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!

Girls-only wine series: round 2

Several years ago, I read a wonderful article about a group of women who got together once a year at someone's home or summer home and spent a weekend together eating, drinking, laughing...no real agenda except the occasional pedicure. This really struck a chord with me, so I floated the idea among my friends. Long story short, by the end of a beautiful early spring weekend, close to 30 women had passed through our house in Plymouth. Some dropped by for an afternoon, others came down for a day, still others stayed overnight, and a few girls even came from out of town! Those who couldn't make it begged me to continue the tradition, saying that not only did they look forward to some girl-time, they needed it!

This year, we put the house on the market and eventually rented it out in the last spring, so using Plymouth was out of the question. We live in a two-floor apartment in Somerville, so having a houseful of girls for an entire weekend is sketchy at best. So, Heather's girls-only wine series was born!

I threw together a last minute wine & cheese in June, featuring Australian wines, and only a few girls could make it. This time, I gave the gals a few weeks notice and was delighted to have a full table of girls over for brunch today. Our theme: champagnes and sparkling wines. Why? Because I had somehow accumulated four bottles in our fridge between the SuperBowl and a few other parties and I desperately need the room!

Our selection:

• France: Perriet Jouet Grand Brut
  
• Spain: Freixenet and Segura Viudas Brut Reserva
  
• Italy: Prosecco Brut Mionetto and Zardetto Proseco
  
• US East Coast: Westport River Blanc de Noirs 2000
  
• US West Coast: Mumm Nappa Blanc de Noirs
  
• El cheapo: Korbel

Yes, we did drink eight bottles of champagne (French)/sparking wine (all others), much to Tom's disgust!

A good resource for the uninitiated: Oldman's Guide to Outsmarting Wines. I think the writing is hilarious and have learned a lot from it. The best part is for each type of wine, he recommends best buys under $15, as well as those to impress under $30. Several of the above were his recommendations.

The nicest surprise of the day, however, was Tom's early anniversary present. He had come home from the Cape a wee bit hungover, so instead of heading out with the boys, he spent a few hours in the a/c upstairs in bed, then later in the afternoon settled in on the couch to watch TV. He must have been listening to our conversation about jewelry, because he suddenly appeared with a bag from DePrisco and said "here, I thought you might have fun showing these to the girls." A beautiful pearl necklace and matching earrings! Totally caught me by surprise -- we're heading up to Portland this coming weekend to celebrate and I hadn't expected us to exchange gifts (sneaky little bugger!). But apparently I needed to stop borrowing my friend's pearls (namely Cindy's for our wedding) and have my own. What a guy!