Wednesday, September 8 2010

Human Doings

The remains of Hobbes' remains

A bunch of stuff to round up at Tim's Blog since I last posted. Things are getting into gear for the fall: we typically hold three conferences every September, one for Western Canada, one for Central-East and one for Quebec. I'm prepping for that, finishing the very teensy-tiny last little edits on the Limited Edition 2010 DVD presentation, grinding through the middle-ish edits for the Winemaking Excellence 101 video and on-line presentation course, finishing my research on product development strategies, working on my barrel-fermenting program, planning my Gamay Nouveau Party for the 9th of October (making my wine tomorrow!) and trying to stay ahead of my fall gardening and little things like my wedding anniversary (thirteen years married, 26 as a couple, go figure) and this weekend I'm covering the GCBF in Victoria. Whew!

Sorry kids: as usual it sold out in 90 seconds

If you recall my coverage from last year, you're a better man than I am. I have to look at my flickr photostream of the event to confirm that I was even there. In every writer's life there should be at least a little gonzo journalism, and this is definitely my hurrah. Okay, I'm kidding: I learn a lot about the industry and the state of the business, and it's good exercise for my beer palate. Ahem.

So, a few things to tidy up before more discretely organised blogs. I sent off the remains of my faithful companion Hobbes to the very deserving Kenton Foster. I'm going to publish his story and pictures when he torches Hobbes to a very touching end. I'm not sure when that will be, however: it turns out that sending zero dollar-value scrap wood to the USA is a very tedious and time consuming process. Every piece of wood had to be weighed, numbered and catalogued for US customs. I had to find my certificate of origin for the barrel, the manufacturer and the location of the forest it came from, and declare that it would not be re-sold or used for commercial purposes.

I wish I was kidding. I'm not sure I understand bureaucracies, and in the end I think that's the point: if you could understand them, you would never put up with their idiotic shenanigans.

With the help of my ever-patient and ever ingenious office staff (thanks Alana!) Hobbes did manage to leave the building. But just as he left, I got another really great entry in to the contest. It came in from David Corr, of Evanston, Illinois. He's a winemaker who got his own first barrel this year and a couple of things caught my eye. First, he mentioned that he was making Winexpert kits. Sure, I'm impartial, but it never hurts to butter me up anyway.

Second, he's planning on making a recipe formulated by a friend of his who was a semi-finalist in Epicurious' 15th anniversary food competition, for spiced, grilled baby back ribs. Seriously, ribs? I'm in. And they look really good!

A little face-time over chow never hurt anyone

Finally, he and his friends have done something that truly suits the criteria of my value system. They formed a dinner club with 4 families to get together for dinner and socialising. I'm pleased by this on multiple levels. First, the loss of shared meals among friends and family is the worst thing that's happened to our society this century. Face to face, sharing food and conversation and the wonder and trivia of our daily lives we have no prospect but to open up and share who and what we are with others. Eating alone, in front of a television or computer is feeding, not dining. I truly believe that if we just sat down with friends, family and strangers at least once a week with no TV, no phone calls, texts or interruptions and worked on our conversational skills, we'd be much happier as people.

On another level, it appeals to me because it's something I did many years ago: back in the 80's when things were economically dicey for my wife and I, and a lot of our friends, we formed a dinner club. The idea was that we were all economizing, so once a month we'd try to make a very fancy meal for less $10 per person, wine included. We had a leg up because I made the wine and my wife is a Red Seal chef, so more of the budget went to food--very well cooked food!--a pretty nice turn of events. Our dinner parties are a little more upscale these days, but I'm rethinking that--trying to figure out a menu for ten people with three courses and dessert for less than $100 sounds like a really fun challenge.

But by the time his letter got to me, Hobbes was gone. But I'm not out of tricks. Wending it's way most imminently to him is a bag of French oak cubes. While they're not Hobbes, I've used them for adding flavour to a grill before and they work great--a little small for most smoker set-ups, but that's okay, you can just use more, and the flavour is excellent.

Use 'em in good health, David and I expect a rack of ribs next time I'm in Illinois.

Next blog: Zut alors! Mon Nouveau c'est dans mon office! Le woo-hoo!

Posted by Human Timming AT 3:30PM

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