After a long boring winter, spring has me up and moving! I'm spending lots of time at the vineyard. I've been planting flowers, preparing for planting a large organic vegetable garden, and providing food when we have an event. We are making box lunches on weekends, and this last Saturday and Sunday, we had the veranda full of people enjoying the wine, the food and the beautiful weather!

This weekend is going to be special...Dennis has developed a new wine and we are releasing it on Saturday. It is Buffalo White, the perfect white wine for summertime!  Come out and join in the fun, we will be there!

If you come out Saturday afternoon, plan on going to Paola afterwards.  The 7 Somerset Ridge Painters will be participating in the Art Crawl from 5 to 9pm. We will be exhibiting our work at Molly's Table. It is a fun evening with Somerset Ridge wines and Molly's food....the art work is pretty special, too!

Now, here is a funny story....

It seems I have a dear friend or family member who feels I need to read a magazine called Women’s Health. I have received 3 issues in the last week and a half. I can guarantee you, I would not order this magazine for myself…. I am on the ugly side of 60; I have never thought of exercise as something I should try.


I remember back in 1988 or 89, my daughter was teaching a 6am aerobic class for the City of Overland Park. Cindy said to me “come on Mom, it will make you feel wonderful!” Then she followed up with “Just think, by 7am, the worst part of your day will be over!” I think I whined, pouted, possibly even begged for me to be “excused”, but there was simply no way Cindy would accept that. Next thing I knew, I was in sweats, headed to the Community Center for an Aerobics class. Good Grief, how do I get myself into these things?

Upon arrival, Cindy, in her cute little multi-colored spandex outfit and her little headset with microphone, told me (I was wearing a not-so-little and definitely not cute, baggy navy blue sweats) to take my borrowed workout pad to the back row. My immediate thought was “Thank God, no one will see me suffering!”

The music (not Glen Miller or Frank Sinatra) began making the gym walls throb with the beat. The 20 or so "fellow classmates" began following Cindy in their morning workout. They obviously had been there before.

I tried to hide behind a big guy so Cindy wouldn’t see me slacking off, but he kept moving back and forth, sideways, and I couldn’t move fast enough. I tried several of the “moves”, doing my best to keep up with the beat and the class. Oh my God, I couldn’t breathe! I kept looking at the big clock on the wall and what seemed like an hour and a half was in fact only 5 minutes. I considered throwing something at the clock, but it was covered with one of those wire cages. Finally, over the microphone, sent through the speakers, I heard my darling daughter say, “You’d better stop, Mom, lie down…and breathe!” Everyone in the class turned around and stared at me...I considered crying, but it passed. I coughed, gagged, sputtered...actually made quite a scene. Just as I was beginning to feel the spinning room slow down, there was that voice again...."Okay Mom, break is over!" I seem to remember saying something un-lady-like as I slowly pulled my painful body to a partially upright position. Only 45 minutes to go!

Sure enough, Cindy was right. By 7:00am, the worst part of my day was over, but for the next week, every muscle in my body screamed for mercy.

So, whoever sent me the magazine, I won't be taking up "spinning" or yoga, or any of the other forms of torture they suggest, but, Thank you, the recipes are great! In fact, one of my favorites from the latest issue is for Easy Affogato. I am a big fan of Kahlua!

Per serving:

½ tablespoon Kahlua

2 tablespoons hot espresso (or strong coffee)

½ cup frozen vanilla yogurt

Scoop frozen yogurt into a serving dish. Stir Kahlua into the espresso, then pour over the frozen yogurt. Serve immediately.

What a nice way to end the evening! Think I'll head into the kitchen......