Wine Wednesday takes a punch

With the holidays basically ummm... HERE, I am getting pretty darn excited to yet again embrace my Christmas music, wreaths, presents, Santa, and pie.

Well, maybe not the pie. We have more of a love/hate thing happening...

Love the pie.

Hate having to ask for clothes from Pea in the Pod for Christmas even though I am not preggers.

Anywaaaaays, one of my very favorite thing about the holidays is all the parties!!! I can't get enough of 'em. Christmas, New Years, it's all fun and it's all fabulous.

And nothing gets a party started like my somewhat-famous Champagne Punch! I made this for the first bash Josh and I hosted as a married couple - New Years!

I am pretty sure I was still painting the dining room 2 hours before the party... but by the time our friends arrived, the paint was dry, the food was prepared, the punch was made, and my hair looked great. All key ingredients to a rockin' good time.

Now, this is not your great-aunt's sherbet-ginger ale-lime jello punch. This stuff is tart, light and potent. Trust me on that last one. Party punch has such a classic, throw-back feel that I love - but this recipe brings punch up to par with current flavor profiles and trendy cocktails.

So here it is! the best, party-tastic punch you could ever imagine... courtesy of Emeril!

Champagne Punch

1 1/3 cups fresh lemon juice

1 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup orange liqueur (recommended: Grand Marnier)
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/2 cup cognac
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 bottles chilled brut Champagne or sparkling wine
Orange or lemon slices
Fresh strawberries, optional

Combine the lemon juice, sugar, orange liqueur, Triple Sec, cognac, and orange juice in a non-reactive bowl and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the Champagne and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

Pour into a decorative bowl or pitcher. Garnish with orange or lemon slices and fresh strawberries, if desired, and serve in Champagne flutes.

And remember friends - Always choose Brut for your champagne.

and your men.

ooooh yeah.

Wine Wednesday is headin to a party! And is lazy.

Now that November has rolled around, which in itself is completely shocking, you know what time it is... PARTY TIME!

Thanksgiving potlucks, Christmas shindigs, New Years extravaganzas - it's all happening.

right now.

So what do you bring when you show up at your lovely host home of the week?

A candle? eh, ok. Some cookies perhaps? Your hostess might think you just want her to get fat, and that doesn't make friends. So what could you possible bring?

hmmm..... some vino perhaps? PERFECT!

Ok, so here is where the lazy part of my post comes in... I am cheating this week.

And I am totally ok with it.

It was a busy weekend and now a busier week which sounds like an excuse, but its not. It is just a fact. But I promise to pour my heart and soul into this next week, ok?

ok.

This article was written by my very favorite wine columnists for the Wall Street Journal, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher. This article is specifically about great wine options to bring to a party, and I love all the ideas they have. Even if you have nowhere to go, pick some of these up for your own private dinner party!

Because why can't grilled cheese and a movie not be a dinner party?

Oh wait. It CAN. glad we cleared that up.

So check out this little bit of genius HERE! Then go shoppin' and partyin' and everything else that is holiday-tastic.

Love ya'll! Mean it.

I've got the itch.

I have officially not been on a trip in 24 days. It feels like it might as well have been 2 years. Josh and I both looooove to travel. Before we tackle kiddos (which is a LONG time away...) we want to do and see as much as we possibly can!

So anyways..... 24 days. And I would say that once I am approaching 1 month since my last trip, I start planning my next one. Since Josh and I are on budget, we are all about finding cheap airfare to places within the U.S. - but finding a fabulous hotel to stay in. There are some pretty incredible regions, resorts, inns, restaurants tucked into the most random parts of our country. And a lot of them are cheap to get to!

So let me introduce you to my two favorite travel resources ever, ever, in the whole wide world, ever!

1. Travel and Leisure Magazine's - World's Top 500

I love this annual list almost as much as I love french fries. This is actually where Josh and I found our honeymoon/anniversary spot, White Barn Inn! They highlight some really low-profile but high-style places all over the world, although I tend to focus on their U.S. list. Many (but not all) of them are pricey, but this is where Josh and I go for the cheap travel airfare or a decent driving distance. It is amazing how cheap travel is to many domestic locations if you just do your homework.

2. Homeaway.com

When I am dreamin' and schemin', this has been my recent favorite spot to research. It is a home rental site that has been highlighted in the Wall Street Journal as a growing major player in the internet travel industry. They have homes/apartments for rent EVERYWHERE is the world - often for the price of a couple of hotel rooms! I love to think of the most random place possible, and see what they have. :) They have great little filters to narrow down your selections, and all the listers are screened and guaranteed by the company. I have stayed in homes booked through this site that were fab. u. lous. And my mom booked a killer apartment in January in NYC! Can't wait :)

The point is... trips are FUN! and make life interesting! And mostly they give you a great opportunity to relax and focus on the ones you love most. So think outside the box - no Hilton or Marriott - and get creative with how you allocate your travel budget! And let me know what you come up with. Like I said, it's time for me to start planning again...

Love ya'll! Mean it.

Wine Wednesday?

Ummmmm...... hi there.

So if you haven't figured it out by now, I am all about honesty on this thing. Throwing it all out there for your judgment/entertainment means I don't have to use my filter, which I can barely utilize at work.

Which means I pretty much never use it at work - thank goodness for my coworkers. bless their little hearts.

And I digress.....

Sooooooo I am not fully prepared for Wine Wednesday this week... but I have been busy! This weekend was filled with gazing at my beautiful bottles of fancy wine that finally arrived from my Napa travels in September, but I procrastinate during weekends anyway.

So what was the problem?

Monday night I made my all-time favorite snack from my Baylor days... apple bread! And last night night I took that delicious apple bread to some friends who invited us over for dinner. This means I played on a school (work) night TWO nights in a row.

This brings me to two conclusions:

1. I love apple bread.

2. I am pathetic that I can only fit in one extra activity each night.

I am old and crusty.

and not like a good French baguette... more like an open tube of toothpaste.

But I do have all my good wine now - YAY! And I can write about that, right?

This weekend I got my glorious shipment of Fisher wines. People... this stuff is serious. It is from a stunning, tiny mountain vineyard overlooking Napa Valley that makes some killer Cabernet. It is the Spring Mountain district, which has become my favorite California Cab region.

You know what I love about Spring Mountain? All the vineyards are small and make wine with love. Because they have to! In the 1970's, when California wine started taking off, winemakers began buying the Spring Mountain land and planting it with Cabernet grapes... it is the perfect climate. But there was a problem - all the loose soil from the land-clearing was running into Napa Valley! yikes! So California laws were passed that restrict any more land on Spring Mountain to be cleared for planting. period. done. So what you see is what you get! and what you will ever get!

Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have been there since the beginning, and their wine shows it. One bottle in particular that I bought just melts my heart...

See this bottle?

Ain't it pretty?

So this is called the wedding vineyard cabernet, and for good reason. In the 1970's, soon after the Fishers bought their land, they spent all their money getting it cleared for the vineyard. Since they had nothing left to pay for planters, they decided to get married on their land. So they did! And the reception? Everybody rolled up their sleeves and planted the grapevines on the property. Seriously! It is literally the wedding vineyard.

and those very same grapes produce the cabernet in this bottle... love it.

Any Fisher wines can be tough to find and kinda expensive to buy. Look in fine dining restaurants or online. But if you find a bottle of the Unity Cab, Coach Insignia, anything... just buy it. It literally will change your life... and I am not just saying that for dramatic effect.

Because I am really not that dramatic... nobody in my family is.

Love ya'll! Mean it.

and love Fisher! Really mean it.