Wine Tasting at Drytown, Convergence, Nine Gables

Amador County is home to over thirty wineries. Yesterday, Jared and I went wine tasting with a couple of friends, and we only got to three of them. The weather was spring-like with crisp clear air. This was my first trip to Amador and the landscape is beautiful.

Our first stop was Convergence Vineyards, which was hosting a “soups ‘n’ sips” tasting. One of the soups was cheeseburger soup, a first for me!

After sampling their sparkling wine, white wine, red wine, and a port, we left with the 2006 Mourvedre and 2007 Gnarly Vine Zinfandel. I really liked the light berry and smoke flavor of the Mourvedre. Jared was so impressed with their reds that he chose the Zinfandel even though it wasn’t available for tasting.

Next we stumbled upon Drytown Cellars. We had so much fun here chatting with the owner, Allen Kreutzer, and discovering a new varietal, Malvasia Bianca.

I really liked how the tasting room was not a tasting room at all, but a counter with stools inside the winery. We tasted many white wines, a couple reds, and a dessert wine. We left with the 2008 Malvasia Bianca, which has an amazing floral flavor.

Allen also suggested we try what he calls “the baby maker” - Kirigin Cellars Vino de Mocca - a California grape wine with coffee, orange and cocoa. Jared and I bought some of this as well, but we’ll stash it away for later.

Our last stop was Nine Gables Vineyard, and by this time my poor tongue was quite burnt out on sampling so many great wines. We tried a few wines, and I was immediately impressed with the almond flavored sparkling wine. In addition to the sparkling wine, we also bought a bottle of the 2006 Merlot.

I didn’t get any pictures at Nine Gables, but I suppose that is just a good reason to return.

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Eat your (radish) greens!

Gardening has taught me to use the whole plant. It just seems wrong to me to plant a seed, watch it grow, rip it out of the ground, and toss over half the plant away. Hence cooking with radish greens. I love radishes, which grow one bulb from one seed. They spend so much energy producing beautiful, leafy green tops that it’s tragic to throw them out - even if it’s on the compost pile.

Radishes (like most vegetables) are full of nutrients. They are a very good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin C, Folate and Potassium. In addition, it’s a good source of Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium, Copper and Manganese. The green tops have all of these nutrients, plus more Vitamin C, Calcium and protein.

Because they are slightly hairy and have a strong peppery and sometimes bitter flavor, I like to chop the leaves finely and add to raw salads. Since it’s been cold out, I sliced them thinly and added them to a cooked salad.

Red cabbage sauteed with elephant garlic and radish greens

This is really quick and simple to make. I chose elephant garlic, because it has a sweeter flavor which balances the strong flavor of the radish greens.

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
2 cloves elephant garlic, halved lengthwise, sliced crosswise thinly (see Notes below)
1 small red cabbage head, cut into 1/2 inch slices and quartered
1 small bunch of radish greens, chiffonade

Method
Heat the oil and salt over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic until it begins to brown. Add cabbage and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow the cabbage to brown a bit. Next add the radish greens and cook, stirring frequently, until they turn bright green and wilt: about 1 minute. That’s it!

Notes
If you can’t find elephant garlic, use less garlic. Mince it and caramelize it over slightly lower heat.

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Outsmarting the Puppytron

At first, Rhys would sit everywhere but the crate: his former bed, an empty mesh bag, the kitten’s scratching pad. All of these seemed more attractive than his warm and cozy crate. I would turn around and see him sitting on a sock in the middle of the empty room, and I would think, “Really? This is more comfortable than your big, plush bed?” So, thank you Rhys for giving us yet another reason to keep our dirty socks off the floor.

However, once we got our floors cleaned, he still wasn’t hanging out in his crate. Instead he would stand at Jared’s or my feet, eyes lighting up every time we looked at him. This is one needy dog. That’s when the idea-bolt struck: put the crate where he spends his time. It seems really obvious now, but it took some time.

So now his crate is under the desk and he could not be happier. He spends a lot of time in there when we’re not directly interacting with him. Initially, I thought he wouldn’t like it, but now I think he enjoys the hum of the computer and the roof over his head. Also now I have a footrest!

I didn’t want to rush Rhys, so it was a few days until the next step: locking him in his crate while feeding him. Up until now, the door to the crate had always been open. When I tried to crate train him in August, I rushed the process and came home to a pile of sawdust from his wooden crate. The poor guy gets very anxious when locked up, but he can overcome it.

As you can see, food is the ultimate distraction for this guy. It’s been about a week, and he’s progressed to where I stay with him and keep the crate locked for a couple minutes after he’s done eating. There is no whining or pawing at the door. Progress!

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What’s for lunch?

Radishes from our garden

Cut into slivers

Add to hot pozole verde

Enjoy!

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Rhys meets crate; enjoys included Kong

Things are moving quickly so far. Rhys has his very own sanctuary in our home. Wire crate, soft bedding, water bowl, multiple toys, and he’s spending quite a bit of time there on his own.

He definitely had incentive: we stuffed his Kong with treats and tossed it in there. I don’t think he looked back until he got the Kong stuck to his lower jaw. Poor guy. I mentioned that they are prone to death by eating. I am sadly not joking about that one.

Later, I experimented with his anxiety level today by closing the crate and leaving the room for a couple of minutes. He did pretty well: no whining, no crying, no panicking.

The key for this to work is to let him go at his own pace. We have committed the next six months to training him. I want to look back in June and know that this is all worth it.

In addition to crate training, we are using the supervision method. This means that whenever Rhys is not in his crate, we are watching him very closely to ensure that he doesn’t do one of the many things we are trying to get him to forget: marking in the house (ugh), jumping onto the furniture, eating out of the litter box (again, ugh), and eating inappropriate foods/objects.

The supervision method is next to impossible with tiny dogs, though. I am getting really annoyed at all the websites I’ve found that simply say “watch your dog.” Seriously? It seems like he can drop a puddle in the blink of an eye. Oh well, I’m trying my best. I’m going to pretend like the little puddle I found today doesn’t count, it being the first day and all.

By the way … that puddle? I never would’ve found it if it weren’t for Stink-Finder Super Brite. I joke not about it’s name. It’s a UV light and it’s fun to play CSI and search the house … until you find something.

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Introducing the real Rhys “Puppytron” Jenkins

I love Rhys “Puppytron” Jenkins very much. That’s why I’m going to devote some space to him here. He’s an 18-month-old mixed breed: chihuahua and miniature pinscher. As such, he weighs less than six pounds, but he has bark and personality enough to take on the big dogs. Literally.

I’ll confess to being one of those dog owners that had no idea what they were getting into. I normally over-research every change in my life, so the fact that our dog is a huge daily challenge definitely took me by surprise.

According to the extra-over-research I’ve done since we got him in August, his personality comes mostly from his min pin genes. In other words, he’s stubborn, defiant, loud, whiny, (next to) impossible to housetrain, and prone to eating himself to death.

None of that bothers me much except the part about him being impossible to housetrain. How did I miss this in my hours and hours of Internet and library research? Seriously. How. Did. I. Miss. This?

Not missing it now. There are, as Jared urges me to call them, “presents” from Rhys quite frequently hiding all over our home. We have been at our wits’ end and tonight we decided to crack down on the bundle of cuteness. Because we cannot put this dog out of our home. He is our responsibility and we love him.

Hopefully, a series of posts will follow on the success of crate training a dog who supposedly can’t unlearn anything. A dog who is terrified of being alone and who will cry for hours and hours until he gets his way. I wish I were exaggerating this part about the hours and hours. Because I’m not. Because I’ve tried to outlast him and it usually ends badly.

Here’s a photo of him sitting quietly, being his cute, loving self. Wish us all luck please.

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