I made one of those 7-bean soups you buy in the dry bean section of the store on Monday. I had expected it to cause me to gain weight, since it has so many carbs in it, but I lost weight both days we had it. I think I'll make it a lot more. I'm also going to get a soup cookbook of some kind--maybe a low fat/ low carb soup cookbook. We just had the soup and a salad both Monday and Tuesday nights. We varied it with the wines. Monday we had Summer Rain, a light fruity off-sweet wine from Su Vino. It has the flavor of grapes and green apples. Tuesday we coupled the soup with New Britain White from Peace Valley winery north of Philadelphia. This winery is near a large state park built around a lake, also called Peace Valley. We went to the park and I bought some jewelry (what else is new), then stopped and just watched the birds. They have a number of feeders and houses intended to draw the many different birds that live in that area. We are not bird watchers by intent, but sometimes, both in our back yard and camping, I think we are by nature. This wine is another Niagara grape blend, semi-sweet, fruity, with a marvelously tart grape finish. Both wines paired really well with the soup. I'm beginning to think that our favorite wines will naturally blend well with all kinds of soups.
On Thursday, I did my "Buffalo Chicken" dish. It uses the Buffalo Wing Sauce, but on boneless skinless thighs (for me) and breast (for TR.) Most of the sweeter wine blurbs I've read suggest pairing them with spicy foods, so I took one of our most unusual wines from this last trip--Cherry-Cranberry Wine from Brooks Hill Winery in Brooks, Kentucky. This comfortable winery and vineyard has a charming, down to Earth host and hostess as well as a large lovable greeter dog named Lily (I hope I am remembering right.) It is directly on our route to visit my folks, so we have stopped there before. We've had good luck finding wines we love there, but not the same ones...the ones we liked this time were different from the ones we got last time. This wine tastes exactly as it sounds--a bright semi-sweet cherry start with a tart, refreshing, cranberry finish. It was perfect for the spicy chicken and I wish I'd gotten more.
Last night we went to Paella Night at D'Vine wine in Grapevine (TX.) It was more poorly attended than these nights have been in the past, but Chad (the manager) said that Friday nights during high school football season in Texas are hard... Yep, that's Texas! When we got there, we were offered a red or a white to start--the white was their unoaked Chardonnay which is lovely, light and crisp. They serve a wonderful salad with mixed greens and a beautiful vinaigrette dressing to begin the meal and Chad paired that with a Savinon Blanc that was light and a lovely pairing. The only problem was I was only about a quarter of the way through the glass when I'd finished my salad, so I wound up pairing that with most of the Paella as well. This particular Paella has, in addition to shrimp and mussels, chicken and chorizo and is topped with asparagus. Chad paired it with a Temperanillo which pretty much just sat until I was nearly finished with the Paella, but there was quite a bit of time before dessert was served, so I got to savor the Temperanillo while I still had the taste of the Paella. TR enjoyed the Paella so much, he got a second helping and I don't think he was alone. For dessert, they served us five brownies (2 1/2 each) and their Chocolate Cherry Port. Last night, instead of tasting portions of the wine, they served us a full glass of each wine. The Port was marvelous--sweet and smooth and complemented the brownies beautifully. Even more fun, the Paella chef came over, sat with us, and chatted for some time. He must have stayed there chatting for at least half and hour...we had a great time.
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