A Girl Named Timi

The King and His Wine

There once was a King. His name was King Nuckinfuts. He was the King of B'Land.

One day back in the fall, The King went on a wine tour with The King and Queen of WSU (and Bejeweled) and other royalty friends for Queen WSU's 40th birthday.

King Nuckinfuts had a little too much to drink on that fun wine tour. He got caught up in all the excitement. He bought A LOT of wine and signed up for every wine club this side of the Mississippi.
The King didn't care that his beloved B'Land was in a recession. Which to this day he reminds The Queen everyday so that she won't spend his fortune on silly items like food, clothing, and pedicures.

When the King married the Queen he acquired a lovely wrought iron wine rack. The Queen brought this with her to the marriage and she loved it. Even though it wasn't the best for storage of The King's fancy expensive wine, (The Queen liked 2 Buck Chuck and it was fine for that) he tolerated it.

The beautiful wrought iron wine rack

The King dreamed of a refrigerated storage that would fit in to this useless wasted space in the castle's kitchen

The King was thinking that maybe he could find a small "under-the-counter" wine cooler and find some place else for storing potatoes, onions and Franklin's food dishes.

One day The Queen was at Macy's spending The King's money when she came across a small 20 bottle wine cooler. The measurements were perfect for under the counter in that useless space. Not only was it perfect in size but it was a smoking deal!

The Queen bought it!

The King was so very excited. Not only had The Queen saved him a butt load of money but now he would have his wine cooler for his fancy bottles of wine.

The King and Queen brought the cooler home, took it out of the box and put it under the counter.

It looked stupid! Too small, too close to the ground, door didn't open right, just dumb looking in that space. We tried the counter top. Too big for the counter top. The next step putting it on the floor in the dining room.

Still too small!

It needed to be up on a table or something. The King decided that Queen would find something fabulous for it to sit on later. In the mean time he would load his wine in the cooler.

So The King emptied the beautiful wrought iron wine rack on to the dining room table. Then he went to the garage to get his cases.............yes I said cases of wine he had been hiding out there. Hiding so The Queen wouldn't know just how crazy he had gotten with the wine buying.

Baer Winery , Sweet Cheeks and Brian Carter are The King's favorites. Well that is what the Queen is guessing since that is what there is the most of.

The King's secret is out. He's a wine hoarder.

So The King works for hours deciding what wine is going to go in the cooler and what wasn't worthy. After being in the dining room agonizing for hours the conclusion was.......................................

The purchase of the wine cooler was not such a hot buy because it's way too small. So The Queen says "pack it back up and take it back and just go buy the cooler you want"

The Queen is good that way

The King is delighted! The next day The King loads up the small wine cooler and takes The Queen to town to look for a bigger one.

The King finds one he likes and wants but doesn't want to pay the money for it because................we are in a recession ya know!

So The Queen works her bargain magic and The King gets a new fancy top of the line 38 bottle wine cooler for the price of the small one .

The Queen ROCKS!

So here is The Kings new fancy wine cooler.

It's a good thing The King bought this one, he actually could have bought an even bigger one and it would have been fine.

As The King was headed home with his new fancy wine cooler he said to The Queen "I need to stop one more place on the way home" The Queen "ok, where?"

The King acting all embarrassed and not really wanting to tell The Queen turns to The Queen "Brian Carter winery, I have to pick up my wine club order"

This is why all kingdoms are ran by The Queen!

You let The King out unsupervised for just a moment and everything is mayhem! The King now has more wine than he will ever drink in a life time. The new month means more new wine from one of the many wine clubs The King signed up for.

The Queen has ordered The King to host a party!

Note*** The plywood board under the cooler isn't going to stay that way. It doesn't go with The Queens decorating taste.

On another note....................................................

When I was getting that smokin deal on the wine cooler I also got this new Martha Stewart cast iron Dutch Oven.I love my 5 quart pot that I got for Christmas. I use it more than I ever thought I would. When I saw these on sale I caved and bought one.

I was excited to use it.

I tore myself away from Bejeweled long enough to cook a chicken. I have been reading a French Cookbook and found some recipes for roasted chicken in a Dutch oven that sounded really good. I liked this one I found on line that sounded better so I tried it. It was super easy and turned out fabulous! The Hubs has been asking for it again.

Then I decided to get really creative.

I made mashed potatoes with white truffle oil.

I received this truffle oil as a gift and had never used it or known what to use it with. So I started doing some research. Mashed potatoes seemed like the easiest to start with.

I just made mashed potatoes as usual. Then at the end I put VERY VERY little oil in them and mixed. White truffle oil has a peppery taste to it and a little bit goes a long long ways. They were very good! I will be looking for more recipes using truffle oil.

From there I went crazy with this menu

Brussel sprouts with bacon and caramelized onions. They were really good.

Gravy for the potatoes.

I'm a good gravy maker but this was defiantly some of my finest yet.

WINNER - WINNER!!! CHICKEN DINNER!!!

My fancy chicken dinner. Fit for a king!

Afterwards The Hubs picked the meat off the bones so we could make chicken stock out of it. I got about 12 cups of chicken stock. Put it in 1 cup containers and froze it. This will be great in soups, rice, and whatever later.

My Grandmother would be so proud of me for using everything. Even Charlie and Franklin got a little dinner out of this.

It's amazing what can happen when I get away from the computer!