“Excuse me, miss? There seems to be a mistake. I believe I ordered the “large” glass of wine…Hello!”

Dec 022012
 

Win­ter is here and what bet­ter time to start cozy­ing up to your favorite red! Today I’m shar­ing my beloved wine glass with you. Friends are always ask­ing me where they can get one. What makes it so spe­cial? It fits an entire bot­tle of vino!  I must con­fess I do not drink an entire bot­tle of wine at once, how­ever I’m a sucker for a great nov­elty.  It’s now my “go to” host­ess gift or “bud­get gift” that is very “rich in style”. Stock up and have them on hand for that per­fect gift.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO PURCHASE GLASS

 

The ideas are endless:
  • Get them etched with Mr. and Mrs., a spe­cial date or a wine quote at your local engraver for a one of a kind gift. (or etch them your­self if you’re the crafty type)
  • For dual usage fill the large wine glass with can­dies, nuts or a dip at your next cock­tail / wine party.
  • Use them as can­dle hold­ers or a flower vase.
  • They make a great ves­sel for wrap­ping gift cer­tifi­cates to your local wine tast­ing bar, restau­rants or home decore stores.
  • They make the per­fect stor­age for used wine corks too!
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Magnetic Wine Cork Planters

Mar 262012
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lat­est cre­ation has been made by a mod­ern day Martha, my sis­ter, Colleen. Well, she’s a lot more hip than her, but you get the idea.

It all started when she gave a friend of ours a bot­tle of wine for their 25th wed­ding anniver­sary. She wanted them to be able to have a lit­tle memento from the evening. After the bot­tle was empty, I sneaked the cork in my purse(it’s not steal­ing, because she got it back!). From there my sis­ter worked her bril­liance! The cou­ple she was mak­ing it for love two things in life, wine and gar­den­ing. (yes in that order, jk!) That’s when she remem­bered being inspired by a photo from Piccsy. A mini cork suc­cu­lent planter mag­net. Does it get any cuter? I don’t think so! It’s sen­ti­men­tal, com­pact, prac­ti­cal, green and stylish.


Needed:

  • Corks made from cork not plastic
  • Mag­nets
  • Pot­ting soil
  • Very small suc­cu­lent cuttings
  • Puncher
  • Par­ing knife
  • Glue gun

How to:

  1. CAREFULLY, hol­low out the cen­ter of a wine cork with the puncher and knife until you’ve hol­lowed it out halfway.
  2.  Glue mag­net onto cork.
  3.  Fill the hole with pot­ting soil and add the succulent.
  4.  Use an eye­drop­per to water.
  5. Put on your fridge and enjoy!

WARNING: This might not be a craft for a child or a clumsy adult!

   

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Per­fect For:

  • Host­ess gifts
  • Spe­cial occasions
  • Wine lovers
  • Green lovers
  • Me
  • Thank you gifts
  • Green thumb friends
  • really, any­one!

 

 




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Time For Wine!

Dec 222011
 

hourglass wine glass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As an avid enter­tainer and shop­per of unique gifts, I am really excited about my lat­est find that fits both cat­e­gories per­fectly.  These novel, but classy hour­glass wine gob­lets would be appre­ci­ated by any­one who loves wine, game night, enjoys cook­ing or spend­ing time with friends. That must be why I own them and love them so much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things to know:
  • The sand timer lasts ten minutes.
  • You must hand wash them.
  • They arrive in four col­ors of sand which is bril­liant because this basi­cally marks whose glass belongs to whom.
  • They are a very nice size and I was pleas­antly sur­prised by the quality.
  • As a small side note, I adored the box they arrived in. It would be great for a man or woman while still being styl­ish. Small touches like that are impor­tant to me if I’m gift­ing them.
Other unique and dif­fer­ent gifts I found for:
Misc:
  • I use to belong to a diy wine club, which con­sisted of a few girl­friends get­ting together to whine, while drink­ing wine.  These would have been fab­u­lous for us. Give the gift of start­ing your own girl­friends wine club and giftwrap each glass indi­vid­u­ally with your wine club invi­ta­tion. (think: whine time)
  • No re-fills until the sand timer is over! (jk)
  • Let the wine breathe until sands are gone. Accord­ing to Napanow.com, let­ting your wine breathe for five to ten min­utes before drink­ing it will improve the wine in many cases.

 

*I believe these wine glasses are sold exclu­sively where I got mine, Uncommongoods.

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Easy DIY: Wine Box Turns Recipe Box

Nov 012011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine boxes are not only cool look­ing, but they may hold some sen­ti­men­tal value for us. What can we do with them? My hus­band had a kinda genius idea. This past year we made a rule to give each other hand­made gifts. Since I’m a foodie and a winey girl, he came up with this idea for me. (I’m still hav­ing trou­ble believ­ing he didn’t get some help! wink,wink)

What’s extra amaz­ing is he killed two birds with one stone on this diy project. Check out my old tech­nique for stor­ing my recipes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I had recipes on nap­kins, index cards, Post-it notes, mag­a­zine pages and print outs. You could find them in any crevice of the kitchen too. I’m noto­ri­ous for stick­ing Post-it’s inside my cab­i­net doors with recipes. Not exactly the ideal orga­ni­za­tion tech­nique. Because I would just set the recipe papers next to me while cook­ing, they are cov­ered in every ingre­di­ent imag­in­able. Just look at my favorite recipe…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could re-write it at this point, but I love the char­ac­ter it shows from all the years I’ve been mak­ing it. Think wrin­kles for recipes. In fact one day it might be fun to frame it. But for now, it is pro­tected in one of my binder pages neatly orga­nized under the appe­tizer section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just store my wine box on my kitchen counter. It not only matches the decore, it’s prac­ti­cal and serves a daily pur­pose! All this thanks to my genius hub…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuto­r­ial Here

Tips:

  • This makes a great wed­ding gift. Gather recipes from friends and fam­ily to add to the binder. Mod Podge their wed­ding invi­ta­tion on the top of the recipe book or on the inside of the box somewhere.
  • If the box comes from a win­ery you vis­ited, line the bot­tom (see tuto­r­ial) with a map show­ing the vine­yard location.
  • Add a “take out” menu binder to store in the box along with the recipe binder. There’s plenty of room for both.

 

 

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Save The Bubbles!

Oct 212011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you do when you’ve popped open the bub­bly and can’t fin­ish the bot­tle? On the rare occa­sion this hap­pens to me, I pull out the spoon. Yes, you read that right. Although this method is up for debate, I per­son­ally have found that works. Thank you Michael Chiarello who shared this tip with me 10 years ago. I’ve been doing it ever since!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What to do:

  • Avoid let­ting the sparkling wine or cham­pagne get to room tem­per­a­ture if possible.
  • Insert the han­dle of a stain­less steel spoon into the open­ing of your bot­tle.
  • Place sparkling wine or cham­pagne back into the refrigerator.
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The Tasty Side To Wine Clubs

Sep 232011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever been tempted to join a wine club? I am the very happy recip­i­ent of a wine club gift. (Thank you! You know who you are…) The last few years I’ve been able to see the ben­e­fits of being a mem­ber. The infor­ma­tion I’m going to talk about applies to the wine club I belong to, Hess. (each club will vary in ben­e­fits and policies)

  • Of course, there is the obvi­ous, get­ting spec­tac­u­lar, some­times exclu­sive wines deliv­ered to your front door.
  • You’ll receive dis­counts and spe­cial buy­ing priv­i­leges. When you go to the win­ery, you receive free tast­ings and tours for your­self and friends.
  • You also get invited to mem­ber only par­ties that can be very inter­est­ing and fun.
  • One thing I didn’t real­ize would be such an added bonus was the food and wine pair­ing education.With each ship­ment of my wine, Hess Win­ery includes a recipe that would com­pli­ment the wine. I love this perk! It has really expanded my culi­nary hori­zons. One of my favorite meals to make now is a Hess Wine Club cre­ation. It’s def­i­nitely gourmet, but easy enough to make.

As the say­ing goes, “a pic­ture is worth a thou­sand words.” Notice the plates are empty? Need I say more? Con­tinue here to find my recipe and more photos.

 

 

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Repurpose Your Wine Corks

Aug 252011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This might be my favorite way of repur­pos­ing used wine corks. (besides the wine cork mulch idea) Instead of using pre­dictable store bought charms, name tags or dif­fer­ent col­ored rib­bons, I used dif­fer­ent win­ery corks for my wine tags. The next time you have a party and don’t want to run out of glasses, this is the per­fect thing to have on hand. Every­one will know which glass is theirs by their wine maker. It’s also a great con­ver­sa­tion starter. Every­one can chat about their par­tic­u­lar win­ery and if and what they drink from there, etc…

Go from this:

To this:



 

 TUTORIAL HERE
  • I think mak­ing a dozen of these and putting them in a clear bag or dec­o­ra­tive chi­nese take out box would be a great gift! Think host­ess gift, thank you, co-workers, neigh­bors, mother-in-law, boss, brother, teacher, me…well you get the idea.
  • If you plan on doing a trip to the wine coun­try, you could col­lect all your dif­fer­ent corks and make tags from them. Then when you use them, you’ll think back on the good mem­o­ries you had on that spe­cial vacation

 


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Shrimp Fra Diavolo in Under 30 Minutes (and it’s amazing!)

Jul 162011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need an easy but spe­cial Sun­day night din­ner idea? I’ve got just the recipe for you, shrimp fra diavolo. It’s saucy, spicy and deli­cious. A per­fect meal to end your week­end with. I’ve been mak­ing this for years but I really don’t have my own recipe mea­sured out. I found one that is iden­ti­cal to how I make mine. Of course it’s a Giada De Lau­ren­tiis recipe. The only thing I do dif­fer­ently is chop my onions instead of slice them. I also add a tsp of but­ter at the very end to give the sauce a silky, extra yummy touch. Serve with some Pane Rus­tico Ital­ian bread on the side. (a.k.a. crusty Ital­ian bread, the other name just sounds more appealing)

 

Wine sug­ges­tions:

Chilled white wine such as a Fer­rari Carano Pinot Gri­gio for a crisp clean taste or La Crema Chardon­nay if you pre­fer a more but­tery flavor.

Fun foodie rumor:

Accord­ing to Mario Batali (uber famous Ital­ian chef), this is more of an Italian-American dish that you rarely would find in Italy. It tastes so amaz­ing I don’t care who eats it where, just as long as I’m eat­ing in my house!

 

Buon Appetito!!

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A Simple Way To Bring Spain To You This Summer

Jun 242011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San­gria I say! The beauty of San­gria lies in the fact that in spite of being exotic and deli­cious, it is incred­i­bly easy to make. There are thou­sands of dif­fer­ent recipes. No joke! Almost every restau­rant has it’s own “secret san­gria”. Through trial and error I have come up with my own sim­ple recipe. It’s so refresh­ing, fruity and light. Once you make this you’ll won­der why you haven’t before. Not only does it taste amaz­ing, it is very easy on your wal­let as well. I promise this is going to become your “go to” party drink!

Nellene’s san­gria recipe here

Warn­ing: Sip slowly…it can knock you off your feet! The alco­hol con­tent is much higher than just hav­ing a glass of wine. Overnight the sug­ars, wine and gin/vodka fer­ment get­ting stronger mak­ing a pitcher of WOW!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Facts:

–Rioja region, the wine region of Spain is con­sid­ered to be the place where San­gria was born.

–It first became pop­u­lar in the 1800´s when fruit punch was served at most aris­to­cratic parties.

–San­gria has become word’s pop­u­lar drink since it was intro­duced to the world at New York World’s trade fair held in 1964.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What to do With Your Wine Corks

May 252011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How cool is this? Corks for mulch! I’d like to say it was my idea but it wasn’t. My mother in-law Con­nie who has a “neon green thumb” came up with this idea. Her hubby loves to drink wine (in mod­er­a­tion of course!) and she loves to gar­den. Is this the per­fect mar­ry­ing of the two of them or what? Ok, in fair­ness, she likes to drink wine too…haha

Mer­lot mulch recipe–

–save and col­lect wine/champagne corks (even ask friends to put their batch aside for you)

–store them in gro­cery bags or buckets

–when you feel you have enough to fill your planter of choice, fill em’ up

–you can use large planter areas or petite ones

Tip:

–For a great host­ess gift, get a  small planter, can, jar or what­ever cre­ative thing you would like. Then plant an herb or herbs, cover the top of the soil with corks. Add a cute wine phrase on your thank you card, such as “I cook with wine.  Some­times I even add it to the food.”.

More wine cork ideas here.

 



 

 

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