lummi island wine tasting jan 4 ’19
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Bread Friday
Flax seed currant Ciabatta – Made with a poolish that ferments some of the flour and water overnight before being mixed into the final dough with fresh milled whole wheat and rye flours, and loaded up with flax seeds and dried currants, for a really flavorful artisan loaf – $5/piece
Black Pepper Walnut- Also made with a nice mix of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and rye with a fair amount of black pepper and toasted walnuts with a good bit of peppery bite to it to pair well with all sorts of meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Brioche Tarts au Sucre – aka brioche sugar tarts. A rich brioche dough full of eggs and butter is rolled into a round tart and topped with more eggs, cream, butter and sugar. – 2/$5
Fourteenth Annual “East Coast New Year’s Eve” Report
In truth, attendance has been falling in recent years, making the celebration warmer, quieter, and more conversational than in earlier years. So it was a surprise this year when sometime around 8pm more and more people began showing up, bringing with them their Body Heat, their Voices, and yes, Bless Them, Wonderful things to Eat! One of the many Great Things about this event is that the Food just keeps Getting Better! Everyone obviously put Great Effort into their dishes, and we are all (burp) Grateful. YUM!
We managed to Impress (i.e., Shanghai) an Unsuspecting Guest to take on the Thankless task of picking both the Best Looking and the Best Tasting dishes of the night, which receive gift certificates of $15 and $25 each, respectively.
Best-Looking dish went to Vicki D, who assembled this colorful platter of cheese-tomato-basil-balsamic mini-skewers, decked out in Holiday Colors, and in Precise Formation. Lovely and Delicious!!!
Unfortunately, we seem to have missed out getting a photo of Mary Beth’s Best-Tasting Dish, which involved a delicious construction of pastry-wrapped salmon with a spicy jam that made a perfect complement! Two Yums Up!
January Hours
Our habit over many years has been to close the shop for January and much of February. This year there is no plan as yet, so for the time being we will be open as usual through January, including Bread Fridays from 4-6:30 and Saturday afternoons from 2-6.
So, weather permitting, Bread and Wine Will Happen through January!
Mar a Lago Update: Lessons from Psychohistory
Okay, folks, today marks a Turning Point in the Tweetster’s Home Invasion Plan. He has Officially been evicted from several dozen Congressional Districts, and whether or not that turns out be a Great Thing, it is in itself a Hopeful and Comforting Thing.
The unexpected and unwanted Anomaly he represents in the Political Order of our Time, reflected globally in the ascension of nascent Authoritarians across the Planet in recent years, is reminiscent of a similar Dystopian Diversion from Expections described in great detail in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, a pioneering work of Sci-Fi with plot elements dating back to the 1940’s.
The Big Idea in the series is the that the science of Psychohistory, a melding of history, sociology, and statistical analysis, could, in very broad strokes, predict the general trends of future history with a surprising degree of accuracy. And for a Very long time predictions went pretty well. However, the tools of Psychohistory had no way to predict anomalous phenomena. We could call it the “S%it Happens” Problem; all kinds of things happen Out of the Blue, without warning, that No One Could Have Foreseen.
Such was the case in the Foundation Series with a character known only as “The Mule,” who exemplified for Asimov the Wild Card, the embodiment of the Unexpected and Irrational. The Bad News is that we have Our Own Mule in the Oval Office, and no one saw him coming. He has a certain hypnotic and Destructive Charisma and a Mastery of Modern Media that let him Hold the Spotlight on Himself while he clumsily dismantles the very Structure of Government.
The Good News from Asimov’s Vision is that the Big Trends in Human History, like the Tides, follow an Abiding Rhythm that may veer off course from time to time but in the long run return to normal Seasonal Variation. We shall see…
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date: 7,546 as of 1/1/19
This week’s wine tasting
Phantom Chardonnay ’16 Calif $17
Fermented and aged sur lie without oak; delivers rich aromas of white and yellow fruits, with bright crisp notes of citrus zest, honey, apple, and spicy minerality on the long, broad finish.
Chehalem Three Vineyard Rose ‘17 Oregon 91pts $23
Showcasing strawberry in all its delicious forms, accented by rose petal, gravel and pale spice. A rich palate with bright acid tension lends to subtle notes of pomegranate and dried cherries.
Altos Colonia Las Liebres Bonarda ‘15 Argentina $11
Bright ruby color; spicy aromas of fresh cherries and a balanced acidity that makes it fresh and juicy in the mouth, where fine tannins provide a long and pleasant finish.
Perazzeta Maremma Toscana Sangiovese ’15 $12
Handpicked grapes from soils of ancient seabed fossils and aged for a year in neutral oak; bursts rich, ripe flavors and aromas of dark cherry, rosemary, sea salt, and violets.
La Baronne Alaric ’12 France $27
Made from 120 yr-old Carignan vines (1892); aromas of plum, pepper, toast and spicy oak; palate is smooth, complex, and long on the finish with cask aging of great class (12 months in Taransaud/Darnajou barrels). Organic culture. Ideal with rich meat dishes.
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