Wobbly Wine Wisdom Wednesday: Sweet Pea Apple Wine

My sister was in town last weekend to help me prepare for an estate sale and to paint our stepdad's condo. I have not had a girl weekend with my little sister since she was pregnant with her 2nd son, almost 9 years ago.

We decided that sorting and pricing sale items on a muggy Friday night would go much smoother with a little libation. I pulled out the oversized wine glasses that my stepdad had provided to me years before and we settled on a lovely bottle of Sweet Pea Apple Wine.

Never one to pass up a cute wine label with a catchy name, the apple wine appealed to me for a few reasons- first because we were practically raised in an apple orchard, so sentimentality won me over, and second because I was looking for something summery, cool, crisp and light. I was not at all disappointed.

Sweet Pea Apple Wine is two parts apple and one part peach. You can taste just that in this wine. It reminded me of hard cider without the kick. My sister said she was reminded of martinellis sparkling apple juice without the carbonation. We agreed that it was the perfect wine for our evening. I would definately recommend it for when the girlfriends get together- it is just that kind of drink; very feminine.

I think that this wine would go well with English Digestive crackers and marscapone. It would pair well with a nice salty pork roast or seasoned chicken breast. I served it chilled over crushed ice while enjoying time with my sister-probably the best combination of all.

Keep It Simple Saturday: Greek Kapotenia (Carrot Truffles)

This post is for my brother, Dennis. I have been promising to share this recipe with him for a while now. I encountered this sweet carrot macroon while thumbing through Vefa's Kitchen cookbook "the bible of Greek cooking".

This is a great simple recipe (although a little more involved than eating cherries and chevre over the sink). The flavor is very macroon like- I think that your tasters will be surprised to realize that this contains carrots. The recipe is unique and makes a great little presentation.

KAPOTENIA

1lb, 2 oz medium carrots

1c superfine sugar

finely grated zest of 1 large lemon

1t vanilla extract

2-1/3 - 3-2/3 c dried unsweetened dessicated coconut (I used Red Mill)

1. Parboil the carrots for 20 minutes, then remove from the heat, drain, cool and then grate coarsely.
2. Combine grated carrots, sugar and lemon zest in a pan and cook, stirring frequently for 20 minutes
3. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add vanilla and half the coconut. Mix well.
4. Let cool completely and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Shape into 1 inch balls and roll each in the remaining coconut. (If they don't hold together well, add more coconut)
6. Put the truffles in candy cases and store in air tight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

A final note about carrots: I recently came across some yellow and purple carrots at the Snohomish farmer's market- I am always intrigued by unique veggies, so I had to buy. I learned later that these funky colors are not so unique, but more representative of ancient carrots. Today these are mostly engineered to enhance nutrient values and flavor (I guess most veggies fall in that catagory that aren't heirloom). I am not sure how I feel about having scientists messing about with my veggies. Today's popular orange carrots are a true product of scientist intervention. I read that the beta carotene content in today's carrots in 25% greater than 20 years ago.

Surprisingly someone has devoted a whole website to the subject of carrots, if you are interested in learning more about carrot history, check it out here: www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html

Keep It Simple Saturday: Cherries and Chevre

One of the great little blessing that came with our 1955 Brick Bungalow is a Rainier cherry tree.

The tree is heavy with fruit this year- there are more cherries than we can possibly eat- and, apparently, more cherries than the birds can eat as well. We have invited our friends and neighbors over to help themselves.

Rainier cherries are one of the sweetest varieties. They were developed in 1960- a cross between a Bing and a Van. As far as cherries go, these are the elite variety- they can run as much as $5 a pound- so, we feel extremely pleased to have these for free in our back yard.

Kathy Casey of Dish D'Lish** introduced me to the idea of Cherries and Chevre cheese this summer with a posting on facebook for a fabulous little appetizer she calls "Cherry Bings". I had hoped to link you to the recipe, but could not find it, however these are as simple as can be:

Wrap a pitted cherry with chevre and roll in sliced almonds. She used Bings (hence the name), I used my Rainiers

Simple enough.

However, I couldn't help myself once I tasted the combination! I found myself eagerly scooping up teaspoonfulls of lovely chevre and devouring it with a rainier cherry on top (Almonds would have been a nice addition- but I got distracted and didnt think to add that until I had eaten the rest of the chevre). This is one of those wonderful little bites that can be devoured vigorously while standing over the kitchen sink. (I speak from experience here)

I was thinking today that a chevre ice cream might taste good with a topping of sliced cherries. We will definately need to look into that

Do you have any other great "cherry" or "chevre" combos? Let us know!

**Kathy Casey's blog about cherries is located here