Friday, December 01, 2006

A Hit, A Miss & Some Other Stuff

When I got into work on Thursday, Nov. 16, Terry had done up a lovely display of the Beaujolais Nouveaus right by the entrance. We carried 6 different ones this year and I bought one of each! The middle bottle below is not a traditional Beaujolais because it is made from Syrah grapes as opposed to Gamay, so it's called Primeur, not Beaujolais Nouveau. (Remember all the French rules!)




Even Italy is getting in on this wine craze. Two of the bottles above are Italian versions of Nouveau. They incorporate the same fermenting process that they use in Beaujolais. Italian bottles are called Vino Novello.




I was also surprised (and a few customers commented on this too) to see screw caps on two of the French varieties. With France being the wine capital of the world, they tend to be a bit stoggy in moving away from corks. Mommessin seems to be quite progressive. They even offer a version of their regular Beaujolais in a tetra pak! Since these wines are never meant to age, why not use a screw cap? It's a great seal and there is no chance of cork taint. I highly doubt you'll see a screw cap on a Haut Brion or Chateau Latour anytime soon though.


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I thought one of these light, refreshing selections would go wonderfully well with a dish I've wanted to make for a long time and finally got around to doing so.

Here we have Curried Vegetable Pie with Chickpea Crust from The Garden of Vegan.

This was soooo good. Really flavourful and delicious. There was a lot of filling and it was a real "stick to your ribs" dish. The crust was very nice and provided a perfect contrast to the savoury filling. (A Hit!)


We had some beans & baby carrots on the side and mashed potatoes with Mi-So Good Gravy from The Everyday Vegan. Unfortunately, the gravy wasn't much of a hit with Jim. He said all he could taste was vinegar and he didn't like it at all. It was a bit overpowering, but I would like to try it again and do some adjusting; maybe make it a bit more mellow. (A Miss.)

I've been so tied up with work that I don't seem to have a whole lot of free time for baking. I did manage to make some scrumptious cinnamon rolls.

HA! You were getting all impressed with my baking skills weren't you? I really cheated on this one. These are Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls.

They were pretty awesome though for a junky treat.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

MMM wine haha.. wait I'm only 19.. darnit.

The dinner looks yummmy.. I love hearty winter meals!

I want a cinnamon roll.. or two..

Anonymous said...

The curried veg pie looks scrumptious! Too bad the gravy didn't work out so well. I haven't had cinnamon rolls since becomming vegan but wow! These look delicious!

Anonymous said...

What lovely wine photos. Can you believe I still haven't gotten my hands on Beaujolais nouveau?? What's Syracuse, like, the backwoods?
I've been pleasantly surprised to find more and more screwcap wines. I know it's hard to say goodbye to the tradition of corks, but caps are better, darnit!

Anonymous said...

I tried that kind of wine a few months ago and really liked it. Of course, I can't remember the brand or even what country it came from!!! All the food looks incredible!

Anonymous said...

ohhhh.. I have made that chickpea stuff and the whole family loved my efforts!! Yum!! comfort food at its best!! you are a vegan food rockstar! I don't remember if i served anything else w/ it!

Anonymous said...

Love the wine photos!! :P Yum! :P

i think your dinner looks so good! I laughed out loud out the Pillsbury rolls because, yes, I fell for it. I thought you made them! Lol! You're so funny. Looks really good! :P

High Power Rocketry said...

Great review, I will have to check these out some time.

Anonymous said...

The food looks so warm and yummy! I want that for dinner now! :)

funwithyourfood said...

the gravy looks great. I've not made it since i stopped eating meat. I think i need to try it out for our X-mas Dinner

Anonymous said...

I was just evilly eyeing pillsbury rolls myself! Those are so gigantically amazing looking, gah gah gah.

P.S. You know you are my wine goddess, right? My wine budget is under 10, at best under 15 a bottle, any general advice?