New Mexican Adventure Part 1

  If you’ve noticed that I haven’t written in a few days I have a good excuse!  If you haven’t noticed...what’s yours? :)

I went on a little road trip with the ‘rents to visit my brother in Albuquerque, NM.  It was only possible because my workspace is being remodeled, and therefore was rendered useless for exactly (they say) 1 full work week.  So, voila!  Instant vacation (with many, many work related interruptions, and hunts for phone service).  We’ll try to only focus on the vacation part of what I just said.

The idea was to meander across Texas and into the great west stopping at wineries and any ‘ole place that struck our fancies, and that’s basically what we did, minus the wineries. And anything fancy (ha!). 

The short of it is - that’s a looong trip!  We ended up leaving the DFW area last Wednesday and venturing north toward beautiful Amarillo.  We spent the night in A-town and left the next morning for the ABQ.  Not as many wineries as expected littering the eastern portion of New Mexico (enter disappointment), but we did stop for a picnic in Santa Rosa near the pond, er, “Lake” at the State Park.  I was in charge of food, so I will mention that we had millet bread spread with Greek yogurt with fresh Hatch chile mozzarella and smoked ham.  I would have served this with a delicious Torrontes from Argentina that I had picked out but it was accidentally left at home.  I tried this combo later and it was super awesome, so I may blog that in the future.  We did not have any vino but that was OK because it would have made an already boring ride nap-worthy, and I was driving.

After lunch we braved I40 West into Albuquerque and made it to our destination.  We hung around my brother’s house until he had to go to work.  Since he’s a resident at the university hospital he works crazy hours and we knew we may need to entertain ourselves (enter wine).  Mom and I went for a scenic run around his house to make up for the dinner we were about to eat,

The patio was so nice, and so was this Sauv. Blanc

then we all showered and dressed for our night on the town.  We ended up stumbling upon a cute little place near the Sandia Crest and ate on the patio.  When the fare was chosen I was presented with the wine list to make a selection.  In this case I try to take into consideration the pair.  We ordered clams with liguine in cream sauce, river trout with hatch chile sauce, and a chicken with chevre.  As these things all seem to be classically paired with Sancerre or Sauvignon Blanc, that’s exactly where I went on the wine list. Between pricing and availability we ended up enjoying a Marlborough Sauv. Blanc called Seven Terraces with a bird on the label that was flush with mineral, lemon/lime, and a creamy pea situation that matched beautifully with the cream  and the chevre in the entrees selected.  I would know. I tried them all.  This selection was $25 on the wine list, and as any former bistro owner would know probably means I could find this beauty on a grocery shelf for about $7.

We spilled a little...

We actually splurged (well, we had time to kill) for dessert!  a cute little almond butter chocolate tart was shared amongst and us when my Dad asked what our next wine would be, I gladly approached the list again.  I found myself in a bit of a conundrum just because we’d selected chocolate and most reds will do.  I went for the biggest bang for the buck on this one, and found Tilia Malbec from Argentina which I believe was also $25 on the list.  The chocolate and nutty aromas of the wine went swimmingly with the almond crust and the chocolate filling in the dessert. 

Altogether the first half of the trip went pretty well if I do say so myself.  Maybe another day we’ll touch on the parts where Dad was in a “Breg” from rotater cuff surgery, Mom’s crown came off the day before we left with our dentist on

They don't know I'm posting this.  Aren't they cute??

vacation, and/or the brother who prompted the visit being at work.  But not today.