Friday Food Romance

So you're planing a sexy dinner with your honey.  

Candles? Check

Playlist? Check

]Sexy lingerie? Check

 Hooker heels? Check

You have desert covered, let's focus on food and wine.

  

Have you ever eaten a meal where the wine and food were so good that you could not forget about it? Then, did you later have that same wine with a different dish or the same dish with a different wine only to be disappointed?

Count yourself fortunate to have experienced the perfect marriage of wine and food. When the wine balances with the food in flavor, texture and taste, both food and wine enhance each other.

These are a few hints to help make food and wine pairing simple. But remember that if you like a certain wine with a particular food that is all that matters.

1. Use the same wine in the recipe as you will be serving with the meal.

2. Mask salty dishes with slightly sweet wines.

3. Serve cool, sweet, low alcohol wines with hot, spicy foods. Higher alcohol accentuates heat.

4. Balance acidic foods with sweet wines or round, dry, low acid wines.

5. Combine sweet wines with desserts. Make sure the wine is always sweeter than the dessert.

Combos for Beef

Beef roast, steak, hamburgers

Classic Red

Merlot

Classic Blush

Cab/Merlot

Cabernet Sauvignon

Wild mushroom sauce

Merlot

Cab/Merlot

Cabernet Sauvignon

Red wine sauces, stew, short ribs, beef stroganoff

Cabernet Sauvignon

Merlot

Cab/Merlot

Stir fry, chili

Pinot Noir

Classic Red

Brisket, meatloaf

Merlot

Classic Red

Beef Wellington

Classic Blush

Cab/Merlot

Beef Bourguignon

Merlot

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cab/Merlot

#Thursday13 - #GirlsNightOut - Wine and Cheese Party

Thursday Night during Blueberry Festival is the Annual Wine & Beer Tasting events sponsored by our local grocery store, Riverside Market. Half of the Coffee Club works the event while the other half does the tasting. Oh, trust me... those that work get plenty of tasting as well.

Because this year's festival was cancelled due to the Covid crap, Coffee Club held their own Wine and Cheese party. Debbie hosted the event in her backyard and her decorations were super cute! Each Coffee Club "member" brought two bottle of wine to share and a unique cheese. We took turns presenting our wines with flare. 

These are a few of my favorite photos taken. 

1. 

Debbie, our gracious hostess.

2. 

Most Michigan wine was presented, but several came from other states with fun stories of how they were obtained. (Kendra - getting the wine from a gas station while picking up piglets from North Carolina, they one getting carsick and running loose at a welcome center.)

3. 

Leslie found this bag and thought it fit our group.
We've decided to start a book club so we can all have bags like this,
and have an excuse to read books & drink wine.

4.

Beautiful pic one of the gals took.

5. 

Deb finds the most unique items.

6. 

One of my favorite photos of the night.

 

6. 

My favorite wine of the night. Amy found it at small batch winery in Northern Michigan.

7. 

8. 

Me & my bestie with her daughter.

9.

An attentive group of ladies, ready for some serious wine tasting.

10. 

Kendra & Peggy

11. 

Kendra & Tammie

12. 

Kendra & Deb

13. 

The entire party. Sorry it's a bit blurry. No, it wasn't the wine.

Bonus pic and my ultimate favorite, perhaps of all the Coffee Club photos over the years.

We're just missing a few gals.

Is there something you do with close friends, whether it be weekly, occasionally or yearly?

Isn't it awesome having friends to share this journey of life with?

What special things do you & your pals do?

Blueberries? Wine Not?

Sometimes the lack of patience overcomes me.

I wanted a cool glass of wine but the fridge was bare of vino. So like a bad girl, I added a couple of ice cubes to my glass. I grabbed a handful of fresh berries and tossed them in my mouth. As I bit down, freezing cold shot through my jaw. Holy cow! Someone had turned up the temp of the veggie drawer.

Hmmm... I grabbed another handful of berries and dropped them into my glass then added the wine. 

The wine chilled nicely, abet watered down. As I finished my beverage, the treat of wine soaked berries awaited my consumption. And oh, what a treat it was!

Leelanau Cellers is one of my favorite wineries located in Northern Michigan. Their Riesling wines are some of the most sought after wines in the state. Semi-sweet wine with ribbons of seasonal fruit such as peaches, apples, or pears ready to wrap your senses into a delightful bow.

The Tall Ship family of wines honors the heritage of the tall ships, or schooners, that were common on the Great Lakes. The huge canvas sails of these ships were truly majestic and became representative of a nostalgic escape to a time and age when fine craftsmanship reigned.

WINE TIP: 

The Tall Ship Riesling is a late harvest fruit layered wine. Great enjoyed alone or with your honey. Try pairing it with cheese and smoked fish. 

WINE TIP:

To cool wine quickly, place a strainer with ice cubes over a glass. Pour wine. As the wine passes the ice and through the strainer, the temperature cools without watering the wine down.

Enjoy a Sweet Sunset

Every summer until I was around 12, my family would travel to Paw Paw to visit St. Julian Winery. The tour was pretty much the same but just as fun. My parents would purchase cases of wine after what felt like hours of wine tasting. We would then drive over to South Haven, find a spot on the beach for a picnic and swim until late afternoon. We continued this tradition for several years after my siblings married and started having kids. With a caravan of cars, I had my pick of who I wanted to travel with.

Great memories.

St. Julian has a tasting room in Frankenmuth so I don't have to travel as far as my parents.

I found a delightfully sweet red wine by mistake. I fell in love with the label. Isn't it gorgeous?

Sunset Michcato is top of my list for a light sweet red.

This succulently sweet red blend is made from grapes grown in the Lake Michigan Shore Appellation. It was released in May, 2017 to celebrate Michigan Wine Month and was part of the Pure Michigan summer 2017 campaign. The goal of the winemaker was to create a wine that embraced everything Michigan. Michigan grown grapes, Michigan-proud label, and expected to be enjoyed on a beach in Michigan at sunset.

If you enjoy sweet wines, I recommend you try this one.

It pairs nicely with cheese & crackers.

Take it outside and enjoy a sunset this weekend with your honey.

St. Julian also makes a Sunset Michcato White.

Celebrating with a Zombie Killer

Fall in Michigan is incredibly beautiful. Colorful trees and the smell of leaves, acorns and apples. Hubby made a bonfire and is looking sexy while cutting wood. For the first time in a kah-zillion years we are not at a sports field on Saturdays. My teen boy & pals are tossing the pigskin to work up an appetite and consume a case of Koegel hot-dogs roasting over the fire pit.  Sitting in my cozy camp chair with my kindle in one hand and a glass in the other. Slightly distracted by hot-bod-honey chopping.

I'm celebrating the lovely autumn evening with a bottle of Zombie Killer Cherry Cyser. It's even good with a slice of the Banana Bread I made on #TastyTuesday. I'm a strong suporter of brews and wine produced in my state. This delightful bottle was created by B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale, Michigan. I heard about a Gold-Medal winning mead that a bunch of locals have been raving about, so I had to take my shot at it. B. Nektar has a fun sense of humor as you can see with their anti-zombie rhetoric on the bottle story and also on their website.

The label art done by Marcus Christy is very cool. It takes the zombie theme and applies it to a main ingredient, cherries. One cherry is killing the another zombie cherry with a sword while cherry juice blood is splattered everywhere. I save my emtpy bottles of Witches Brew to use in Halloween displays and I believe I'll add this bottle to my collection. Maybe even put in a string of lights for effect.

  I was introduced to mead when I was 16 staying with friends in Leicester, England. I've loved it ever since. This mead really coats the palate. It has some body but the tart zing really keeps the sweeter aspects at bay. Apple cidery zip, dry finish, delicious juiciness. The carbonation adds a nice little touch of effervescence that brings the flavors to the tip of your tongue. Ahhh... a great way to celebrate the end of a book.

Oh, oh... a zombie plot bunny just limped by. Hmmm.... will I write a zombie erotic romance story next? Ewe.

Why am I suddenly

in the mood to watch

Warm Bodies?

#WeekendRomance #Food&Wine

I love chocolate (the darker, the better).

I love cherries and I love wine.

 On a whim, I bought a bottle of Cocobon Wine. I liked the description on the lable.

Experience Cocobon, a harmonious blend that tantalizes the senses and transports you along a spell-binding journey to Nirvana. Become immersed in deep crimson tones that deliver decadent aroma and flavor, from dark cherry to rich vanilla, mocha and cocoa.

Oh the lable wasn't kidding!  This beverage is an orgasm for the tounge.

When inhaling the arroma, the scent was sharp but sublte with only the faintest hint of berries.  The smell carries dark raspberries with vanilla and the flavor is even better. At first you taste a rich full flavor of red fruits. The soft, mild tannins were completely overpowered by the luscious flavors of rich vanilla and dark chocolate. This powerful combination then melted into a blueberry finish with just a hint of bite to help the flavor linger on in the mouth. Even after you swallow, the flavors continue to dance on the back of your tongue.

I highly recomend to enjoy this drink slowly for the wonderful experience! 

Perhaps the wine is so appealing because it was created by a lady winemaker Georgetta Dane.

It takes a woman to know what a woman really wants in a wine!

She continues her journey at Cocobon, where she harnesses the power of all her senses and creates a Zen-like balance at the intersection of art, science, and soul.