So yesterday marked the 16th class and it was by far our most entertaining. We all were tasked with bringing in an appetizer. We selected a protein, mine being cheese, and we had to come up with a creative appetizer, which was then paired with wine...ok mine was paired with beer...but you get the idea. So I made Brie Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms...and it was paired with an IPA...oh yum!!



I did also bring a back-up appetizer-spray cheese and crackers, just because well I thought it was pretty darn funny. Um the instructor did not quite find it as comical as I did, as I got in trouble as soon as he looked in my bag. He told me he had explicitly said we could not use store bought products, such as crackers. And when I was like seriously look at what this is...he was not amused.


I was so impressed with everyone's creativity, enthusiasm and depth of flavors. We also had a guest speaker who was responsible for the wine pairing and also provided an educational demonstration on the art of pairing food with wine. As many of you know I have been pairing food and wine together for quite some time, but I learned so much from yesterdays class. Let me start with some food/wine pairing knowledge:

Yes, he is blurry but he just moves so fast!

• The rule of thumb for food/wine pairing is to select the wine first and the food second. 
• The wine should never be sweeter than the food
• The three most important things to consider when pairing food/wine are acidity, tannins and fruit content. 
• Red wines normally pair better with heavier and less acidic foods. 
• The heavier the food the higher the alcohol content in the wine
• Spicy food should be paired with sweeter white wines
• In general, red wines are paired with red meats and white wines with fish or chicken. Pinot Noirs usually go with just about everything. 

Pulled pork with mango salsa

Lamb with tomatoes and Feta cheese in a pastry bowl