A welcome home meal: grilled salmon with Sauvignon Blanc June 23, 2009

When Patrick is home on the weekends from his law internship, I like to make some nice meals and try new wines.

We recently bought a bottle of Murphy-Goode Sauvignon Blanc (The Fume) that we’ve been wanting to drink and I had some salmon to cook, so I decided to come up with a meal that would feature both.

Here’s what I made: caesar salad with whole wheat croutons and a light caesar dressing, grilled salmon with key lime butter and a dessert of grilled fruit with honey yogurt sauce.

Grilled salmon with key lime butter, caesar salad and Murphy-Goode Sauvignon Blanc

The wine really brought out some spiciness in the caesar dressing, which I liked. The citrus aroma of the Fume also went nicely with the key lime flavors of the salmon.

I got a nice taste  of grapefruit from the wine, and  I liked this Sauvignon Blanc better than another I drank recently – the 2007 Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc. The Murphy-Goode Fume has a better balance and palate to it and is my new Sauvignon Blanc of choice.

But the grilled fruit with yogurt sauce was not the best with the wine. Some of the grilled plums were a bit tart. The yogurt had some tartness of its own and when combined with the wine it was all a bit much.

So the dessert is not something I would repeat with this wine. It’s not that either one was bad – they just weren’t great together. And this Sauvignon Blanc deserves to go with something great!

A writer learns multimedia journalism… September 10, 2007

I started in journalism for the love of learning and writing. But journalism isn’t just a craft expressed in writing and photography anymore….it hasn’t been for quite some time. In newsrooms, journalists are engaging in training sessions to learn about recording and editing audio, making slide shows for the web and shooting and editing video. It often isn’t an option to be “just a writer” or “just a photographer” or even “just a copy editor” anymore.

So I’m jumping on the bandwagon of journalists embracing the new ways and taking a class called “Journalist’s Toolkit I.” So far, we’ve learned to record, edit and upload audio (I have to say, I did quite well, though the initial editing and uploading effort was a bit time consuming. I’m certain things will go more smoothly now that I’ve done it successfully.)

We’ve also had an extensive discussion of blogs, and, as you can see, I’ve learned to make one. Next we’re working on photography, and we’ll do some more assignments in blogging and audio as well. I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying the class. Maybe it’s because we’re putting lots of thought and discussion into the process, and we’ve seen some great examples of outstanding end products. 

People use fancy words like “multimedia” and “convergence,” which do aptly describe the new direction journalism is going, but really, it’s still all about telling people’s stories and keeping the public informed. These new forms give us fresh outlets of creativity and expression. They can complement a written article or a traditional photo in ways that provide readers and viewers with more understanding and a deeper appreciation of the issues and people at hand. So, while I will always be a writer at heart, I hope to become a great multimedia journalist, too.