The Buzz

This Journey of re-awaking my senses is starting to push the limits of my comfort zone. After all at 39 my tastes aren't going to change, are they?
My trepidation began this morning when I listened to my partners voice mail. You see I like to be in control, and today he gets to chose which direction the journey winds. In a voice that sounded all most gidy he tells me "to get ready for a day of sweet wine and stinky cheese." So, you see this is where my goose bumps get goose bumps.
I have a very sensitive olfactory organ. I have never been one to try and get past the smell of something. Oh yeah and about sweet wine, I am more of a Merlot or Cab kinda woman.
At this point I am starting to wonder if he even knows me at all. After all these years together did he ever notice that I have never ordered a port or willingly drank a glass of white wine? Could it be he has no clue from the overwhelming supply of air fresheners, order guard garbage bags, and deodrants in our cupboards that I am sensitive to smell?

Well, in the spirit of adventure, I did not make up an excuse to work late. Joining my partner in a culinary vacation to a small granite ensconced mediterranean isle. We are going to dine on "shepard's cheese". With a smirk, almost as if he knows something I don't, my partner begins to unpack our feast. Little did I know I was about to be amazed by the rich historical insights my partner had made. He proceeded to educate me about how shepard's cheese came about.How the monks being diligent washed developing mold spots from their young cheeses for the sake of purity and cleanliness, only to find an unusual sticky, bright orange surface layer develop. Unbeknownst to the well meaning brethren, they had cultivated a bacterial culture on their cheeses, known today as Brevibacterium Linens. The fact that they used the only sanitary liquids around, booze or boiled salted water, and the regimented way they organized their day further served to consistently select these ripening microbes – which prefer the resulting pH and salt level.

The particle cheese he has chosen for today was Tomme du Berger, this cheese is made from raw sheep and goat milk products and aged up to 4 months. The sticky rind barely contains a bulging, intensely fatty paste. For all its buttery richness, salty assertion and animal aromas, the cheese is mercurial, and remarkably fruity. (I really did taste the ripe pears.)

The pefect pairing for this cheese according to Chris Munsey or Murray's Fine cheeses in New york, ("The wine to pair up with this pungent farmhouse fromage is an equally vivacious and original partner, an Alsatian Gewürztraminer "Harth-Cuvee Caroline" 2005 from Bernard Schoffit. Schoffit's tiny 10 hectare vineyard is perched delicately on a slope so steep it had been abandoned as impossible to harvest, until he came along. This master winemaker has managed to wring an unctuous, heady perfumed gem from the unforgiving slate, a Gewürz with rich linenol, gardenia and honeysuckle aromas, a wonderful concentration of fruit and well-balanced acidity.") So that is exactly what we did.
Finding the right wine to pair with strong, stinky washed rind cheese like Tomme du Berger is difficult. Typically dry wines are overpowered by the strong salty flavor disappearing completely after the first bite. Not so with this match, which finds a dynamic combination of salty and sweet, barnyard funk tamed by the flowery aromatics of the wine. I would especially recommend this wine and cheese pairing for those who think they don't like sweet wine and stinky cheese - you will be converted! I have been!!!

Feeling full and wonderfully aroused, I looked over at my partner and thought maybe he knows me in a way I have yet to know myself.

Find out what he made me eat for dessert next time.

Lisa Sabrina Fults
Special Ts and Sports
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My quilty pleasure........

Ever since I can remember the process of baking cookies made it all better.  If I was sad, heart broken or lonely my mom would bring me into the kitchen and we would bake.

 We sometimes did not even talk. My mom did things from scratch. I love organizing the bowls, spoons, all the ingredients. Feeling the oven warm.

By the time the mixing started whatever was weighing my heart down do not seem so big.

Our favorite Cookie Reciepes :

Spicy Hermits: 1/2 cup crisco shortening, 1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed), 1 large grade a egg, 2 tablespoons water.

cream shortening and sugar, mix in egg, then water, set aside.

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teasoopn ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 3/4 cup raisins, 1/2 cup broken walnuts.

pre-heat oven to 375, sift together dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture, stir in raisins and nuts, Drop from teaspoon 2 inches apart on lightly freased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Make about 40 cookies.

Our kitchen was a focal point not just for bad or sad times but celebrations as well.

Ever year my Dad had Pie frenzy. He would bake so many flavors all from scratch. all pie dough had to be done by scratch.  Apple, pumpkin, chocolate, pecan, peach, banana cream, and on and on.

We had so much joy in that space, the gang all chipped in. Neighbors, family, friends from near and far.

My Dad past away in 1991 and my mom moved to O.K. to be close to her sister, my brothers and sisters are all scatter about , even my kids are grown and off doing thier own thing. So now it is just me, but I still bake.

 My sister, Sheila, has kept the pie frenzy going but she renamed it pie fest and all the nieghbors in Scottsdale can't wait to dig in.

Coming up next issue our favorite fourth of July cake and drinks.

Lisa Sabrina Fults 

Special Ts and Sports 

Experienced a joyous day Thursday with guest Cheri Murphy and her rich jazzy singing on KAHI CONNECTIONS and re-connected with Carol/Greg French who guested on THE GOLF CONNECTION.   Post-show, we all headed over to Courthouse Coffee for coffee/chat and connected with Cirby the Golf Vixen who connected with golfer Spencer; and were joined by Big Bad Barry who chatted up Cheri Murphy.  Headed out to the former Red Wagon restaurant on Combie in Nevada County, now under new ownership and called Northridge.  Enjoyed a hamburger/fries and chatted with Husband Jack.  Returned home to roses/candy/baloons/golf shoes with a smile on my face for the perfect day.   Played nine holes today with Donna Arz and Randy and Kurt--good golfers they are--at our favorite place, The Ridge, where Donna and I enjoyed our tasty lunch out on the greens.  I love/love/love it all.  After the nine holes, headed back and caught up with Husband Jack and Stewart Schurr, Dr. PC., who were sunning/dining on the spacious deck.  Ended up home and received some valuable computer tips from Stewart and then received a work-out by the skilled body mechanic Gabrielle Pullen.  I'll sleep tonight.  Oh yeah.

It is being said by many that 2008 is the beginning of great change/shift; and I agree because there appears to be a greater intensity in energy and many are in flux or change.   Friend Syl Bruce makes her transition in locating her 20-year business from Downtown Lincoln to the end of High Street where she should be located in March, ready to continue business as Southwest Silver; we wish her luck in navigating this latest challenge.  Friend Linda Lareau, Owner of  Courthouse Coffee fights to hold her own against the mighty corporations who do not have the superior location across from the Historic Auburn Courthouse.  Fight on, Linda.  And then there's friend Donna Arz who oversees ten holistic practitioners at The Healing Light Institute in North Auburn.  Arz also oversees a teen program and manages to recreate with running, tennis and golf; so Arz is smart in providing recreation with the demands of  entrepreneurship as a single mother; and we wish success to Arz.  And welcome home to Liz Pope as she returns to Auburn to find her place in the media where she has learned much about in Reno working for a radio station there.  Others in the retail and restaurant and real estate and mortgate business will face hard challenges until the cycle balances itself out.

 

 

It would seem that in January we are all off track from all the overeating and overspending in December and by February we collectively began to return to our regular habits, eating healthier and smaller portions and omitting the sweets (for the most part).  I've finally found some momentum on the treadmill and Millie The Meek, the family dog, licked my hand in appreciation for the short, brisk walks I've recently taken her on.  Seeing and feeling the sun makes for the impetus to force oneself outside and away from the inclination to become a hermit during the grey, grim days.  I look forward to golfing tomorrow, probably solo, and with pal Donna Arz on Friday when we look forward to experiencing The Ridge.  Working out the stiffness with a massage certainly restores some flexibility brought about by the cold weather; so I look forward to having body mechanic Gabrielle Pullen iron out the kinks in this somewhat stiff bod.   Pullen tells me that since I'm not using the muscles I had stretched out for golf, that shortening has taken place.  So, if you don't use it, you DO seem to lose it, at least during the winter. 

Enjoyed the company of  radio guest Susan Grant,  jumbo-jet pilot/best-selling author who joined pal Donna Arz, Barry Stigers, Diana Farr and others at our Round Table gathering at our fav coffee spot, Courthouse Coffee.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the connection and I look forward to continuing with the spontaneous group and next week will host musician Clod Headgate and golfing instructor Tim Berg along with Spa Dujour owner Maria Torres.  Stay tuned.

If life is a stage, today as I celebrated my birthday among good friends at The Ridge where I reigned as I held center court and received loot and tributes from a happy, fun-loving group including long-time pal Syl Bruce and Tom; newer friends Carol and Greg French, Cynthia McCoy, Wilburn and Pat Johnson, Barry and Margaret Stigers, Gabrielle Pullen, Cynthia and Stewart Schur and Donna Arz and Gabrielle Pullen.   The banquet room at The Ridge was a vision with its glorious view to the green velvet course and the shimmery pink roses,  balloons and lit candles.  Thank you, Jack Smallwood, for all your efforts in decorating and helping the kitchen pump out all the breakfasts and thanks, good friends, for helping make this birthday a most memorable one.  

My family has been self-taught in this asian practice, having read many of the top authorities in the field (including Daniel Kennedy's "Feng Shui For Dummies").

 

Many of the concepts seem like "voodoo" or "snake oil" but there is almost no cost to many of the "cures" prescribed in these books.

 

You don't need to hire an expensive "Feng Shui Practitioner" to examine your residence for Feng Shui flaws......just go online and "Google" the subject and you'll find a plethora of web sites that will provide oodles of information.

Another curious aspect of Feng Shui is that you don't have to believe in it, in order for it to work! My wife, daughter, and myself are all very skeptical and continue to say its "wacky" and "silly" but the cures we have tried continue to work to this day.

 

I'd like to see more discussion locally about this curious topic.

Should there be an interest in a discussion group, I'd be happy to lend my expertise (and experience) with various Feng Shui cures that we've implemented in our home.

 

As a director/producer I love the process of controlling the action and being solely responsible for the outcome of the program and as a photographer, I appreciated  being behind the camera.   So, when  golf pro/instructor Carol French suggested my being on video, I felt resistance and was less than thrilled with the idea.   However, the process--which took place at The Ridge range--was less than painful and was actually a learning process in that the video allows for objectivity--seeing onself from beginning to end, from top to bottom.  This process, however, is suggested for advanced beginners and I have been a dedicated player for 15 months and am in the mind-set to make the necessary changes without feeling overwhelmed.   So, Carol French, thanks for providing me with a learning experience I would not have chosen.  Did I mention French teaches at The Ridge and Black Oak and--oh yes--shot 66 at The Ridge.   Carol rocks.