2009 recap

2009 was a lousy year for most people that I know, myself included. However, there were some highlights.

For food, this was a low key neighborhood and home cooking kind of year for me. With my Mariquita Mystery Box and chicken and egg (!!) CSA from Soul Food Farms, I did a lot more home cooking this year. I also canned, well, often. This year I have joined http://tigressinajam.blogspot.com/2010/01/welcome-to-tigress-can-jam.html
so I expect more canning to come. As for food highlight of the year, best meal, no contest was at Commis. The slow cooked egg alone was reason to visit, but the rest of the lovely food and service did not hurt. The other memorable meals were at the kind of neighborhood places that we all wish we could walk to: Pizzaiolo, Piccino, Gialina, Maverick, Beretta, etc. As I look at that list it seems to me it was a year of fried chicken and pizza. Hmm. . . Katie adds that for her the year's were silver dollar pancakes, hot chocolate, Piccino pizza and Soul Food scrambled eggs, served with home made toast and jam.

As for wine, the memories will be of a Terry Thiese tasting, Family Winemakers, Wine & Spirits Top 100 for large tastings. Of these, Donhoff, Moric and a Peay Syrah really stand out. Of course, if I had my notes at home and not at the office I could add more. Other memories will be of the Cobb Pinot we opened for Thanksgiving, Tablas Creek with Amy in Morro Bay, the rose champagne from last night, creative wines from Bonny Doon, the Navarro wine club, and the South African Syrahs from Twitter Taste Live. As always, the mixed case of rose from Kermit Lynch was a highlight.

This was also a year of cocktails. The scofflaw at Pizzaiolo was so good that we made our own grenadine. Early in the year, I experimented with Sazeracs, but by fall returned to the Manhattan, my favorite of the classic cocktails, made extra special with our own brandied cherries.

I imagine that next year this will be easier as I'll have a record here.