Ready to wine down and chill? Do you want to see your photo featured in our column? If yes, then send it to me! While you’re at it, send me your favorite wine, recipe or suggest a theme for a future article.
If you’re ready to wine down and chill, then you’ve come to the right place. Return here each Friday to find a food & wine column that’s fun to read and suggests terrific wine-movie pairings that go with the theme. You never know what’s next for our “Wine Down for the Weekend” column. Read on for an easy-to-prepare-at-home no-need-for-a-recipe fabulous dinner paired with an affordable wine and a viewing suggestion. We’re here to help you sit back, wine down and chill.
Going around in circles
Maybe it’s the high heat and humidity lately. Or perhaps it’s the aftermath of my bike accident. Whatever it is, I feel like I’m going in circles! The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as: “doing the same thing over and over without achieving anything.” So, as a make-lemonade when you’ve got lemons kinda gal, I’m going to make “going around in circles” today’s theme.
Surprisingly, this theme is essentially absent from pop music. The only references that I can find date back to 1985 and 1994. The Gap Band first released the song, “You’ve Got Me Going in Circles” which was later re-released by Luther Vandross and The Friends of Distinction. Which means, there is only a single reference to our theme. How can that be?
I know my way around wine… down and chill
Ha. I had to add that. In keeping with today’s theme, what better brand exists for it other than Radius by Precept Wines? Their 500 acre Canyon Vineyard Ranch was formerly known as Snipes Canyon and is located in Washington State. The region, my second favorite in the country, is booming. Every other week, a new winery opens. Low rainfall, soils that drain well, warm days, and cool are some of the environmental factors that contribute to its desirability as a wine region.
A month or so ago, we featured a Radius red blend, but this reserve wine is at a whole other level of yummy. The 2016 Radius Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has all the notes that I like in a wine. It’s fruit-forward, blackberry and raspberry jump onto your palette yet the smoothness of it brings a round finish (there’s our theme again) to each sip. To be honest, there is a bit more tannin to it than I typically like. However, with this wine, that slight bite lends something interesting to the flavor. Priced at $17 per bottle at Total Wine, it’s one of the most enjoyable ways that you can go around in circles while you wine down and chill.
Doing laps with your sandwich
Bundt pans had their time in the spotlight back in the ‘60s when people added all kinds of strange things from dried fruit to lamb chops (I kid you not) to spam into Jell-O. Rather revolting if you ask me. Dating back to the 1800s with a European cake known as a Kugelhupf, these pans are undergoing a bit of a renaissance right now. And it’s no wonder that they are magical, especially when you use them to bake bread.
My photo is of maple ham, yellow American, lettuce, tomato and mayo sandwich that I made for the kids to take on a picnic last week. But this sandwich is fabulous with an egg salad.
Five ingredients and five steps
One, place two raw dough loaves of Pillsbury French Bread into a greased bundt pan and bake at 350°F for about 25 min. Let it cool down before you slice it.
Two, while the bread is still warm, remove it from the pan and slice it through the middle. Layer on whatever sandwich bits that you like. For today, given the theme and all, let’s go with egg salad. I know, eggs aren’t technically round but work with me here! Boil 8 eggs.
Three, mix up an egg salad with salt, mayo, and a wee bit of dill pickle juice. Gently warm up your egg salad. Don’t nuke it until it boils but warm salad here adds an extra dimension of flavor fabulousness. Then dice up an avocado and mix it all.
Four, slather honey mustard on both sides of the bread bun.
Five, layer Havarti cheese slices and lettuce along the bottom then scoop some egg salad on top. Place the top bun and voila. Perfection! With the bread slightly warm, everything tastes that much better.
Pour yourself a glass and settle in to wine down and chill.
Definitely, maybe
It’s summer, it’s hot, we all need whatever we can find that’s on the lighter side from dinner to movies and this one delivers. Ryan Reynolds, another cool Canuck (and yet another reference to a theme I occasionally repeat in my columns), is the star of this 2008 Netflix flick, Definitely, Maybe. Despite the topic, which is a dad trying to explain his pending divorce to his 11-year old daughter, there are many funny moments.
Of course, there is a love triangle. There is the hilarity of dating multiple people in parallel. And trying to rationalize all of it to a tweener who’s smarter than she looks. It’s going off the airwaves at the end of the month so view it while you can wine down and chill with it.
Cheers!
