Grapes and Gripes

Why is it impossible to buy a bottle of wine under $12 that doesn’t taste like reinforced Manishevitz? Is anyone else sick to death of the headache inducing combo of Petit Syrah and Grenache? Is there any economical red that doesn’t taste “jammy”?!

Case in point. Last night, we tried the Cycles Gladiator 2005 Central Coast Merlot because it won a number of awards, including one in France, a country we considered relatively immune to the Cheapo Shiraz virus. Et beh, non! Welcome to the wino-cherry of the elephant millennium. Even diluted, it was undrinkable. Even an hour after receiving a letter that we owe massive back taxes for 2006, it was still undrinkable. Now that’s a bad wine.

Got good vino recs for a limited cash flow? Please write in.

Last gripe of the morning- unwatchable Netflix DVDs. Every movie we’ve been getting recently has been a stuttering disaster. Step it up a notch, Netshitz. Beaver knows she’s not the only one to rent “This Film is Not Yet Rated”, but a lot of people have crumbs in their machines. It’s time to replace your achy-breaky copies!

The Academy would like to thank:

Bizalions of Great Barrington for its country pâté, its authentic French bread and its palatable selection of imported olive oils. www.bizalions.com

The Berkshire South Regional Community Center for giving La Beav and her Domo a 70% discount to get their hides into shape. Thank you, Mimi, for your voluptuous sense of humor. It’s fun to yoga with Domo! www.berkshiresouth.org

Thank you, Tuckers Pub, for serving the cheapest, coldest beer in the Berkshires, for always seating us next to the fire and for frying up bad French fries with nothing but good cheer. Sandisfield, 413.258.4945

Hooray for The Other Brother Darryl’s Fish Market with their wholesale prices, take-out fish & chips and for not making fun of Beaver and Domo when they ordered 5 pounds of mussels for two and ate them all up. 276 North Main Road, Otis 413.269.7611

You’re pretentious and you make us wait in line for miniature eternities, but damnit, Janet, Rubi’s makes the best lattés in town. 264 Main Street, Great Barrington, 413.528.0488

A new discovery is the Log House Restaurant in Barkhamsted. The waitresses have perms, the coffee is terrible, the omelettes are supersized and the hash browns do you right. 110 New Hartford Rd., Barkhamsted, CT 860.379.8937

Thank you, Eaglewood Farms-- Keep up with the kielbasa. This small farm is doing wonderfully humane things with meat, though the USDA is trying their hardest to get them to stop. 325 New Hartford Rd, Barkhamsted, CT 860.379.5978

Thank you, Thursday bartender at The Old Inn on the Green. You made little Beaver a real deal whiskey sour. www.oldinn.com

And lastly, thank you fellow members of Little Bully Media for making the exodus from Brooklyn. If we build it, they will come. www.littlebullymedia.com

Making it through winter

Hair long enough for pigtails, Michel Polnareff's high warble on the long stretch between Great Barrington and home, extreme sledding, Mexican hot chocolate, Mexico, tout court, novels and books about meat.

Plumbers charging less than they said they would, the boiler almost breaking, but not quite, less wine, better bottles, rediscovering tequila, Bikram yoga, the swimming pool, the sauna.

The smell of lavender, leafy greens forever, karaoke, mid-week sleepovers, felt-covered hot water bottles, dinner by the fire, pâté, dark chocolate. Unexpected letters arriving in the mail.

And, we're back

A New Year, a new vibe.
The Little Red House is going vrai, vraisemblable, more realistic, if you like.
We'll be exploring some true-to-life things in this, the one-year anniversary of the purchase of our home.

We'll talk renovations, wine, salumi, good restaurants, bad restaurants, explore capricious fitness attempts and explain how, and if, we are managing to stay alive in the great green wilderness of the Berkshires on a monthly income that's too low to print.

Stay tuned, stay with us. The Little Red House is coming out of hibernation in a rambunctious new way.

A long-awaited outing into the Berkshire night

One can’t help but wonder why copper casseroles have become the de facto image for French restaurants in America. Domo is skeptical, but Beaver has faith; tonight they will sample the best French restaurant in the Berkshires. The wine list is impressive, the occasion is a birthday, and the Maitre d' has outdone herself with the jubilatory scamperings behind the celebration. But the bistro is named a somewhat perfunctory “Chez Nous”, and they’ve elected those damn casseroles for their tawdry signage. It awaits to be seen what they can do on the stove.

Monster de gateaux

This astonishing piece of shocking gastronomy just in: Domo is up to one packet of cookies a day. After discovering a delectable hamlet in North Lee where his very favorite cookies are sold at a discount, the little animal has become an unstoppable mangeur de gateaux. Beaver doesn't have the heart to hide them, as the benefits of this most American treat seem to outweigh their potential hazard. A cookie a day keeps the doctor away. Six cookies a day? She'll have to keep him on a strict diet of winter wood chopping.

Tag sale, ti amo

The site of the blue truck and the wooden black bear that Beaver thought was real until the day the fog lifted...she was called to them today, called towards their estate sale.

Antique milk crates and Fiestaware and stationary bikes galore!Is there any better way to spend a crisp and windy Sunday than to go a'tag-saling in picturesque Colebrook?

School desks, ironing boards, doorknobs and spice racks. A thrilling host of thingamajigs laid out amongst the leaves.

Beaver came home with a vintage brown bike and visions of pumpkins spinning through her head. There are so many nice places to live on this planet, but the light of a Northeastern October is something to be reckoned with.

Pregnant with the melancholy fragrance of childhood, it transpierces everything. The light here, the light!