Choice Treats on Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is pretty much synonymous with food and wine for us here at My Wine Education. It means two things: Taste of Cincinnati and opening weekend for the local wineries.

Taste of Cincinnati is the longest running culinary festival in the US. How about that? 32 years! Every year, Kevin and I go and the menu for us is pretty straight forward. I pretty much eat crepes and cheesecake and cream puffs … every dessert I can find. Kevin tries every BBQ he can find. We usually drink some Moerlein and Great Lakes beer and we have wonderful food-filled day.

Kevin and I are usually there on Sunday or Monday, as I can’t handle the crowds on Saturday. It’s generally hot, so we bring water and stay hydrated all day. No passing out down on Fifth Street!

You’ll find all the information you need about Taste at their web site – they even have a Twitter account!

On Saturday, instead of fighting crowds downtown, we’ll be enjoying a leisurely drive out to both Kinkead Ridge and Harmony Hill. Both wineries, as well as La Vigna Estate, open for the summer this weekend. However, while La Vigna and Harmony Hill will be open Fridays and Saturdays throughout the summer, Kinkead Ridge is open only this Saturday and Monday. If you want some Viognier-Roussane (I do!), get it now and get it early. It’s in limited supply.

If you want to spend the day lazily going from winery to winery, I recommend this route, starting in Ripley and ending in Bethel: Kinkead Ridge, Meranda-Nixon, La Vigna Estate, and ending at Harmony Hill. If you can, stop and pick up some munchies and sit out on the Harmony Hill patio with  glass of wine, listening to the music.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. And remember, if you’ve had too much to drink – just call the FETCH taxi service at 513.35.FETCH.

Blue Plate Diner (Salt Lake City)

On a recent trip to to Salt Lake city, the first time I had ever left the SLC airport, a friend and I stopped at the Blue Plate Diner for a quick bite to eat on the way to a conference. Blue Plate Diner was featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

I had a vegan burger and cajun fries. The burger is assembled with beans, cooked oatmeal, onions and plenty of other non-meaty goodness. The burger was served on a toasted fresh bun and was fantastic.

The Blue Plate Diner is a collection of restaurant artifacts from the Salt Lake area. Booths from an old diner, a soda fountain from a general store up the road.

The test of any restaurant is if you would go back. To answer that question, on the way back to the airport, we stopped in again for a pre-flight meal. This time it was Chicken Fried Steak for me.

Served with home fries and 3 eggs over easy, this was an amazing end to a trip to my trip to Salt Lake. I’d recommend the vegan burger over the breakfast, but I was not disappointed in either.

– Kevin

Key Lime Pie on a Stick

This has nothing to do with wine. But when we were in Key West over the holidays, I had some Key Lime Pie on a stick, dipped in Belgian chocolate. Now, longtime readers know that dessert is my favorite part of every meal. This was pretty much a dessert I ate for breakfast. Nothing can compare, so I thought I would share with you. Well, I’m sharing the video; I can’t share the Key Lime Pie – I ate it.

Wine-Girl.net’s Virtual Thanksgiving Dinner Redux: Host and Hostess Edition

This week, Kevin and I are having a virtual (er, imaginary) Thanksgiving dinner (redux) with some of our wine friends. Monday, our retailer buddies arrived, with some amazing wine favorites in tow. Tuesday, the local wine bloggers dropped by. Today you get our own choices – just a couple of wines that we think might complement a Thanksgiving meal.

As you may have noticed this week, there is no right or wrong for a Thanksgiving wine. Drink what you like, just like your local wine bloggers and retailers.

After the jump, find our own Thanksgiving pairings.

Originally posted on Nov 26, 2008

Read the rest of this entry »

Wine-Girl.net’s Virtual Thanksgiving Dinner Redux: Local Blogger Edition

Kevin and I are having a virtual (er, imaginary) Thanksgiving dinner
dinner
(redux) with some of our wine friends. Yesterday, our retailer buddies arrived first, with some amazing wine favorites in tow. In this edition, our local wine blogger friends make a big entrance, and they’ve brought some big wine with them.

I asked each of them to “bring” their favorites for Thanksgiving
dinner. You’ll see that their tastes vary a lot, proving that there is
no right or wrong. Drink what you like, just like your local wine bloggers.

We’ve invited Tim Lemke from CheapWineRatings.com, Mike Rosenberg from The Naked Vine, and Jonathan Seeds from BestDrinkEver.net.

Tomorrow, you’ll get favorites from your host and hostess here at Wine-Girl.net, just in case you’re curious as to what we’d offer our guests.

After the jump, find the outstanding blogger choices.

Originally published on Nov 25, 2008

Read the rest of this entry »