Wine Tasting Birthday Party

One of my best friends had her birthday this week, and I threw a Zinfandel wine tasting party in her honor.  I was able to do most everything ahead of time (except cook the pasta), so it made for a fun night with friends and very little "work" during the party.  I bought the cheese at Costco, made the artichoke dipping sauces early in the day, made the spaghetti sauce and meatballs 2 days prior, and all of the tags and paper items in the week leading up to the party.  I got the petitfores from a local bakery: Simon Lee Bakery.  The tray is filled with wine corks that I had in a large vase, and I used a glass plate and 2 glass pedestals to create the main "centerpiece."  The tags are all made with 1 3/4" rounds of paper cut with the Cricut, and I cut the word circles with a 1 1/2" hand punch.  I glued the pieces for the cheese around toothpicks and tied on the wine bottle and glass tags with ribbon. (If you want for me to make these pieces for a party for you, feel free to contact me.)
We used 8 bottles of Zinfandel that I purchased from World Market and Costco.  They ranged in price from $7- $18 each.
Recommended cheeses for a Zinfandel tasting are aged cheddar, gruyere, brie, parmesan, and gouda.  I always have goat cheese and manchego on hand as well, so I added them to the list.  I served a rich spaghetti and dark chocolate petitfores as well.

The bottle on the left was The Watusi and was our least expensive wine ($7.)  All of the other wines were between $10-$18.  Cline, Brazin, Zinfatuation, Bogle, 7 Deadly Zins, Pellegrini, and Sausal.

Cheers!

Real Simple's Four-Week Dinner Plan - Week 1 Day 3

I'm a bad blogger.  A very bad blogger.
I made the Turkey Burgers with Creamy Romaine Slaw that I was "supposed" to from Real Simple's Four-Week Dinner Plan, and it was YUMMY!  Easy, yummy, and overall, pretty good for you.  I forgot to take a picture before each and every one of us cleaned our plates.  If you go to their website, you'll see this image:

But I thought you should know that I suck.
Anyway, we used King's Hawaiian "The Original Hawaiian Sweet" Sandwich Rolls.  They were perfect with these burgers.  I did serve them with pickles on the side, but I didn't serve chips or fries; they simply weren't necessary.  Being the "spicy" girl that I am, I added a little Walkerswood Jonkanoo sauce and some extra pepper (and went easy on the salt), and they were very good burgers.  My husband loved them, and my 5-year-old ate an ENTIRE burger.  They were really good.  So good that I've added them to my "What's For Dinner?" app on my smartphone.  Now, if I'm in the grocery store, and we see ground turkey meat on sale (or a burger just sounds good), I can pull up the recipe on my phone and "add" the items to my grocery list!  LOVE it!  If you have a recipe that I should try (and potentially add to my "What's for dinner?" recipe box, send it to me.  I'd love to try it.