Pairing Friends, Ribs & Wine
Wine Dinner Group Time The four-mutual-schedule gods finally approved and we had a date for our semi-regular wine dinner group. Summertime calls for the grill, and Bruce offered to make his favorite ribs from an Emeril Approved recipe. Sounded great! As the wine guy for our group, I have the challenge of finding a selection … Continue reading
#SauvBlancDay w/ Shrimp & Citrus Sauce
Happy #SauvBlancDay ! I have got to be crazy. Julie and I board an airplane to Europe this afternoon. We should’ve had takeout pizza last night. But today is #SauvBlancDay, and Sauvignon Blanc is Julie’s favorite wine. We joke that every day is #SauvBlancDay for her! I had to find an “easy, quick” recipe so … Continue reading
3 Rules for Wine Pairing with Turducken
Recently, I was contacted by Echelon Foods with a request to provide wine pairings for their Original Turducken. Never having prepared or eaten a Turducken before, I thought it sounded like fun! Julie and I prepared an early mini-holiday Turducken dinner. The question was: how does a Turducken differ from a traditional turkey dinner … Continue reading
Viognier & Spicy Food? – Shrimp Tacos
Viognier pairs with a number of interesting foods: Indian cuisine, curries, pork, chicken, anything in a cream sauce, moderately spicy foods. Today we’re testing Viognier with spicy foods. We’re also trying inexpensive examples from California and France. Let’s go! Our spicy food test dish is shrimp tacos. Our basic tacos are barbecue-rub spicy, which is … Continue reading
#ChampagneDay 2013
We have fun celebrating these internet based theme days for various wines. One of our favorites is #ChampagneDay because it’s a great excuse to make the day an occasion. It appears that #ChampagneDay is the last Friday in October, because it was also on a Friday last year. Wow, just like Thanksgiving and Easter! Anyway, … Continue reading
Oops!
Make Sure You Have Plenty of OOPS! OK, you spill an expensive bottle of wine, you break glasses. Those “oops” moments are no fun at all. The OOPS moments I’m talking about are failures, but they show you are still trying new things, experimenting, learning. FoodBeerClick Chili (original post here) I wanted to modify a … Continue reading
Kermit Lynch Wine Dinner at Pairings
Wine dinners at Pairings Food & Wine in Minnetonka are always a treat. Tonight, we had the pleasure of an all Kermit Lynch wine selection paired with special dishes by Chef Mike. Anissa, the manager at Pairings and Eric from New France Wine Company were our hosts to this special evening. (click on any photo … Continue reading
Salmon, Risotto & Gevrey-Chambertin: A Meal to Remember
We’ve come to the end of our virtual tour of Burgundy, with a nice finish. I’ve been working on my risotto skills this winter, and I think I finally figured it out with this dinner; still a bit chewy but not too much. In fact, it felt like a very nice restaurant meal. Not bad … Continue reading
Steak & Vosne-Romanée
Working our way north, we have exited the Côte de Beaune and have entered the Côte de Nuits. While the Côte de Beaune produces both white (Chardonnay) and red (Pinot Noir) wines, the Côte de Nuits produces almost exclusively red wines. The top Grand Cru wines can cost >$500 per bottle, a little out of our price range! … Continue reading
Meatless Monday: Shiitake Tacos & Two Shepherds Pastoral Blanc
We’re taking a quick break from our virtual Burgundy tour for Meatless Monday. Today we’re trying Shiitake Tacos from the Herbivoracious cookbook by Michael Natkin. We tried pairing the tacos with a Two Shepherds Pastoral Blanc white blend from one of our recent discoveries in Sonoma. We loved the tacos, and we loved the wine, … Continue reading
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