Monday, March 1, 2010

"Wine" not??

I've told you guys before that we are in a dinner club, but I don't think I really explained it did I? I'm going to be 29 soon...my memory is virtually shot! Anywho...Dave and I met right after college through friends. He grew up, went to high school, etc with one of my best friends from college. We (Dave and I) went to college across the state from each other so although I had heard of him I had never met him. So, we met, we started dating, the rest is history...awwww....

Enough of that. You needed that crash course for dinner club. :) So, it just so happened that I knew several of his good friends through my BFF Meredith before ever meeting Dave. Fun huh? His best friends are his high school buddies and it has just been so great to add in spouses that all get along. Almost 2 years ago, one of the couples mentioned getting together a dinner club made up of 5 couples to get together every other month. We were all on board because it gives us an excuse to get together and MAKES us get together. Sure, the guys meet for golf, but the girls want to come too!

Our premise is that we have a new host each time and the "co-host" (the couple that brings the drinks) will be the host the next time. It helps us keep things in order. It has been great because each time we have a theme and it's always interesting to see what the hosting couple comes up with.

We have done a Hawaiian theme, a murder mystery dinner, Valentine's dinner complete with the newlyweds game, of course Mexican themes, Italian, etc. Well, this weekend we had dinner club and Clifton and Tess were our gracious hosts. They decided to do a wine tasting.

Alice and Jeff were the co-hosts so they got the wines together. They got 3 Cabernet's at 3 different price points (cheap, medium, "expensive") They ranged from $5-$25. They did the same with white wine and they chose Chardonnay. They had printed out cards with all of the wine adjectives to assist us in our tasting. We picked our individual favorites and then we chose which one we thought was the least expensive to the most expensive. The other 3 couples brought appetizers to go with wine, so I did 2 cheese dips. It was my first time to make both, but they were a hit! I will share the recipes below!

My favorite of each of the wines were the $5.50 wines!! I told Dave I'm a cheap date! Thank you to Clifton and Tess and Alice and Jeff for a great dinner club!

Alice getting everything set to begin...

The crew after red wine #1

Me and Meredith

Dave tasting his white wine

So dips I made were a baked brie and a blue cheese/walnut dip. Both turned out great! The brie was better though. It's my friend Angie's recipe and it's always a crowd pleaser!

Kahlua Pecan Brie

1 14 oz Brie round
1/4 cup Kahlua
3/4 cup chopped pecans
3 Tablespoons brown sugar

Scrape the white coating off brie. Place brie on an oven safe plate.
In a small bowl, mix Kahlua, pecans and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved.
Pour Kahlua mixture over Brie and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until Brie begins to ooze. Serve with Carr's Water crackers.

Blue Cheese Walnut Dip


3 pkg cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup butter (softened)
4 oz. blue cheese crumbles
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (toasted)

Mix it all together in a bowl and wha-la! Serve with apple slices, pear slices, and/or baguette slices. We had it with apples and baguette slices and it was great.

Enjoy!

What did you do this weekend?

15 comments:

Sarah Mina said...

That recipe for brie sounds sooo yummy! I can't wait to try it :)

KatiePerk said...

What a fun Dinner Club! I might borrow a few of those themes for our Supper Club!!

Vanessa said...

Mmm those dips sound delicious! I love this dinner party idea. Sounds like so much fun!

Brittany said...

YUmmm!!! What a fun idea :)

Mrs. Pick said...

What a fun idea! I love this! Your dips sounds delish!

Sara McCarty said...

What a great idea! I love it! I wish my friends and I all did this kind of thing. Maybe I'll throw this idea out next time I'm with the girls. Looks like it was a blast!

Alissa said...

I love the idea of a dinner club. How did you get involved with this group? I'd love to get into something like that. It looks like a lot of fun.

Annie said...

I am jealous of your dinner club!! It sounds so fun!! I ALWAYS think that cheap wine tastes better than the pricy stuff. Nothing wrong with being a cheap date I guess...lol!!

Natasha said...

what a great idea!! i am definitely going to have to do this with our couple friends to make us better about getting together... fun themes!!

Jamie Pickle said...

What a fun idea. Sounds like it was a success.

Virginia Belle said...

Your dinner club sounds like so much fun! I would love to start one for our friends. The wine tasting was such a good idea-it's fun to taste wine without thinking about price, the appearance of the bottle, etc. Thanks for sharing the brie recipe, it sounds delicious!

Dezzy Lou Where Are You said...

We have a similar dinner party set up but ours is only 3 couples- was 4 but one broke up. No bueno! We always look so forward to meeting, eating and gossiping =)

オテモヤン said...
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Sherrie said...

I have always wanted to do a dinner club. I think it would be so much fun!

Nishant said...
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