For Vayle’s fifth birthday, I set out on my most ambitious cake yet. Full sheet size cake pan, check. Four dozen eggs, check. Three pounds of butter, check. A quart of cream, check. You get the picture.

I decided to experiment with my caramel recipe, I have this lavender grey sea salt that is lovely in my shortbread. Somehow I got my measurements wrong and ended up with some really salty caramel. I kept tasting, and wondering if it was me or the caramel, with all the aforementioned butter and cream, I really wanted it to be delicious. In order to figure it out, I opened the perfect thing that goes with salty, a sparkling brut. The only thing we had on hand was the Scharffenberger a really good value, at Wines and Makers for $20, but I have seen it elsewhere for $15-16.

The match saved the caramel, but unfortunately it deceived me into thinking a really salty caramel would be good on a five year old’s birthday cake. There was a lot of birthday cake left on the table, I guess this is a good thing as any of you parents out there know.

Lesson learned. Next year, I promise to keep my adult tastes out of my daughters birthday cake and make something that gets entirely eaten up and all the kids will remember, Vayle’s mom makes the best birthday cake ever!

Last night was the Wines and Makers christmas party and this morning I woke up with some cream puffs and man fudge. Man fudge happened when I left the duties of the chocolate fondue to a man who was not one with the creamy chocolate gananche needed for fondue. What we ended up with was burnt, spicy man fudge. Which was loved or hated.

I intended to pair them with some of our stellar sparklings for the party. But this afternoon when Kevin had a hankering for some sweets I whipped up some ganache to make some mini Chocolate Eclairs, one of his very favorites. I was also enjoying some of my favorite tea, Rooibos (which you can get at my favorite tea shop on the web, Rishi). This is a full bodied tea that is good with cream added, but before I added it, I took a bite of mini eclair, and then drank some tea and realized I just came across something very special. I no longer needed cream for the tea and its toasted flavor enhanced the chocolate and pastry.

All in all a good match, I highly recommend it.

It is a conversational piece, it needs love, lots of stirring and is one of my favorite things to make. The other night we had the Pendletons over for dinner and decided to make a butternut squash risotto with chicken, mushrooms and swiss chard Terror by Night buy Halloween II dvdrip *batteries not included film Birthday Girl

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. They brought over some of their yummy red wines but I was a little unsure of the paring as I had a bottle of Balletto Pinot Gris

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open to go with the risotto, as white wine always seems to be the traditional pairing in my book. So I asked Michall which bottle of red he brought would pair the best with the meal, he said the cab would work great and to my pleasant surprise, he was right! I guess that catering background of his really comes in handy as a winemaker.

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Okay, who doesn’t love cheesy bread, or more accurately, pastry? I am always looking for an excuse to bake something, as well as a reason to drink some sparkling. So what happens when I get a chance to combine the two? Heaven. This is a pretty easy recipe for Gougere

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and it looks fancy for when your friends come over for some Iron Horse Blanc de Blancs.

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The other night I was short on time and wanted to make an impresssion. Trader Joes to the rescue. I got 2 boxes of Vegetable Samosas and served them with some major grey chutney from the english food section at Big Johns, here in Healdsburg and viola! I wanted to serve the Hawley Viognier

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, not only because I adore it, but it is amazing with Indian spiced food. We also had some of the Anchor Steam Summer Brew on hand, which was also a stellar match.

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It is one of those perfect comfort foods. Mushrooms, scallops and cheese, Coquilles St. Jacques looks elegant and is easy to make. You can get everything you need to make it at Trader Joes, it looks perfect in a scallop shell, but a ramekin will do. The wine to go with it is a no-brainer, I chose the Hawkes Chardonnay, a favorite around here, it is a great bottle to have around because of its versatility (which also makes it a good choice as a hostess gift). You can also pour a brut sparkling or even a sauvignon blanc with this dish, plus if you have a beer drinker in your midst, they will be happy with that pairing as well. Try it, you can’t go wrong.

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Nightmare City 2035 film My parents live about a mile away from the award winning Rogue Creamery download The Watcher in the Woods movie and usually when they come to visit they bring the goodness of the Crater Lake Blue Cheese with them. On my mom’s recent visit I wanted to make something up to go with the cheese and Kevin and I had just opened the Unti 2006 Grenache

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For a short cut, buy your pecans, pre-candied.

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I have been putting together the menu for our Christmas party next week and have been researching and scouring my old recipes and looking for inspiration in my many cooking magazines. I came across an oldy but a goody that always impresses and wanted it to share it with you all.

Here is the link:

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Cream of Mushroom Soup served in Baby Potatoes

If you are short on time just buy already made cream of mushroom soup and viola no one will know and be equally impressed.

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This recipe is great because you can pair it with chardonnay (not to oaky, any of our chardonnays would work great) or a Pinot Noir (again all of our Pinot’s would be great, but I would say the Balletto would be the best).

For more Appetizer recipe and wine pairings check out our recipe page Hustle & Flow hd

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The House on the Edge of the Park hd By the way if any of you are in town next week, we would love to see you at our Christmas Party, so please come!

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