teamEggers

Dinner with Cheryl & Michael

My sister text messaged me today. I’m with Aunt Debbie.

For those of you who have been following the Fetzich / Grimord drama over the past five years will understand why this message made my spit water out of my mouth and onto the person sitting next to me. It’s fair to say that Ashley has been cheated out of a functioning family. One with aunties, uncles and cousins that love her. She has… well, she has all of us instead. And I think she’s relatively well adjusted regardless.

Anyhow, Ashley’s only Stateside aunt kind of sucks. This is unfortunate for Ashely because I have another, much cooler aunt that Ashley knows very little about. So this is a small tribute to my way cooler aunt, Cheryl.

Given the choice, Mom would choose Cheryl as a sister over Debbie any day. Even though they haven’t talked in quite some time, I think she likes her way better. It’s unfortunate that families don’t really work that way.

Cheryl and Michael live down in L.A., so it’s kind of a rare treat to see them. Just as Jon was moving up to Bremerton, they bought a house in Olalla – a town about 40 minutes south of where jon works. Pretty crazy coincidence, but it results in me getting to have dinner with them a few times a year. This is the front of it – behind the house there are about two acres of grass, a pond, some deer, and more grass.

They live in what I can only describe as “the country”, even though I know it’s less than an hour away from a majour city. There’s more nature here than anywhere else that we go regularly. There’s nature. And despite it’s lack of wifi, it’s beautiful.

Michael, who I can only picture as an Los Angelite, looks surprisingly at home on a tractor with a baseball cap and a Miller Lite. It’s almost like he was born to not live in the city and he’s just been waiting for his golden opportunity to mow grass and buy rugged guy-toys.

Anyhow, the two of them have always been quick to offer support and advice, and to welcome jon into the family. They rock and I’m happy to have them in my life.

Red Wine Vinegar

Hat Tip to Andreas for pointing me to this resource that talks about making wine vinegar from leftover wine. It basically says you buy a vinegar starter, dump in a bunch of wine and let it site for 3 months while it forms this oozy, gelatinous protective coating. Oh, and don’t forget to feed the mother.

Red wine vinegar takes about 3 months to make, but white for some reason takes about twice that. I wonder if there’s any culinary benefit (aside from colour?) to using red vs. white wine vinegar. I’ve always substituted one for the other based on what was in my cabinet at the time.

This web site goes on to say that cheap zin, cabernet or merlot make fantastic starters for your vinegar (zin vin? hehe).

[note: photo above is courtesy of Gang of Pour]