Apparently today is National Popcorn Day (thanks for the tip Sarvay).

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with a bowl of popcorn for breakfast courtesy of my Victorio popcorn popper that Anitra gave to me as a Christmas gift.

This hand-crank, stainless steel stovetop beast is the best way to make popcorn and the vented lid assures up to six quarts of perfect popcorn goodness every time.

If you’re still eating that microwave crap, make a promise to yourself to stop.

Buy one today. You won’t be disappointed.

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August marks the end of our summer garden. Only a few plants remain including watermelon, pumpkins, and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. Time to bring out the canning supplies and make some sauce.

Plum tomatoes from our six plants had completely taken over our refrigerator and as the only person in the house that eats them fresh, I couldn’t seem to make a dent in their numbers.

I pulled out a fantastic recipe we’d used several years before from Biba Caggiano’s Modern Italian Cooking. It’s modified slightly to include some fresh garlic from our garden and a few other minor additions.

Three hours and a steamy kitchen later, we have sauce. Ten pints of “Teagan and Ayn’s Totally Tomato Sauce” to be exact. All natural, fresh from the garden, and one full pound of tomatoes per jar.

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April showers bring busy days in the garden.

Yesterday morning found me in the garden, in the rain, sowing a small plot of 70+ pinto beans. I also took time to harvest a few radishes which were sweet and crisp!

This coming weekend is my biggest weekend of spring though. For 2 days, I’ll be digging, weeding, and planting. Most of my summer vegetables will go in, including corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and several varieties of bush beans.

I also have 2 more 4x8 beds to prepare and plant, thanks to the generosity of my neighbor. She recently offered use of her backyard (which is bigger and sunnier than mine) for expanded garden space in exchange for a few peppers later in the year and some brush clearing. Not a bad deal!

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A simple mix of flour, water, milk, salt, butter, yeast, sugar, vinegar, and a little time nets you the most delicious of foods—bread.

I recently picked up a 25 lb. bag of bread flour and prepared a loaf tonight. Start to finish, it took about 2 hours, most of which was simply waiting on the yeast. The result was a 24” loaf with a dense, chewy crumb and a thin crust with a good bite. It smelled so good that Anitra and I ate almost all of it minutes after it came out of the oven.

You can see more photos on Flickr.

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Cruvee, the new wine social networking and personalized wine information site (or “yet another wine social networking and personalized wine information site” depending on your level of social networking fatigue), is now online.

Master Sommelier, Kevin Vogt, is behind the project. The well-designed site aims to be a networking hub, news bank, cellar notes tracker, and a wish list.

My only criticism at this point is the inability to manage the content in the Activity Stream (a feed reader of sorts that delivers articles to you based on keywords you optionally enter at the time of registration). A quick note off to Kevin and he responds, “just checked with our programming team and got the following response: Not currently. We do plan on having the ability to edit those soon, I’d expect that next week sometime.” So there you go.

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We hit Cupertino’s this morning, grabbing a bagel and coffee before heading to Whole Foods to gawk at the Richmonders gawking at the food.

We do love our grocery stores around here, don’t we?

I thought it wouldn’t be that busy, what with Hanna making her way through town. I couldn’t have been more wrong (I should have checked out the former cube monkey’s blog first). The place was absolutely PACKED—every aisle, every section of the store. There were even 5 or 6 people doing tastings at the wine bar! A little rain won’t keep a Richmonder from checking out the new grocery store in town.

What a store.

With the exception of Manning’s Hominy, available only at Ukrops here in town, and Tom Leonard’s kick-ass ribeye, I have no reason to shop anywhere else. Anitra was thrilled to find so many dairy products that she can eat (she’s allergic to cow’s milk but not goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, etc). I think she cleaned out the yogurt section this morning. I picked up a couple dozen littleneck clams and some french bread for lunch today and will definitely be back to frequent the seafood section.

They have wonderful looking meats and cheeses, a great wine selection, and lots of emphasis on local food (including some beautiful heirloom tomatoes from Colonial Beach). Virginia-based farms and farmers are promoted in every section of the store, often with photos of the farmers themselves.

If you’re looking for something to do on this rainy day, I’d put people-watching at Whole Foods high on the list—but save your shopping for another day. It’s a bit of a madhouse in there today.

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Apparently, the Finger Lakes are closer to Virginia than they appear.

I stopped by a local wine retailer tonight on my way to pick up some Thai food for my girls. My plan was to find a nice, dry Riesling from Virginia that would compliment dinner and make me forget about my raging head cold.

I made my way to the Virginia wine section, at which point the cold meds must have kicked and I stopped paying attention. Although I thought I was in the Virginia section, I managed to bring home something from the Finger Lakes region in New York—a 2006 Brickstone Cellars Dry Riesling from Widmer.

Talk about a nice surprise. Crisp, dry, well balanced, and a great finish—all for $10.99.

If you’re looking for something to compliment your next Thai or Chinese meal, I can definitely recommend this wine.

That said, can someone recommend a Virginia Riesling?

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