Warning: This Article May Contain Traces of Nuts

Our party hosts decided to make this past New Year’s celebration more interesting by having a wine tasting competition. Each guest was instructed to bring a covered bottle of wine from a specific country. The wine was to be accompanied by a food item and guests judged the best red, best white, and best wine/food combo. Wine-themed prizes, such as bottle openers and wine glass tags, were awarded to the winners.

This may give you the illusion of a sophisticated sort sipping expensive glasses of wine while discussing stock market trends. Honestly, it was a bunch of rural neophytes trying to branch out. Most of the crowd had a beer readied to wash away the real potential of a bad tasting vino.


There were some clear winners, and we all agreed that the food accompaniment really aided the standouts. The simplest combinations of red wine and chocolate, and one of my favorites, red wine and cashews were the best.


If you want to impress guests at your next party (or win the unfortunate set of wine glass tags that won’t wrap around your beer stein), strategically place dishes of Van Otis cashews near the conversation clusters. These cashews are extra large, giving them a well-deserved position in the appetizer category. They are also incredibly sweet; there’s no burnt or bitter aftertaste that you experience with most exaggerated shelf-life, retail nuts.

Cheers!

Chocolate Fountain of Youth

About two years ago, our family purchased a residential-sized chocolate fountain. It seemed a bit indulgent at the time but has become a big hit at friend and family events. It’s not unusual for invitations to request our attendance, as well as our “fifth family member”, the fountain.

At the fountain’s début, I set it up at the kids’ table and prepared a more “sophisticated” dessert for the adults. The kids were in awe. With their little backs facing the adult crowd, we began an unintended game of “red light/green light”. An adult would inch toward the table. A child (now looking more like a short Charlie Chaplin) would sense movement and turn around. The adult would stop and offer “help”. The child would refuse, and the adult would be frozen in their red light spot.

I no longer prepare a second dessert item when the chocolate fountain makes an appearance.

It only took one experience with cheap, big-box store chocolate to realize that quality chocolate is required. Good chocolate yields a beautiful flow or “curtain” that becomes a buffet table centerpiece. It also produces that warm, creamy coating that you’d expect on your dipping item. Chocolate purchased at a store that also sells car batteries, forces the fountain to gurgle and plop the waxy concoction. Waxy is also an accurate taste description. It’s a big disappointment; one we haven’t repeated.

You are guaranteed to impress a crowd at your next event by replacing that frosted cake with a chocolate fountain. Just be sure to establish dipping rules to avoid confrontations. Adults can be very childish when it comes to chocolate.

A Truffle a Day Keeps the Voices at Bay

My dear friend Jane is very health conscious. She probably hovers around 105 pounds after a Pina Colada and getting caught in the rain. I won’t debate the “nature vs. nurture” causal factors of her peak condition, but I will share that she considers broccoli a main course and running, an adrenaline cocktail.

Jane’s one daily indulgence is a piece of chocolate. I’m not talking just any chocolate. I’m talking good chocolate. She looks forward to this savory moment to get her through the rest of the working day.

Few of us self-permit such a public indulgence. We’re closet candy eaters. We apply face paint, dress in camo, and swoop into a co-workers cubicle for a handful of candy jar offerings before anyone is witness. Who doesn’t buy into the philosophical riddle “If I eat a piece of candy in a forest and no one is around to see me, do I gain a calorie?”

Jane’s approach is refreshing and effective. Coworkers enable her habit, she doesn’t binge, and she’s afforded herself a guilt-free pleasure.

Wouldn’t it be nice to indulge in some good chocolate and hear only “Mmmmm” in your head?