Feast of Freebies: A Night of Wine, Chocolate, and Tandoori

Full disclosure: I have been sent Chateau Ste. Michelle wines by Thirsty Girl and Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolate from another PR firm to try. The opinion about the products are mine and my friends'. While we are grateful for the freebies, we hold no punches when it comes to our opinion of these products.You'll see...

Thirsty Girl team, with whom I collaborated with the Ghirardelli Intense Dark event last year, wanted to send me some Chateau Ste. Michelle Rieslings to try. Coincidentally, just a week before that, a box of Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolate arrived. To top it off, the deadline for a Fresh&Easy recipe contest was fast approaching so I need to make my 7 Layer Dip soon...and I need some help eating it. What's a girl to do with all these goodness happening all at once?

She called her friends and planned a dinner, of course! 

I had a great mix of guests for this wine tasting dinner: my newbie wine drinker husband Brandon, blogger Paulette of Girl + Fire, photographer David (who just came from a day of shoot so I didn't have the heart to ask him to shoot the dinner too), moms on their respective night off Aurora and Olaina, Aurora's sister Lee, and Brandon's friend Greg and his girlfriend Heather.  Not a wine snob in the house! So, proceed to read our review with caution. ;-)

The three Chateau Ste. Michelle Rieslings were 2001 Dry Riesling, 2010 Eroica, and 2011 Harvest Select Sweet Riesling.  All are recommended to pair with Asian dishes, Indian curries, crab, scallops, and mild cheese.  I just hoped that they would all go well with the 7 Layer Dip.

Since I have folks who are allergic to dairy and seafood, the dinner choice went to Aarti's "Tandoori" chicken recipe I saw on Best Thing I Ever Made.  The recipe has a lot of components and takes some time to prep but it is easily adaptable to feed my 10 guests. (Will blog about that later).

Well, except for the fact that I forgot that the bulk chicken I bought are bone-in and her recipe used boneless. Let's just say that I had to recommend that my guests eat a lot of dip and put more rice and veggies on their plates.

Thanks to Paulette, the only person with the frame of mind to snap a photo.
This is pretty much the only image from the entire night. LOL

Lee suggested that I should have all of my guests enter more tesserae for the last piece of the chicken. (A Hunger Games reference for those not in on the joke.) The thought of having folks fight it out Hunger Games style did cross my mind. I mean, after all, we do have bow and arrows in this household...

Anyway.  To wrap up the meal, we would do the tasting of Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolates: Gourmet Milk Creamy Devotion™ with rich and creamy 32% cacao milk chocolate; Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape™ with sea salt and roasted almonds; and Gourmet Milk Coconut Rendezvous™ which features toasted coconut flakes. I was sent 2 bars of each. But not all of those survived to dinner that night. (I couldn't help myself!)

First wine we tasted was the 2001 Dry Riesling which I served while folks were still noshing on the 7 Layer Dip, giving me a bit more time to line up the buffet in the kitchen.

The tasting note from winemaker Bob Bertheau calls the wine “a dry, crisp, refreshing style of Riesling with beautiful fruit flavors, crisp acidity and an elegant finish. It exudes beautiful white peach and floral aromas with a clean finish.”  The wine was a little underwhelming against the strong flavors of the 7 Layer Dip, but it was a nice, neutral wine to sip with tandoori chicken.

Aurora took a sip. "Wow. This wine reminds me of Indian food."

"Honey, you're smelling the tandoori chicken from the kitchen," quipped Heather.

Lee said the Dry Riesling tasted like grape juice and lemonade.  She doesn't usually like dry wine but this is fruity enough for her.  Brandon on the other hand didn't care much for the dryness while some of us who prefer red actually appreciate the crispness and acidity.

Paulette immediately called out the fruitiness of the aroma. Upon tasting, she thought that this would be a great base for a white sangria. Heather agreed.

Once everyone had their plates, I poured the 2010 Eroica, named for Beethoven’s Third Symphony. (Naturally, "The Erotica" was what the gang came to call it for the rest of the evening.)  Tasting note says, "The 2010 Eroica Riesling exudes mandarin orange and sweet lime aromas and flavors with subtle mineral notes."

"How do we like it, folks?"

A round of applause.

Talk about a perfect pairing! The wine's hint of lime and subtle sweetness was a perfect match for our tandoori chicken with lime and honey in the sauce along with other Indian spices. Lee didn't like the wine by itself as it was too sweet for her taste, but she did like it paired with the food.

On that sweet note, Greg compared the wine to a wine cooler--that it's easy to drink and refreshing.  Heather liked that "nice, wet finish."  David just called it juicy.

I saved the 2011 Harvest Select Sweet Riesling for last as I wasn't sure if the sweetness would interfere with food.  It wasn't meant to be a dessert wine and I didn't serve it as such. It was the "Drink this while I clear the table and fetch your dessert" wine.

At this point, I should probably mentioned that in addition to these great Chateau Ste. Michelle wines, we also drank a bottle each of Firefly Ridge Chardonnay and the effervescent New Age, served with a slice of lime.  Oh, and also most of the dinner party were around the TV with Lee as she watched Blade Trinity for the very first time. Hey, no girls should ever go through life without having seen Ryan Reynold's glorious abs…and a vampire Pomeranian!

So, between being nicely sauced and the movie in the background, the colorful reviews I elicited earlier was no longer. While the tasting note suggests that the wine "offers beautiful crisp Washington Riesling character with rich flavors of ripe pears and peaches," all I got from the crew was "Yeah this is tasty!" and a moan of approval ("Wow…yummyyy…") from Aurora who sipped hers while nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.

Since nobody threw the wine in my face for interrupting the movie/dessert, I would say that the Sweet Riesling was also a hit.  The star of the evening though was Eroica.

Now, onto the chocolates.  I found Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolates to be incredibly creamy and flavorful. Milk chocolate tends to be overly sweet sometimes but these weren't. Not even Creamy Devotion aka the plain one. These are so good I would ditch the beloved Intense Dark for especially the Sea Salt Escape.

The surprise winner of the evening was the Coconut Rendezvous.  Heather said that it tasted like Hawaii. Olaina and Paulette who are already fans of the chocolate and coconut combination absolutely love it and were debating as to who get to take the leftover home.  Even Lee and I, who absolutely abhor this combination, had to agree that it was probably the least offensive coconut chocolate we ever had.

A few pours of tawny port, a few more sips of homemade Limoncello and vanilla-brown butter infused rum, and a whole bunch of dead vampires later, the party rolled out.  After all, this was a Wednesday night. 

The next Feast of Freebies will be for the Villa Maria wines from New Zealand. We'll be doing it on the weekend this time.

Chocolate, Wine, and Boobies

Posts on this blog and twitter about the Ghirardelli Intense Dark Pairings event are based on an advertising relationship. I have been paid to host and promote the Intense Dark Pairings event for Ghirardelli. I also received a discount from District Wine along with a bottle of wine as a raffle prize. However, the opinion about the Ghirardelli products and the District Wine are all mine. Mine!

Ghirardelli is supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month by donating $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for each code entered from the specially marked Intense Dark chocolates. As a part of this promotion, I was contacted to host an Intense Dark Pairings party, tasting the Intense Dark chocolates and pairing them with food and wine.

I lost my mother and a good friend to cancer. Any fight against any kind of cancer is my fight. Instead of just calling a few friends over to my house, I wanted to help spread the word as much as I can. So I reached out to my blogger friends and tweeps. But now I'd need a cozy venue for all my fabulous guests.

A wine tasting party that feels like it's being hosted in someone's (really nice) living room? Naturally, I called Mark and Angela at District Wine in Downtown Long Beach (@districtwine). They were more than happy to play host to an all-girl afternoon out. (Well, almost all-girl. We did have a Token Male...) They even threw in a bottle of wine for my raffle.

Annette (@dananner) is a happy camper!

Some of us started the party started a little early with District Wine’s Sunday special, $9 bottomless mimosas. Mark mentioned that the orange juice was just for color, and he wasn't kidding. The pour was generous and the glasses were never once empty. I'd definitely come back some other Sundays for this!

What made our tasting party even more special was that my friend Melissa (@melissakeyes), a breast cancer survivor, shared her story.





For the pairings, I received a guide of food and wine pairing suggestions which were put together by Leslie Sbrocco of Thirsty Girl. You too can host one of these tasting parties at home. The party planning kit, and tasting guide and videos are on this website. I am also giving away a mini tasting kit. Read on for more details.

Anyways. I passed Leslie's list along to District Wine along with some chocolate samples, and they came up with their own selection of wines. And here is our menu.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Evening Dream: 60% Cacao
District Wine's Pick: Frogmore Creek Iced Riesling, Tasmania
Food: Dried apricot

While the Riesling goes well with the wine and the apricot, it brings out so much of the apricot that the chocolate was more of the supporting actor. Still good though. One of the crowd's favorites.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Twilight Delight : 72% Cacao
District Wine's Pick: Taft Street Zinfandel, Russian River Valley
Food: This would've been paired with fresh raspberries but I forgot to bring them. Boo...

Another pleasant pairing of chocolate and wine here. But neither was memorable for me.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Midnight Reverie: 86% Cacao
District Wine's Pick: Layer Cake Malbec, Argentina
Food: Salted almonds, parmesan, and water crackers

Home run all around! The high cacao content makes the chocolate almost savory. Something magical happens with the chocolate, the parmesan, and the Malbec. Red wine fans all agreed this would be the wine they'd drink any day of the week. I would also suggest that you try this chocolate with some prosciutto. I had some at Cochon 555 and it was wonderful. I was thinking about bringing some for the tasting but I didn't want to scare my friends. LOL.

Ghirardelli® Intense Dark™ Toffee Interlude: Toffee bits and caramelized almonds
District Wine's Pick: Taylor Fladgate 20 Years Tawny, Portugal - OR - Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
Food: Plush Puffs Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

The surprise hit of the evening was the Plush Puffs (found at my favorite store Fresh & Easy). Folks were nibbling on them even before our tasting began and there was nothing left afterward. I can only imagine what the toasted Puffs and this chocolate would taste like inside a S'mores! They're already magical in their respective raw form without the Graham crackers. Mark and Angela gave us a choice between a port or a beer here, and I chose the port. It just brought it all home perfectly.

My friend Jennifer also took fabulous photographs of the event. You can find the rest on her Facebook album.

It was a great afternoon of discovering flavors of Ghirardelli Intense Dark chocolates, finding new wines we love, making new friends, and raising awareness for breast cancer.

Look on twitter for #TGTaste and/or #IntenseDark for great coverage. I will update this post with links to the coverage from my fabulous guests as I get them.

• Our cancer's butt kicker Melissa: Wine and Chocolate: Ghiradelli Intense Dark Chocolate at District Wine
  
• Paulette (@girlplusfire/@pfont): Fighting Like a Girl: Ghirardelli & Vino at District Wine.
• Rachel (@theartmuse): Intense Dark
  
• Tamara (@divacowgirl): Hope
• Veronica (@lbcshopper): Intensely Delicious Wine Pairing

Melissa and I with Mark and Angela, owners of District Wine

INTENSE DARK CHOCOLATE GIVEAWAY!

Be ready to join the Intense Dark Tweet Chat on October 5 at 5 p.m. PST hosted by Thirsty Girl (@beathirstygirl / #TGTaste). Enter to win your own mini tasting kit! Leave a comment down below (make sure to leave your valid email address) to throw your name into the hat to win a Ghirardelli Intense Dark Pairing kit with a pairing guide, wine charms, samples of Evening Dream, Twilight Delight, Midnight Reverie, and Sea Salt Soiree.

ETA: Congratulations, Alana (@AlanaGarrigues)! You've won the little pairing gift box! :)

Playing Hostess

EVENT IS FULL! THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST! Come back later to see our recap. :)

I'm honored that Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate is partnering with me in putting together chocolate/wine pairing event in recognition of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Come sip some glorious wines, nibble some luscious Ghirardelli Intense Dark chocolates, and talk about boobies with me!

Disclosure: Posts on the blog and twitter about the Ghirardelli Intense Dark Pairings event are based on an advertising relationship. I have been paid to host and promote the Intense Dark Pairings event for Ghirardelli. I am also receiving a discount from the "Awesome Location" to host this event there. However, the opinion about the products and the "Awesome Location" are all mine.

Drago Centro Loves Me

Last week, Drago Centro (@dragocentro) in Downtown LA held a twitter contest: tweet what your relationship is like in terms of chocolate truffles. The winning post would win said truffles handmade by their pastry chef, Jashmine Corpuz (@jasHmineCorpus).

On Monday, I tweeted this: "Dark chocolate w/ salted caramel: harden & bitter on the outside, sweet & gooey on the inside taken w/ a grain of salt."

Well, we are! Brandon and I are not romantics. But we're insanely cute when there are just the two of us. Well, *HE* is insanely cute. I'm just kind of there, laughing.

The prize went to @carolineoncrack's "dark choc w/ bourbon & hint of jalapeno. we luv toasting us w/ bourbon."

On Tuesday, I went on a race tangent: "Husband contradicts yesterday's post. He said we're white chocolate with rice crispies because he's white & I'm Thai. LOL" --> "But then we'd go with coloring, we'd be more like with white chocolate and caramel..." --> "Or white chocolate and lemon cream. Or saffron...but that would make me more Snookie..."

The prize went to @robtak's "Bittersweet Chocolate & peanut butter b/c sometimes we're bitter, sometimes sweet, and at least one of us is nuts."

On Wednesday, I went straight for the jugular.

I channeled The King.



Whoever was doing the judging knows his/her Elvis. And I won. Chef Jashmine did ask to swap white chocolate for dark to balance out the flavors, and I was totally okay with that. I mean, I had this vision of Elvis in mind when I come up with that.



Although someone said dark chocolate *is* still Elvis, but in this gitup.



By the way, THAT's my favorite Elvis right there. Hee.

Thursday prize went to @carisunnie's "super dark chocolate outside with a cognac filling.my lost love left me bittersweet&drunk".

Friday prize AND the big $100 gift certificate went to @megreenwell's "Red chiles to represent my spicy redhead guy, bourbon for my Kentucky roots, and lime because we love to pucker up!"

Somehow, 4 out of 5 of us managed to meet up for a drink at Drago Centro when we picked up our loots on Saturday.

Rob was the first to arrive. Soon Caroline popped in to say hi and pick up her truffles. Her new puppy was waiting in the car so she couldn't stay. She left before Cari got there.

And as it turned out, Cari and Caroline's prizes were swapped! Sommelier Michael Shearin (@michaelshearin) was hanging out with us, so upon hearing about the mistake, he went back to the kitchen to see if there might be a few "flawed" cognac truffles to salvage. And there were two left.

And Cari, bless her heart, shared them with us. I'm happy that she at least got to actually taste her idea as beautifully realized at the hands of Chef Jashmine. (Sorry, Caroline!)

So we opened our boxes. Mine looked like this.



And not only they were beautiful, they were DIVINE!

Cari, Rob and I traded a few bites with each other so everyone got a little bit of everything.

Oh, and Caroline, we did like your jalapeno bourbon. Nice touch. ;-)

What a way to celebrate Valentine's Day: an afternoon with new friends, sharing a drink and some custom made truffles.

P.S. I didn't know about Drago Centro's awesome bar menu which is available all day. With full list of innovative cocktails and some $5 specials, one could find him/herself ordering a few plates and a cocktail special for less than $20. A bargain from a fine establishment like Drago Centro.

Girl Baby Shower Treats

This past weekend, my friends and I threw a baby shower for our friend Aurora. "Smush" is a girl whose due date is March 10. Being the 2nd baby, Aurora wanted to keep the shower small.

Lupe is a phenomenal home cook so naturally she was in charge of the afternoon snacks. I have seen Giada made these (Mini) Mascarpone Cupcakes with Strawberry Glaze on her show so it was the first thing that came to mind when figuring out the menu. It's so easy too!

I did double the recipe as I was supposed to make 2 dozen regular sized cupcakes. However, I ended up with 24 cupcakes, measured out at 1/2 cup of batter each, plus enough batter left to make one 9-inch round cake.

As for the glaze, I used 1 full cup of strawberries for double batch. It was getting wayyy to sticky with just 2/3 cup.



The girls enjoyed the cupcakes. The hubby got the round. ;-D

Now for more cutesy shower stuff, inspired by Aurora's undying love for white chocolate covered caramel apples, I decided to make them as party favors.

First, I bought 15 small gala apples which turned out to be just sweet enough after all the coatings. Per the tips I read online, I dipped them in boiling water, wiped off the wax, and let them dry overnight.



Let me tell you, even after Food Inc. experience, seeing the residual wax clinging to the apples after the dip turned me off from store-bought fruit all together. And yeah, some of them I have to re-dipped and re-wiped. Ick.

Now, for the layers, I was VERY generous with the ingredients. READ: I'm so bad at dipping and dripping off excess that I have a nice thick coat of both caramel and white chocolate. Nobody complained, however. I'm sure if you're more patience and frugal, you can squeeze up to 6-7 small apples out of the batch.

For each set of 5 apples:

• 1 bag of Kraft Caramels.
• 3 TBS of heavy whipping cream
• 3 4-oz bars of Ghirardelli White Chocolate. I don't recommend using chips. The reasons are below.
• Parchment paper with a quick coating of non-stick spray
  

First, the caramels. Follow instructions on the back of the bag. However, I substituted 2 TBS of water with 3 TBS of cream. Helloooo, why use water when cream is on hand, right?



Once the caramel is set (mine did in about 15-20 minutes), start up the double boiler and melt the chocolate bars. Dip. Let drip. And spin gently for even coating.

Now, the warning about the white chocolate chips. I found a recipe online that told me to melt 12-oz white chips with 2 TBS of butter. So I did a double batch and the whole damn thing seized. A flash back to the Great Chocolate Seizure of Christmas 2009!!

So I wasted at least half an hour of my schedule running back out to the store, cursing the white chips under my breath all the way there and back. But I digress.

Back to the apples. I waited about 15-20 minutes before I applied the sprinkles. I just held the apple by the stick horizontally and slowly released a handful sprinkles on it as I turned. Some people waited until the chocolate set a little more before applying sprinkles and nuts etc. so it doesn't melt into the chocolate or slide down. I didn't have time.

If you have an hour or more, you can let the chocolate dipped goodness cool in room temperature. However, I was in a rush so I had to stick everyone in the fridge. Even then, it wasn't quite firm enough to put in the plastic bags.

So I took the whole darn tray to the party. We bagged them as the guests were leaving.



Well, that's it. REALLY easy. However, the Ghirardelli bars ain't cheap. About $3.35 a bar at my store. I used 9 although I could've gotten away with 8 or less.

But look at these though. I think they're worth the money, don't you?

Black and Tan Cake and Cupcakes

My Saint Patrick's Day tradition of the Guinness stew continues this year as I just put the big ol' vat of the stew in the fridge, awaiting tomorrow's reheating.

*UPDATE -2010* I have since found a different Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe by Nigella's recipe that is a complete and total hit. I will not let you suffer through this dry cake so I have removed the recipe and link for this one.*

For dessert, this year I am going with the Chocolate Guinness Cake, a recipe directly from Guinness Proposition 317 campaign kit. But instead of using the chocolate granache that came with this recipe, I frost the cake with the Bailey's Dip/Frosting I made last year.

Not only you will have yummy Guinness treat, the color of the chocolate and the cream frosting does look like a pine of Guinness, the black and the creamy foam on top!

I made a regular cake version of this for Paul's birthday yesterday. The cake was a little dry, but the frosting saved the day. Today, I made the cupcake version of it with the whole bottle of Guinness instead of one cup in attempt to add more moisture--it's only a splash more beer than a cup anyway--and it worked okay.

Chocolaty AND Refreshing

For the office birthday party this week, I decided to bake the cupcakes instead of buying them. So, I went with Giada's recipe for Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Limoncello Frosting because a) it sounded good at the time and b) it gave me a valid excuse to buy my first bottle of Limoncello.

Again, I used Duncan Hine's Devil's Food Cake Mix and I beat it on high a little while longer. Instead of the manufactured orange juice, I used the fresh squeezed organic one from Trader Joe's. As for the chocolate chips, I used semi-sweet.

The cake was moist and fluffy, not too sweet. Even the sweet icing had a little cut from Limoncello and zest. Despite the rich, chocolaty flavor, the cake was surprisingly refreshing. Perfect in every way for a summer day. (I know, the recipe was for Halloween...but it was a VERY summery cake!)

The only obstacle I had with this recipe is finding the candied orange peel. I went to Trader Joe's. No dice. Even Bristol Farms doesn't have any, to my surprise.

Oh god. The endive flashback!

Thank goodness, as a back up plan, I looked up Giada's candied orange peel recipe ahead of time. So while at Trader Joe's, I picked up 2 navel oranges.

I followed the recipe except that I use 2 oranges instead of one. Come to think of it, I think you can even candied peels from 3 oranges with all the sugar there was in that pot. And of course, I didn't chocolate-dip the peel.

At first I was worried. After I left the peel out to cool/dry over night, it was still sticky in the morning. But by the time I got home later that afternoon, they were dry. And they were perfect.

Heavenly Cake

Just got back from the BBQ where my cake was a gigantic hit! I promised to post the recipe here.

It's not mine, really. It's Giada's Hazelnut Crunch Cake with Mascarpone and Chocolate.

ETA: Brand new pics!



Very simple and straight forward. Just have to watch the caramel, and that's all.

1. I used Duncan Hines' Devil's Food Cake for the chocolate cake. The box said to beat the batter 2 minutes. I used my hand mixer on high and I went longer than that. Somehow, the cake not only came out moist, but also light. The lightness is what folks at the BBQ really liked. I also used Pam for Baking (Pam + flour) to grease the cake pans. They plopped out with no problem whatsoever.

2. Watch the hot caramel! When I finished pouring the caramel onto the hazelnuts, I noticed there was a drop of the sugar on the counter top. Like an idiot child of Dumbassville, I swiped it up with my finger. I did this once before about a year or two ago when I attempted to make caramel cake. At least this time, I didn't burn the caramel.



3. I would've made more chocolate-orange topping. It was just enough to sprinkle on top, but I think I'd like some more of that. Maybe I should just double that and you can sprinkle some on the side of the cake too.