I am hosting my very first wine club meeting very soon. I've invited a group of fabulous friends to my house, asking each one to please bring a moderately priced bottle of Spanish red wine. We are going to cover the labels for blind tasting and then judge the flavors of each bottle ourselves. I hope you decide to start a wine club for you and your friends. To encourage your personal appreciation of wine, I'm providing you with an easy play by play plan to host your first wine club meeting. Yesterday I made a fun little wine label postcard invites and today I am assembling recipes for a small menu of tasty bites to pair with the wine and cleanse the palette. I've already revealed two super easy savory appetizer recipes that will complement a full bodied red wine, but to take a look at a little sweet finish to cap off the night, read more
The wine is the main event here but I can't help but offer a little sweet and salty treat in the form of homemade Chocolate Covered Almonds!
Chocolate Covered Almonds
From Martha Stewart
2 1/2 cups unblanched whole almonds(13 ounces)
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
- Heat oven to 350°. Toast almonds for 15 minutes on a baking sheet.
- Line two baking pans with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, combine granulated sugar, 1/4 cup water, toasted almonds, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar becomes golden and granular and almonds are completely coated and separated.
- Pour nuts onto prepared pans.
- Chill in freezer, about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place chocolate in a medium bowl; place bowl over simmering water until melted.
- Transfer half the chilled almonds to a large bowl, and pour half the melted chocolate over nuts. Stir until nuts are thoroughly coated.
- Transfer nuts onto prepared baking pan. Using two forks, separate nuts so none stick together. Return almonds to refrigerator until chocolate has set, about 20 minutes. Repeat with remaining almonds.
- Place cocoa powder and confectioners’ sugar into two separate bowls. Toss half the nuts in cocoa and half in sugar, and gently tap off any excess powder. Store separately in airtight containers for up to 1 month.
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What sweet appetizers are you planning on serving at your first wine club meeting? Please tell me about it below. More on this party tomorrow, I'll be talking the how-to and inside-outs of hosting a successful wine club fete.
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Soul Cal
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I think this is a great idea Yum Sugar. I actually myself have what I call 'Girls Night' where all of my girlfriends come over one night, like a Friday and I will get the food and they will bring all the booze, usually wine. But on occasion, we will mix it up a bit and do like margaritas, or some crazy other drink. It's a lot of fun. We laugh and talk and listen to great music that plays in the background. For food, I just go to the deli section of my market and put together little platters of yummy's. Or sometimes even just humus and pita with pit olives are great too. I don't have time to bake, so I couldn't do your chocolate covered nuts, but I will survive, lol. Well, so have a blast, I always do!
1Thanks for the suggestion Kbella! I am totally going to assign each girlfriend a different region to avoid duplicate when it applies to the wine that we are tasting.
2How awesome do those look?
3GREAT GREAT idea!
4OMG those chocolate covered almonds are so shiny!
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