Wine Cooking Club

Valerie was the hostess for the April installment of cooking club, and she chose WINE as the theme. What a delicious theme!! We started off with a round of Prosecco before we even left the car. Cheers!



Where there is wine, there has to be cheese!



I made wine cheese bread, which Valerie made for cooking club once in January 2010 and then again in June 2011. I think about that bread often, and have always wanted to try making it. Wine Night was obviously the perfect opportunity! It was my first time using my new stand mixer, so that was exciting! It turned out great! I seriously would marry this bread. If I wasn't already married.



Pretty springtime table!



Spring salads! Featuring Valerie's first ever crop of asparagus!!!



Yumi made the classic mussels in white wine. Here are her live mussels on ice.



Mmmm, Valerie shared a VERY delicious bottle of red with us. CHEERS!



We also did a blind tasting! We all tried to guess which varietal we were tasting. I asked Valerie to give us some pointers on what to taste for, and we all ended getting 100%!! Awesome!



Nancy made poached eggs with a wine sauce. Fancy!



Yumi's mussels in wine sauce!!



Emily made the mushroomiest mushroom soup I've ever tasted. It was AMAZING! Sherry and cream sherry were involved. Mmmmm.



Summer made us floats!! She made Riesling Pear sorbet, and then floated that in a glass of champagne and cognac.



CHEERS!



Slurp!



Valerie made a red wine pasta sauce with wild boar. It was a cozy treat as the night started to cool off!



Our final course was another ice cream made by Summer. Cocoa Zin, made with red wine. This was seriously in all seriousness the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had. This picture looks like the cover of a romance novel (written for me): Flowers, candles, wine, wine cheese bread and ice cream?!?! Swoon!