Monday, December 15, 2008

Appetizers and Desserts for Wine Club!

The second Friday of the month is my favorite Friday.  Wine Club!!!


Ready.  Bring on the wine!

Citrus curd meringue tarts.  I have been so lame!  Can you believe?  This party was early December.  No posts in weeks and I was doing a lot of cooking, too.  And cleaning, shopping, hosting, wrapping...you know.  But it's time to get back into it.


So, for the "Holiday Extravaganza" wine club we were doing a mix of different, unusual, and highly recommended wines from Tom at Waterford Wine Co on Brady St.  Thanks Tom!  I didn't know what to really plan for so I just did some old standbys and tried a few new things, too.  My wine buddies don't mind being guinea pigs  (or so they say).  So:  clockwise from the top- crab tarts with cream cheese and chives, Italian sausage stuffed mushrooms, a quick bread with bacon, dried pears, and Gouda cheese (not that good- a bit dry IMO), and a really nice, easy flourless chocolate ganache cake.  I'll post the recipe for that later.


I served (from top) a 2 year old Gouda, double creme blue, and a white Stilton with dates and orange (from Trader Joe's).


Here we have those citrus tarts, and roasted fingerling potatoes with sour cream remoulade and smoked salmon.

The cookies: Swedish Pepperkakor, cranberry white chocolate shortbread, and raspberry almond butter bars.  


Here is the savory Apple- Cheddar galette and the pineapple bread puddings with warm caramel drizzle.  A big bowl of freshly whipped cream for the Ganache cake.  Wasn't there something else?  Maybe not.  This was like my third day with the new camera so sorry about the photo quality.

OK- this picture is some the most fun, stylish, and interesting women in the greater Milwaukee area.  We had 16 ladies but I couldn't get them all in!  I had a great time and sampled some very offbeat yet traditional wines.  I'm sorry I can't review them or even tell you specifics but I just wanted a nice, relaxing time drinking and chatting with my crew, so I didn't take notes.

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