Major Clipton: “Are they both mad? Or am I going mad? Or is it the sun?  Another day in someone’s version of utopia and we are making the most of it.  I have been in a funk, but I think that I am working it out, the best that I can, as I talk to others and read other people that are in places much darker compared to me.  I saw a meme that asked “Remember when you wanted a longer weekend, well are you happy now?”  I guess everyone is kind of getting a taste of retirement, though my Bride, is really one of the lucky ones, as she is logging in everyday, contacting her people, her accounts and everyone else, as if she is still at the office.  We even wait until her work day is finished before we go out for our daily walk, though I have been doing more exercises in-house to off set the fact that I had just joined a spa, just as they all had to close, it was almost as if it was the proverbial New Year’s Resolution happened with out asking me. 

I donned my chef’s whites for another venture into the kitchen, in spite of the fact that my Bride claims that all of my dishes taste the same, they don’t really, but they all kind of start off on the same principals, because of back when I used to prepare a week’s worth of dinners on a Sunday afternoon.  I was going to make Chili, I guess with an Armenian twist to it.  Actually, it started off the same way as my Sauce Bolognese, but then makes a turn into Southwest Detroit for a different set of spices and heat.  The best part is that just about everything was found in the two pantries in the house, that we have been slowly raiding and I hate to say, that we can probably survive in our situation for some time to come, though I really miss going out to a restaurant.  I can’t describe what my Chili is, but I know that it isn’t the type of Chili one would get at a Coney Island in Detroit, and it is not the Chili that one would get at their local Mexican or Tex-Mex eatery either.  It has  onions, garlic, beans and a ton of South of the Border spices along with some other spices just to change it up a bit, including some ground Mustard, only because whenever I taste Chili, I always seem to envision that spice, and I know it is odd.   Also, I thought we needed an eclectic assortment of dinners while we are sheltering at home.

We are out of Margarita Mix, which is preferably my first choice for a beverage when I am having this type of dinner, so I had to rummage around, and I really didn’t have to rummage around much.  I know that it will always make my Bride’s day when she sees the brass chicken wire enclosure around the bottle.  I am talking about the legendary Herederos del Marques de Riscal Rioja Reserva and this wine was Vintage 2012, probably the one Rioja that I have had more of, than any other wine from Spain and it was even accessible back in the early ages when I first discovered wine.  This wine was founded in 1858 by a Spanish diplomat that had lived in Bordeaux and he brought back some concepts that were probably a bit heretical in the day.  The wine became so popular that the wire mesh was the way to insure the quality of the wine, and in fact part of the label was glued to the mesh, now the mesh is just a quaint tradition that is maintained, and I might add that this winery has a fantastic library of their wines going back to the very early days and the wines are still reported as glorious when opened.  The Marques de Riscal is the majority shareholder and winemaker of the company to this day.  This wine is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo.  The wine is aged for twelve months in barrels and then is aged an additional three years in the bottle, before it is released, because it is a Reserva.  I know that the wine has a big production, but over the years, I have never had a bad bottle, no matter the vintage, so it is a trusty old friend and one that I can tout to those interested in trying a bottle of wine, as I think it is a great starting point.