My three -year old in his “baseball ready” stance.

As most of you know, I recently started a new job and it certainly is a great change from my previous job, but that’s not what I am writing about here. The big change has been that I have been cooking a lot less. The onslaught of Little League Baseball has also played a major role (my wife and I were no where near prepared for the increased commitment involved when the younger also started to play) in limiting my time in the kitchen. 2-3 games and the same number of practices a week is running us ragged. Much has suffered, my writing, my cooking, my sanity.

Last night, though, I drew a line in the sand: I decided to make one of my favorites.

Paella.

I do not have a Spanish bone in my body as far as I know. Usually, I claim to be of either Serbian or Croatian descent, depending on which nationality is cooler at the moment. Growing up, I figured it was cooler to be Serbian since the Croats sided with the Nazis during WWII, but then the whole Slobadan Milosevic genocide tragedy made being Serbian decidedly uncool. Who knows what I really am other than an overeducated, hypercompetitive, pseudo-oenophile (I am sure many of you have additional answers to the query, but remember that my mom might one day stumble across this blog, so keep it clean!)?

Anyway, on to the meal. I have made paella several times so far, and luckily each edition has been better than the previous. This time, I decided to steam the mussels first before adding them. That might be cheating a bit, but the previous paellas all had undercooked mussels which makes eating them an adventure.

The wine. I do not have a ton of Spanish wine, but what I do have has turned out to be rather good. This was no exception. 2002 Celler Vall Llach Priorat Embruix: Retail ~$25. I paid $15 from an online auction. Wow this was fabulous. Still a dark red with a bit of browning (wine geek term: bricking) on the edges. I hate to say this (since it will seem like I am channeling an inner Gary Vaynerchuk), but on the nose it reminded me of the black cherry Kool-Aid I had when I was a kid (do they still make black cherry Kool-Aid?).  Also some mocha and vanilla in there, too. The wine was beautifully balanced and had a nice, long finish. 91-92 points. Outstanding.