2011 Iron Vintner Challenge (June 8, June 15, June 22, and June 29) The second annual 2011 Iron Vintner Challenge, hosted by Willows Lodge in Woodinville, Washington, is a month-long culinary competition where local winemakers battle for the title of Iron Vintner. The cooking competitions will take place on three consecutive Wednesdays in June at […]

Thai food is so popular that I wanted to do another Thai dish for a challenging wine pairing. Since our family especially enjoys spicy dishes, I decided to try a red curry dish using strips of sirloin steak in this recipe. Delicious! The menu for this pairing consisted of the Thai red curry beef dish, […]

A few weeks ago, Kori and Colby went out to dinner with some friends at a popular Seattle restaurant known for its southern cuisine. Several in the group ordered the fried chicken, one of the restaurant’s specialties, and then began discussing what wine they should order to go with it. As they talked, one person […]

One of my favorite foods is crabmeat au gratin; however, it’s not something that I eat often. While it is “yummy” as my granddaughter says, it is very rich. I decided that it would be a great food to incorporate into one of our challenging wine pairing dinners. Dungeness crabmeat was used in this preparation […]

Recently, many of you were so kind to respond to our Wine Peeps Survey. This month’s challenging wine pairing meal came directly as a result of that survey. It was suggested that we try a Thai pairing. We do not eat Thai food regularly so I had to do some research on Thai dishes and […]

The Wine Peeps love barbeque…the kind that takes hours to smoke. However, this kind of cooking is usually done in the spring and summer when the time for outdoor cooking is the best! When I came across a recipe for spicy sweet oven roasted spareribs, I couldn’t resist trying it for this month’s challenging wine […]

Bob Blumer who hosts the shows The Surreal Gourmet and Glutton for Punishment on the Food Network is the author of this fun, attractive, and informative cookbook, Glutton for Pleasure: Signature Recipes, Epic Stories, and Surreal Etiquette. In many ways, both the book and the author are over the top but in very interesting and […]

Now that we are into the winter season, what better meal on a cold, rainy or snowy night than chili? Of course, the official name is chili con carne, which comes from the Spanish language and means peppers with meat. Chili is actually just a spicy stew. There are almost as many versions of chili […]

A good friend gave us some fresh fish from Alaska including a package of ling cod so I thought it would be fun to have fish and chips for this month’s challenging wine pairing. We all know that fish and chips is a popular take-out food that we associate with England, but I decided to […]

Red beans and rice is a favorite “Louisiana” dish. It is a traditional Creole dish; however, over the years, it has become very generally used by everyone. It is just as popular in restaurants as in homes. Red beans and rice originated out of the need for an easy meal on “washday” in the Creole […]