Mr. & Mrs. Beer Snob

BG and I couldn’t decide who could best tell you guys about our time at the Wasatch Brew Pub in Park City, so we are BOTH going to tell you about it.  This will be the inaugural post for a (hopefully) regular segment called, appropriately, “He Said/She Said” in which we give you both his perspective and mine on a particular event, place, food or beverage.  It’s not that complicated an idea so, we trust no further explanation is needed. 🙂

After wandering around Main Street Park City for a few hours we grew thirsty.  Since BG is never one to pass up a local brew we, of course, wandered right on into the Wasatch Brew Pub to do a little tasting and quench our thirsts.

We were excited.  After all, we had tasted the Wasatch Devatstator at No Name Saloon and really enjoyed it.  At first glance, there was lots Wasatch goodness to try.

She Said: I’m sorry to say, that’s pretty much where the excitement ended and the disappointment began.  Disappointment #1 – The brewery didn’t sell a flight or sampler.  What brewery doesn’t sell a sampler… You know, so you can sample everything, then order more of the ones you really like.  Hmm, I think I just answered my own question…

Disappointment #2 – The beer on the draft pulls didn’t match all the beer listed on the tasting menu.

We’re foodies.  We like tasting notes.

Round 1: Him – Wasatch Hoptoberfest, Her – Nitro Cream Ale

He Said: Meh … Not hoppy. I’m sure there’s more to say, but when one advertises one’s brew as a “Hoptoberfest” … well, one best be bringing the hops.

She Said: I wanted the Nitro Bobsled Brown Ale listed on the tasting menu.  Not available.  So, I got the Nitro Cream Ale.

Blah!  Not much going on there except a lot o’foamy head.   Loved the Devastator from earlier today, so I’m optimistic about my next round.

Round 2: Him – Wasatch White Label (bottled), Her – Apricot Hefeweizen

He Said: A Belgian ale. (She Interrupts: ‘Cause my man loves him a Belgian!) It’s cloudy, with a pale straw color. There’s honey and spice on the nose with good flavor and a nutmeg finish, but the carbonation is overpowering.


I’ll give it 3 of 5 kegs.

She Said: BG had me take this pic to prove that “no fruit was injured in the drinking of my beer.”

He Said: What?!? Drink it like the brewer made it! Beer for me, hold the fruit.

She Said: Um…but we’re actually at the brewery and that’s how they served it… Whatevs! On to my apricot hef… Wonder if the Brew Master intended for there to be a lot of apricot in there? 🙂

Well, that’s apricotty…and flat. Smells like shampoo, though!  (He Interrupts: “Let me taste that.”)

He Said: Once again, a cloudy straw color. Strong apricot smell. Strong apricot taste…strong apricot everything. Everything, but not enough carbonation. I’ll give it 3 out of 5 kegs, but I won’t drink two at a sitting.

She Said: Smells like shampoo, kinda tastes like it too.

Round 3: Snack Time – Macaroni and Aged White Cheddar Cheese

We got a little peckish admist all our tasting.  So we decided to split some Mac and Cheese.  After seeing this on the menu, how could be pass it up?

As good as it looked on the menu, it looked even better when it arrived.

He said: nothing. He was too busy shovelling the hot delicious goodness into his beer hole.

She said: Oooohh…dig that cheesy goodness!  If there’s macaroni in there, it’s filler.  That’s the best thing we’ve had since we got here.  Maybe they’ve missed their calling.  Maybe they should change focus from a brewery to a mac-n-cheesery!

Round 4: Him – Jalapeno Cream Ale, Her – Winterfest Seasonal

He said: And now, gentle reader, it’s time to explain the title for this post. WineGirl and I were sitting at the bar, next to a pair of other couples. The fairer of the couple to our left cried out as she tasted her Jalapeno Cream Ale. She said it was like a spicy Bud Light, and recommended it to WineGirl. “Hmm,” sniffed WG dismissively, “I’m kind of a beer snob.” I suspect that WineGirl would have been more pleased with the Bud Light.

Upon visual inspection, this hot little beer was clear and golden with a 1/4″ head.


Jalapeño scent on the nose and with the first tast of foam. Whoa! Tastes of jalapeño. And the aftertaste … you guessed it – jalapeño! This would be a kick ass beer for Tex-Mex food, but on the whole feels a bit like a gimmick beer.

I look into the future, and decide that this is my first brew that actually requires Prilosec!

She said: I’m not a jalapeño fan, but he’s ranting and raving enough that I have to at least try a sip…

Man, who thought THAT was a good idea?  Bad!! Very, very bad!! Why would you ever drink anything that tastes remotely like jalapeño?  And I totally disagree.  It would NOT be a “kick ass beer for Tex Mex food.”   The Rogue Chipotle Ale was perfect for that.  That was a nice amber ale with a slight smokey, chipotle finish.  This was like somebody put a jalapeño in a juicer and added some carbonated water.  There’s been so little flavor in pretty much everything else we’ve tasted today.  Why did they decide to blow their wad on the jalapeño? So very, very, VERY bad…

I need to go brush my teeth and eat a Tums.  Oh, but I guess I should tell you about the Winterfest Seasonal.

Frankly, I can’t tell you what it tastes like because my tastebuds were sacrificed in the tasting of the Jalapeño Cream Ale.  Looks pretty in the glass, although it’s a little light and yellow for my taste.  I’m more of an amber kind of girl.  Here’s what the marketing fliers had to say about it:

Greatest beer on Earth?  That’s over egging the pudding a bit, don’t you think?

Wasatch Overall

He said: The beer here smells good but it lacks the advertised taste. Not bad, but it gets you excited and then leaves you a bit disappointed.

In like kind, every time a truly epic song would come on the radio in the bar, the staff would change it to some less daring channel, in one instance changing from Enter Sandman to a forgettable tune by Steely Dan. (A note to the reader, BeerGuy prefers the older Metallica catalog, but the black album is good, too)

Silver lining — very good service from Susan, and the macaroni and cheese was so good that they should name the place “Wasatch Mac’n’Cheese”

She said: Generally nice and friendly atmosphere in a great location.  I’ve got to agree with BG, though.  The beer generally smells really good (except for the Jalapeno Cream Ale – yuck!), but doesn’t really follow through with the same flavor.  They should narrow their focus and stick with what works – The Devastator and Mac-n-Cheese.

Even if I didn’t love the beer, this was certainly much more fun than my near-death experience on the slopes!

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

Beer Guy

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Now, Where Were We?

Oh yeah, right! Park City!! That’s it.

I realized that it has been just under a MONTH since our last post. Disgraceful! I know. But we got back in town and there have been weddings, speaking engagements for work, conferences for work, obsessive house cleaning/reorganization, and 2010 tax preparation and before you know it – POOF! A whole month has gone by. I haven’t even had a chance to finish editing and organizing my Park City pics. Shameful!

But, things are now calm and my house, work schedule, and finances are clean and organized. So, I’m back in the saddle. There’s still lots of good Park City fun to share. So, rather than pretending that I’m posting in real-time and back dating posts, I’m just going to pick up where I left off.

When we last “spoke” our brave, wine guzzling heroine (that would be – ME!)

had just risked life and limb in the name of good fun and trying new things, only to be comforted by a nice Pinot Noir and some rockin’ cheese fondue at a higher elevation than one should ever have to go for a snack. During our mile-high snack, I announced that, since I had such a daunting and treacherous day, I would be taking a ski break to explore Park City proper. Beer Guy was welcomed to join me if he’d like, but the following day I would be hanging out closer to sea level – with or without him. I mean, it’s vacation. I should have at least one day when I’m not required to get up at 6am. Can I get an “Amen” on that one?

The next morning we leisurely ate our breakfast while watching BG’s dad and sister bundle up and do the ski boot mosey back out to the slopes. We got around to catching a resort shuttle onto Main Street in Park City about 10:30. Upon recommendation from our shuttle driver, we popped into Park City’s No Name Saloon for a quick lunch around 11a.  What a treasure!  There was so much stuff hanging on the walls and from the ceiling that my eyes didn’t know where to land…but in a good way!

As they said in the Old West, we “bellied up” to the bar and quickly hit it off with our friendly bartender, Nicole.

We sipped on a couple of these,

but decided we preferred the bottled Wasatch Devastator.

(**SPOILER ALERT** We found out later that The Devastator is the only offering from Wasatch that we do enjoy.  But, you’ll have to tune in later to hear all about that…that is if BG will get off his duff and write a post!)

BG munched on No Name’s infamous Buffalo Burger.

Since it was hmmm… NINE DEGREES outside, I enjoyed the daily soup special.

It warmed me right up!  After settling up, we hit Main Street again, to see what we could see.  Some places we didn’t even bother gracing the doors…

(BG has reflux).  Others, we graced, we bought, we shipped back home!

You see all those aluminum tins?

They’re filled with either olive oil or balsamic vinegar…so many different “varietals” of each.  We sipped and tasted to our hearts content and decided to ship a bottle of the Blackberry Ginger Balsamic Vinegar back home.  Since I’m writing this in retrospect, I don’t mind telling you that I made this scrumptious Goat Cheese Bruschetta using the Blackberry Ginger Balsamic Vinegar, rather than plain.  One word…

EPIC!!

But back to Park City…We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering up and down Main Street which included general Park City cuteness and scenery,

playing in the snow,

an awesome pet boutique

where we were greeted by THIS guy,

Wasatch Brew Pub,

(Don’t let the smile fool you.  It’s not about the beer.) and Mountain Body Spa and Cosmetic Deli.  May I just say, OOOH-LA-LA!

But this place deserves a post all to itself…especially since I went back to Mountain Body two days later for much more cosmetic deli goodness!

Suffice it to say, if you are like me and are more for the apres ski or “in lieu of ski” then there is plenty of fun to be had on Main Street in Park City!

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

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This I Know

I am for apres ski.  I’m not certain yet whether I am for skiing, but I am most definitely for apres ski!

Exactly what is apres ski, you ask?  According to Wikipedia it means “after skiing” and

“refers to going out, having drinks, dancing, and generally socializing after skiing. It is popular in the Alps, where skiers often stop at bars on their last run of the day while still wearing all their ski gear. The concept is similar to the nineteenth hole in golf.”

I mentioned that this week would be my first attempt at skiing… as in EVER!  On Day 1, I smartly went to Ski School in the morning and spent the afternoon playing in what I called the “baby pen.”  That was fine.  Day 2, however, was a different story.  I spent the morning on the bunny slope at the very bottom of the mountain at Deer Valley.  I had a blast doing that, and was gaining confidence in my ability to slow myself down and stop when I wanted rather than solely by flattened terrain.

After lunch BG, who had been “babysitting” me on the bunny slope all morning, assured me that I was ready to try something more and took me to the closest “green.”  I repeatedly asked him “So, because this is a green it is not any steeper than what I have been doing?”  To which he repeatedly replied “Right.  It will just be longer.”  Does anyone else sense the foreboding here?

I started getting nervous when the chair lift for this particular run went more than just a little higher than the one for my precious bunny slope.  And, by “more than just a little higher” I mean 1200 FEET HIGHER!!  I know it’s no double black diamond, but this is the highest elevation I’ve been to and not been on an airplane…and we all know how much I LOVE that.  May I just say that BG was woefully mistaken in his assessment of the slope of this so called easy green run?  It was considerably more steep than the bunny slope.  To make a long story short, there was great crying, wailing, and gnashing of teeth and we WALKED down from 8400 feet…except for the portions where I scooted on my butt for 10-15 yards at a stretch.

Once at the bottom, after our 45 min descent , I had just enough time to do a couple more runs down the bunny slope so that I didn’t completely wig out and give up on skiing altogether right then and there before meeting up with the rest of the family for our apres ski at the Stein Eriksen Lodge.  Little did I know that to get there, we had to ride a chair lift that went even higher than the last one.  I don’t know exactly how much higher, but it was enough…to COMPLETELY FREAK ME OUT!

Once again, great crying…wailing…gnashing of teeth…

At least this time, I was assured a shuttle ride down the mountain since BG’s mom does not ski and had to arrive at the lodge by shuttle.  We took our apres ski in Stein Eriksen’s Troll Hallen Lounge.  Once in the door I ordered a glass of Pinot Noir so fast that I don’t even remember the name of the vineyard.

Maybe I don’t remember the name of the vineyard because I was having a hard time reading the wine list through my red, swollen, and bloodshot eyes and basically rattled out something that sounded like “Pinot Noir” to the patient server.  There are no tasting notes on it because, honestly, my nerves were so frazzled at that point that I finished the glass in about three swallows.

The apres ski menu had something for each of our thirst cravings.  BG, of course, had a beer… some brand of oatmeal stout

while his dad had some sort of amber.

His mom enjoyed a virgin Bloody Mary, which was apparently very good but quite spicy,

and his sister had an adult coffee beverage.

For our snacks we split two bowls of Chef Zane’s Spicy Nuts and a big ole pot of New York White Cheddar and Stout Fondue!

Talk about cheesy goodness…

I tell ya, if the wine hadn’t started to cheer me up by then the fondue would have certainly done the trick!  I do love a good fondue!  So, if you are skiing Deer Valley in Utah, and are into good food at a ridiculously high elevation, the Troll Hallen Lounge in the Stein Eriksen Lodge is a must.

Finally, after two glasses of wine and a gigantor pot of beer-based cheese, I finally managed to smile again.

Like I said in the beginning, I do not know yet whether I am all for skiing but, THIS I know – I am most certainly for apres ski!

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

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Toto, I Don’t Think We’re in Charlotte Anymore

Loathe.  Hate.  Despise.  Abhor.  These words don’t even begin to describe my thoughts on flying.  I just figure that if I was supposed to fly I would have been born with wings.  (This is unfortunate given how much I do enjoy traveling.) But, in the midst of my mid-air panic, even I couldn’t help but be entranced by the sight of this out of the airplane window…

“Majestic” is the only word that comes to mind.

We are going to be spending this week in Park City, UT with BG’s family.  I’ve lived in Southern California and visited Northern California, but I’ve never been “out West” so to speak.  The landscape here is stunning!  And, having grown up in the Southeast, I’ve never seen this much snow in my life!

Tomorrow I will make my first ever attempt at skiing…with lessons of course.  We’ll see how it goes.  I can barely walk across a room without falling in regular shoes, much less ones that are 5 feet long and purposefully intended to slide.  Wish me luck!

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

Permanent link to this article: https://kitchendoesnttravel.com/archives/664

Big and Small

BG and I have some BIG travel plans this week.  You’ll have to tune in tomorrow to find out where but, trust me, it’s good!   Tonight, at least, I’m packing.  No good meals or beverages in this post as we’ve pretty much emptied the fridge and pantry in preparation for our travel.

I’ve mentioned to you before that I’m a Penelope and ever so slightly OCD. It should be no surprise to you, then, that when I travel I want to take along all the products I use on a daily basis.  Believe it or not, I don’t just roll out of bed looking drop-dead-gorgeous every morning.  However, it’s simply is not feasible to travel with all the tubes and bottles of toiletries and tinctures that I slather onto my skin and into my hair every day.  So, here’s a little something that makes yours truly very happy – MINIATURES!

My typical hair products…

My travel hair products…

My typical skin care products…

My travel skin care products…

My other typical toiletries…

My other travel toiletries…

Same stuff.  Smaller containers!

Did I mention that I have an addiction to skin care products and that, as part of my OCD, I need all my hair products and skin care products to be from the same line/brand so that the containers that typically sit on my bathroom counter and edge of my shower match?  While I can actually purchase smaller versions of the real thing for my hair products and other toiletries at either Ulta or Target, Bobbi Brown doesn’t actually sell miniatures.  She does, however, sell a package of “empties” which includes small/sample size bottles and jars complete with a tiny spatula and funnel for transferring products from their original containers into the smaller “empties” for traveling.

It’s the little things in life that make me happy…literally!

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

Permanent link to this article: https://kitchendoesnttravel.com/archives/656

Blog Fodder

I sent BG to do the grocery shopping this weekend.  One of the items on the list was, of course, “wine.”  I thought he’d pick up one or two bottles.  I was mistaken…

Pinots, Chardonnays, and Cabs – OH MY!  Well, this ought to keep me occupied for a while.  In the bunch there are a couple of old friends (both Cabernet Sauvignons, one of which I’ve reviewed here), a Pinot Noir (mi amor), a Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay, and a Viognier.

After taking a couple pics I had to put them away.

I just love it when my “Dos Equis” are nearly full.  (Ha, ha.  Get it. “Dos Equis.”  As in the beer…but here my “two exes” are for wine storage.  Get it…or am I the only one that finds that funny?)  The only thing I love more…EMPTYING them!

Hmmm…where to start…where to start?

Cheers y’all,

Wine Girl

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Tomoresca Neprica – Uncorked!

I’m not worthy!  I’m not worthy…of my pseudonym, that is.  I was just doing a little perusing of my blog archives and realized that it was (drum roll please)  AUGUST 27TH since I posted a wine recommendation.  A-U-G-U-S-T-2-7-T-H!!  That’s 4 MONTHS!  Shameful.  Just shameful.

It’s not exactly my fault.  Circumstances have conspired against me. First, there was the unseasonable heat during our September trip to Connecticut.  Then, while stopped in Philly on our way home, we hit the Belgian Abbey Ale motherload at Eulogy.  By the time we got home it was nearly October.  You know what that means, don’t you?  Octoberfests!  Our local brewery, Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, hosted it’s second annual MECKTOBERFEST.  You didn’t hear about it because BG never wrote up his post. But, trust me, it was fun!  In October, the weather turns chilly, which meant it was time to eat chili.  Somehow, wine and chili just don’t seem to mesh.  Of course, I couldn’t drink wine while I baked (and ate) ButterBEER Cupcakes or BEER Bread.  Then, before I knew it, the holidays were upon me, which calls for fancy cocktails.

So, you see, it’s not really my fault.  Weather, travels, holidays and even movies have created a situation that resulted in there being a lot of beer and very little wine around here lately.  And I dare to call myself “Wine Girl”…

Tonight, though, we remedy that.  Boy oh boy, are you going to thank me.  Let me introduce you to the 2008 Tormaresca Neprica…

I first had this wine a couple years ago in a restaurant when a girlfriend and I were out having a girl’s night. We split a bottle of it over dinner and each loved it so much that we made certain to jot down the label info before settling up the tab.  We paid $45 for the bottle in the restaurant, so imagine my surprise when I found it for $11 at my local Harris Teeter!

It’s an blend from the Southern Italian province of Puglia. (It’s in the “heel” of the Italian boot.)  The name “Neprica” is derived from the three grapes included in the blend NEgroamaro, PRImitivo and CAbernet.  See.  NE-PRI-CA.  Kind of clever, huh?

You notice more when looking from above than from the view in my picture, but it’s a luscious ruby red pour.  There are berries and spice on the nose.   On the palate you get those same berries, plus some chocolate, and a wee bit of, dare I say…licorice?  Generally, I’m not a licorice fan in any way, shape, or form. But this is very slight and not at all over powering.  All those flavors, combine with the nicely balanced tannins to make up a rich, complex wine that rolls off the back of the tongue like velvet.  And I should know…I’ve done the leg work on this one!

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

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Brrrrr!

Well I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but it has been C-O-L-D in Charlotte.  The snow started falling in the wee hours of Monday morning and did not stop all day.  That is, of course, until the sleet and freezing rain started just in time for rush hour.

Luckily, this is the South…so there was no “rush hour” during the icy/snowy days. You Yankees readers will probably laugh, but at the slightest mention of a snow flurry, Southerners raid the grocery stores, stock up on bread, milk, and eggs like their life depends on it, and will cancel anything and everything for a mere inch of accumulation.  (Weirdly, when we lived in San Diego, I noticed that Southern Californians seemed to do the same thing with predictions of rain .) Oh, and BANANAS!  Bananas are apparently a necessity if you are going to be frozen into your house for 3 days.  I went to three grocery stores and I’m telling you – there’s not a banana in sight.

Today was the first day this week that the high’s here in the Queen City have risen above the 20’s.  As such, all that sleet and freezing rain left us with 1/4″ of ice on top of the snow.  If there is anything Southerners fear more than snow in the winter, it’s ICE!  So basically, I had all day Monday and half the day Tuesday off work.  And what’s a girl to do when she’s cooped up inside because because it looks like this outside…

Make SOUP! What else?

I recently came across the blog 101 Cookbooks.  I’m a REALLY late comer to Heidi’s blog, but I’m loving it so far. I loved it so much that I put her cookbook on my Christmas list this year…and got it!  I’m reading through it right now and hope to show off some recipes soon.  On New Year’s Day, though, Heidi posted this recipe for New Year’s Noodle Soup and I knew I had to try it…slightly modified to my taste, of course.  Being snowed in on Monday was the perfect opportunity.

Thankfully, I planned ahead and soaked my dried lentils and beans overnight so they were ready go when I was.    While heating olive oil in my big new Martha Stewart 7-quart Cast Iron casserole pot, I chopped a big yellow onion

and minced a serrano pepper in my mini Cuisinart food processor then added them both to the pot.

Next you throw in some tumeric, cumin, and freshly ground black pepper and mix it until the onions turn this gorgeous golden yellow color.

Then it’s time for the vegetable stock, lentils, chick peas, and beans.  Heidi’s recipe calls for borlotti beans, but I couldn’t find any to save my life – dried or canned.  So I substituted navy beans, and I think it turned out pretty well.

Let all that cook together for about 25-30 min, then add thin egg noodles.

**Side NoteThe recipe called for 120 g of noodles, which was about 1/2 of the bag I purchased.  With a little slip of the hand I accidentally emptied the entire bag of noodles into my pot.  All those extra noodles basically absorbed most of my soup liquid.  So, my “soup” actually turned out to be more like the consistency of Spaghetti-O’s…even after I added an extra quart of stock.  But it still tasted great and hit the spot during these last few icy cold days.

Just before serving, you add about 3 1/2 oz of spinach leaves.  I decided to chiffonade my spinach leaves because, frankly, the idea of encountering a huge wilty spinach leaf in a spoonful of my soup kinda freaked me out.

It’s not that I dislike spinach.  I’ll gladly eat it in a salad.  But I just can not bring myself to eat it cooked.  That pile of wilty spinach on my plate just grosses me out.  It grossed me out when Popeye squirted it out of the can, and it grosses me out now.

So I made sure than any wilty spinach I encountered in my soup would be as small and delicate a piece as possible, blending nicely the with noodles, legumes, and onions.  See…D-E-L-I-C-A-T-E…

You hardly notice it once you stir it in.  But doesn’t the green spinach look beautiful against lovely golden color of the soup!

Finally, the recipe calls for the addition of 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro and 2 tbsp of fresh dill.  These are both flavors that send a shiver up my spine and, for me at least, can ruin a meal.  I didn’t want to leave them out completely and leave the soup devoid of all flavor.  So I added them, but used dried in stead of fresh and cut WAY back on the amounts.  I think I may have added 3 tsp of each to the 7-qt pot o’ soup.  As such, I could discern a hint of each of those flavors in the finished product, but was not overwhelmed by them in the least.  For me, that was perfect.  If you enjoy these flavors, by all means, follow the original recipe and pile them in.

Lastly, Heidi suggests topping your bowl off with caramelized onions, creme fraiche, sour cream, or toasted and chopped walnuts.  I went for the walnuts and LOVED them.  I tasted the soup both with and without them.  While it was delicious either way, the walnuts added a completely new dimension of flavor.  And, because I’m a good Southern girl, I served it with a side of warm, buttery cornbread!  PERFECTION!

It was scrumptious and JUST wanted I wanted in this cold, cold weather…even if it was more like a pasta dish than an actual soup.  I will definitely be making this again.  Next time, though, I’ll go a little lighter on the noodles and I think I may add some shiitake mushrooms.

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

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I’m Sporty…I Mean REALLY Sporty

This little blog is supposed to be about the BG and I cataloguing our adventures, both in and out of the kitchen.  Well, if I didn’t have a mini-adventure on Saturday, I don’t know what it was.

Earlier this week, I told you the BG got me a bike for Christmas.  Since we live in NC and spent the holidays in Mississippi/Alabama he couldn’t actually give me my bike on Christmas morning.  We had to go pick it up from Bike Source when we got back in town last weekend, really only giving me Sunday afternoon to play with it.  So we’ve been plotting all week to make time for a ride today.  While it wasn’t actually cold in the Queen City last weekend, there was enough of a chill in the air to give the wind a bite when I picked up any kind of speed.  So, my stipulation for any further winter riding was that I would get what I deemed a “wind shirt.”  (In my mind this is some sort of wind minimizing shirt to help cut back on stinging headwinds, not just a fleece.)

It’s Saturday, so of course BG and I slept in a little later than we really intended.  Once up and running, we headed out to R.E.I. to see what kind of wind-minimizing cycling gear they might have in stock.  I found the PERFECT shirt/jacket!  (I was going to share the link, but I can’t find my jacket on the website.) It’s called the Novara Headwind Bike Jacket.  It blocks wind up to 35 mph, has a detachable hood that can cover my ears but won’t block my peripheral vision, has 4 pockets – two of which are zippered for holding my phone, etc. while cycling, and is extra long in the back so it won’t ride up and leave my lower back exposed to the elements while I’m leaning over towards the handlebars.  Oh, and the BEST part is it’s grey and purple – so it matches my bike. 🙂

What?  Sporty girls need to coordinate too.

Now, I mentioned that it wasn’t cold during our brief ride last weekend, just chilly when we caught wind as we picked up speed.  That same statement was NOT true of Charlotte today.  The high today was forecasted to be 37*!

We got home from shopping around 11:30a.  Excited to play with my new bike and put my new jacket to good use, I ran upstairs and immediately changed into my biking gear.  I was ready to go within minutes.  I can not say the same thing for my man.  I’m not sure what he was doing, but I had time to do all the dishes in the sink before he was ready.  About 45 min later we were BOTH finally geared up and ready to go.  So we ran downstairs, grabbed our bikes, open the garage door, and what do we see…

SNOWFLAKES!  Big, fat, chunky snowflakes falling from the sky.

I looked at him.  He looked at me.  “Are we really gonna do this?” he asked.  “Well, I do have new shirt,” I replied.  So off we went.

I’m pleased to report that my new Novara Headwind Jacket worked brilliantly!  I am especially pleased with the hood that kept my ears so warm.  If the jacket had not had that option I would not have been able to stand it.  My ears always hurt really badly in cold wind.  But not today!  The one little chink in my cold weather cycling armor – fingerless riding gloves.  Within the first half mile, my fingers were SO COLD that they hurt.  Not just pain.  That weird freezing, burning kind of pain.

Since we were headed towards East Blvd, BG suggested that we swing in the Alpine Ski Center and see what sort of gloves they might have that would be appropriate for cycling. Thankfully they had a suitable pair and, like my new jacket, I think they’ll come in handy when we head to Park City, UT next month.

By this time, it’s after 1pm and my breakfast has long since worn off.  I suggested to BG that we take a small break for lunch and defrosting.  We agreed to pop into our favorite burger joint, Big Daddy’s Burger Bar, for just that since we knew we could sit on an enclosed and heated patio, keeping our bikes near by.

(Please excuse the helmet hair and poorly lit pic taken with my iPhone camera.)

This place has a great beer selection and even better burgers.  The downside to that is it is ALWAYS hopping!  We’ve never been there when we didn’t have some kind of a wait.  (That being said, it is a MUST if you are in Charlotte and craving a good burger. ) The wind may have been blowing while we were riding, but at least we were generating body heat.  I thought I would turn into a grape popsicle before we were seated.

We split a Western Burger since we didn’t want to ride home with overly full tummies.  He had some Tater Tots and I had about half a serving of sweet potato fries.  Not very healthy but so, so yummy!

Lunch down, we now had to brave the 35* temps, sans snowflakes, for the ride back home.  The temp had dropped a couple of degrees since we left our house.

All in all, we were only out in the frigid temps for about 2 hours.  If that’s not sporty, I don’t know what is!  There was a time in my life when I wouldn’t have even considered going biking on a sunny, but freezing day like today.  Get me, I’m growing as a person.  In fact, BG told me that with the “mini-camping” I did for my Susan G. Komen 3-day Walk, my new found love of cycling, and my plans to go skiing for the first time next month, he thinks I’m in the midst of a “sporty revolution.”

You know what?  I think he may be on to something!

Cheers, y’all!

Wine Girl

Permanent link to this article: https://kitchendoesnttravel.com/archives/627

The Loot

I must have been a very good girl this year because Santa was very good to me.

He brought me lots of stuff for The Kitchen

(for serving)

(for cooking)

(for storage)

(for entertaining)

And THIS…

is for The Travel!

I was bitten by the biking bug while we were in Hilton Head this summer.  Apparently, since then, the BG has been plotting to get me one of my own!  Isn’t she pretty!  She’s black, white, and lavender…and my helmet and gloves match!  Oh, and there’s a bunch of good bike stuff about her that I haven’t quite memorized yet.

There’s mud on her tires because I had just taken her on her maiden voyage prior to taking this shot.  Is it weird that I’m stoked she’s named (i.e. read “model name”) after my favorite Disney Princess?

You’ll have to forgive me.  After 10 straight days of 3 and 4 yo nieces, I’m on Disney Princess overload!

Hope you all had as merry a Christmas and happy a New Year as we did!

Cheers y’all!

Wine Girl

Permanent link to this article: https://kitchendoesnttravel.com/archives/619