Almond Milk

My husband was diagnosed with high cholesterol a couple of years ago and, in lieu of going on some fairly potent drugs to control it, he decided to change his diet by eliminating saturated fats in the form of dairy. He started drinking soy milk, sometimes upwards of 12 ounces a day, in the hopes of also getting the cholesterol fighting benefits that soy products have to offer. Through the diet changes and a fairly impressive variety of herbal supplements, he did manage to get his numbers back to normal. Flash forward to this year and to me having jumped on the soy milk bandwagon. (I originally would not even touch the stuff. I am not sure why - I mean, usually when something is labeled, "chocolate", I don't even hesitate before ripping into it.) I have been drinking it (in both its Lite chocolate and vanilla forms), using it on my cereal in the morning, and generally relying upon it to get me about 2/3 of my calcium requirements for the day. A short while ago, I started hearing rumblings (from fellow culinary students, and then on the morning radio show that I listen to) that perhaps soy was not all it was cracked up to be - especially for men. So, I started thinking.....what would be a good substitute for all the deliciousness that soy milk has to offer, lacking the controversial phytoestrogens? A friend at school suggested almond milk, so I thought I would give it a try. I bought the Blue Diamond shelf stable variety and went for chocolate (big surprise), but made the mistake of choosing the unsweetened package. (It wasn't a mistake so much as trying to save on some calories for myself, but still.) I got home and poured myself a glass, thinking all the while, "well, look at me! Trying something new and finding a way for us all to be healthier at the same time!" By the time I had finished filling my glass, I was not nearly as optimistic. The drink I was so excited about was thin and dilute, with a muddy color that reminded me of silt swollen rivers, only not quite as thick. Determined to make a better showing with this beverage than I originally did with the soy milk, I knocked back a sip and found it less appealing than it would have been to actually drink the dirty river water. Ugh. It was a weird mixture of chalky and watery and had a flavor, completely devoid of almonds, that seemed to be pretty close to what you would get by just mixing cocoa powder with tap water. So, needless to say, after that first glass of disappointment, the box sat in the far back corner of my refrigerator until I poured it out, nearly two months past its expiration date, earlier this week.

Again, flash forward to last week when I discovered that Silk, my favorite brand of soy milk, had come out with two flavors of almond milk, "Original" and "Vanilla". My favorite grocery store even gave me a coupon when I checked out last week for a free 1/2 gallon of the Silk Almond Milk, so when I ran out of soy milk early this week, I ventured out to redeem my gift. I figured that it couldn't hurt to try it, especially since I was not buying it myself, and that, if I didn't like it, I could toss it with little to no guilt. (Guilt is what kept the Blue Diamond box in my fridge for so long. I kept looking at it and thinking surely I can find something to use this in.) Anyway, so I get home and crack the new vanilla-flavored almond milk. Holy cow! Or maybe I should say, "Holy drupe!" I could see the difference the minute I poured it into my glass. It was thick and creamy, tricking me into thinking it actually was soy milk until I smelled the delightfully rich scent of almonds that wafted out of my glass. It was, pardon the pun, silky sip after sip with a flavor that was sweet and rich without being cloying. It was anything but chalky and was so lovely that I chugged the entire glass down with nary a pause. Needless to say, I am very impressed, Silk. I congratulate you.

To be fair, I should probably try the sweetened version of the Blue Diamond product just to compare apples to apples, but I gotta say, I am nothing if not a brand loyalist. I already enjoyed Silk's line of soy milks, so I am glad that their newest product is so deliciously superior. I am also a sucker for packaging and the Silk product looks slick. The carton is pretty and the heft of the 1/2 gallon size really makes me think, "milk", when I pick it up to pour. In any case, I know this was kind of random, but I really did enjoy the almond milk and, because it is not something that many people think to try on an everyday basis, I thought I would share my opinion with you all out there in my little virtual world. All three of you. Because even my husband and my mom don't subscribe to my blog. That's ok. I think I will go soothe myself with a little almond milk. Mmmmmmm........

Fast Blogging

Here is a new trick: let's see how fast I can write something because I am quickly running out of time to work on the computer this morning. I have yet to take a shower after my pre-dawn boot camp and I must be on the road, headed to school in less than 2 hours. Plenty of time yet, I know, but pounding out anything on the computer this morning seems to be taking an inordinately long time, so I am just giving myself a heads up. So, we talked a little about food and we tried to be funny about wine, which must bring us to cakes. Yeah, I know, that is not actually a logical progression, but I am working on cakes for the next couple of weeks and they are on my mind for the time being. I am making an Alice in Wonderland themed cake for a birthday party this weekend and I am pretty excited about it. I have everything all planned out, from the white, red and red/white roses that will adorn it, to the fondant hearts, pocket watch and perhaps some playing cards that will grace it as well. I love it when cake designs just pop into my head and I don't have to fight with them. The cake for next week was one of those fights - I just couldn't get my mind around what I wanted to do with it. I had kind of a general idea for how it would look, but for some reason, the overall composition just wasn't gelling in my head. Finally and thankfully, inspiration struck last night (with a little help from my sister and her best friend) and I think I have everything figured out. It is to be somewhat safari themed (this is for a baby shower for a very dear friend of mine, by the way), but based specifically upon the nursery set that the couple picked out. I don't know what made the design so hard - it was likely a combination of planning for the other cake and trying to write a six course menu for school all at the same time. I guess I just didn't have enough brain space for everything and have found, upon clearing some of the rest of the stuff off of my plate, so to speak, I was able to access some measure of creativity and come up with something. Seriously, that came as quite a relief. I hate not having things organized, planned out, etc. It really makes me crazy. Did I mention that I have a touch of OCD? Self-diagnosed, but still. Anyway, it is all good for right now. I guess I shall go shower and prepare myself for school. I will have to work up some kind of enthusiasm for class today - it helps me stay awake.

The Case for Weird Wines

In light of my last, fairly abysmal blog posting, I am going to start with an actual topic for my first post of February. That, in itself, is kind of ridiculous for a person who insisted that she was going to blog "more than once per week". Silly me....life had other plans. Oh, well, and anyway, I intend to wax poetic about wine this afternoon. As per my introductory post on this blog, I j'adore just about any wine: red, white, blush, what have you, with a few notable exceptions. I do not like sweet wines, unless they are specifically dessert wines, served with....you guessed it....dessert. I abhor White Zinfandels and I have even come to dislike quite a number of German Reislings. Call me a snob for having those caveats to my "flavor profile", but sweet and wine are two words that I definitely do not want describing a wine glass set in front of me. Don't get me started on the propensity of Texans to sweeten their reds (insert exaggerated shudder here).

So, a couple of weeks ago, my husband made his usual pilgrimage to his favorite liquor store (really a liquor warehouse with A LOT of lovely specialty foods and a pretty darn good deli thrown in for good measure). He brought home a wine from a region of the world that I never, not in a million years, would have guessed would have produced wine of any quality whatsoever. This wine, white by color, hailed from "the microzone of the Tsinandali in the Kakheti region" of The Republic of Georgia. Anybody really know where that is? Obviously, it is in the former Soviet Union and, according to an extensive Wikipedia article, this region is considered to be one of the oldest wine producing regions of Europe. Its viticulture history goes back over 7000 years. Who the heck knew?

The wine itself was made from Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane which are apparently two of the most important grapes in Georgian wine production. The wine bottle indicated that the wine is matured in oak barrels for three years, which, knowing absolutely nothing about this region, I can not say whether that is typical or not. Regardless, the wine was a pale lemon color which appeared kind of oddly effervescent when we poured it into the glasses. The nose was very nearly indescribable with a fairly floral component and perhaps something akin to lemon zest. The flavor profile was equally strange - or perhaps I should say "unique" because I am honestly completely unfamiliar with the grapes. At first sip, it seemed almost sugary, but almost immediately translated to a round, full flavor with very sharp acidity. The floral notes translated to the flavor as well and made me think of the rosewater ingredient found in Middle Eastern desserts. My husband described his first taste as an "industrial accident", but, over the course of two full glasses whose temperature came up as we drank it, found the flavor to grow on him exponentially. The flavor grew on me as well, but I found the acidity to become significantly more pronounced as I continued to drink. It seemed like a chardonnay in mouthfeel and somewhat in flavor, but to compare this to a standard chardonnay, especially from France, would be a woeful misrepresentation.

In any case, as this post is titled, "The Case for Weird Wines", I should say that I would, with only a minute amount of hesitation, recommend this wine to anyone out there. It was completely different from anything that I have ever tried and, besides the adventurous drinking component, I did actually learn something about this region of the wine world. Again, who knew The Republic of Georgia was the cradle of European viticulture? I am intrigued and it may just be me that brings something home next time that would certainly fit the description of a "weird wine".