The Wine Evangelist

I intended to post this sooner but washing the wine glasses from our Christmas Eve dinner took a whole lot longer than I anticipated. In fact, the whole dinner and festivities took a lot longer than I anticipated.

John and I come from different backgrounds. John is an Irish Catholic who attended parochial school in Massachusetts. I’m Jewish with my grandparents coming from several Eastern European countries. I grew up in Chicago and attended public schools. I went to synagogue. My family was traditional without being religious.

When we married, John and I decided to celebrate all of the Christian and Jewish holidays, honoring both of our backgrounds and enjoying the traditions that each of us shared when we were growing up. We have certainly embraced the celebrations!

This was our first Christmas in eleven years without any of our grandkids. We really missed them; the holiday is sooo…. about kids. So when it came to Xmas eve, we planned a very grown-up dinner.

The evening featured lots of great good food, wonderful wine, rockin’ music, laughter, and love.

Shedding all of our past family traditions, we scripted a sophisticated Italian feast. We invited our best friends, Pam and Harvey, their newly engaged son, Nick, and his beautiful fiancée, Lisa. With John and my mom, there were seven of us. In my traditional fashion, I prepared food for 18. (I always have leftovers).

Glasses of Pinnacle Ridge 2006 Methode Champenoise Blanc de Noir Sparkling wine were poured as we exchanged hugs. We toasted Nick and Lisa on their upcoming marriage.

They’re getting married on 10/10/10 here in Northern California and then onto to Taipei for a feast celebrating their marriage with Lisa’s family and friends in Taiwan.

We continued to enjoy more Pinnacle Ridge Blanc de Noir as we indulged in the Antipasto Platter consisting of chunks of aged Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano, Roasted Olives, Spinach & Ricotta Torte with Marina Sauce, Beef Carpaccio with Spinach and Roquefort Butter, and a wonderful assortment of bread from Wild Flour Bread, the bakery in Freestone just down the road from us here on the Extreme Sonoma Coast. We also enjoyed a fabulous Fig and Gorgonzola Terrine with Port Syrup and Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms (a recipe from The Barefoot Contessa) with quiet Christmas carols playing in the background. We continued to let the Sparkling wine flow.

Then it was time to turn up the volume. Thanks to John and TiVo we were able to enjoy THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERT while we worked in the kitchen, dancing, loving the music, and marveling at the talented group of musician. We paused the concert and finally sat down to our first course around 8:30.

John and I decided to serve an array of courses for dinner ~ small plates with different wines so we could dine slowly and enjoy.

First Course: Honeydew Melon Wrapped in Prosciutto. The melon was not as ripe as I would have liked (that’s what happens when you buy fruit out of season), so I sliced it earlier in the day, removed the rind, then put the melon back in a Ziploc bag. I sprinkled the melon with sugar and poured 1/4 cup of Elderton 2007 Botrytis Semillon that I had left over from a meal we had shared with friends last weekend. We drained the melon and wrapped it in prosciutto. With the melon, we enjoyed a bottle of Hans Herzog 2008 Viognier from Marlborough, New Zealand. Pam and Harvey visited Hans Herzog in October and brought back this great bottle of wine to share. The floral aspects of the wine complimented the melon and the saltiness of the prosciutto was outstanding with the wine.

Second Course: Tomato, Blue Cheese & Grilled Bread Salad. For the grilled bread, I chose a combination of garlic rosemary bread and a sour dough round from Wild Flour. 

Third Course: Breaded Zucchini & Eggplant with Chunky Marinara and Emmental Cheese
Wine: Sonoma Coast Vineyards 2006 Balistreri Vineyard Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast.

Fourth Course: Lemon Risotto with Lobster Medallions
Wine: Sonoma Coast Vineyards 2007 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast.

Dessert: Chocolate Ravioli and Ricotta Pound Cake Topped with Sautéed Strawberries and Marscapone Cream
Wine: Duff Gordon Pedro Ximenz Viejo, Sherry, Jerez, Spain

We finished up dinner around 11 o’clock. We cleared the table and put away the leftovers. We loaded the dishwasher and left the rest of the dishes for morning as we watched the rest of the concert. It was long after midnight when we said “Merry Christmas.” When we walked outside, the night was cool and crisp. The moon was shining brightly. I think I saw a shadow cross the moon that looked an awful lot like a man in a sleigh.

*Although my camera was on the counter in the kitchen, I was having way too much fun and I neglected to take any photos of our fabulous food. As I make each dish in the future, I will add images to this posting and the recipes.

I always marvel at the loss of the holiday spirit in stores, parking lots and malls as it gets closer to the holidays. Economy or no, the stores are packed. People are getting grumpy. So much to do and so little time…it’s that crazy count down to Christmas.

I want the gifts I give to be memorable. My son, Eric and daughter-in-law, Cari have encouraged us to give their children experiences rather than “things.” We go to plays, bake cookies, go tubing down the Russian River, and go to concerts. These are great times for all of us and last a whole lot longer than a sweater or new video game.

In that realm, this year I’m giving my husband a kit to participate in the National Geographic Genome Project. (Shhh! Don’t tell him, he won’t be getting this until Christmas morning). I’m really excited about this gift. By participating in this study he will find answers to some of the oldest questions we have about ourselves: Who are we and where did we come from? To find out more about purchasing one of the kits for yourself or as a gifts go click here.

Are there wine lovers on your Christmas list? Looking for memorable gifts?

There’s still time to give your favorite wine lover a gift that will never be forgotten.

The best wine gifts don’t always have to be wrapped up with a box and a bow.

Let them experience wine!

Choose one or both of these gifts to leave under your tree this year.

Wine Reviewer for a Day

Taste, learn about and judge top rated Pinot Noirs. Pit your palate against the experts.

• Taste 40 top-rated Pinot Noirs in a blind tasting
• Enjoy Pinot Noir Workshops conducted by expert winemakers, viticulturists and wine educators
• Attend Pinot Noir Shootout Ceremony
• Attend a reception featuring top Pinot Noir winemakers showcasing their wines with specially paired hors d’oeuvre
• Meet and taste with top Pinot Noir winemakers

Be one of a select few to attend the 8^th Annual Pinot Noir Summit in San Rafael, California on February 27, 2010.

Registration to the Pinot Noir Summit can be accessed online. For complete details and to purchase tickets visit http://www.affairsofthevine.com/pn_summit_8.php

Only 250 tickets available. Tickets for the entire program are $125 per person.

Pinot Noir Reception & Awards Ceremony Only tickets are $75 per person.

Winemaker for a Day

Send your wine passionate friend to camp…Wine Boot Camp® that is. The ultimate fantasy experience for wine lovers provides the experience and knowledge needed to become totally confident in the understanding and appreciation of fine wine. At the intensive, highly enjoyable one-day Wine Boot Camp® adventure wine lovers experience firsthand the joys and frustrations of winemaking while they work hands-on in the vineyard and the cellar under the tutelage of top winemakers and viticulturists.

Enlist in Wine Boot Camp 2010 or buy a Gift Certificate for your favorite wine lover.

The cost of Wine Boot Camp is $495 per person and includes all seminars and educational materials, working in the vineyard, lunch with wine in the vineyard, dinner paired with appropriate wines, extensive wine tasting, a bottle of wine created by the recruit, transportation to all food and wine events, and an I Survived Wine Boot Camp® T-shirt & cap.

Tickets to the Pinot Noir Summit and/or Wine Boot Camp registration certificates can be emailed to you so that you can present them on Christmas.

As in many families, it has been our tradition that each person at the Thanksgiving dinner table shares what they are thankful for. It’s gotten more and more interesting and fun as first our children and now our grandchildren have grown.

This year, I decided to start a new tradition.

I make awesome fortune cookies so why not…Thankful Cookies.

Before we dive into our myriad of pies for dessert, I plan to serve our these cookies and have each person share the message that is in their cookie, whether it’s their thankful message or someone else’s.

I began by asking my family and friends to share three things that they are thankful for. I had everyone email them to me.

I  typed the thank you messages and printed them out on light orange paper.  I cut them into strips and folded them so they would be ready to insert in the warm cookies. Speed is of the essence unless you want to end up with 50¢  a pound seconds! Now the cookies.

Thankful Cookies
Stir 1-2/3 cups white sugar into ¾ cup unbeaten egg whites. (You can save all those egg yolks for Hollandaise sauce, crème brûlée or your morning omelet.)
½ teaspoon Salt

When the sugar dissolves, add the melted butter, flour and vanilla.  Beat the batter until it is well blended:
1 cup melted butter
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon vanilla

You will also need white cotton gloves.

Drop by teaspoons, well apart, on greased cookie sheets. 

I usually get at most 2 cookies to each rimmed baking pan. 

Bake at 375° oven until edges curl and start to brown – about 5 minutes. 

Put on your white cotton gloves.  Use a pancake turner to gently remove the cookies from the cookie sheet. 

Holding the cookie gently in your hand and place a fortune cookie in the middle of the cookie.  Fold the cookie in half once and then in half again.  On the second folding, stand the cookies up in a muffin tin to cool.

This is hot fast work.  If your cookies harden before you have a chance to fold them, return briefly to the oven to soften.

This recipe yields about 60 cookies.