The Wine. Last we all got together for dinner we were treated to a wine by a gentleman who cellars here and who also makes very good wine from berries and such indigenous to his home Norway. Last summer we enjoyed the wine made from kumquats, and here we collectively enjoyed this current donation to the cause. In fact, there was a collective gasp, a collective "wow" from everyone, and I was not at all jealous for it, it was a very wow moment. This is a remarkably jammy glass of wine, restrained at just the right moment. Very fresh, very alive, fitting perfectly into the theme of the evening.Aronia Melanocarpa translated to 'chokeberries,' native to North America as well as Norway and other places. They are currently being studied for their very dense antioxidant quality.
Ripsbaer is so Norwegian I had to Google it in Norwegian and then translate the page back to English. It's a red berry that is part of the Rips family, also called or part of the gooseberry family. Outside of that you're on your own.
The other science experiment. We had split success on this one. Somewhere in all the yogurt stuff I stumbled onto this, roasted feta cheese with thyme-honey, which sounds amazing. So I got some thyme, which is why it's suddenly showing up in everything, it's on my counter so I end up grabbing it every meal. But we haven't cracked the roasted feta code yet, as you can see by the photo. Looks like raw feta, and it pretty much was. still tasted good, though, with the thyme honey, pistachios, and fresh mint.
The conversation. Remember pet rocks? Think we can revive that with free-range rocks?