Christmas Dinner Wine: From A to Zweigelt

Let’s start with A , which stands for Anything You Like .  Drink what you like!  Christmas covers everything from turkey to standing rib roast to takeout Chinese to whatever your tradition is.  There is no right (or wrong) answer when it comes to wine.  So I’m going to jump to the end of the alphabet and, as a bookend to A , suggest that Z is for Zweigelt .  Specifically, the 2008 Hofer Zweigelt.  In a one liter bottle.  Sealed with a bottle cap.  And, if you thought it couldn’t get any better, it’s certified organic! So what’s so great about it?  Let’s start with the bottle cap seal.  No need for a corkscrew!  Ever open a bottle of beer?  You’re good to go.  And the big one liter bottle keeps you at the holiday table longer, with 33% more wine than those measly, standard 750ml size bottles.  Oh, I guess I should tell you a bit about what’s inside the bottle.  It’s an Austrian red made from the Zweigelt grape.  A bit of an esoteric and obscure pick, I admit, but these are the kind I wines I find charming.  If you like Pinot Noir or Beaujolais, this is a great wine: light, fresh, and easy to drink.  Delicious!  And it plays nice with a wide range of foods.  Uncork Uncap and enjoy! Jameson Fink is a wine buyer at a bustling grocery store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood .  He moved to Seattle from Chicago , where he dabbled in the restaurant and wine industries, five years ago to pursue a full-time career in wine.  He’d rather be drinking Champagne and eating popcorn right now. Possibly Related Posts: Christmas Tamales Vegan Cinnamon Rolls 10 Christmas Gifts For the Food Lover Wine from Scratch: Out with Old Wine, In with New! National Eggnog Month

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Christmas Dinner Wine: From A to Zweigelt

 Counting Birds: A Christmas Tradition

Many families celebrate the holidays with unique traditions, special ornaments, and delicious holiday recipes. This Christmas, consider starting a new holiday tradition by participating in the National Audubon Society's 110th Christmas Bird Count . The organization is gathering data from birdwatchers throughout the continent in order to better document the current status of different bird species

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Counting Birds: A Christmas Tradition

 Christmas Tamales

This last Saturday, a bunch of us gathered for our first annual Christmas tamale making party. With a long assembly line of ingredients, two large stock pots, huge piles of banana leaves and corn husks, and a sufficient amount of beer and wine to keep us going, we managed to stuff and wrap an impressive amount of tamales

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Christmas Tamales

 World Food Program FEED Bags

Give fun, funky burlap bag to a friend this holiday season and you’ll also be give a whole year’s worth of food to a child at school. The FEED project is a partnership with the World Food Program to help stamp out hunger and also increases school enrollment rates since the food from the

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World Food Program FEED Bags

 Give the Gift of Helping People Help Themselves

When you and your family & friends just don’t need anymore stuff, give the unique and meaningful gift of helping people help themselves instead! With MicroPlace.com you can send gift certificates via email to friends and family which enable them to empower the working poor to get loans, start businesses, and save so they can

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Give the Gift of Helping People Help Themselves

 Stocking Stuffers – 2009 Christmas Gift Guide

Fun, unique stocking stuffers are an absolute must for Christmas. We’ve put together a list of our favorite stocking stuffers for Christmas 2009 to make it a bit easier to find great stocking stuffers for your family and friends. Coal Gum When you’ve been naughty Snata leaves coal in your stocking

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Stocking Stuffers – 2009 Christmas Gift Guide

 Happy 1st Anniversary Foodista!

Like excited and nervous parents sending their kid off to school for the first time, the Three Wise Men of Foodista.com (make that one Wise Woman and Two Fairly Bright Men) launched their wiki-style cooking encyclopedia to the world last year on December 17. To celebrate this momentous event, our friend, chef and mixologist Kathy Casey , created a signature cocktail just for us! The Foodista Sparkle is a wonderful holiday blend of tangerine, thyme, white cranberry juice, vodka and a splash of champagne. Try it out, it’s delicious! Since our launch, we’ve experienced countless joys and milestones…amazing press coverage that has surprised even our own parents, a fabulous food blog conference that rocked the world of many, fantastic features like Taste Profile (compare yours to mine!), Leaderboards (see who’s doing what), Featured Blog of the Day (check out some of our blogger friends), and our fun and exciting food blog cookbook contest ! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! We’ve got a lot of exciting things planned for 2010, so stay tuned.

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Happy 1st Anniversary Foodista!

 Religious science and other science books

Having posted about atheism recently on the SciScoop science forum, it seems quite apt to have received for review a couple of books with a religious theme at this time of year. The first is The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade. Wade is a well-known New York Times writer who presents the case for an evolutionary origin to religious faith

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Religious science and other science books

 Myrrh, bones, and medical waste

Hepatic epiphany for myrrh – A statistical analysis of experimental data on laboratory animals shows that the resin of the middle-eastern tree Commiphora, better known as “myrrh” can act as a protective antioxidant against liver damage caused by organic lead compounds. Myrrh is a rust-coloured resin obtained from several species of Commiphora and Balsamodendron tree, native to the Middle East and Ethiopia. It is perhaps best known as one of the gifts of the Magi offered to the infant Jesus, along with gold and frankincense in the Christmas legend.

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Myrrh, bones, and medical waste

 Connoisseur With an Edge Wine Rack

It’s a little edgy, but it’s still a classic must-have for any wine aficionado: this wine display is made from stiff coiled chain. When entertaining, it’s a fun and eye-catching way to show off your selection. As everyday decor, it’s nothing less than conversation-sparking sculpture! $29.95 @ Wrapables.com

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Connoisseur With an Edge Wine Rack

 Wine from Scratch: Out with Old Wine, In with New!

I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to purchase too much wine. In truth this can be both a blessing and a curse. On one side, I always have plenty of wine on hand for any occasion, but then I miss the opportunity to try new things because of my abundance of wine already sitting around at home

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Wine from Scratch: Out with Old Wine, In with New!

 25 Scientific musos or 25 musical scientists

Science is fun, but there are times when even the most dedicated begoggled labcoat wearing bench monkey has to relax and lots of science types seem particularly drawn to playing music. Now, I’m not saying any of these people are bench monkeys, but they do all play music, as far as I know: harpistkat Kat Arney London Harpist, musician, science writer, cake baker and knitter oh_henry Henry Scowcroft London I write and geek for Cancer Research UK. This has nothing to do with them

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25 Scientific musos or 25 musical scientists

 Travel Lovers Conversation Sparkers

This five charm sterling silver Rare Sand necklace is the perfect gift for that loved one with the “travel bug”. The charm necklace include Maldives Sinking Sand, Hawaii Green, Egypt Orange, Hawaii Black, and Japan Star sand. If this piece isn’t quite what you’re looking for

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Travel Lovers Conversation Sparkers

 Animal Rubber Bands by Ohashi & Haneda

These cute silicone rubber bands in the shape of animals make a great stocking stuffer. Made by Japanese designers Ohashi & Haneda, they are available in pet and zoo designs. Twenty-four rubber bands are included in each set, with six different animals represented

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Animal Rubber Bands by Ohashi & Haneda

 National Eggnog Month

Nobody knows why December is National Eggnog Month. It makes sense that it is, but there is no association that declared it as such and no presidential proclamation. But all the same I think we are all willing to celebrate this holiday! At least those of us who love the drink, it’s one of those things where you like it or you hate it.

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National Eggnog Month

 Koolatron Six Pack Fridge

Perfect for stashing a six pack of Coca-Cola at your work desk, the koolatron six pack Coca-Cola fridge takes up the smallest amount of space possible while keeping 6 drinks nice and cool. The fridge can easily be tucked under a desk and includes a removable shelf for keeping things organized. $39.99

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Koolatron Six Pack Fridge

 Celebrating Hanukkah From Latkes to Kugel

The Festival of Lights begins tonight! We wish you all a very Happy Hanukkah! A bit of Hanukkah Food History from Slashfood Organic Hanukkah food gifts from Mother Nature Network Flourless Latkes from OurJewishCommunity.org Hanukkah Doughnuts, a Symbol of Joy from That’s So Yummy The Four Best Hanukkah Food Traditions from Sweet & Crunchy Talk Cheese Latkes & Homemade Apple Sauce from Thought 4 Food Sweet Cinnamon Noodle Kugel from Sweet and Savory Says It All Crepes, Pasta, Pudding and more: Dairy Dishes for Chanukah from The Jewish Star Mini Peanut Butter Cheesecakes from Amazing Dessert Recipes Gluten-Free Chanukah Recipe Roundup from Gluten-Free Bay Possibly Related Posts: The History of German Chocolate Cake National Eggnog Month Today is National Chocolate Brownie Day! Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day 10 gifts for vegetarian foodies

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Celebrating Hanukkah From Latkes to Kugel

 It’s National Lager Day!

Today (December 10) is National Lager Day! Join me in raising a glass to celebrate this underrated beer style. Lagers differ from ales in that they are brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast, while ales are brewed with top-fermenting yeast; the yeast settles on the bottom of the fermentation chamber as it transforms the hops and malt into liquid gold. After brewing, lagers are stored for a period of time to mature, hence the name: ‘lager’ is German for storage

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It’s National Lager Day!

 It’s Our 2 Year Blogiversary!

Happy Birthday to us! It the Foodista Blog’s Second Blogiversary today! 660 (make that soon-to-be 661) posts later we are still enjoying every minute of cooking, sharing recipes, connecting with other bloggers and learning what you love to read about! Thanks, everyone, for supporting us along our food-filled journey. Happy Holidays! Photo: Sakura Matsuki Possibly Related Posts: How to Put A Cheese Plate Together Food Quote of the Day The Very First Thanksgiving Menu Friday Fun Links Young Winos

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It’s Our 2 Year Blogiversary!

 You Can’t Pair Wine With Brussels Sprouts!

There are all kinds of Wine 101 rules that need to be unlearned or abolished concerning foods that are purportedly difficult to pair with wines, especially certain vegetables.  Why not focus on Brussels sprouts?  I adore Brussels sprouts! Now what is the best way to cook them?  Roast, roast, roast!  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and commit to memory this arduous recipe, with steps more complicated than putting together a credenza from Ikea: You need Brussels sprouts (duh), olive oil, and salt.  Toss the sprouts with the oil and salt and dump into a baking dish.  It’s best to put them in a single layer so they get all brown and crispy.  Put the dish on your lowest oven rack.  It’s going to take about 20 minutes but DO NOT GO ANYWHERE.  You’ll need to constantly shake the pan to make sure they do not burn; you want crispy bits, not charcoal.  Depending on the size you may want to cut them in half; the ones I had were teeny tiny. To serve, I would just put them in a bowl and eat them like candy.  And what wine to enjoy with your lovely sprouts?  I can think of five off the bat: Sauvignon Blanc:  Here is where the slightly vegetal Sauv Blancs of New Zealand can shine, but I would recommend the cheap and cheerful Porcupine Ridge from South Africa.

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You Can’t Pair Wine With Brussels Sprouts!