When Maggie asked me if my readers might be interested in a post about wine glasses and how they affect the taste of wine, my reaction was, “Uh…heck yes!” I may have been jumping the gun a little there, but all I knew was that *I* wanted to learn more about wine glasses!

So here’s one for all the wine aficionados out there. Even if you enjoy just the occasional glass of wine, I’m sure that you would enjoy this post all the same. I know that I sure learned a lot from reading this piece, and now I’m craving more! 

Did you know that the shape and makeup of a glass affects the taste of wine? Did you know how much it affects the taste? And the smell? Yeah, I KNOW you think I’m crazy, but I promise you I’m not. It really, really does. But let me back up a little bit.

See, I love wine. And while my tastes have gotten a bit more refined as I’ve gotten older (and I’ve learned more from my Dad about different wines and what I personally like), I still believe that the best wine is one you enjoy. Not necessarily one that has a high score or rating from those organizations that rate wines. Because your taste buds are your own, and what if you just don’t like that type of wine? Wine is subjective and meant to be enjoyed, so drink what you like! But what’s not subjective (to me, anyway) is the type of glass that you drink the wine from.

See, one of the most amazing things that I’ve discovered about wine (and beer too, actually) is how much of a difference the glass makes. Now, I know exactly what you’re thinking, and that is that I’m totally full of it, a wine snob and c’mon, all that talk about glasses is just a marketing ploy to get you to buy more glassware. I know you’re saying that because I said all those things when my dad first did a glass tasting for my family to prove what a difference the “correct” glass makes for a wine.

Now, I put correct in quotation marks because while various companies each make their own glass for different wine varietals, I think all wines are improved when drunk out of a leaded crystal glass without a lip, regardless of whether you are drinking it in the proper shape or not. But the shape really does make a difference, I promise!

Having the proper glass at every stage in the winemaking process is key — this is
prior to bottling, making sure our blend was still tasty!

For a little bit of background, my love of wine comes from my father. He’s also passed on this love (or obsession, depending on your point of view) to my husband, to the point that when my husband and I got married we blended our own pinot noir that we served at our wedding. But the other part of this love that we all share is a desire to make sure that when you taste the wine, you’re tasting the wine itself.

What we discovered when we started tasting wine out of different glasses is that the normal glass you might find at a restaurant is just that — made of glass with a rolled edge around the top. But this type of structure means that the wine just sits in the bottom of the glass (as opposed to getting aerated when you swirl the wine in a leaded crystal glass), and when you drink it, there’s a bit of a catch due to the rolled lip. All of these things combine to take a wine and make it taste flatter, not as rich as it otherwise could be.

This is what a glass tasting at my parents house looks like. The placemats help to provide
a reference point for each of the glasses so that you remember which one is which. The
small glass in the lower left of the placemat is referred to as the “joker” glass. This is the
type of glass that you see at many restaurants — small bowl, made of glass with a rolled
lip. Not ideal. When we see restaurants with this type of glass now we usually drink beer.

But, back to the shape of the glass itself. I have come to love Riedel glasses which make up the majority of my husband’s and my collection.* As a family company which has been in business for 11 generations, you can’t argue with the quality of the product that they produce. They were also one of the first companies to create a specific glass for each varietal of wine.

Hearing this is when I figured that clearly it must be because they’re trying to sell more glasses. But, trying wine in its proper glass demonstrated to me how much effect the glass has on the wine.

For a Chardonnay with its higher alcohol content (relative to other white wines) the wider opening and shallower bowl reduces the alcohol you smell so that your nose is not overwhelmed (see the glass at top left of the placemat). For a Syrah you want a deeper bowl with a medium opening to provide enough room to let the wine breathe and focus the wine as you smell and taste it (see the glass at the bottom right of the placemat). Each different shape is designed specifically with the characteristics of the varietal in mind so that you end up with a purer, more accurate taste of the wine when you drink it.

A different tasting at my parents – you can see four different types of Riedel glasses on the table.

I could write a lot more on this subject, but instead I think I’ll end by asking if any of you have tried wine out of different types or styles of glasses or if you just think I’m totally crazy?

*There are other companies out there making equally excellent wine glasses, but my experience is with Riedel glasses. Also, please note that they have no idea who I am, I just really enjoy their glasses!

About the Author:

I’m a Northwest girl who spends my time goofing around with my husband and dog, traveling, trying to improve my photography and enjoying great local wine and beer. I’m also obsessed with the most ridiculous natural disaster movies you can think of (seriously, how can you deny the awesomeness that is The Core or 2012? That’s right, you can’t). You can find more of me over at A Long Far View or writing as Mrs. Eggs Benedict on Weddingbee.

As much as I love the holidays, I’m the type to get irritated to see Christmas decorations up in public or to hear holiday songs on the radio before the month of December. So it comes as no surprise that I nodded in agreement as I read the following guest post from contributor Terri — Thanksgiving really does seem to get the short end of the stick this time of the year!

What do you guys think? Do you gloss over Thanksgiving in favor of the December holidays? Or do you look forward to Thanksgiving with as much enthusiasm and excitement as Terri and I?

Whatever happened to Thanksgiving? This is one of my favorite holidays by far, but I’ve been noticing a decidedly different tone surrounding it in the past few years. Thanksgiving seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to coverage and attention in the media and our culture until a day or two before. If you didn’t know it, you’d think there was a holiday lull between Halloween and Christmas. I could have sworn on November 1 that I saw a commercial with bells jingling, splashes of red and green and someone resembling a Santa. Oh. Heck. Nah.

Perhaps I’m making this all up, but I guess there is a little sadness in my heart that Thanksgiving doesn’t get the attention it deserves these days like Halloween or Christmas. As an only child growing up with a single mother, the holidays, beginning with Thanksgiving, were one of my favorite times of the year because I got to feel like I was a part of a large family. It’s not that I don’t have extended family, but most of them were born in and live in other countries where Thanksgiving doesn’t even exist. It’s just another Thursday in November to them (although they do acknowledge our day off and celebration with a little jealousy). 

My mother and I would get together at my godmother’s home, and she sometimes had up to 30 people over just for Thanksgiving dinner. One year, there was even a DJ and a party in the basement. Seriously! While I enjoyed my singleton childhood, it was fun to feel as if you were a central part of some bigger family holiday. It felt like I was celebrating an ideal and joining in something bigger than just our tight-knit two person household. 

I don’t know why we’d want to overlook a holiday like Thanksgiving, since it brings us all together. It doesn’t necessarily have the religious connotations that Christmas has, and who doesn’t want to be grateful and thankful for a day? It also doesn’t have the overt patriotism of Independence Day (yes, I know there are some politics at play with Thanksgiving, too). To me, it’s one of the few holidays in the U.S.A. that can cut through all of our differences whether we’re Christian, Muslim, an immigrant or can trace our family back to the founding of the country. Thanksgiving is a holiday for everyone. 

Since everyone can celebrate Thanksgiving, I love that over time the perception of Thanksgiving food has changed, too. I like the fact there are quintessential traditional Thanksgiving dishes we can count on, but we take each of these dishes and make them our own, kind of like our American experience. Everyone with their cultures and experiences has added a little something here and a little something there to change what is customary about the proper Thanksgiving meal, but it’s still all uniquely American.

I’m no longer attending the big Thanksgiving dinners that I’m used to, but that’s in part because the baton has been passed to me. I made and hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner last year. Feel free to take a look at what I made for dinner. Whether or not Thanksgiving gets short shrift, it will still have the all important 3 Fs: food, family and football. That’s my kind of holiday!

About the Author:

Terri writes the blog Try Anything Once, which chronicles her local, national, and international food and travel adventures and everything in between. She can usually be found tweaking her list of restaurants to try, watching DVR’ed episodes of Top Chef, dreaming about her next trip, and tweeting way too much.

Today’s guest post comes from none other than Serena of Big Apple Nosh. Here, she shares with us a recipe for…mushrooms on a stick??! I know it sounds a bit kooky, but wait until you see the delectable ingredients and the mouthwatering pictures! I’d take these over regular lollipops any day! Enjoy!

Earlier this year, Marx Foods hosted its 3rd annual Morel Recipe Challenge – the task at hand? Create a delectable hors d’oeuvres featuring this mycological delight. For this challenge, I decided to combine four of my favorite hors d’ oeuvres qualities – fried, cheesy, and on-a-stick. Using the dried morels as well as dill pollen also from Marx Foods, I created these Morel Lollipops. As a last minute add-on, I decided to accompany the lollipops with Garlic Truffle Aioli, using truffle sea salt also from Marx Foods. I know if I passed by a tray of these during a cocktail hour, I’d grab two (or five)!

You will need:

Morel Lollipops

8 large dried morel mushrooms
8 tbsp goat cheese
4 tsp dill pollen
2 cups panko bread crumbs
1 egg (forgot to include in the picture, oops!)
Oil for frying (I used canola)
Bamboo Skewers

1. First, reconstitute the dried morels per Marx Food’s directions. Strain reconstituted mushrooms, pat dry with a paper towel, and remove the stems.

2.With a spoon, combine goat cheese and dill pollen in a small dish.

3. Using my oh-so-technical method, transfer goat cheese mixture to a Ziploc bag. Cut a small corner of the filled bag,  and use this makeshift pastry bag to fill the mushrooms with cheese.

4. Skewer each cheesy mushroom

5. Beat egg in small bowl, and spread panko crumbs on a plate. Dip each lollipop in the egg mixture and then roll in panko crumbs.

If you like an extra crunch, you can re-dip in the egg and re-crumb. You will get this:

6. Heat oil in heavy-duty pot or pan. Fry each battered lollipop until light golden. Careful, oil is hot (duh)

7. Rest lollipops on paper towels. Serve while hot!

Served hot, these lollipops are rich, meaty and scrumptious on their own. If you’d like a little dipping action, however – you can put together a simple garlic truffle aioli:

Garlic Tuffle Aioli

1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1/2 tsp truffle salt

1. Whisk egg yolk, 1/4 tsp of truffle salt, and lemon juice by hand or …whirr? (you know what I mean) with a food processor.
2.  While whisking or whirring, drizzle in olive oil 1 tsp at a time, allowing it to emulsify. The key here is slow and steady! If you take your time, you’ll see the aioli start to come together.
3. Once aioli has reached desired consistency (should be like a thin mayonnaise), turn off food processor and add in minced garlic until well combined.
4. If desired, finish with more truffle salt.

Have you had savory lollipops before? What kind?

About the Author:

Serena grew up thirty minutes outside of New York City and has lived in Manhattan for the past 12 years. A strict follower of the “NYC Diet” of convenience, hole-in-the-wall joints and fine dining, she is on constant lookout for the next hidden gem. Her family learned of her passion for food early on, when she finished her baby food in record time (6 months old), woke her mother up for a midnight banana (2 years old), and came home from school with her lunchbox full of Jello (6 years old). Serena first created a DIY pizza tour itinerary for visiting friends four years ago. She has since organized food tours for friends and family, focusing on cuisine as varied as soul food, cupcakes, vegetarian dim sum, and allergy-aware establishments. 

The following guest post touches on a subject that is dear to my heart. And that, of course, is food.  I currently have both my own mother and my MIL cooking up storms of healthy, post-partum food for me but I can’t deny that I miss having the occasional treat. And these brownies look so fantastically delicious — and simple to make! — that I may just have to send J out for a brownie mix run…yum!

Hellooo friends. My name is Brandi and I met Jenny when we were both blogging over at Weddingbee (Espresso here). I’m a southern California transplant living in Wyoming with my amazing husband and adorable, bird crazy dog. I run a bridal accessories shop by day, blog by night, and hike to supplement my baking addiction on the weekends. Thanks for not running away yet…

So let’s get down to the heart of the matter:

Baking… Brownies… Battlestar Gallactica. Sorry I couldn’t resist. Just like I can never resist making these super delicious and super easy Peanut Butter Cup Brownies. They’re flaky, moist, and chewy. They’re amazing, and there are seriously only 2 steps… which is great for the time challenged like myself. Enjoy…

All you need is a box of this:

And 16 of these:

Follow the directions on the box, and once you’ve poured half the batter into the pan, throw in the 16 Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups (unwrapped of course), and then the remaining half of the batter on top of them. Cook for the time directed on the box, and you’ll have this gooey goodness:

Enjoy!

Recipe by Katie Lee 

Our next guest post comes courtesy of one of my favorite contributors from last year: father, teacher, and writer Nicholas Stirling. I couldn’t help but be ecstatic when he agreed to contribute again, and that he wrote TWO pieces for my maternity-blogging-leave.

In this first piece, he writes about an experience that required the strongest and very best from him…among a group of elderly, blue-haired ladies! Read on to find out what the competition was about!

Within every man lies the need to compete.

It’s probably part of the genetic code, a result of evolution’s need to perpetuate the swift and the strong over the weak and nerdy. It is why professional sports exist, why kids wrestle on the playground, and why family games of Monopoly frequently dissolve into screaming matches and tears. It is the shiver that runs down your spine when Rocky (Rocky I Rocky, not stupid Rocky VI “Revenge of the Old Man: Rocky) gets up from his stool for one more round. It is the echo of the words, “I’ll race you for it,” in your ears.

Competition is why, on a Wednesday evening, when I should have been prepping for my role as “the new guy” at Meet the Teacher Night, I was instead parking my car at the Ancaster Fairgrounds.

Sitting next to me in the passenger seat were two Ziploc bags and an inch-thick yellow file folder. Before me stood Marritt Hall, my battleground. Taking a deep breath, I went in.

I found myself in a building buzzing with activity. The foyer was filled with cut and live plants, their owners preening and arranging them with exquisite care. People slipped past me carrying their own packages and folders, some with dollies and carts and — in one case — a wheelbarrow. I sized them all up with what I hoped would be interpreted as the eye of the tiger. But I quickly noticed something about my fellow competitors.

They were all women.

To be more specific, they were all elderly women.

I would say the median age was about 68.

Yes, the competition was stiff at the Ancaster Fall Fair this year. These were the grizzled veterans of the regional home-craft circuit, the blue-haired professionals that had seen scores of young men like me walk in with heads high and walk out with dreams dashed on the polished concrete floor. They barely spared a look in my direction as I carried in my photographs and set them in the appropriate piles.

“Category 56A #11, Song Title: Named,” I muttered to myself, dropping off my first photographic entry from my yellow file folder. “Category 56A #3, Wild Grape Vine. Category 56A #7, Fallen Trees. Category 56A #20, Like Father Like Son / Like Mother Like Daughter (people only).” (I’m not sure what the organizers worried might appear had they not specified this category as “people only.” Adopted monkey children? Cardboard cutouts? Old men with wooden puppet-boys that they had carved for company?)

But let’s be honest here: photography at the Fall Fair is bush-league. Any goof with a camera can take a picture of a caterpillar (Category 56A #16, Creepy Crawlers) and glue it to the regulation black Bristol board (one inch on all sides, hole-punched top centre, exhibitor tag stapled top right corner). With my pictures handed in, I was ready to enter into the top-level categories, the main events, the championship matches of the Fair.

Baking.

The retired women there were a whole different breed. Their hands were knotted into arthritic, dough-kneading claws. Gold Medal flour had settled into the lines on their faces. Some still smelled vaguely of the sourdough cultures that had been passed down to them from 18^th century batches first grown in the old countries. Chocolate smeared their aprons like the blood of fallen enemies.

They bustled to and fro, setting down their carefully arranged paper plates piled high with tarts (Category 50 #14, Butter Tarts — 3 — with raisins — no nuts), fudge (Category 50 #36, Chocolate Fudge — 6 pieces), or squares (Category 50 #35 Squares — 3 — Exhibitor’s Choice — named).

And there I stood amidst them, holding my three squat cookies (Category 50 #28, Chocolate Chip Cookies — 3) and my lumpy, misshapen loaf of whole wheat bread (Category 50 #2, Loaf — Whole Wheat Bread), towering over them physically but feeling suddenly very, very small. One old biddy sneered up at me as she went by, muttering something under her breath about “falling standards.”

I held out no hope as I found the cookie display. There were scores of other plates there, chocolate chip cookies packed three by three (as per regulations) onto the shelves. And while I was there, not a one was dropped off by another thirty-year-old man. Blue-haired ladies, all of them.

The bread section was no better. Piled high with loaves that looked like they had been plucked from a Parisian bakery’s display window, I was even more ashamed of my bread entry. I placed it next to the least perfect entry I could find, avoided meeting the eyes of any of the old ladies, and slinked away.

We went to the fair a few days later, when the judging was over and the verdicts rendered. My in-laws came for moral support. 

“Should we save Marritt Hall for the end,” they asked me, “or should we go there first?”

I told them that we might just as well get the suspense over with.

I steered clear of the baking and went straight for the photos. I had hoped to pick up at least a few third places finishes ($4 prize), but was pleasantly surprised to see that I had not one, but two first place finishes (Category 56A #4, Winter Wonderland, and Category 56A #21, Pretty in Pink (Breast Cancer Awareness))!

Yeah, I took a picture of a famous Ancaster Landmark. Play to the judges, I always say.

My brother was convinced that I staged this one somehow.
Honestly, that’s how my daughter acts when you throw a blanket over her head.

I swelled with pride, victorious over a field of amateur photographers that represented the best that my town of 32 000 people could offer.  I was, however, slightly crestfallen that I had not won in Category 56A #10, Trick or Treat, and briefly considered filing a grievance as per Fair regulations.

Really? This didn’t win for “Trick or Treat?” Look at it! Look at it!

I was distracted from this line of thought by a cheer from across the hall.  I rushed over to see what my wife was yelling about, and saw this:

Ugly, but good enough for a 5th place finish.

That’s right.  That is a fifth place ribbon.  I bet you didn’t even think that they had those, but we here in Ancaster like to spread out our winnings.

More excitingly, a few cases over, my in-laws were standing in front of this:

So close. So close.

The winner of this category also won the “Best Bread in the Show” award; it came with an absurdly large red ribbon and a free pass to the Western Fair bread competition, which I guess is like the Super Bowl of baking events. As such, I felt that that second place was no small achievement. 

I’ll see you next year, blue-haired ladies. And you’d better bring your A-game, cause this time I’m coming after that Fleischmann’s Yeast Special Prize (Category 50 #4, White Bread — Proof of Purchase Required — Half Loaf).

About the Author:

Nicholas Stirling wants to be a writer.  However, he also wants to be an educational theorist, a stand-up comedian, a university professor, the first man to successfully net the Loch Ness monster, and Batman.  In the meantime, he enjoys being a teacher and raising his little girl, Abby, while frequently baking chocolate chip cookies with his wife.  He has been published on Cracked.com and in Morpheus Tales, has a 2^nd degree Black Belt, and once ate an entire package of bacon as a meal.  He blogs regularly on Exercising Monsters, a site that he originally started to stave off cabin fever while he was unemployed and desperate to be a novelist.