mother's day drink

happy mother's day! I am so very blessed to have an amazing mother & grandmother. to celebrate, we went down to the family lakehouse for the weekend. on sunday I made everyone breakfast: a ham, spinach & swiss quiche, home-fried potatoes, fruit salad & a sparkling white sangria, which was delicious. it's a perfect summer drink & would be great for entertaining. cheers to mom!

sangria de cava (sparkling white sangria):

1 375ml bottle of cava (or any sparkling wine)
1/4 oz torres 5 brandy (or any spanish brandy)
1/4 oz gran torres liqueur (or any orange liqueur; I used peach flavor instead!)
splash of lemon-lime soda
1 orange
1 lime
cherries for garnish (I used strawberries)
simple syrup (I used 1/2 cup)

preparation:
cut orange & lime in half. pill large pitcher with ice and combine the wine, brandy, liqueur, lemon-lime soda, the juice from half the orange & half the lime. stir. add simple syrup to obtain desired sweetness. slice remaining orange & lime into thin slices & add to pitcher.

*to make simple syrup, combine one part water to one part sugar in small saucepan. bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. chill before use.

italian lunch in a cubicle

nothing makes a day at the office better than pretending you're in italy. today the guys & I made a lunch run to whole foods to pick up some wine, cheese & bread, & then to our favorite local italian deli (yes, there actually is an authentic deli in our city) for some cured meats. georgio made us a platter of some of his favorites: proscuitto, salami, mortadella, spicy capicola, artichoke hearts, sundried tomato stuffed olives & pecorino romano. I think we just created a remote branch of the finer things club from nbc's the office.

{ a giant plate of salted cured meats while watching anthony bourdain in tuscany }

{whole foods brand wine on our makeshift cooler table}

{delicious herbs and olive oil}

wine tasting party

I don't know a whole lot about wine, except that I like to consume it. my husband has done a really good job of teaching me about the different types of grapes & regions & ways to ferment it, etc etc . but the thought of actually hosting a wine party (while robert was out of town for a week) is a little intimidating. but I did some research & decided to have six girls from work over for an italian wine night (I personally liked the idea of keeping it intimate). I wanted to keep it simple, so I decided to narrow it down to my favorite country, italy. I went to the wine store and picked out a few different types of wine from different regions, all under about $13. we had a great time sampling the wines, one by one, and trying to describe what we were tasting. after each wine, I would read the descriptions of what we were "supposed" to be tasting to see if we got it correct.

for the invitations, I bought different charms for each person & attached them to earrings (found in the beading/jewelry section at michaels) which served as wine charms for the glasses.

here are the 5 different wines that I served. 2 whites (la delizia from vento; fourplay no 1 blanco chianti from sicily), 2 reds (straccali chianti from tuscana; nero d'avola from sicily), and a prosecco (prosecco veneto). they were all delicious.

I kept the menu simple, serving food that didn't require utensils. bruschetta, cheese and crackers, pears, grapes, tortellini/olive/artichoke skewers, and salami. all of the food went really well with the wines. I gave each person a white wine glass & a red wine glass, as well as a dump bucket in the middle.

I printed out a sheet for each person to make notes on what they tasted and which wines they liked, in case they wanted to purchase them later.

I found this really cool regional map of italy on the internet & put it on mat board so we could see where all the wines were harvested.

salute! cin cin!