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!
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 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.
Hummus is a favorite snack in our household, and I’ve been wanting to try making my own hummus for a while now. I’ve heard that not only is it cheaper to make it yourself, but it’s also much more delicious to make it from scratch. I am one vintage lady who loves to make things from scratch on the cheap, so I was excited to try this out!
This is from my sweet Auntie Gladys! What could be more delicious and sophisticated than a ripe olive canapé and a glass of wine? But beware – once you taste just one of these, you will be addicted for life!
We invited some friends over for a fondue party on Saturday night. I looooove fondue – it’s fun and interactive and festive! Here are some tips and a recipe for classic swiss fondue that has been adapted from Fondue: Great Food to Dip, Dunk, Savor, and Swirl by Rick Rodgers.
So since it’s January and a lot of us are struggling to keep our New Year’s resolutions up – or just to get ready for bathing suit season – I’ve been trying to include some healthier items here on VV. My main temptation is snacking – usually something salty and crunchy with a nice creamy or cheesy dip on the side. So here’s what I’ve got to satisfy that craving without quite so much of the guilty aftertaste.