You may recall that I told you a few weeks ago that I’m trying to learn more about wine, especially how to pair wine with food. Many of you gave me some great resources – Thank You! I also recently received an invitation to attend a Macy’s Culinary Council event featuring Andrea Robinson, renowned Master Sommelier, author and chef. Just what I needed. (I also got to meet Melissa!)

I can say, without a doubt, that I loved Andrea Robinson. She was engaging and warm without an inkling of being haughty.

I really appreciated her “rules,” the first being that there are no “rules” when it comes to pairing food and wine.

it’s not the protein, it’s the prep that you are matching

body with body – to acheive balance

pair intense herbs with intense, big reds

the fermentation element in foods (vinegar, cured meat, etc.) pairs well with the fermentation process that wine undergoes

everything goes with bubbles

In addition to being one of 16 female Master Sommeliers, she is the author of a number of books on wine and food, (I purchased Great Wine Made Simple), chef and most recently, the developer of a new set of wine glasses, The One. She prepared some delicious food to go along with some delicious wines for us to sample!

First was an edamame pesto that I will be making soon, it was delicious and fresh-tasting. The St. Supéry Sauvingon Blanc that was paired along with it was excellent as well. It was delightfully citrusy and refreshing on a 90 degree day. This pairing was an example of the similar fermentation elements between food and wine (ie. the toasted sesame oil and wine both being aged in a barrel)

While the proscuitto & sage crusted pork was very good, it was the last dish she made that I’m still thinking about. Skeptics of the world, the chocolate & chorizo toasts were my favorite of the evening. Salty & Sweet is a combination I’m sure I’ll never grow tired of, but the creamy chocolate with salty chorizo was the ultimate of sweet & salty. I can’t wait to make this again…I’ve just got to find a crowd with an open mind. Any takers?

A topic I’ve been longing to learn more about is wine and of course along with that comes wine and food pairings. While I can easily say that wine is my favorite liquid, I will admit that it is something I don’t know much about. I’ve got books, I’ve got a BF who sold wine for a short stint and yet I can barely determine if something is ”oaky” or not.  But what I do know? I know that a vinho verde tastes just perfect with peaches & pancetta.

With a short ingredient list and the use of cured pork I was sold on this recipe when I came across it on the Food & Wine website. Although I’m almost convinced you could wrap anything in pancetta and it would turn out delicious.  

And until my wine palette is more refined, I’ll just have to stick with what tastes good. I think I can handle that.

Pancetta -Wrapped Peaches from Food & Wine, serves 4 as an appetizer

• 2 ripe peaches, sliced into wedges
• a few basil leaves, torn into about 12 pieces
• 12 slices pancetta

Roll pancetta in half. Place basil leaf and peach on one end and wrap pancetta around peach. Fasten with a toothpick if necessary.

Coat pan with cooking spray. Heat to medium-high heat. Add peaches and cook on both sides until pancetta is crispy. 

Serve!

Do you know of any good wine resources to help me out?

Still need some menu ideas for 4th of July celebrations? Look no further! I’ve rounded up some of my favorite recipes along with others from the blog world!

Appetizers:

Guacamole with Basil & Shallots

Roasted Vegetable Cheese Spread

Cheese Filled Endeive Leaves from MommyRD

Main:

Chicken Satay with Coconut Peanut Sauce

Grilled Pizzas from Fake Food Free

Prosciutto Chihuahua Panini from Eating for England

Sides:

Artichoke Ravioli Pasta Salad

Greek Potato Salad

Arugula & Apple Salad

Lynn’s Cabbage Slaw with Mango from The Actors Diet

Drinks:

White Wine Mojito

Pomegranate Champagne - add some blueberries for the 4th!

Desserts:

Strawberry & Mascarpone-filled Cupcakes

Banana & Blueberry Popsicles – perfect for little ones – from Weekly Bite

What’s on your weekend menu? If you have some good recipes,  please share below with a link!  Have a safe & happy 4th!

By no means am I claiming to be an expert, but throwing and attending cocktail parties is one of my favorite things to do! I think it has a little to do with my love for hors d’oeuvres but it can also be easy to build a healthy meal with cocktail party fare, while enjoying delicious food and great company.

Choosing the Menu:

• Cheese Tray
• Vegetable of some kind
• Bread and Crackers for dips
• Protein or something substantial
• Healthy Fats like olives or curried pecans

Choosing your Cocktails:

• Red and White Wine
• Microbrews
• Signature Cocktail

Setting Everything Up:

• Fresh flowers are a must!
• Set aside a specific bar area: glasses, bottle openers, wine, pitcher of signature cocktail, ice, etc.
• Have 2 or 3 different food areas so the guests can mingle
• Area of plates, napkins and necessary utensils

Planning Ahead:

• Choose things that can be made ahead and don’t need to be served immediately as they will be sitting out for a few hours
• Make everything as much ahead as you can and give yourself an hour for last minute things that will come up (they always do)
• Make a great playlist
• Have your friends help!

Make sure to have fun! That is the whole point after-all, isn’t it?

What are your tips for throwing a great party?

A few years back, I met the tasters sister Amy at a great little wine bar in Chicago and one of the items that we had was butter with various salts. I’ve never forgotten how delicious it was and I’ve been building my salt collection ever since. When the truffle salt made its way into my collection, I knew I was ready for my own butter and salt experience.

The concept is simple and the preparation is minimal – simply sprinkle the salt over pieces of high-quality butter and serve with bread or crackers. Wine is optional but highly recommended Although I love red, I think a crisp white would pair beautifully with the saltiness and creamy butter.

Left to right: Truffle Salt, Himalayan Sea Salt, Smoked Sea Salt, Citrus Sea Salt

The trip to Colorado was a wonderful one! The taster and I walked around Denver so much that my legs actually hurt! (Sedentary job much?) The food was fantastic, some interesting drinks were had (a cucumber mojito that will have to be re-created) and I love that flip flops and a fleece are totally acceptable for pretty much everything! I’ll spare you every last detail and get right to my favorites:

Dinner at Rioja was amazing to say the least. It was recommended to us by friends and we would have gone back every night if not for the sake of variety. My favorite was the paella gnocchi: “rice crusted saffron gnocchi, PEI mussels, Hawaiin blue prawn, calamari, orange scented chicken sausage, artichoke hearts, smoked paprika tomato broth.” Could be a strong contender for the best thing I ever ate.

Daily trips to Larimer Square (Mary Beth I thought you would like the anthro-like banners in the street)

Rockies Game

Pictures around Denver

Day trip to Estes Park

Fondue & Flowers in Boulder, which I’m convinced is the hippiest city ever, in addition to being the home of many of my favorite food brands: Justin’s Nut Butter, Simply Boulder Sauces, Skinny Crisps, Celestial Seasonings, etc…

Red Rocks Amphitheater and some very necessary stair-climbing.

The Denver Art Museum

Ever since my friend Mercedes introduced me to Valdoro Prosecco a few weeks ago, I have been finding myself straying from the beloved red for the crisp, fresh bubbly.  Now don’t get me wrong, I would never leave red behind, but I know I will be enjoying some more prosecco on the up-coming summer nights.

Prosecco is a dry sparkling wine from the prosecco grape (grown in the Veneto region of Italy).

I love it on its own, but I also love adding some fruit to my bubbles every now and then. Mixing some prosecco with a splash of juice proved to be delicious, extra-pink, pretty & full of antioxidants. (Ok, full of might be a stretch)

Prosecco Cocktail:

• 1 part Bossa Nova mangosteen & dragonfruit juice
• 4 parts prosecco
• frozen berries, if desired

Here is a toast to Friday and the weekend!

For the tasters Birthday he decided on a new restaurant in our neighborhood called The Butcher Block. “Where meat is our passion; organic, grass-fed & sustainable are our principles; and serving great-tasting food – with or without meat – is our priority.” And meat we had. I love the more “traditional” Italian restaurants complete with separate courses of chewy pasta and tender meat. The prices were very reasonable and they had a number of bottles of wine for $15. So we had a $15 bottle of Chianti. Was it the best bottle of wine I’ve ever had? Obvy not but I’m no wine snob so it worked.

Get ready for a ridiculous amount of food. I’m just warning

Grilled Octopus: Haven’t had this since Greece and while we are sadly no where near the ocean here in MN, it was surprisingly good. It pretty much melted.

Romanesca Salad: Romaine, cucumber, tomato, anchovy vinaigrette – some greens were definitely needed in this meat-centric meal.

Lamb Sausage: this is freshly ground and prepared on-site and it is to. die. for. literally. The taster and I were dreaming of putting this on pizza and pretty much just eating it as often as possible.

Fettuccine alla Bolognese: ground pork and beef, tomato – definitely not something I would generally order but it wasn’t my birthday This dish was so straight-forwardly delicious- nothing fancy here and nothing fancy needed.

Pork & Ricotta Meatballs: we ordered these along with pasta (why? I’m still not really sure) but they were amazing none the less

While we have already tried about 3/4 of the menu, I can’t wait to get back to the Butcher Block. Who knows, maybe once it thaws we can actually walk there!

the favorite birthday present

This recipe, as like many, caught my eye when I came across it in Food & Wine. (August 2009)  (PS.  What am I going to do without Gourmet? Kind of depressed about it) Anyway, with all recipes that catch my eye, I daintily rip out the recipe and save in my “recipe folder”.  And as you can see I’m still in August recipes so I’m a bit behind. Now I usually don’t really follow these recipes but rather use them as inspiration (and so I don’t forget). This immediately sounded good to me but I must admit, while I was putting it together I was thinking that it might be a bit bland. The flavors so simple. The seasonings so sparse. But as I bit into the chewy pasta and crunchy garlic chips and sage I quickly forgot about this being bland…

Recipe:

Prepare pasta as directed. I wanted to get some extra-special pasta since this was such a simple dish. I found some Egg Noodles that are actually made in Chisholm, Minnesota. (Anyone ever heard of Chisholm before??) They were supposed to be similar to home-made noodles, which I think they were….but then again I’ve never made home-made pasta so who am I to judge?

Heat about 3 Tbsp of butter in pan and throw in about 3/4 cup whole sage leaves and sliced garlic (3 cloves worth). Season with salt and pepper and let sizzle for about 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Save yummy butter mixture.

Toss butter mixture with 1/4 cup saved pasta cooking liquid and pasta. Serve onto plates, grate with cheese and sprinkle with sage and garlic. Eat. It. Up.

Cheese: I used a Pecorino Pepato. “Produced on the island of Sardinia, this young sheep’s milk cheese is seasoned with black peppercorns”. I would dare myself to go to Surdyk’s and not spend $35 in the cheese shop but I know that is just not realistic. I like to trick myself and the taster.

Me: We should probably stop by Surdyk’s. I’m out of wine.

Taster: ok.

Me: (on the way in) We better stop into the Cheese shop. You know, in case they have anything that is really new and exciting….

Taster: done.

He is easily persuaded can you tell?

Just in case you all were worried, I did manage to sneak in some veggies to the meal. Asparagus was the veggie of choice and is one of our faves. Simply sauteed in some olive oil and garlic. The perfect accompaniment to the perfect pasta.

I. love. sushi. If I could, I would be fine eating it every day for the rest of my life.  And while I am patiently waiting for someone to start making the sushi with brown rice in Minneapolis I guess I will just suffer through it for the time being  I guess it still has some great health benefits….

One of my favorite places in the cities for sushi is Fuji Ya. Now there are many great spots but this one has the BEST Spicy Salmon and Spicy Tuna and those are my favorite. I like sticking to the basics for most of the sushi and then getting one or two fun/interesting rolls to try.

The latest trip to Fuji Ya was for Megan’s Birthday (Holla Megan!) and we had a blast in the side room where you sit at a traditional table (you sit on the floor – and no shoes allowed in the room)

The food was as always amazing…

some miso soup – because i love it and needed a little bacteria in my life

spicy tuna, spicy salmon, caterpillar and tuna sashimi and an oily white fish sashimi (can’t remember, sorry!)

It was such a great night with friends and cake of course! Happy Birthday Megan!