Randomness: Pics of must try wines, invitations, organics, wheat free, and other stuff from the Minty house

For those of you who actually read this blog (all 3 of you including my Mom lol): LISTEN to me now, BELIEVE me later! You must must must get your hands on a bottle of the 07' Epiphany Revelation. It is A-MAY-ZIIIING! I bought it as a thank you gift for my Mama last month and we decided to open it last night with a few (incredible) free range steaks from El Rancho market and salad greens from my Mom's friend's garden. We were in looooove with it! With 59% Syrah, 35% Grenache, and 6% Petite Sirah it is a blend that fits perfectly together! At risk of sounding like a wine snob, it was sooo smooth but was very well structured and had such a great finish with that inky color from the Petite Sirah. Wine is nothing if not subjective, but for this Minty house, I tell you the Revelation was in fact a revelation in tastiness!

http://www.epiphanycellars.com/

Onto the next bit....

I got married years ago (8 coming up in the middle of July) and haven't been in touch with the wedding scene in quite sometime other than going to a friend's wedding here and there. SO recently my Mom and began to plan for my Pop's 80th b-day and were in need of some classy yet *cheap* invitations. I went into Michael's yesterday, 40% off coupon in hand, and was amazed when I stumbled upon the BRIDES collection of DIY invitations lining the shelves. Have you seen these things?? They come with everything included like thank you notes and matching programs. I remember paying an ungodly amount to have my wedding invites professionally done (because the DIY ones then were not "all that and a bag of potato chips" -Dr. Evil), and they looked HALF as nice as the ones on sale now 40 for $25!! I mean, who DOESN'T own a printer now to whip out their own at a fraaaaction of the cost!
They:
a) killed me in remembering how much I paid for mine
b) gave me the idea to use the more masculine looking ones as invites for my Pop's b-day
c) saved me a ton of money!

You don't believe me? Check 'em out if you haven't already: (Tino and Alissa I'm talking to you here!)

http://www.gartnerstudios.com/wedding/BRIDES%21%20Collection

Annnnddd moving along.....


 Today my Mom, Milana, and I took a trip to the New Frontiers Natural Market and gathered a cart-full of organic and good for you 'stuff' with the intent of whipping up some 2nd foods purees for the mini muffin. 3 bags of stuff and $85 bucks later we emerged triumphant in our quest. Organic is not cheap(!) but considering the fact that I would like to keep my baby pesticide free (she doesn't have bugs or plant diseases so why fill her up with chemicals?) I'm taking the plunge and attempting to buy everything as organic and hormone free as possible.

 OH and did I mention I now am supposed to cut WHEAT from my diet!?! After realizing that 'wheat free' basically means 'gluten free' (along with some other rarely eaten grains), I perused the store in hopes of finding SOMETHING edible.... well, I found like 5 things that looked appetizing.... quinoa pasta, sprouted bread (apparently that's ok because it's sprouted? whatever I'm just following the rules), wheatless flour for baking and cooking, and some other randomness. This is not going to be easy, and I will most likely fail miserably at it, but dammit if I'm not going to give it a shot!

 If you are wondering why I take on this masochistic venture, ask my Mother. According to her and her hippy friend's books/doctor, wheat is an enemy to my digestive system and blood type (type 0). This sounds insane, but after reading a bit of it I can see what it's saying. My digestive system hasn't evolved to handle wheat very well (along with a laundry list of other scrumptious favorites frequented in the American diet) and it causes problems when my body tries to break these things down. Thus it turns to a spare tire fitted lovingly around my middle and hangs there only to increase in size as I get older. Yay for me, such luck!

 I am not stupid, so do not think that I cannot clearly see that I also need to exercise more (working on that now), but supposedly this is something that will help tremendously in my getting healthy quest. Anyone ever heard of the blood type diet or followed it?? If so, please let me know your thoughts....unless your thoughts are that I am nuts, keep that to yourself haha. I would love to hear what you have to say about it though, so post post post!

And finally....

they should call blogs "rambles" instead because that is exactly what people do in them. You're welcome!

I will leave you with one last thing, a pic of my love noodle who is taking her barley 20 minute nap so I can throw this blog together. Thanks baby cakes mommy loves you!! ;)