it's a monday. so here's a mealtime madness post.

(possibly with a little more madness than mealtime)

I travelled around a bit as an exchange student in college.  Then, addicted to travelling, I continued to fly over the ocean until I got married and had kids.  Now I'm afraid to fly.  How does my family life affect my travelling, you ask?  I'll tell you.  (This is Christy's post, I might as well warn you now.  I'm the babbler long-winded one of the two of us, so you can skip skim the post (I said SKIM, not skip) for the least dorky interesting parts (of COURSE there will be an interesting part) or just go straight to the recipe. If my four year old will eat it, anyone will eat it--and enjoy it, I might add.) 

As I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, I no longer fly because I'm afraid I'll get in a plane crash. After the birth of my first son, while I was still in the hospital after having him, I had the most vivid dream I'd ever had.  In it, I sat in an airplane with my husband and child while the plane dove into an ocean. I can still see the scene. The thought of crashing with my children on a plane with me is unbearable.  The thought of crashing in a plane without my children, leaving them behind, is also unbearable.  I know there are many other accidents  and illnesses that can have the same effect.  This, for me, is just one of those phobias I haven't gotten over yet.  We've flown with our kids, but not over an ocean and not often.


this is harlaxton manor and the naked mile that
stretches out in front of it. 
yeah, we ran it naked.
(see the post for the part where
 i mentioned we drank a lot of beer)

 If you're skipping skimming until you get to the recipe, then keep scrolling because I'm still babbling discussing my travels in this paragraph.  I studied overseas my sophomore year in college.  Where?  Well, have you ever seen the movie The Haunting?  With Catherine Zeta Jones and Liam Neeson?  They filmed it the semester (or maybe two semesters) after I left the campus I lived on while studying in in Grantham, England (where Isaac Newton grew up). If you've seen the movie, you may remember the manor the film was set in.  We lived in that very manor.  (Not in a traditional British home with a British family.)

(i'm still on the topic of my studies travels  drinking beer in college, meaning-scroll on if you must) So, basically, I lived with 40 Americans while learning about England's history (from British and Scottish professors) and travelling around on weekends.  We truly learned a lot. About drinking good beer.  (I gained 12 pounds while there.)  (We were only 20 at the time. House parties in the US only offered Busch and wop and jello shots in one hundred year old basements.)

If you haven't seen the movie, it may very well be due to the fact that it came out at about the same time as The Blair Woods Project.  (My husband and I watched the history channel recently and learned all about the history of Halloween, including the histories of many scary movies.)

(getting very, very close to the food portion of this post) So, I've had lager in England, wine in France and Italy, beer in Germany and Canada and Ireland and Scotland and Austria, and Tequila in Mexico.

My point?  I've never been to Argentina, but have recently declared it my next vacation destination.  Why?  The other night I watched Dancing With the Stars and decided the Argentine Tango is my favorite dance.  AND, most importantly, my favorite, newly discovered wine is from Argentina.  MALBEC.  It's the smoothest red wine I've ever had.  Diseno is my favorite brand of Malbec.  It finishes with a hint of mocha.  MMMM.  (This is probably not the best way to decide which country to visit next, but the backs of wine bottles make the countryside sound delightful.)

(um,just to be clear, i don't excessively drink alcohol.  i did many, many other culturally relevant things in each of those countries besides drink alcohol.  after reviewing this post, however, i may agree with you that i may be a parenthesisaholic, however.)

And this FINALLY brings us to the real purpose of this post.  So, if you were skipping everything else, (yeah, I can be a realist) STOP HERE.  Pair tonight's menu item with a great glass of Malbec.

Porkchops.








(note the link...and click)
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while you cook, drink, and/or eat enjoy a little present from me to you