Tag Archives: wine

Wine, Beer and Running Buddies

Yeah. That pretty much describes all of my favorite things–and my night last night!

The Food Network is launching their own line of wines, and I was invited to a tasting event last night.

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The line, called Entwine, aims to make food and wine pairings less scary. They partnered with Wente Vineyards, and Karl Wente, whose family founded the vineyard more than 125 years ago, was there, and let’s just say, he’s not too hard on the eyes.

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Food Network star Anne Burrell was there, and she encouraged anyone scared of wine to just drink more of it. I can’t say I’m afraid of wine, but I can still get on board with that. She says when she was in culinary school, her wine class scared the crap out of her. She had no idea what any of those wine words meant, and couldn’t taste any of the notes she was “supposed” to taste in the wines. These Food Network wines use the language of food, rather than the language of wine, in their descriptions.

For example, the chardonnay, one of my favorites (and I’m not usually a chardonnay girl), is just described as “easy-drinking, with crisp fall fruit.” I know what that means. I can get behind that. The tasting notes say it pairs well with “potato chips; grilled cheese sandwiches; shellfish; goat cheese; cream sauces; roast chicken and hanging out with friends.” I can get behind that. Wine doesn’t have to be pretentious. (Really, nothing needs to be pretentious.)

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Our names and where we were from (it wasn’t just a blog event–there was tons of “real” media there, too) were written on our wine glasses–a really cute touch and something Ashley and I agreed would be easy to do for a party.

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There was also lots of great food.

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Chickpea fritters? Be still, my heart.

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Scallops? I was a happy girl.

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GRILLED CHEESE? OMG. I was in passed hors d’oeuvres heaven.

In our goodie bags, we got wine (score) and this cookbook, which I’m excited to try.

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After leaving this event, I headed downtown to Swift for a runner happy hour that Laurel put together. Have you joined the awesome NYC Marathon Facebook group? No? Do it. We talk about running together and getting beer together. We’re fun.

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See? Fun. And we even got a dude to come. (More dudes, please!)

So: wine or beer? And what’s your favorite wine or beer?

My Birthday in Food!

Scrolling back through the few days, I realized why I keep this blog. To keep myself accountable. “But it’s my birthday week and I lost 50 pounds this year?” I’m glad I have photographic evidence to remind me to only do this once a year!

The sweet Casey e-mailed me this morning and told me to “enjoy every indulgence imaginable!” Casey, I did not let you down!

I spent the day with my mom and was kidnapped back to NJ for the evening for dinner. (I wanted to have dinner with my parents but my dad had to work late, so NJ it was.) I went to the Sicilian Sun in Ho-Ho-Kus (yes, that’s a real town name) with my parents and two of my wonderful friends.

My dad and I started with spiedini di mozzarella, which is basically fancy mozzarella sticks or a fancy (breaded and fried) grilled cheese sandwich. It’s similar to another dish called mozzarella en carrozza. My dad and I always get it at our favorite restaurant, Portobello, which is also where I had my Sweet 16…11 years ago. Ah!

Then, I moved onto chicken parmigiana with some spaghetti on the side. (Note, we do not go to fancy Italian restaurants. They are nowhere near as fun, or as good, as the family-owned hole-in-the-wall kind of places.)

(I ate about half of it and left the rest. I was going back and forth with myself about whether I should bring it home, but once was enough for me!)

To be honest, “real” pasta is no longer as good to me as whole wheat pasta. I could taste the empty calories and realized I used to keep eating to get that satisfaction that never came. With white pasta, I’d go from not-yet-satisfied to wanting to burst in 2.5 seconds.

Yum ice cream cake! This? Worth. Every. Bite. But I did make my mom throw out the leftovers afterwards.

There you have it. I’m not perfect, but I”m going to get back to my healthy eating tomorrow and my healthy drinking habits…Saturday. I’m going out for dinner (sushi) with friends tomorrow night and then meeting people out for drinks afterwards.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE SWEET BIRTHDAY WISHES! XOXO