Spanish Summer Wine Dinner At Cobalt

So last night I was able to attend a wine dinner at Cobalt in Virginia Beach with some friends from SOS.

The first course was called ensaldas. Which I'm guessing means salad. It's all new to me so I will be translating as best I can. Please bear with me on this.

It was lobster and crab salad with adobo grilled asparagus. They served Legado Del Conde Albarino 2008 from Rias Baixas, Spain. Which is a very nice white wine.

I really enjoyed this course. Asparagus is a favorite of mine. The flavors blended so well together. But it's so hard to find a wine to go with asparagus. This wine however was a wonderful pairing. Even people who prefer reds enjoyed this one.

The second course was called pescados which translates to fish. It was grilled swordfish with mango and strawberry salsa and sweet potato fries. They served Muga Rosado Tempranillo Rose 2008 from Rioja, Spain.

Normally I'm a huge fan of Rose wines. However with this one I was not impressed. I actually left the glass full after only three sips. It was a bit sweet and that's just not something I wanted from a Rose.

The dish was pretty good. The sweet potato fries were very thin. But the flavors went nicely together. I rather liked the fruit salsa. And I don't eat strawberries very often since they are persona non grata in our household due to allergies.

The third course was called mariscos, which translates to seafood. It was Spanish rice with chicken, crawfish and Chorizo. They served Bodegas Paso A Paso Tino Tempranillo 2007 from La Mancha, Spain.

I had never had this combination before. It had a really nice spice to it and I admit I cleaned my plate on this one. And I don't really do crawfish. But when you don't have to clean it or prep it, well then it's quite yummy!

The wine was good, but I didn't finish the glass off. I don't recall what it was about this wine, but I'm not sure if I liked this one or not.

Next was the intermezzo, which I took as an intermission. At this time we just had Tinto de Verano and Hank Foiles of Country Vintners Wine Distributors came around to talk with everyone. He had been giving talks about each wine and the parings as they came out. It was very educational, but we did spend a lot of time chatting and catching up with.

Tinto de Verano is a wine-based drink similar to sangria and is very popular in Spain. It's much simpler though. It's usually made up of 1 part red wine and 1 part La Casera, a soda similar to Sprite only less sweet. It can be replicated using a mixture of Sprite and seltzer

or club soda. It literally translates to red wine of summer. And I really enjoyed it.

So I had to get a picture of our wine steward, Arden Allen. She sat down with the chef and Hank Foiles to choose the wines that we had tonight. Plus she speaks Spanish. Just a nice little tidbit to throw in there.

The next course was called carne which translates to meat. It was grilled flat

iron steak with mushroom ceviche and chipotle mashed potatoes. They served it with Atalaya Almansa Monastrell 2007 from Ribera Del Duero, Spain.

I truly enjoyed this course. And the wine was very nice. All of the flavors combined so well. It was like a symphony in your mouth. Especially when you followed it up with a sip of the wine.

They did make it possible for you to purchase wine that you enjoyed at the end of the evening. Sadly I didn't, but I have the names of all the wines. So I can always search for them later. But some of my group did decide to leave with a bottle or two.

Sadly I forgot to take pictures of the last two courses. And I could just shoot myself for forgetting. But it was such a sensory delight that I forgot about my camera and enjoyed the meal.

The final course was called dolces, which translates to I believe means sweet. I could be wrong though. They served cinnamon and lemon creme Catalina with Lustau East India Solera Palomino nv from Jerez, Spain.

The best way I can describe this delight to the taste buds, was it was sort of like creme brulee only it was a light lemony flavor. I hope I don't offend Chef Alvin Williams with that description.

I was lucky enough to get my picture taken with the chef. I know I look awful, but when I asked for a photo of him he sat down and said okay. Which was cool. It was also his birthday.

And of course I couldn't leave without a picture of the group. So we had Arden take a picture. So Erin, Amy and Andrea I had a fantastic night! Thanks for inviting me along.

Afterwards we went to the Melting Pot, just a short walk from Cobalt, to have coffee and dessert.

Duty Day

So once again I took Jim dinner while he had duty. Among a bunch of other things. As I was getting ready to leave there was a storm that passed through. So Jim and I waited under the tent on the quarter deck.

As we waited we happened to see this. It's a single tugboat pulling, what we think, is a trencher. I hope I got that right. But I thought it was cool and decided to snap some pictures with my phone.

A Day In Our Backyard

Over one of the weekends this month Jim and I noticed the squirrel on the back porch railing. Daring little bugger was staring at us.

I guess he'd just finished eating from the squirrel feed.

It didn't even bother him when I got up and walked to the door. I didn't open it, but he did stay still for the photos. I'm not exactly saying he's a camera hog, but the pictures do speak for themselves.

Just Another Duty Day

Normally, when Jim has duty I bring him dinner. If he's really lucky then he gets lunch and dinner. Apparently most spouses don't do this. Don't know why.

That is if I'm not covered in Poison Ivy or look like an alligator bag.

Today was such a day. Finally I feel like a human being and can go out in public without worry of being hunted down, for the gator skin. ;-)

So I took Jim lunch and this is what we saw while we were headed inside the ship.

I was intrigued by all the sailboats that were out on the water. Which made me wonder. What is going on? Is there a sailboat race?

I did find out that there's a Pirate Festival in Hampton and an American Indian type festival.

Just had to share. It's an interesting perspective.

Home Improvements

So when we first moved into the house back in September, this was what our driveway looked like. It was awful. We were told that the city would not allow the driveway extension that we requested.

I thought it sounded more like a load of bull, but there wasn't much I could do. It was terrible. Muddy when it rained. And there was NO curb cutout. So it was tearing up the car.

So we decided we were going to do something about it. I called around. Got some estimates. And finally found someone who made me feel confidant.

And the second to last week of May Concrete Works came to my house to take care of all of this.

There were only two men who did this entire job. Bob and Curtis were fantastic. They started on a Tuesday and finished up on

a Saturday. If the concrete place hadn't added to much of a certain chemical to the concrete they would have been done by Friday. It took the concrete a while to dry.

We've recommended them to quite a number of people.

And of course no tale of construction is complete with the after picture. I hope they get tons more business. They were professional and very courteous.

Our driveway is much larger now. Hooray! We can park our small boat and three to four vehicles, depending on the size. And best of all? The curb has been cut and it will never tear up our vehicles again!

They said it couldn't be done, but I say that's a bunch of bull!

-Michelle