Boxes of Wine

Last Thursday night, I had dinner at my parents' house. After I finished my first glass of wine, my mom said, "Oh, we're out of bottles. We'll have to switch to the box." She gestured to the counter, where a box of Franzia chardonnay sat. I actually thought the box of Franzia was there as a joke.

So I switched to red and my mom called me a wine snob. Which is fine.

For the record, I am totally not against box wines, but I am against bad wine. And for me to call wine "bad", it has to be pretty horrendous. Really, I'm not a wine snob.

But I digress. As it turns out, that conversation provided some nice foreshadowing. The next day, DC Jason sent me (along with the other friends we email with) this article about cheap white wines, and our conversation quickly diverged into a discussion of the merits of box wine.

(Brief aside regarding that article: forgive me if I'm not convinced by the author's tone that cheap wines are really a great option. Why hire somebody so condescending to write an article like this one? They couldn't find wines they actually liked to recommend?)

Back to the wine chat. Our friend Matt pointed out the inherent "green" qualities of box wine. (Yes, I am annoying myself by using the word "green.") He's obviously on to something, as this short Mental Floss article and this longer Dr. Vino NYT Op-Ed suggest.

So what does this mean for my drinking habits? Well, probably not too much actually. I'm going to take to heart the comments of Mental Floss commenter "owl", who pointed out that the oak forests of the Mediterranean rely on cork harvesting to stay healthy. So unless I'm at my parents' house and they completely run out of wine, chances are I'm going to stick with the bottles.

**One last note: if I had plans to go camping anytime soon, I'd totally pack boxes of wine - or, at least, the bags from the inside of the boxes. However, since I don't really like camping, probably that's not going to happen either.

Green Issues

This has nothing to do with food, except in that I complained about it with respect to food magazines a while back.

I am so over the "green issue".

Apparently I'm not alone. Love this from The New Yorker.

(Also, and this is food-related. If you've got some time, read the rest of Cartoon Lounge. The sandwich wars make me laugh, too. It's all kind of McSweeneys-ish, but I still like that dry hipstery humor.)

Trendy: Preserve Kitchen Products

Not that you'd know it from reading any of the ten million "hot trends" lists that have been published over the past month, but the newest and coolest ideas in the kitchen aren't necessarily edible.

The line of Preserve products from Recycline (designed in partnership with Evo Design) are an ideal example. Innovatively designed and made from 100% recycled plastic, the line includes cutting boards, colanders and food storage containers.

While the trend here is that whole green thing...these caught my eye because they look cool, too. Which is, obviously, of paramount importance chez Pollard.

The Green Issue

We just got home from dinner and drinks with some of Cooper's cousins and I have settled into the sofa, glass of wine in hand and the brand new February issue of Bon Appetit on my lap.

I wasn't planning on doing any blogging tonight, but I couldn't even get past page nine of the magazine without dragging my laptop over to my, well, lap. And what's on page nine, you ask? The list of contributors.

I'll get into this a little more on Monday, but for the past week or so, I've been entrenched in "trends" and "hot for 2008" type lists. I can't say I've been wildly surprised by what tops the lists - meat, not meat, eco-whateverism, seasonal, local, local, local. What did just surprise me was that each of the five contributors profiled in BA represent one of those big, huge trends - and not much else.

Really, Bon Appetit? After a couple of years of having Michael Pollan and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall shoved down our foodie throats, your "feel good food" issue offers just more of the same? Not to make light of Pollan's and Fearnley-Whittingstall's contributions to the conversation, or to suggest that any of the articles aren't interesting and relevant (I haven't read them yet, obviously), but can't you give us something new?

Then, after reading the profiles, I had a hunch, so I flipped to the cover. Yep, right next to "Feel Good Food", there it was: "The Green Issue".

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for doing what we can to treat the environment with respect. Go Earth! Really. But it seems to me that every issue of every magazine I pick up is dubbed "the green issue". Why not just go green overall and skip the puffery? Add a little leaf to the corner of each page to remind us that you're printing on recycled paper or whatever, and feel free to include a regular column that focuses on eco-cuisine or -design or whatever-your-subject-is, but please, spare us "THE GREEN ISSUE".

I'm all worked up now, when all I wanted to do was have a drink and a little bit of a relaxing read.

Honestly, though, it's not that I don't want to read about local food or the glories of meat or the environmental benefits of vegetarianism (OK, maybe not that last one so much...). It's just that I'd really, really like to read something new, too. Bon Appetit is a good magazine. I guess I just shouldn't count on it for the truly cutting edge.

UPDATE: I've just been reminded, via the comments, that I meant to post an update this morning. I did read the whole magazine last night and, while I stand by my initial "not REALLY new enough" and "seriously, GREEN AGAIN?" frustrations, there were a couple of great articles and a ton of really fantastic-sounding (and approachable recipes). Most notably, Molly Wizenberg (aka blogger Orangette) debuts a monthly column, this one called "Why I'm Not a Vegetarian". It's funny and interesting and really solid and will probably be the first thing I read in the next issue. And I can't say it doesn't warm my heart to see a really good blogger get the props she deserves.