Taking Stock of 2011: What I Missed

It's that time of year again: those last few days when work is slow, school is out and we've all got plenty of time to meditate on the year that's passed, and plan for the one coming up.

For me, this means it's also time to look back with regret on all the posts that went unwritten in 2011 - when my busy work schedule and busy kid schedule kept me from blogging a whole lot. I didn't write at all about the amazing Black Ankle wine dinner we had at Crush. Meeting owner Ed Boyce was a highlight - he's a total inspiration. He and his wife, Sarah O'Herron, make high quality, Bordeaux-style wine in Maryland - proving it can be done. Meeting Ed was a great reminder that in most cases, if you're smart, work hard and take risks, it's possible to create something excellent. Plus, dinner was delicious.

I didn't write nearly enough about Jeff and Christine's wedding at the beach, where Christine's attention to detail, combined with seriously incredible bartenders, made for a weekend that was gorgeous and also a total blast.

Cooper, Kyle and me at Jeff and Christine's reception. Not pictured: Cooper's
orange pants. They are AWESOME.

Christine took this picture at the rest of us at Doc Frank. Good times,
despite the rain.

I glossed right over our trip to Keuka Lake in October, when Cooper, Alicia, Mike, Jeff, Christine and I wine-tasted our way around the lake one super-rainy Saturday. We started out with an excellent lunch at Bully Hill, where the wine isn't so good, but everything that comes out of the giant smoker definitely is. Then we hit Dr. Konstantin Frank and Heron Hill before driving around the lake to Keuka Spring and Rooster Hill. Our favorite - a surprise to everyone - was Keuka Spring, a smaller, family-owned spot that tends to fly under the Finger Lakes wine radar.

The bar (AKA Dixon's dresser, moved into the dining room and covered
fabric left over from that big party we had in October 2010.

I barely posted about our annual Mock Thanksgiving party, which this year was an adults-only cocktail party, with oysters, sweet potato ham biscuits, turkey-stuffing-cranberry sliders and a powerful pomegranate-orange champagne cocktail. All of that required a lot of time in the kitchen - and a lot of help from Tommy Sheldon, who is a solid photographer/sous chef. (Alicia provided some fabulous cupcakes, too, of course, and Tommy also made some incredible pralines for dessert.)

And I completely missed posting about the annual 5th annual holiday Carol & Crawl. This is a party that's been evolving over time - it went from four houses the first year, to five (including a whiskey bar that, well, let's just say that year was a little crazy), down to three houses the third year, then to a bar last year. This year, the whole group decided to ditch the progressive part of the party. It was hosted by Kyle, Mary, Bill, Mike and Alicia, but the whole thing took place at the Barger's house - as a pinot noir tasting competition. Kyle and Mary's wine (Aqua Pumpkin) won, but that's still in dispute, since nobody got more than three votes and there's a chance Kyle stacked the votes. Maybe.

At any rate, it was a great party, which ended very late with lots of very bad dancing.

My favorite picture from the Carol & Crawl - I think it really captures
the spirit of the end of the night.

On top of all of these posts-not-written, I neglected to write about a few very satisfying dinners: a couple at Petit Louis, at least one at demi (where we're having New Year's Eve dinner, as well), and a million at Clementine, which has become our weeknight go-to, thanks to its kid-friendliness (and general friendliness...and, of course, the food). And I could've written more about our trips to Chicago (two in one year!) and the serious workout Cooper gave his smoker. I had a pretty good year - it's a shame I barely wrote about it.

I'm still working on my blogging plans for 2012, but it's safe to say that one of my goals is to actually blog about the stuff I do!