I'm Gonna Hire a Whin-O

So Saturday night was Wine Night for us. Wine Night is a ragtag group of neighbors and friends that we were orphaned into. We meet every month or so, each bring a pre-determined varietal, do blind tasting, taste them again, maybe one more try, and then decide on the winner. Rules are not part of the fun, but we generally keep the wine at less than $20 a bottle, while Billy has been known to keep the wine at less than $7 a bottle. After the wines have all had their initial tasting, the trouble starts. Everyone is very vocal about lobbying for their favorite as overall winner. Gamesmanship is important and the comments range from "barnyard," "Vicks," and "old catcher's mitt” to “fruity”, “silky”, and “this one has legs”.We've all been through the Wine Tasting class at TCU, so we’re pretty much experts.

It is interesting to note that the winner is often the most expensive, but the close 2nd is usually a $10-$12 bottle. This of course leads us into the debate on whether the #1 is 80% better than the #2, etc. but by this time many of our higher reasoning skills are in question, so we just leave it to Craig and Mike to hash out the numbers. The normal consensus is that the expensive bottle usually comes up short unless you’re out to eat with an important client or hoping to see your wine partner in their special underwear.

Anyway, we met this month at Paul and Denise Conner's house in Aledo. The wine du jour was merlot which is good since we all understand merlot. Denise made some killer hors doerves, the best of which was her sesame bacon wraps. When she said recipe by Paula Deen our eyes rolled John Belushi style and we made a mad dash. Paul got the last one after going into his 3 point stance. Buying the wines is half the fun. Mike tends to research a little more, and often comes up with the winner. The rest of us buy really cool and impressive labels at Costco, World Market and Kings, and often come up with some rare gems ourselves. Having personally been to Sonoma, Napa and Alvarado, this is hands down the best way to try new wines.

Denise’s Sesame Bacon Wraps, with inspiration from Paula Deen:
1 box of sesame bread sticks.
1 pound of bacon
1 green can of parmesan cheese. Don’t use the good stuff. It needs to be powdery.

Spiral wrap sesame sticks with bacon. Bake at 375˚ until bacon is done. Immediately roll in parmesan cheese. Make twice as many as you think you’ll need. Serve.