This is one of my mom’s best dishes. The Creamy Dijon Sauce compliments the tender, juicy pork perfectly. Pork loins have been on sale a lot lately at the grocery store, so I got the chance to make it for myself this week. Mom usually serves this dish with mashed potatoes – so that we can drizzle some extra dijon sauce on top of them! This leftovers are amazing in a sandwich, too.
Here is the final recipe from our wine tasting – an appetizer of sausage stuffed mushrooms – the perfect bite-sized taste to accompany our fruity and delicious Barriosa Sombrero Rojo Rioja wine. Our guests are still raving about these mushrooms over a week later – now I call that a successful dish!
I have gotten a lot of requests over the past several weeks for a rockin’ recipe for macaroni and cheese. In face, some of you who know me in *real life* have expressed your shock and concern over the lack of a mac ‘n’ cheese recipe here on VV. This reaction is understandable, considering that the truth is . . . . macaroni and cheese is my #1 favorite food of all time!
One of my culinary inspirations growing up was Nathalie Dupree. Her cooking show on TV was one of my favorites, and to this day, I swear by her cookbook New Southern Cooking. But the best thing about her show was that things didn’t have to be perfect. She would spill a little flour on the counter, pick egg shells out of the bowl, or maybe get a few cake crumbs stuck in the frosting. But that was alright – it almost made it better, more homemade.
And yet another recipe from last week’s wine tasting. This tasty little dish was a great appetizer and paired nicely with our Da Vinci Chianti Classico. The topping of this pizza is a re-creating of a carbonara pasta dish – complete with pancetta, eggs, and ricotta!
Here is an easy recipe for making your own roast red bell peppers in the oven or on a grill. We grow loads of bell peppers in our garden during the summer, and I’m already looking forward to this year’s crop.
Smoky, caramelized red bells are great on their own, but you will usually find them included in recipes with other ingredients, like this beef tenderloin dish. You can also puree them to make a sauce or a dip. They have a bold, sweet flavor without being spicy or overpowering. I could eat them like candy.
Here is another recipe from our weekend wine-tasting. We served this as the main course, paired with a nice bold Cabernet Sauvignon from Avalon Winery and a fun red blend called Ménage à Trois.
Here is the salad that we served during our wine-tasting party. It paired beautifully with the La Crema Pinot Noir. Everyone loved the ginger crostini in this salad – and you will not believe how easy it was to make. This would be a perfect salad to serve at a cook-out – the grilled flavors of the sausage and the onion are complimented so beautifully by the balsamic.
First, I’d like to thank everyone who participated in VV’s First Giveaway, which celebrated my first 100 posts. I love hearing from my readers on the blog, via email, and in real life, too! This blog has been such a fun way to connect with you all, and I feel very honored to be able to share my favorite recipes with you all.
These are the perfect chocolate cookies, made only better by the molten chocolate mint candies that nest in the center of them. I am so glad that a friend recommended this recipe to me. You can tell just by reading it that it is a true retro recipe!