The day before yesterday, our close friend Sharon, who is the author of
Phoenix Daily Photo, posted photos of our dinner last Saturday night at our house, as an observance of her and my birthdays. She showed photos of the salad, entree and dessert.
But she overlooked the wine. Fine wine is an important complement to a good meal, of course. So we decided to have a bottle of wine that we have been saving for 7 or 8 years.
In 2006 Sharon travelled with Dave and me to visit Dave's son who lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and we took a trip to Mendoza, the Argentine wine country. We loved visiting the wineries in the region, and had some excellent meals as well. One of the wineries was LaGarde, and we bought some Henry 2002. We decided that our birthday dinner was a suitable time to open this bottle. The bottle was individually numbered, which is the reason for the second label below the main label.
Over the course of a long evening, we decided to open a bottle of dessert wine, and chose the Grgich Hills Violetta, shown in the second photo. The bottle did not have a label, as what you see in the photo was embedded in the glass of the bottle.
We have visited the Grgich Hills winery in Napa Valley several times, once for a special dinner with flights of their varietals in several successive years. The Grgich family was originally from Croatia, which has an excellent wine tradition, but which has not been marketed in the U.S. very much.
Our friend, Sharon, in addition to being an excellent cook, is also very knowledgeable about wine (and other subjects, especially art. She is also both an Anglophile and a Francophile). An evening with Sharon is guaranteed to be an enjoyable time with stimulating conversation.
This week we have photos of the colonial architecture of Grenada, Nicaragua, posted on our
Viva la Voyage travel photo site.
To add to the Thanksgiving weekend festivities, I thought you might enjoy the creativity of the carving of this pumpkin.
Here is a photo of the autumn soup we enjoyed while dining at Tru in Chicago.
Here is a photo of the delicious red chilis that are used to make delicious red chili sauce with burros, tacos, and enchiladas.
Here is a photo of a unique dish prepared at a restaurant.
And what is a baseball game without peanuts.
Happy Fourth of July!
The Royal Tea at the Phoenician consists of champagne and then a pot of tea that you select from a menu of at least nine different choices. I always get french vanilla. 
We enjoyed a camp fire and I could not resist taking an up close photo of the red fiery embers.
Arizona loves the heat! And, I don't just mean the temperature in the desert.
Tea at the Phoenician is always a first-rate and special experience. Our family regularly tries to have tea at the Phoenician for special occasions such as Mother's Day, birthdays, or just to catch up.
Finally you move to desserts. You can see the choices in the second photo. All heavenly. I often have to take my desserts home in a box and eat them for breakfast the next day. 
A favorite local food in Arizona is Indian Fry Bread. You can always find it at Native American festivals and events. 
Digestif has excellent Cal-Ital food with organic vegetables and farm to table meals. Digestif, as reflected by its name, is also known for its unique drinks. Digestif defines its offerings as "liqueur, frequently herb-based, meant for post-meal enjoyment to aid digestion including Fernet, Ramazzotti, Chartreuse, Lucid, Nardini, and Zwack." 
And one of the special liquors offered is absinthe or The Green Fairy (la fee verte). Absinthe has a very high alcohol content (45% to 74%), is generally green in color, and has a licorice/anise flavor. It does not taste strong like Ouzo from Greece, but is very smooth if served correctly. 
I was curious so I ordered the Pernod, which is a French absinthe. As you can see in the first photo, a pretty crystal glass container with ice and a spout was brought to the table, it is called an absinthe fountain. A glass of green absinthe is placed under the spout. As shown in the second photo, a silver slotted absinthe spoon is rested on top of the glass and a white sugar cube is placed on top of the spoon. Then, the spout is turned ever so slowly to drizzle onto the sugar cube and melt it into the absinthe along with adding water to evenly dilute the absinthe and allow the herbs in the liquor to come forth. Next, you sip slowly and enjoy. It was very smooth and enjoyable. The waiter had to remind me to drink it slowly as it had a very high alcohol content, which is not evident when you start drinking it. It was quite nice. I did not have a psychedelic experience though. 
As you may recall, absinthe was a favorite of Parisian artists and writers in the late 19th and early 20th Century, from Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Ernest Hemingway to name just a few. It was considered a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug and was banned in about 1915. Production for absinthe resumed in Europe in the 1990s and in the United Stated in 2007. The active chemical in absinthe is thujone.
There is nothing better than spending a morning at a local farmer's market. Last Saturday I had a great experience at the Old Town Scottsdale Farmer's Market. The food and ambience was wonderful.
I also bought a dozen tamales from the Tamale Store. The green corn/cream cheese and chicken/green chile tamales were heavenly. The cupcakes and homemade fudge were decadent.
