Wines! I Drink You!

I think since Easter I have been drinking wine everyday. Orginally, I was going to head off to Whole Foods for the usual Salmon Run brand I like to pick up, but I didn't have the time to. Then I was yelled at and stripped of my Easter basket unless I retrieved wine for the holiday meal. Enforcing my right as eldest sibling, I dragged my sister the long, treacherous three blocks to the liquor store so I may indeed have my chocolate bunny.

Now. I love wine. It's awesome. But I usally just get a recommendation from the waiter when I'm out for dinner at classy joints. So when I'm in the liquor store...I just buy the pretty bottles or whatever is decently priced. Plus, I don't think of the town's liquor store as a carrier of high-class wines.

But I'm now addicted to CUPCAKE VINEYARDS! And they are on sale at the local store for like $9 a bottle. Whoa.

Really like the Sauvignon Blanc - it's light and crisp and not bitter like some other nicely priced brands. I seriously think I drank the whole bottle in two days.

Then, last night I bought Cupcake Vineyards' Moscato and was quite pleased. I just had to throw a sliced strawberry in the glass and then had a stroke of genius. Strawberry puree! I just bought the Magic Bullet Blender that day and decided to try it out. What a cute mini-blender. Plus I added Winter White Savannah Bee Company honey and it was really good.

I have a new brand and I'm happy! Plus, the name is so cute and there's blend names like 'Angel Food' and 'Red Velvet' - got to look into that.

Also tried out some new reds. the MARK WEST Pinot Noir is pretty good and I like with dinner. The gentleman at the store said it was their top selling and was like $12. As for pretty bottles, I bought ROSE'S SWEET RED and expected sweet, but this was still really dry. Not bad though, but I want more to decorate my sewing studio like the label than drink more of it.

Becoming a Juicehead

Since I'm from Jersey, I got myself a juicer. So no, I'm not becoming a juicehead like they speak of on Jersey Shore, but my friends keep calling me this in regards to me wanting to juice. It sounds kind of gross the more I talk about it.

I bought the JACK LA LANNE'S POWER JUICER a couple weeks ago and finally used it this week. I've only done three juices and it's great, but when you look at how much fruits and veggies go into one drink, it's a lot! You really need a gameplan and a long shopping list if you're going to incorporate doing this daily. And it sucks because fresh foods are expensive. I've been shopping mainly at Trader Joe's, but need to start keeping an eye out on the supermarket flyers and need to get over to the farmer's markets around me.

Here's the juicer. Doesn't it look like the one robot from Mystery Science Theater 2000K from the side? (oh wait, did they use a juicer for that robot?) I had a little trouble setting it up - I had the metal bar down and it wouldn't start. Duh, it has to snap the whole machine together. I was shocked at how quiet it is on - gets a little noisey when using harder fruits/veggies.

The first drink I made was a pear/lime/lemon combo. I had to take off the skin of the lemons and lime and the lime was super hard to do. But this was SO good. Really tart, but the pear was delicious and sweet. Plus, it had like a pear puree sitting at the top of the drink, so it was more like a smoothie than straight-up juice. It's my first time with fresh juice.

Second, I tried a veggie combo. The cucumber was kind of big, so I think it somewhat diluted the whole thing and I wasn't too keen on this. I had to add pepper!

Today, I made a fruit-based drink with some broccoli in it. Didn't taste the broccoli and I had tasted the drink before adding the second half of the cucumber and it was super sweet and good. I added strawberries (note the red stripe) and then the end of the cucumber. It got weaker tasting and wished I could have just used the cucumber pieces for the hummus I had later. I added ice and liked it better cold.

Really happy with this. I get like 2 cups from the recipes so far and was surprised. The recipes included with the juicer are cool and I have to find more online. I'm scared to try leafy veggies, but they made it seem impossible juicing carrots and that wasn't so hard.

Artist Love - Michael Paulus

I am the biggest Snoopy fan and my inner goth kid just fell in love with the drawings by artist Michael Paulus. I'm not sure how I came across his work on Etsy, but I am saving my money for when I move into the new apartment, because I want a couple of these to have around.

He does a bunch of different characters in this fashion from Hello Kitty to Powerpuff Girls to Looney Tunes. So cool!

Also check out other pieces. There's even a 3D photo image and I got it without trying and then when I went to try again, I couldn't see it in 3D. It was like back in middle school with those weird static images that you had to stare at and an image popped out at you...never worked for me.

www.MichaelPaulus.com

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