Last evening I enjoyed delving into Dorothy Gaiter's and John Brecher's Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion; Red, White, and Bubbly to Celebrate the Joy of Living. Gaiter and Brecher write the Wall Street Journal's "Tastings" column. The book is kind of a hoot for me because 1) I know nothing but the absolute basics about wine and 2)I don't have the budget to learn by experimentation. That said, I'm expanding my horizons anyway, and found their description of how to give a wine tasting party amusing. Other than the fact that you need big bucks and you need to live in a place where everyone can get home by taxicab, it was educational. Gaiter and Brecher are very keen on Beaujolais, which I've tasted only a couple of times. They discuss everything there is to know about purchasing Beaujolais, which leads me to think that the reason why I may not have been impressed with it is because I tasted a bottle that was too old. Beaujolais is best when it is young, just a couple of years old.

My other find at the library was The Berry Bible by Janie Hibler. Ken and I have been in nirvana over the blackraspberry-raspberry sauce I made. We've been eating it over Brigham's Vanilla. Incroyable! I shared our batch with Lek and Tom, who lent me the sieve, so we only had two servings each. This means I'll be off to Ward's Berry Farm on Thursday morning (early) to pick raspberries before work. I'll buy some blueberries while I'm at it and for the first time in years, make blueberry muffins. I don't know where this cooking binge is coming from, but it's a fun change of pace.