Wine + Chocolate = One Happy Girl

This weekend my good friend Kristin and I attended an event at a shop here in town called Chocolatier Blue.  Check out their website to learn more about them, but basically their main locations are in California, but the Chocolatier is actually originally from Lincoln and recently opened a location here!

This weekend they hosted a series of classes (Beer & Chocolate pairing even!) and we attended Friday night's Wine & Chocolate Pairing class.

We were given 4 different kinds of wine and 12 - yes 12! - different chocolates, 3 for each type of wine. They dispelled the myth that dark chocolate and a deep red wine are a good combination (who knew?) and presented us with mainly sweet dessert wines.  

As for the chocolates, they are works of art!!  They range in flavors and they change by the season. I've featured some of our favorites below.  

Butterscotch and Orange Julius - the Orange Julius was one of my favorites and definitely one that worked well with the wine.  

Top - Ants on a Log - Peanut butter, celery, and raisins - sounds strange but was really good!

Passion fruit caramel & Cherry cordial

One that we didn't get a picture of is the Grapefruit with Rosemary, it was A-MAZING!! 

And if this many chocolates and wine weren't enough....

There were GIFT BAGS!!  And the class was only $25! 

It was an amazing start to the weekend which ended up being beautiful weather-wise and overall just fantastic! I even fit in some summer shopping (necessities of course!) and picked up a new cookbook so I have even more recipes to share.  

I don't know about all of you but it seems like the summer is filling up already and I think I can already say that it's going to be one for the books.  Can't wait to see what the next few months will hold! :)

LOVE at First Sight

"Here's to the corkscrew - useful key to unlock the storehouse of wit, the treasury of laughter, the front door of fellowship, and the gate of pleasant folly." - W.E.P. French 

Hey there friends! As promised I'm hoping to share some of my "loves" with you! And I feel perhaps I need preface this post with the reassurance that I don't overindulge, and I am very responsible when it comes to this love but....

I do LOVE my vino!!

So, in honor of that affection, from time to time I'll share some wine reviews with you!  Keep in mind, in my opinion, wine is very subjective.  My sister is a bit of a wine lover as well (I learned at the feet of the master) but we don't always see eye to eye on what wine we enjoy.

This past Friday was the culmination of my first week on the new job so in celebration of that I cooked my first big meal in my apartment and picked up a bottle of wine.  Unfortunately the meal didn't turn out so hot, so even better that I had the wine!  :)

One of my favorite wines of all time is the Francis Ford Coppola Director's Cut Cabernet Sauvignon from 2008.  I'm usually a white wine drinker, but this rich, red wine is still my go-to for special occaisons.  However, as you can expect, moving is rather expensive and so my budget has been a little tighter as of late, so when faced with the $35 price tag for Director's Cut (modest really for most wines) I was a bit hesitant.  So as I perused the wine aisle at Hy-Vee, what to my wondering eyes did appear but a wine which at first glance was another Director's Cut??

Turns out, the wine, also a Cabernet Sauvignon from Francis Ford Coppola, is called Director's and is from 2007.  AND it was only $18.00 a bottle!  What's not to love?  Surely it was love at first sight!

Despite the dinner being a bit lackluster (fingers crossed that the next recipe I hope to put up here turns out!) the wine was wonderful.  Rich, just like my fave, but a bit spicy and with hints of blackberry.  The bottle mentioned a couple different berries, but I for the most part noticed the blackberry.

So if you're on the hunt for a great red wine, at a reasonable price, I highly recommend the Coppola Director's!

I'll be baking dessert this week for our family Easter dinner on Sunday so stay tuned for one of my favorite sweet treats!!