Wine From Ballistic Mountain: wine lovers, trust me on this

[this was originally the last half of the previous post, but I wanted to make the posts a mile or two shorter than usual)

****added bonus!!! wine tip--if you want to try some wine from the winery further up the dirt road from me, go online to
Rock Canyon Vineyards

The site gives a feel for the better parts of Ballistic Mountain. Tim and his wife are great people. I got to know them at the party up the hill the other night. People seemed to be enjoying the wine they brought. I don't risk alcohol, so I rely on the impression of others. Some people brought wine with them, but I noticed that after tasting the Rock Canyon stuff they just stuck with that.

If wine reflects the personality and character of the vintner, then this stuff has got to be good; intelligent, witty, smooth, earthy, with lots of personality. When I'm around the right people I end up cutting up with as little inhibition as those who are drinking, sometimes I'm more over the top. Such was the case with this crew. That only happens rarely. Check out their wine and if it can be shipped to your locale, give it a shot. Shipping alcohol involves a ton of convoluted regulations. Can't ship to Tennesse or other places who try to protect their own fledgling wineries.

This is from their site, and very much what the view off my deck was like this morning, early. They live sort of to the south and west of me, but you can't see the place from here.
Just follow the dirt road, take the right fork and when it seems like the road is gone keep going.

Click the pic for the full view.

Oh well, I decided to steal another pic from Rock Canyon Ranch and Vineyards. This guy used to live at the beach. Seems like a surfer dude/cowboy. Way it is here.
There's a rise between us, but this view includes some of mine.

Gourmet Tips for those Who Have Not # 6

Actually, this is tip # 1 in this series, but I wanted to make people think this has been going on awhile, and that they missed something. Then, because I am ever so compassionate when it comes to deceptions, I had to own up. I'm the guy who spoils the tasteless practical jokes if it involves misleading or messing up the victim too much. I have my own brand of those.

Imagine your kitchen consists of a hot plate, and that you gave away numerous blenders, mixers and more when you decided you had to be a vagabond, or else. So, as luck would have it, your only powered appliance is the vegetable juicer given to you as a welcome to your new place present (and maybe by default--finally, he's not sleeping at our house present). I love/and/or/heart my juicer, so don't be messin'.

You don't know when you last had a milkshake but you are craving one, yet you do not want to spend the money for a store bought one. Assume that you purchased ice cream on sale, along with some extra stuff so you could finally get back to the vegetable juicing. I'll discuss that later.

OK so you are making a tasty sandwich, bread toasted in your frying pan with a little oil and garlic powder. The hot plate is slow so I put an upside down steel bowl over it. I have one that just fits.

Spinach lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, and those Morningstar farms picture-of-bacon strips. They cooked along side the bread. Don't criticize--it is what I like. You may like squid. Just not for me, that's all. Of course I use lots of mayo to glue things to the sandwich, and mustard too. I even splurged for chips. I worked today, got paid, and quit feeling like life is or should be over, so I planned my reward.

The combo is sometimes best with a milkshake, and I am not sure when I had the last one--was it in Seattle? Who knows. But now I have milk (I don't know why but one of the brands claiming to be organic, from cows that don't use steroids, seems to last twice as long as other milk. I don't use it quickly and the normal stuff goes bad before I'm done. Not the milk from happy cows. So, I actually save money even if I pay slightly more.) and ice cream.

Alright, usually I'd make a milkshake by putting ice cream and milk in a blender, along with some extra flavoring if I had it. I don't.

So what you do, if you are a have not, and you want to make a milkshake is put milk and ice cream in your glass, then use your handy dandy wire wisk--the only one you have, which just happens to be smaller diameter than the glass. It works like a charm.

(spellcheck on this blogger thing doesn't think "wisk" is a word. I think it is.)

I used a little vanilla ice cream, and a lot of mint chocolate chip--Breyer's if you must know. I go by price on these things, and it is so rare I have ice cream, I don't know that I'd like one brand that much better. It said "all natural". But every atom on earth is natural in some way, so who knows what that means. You can manipulate natural ingredients, but where else but in the natural universe can you get the most basic of raw materials for anything?

If I had been in a real bind I would have secured a fork in my electric drill, and used it like a mixer.

You don't need much to produce a world class sandwich ensemble.

In case you are wondering: the juicer is not a thing that works for milkshakes.