We enjoyed a nice walk home from the medical center around 7 pm and I got out to join up another pair of poplar planks for our new patio table top. This project is coming along really slowly because I got all soft and caved in to a neighbor's complaints about my using power tools on weekends and evenings. I'm going to have to take a couple of half-days off work to make some cuts with my circular saw and power miter saw while no one else is home, not to mention the hours of power sanding I'll need to do when the table top is fully joined up and cut to size...
While I wrestled with the wood glue and bar clamps Melissa was preparing a grilled dinner in honor of the good weather. Grilled chicken thighs marinated in lemon-lime, cilantro and red onion with a bit of Thai fish sauce for flavor. Grilled asparagus is always a favorite -- blanched and tossed in olive oil, sea salt and ground black pepper before finishing on the gas grill.
We had a bottle of 2006 Cono Sur Gewurztraminer (Casablanca Valley, Chile) with dinner. We discovered this winery through their reasonably priced Cabernet Sauvignon (a steal at $7.50), which we bought by the case for some time. The moderating effects of the coastal breezes and the Chilean Andes provide good growing conditions for a wide range of grapes, and it turns out they make a nice pinot noir and, a surprise for us, a Gewurz that is both crisp and flowery with strong citrus and perfumy aromatics in good balance. We got this bottle a few times for $7 at our local Shaw's supermarket, which turned out to be a pricing mistake on their part, but it's still worth the corrected price of $14. It paired beautifully with the citrus and cilantro in the chicken, although I thought it didn't work so well with the smoky, creamy flavor of the grilled asparagus. Live and learn...
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