumption.  And my freezer is full.  So full, in fact, that we had to buy another chest freezer for the cellar!  We butchered a few head of cattle over Christmas too.  So now I have two chest freezers full of hamburgers, steaks, sausage and bacon!  And it is so easy to go to the freezer to find some sort of meat for supper.  I don’t buy meat at the grocery store! But the majority of my hogs that we raise end up on the grocery store shelves.  And I can ensure the quality of those animals are exactly the same as the animals we butcher for our family meat needs.  And they taste just as good!
4 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized  

Fitness Friday: Fraud

January 18, 2013 by
I have lied.  I am a fraud. I was supposed to write bout a new piece of technology that I was using on my runs, but since I haven’t run all week, and I’ve been eating poorly to add to my misery, I felt like a fraud even considering that post.

\

I was doing great in the healthy eating and exercise lifestyle that for so long has been my struggle. And then life hit, HARD. It has been two solid weeks of stress, insane work deadlines and projects, extra cold mornings and sadness.  I feel like I have fallen down and can’t find my feet right now.


I am not a failure.  Except I feel like I am.  I don’t understand how I can be surrounded by skinny chicks, who appear to only workout and never eat and must have it all figured out. They don’t look stress or gain 10 pounds just by eating 1…or 2….or maybe 3 cookies.



I don’t care if I run fast. I’ll never break any land speed records or beat a Kenyan in a mini-marathon.  But running is my time.  And by the empty feeling I have inside, I need to run because I need some quiet time.



The past two weeks have put enough pressure on me to change me from a lump of coal to a diamond.  I am desperately trying to do more listening and less talking.  It is a nearly impossible feat for someone who spent her first career as a radio, TV and print journalist.  I like to talk.  But I’m trying to be still and listen.  Really listen.  Not just do lip service in asking how someone is and not really caring.  And I’m trying to listen to God.  And here’s what I keep hearing…


Oh boy.  I think God is talking to me.  I wish He would just send me running three miles down the road and back.  The other bible verse that keeps reoccurring in my head the past week is one I memorized along time ago.


\

I don’t know what race is marked out for me, but I pray God is beside me as I figure it out.

And I think I should start praying to God that He help me get back on a straight path.  That I’m more energetic in the early morning, cold hours, to run.  



There is a goal I should be training for.  It’s the same goal I have every year and the same race I’ve done at least 12 times, missing only once when I was 6 months pregnant.  I’m not one of those cuties who can run fast while pregnant.  I don’t run fast when I’m not pregnant.  So there was no way I was doing 13.1 miles while pregnant. 



So for this week, I just need a goal to run and eat better. And not be a fraud. 








4 Comments Filed Under: fitness  

And Then Our Circle Got Smaller

January 17, 2013 by

I count some of my dearest friends among my fellow Real Farmwives of America blogging buddies. These women share my daily struggles, many as full-time working moms.  We manage jobs, kids, farms, houses, countless scratches and tears, and now…we manage the loss of one.

Leontien was a beautiful person. She made me laugh when we were all together and she started telling stories about her attempt to get married to the same guy three different times! 


After a long battle with cancer, she left this life for the next. And today, on what would have been her 34th birthday, she was laid to rest. In honor of her birthday, we were asked to do a random act of kindness. Mine seems almost too simple to even mention. In my normal rush through the grocery store I did something I don’t really like to do.  I talked to people in the store.  Sounds dumb, right?  And yet, my 45 minutes doing my grocery shopping is my quiet time. I don’t take the kids, if I can help it. I want to zone out and shop. Yet today, I talked and smiled at people. Some I knew, since I do live in a small town.  Others I didn’t.  And I even talked at some length to the cashier.  I even pointed out she undercharged me for my leaf lettuce.  And I enjoyed a quick visit with the girl packing my groceries. The store hires a few girls with special needs to load the groceries.  They are sweet and enjoy conversation.  

So Leontien, It just doesn’t seem fair that on the day we should be celebrating your birthday, you are instead being laid to rest. At least not fair for those left behind. But we have the hope that you are celebrating a new birthday with no pain and no tears. And for that simple promise, we rejoice. I know you will be met with the words “Well done, good and faithful servant.”


4 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized  

Verizon Review: Samsung IIIS

January 14, 2013 by

I am in search of a new phone. I am very tired of my Droid and it is nearly two years old, ancient in phone life.  I’ve had my mind set on switching to an Iphone and yet I find myself wavering on what I really want.  Verizon Wireless is helping me figure out what phone I want. 

This time I played with a Samsung Galaxy IIIS.  The first thing I noticed is how lightweight is it!


And if I might take a second to sound a tad bit girly, I like the rounded edges and sleek design.  I was fairly impressed with the speed in which I could search the internet.  Compared to my Droid, this phone moved faster, even in the same wireless networks.


I did seem to struggle with the battery life.  You can see below the phone is plugged in.  I had it plugged in alot.  I finally realized I never powered down the phone when I was done using it.  I simply turned the screen off.  So whenever I went to use it, the battery was dead.  That was my own fault and I should have read the directions.  But who reads directions?


Overall, I liked this phone.  It had many features I liked. The App store was easy to use.  The widget screens were a lot of fun and kept all of my important information in one place. Maybe I am getting a step closer to finding the phone I really want!


Verizone Wireless provided me with this phone to use.  All thoughts, opinions and pictures are mine.  Because no one can tell me what my opinion is!

1 Comment Filed Under: Uncategorized  

Fitness Friday: The feet beneath me

January 11, 2013 by
Last week I showed you where I run.  This week I’ll show you what I run in.

I’m addicted to Brook’s Adrenaline shoes.  I’ve run in these since I started running.  If my shoes could talk, they would tell you they’ve been to beaches, islands, running paths, farm fields, vineyards, bridges, foreign countries and countless county roads.  I have worn every version of these shoes for the past 16 years. I’ve tried other brands but I always come back to these.


These medals show just a glimpse of my efforts of my shoes. In a future post I will get every medal I have from all of my races and take a group picture.  There are a lot! I like to have a goal in my training.  Marathons and half marathons make great goals!


If you are new to running or exercise, I can not stress enough the importance of getting good shoes. It is vital to have the support when working out! Get to a running store.  Have them watch you run.  It is embarrassing but they can assess your foot placement when you step and find the correct shoe for you. Otherwise you’ll fight injury and want to give up!

Next week I’m going to feature a cool piece of technology I just recently started using on my runs.  And it is motivating me to run further and attempt to run faster!

Until then, what kind of shoes do you run in?  Are you loyal or do you like pretty colored shoes!! I like both!

Just keep moving!


1 Comment Filed Under: fitness  

Wine Wednesday: There are Sheep in this Indiana Vineyard!

January 9, 2013 by

I am sharing another Indiana wine with you, but I can almost guarantee you’ve never tried this one!

French Lick Winery is well known for their award winning wines.  The winery opened in 1995 and since that time they have established themselves as outstanding winemakers, winning numerous medals in wine competitions for their outstanding wines. 

French Lick also grows grapes in their Heaven’s View Vineyard, which was planted in the spring of 1998 on Hoosier Homestead Farm overlooking the White River Valley in Martin County. Located approximately 20 miles west of the winery, the vineyard’s eight acres are comprised of the first planting of Norton grapes in Indiana, as well as Chambourcin, Traminette, Vidal, and Vincent varietals. These varietals are new to many wine drinkers but they thrive in Indiana where traditional varieties often struggle due to harsh weather.


The winemakers raise sheep as well.  They look pretty cool in the vineyard!


The winery is housed in the old Kimball Piano Factory in West Baden Springs, Indiana.  

The inside features a long tasting bar and an exceptional restaurant!



But you’ve come for the wine.  And this is a good one.  Crema Dolce is a sweet wine that is a perfect drink with your after dinner desserts or cheese plate.


But I don’t eat cheese after dinner, unless I’m at a fancy work meal.  And I prefer to drink my calories instead of having dessert!  So I think this is a perfect “just-because” drink!  It’s great right before bed!!  By a roaring fire.  Or while reading a book.  Or yelling at the TV during a football game.

This wine is creamy.  In the glass is it almost amber in color.  When you smell and taste it you’ll find flavors of caramel, butterscotch, and a lot of nutty undertones.  It is decadent!

And it’s only $19 a bottle.  This isn’t meant to be guzzled, rather sipped and enjoyed.  

Have you been to French Lick Winery?  Any favorite wines from your visit?

3 Comments Filed Under: wine, Wine Wednesday  
« Previous Page
Next Page »