Dinner with Whiskey eyes & Lovely Lady

Whiskey Eyes & his Lovely Lady is coming for dinner tonight.  Now the exciting part, accept for Hubby cooking, is Whiskey Eyes is bringing the wine.  He got this amazing selection of to die for, must have wines from his father & I am so excited to see what is on the list tonight.

Cheers all!

Relaxing after a hard day at work:

Pick a wine you can sip slowly, like a German riesling: low in alcohol but high in flavor, so you won’t pass out on the sofa at 7 p.m.

GOOP

One word! Stunning!
On some nights, once dinner is finished & the kitchen is clean and I’m in for the evening, one of my favorite pastimes is to sit down with my laptop and a nice glass of wine & surf the internet for new and exciting blogs/websites based on  food & wine. This is where I found Goop.

More than an amazing talented actress & a pretty face, Gwyneth Paltrow has started this website filled with inspiration of all kinds and basically covers all sides of our daily life's.

So grab a glass of wine (if it's after 5) and spoil yourself with some YOU time & travel through GOOP.

Enjoy

What Katie Ate

Busy Busy Monday Morning ;-)
Working hard & I stumbled upon this little gem - What Katie Ate

Just love her blog. Fresh & interesting.

Poached Salmon Salad:

Emersonmade- Happy Monday

Nonproductive = my day

How funny, pretending to be busy on a Monday morning is exhausting ;-)

One of my favorite ladies, adore her, is worth a share to brighten up my day and hopefully yours too.

Emersonmade is viby, funky, funny, entertaining & just all around lovely.

Enjoy!

Yipee! De Toren

LOVE = De Toren wines

I LOVE this wine!!! Anyone who knows the De Toren boy's and their wine selection will well understand my passion and love for this award winning wine selection.
I have a very special and dear relationship with the Owner & Wine Maker & was introduced to them by the owner's lovely son Emil den Bulk, which I was priviledged to meet in my day's of waitering.

They are my wine family and every time I spend time with these lovely men I feel right at home.

I got the most devine email from Emil yesterday asking me to assist in WineEx this year, purely because his Dad refuses to work with anyone else. Now that's a HUGE compliment coming from Emil Senior.  I just love working with these gentleman & I know my night is going to be filled with laughter & copius amounts of Amazing wine. ahhhhh....

My happy moment for the week, just had to share it with you. ;-)

Cheers all.

Vegetarian dinner??!!!! Say What?

Being Afrikaans and growing up in the Free State the word Vegetarian is "foreign" to me when it comes to my cooking skills.  Eeek! I know.  Hubby has been trying years to convince me that only eating veggies for dinner is perfectly normal and matter of factly healthier than my HAVE TO HAVE MEAT in every dish or it's not food.  So I decided last night to try this lovely recipe I saw in the Ideas Magazine.

Spinach and feta Parcels

Serves HUBBY

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Baking time: 20 minutes or until golden brown

Oven temperature: 200 °C

Ingredients:

• Butter!
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 500g spinach, chopped
• 100g feta, crumbled
• 5ml garlic & herb seasoning
• 4 sheets phyllo pastry
• more Butter! Melted
• home made tzatziki
• toasted pine nuts

Heat the butter in a large frying pan and sauté the onion until soft.  Cook the spinach for two minutes in a pot of rapidly boiling water. Drain and mix in the onion and feta cheese. Season with garlic and herb seasoning. Divide mixture into two portions.  Brush a sheet of phyllo pastry with the melted butter, place another sheet on top and also brush with butter.  Cut in half and place a portion of the spinach mixture on each half.  Fold together and tuck in the sides to make a rough round shape of each half.

Place the parcels onto a greased baking sheet, brush with a little melted butter and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and crisp, depends on your oven

To serve:

Place parcels in the middle of the plate, spoon some tzatziki over and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.  

 (pic via International stockfood)

Hubby licked his plate clean, shame he is clearly starved for Vegetarian dishes, or it might just be the 2 hour basketball game he played after work.  I on the other hand indulged in a whole chocolate bar by myself.  Gulp Gulp.  Seriously?  Did you really think I was going to try out a Vegetarian meal??!  Hahahah, silly silly.

Match made in heaven: Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc  & Spinach and feta Parcels. So I hear.  Last night's bottle went down smoothly with chocolate, I need a STEAK! sigh ... enough of this rabbit food.

Cheers all

Creamy pasta with bacon, yellow pepper and basil

(picture via ideas mag)

Serves 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Preparation time drinking wine: 35 minutes plus | opening another bottle | 40 minutes plus | chatting to Hubby: 60 minutes plus

Ingredients:

• Butter!
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 pack of bacon
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• 15ml flour
• 250 ml pouring cream
• fresh basil
• cashew nuts
• pasta of your choice

Heat the butter in a large frying pan, add the onion & yellow pepper, sauté until glossy.

Remove the onion & pepper into a separate bowl and fry the bacon until crispy.  

Add the onion and yellow pepper mix, bacon & cashew nuts - fry, mix and add the flour, mix well until combined.  Stir in the pouring cream and heat until simmering.  Add your cooked pasta and chopped fresh basil.

Serve & enjoy!

Now the Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc (yes again – I have a case to get through) was quite buttery with this dish, almost tasted like a Chardonnay.  The creamy pasta brought out a fruity bouquet in the wine.  Absolutely divine.  I must admit I really love this wine; it has complimented every dish this week so far….

Let’s see what tomorrow night brings.

Cheers all

Chilli Con Carne meets Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc

In the mood for comfort food I decided to make Chilli Con Carne & matched Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc with this dish & this was the results.

Chilli con carne

Serves: 4 – 6

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Preparation time with a glass of wine in your hand: 30 minutes plus

butter! butter! butter!

1 onion, halved and diced

5 bacon strips

1 green pepper, seeded and sliced

500g lean beef mince

1 x 410g can Mexican diced tomatoes from Spar

frozen corn

mixed spices for Chilli Con Carne – you buy this sachet with separate spices from Spar – easy peasy, it’s not cheating, it’s clever - more time for drinking, less cooking ;-)

Now I know that you have to add red kidney beans with this dish, but I forgot and was to lazy to drive back to the shop, so no kidney beans, deal with it.

1. heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and follow the instructions on the mixed spices sachet and it will tell you step by step what spices to add when and what to fry when. EASY :-)

2. fill up wine glass.

Now if you followed the instructions (from Spar) correctly you should end up with something like this, minus the kidney beans:

 (picture via ideas mag)

Hubby decided to turn dinner into a wrap -  chopped fresh tomato, lettuce, avo & grated cheese.  Chilli Con Carne Wrap! Yummy.

A little more about Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc wine:  consuming 3 bottles of this wine will leave you legless, this much I know, but even through the blur of consumption I remembered how amazing this wine was & that I had to have it in my cellar.  A lovely fruity nose and hints of pineapple, taste of green apples and pears with a warm toasty biscuit aroma…. Mmm cookie dough.

The soft fruity aspects in the wine tamed this spicy dish perfectly.  Lip smacking delicious.

Now there you go.  Easy dinner, gorgeous wine & great company!

Cheers!

A Big Happy 30 to The Dreamer

One of my favorite people is turning 30 today.  Happy Birthday to The Dreamer & welcome to your dirty 30's ;-)

(picture via pear tree hey bridge)

Hubby & I are hosting his Big 30th bash in our back yard tonight & I can't wait to be surrounded by wine!  I mean our dear dear friends.

Have a great weekend Y'all.
Cheers

Diemersfontein Pinotage on Tap

baFor all of you out there who enjoy this wine would agree with me, there is no better sentence than: Diemersfontein Pinotage on Tap!

I love Diemersfontein Pinotage – a smooth coffee, rolo chocolate taste in your mouth. When Hubby told me he bought tickets for this years Pinotage launch I was beyond ecstatic.

Diemersfontein on Tap was held at The Cradle Restaurant here in Johannesburg & when we arrived there were Safari Vehicles ready to transport us into the bush.  Arriving in the bush we were greeted with goodie bags that contained - most importantly - your wine glass for the day, a nice fresh sandwich, biscuits & mineral water.  Between the trees were hay bales, picnic blankets, cushions and chairs.  Pick a spot & relax. Gallons of free flowing wine, chocolate fountains with strawberries, waiters walking around with platters of canapés & delectable foods & most importantly – barrels and barrels of Pinotage ON TAP. There was also a stage with a line up of top performers… ahhhh…. Bliss….

My day started with Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc (bad idea)

(picture via pear tree hey bridge)

Impressed with this wine I (via Hubby's credit card) purchased a case.  Smooth, Silky white wine. You know when you mix cookie dough? That sweet buttery taste you get when you lick your fingers? Yeah, that was it. Delicious, only down point to this is by the time I found my way to the Pinotage Barrels my "naughty" twin came out to play & could barely put one foot in front of the other.  Bearing my stained teeth to the world with pride, this is a wine that makes you smile.

All in all it was a great day filled with lots & lots of wine, good friends, dancing, drinking & trying to stay upright. ;-) My poor Hubby.

Sunday was awful, just awful I tell you: Headache, ego bruised, my legs bruised, eish!

(picture via funny hub)

Well, I will have to start training for next years Pinotage on Tap day.

Have a good week all.

Cheers!