Food & Wine Choices Made Easy . . . Drinks Matcher Widget

“Which wine tastes best with pork chops in a maple glaze? Does rosemary-marinated grilled halibut invite red or white wine? Are there also great food pairings for beer, spirits, cocktails, coffee, and tea?” – Natalie MacLean, New York, March 2009

These days entertaining at home is on the rise and the question of how to choose food and drinks that enhance one another and make for a truly enjoyable dining experience is one many of us struggle with. Natalie MacLean has made it her mission to ease the choices.

MacLean, publisher of North America’s largest wine e-newsletter, is always on the lookout for new ways to assist her readers in pairing food and drink combinations that will delight. As she puts it, “Chicken isn’t just chicken anymore: Now we eat it stuffed with pancetta and fresh herbs, rubbed with curry spices or sautéed in an orange balsamic sauce. We’re looking for more interesting flavors, both on the plate and in the glass—and we want them to work together.”

Natalie has come up with a very cool downloadable DRINKS MATCHER WIDGET (check it out in the upper right-hand corner of this blog) that can be added to your computer desktop, website, blog, or social media page (such as Facebook, MySpace, or iGoogle). Of course, what goes best with what is a matter of personal taste, but many of us are always on the hunt for that memorable combination of food and drink that will make our guests ooh and ahh, that we’ll want to repeat time and time again.

Whether you are a professional foodie or a sometime dabbler like me, you will enjoy surfing around Natalie’s site and exploring the thousands of inspirational, mouthwatering possibilities to be found there: http://www.nataliemaclean.com

Rosemary Carstens

http://www.carstenscommunications.com/

Twitter: @tweets2go

Shining Light on a great new film . . .

SUNSHINE CLEANING, written by Megan Holley and directed by Christine Jeff, is an off-beat comic drama about an unlikely road to happiness. Starring academy-award nominee Amy Adams and Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt as sisters Rose and Norah, who have fallen on hard times, plus Alan Arkin as their dad Joe, this is a story for all who are suffering in this economy and need diversion to bring them hope. Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime scene cleanup business with her to make some quick cash. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it, and the sisters find ways to make their way through a maze of murders, suicides, and other freaky situations to find new respect and love for one another.

The film opened last weekend in LA and NY and will be opening nationwide over the next two weeks.

Click here to see the TRAILER

Molly Wisenberg: From Blog to Table to Heart

JUST OUT! A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, Molly Wizenberg. (Simon & Schuster March 2009). Here’s a narrative cookbook coming directly from the hugely successful, award-winning blog Orangette (http://orangette.blogspot.com/) straight to your heart!

Overwhelmed by the death of her father, Molly Wizenberg feels unable to return to graduate school in Seattle after the funeral. She heads instead for Paris, the scene of so many wonderful memories of being there with her father. Instead of working on her dissertation, she finds herself mooning around chocolate shops, perusing and sampling cheeses in outdoor markets, reading cookbooks for hours. She soon realizes she is called NOT to the academic life, but to the kitchen. Food is her destiny. Returning home, she creates a blog named Orangette after the French treat, chocolate-dipped candied orange peels. What begins as a pastime develops a loyal following and a book deal soon follows.

In this delightful story/cookbook, Molly shares childhood adventures, a developing new romance, and a wedding—all interspersed by recipes guaranteed to find new fans! The lovely, red-headed chef has a down-to-earth way of sharing her cooking adventures and I've tried out a couple mouthwatering choices already-- a flourless deep-chocolate cake that I mean to share after only a small slice for myself--but, oh, what can I say! Gluttony got the best of me--

For more about Molly: http://simmertilldone.com/2008/06/23/tell-simmer-orangettes-molly-wizenberg/

-- Rosemary Carstens

http://www.carstenscommunications.com/