Wine Tasting at Portal Café: We had a wine tasting at the Portal Café last Saturday. The weather was nice and there was life music from Paul Cataldo. Perfect. I sold some wine, so it was very productive.

Guinea Hen with spinach salad. Guinea Hen cooked in the oven with wild mushrooms, bacon bits, and pine nuts, served with a spinach salad with palm hearts, pear, and grated Italian cheese. All that is coming with fresh baked bread. Accord vins: A chardonnay will be appropriate, but we tried with a local Viognier from […]

Spaghetti with a special wine. Spaghetti in a wild mushroom sauce and cover with Italian grated cheese. Wine pairing: For this very earthy dish, in Italy, we would have a Chianti on the base that "what grows together goes together". So we chose a Local Sangiovese wine 2016 from those crazy people of Copper Horse […]

Sauerkraut with Pumpernickel Bread. Gina cooked the sauerkraut in Tecate beer with bits of apple, coriander, mace, and cardamon. We use Polish sausage with our Sauerkraut. We served it with a homemade pumpernickel bread. Gina puts molasses, cocoa, and espresso in the bread, then spread some ground coriander on top before baking. Wine pairing: Sauerkraut […]

To protect my investment, I joined the fire department. As a volunteer I got to go on wild fires, especially those close to home. check: https://www.portalrescue.com/fire/   Pour protéger mon investissement, j'ai join les pompiers de Portal. Comme volontaire je vais la où il y a des feux de campagnes, surtout ceux proche de chez […]

CHV New Wine Release. The Sangiovese 2016 has been bottled and is now ready for sales and to drink. It has been resting for the past two weeks from the "bottle shock" of being transferred from barrels to bottles, but is now ready for drinking. It is dark colored, intensified by the bleeding that was […]

Suspension problems. The road are so bad around here that the nut that holds the spring of the suspension fell off releasing the spring. I just couldn't drive the RAV4, and I couldn't have it towed as no tow truck wants to go off the road. So I changed the strut assemblies myself. Not too […]

Walk up the hills behind our property: We went for a hike on the hills behind the property for about 2 hours or 3 miles. At the top it is an elevation of  4,950 feet, or 450 feet above our house. It is nice to see our entire dwellings from up there. Marche au sommet […]

Guest Lodge and Ranch: We met those extraordinary people, Alicia and Tom, who have a ranch of miniatures horses (very small ponies), miniatures cows (similar to Scottish Highlands but with short hair), and giant dogs (big Danes). They have regular horses too in their guest ranch for trail riding. It's so nice and homey. Check […]

What do you put in your engine? A Pack Rat I forgot to leave the hood open at night and discover that a pack rat had decided to move in. It chewed on some cables and nested in the air filter. There were some costs to fix the truck.     Vous mettez quoi dans […]