Girls-only wine series: round 3

The lovely ladies came by today for Round 3 of my continuing wine series. This time, the theme was fall flavors and luscious red wines.

For the wines, we enjoyed:

• Penfold's Thomas Ayland Shiraz --- 2002
• Crane Lake Cabernet Sauvignon -- 2002
• Les Traverses de Fontanes Cabernet Sauvignon -- 2002
• Napa Valley Silverado Vineyards Sangiovese -- 2004
• Soltione Chianti Classico -- 2004

A note about Les Traverses -- this was a wine that Tom and I sampled earlier in the week at Dave's Fresh Pasta. Dave's has a fantastic wine merchant who picks up excellent wines at reasonable prices. Definitely worth a visit.

For the menu, we sampled:

• Beef & roasted red pepper crostini: Tom makes this for a lot of family events, and it has a wonderful taste. I bought the wrong bread (the thick french bread, rather than the smaller baguettes), but it worked out fine. The recipe makes a healthy serving, so cut back if you're making it for a smaller group like I did (Moana's son was the happy recipient of many leftovers!).
  
• Creamy squash and apple soup: this got rave reviews, and I personally loved it. In the recipe, the author suggests holding back only 1 cup of the reserve broth. The soup ended up a lot thicker than we had expected (much closer to a side dish than a soup) so Tom opened up an extra can of chicken broth and threw some in to thin it out. Next time, I'd recommended holding back all of the broth and adding to desired thickness (probably closer to 2 cups).
• Crispy prosciutto and scallion fritatta: the saltiness of the prosciutto and parmesan cheese makes for a really nice taste. I've found in general that I need to cook fritattas for longer than suggested, but it could be just my oven.
• Persian spinach and yogurt dip -- again! I made this for the last party and loved the flavor so much that it made a repeat appearance. The cinnamon in particular lends itself to a wonderful fall flavor! I served it with french bread, rather than crudites or pita.
• Fresh raviolis from Dave's Fresh Pasta and homemade pesto sauce: The sauce was incredibly easy, yet messy to make. Tom found it in a book, but there are plenty of version online.
• Applesauce spice cake: Our friend Mike and his family went apple picking recently and, in a desperate attempt to use their surplus apples, gave us a jar of homemade applesauce. I hunted around for a dessert recipe that would use it, and this cake got rave reviews. The raisins plumped up something ridiculous in the baking process! Served with Brighams (of course!) vanilla ice cream -- yummy!

We talked quite a bit about cooking, and for those of you who wanted more information about the two CSAs we're doing, here you go:

• Stone Soup Farms (veggie CSA)
• Chestnut Farms (meat CSA)
  

Next gathering will be in December for a cookie swap!