Book...er, Wine...er, Movie Club?

This past Tuesday night I hosted my book club at my house (which is why I missed RTT-sadness). Once a month a different member hosts and August was my month. Now, you all know I like to throw get togethers and parties, right? Of course you do. Since book club is all ladies, I could do something fun and dainty and, well, girly. Yay! Our book was Persuasionby Jane Austen. Since it was a JA book (and who doesn't love JA?  No one, that's who), I pulled out all my fantastmic new flea market dishes with their beautiful transferware designs and planned my party.  At first I thought about doing an English tea, but who was I kidding?  We weren't going to drink tea!  We likes the wine.  In fact, when we say Book Club, it is usually accompanied by the phantom drink hand raise (you know, like you're holding a glass and bring it to you mouth), because, let's be honest, we do a lot more drinking of wine than we do talking about books.  Oh, sure, we do get some book discussion in, but not a whole lot.  Somehow we always end up talking about Twilight (squee!) and no, I'm never the one to bring it up.  Funny, how that works.
So, since I wasn't going to do a tea, I decided my lovely tea cups would be perfect for punch.  My menu included the following:

Super Easy Tortellini Salad (I have to thank Hope Studios for this recipe-it was amazing)

 Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip with home baked tortilla crackers (take flour tortillas, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and bake until slightly brown-I use the spinach tortillas and they are delicious!)

Crab Salad (I also served some in cucumber cups-1-1.5" thick slices of cucumber with most of the center scooped out, leaving just a bit at the bottom and stuffed with crab salad)

Caprese Salad (tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil and olive oil-YUMMY!) and sliced french bread

Brie with crackers and fruit

Watermelon soaked in Prosseco

Sliced Chingalle salami and thin sliced Pecorrino cheese

Brownies

Cinnamon Crumb cake

The best punch in the world-recipe to follow

And of course plenty of Vino.

I am so grateful to Hoosier Mom (seriously woman, update your blog!) and another book club member for telling me to take a photo of the spread before we tucked in, otherwise I would have forgotten and it would only be a memory.  Tada!!!

Don't my dishes look fab?   Of course they do.  And now, for what's really important at "book club:"

Sadly several most of the members did not read the book!  There are usually one or two who don't but this time there were only two of us who read it!  WHAT?  This is a great book!  Funnily enough one of the members brought her copy of the movie and we decided to watch that.  It was fun!  I haven't watched a movie with a group of girls since I was in college.  We turned the subtitles on so we could still talk every now and then (mostly to discuss the costumes and who someone was) and ate, drank and chatted happily.   It was so much fun!  Sadly, I was having so much fun I forgot to take photos of the members of the book club enjoying themselves.  Ah, well.  I got a photo of the wine at least.




If you like period books, this is one to read and if you like period movies (even if they don't feature a wet shirted Mr. Darcy), this is a great movie!  Best of all, it's not expensive.  Click the button and pick up your own copy from Amazon!  This is really the best version of the movie.








Oh, wait, I almost forgot to include the best punch in the world recipe!  How silly of me.  It's super simple to make and your guests will oooh and ahhh over its sheer deliciousness.

1-12oz can frozen orange-pineapple concentrate
1-12oz can frozen lemonade concentrate
1-12oz can frozen limeade concentrate
1 liter Sprite or 7Up (I actually prefer it with 2 liters added, but that could just be me, you can always add more if you like)
3 cups cold water
1 bag frozen raspberries (do not thaw)
1 bag frozen pineapple (do not thaw)


Let the concentrates thaw and mix with water (stir well).  Just before guests arrive pour in Sprite (or 7Up) and add the frozen fruit (keeping the fruit frozen chills the punch!  No need for ice).
Sit back and enjoy your get together with a glass of this and graciously accept all the accolades your guests will throw at you for this amazing punch.  And don't forget to tell them that the super awesome MIHH gave you the recipe personally.

Do you like to throw parties and get togethers?  What's your favorite party recipe?  Blog about it!  Link back to this post if you like!  Oh, maybe I'll do a linky party!  Would anyone be up for that?  Let me know!  Speaking of linking up, I'm linking to Amanda at Serenity Now.

In Vino Veritas

Oh, Pliny the Elder, how right you were.  Last night I went to a wine tasting held by the HD Community Spouses Club Wine Club (which I may be head of next year-the wine club, not the Spouses Club because that is waaaay too much work and responsibility). One of the perks of being the Wine Club chair is...um...wine and wine swag from the vendors.

So, I went with The Contessa, T.O.M. and Chiquitita.  There were about 17 of us in all (much fewer than last month, but it is Spring Break and everyone seems to be jetting off or getting ready to jet off to some place exotic-except me).  The wines last night were Italian.  I'm still working on enjoying Italian because many of them are too strong for me, but there are a few I like and, let's be honest, I'm always up to try something new.

Me, The Contessa and Chiquitita at the beginning of the evening.

The first wine we tried was Villa Castalda Prosecco.  For those not familiar with prosecco, it's a white bubbly wine.  I hesitate to call it a "sparkling wine: because the bubbles are much finer than those found in normal sparkling wine.  It was a bit dry, though it tasted lovely.  Crisp, and fruity and would be delicious in a mimosa or with a splash of pomegranate juice and pomegranate seeds floating in it.  Yum.

The second wine was Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, which is apparently the number 1 selling Pinot Grigio world wide.   It smelled of golden apples, pears and walnut and had a crisp taste with a hint of spice on the end.  It was a nice wine that would be delicious on a warm summer evening.

Next up was Di Mojo Norante Sangiovese.  This was a red wine that I did not like.  It was too dry and smelled and tasted strongly of tobacco.  I'm not a fan of wines with tobacco as a smell or a flavor and this one was overpowering to me.  Maybe if it had been aged longer, it would have mellowed, but it was not for me.

 The Contessa, T.O.M. and The Flea Market Queen

After that we had Tommasi Crearo, which was HEAVY.  It's a "Super Venetian" which apparently means it's a blend of a few different grapes.  It was so heavy, you could only put a little in your mouth at a time.  It smelled strongly of currants, black cherry and dark chocolate.  It had a very strong dark chocolate finish, which was nice, but again, it was so heavy, I couldn't drink much of it.

Finally, we had Gigi Rosso Dolcino, which was my hands down favorite.  OMG!  So good.  It was a medium red that was soft, smooth and sweet, and tasted of deep red fruits.  Oh, my was this good!  The lady running the wine tasting suggested trying it with chocolate and she was soooooo right. It was amazing with dark chocolate. 

 This is us towards the end of the evening.   Look how we all look a little glassy eyed.  Good times, people, good times.

I drank about 4 glasses of the Dolcino.  It was that good.  Unfortunately it was also sneaky.  Sneaky in that it was like "Oh, hey MIHH!  How are you?  Want to be friends?  Yes, you do.  Drink me.  I'm delicious.  Oh, don't worry about the alcohol, you had bread and cheese.  You'll be fine." and then 30 minutes later BAM!  The alcohol kicks in and you can barely tell which way is up, especially since you had 4 wines before it.  Fortunately we lived within walking distance of the wine tasting, so it wasn't bad getting home.  Once I did though, I went to bed straight away and slept like a very happy baby. 

Drinking the good stuff

We all know that New Year's Eve is good for celebrating with friends and drinking a toast to the end of one year and the beginning of the new. We celebrated with lots of really good champagne. Real champagne. From the Champagne region of France. If it doesn't come from the Champagne region, it's sparkling wine. There are some really, really, really good sparkling wines (I'm a big fan and don't let Mr. HH know you have some because he will tip it back and drink it like it's water), but real champagne is a whole other entity. We had 2 bottle of Veuve Clicquot (next year I'll buy a magnum-the same as 2 bottles just larger, which is optimal for champagne, or so I've read) and very fine bottle of G. H. Mumm (both from Reims, France). They were smooth and delicious and I drank waaaay too much. Happy 2010!

Tonight we got together with TOM (The Other Man) and TOM's wife for dinner. Earlier in the day we had all gone to this Italian restaurant supplier called Pronto and gathered food stuffs and wine for a big fat meal. I made squid ink pasta with a tomato/olive sauce (outstanding) and caprese salad (tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil and high quality olive oil). TOM made penne with a bolgenese sauce, set out bowls of stuffed olives (one stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and sliced up some Italian peperoni thing (I don't really know what it was, but Mr. HH loved it) and super thin slices of Pecorino cheese. Compared to Pecorino, Parmesan tastes like sawdust. It's that good.

At Pronto, we also spend about 45 minutes perusing their wine selection. It's HUGE and runs the gamut from 2 Euro up to 60+ Euro a bottle. We found 4 bottles of wines in the 6-12 Euro range and all left smiling. I didn't think we'd open them all, but since we were with TOM, who knows his stuff when it comes to wine, I was happy to keep buying. I'm a white wine kind of girl, but TOM found 3 reds he thought I should try (he's on a mission to find a red I'll like) and Mr. HH picked out a bottle of blush.

We prepared dinner (Indy loved the squid ink pasta!) and cracked open some wine. The first red I thought was okay. It didn't burn my throat or make me feel like a dust storm had just blown through my mouth, but it didn't excite me. We ate some more and opened another red. Oh, this red was delicious! I couldn't believe it. A red I actually liked! It was from the Campagnia region of Italy and grown on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius. Apparently the minerals in the volcanic soil gie it the mellowness. Fantastic! It was made from the oldest type of grapes brought to Italy by the Greeks. Yum, yum, yum! Since I was so happy with it, TOM decided to crack open a more "serious" wine for him and Mr. HH. I tried it, but it made my nose burn and my eyes water and my tongue retreat to the back of my mouth wondering why I would do something so horrible to it. I went back to my happy wine and all was well. They finished off the evil wine and decided to open the rose. It was actually quite good. I switched to it after my bottle of red was empty (sadness) and realized I was quite woozy. I almost never (with the exception of NY Eve) drink more than a glass or two of wine (Sangria doesn't count-you don't realize there's alcohol in it until it's too late) and probably had about 6. SIX! In the space of 2 hours! What is wrong with me? Between the 4 of us, we finished off all 4 bottles of wine with dinner. That is a lot of vino people. Too much! It's been about 3 hours and I'm still a bit tipsy. Thank heaven for spell check, otherwise my post would read something like this: Wedrabk a lotof wihe tonight with idnner adn I cna barerly sse ot type.

Mr. HH and I have decided to start a wine journal to keep track of what we like. TOM has an ELABORATE journal on Xcel that is up to 275 different wines since Jan 07. He has a few simple book journals but filled them so quickly he decided to go digital.

Do you have a specific wine (or champagne/sparkling wine) that you like? Do you keep a wine journal? Are you a red or a white fan?

You know who likes wine? Johnny Depp. That's who. Drinking it is just one more way we grow closer every day. Good heavens I need to go to bed. Love you all. Especially you Johnny. Call me. We'll have drinks.