Going Into A Cava

We always enjoy a good bottle of sparkling wine, but our picks usually come out of California. Cava is Spain's sparking wine. This cava, Codorníu Pinot Noir Brut Rose, is a rosé, which I thought was a delightful idea.

However, I had been under the mistaken impression was always made from blending a white and a red wine.

Actually, rosés are most commonly made by crushing red grapes and allowing the juice to sit with the skins for just a few days and then removing them before fermentation, which gives it some color, but not enough to turn it fully red.

The blending method apparently was more common in the past, but the method has since fallen out of favor. A recent EU plan to allow blended rosés (promoted by winemakers in parts of France where red and white wine is in surplus) was abandoned after traditional rose makers argued it would bring on the "industrialisation" of wine .

We opened this Codorníu Pinot Noir Brut Rose after an afternoon of pruning. It's a lovely color and light as it can be ... which is a little too light for my tastes. It lingered on the tongue not a bit, and hardly had any weight to it at all. Not much of a reward for a couple of hours of hard labor.

But it wasn't bad at all - it was fun and refreshing and I think it might be especially suited for Sunday brunch or champagne cocktails.

Emergency Drinking Water

Last night, we found that we had no water in the house for several hours. Thanks to Twitter (and not the Cleveland Water District website), we found out that it was because of a water main break that has affected thousands of residents - and sending many of them to the 24-hour grocery store to stock up on drinking water.

The water came back on this morning, but residents are advised to boil their water before drinking it or cooking with it until 10 pm (and again, the only reason I know this is by Twitter).

Fortunately, we did have some emergency drinking water in the house, next to the box of MREs. We had two and a half gallons.

The general rule is at least one gallon of water per person, per day of expected need (with a three day minimum but two weeks is often recommended) - 2 quarts for drinking and 2 quarts for food preparation and sanitation. If you have pets, allow 1 quart per day for each dog or cat. Stored tap water should be rotated every 6 months. Prepackaged bottled water should be rotated once a year.

So, really, we should have at least 9 gallons, but probably even 42 gallons. That is a lot of water to have on hand.

In a real emergency, one could also get water from the water heater, which typically holds 30 and 60 gallons of water.

Chobani Greek Yogurt

Chobani recently sent us samples of their Greek yogurt.

I frequently make my own yogurt, but this was my first foray into trying Greek yogurt. What's the difference? Greek yogurt is usually made from sheep's milk, although cow's milk is also common. It is usually more strongly flavored, higher in fat and thicker.

My expectations of this were .... low.

I started making my own yogurt a couple of years ago, and since then, store-bought brands of yogurt have tasted increasingly bad. The more we got used to homemade yogurt, the more store bought brands seemed far too sweet and far too flavored. Even the organic, more naturally flavored brands were hard to take after we got used to freshly made, plain, tart yogurt.

So we were pleasantly surprised to find the Chobani Greek yogurt turned out pretty good.

It really was much thicker than even our yogurt. It wasn't quite as sour and tart as the yogurt I make - it was more creamy and mild. Basically, it was like eating sour cream. (I see now why my brother uses Greek yogurt as a sour cream substitute).

For the most part, I'll take plain any day. But the flavors, which include strawberry, blueberry, peach, vanilla, and honey, weren't bad. Not so overwhelmingly fruity as to overpower the yogurt, and not artificial-tasting at all. Even the peach one was good, and peach yogurts are generally my least favorite.

We might actually buy this yogurt

Foodgoat's Style of Budgeting

(somecards.com)

An even more significant portion is allocated to beer and wine.

Bacon & Cheese-Integrated Burgers

Foodgoat recently came home from work with an urgent mission: a co-worker had reported to him that he had seen, and tasted, a new, and yes, extraordinary, burger.

A burger with bacon and cheese, not on top, but ...ground up into the burger.

Burger innovations cannot wait! Foodgoat came home and fired up the grill as soon as he could.

Bacon & Cheese-Integrated Burgers

The ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb.bacon, chopped
1/3 lb. cheddar cheese, chopped
1 egg
handful of breadcrumbs
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp paprika
salt + pepper + Worcestershire sauce to taste
(makes 4 burgers)

Mix all ingredients with your hands.

Shape into four balls.

Smooosh into patties.

Put on the grill, along with some sliced onions. Beware! The raw bacon in the burgers drips fat right onto the hot coals, creating bursts of hot flame.

Throw some more cheese on! And if you're Foodgoat, you toast the bun. If you're Ladygoat, you like your buns soft.

Yum yum! A success. As expected, the bacon-cheese-grilled-meat combo was not only fun to make, but delicious. Bacon and cheese within the burger, though, turns out to be more subtle - you don't get the concentrated mouthful of bacon or cheese. What you don't get is the contrast between juicy burger, melty cheese, and crisp bacon. It's much more integrated taste and texture. Good, but kind of the same all the way through - none of the interplay between the various elements. So there is something to be said for having the bacon and cheese separate and on top.

Still, it was fun to try. We're always up for burger innovations!