Back on Track

Or a near approximation thereof

The day after my second cat passed away, I used Find my Phone twice on my Watch to, um, find my phone. Both times it was in my pocket.

Yes, the same pocket.

But I was distracted. That’s to be expected.

When it took me five tries to translate “The cat is on the chair” into Spanish in my Duolingo lesson and I got all teary-eyed instead of thinking of a beloved Eddie Izzard routine, that was to be expected.

(El gato está sobre de silla, in case you were wondering.)

But when I invited friend & realtor A over to see the house on the 22nd for her first time post my move, and I didn’t have any wine ready chilled in the fridge, I knew I was off my game.

Also today I was in a chat about what the heck to make for dinner when it’s a million degrees out and you don’t want to turn on the oven. It’s mostly salads, isn’t it? And hopefully you’ve got a store with a good produce department or a farmer’s market so you can get quality veg. I also eat my weight’s worth of cold leftover chicken, either grilled or cooked via the sous vide. So when I want to break it up a little, I go for smoked salmon. You can find good quality fishie at Trader Joe’s and Aldi’s. My nearby Stop & Shop has big hunks of smoked salmon for $8 a package, and I can get two or three meals out of it. It feels a bit spiffier and looks posh.

To pair with this quick smoked salmon and baby arugula wrap, I went for William Heritage 2020 Grenache Syrah Rosé.

I found it tricky to keep this at a temperature where I could really enjoy it. Straight out of the fridge was way too cold, and had very little flavor at all. But it warmed up pretty fast all the way to too warm.

The color was lighter than I expected from such big grapes as grenache and syrah. The flavor was muted, but also not overly strawberry like bad rosé can get. It was a perfect pairing with the smoked salmon, not just visually as you can see, but flavor wise! Since the sliced smoked salmon you can get in stores is kind of mild tasting, you don’t want anything too strong to get in the way.

So slowly getting back into it around here. Hope you are the same.