Fork and Gobble It: Managing Perceptions

An article last week in the New York Times by Eric Asimov in his column "The Pour" addressed the issue of the terms or descriptors we use to communicate verbally what we think wine tastes like. In a nutshell, he put forth the idea that wine could be most basically categorized as savory or sweet. While I absolutely agree that wine language can become overly lofty and flowery, especially as expressed by amateur critics, simplifying it down to two basic categories may not work for everyone. It leaves me wanting a little more. Just yesterday tasting through a flight of about twelve wines with colleagues, we discussed perceptions of what we really taste. So many factors are involved, a point Mr. Asimov touched on in his last column. One that I was able to isolate yesterday was the quality of stemware one uses to taste and how it affects your ability to perceive wine. It is amazing how the same wine out of two different glasses can smell and taste radically different. I have been known, much to the chagrin of my wife, to bring my own stemware to a BYO restaurant when I don't have faith in what they might have on the table and I'm really interested in tasting the wine we're bringing. Just label me Geek.

So how does one a) learn how to taste and b) learn to express those sensations? My first and rather obvious response would be to taste as much and as frequently as possible. Hopefully in the company of those with a little more experience than you. I encourage those inclined to do so, to taste with friends on a semi-regular basis also. It's fun, social, educational, and can be very inexpensive. Certainly cheaper than dinner and a movie these days. You will be amazed at the little epiphanies that can take place when you taste wine with a little thought involved.

This brings me to debunking one of my favorite food and wine rules: Red with meat, white with fish. Coming home after work one evening last week, I picked up some really nice salmon filets with the intention of grilling them since the weather had relented enough for me to now see and make my way out to my Weber. I quickly put together an idea for a dish that would support the grilled fish, but wasn't letting go of winter comfort food feel just yet. I decided to make a quick stew of canellini beans, tomatoes, peas, and... something was crying out for bacon, but bacon is not something my wife will eat. After a few quick seconds I chose to improvise with smoked trout.

Grilled Salmon Filet with a Bean, Tomato, and Smoked Trout Stew
-1 small shallot minced
-2 oz. Olive oil
-1 smoked trout filet, skinned, boned, and broken up into small pieces
-1 can diced tomatoes, drained
-1 pinch dried thyme leaves
-salt and black pepper to taste
-2 oz dry white wine
-1 can of canellini beans ~ rinsed well and drained
-½ cup frozen green peas

Saute the shallot in the olive oil until translucent, add the trout and saute two minutes more. Add in the tomatoes and the thyme and continue to cook for five minutes more. Season with salt and pepper and add in the wine. Let the wine come to a boil and simmer for two minutes. Add in the canellini beans and cook for five minutes. The stuff in the pan should be moist, but not soupy or wet so adjust the cooking time where necessary to evaporate liquid. Add in the peas and a little more olive oil. Keep warm and set aside.

Now grill the salmon.

2 Salmon filets ~ skin on, seasoned well with S&P

Grill the fish starting on the meat side and finish on the skin side to crisp that skin and render all the fat between the skin and meat. It is a technique that requires practice and a well seasoned grill.

Plate the stew and place the fish, skin side up in the middle of the stew. Drizzle with a little good quality olive oil.

The wine? Sylvain Cathiard Bourgogne Rouge 2005. Pinot Noir with fish. Pinot pairs very well with fish. My favorites pairings are grilled salmon or tuna, or sushi. We have done this in our food and wine classes demonstrating how well Pinot works with Umami. Umami is the fifth taste along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Umami is a very savory, meaty taste best represented by thinking of the flavor of soy sauce, and Pinot loves it and is loved back.

The wine itself shows bright cherry/cassis fruit, earthy and herbaceous flavors with a nice mineral note trailing off on the finish. Don't quite get what I'm describing? Keep tasting, you will.

Wine 101: The Notebook

Probably the most valuable tool I have, when it comes to my personal wine education journey, is my handy-dandy notebook. Every time I bring home a new wine to enjoy, I bust out my little book.

You may find a system that works better for you, but here's what I find works great for me. My notebook is from the Staples Arc brand. It has these little discs that hold the pages together so that they're easily removed. (A 3-ring notebook would serve the same purpose.) Pretty "Tasting Notes" books are widely available for sale, but most of them are hard-bound. I like being able to remove the pages and shuffle them around. Right now I have three dividers: Reds, Whites and "Other," where I put roses, sparkling wines and dessert wines. Within the dividers I have the wines organized alphabetically by winery. In the future, if I want to compare all the Cabernet Sauvignons I've tasted, I will have the ability to remove the pages and arrange them by varietal. It's nice to have the ability to pop in a page where it fits, and not have to flip through 30 wines to find the one I'm looking for.

When I taste wines, on one side of the page I always consistently make notes on Color, Aroma and Taste (these are pretty standard) as well as anything else I notice about the wine on the bottom. On the other side, if I can get the label off the bottle easily, I tape it there.

Color has always been easiest to note for me, as a beginner. Use words that you are familiar with. I've noted my reds as brick, mahogany, burnt orange, cranberry, ruby, rusty red and plum purple, among others. Whites have been golden straw, pale yellow, almost white, and I even described the color of one white as "raw egg white." Whatever you see is right.

Aroma, on the flip side, has always been the most difficult. Many of the wines I drink still mostly smell like wine to me, with varying scents that I can differentiate from one another but not identify. However, I'm pretty sure I have "oak" down and can tell fairly easily if a wine was aged with oak. There are thousands of descriptors for wine. Whites can be minerally, buttery, grassy or numerous kinds of citrusy: lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange etc. Red aroma descriptors include any kind of berry, earth, plum, spice, licorice, and a variety of words that still turn my head: barnyard, lead pencil shavings, tar, even gasoline!

Then I sip it and rate the taste. Aroma and taste may be totally different; One wine I tasted I described as smelling "smoky," but when I tasted it I got nothing but fruit. You may want to make note of how tannic (astringent, mouth drying) the wine is, or how acidic. You also might write down notes about the body of the wine. Is it thin, like water? Or thicker, like milk?

I also make notes of anything else I happen to notice about the wine. One time, the cork of my wine was "off" when I opened it, and I wrote "Cork was weird. Gooey before I opened it, seemed too wet and had wine soaked all through the sides. I thought this might be a bad sign it was corked but the wine tasted okay." Another wine had a LOT of sediment at the bottom - more than I'd ever seen before, so I jotted that down so I'd remember,

This really helps sort out the wines for me. At the very least, it's helping me identify what I like, rather than picking bottles blindly, because when you're learning about wine, they all do tend to blend together unless you have a way to keep track. It'll also open your horizons. My wine notebook has helped me go from "I don't like white wine," to "I love Gruner Veltliner!"

And lately, since I've started to diverge into the world of beer, I've devoted a few pages in the back of my notebook for beers I've tastes. I've only done a few, but so far I think I'm getting somewhere in terms of my personal likes (Porters) and dislikes (Stouts).

Let me know if you keep a wine notebook... what's it like? What have you learned from it? Leave a comment below!

Fork and Gobble It: My Little Sweetie

Dolcetto, literally "Little Sweet One." seemed like a good wine choice for a Valentine's Day dinner for two. It is a Piedmontese wine I have been singing the praises of for quite a while and very sincerely so. I love it for its value. Most of the producers in Piedmonte known for their Barolos, such as Giacosa, Vietti, Parusso, Aldo Conterno, Luigi Pira, or Roberto Voerzio, do a Dolcetto as well and it is a windfall for the consumer. Look up a description of the wine and it is almost always referred to as a simple wine meant for quaffing with antipasti. When in the hands of any one of the above mentioned, it becomes quite a bit more.

Unlike its name would imply, Dolcetto is not a sweet wine, but a dry one with relatively low acid (usually), soft tannins (again usually), and flavors that range from cherry, licorice, herbs, crushed stone and tobacco. There are many recognized appellations (DOCs/DOCGs) that produce the wine, the bigger and best known being the villages of Alba, Dogliani and the Langhe region. These wines are far more intense in their concentration of flavors and their tannic structure which can produce some serious "grip."

I picked up a bottle of the Parusso Dolcetto d'Alba Piani Noce 2009 for a belated dinner with my significant other. Once a year I prepare her favorite "Eatalian" dinner: Chicken Parmigiana with spaghetti on the side. I am all too happy to oblige her request and try and elevate this pizzeria staple with a scratch cook touch.

Chicken Parmigiana w/Spaghettini Pommadoro
-2 boneless/skinless chicken cutlets
-1 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
-2 eggs, lightly beaten

-1 ½ cups fresh breadcrumbs mixed with:
---1 Tablespoon each dried oregano and basil
---1 Teaspoon dried thyme
---1 cup freshly grated Reggiano Parmigiano cheese (not packed)


Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour and shake off the excess. Dip the floured breasts in the beaten egg, let the excess drain off and place in the seasoned breadcrumbs.

With the dry hand, scoop seasoned breadcrumbs onto the breasts, pressing the crumbs on. Remove the breaded breasts to a clean plate.

Have ready:
-1 qt. Your favorite tomato sauce
-4 slices mozzarella cheese (fresh works great)

Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Heat olive oil poured to a depth of ½ inch in a sufficiently large pan over a medium heat. The oil is ready for frying when a bit of breadcrumb dropped in it buzzes and sizzles on top of the oil. Carefully place the breaded breasts in the hot oil letting the last bit fall into the oil AWAY FROM YOU.

Turn the breasts after about a minute and a half to two minutes, again letting the last bit fall into the pan away from you so that if the hot oil splashes, it goes away from you.

While this is going on get your pasta water ready. In a covered pot heat 3 quarts of salted water over a medium heat, just getting it hot but not boiling! You do not want a pot of boiling water next to a pan of hot oil. Should the water splash into the oil it would cause a violent spatter of hot oil. Once the chicken is in the oven and the oil pushed to the side, the water can be brought to a full boil.

After another two minutes turn the heat off, remove the chicken breasts to a baking sheet, top them with 2oz. of tomato sauce and 2 slices of the cheese, and place them into the oven. Slide the pan to a back burner to allow it to cool.

Bring the salted water to a boil and cook ½ lb. of thin spaghetti or spaghettini for 5 minutes and before draining, reserve 1 cup of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot over a low heat and add 8oz. Of your favorite tomato sauce. (Mine just happens to be my homemade.) Depending on how thick the tomato sauce is, add about half the reserved cooking water. The spaghettini will be a little under done after boiling for only five minutes and the idea is to finish cooking it for 3 minutes more in the diluted sauce to help it pick up the flavor of the sauce. I usually splash in a little extra virgin olive oil also and the starch in the pasta cooking water incorporates the oil into the sauce. At this point the chicken breasts will be done and the pasta should be at the right consistency.

Plate the breasts and pasta and top with some more freshly grated Parmigiano cheese.

The wine was a perfect match for the food and not coincidentally, Dolcetto is a great BYO wine to bring to one's favorite pizza establishment. All of the producers mentioned above should be available in our store at any given time. They range in price from mid teens up to about $20.00, so there really is no excuse not to check them out. Enjoy!!!

Wine 101: Eat Dessert First - Pairings

A couple basic rules on dessert pairings: You should never serve a dessert food that's sweeter than the wine you plan to serve it with. For example, don't serve a light Riesling with a rich, dark chocolate lava cake - much like a Chardonnay with a barbecued steak, the flavors will clash. Also, if you're serving a large, lavish dinner, and the meal with a lighter wine, as opposed to a heavy, super-sweet full-bodied wine.

A good rule of thumb according to some wine experts is that as the color of the desserts get darker, so do the wines.

Rieslings and Sparkling Wines: Work well with vanilla flavors, and custard-filled pastries. The wine will play off the buttery flavors in the pastry.

Sauternes: Tend to go well with light fruity desserts that include peaches or apples. Also, if you're serving a sauterne you may want to skip the sweets entirely and choose instead to lay out some cheese. Sauternes and Roquefort cheese are a match made in heaven. Try other blue-veined cheese like Stilton or Gorgonzola.

Moscato or Muscat: Wines are made to be drank with fruity desserts. Also pair them with a sweet Mascarpone Cheese.

Madeira: Is another wine that would be well-suited to a nice plate of cheese. Also working with the blue-veined cheeses, Gruyere's nutty characteristics will work wonderfully with Madeira. You may also try serving Madeira with a nut-based dessert.

Ports: A classic pair, a nice port compliments chocolate fantastically. Both sweet and rich, they'll dance in your mouth. Any dessert with nuts will also go great with port, which tends to have a has a nutty flavor on its own. Walnuts work especially well because they are tannic, and the sweetness of the port will counteract that.

Ice Wine: I've read Ice Wine referred to as "a dessert in itself," so pour a glass of this and enjoy it for the rich treat it is!

New Technology Monitors Grape Quality

Some grape growers benefit from high-tech system that monitor crop quality for vineyards
by Don Curlee

A few grape growers in California will make use of a new high-tech system this year that monitors micro-climates in their vineyards. By following the systems' electronic directions they hope to increase the quality and quantity of the grapes they produce and the wine that comes from them.

Tiny sensors that can be imbedded in selected vines are the eyes and ears of the system. The monitors, called motes, relay data about temperature, moisture, atmospheric pressure, airborne particles and more to a central receiver for analysis.

Although the system is new and expensive at about $150 per acre, it has been employed for the past two or three years by at least two of the state's major wine grape producers. Representatives of both have praised the systems' gathering of information they have not had access to previously

Eventually the system's supplier expects it to be available for tree crops and other specialty agricultural applications. It is produced by Grape Networks, Inc. in San Ramon.

Company President Peter Tsepeleff says the system known as Climate Genie will relay the information it monitors almost anywhere and by several means. After data are picked up by the sensors they can be transmitted by Wi-Fi, cellular units or satellite to Internet servers for viewing anywhere in the world where a web browser is available.

The growers who have been using it say it indicates what they are doing right as well as what they are doing wrong. Measurements from some high production blocks reveal the conditions they want to duplicate elsewhere.

In some cases the growers thought they were treating the vines in a vineyard uniformly, only to be told by the sensors that certain vines were experiencing water stress, for example, or heavier tendencies to mildew formation than other vines.

One Climate Genie can monitor the microclimate of a vineyard up to 100 acres. Additional systems can be installed to cover larger areas, even in separate locations, with information transmitted to a central point.

Tsepeleff predicts that future models of the system will detect and transmit soil moisture data to a central location. Growers of any number of crops with sand or clay streaks running through their orchards or fields will profit greatly from such information.

Monitoring the response of a crop or individual trees or vines within the crop to fertilization or other chemical applications will provide invaluable information to farm managers. Operation of the system somewhat like a thermostat can be programmed. A predetermined level of leaf moisture, for example, can be established. When monitored plants approach that level, whether increasing or decreasing, an alarm will notify system operators. Tsepeleff said the Climate Genie grew out of work done by the Stanford Censor Working Group. Some of its findings are being used by the military and in other applications to determine whether approaching vehicles carry certain chemicals or explosives.

Article originally published in the Visalia Times-Delta Advance-Register on February 12, 2011.

Wine and Cheese: Stilton Edition

This stunning blue cheese is known as "The King of English Cheese" with its deep, rich flavor steeped in history. The first references to the cheese show up in the 1720s first in a newsletter and then by reference in Daniel Dafoe's (author of Robinson Crusoe) Tour through the villages of England & Wales where he referred to it as the "English Parmesan." Stilton is an EU Protected Food Name ensuring that the cheese conforms to certain unique characteristics including place of origin (the English counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or Leicestershire), shape (cylindrical) and bluing in veins.

As the cheese ages, like wine, it grows more mellow while developing its crust and a certain buttery texture. It is a versatile cheese that goes particularly well with pears, celery, steak or green salads, and, of course, on its own with some wine.

What wine to have with Stilton? The classic pairing is port but the flavor profile of the cheese will be terrific with a full-bodied, robust Shiraz, a sweet Oloroso Sherry or other dessert wines such as Sauternes, Late Harvest Gewurztraminer or Muscat.

As an added bonus, enjoy this delicious soup using Stilton and pair with Champagne for an extra measure of luxury!

Roasted Pear-Butternut Soup with Crumbled Stilton

- 2 ripe pears, peeled, quartered and cored
- 2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch chunks
- 2 medium tomatoes, cored and quartered
- 1 large leek, pale green and white parts only, halved lengthwise, sliced and washed thoroughly
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 4 cups vegetable broth, or reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided
- 2/3 cup crumbled Stilton
- 1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh chives, or scallion greens

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Combine pears, squash, tomatoes, leek, garlic, oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper in a large bowl; toss to coat. Spread evenly on a large rimmed baking sheet. Roast, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 40 to 55 minutes. Let cool slightly.
3. Place half the vegetables and 2 cups broth in a blender; puree until smooth. Transfer to a large saucepan. Puree the remaining vegetables and 2 cups broth. Add to the pan and stir in the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt.
4. Cook the soup over medium-low heat, stirring, until hot, about 10 minutes. Divide among 6 bowls and garnish with cheese and chives (or scallion greens).

Serves 4

Wine 101: Getting Better With Age

I recently attended a wine tasting and over the course of the evening, I learned quite a bit by talking with other patrons. One person in particular tasted one of the wines and remarked that it would probably be better with age. He went on to discuss how some wines change and improve with age, and it sparked my interest to do a little digging into exactly what aging is, and what causes wines to age.

It all comes down to tannins.

Tannins are compounds that are found in the skins, stems and seeds of grapes. Tannins are the chemicals in the wine that causes the "astringent" mouthfeel you sometimes feel when you drink wine - it will dry out your mouth by reacting to the proteins in your saliva. (This is why it's often recommended that very tannic wines be served with high protein meals, like steak.)

Some grapes, like Cabernet Sauvignon, tend to be more tannic than other grapes. A process called maceration increases the tannin levels in the wine (and also affects the color) by leaving the juice in contact with the skins for a longer period of time. Wines that are meant to be held onto for longer periods of time go through this process. With less tannic grapes like Pinot Noir, sometimes winemakers will even leave stems in the barrels as the wine ages to increase the tannins.

If you opened a bottle of Chateau Pontet Canet Pauillac 2006 tomorrow to have with your dinner, you might not be too pleased with the taste. Bordeauxs like that one are designed to be laid down to rest for a number of years. With wine, sometimes patience is a virtue, and if you pick it up in 10, 20 or even 30 years or more, you'll be rewarded with a smooth, easy-drinking, delicious wine with bold fruits and immense richness.

Why is this? Because as a tannin-rich wine ages, the tannin molecules come into contact with oxygen and become larger. Oxygen is found in the open space in the bottle, as well as let in and out in small amounts by the porous cork. Also, the tannin molecules will bind together to form long chains, which also improves drinkability. In addition, sometimes winemakers will add chemicals that will bind themselves to the tannins and cause them to settle as sediment, lessening the astringency of the wine.

So, how do you ensure your wines will age properly? It comes down to two things: Temperature and humidity. You can't just take a bottle of the Pontet Canet, stick it in your pantry for 20 years, and expect it to supple and delicious. Aging wine is a precise art.

While 45 - 65 degrees is considered acceptable, the ideal temperature for aging wine is 55 degrees Fahrenheit. A wine that is aged in temperatures too high will have accelerated aging, that will spoil the wine and turn it into vinegar. Too low a temperature will delay aging.

More important than the temperature itself, is the fact that the temperature must remain as constant as possible. A wine aged for 15 years at a constant 45 degrees will do a lot better than a wine aged for the same length of time, with 5 - 10 degree temperature fluctuations.

Humidity, although less crucial than temperature, is also important in wine storage. The ideal humidity is somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%. Too high a humidity is mainly a concern because it causes damage to the bottle labels, which will affect the resale value of the wine. Too low of a humidity level will dry out the cork, affecting the oxygen levels in the wine.

Do you have any experience with aging wines? Leave me a comment below!

What Wine With Japanese Cuisine?

My colleague Mark Ricca wanted to go out for sushi, so I invited him to my favorite Woodbridge place, Yoshi on Pearl Street in Woodbridge, New Jersey. He said, "You bring a bottle and I’ll bring one and we can decide what works better." Mark was predictable. I knew he would bring a red Burgundy as he is always waxing poetic about the synergy between the two (she says rolling her eyes), so I decided to go with the classic sake. At the restaurant, Mark brought his Reidal suitcase with his own glasses. It definitely brought more than a few stares and curious peeking. Some customers I had just helped a few hours earlier in the store were there and were checking out our wine selection as was the staff at the restaurant. As Mark unpacked his suitcase, we quickly became the dinner show.

We ordered everything from chef rolls with jalapeno to mild sashimi, a fried item and edamame. We shamefully ran up a very hefty bill and no, we paid for it ourselves! So when the food arrived it came down to the wine showdown – red Burgundy (Pinot Noir) or sake (Rice Wine). The showdown was Meo-Camuzet Marsannay Rouge 2006 against Eiko Fuji Ban Ryu NV. Which paired better? The answer is BOTH. The Burgundy was surprising to me. Mark was right on! I thought the spicy food would kill it, but it didn’t. The chilled sake was clean and delicious and worked with all of the flavors presented before us as did the Burgundy.

So, it comes down to this. What do you like to drink?? Go with your personal preferences and see what pairs well. In this case, the classic stereotype and the odd man out both worked amazingly well!! And in the end, we both had an amazing meal!

Super Bowl Party Planning

Today, Internet Manager Art Edge shows us how to throw an awesome Super Bowl party!

When planning a Super Bowl party the first thing you need to decide is how many people can you comfortably fit in your house or apartment and still see a TV! We have between 30 and 40 people every year for our party. Not everyone fits in our family room where we have the big flat screen TV so we have another, smaller flat screen HDTV in our kitchen since it always seems that people gather in there... after all that's where most of the appetizers and drinks are laid out! And one more thing, don't plan on watching much of the game as you’ll spend much of your time helping out your guests... sorry!

Of course, food is a big deal at a Super Bowl party. What we like to do is have our guests bring either an appetizer or a dessert, while we provide the main courses for dinner and the drinks. It's kind of cool to have everybody contribute, especially when other guests complement one another on their apps and desserts! Of course, you want to get the credit for the main courses, so do it up nice. We always have a couple of apps ourselves and add to them as the guests arrive. We serve dinner at halftime and desserts come out during the last quarter of the game; some folks wait until the game is over to indulge.

I always make chili. There are a million chili recipes out there so pick your favorite and go for it. I always make the chili the day before the game because mine is kind of labor intensive. My recipe is from The Whole Chile Pepper Cookbook by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach, . There are only three ingredients:

-8 dried New Mexico Chiles
-4 cups of beef broth
-2 pounds of meat, cut into ½" to 1" pieces (I use half beef and half pork)

I multiply this recipe by 6 for my party.

The preparation of the chiles takes quite awhile. I use half medium and half hot chiles that I get from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico, because I find their flavor to be superior to all other chiles. However, you can find similar chiles in your local grocery store. Start by roasting the chiles on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees for 5 minutes. Tear them apart (I use gloves to handle 50 chiles!) and empty out as many seeds as possible, but try not to lose the membrane... lots of flavor there! Soak them in some of the beef broth for an hour or so, then blend them in batches in a blender with the broth until smooth. It may take 5 or 10 minutes of blending per batch to get rid of all the little pieces. If you don't, you'll be picking them out of your teeth all night!

Brown the meat in some vegetable oil in a big pot. Deglaze the pot with some broth. Add the chile puree and the rest of the broth and bring to a boil. Simmer for a couple of hours uncovered - you want it to reduce down. Just taste some, you'll know when it's done. I always put out some shredded cheese and sour cream for those who can't take the heat!

Whatever you cook for halftime dinner in addition to the chili, put it all in those serving racks that you see at a buffet dinner. You can get them pretty cheap at your local party store along with the fuel cans to keep the water underneath the pans hot. You can use the racks over and over again. Those same stores have all the foil pans too - the really deep, long ones for the water and the half-size, shallower ones for the food. I always get the covers too. Most of the food I preheat in the oven when the game starts and transfer over to the racks just before halftime. I usually start the fuel heating the water by the end of the first quarter of the game. Some suggestions for the other dishes are: Chicken with artichokes, eggplant parm, baked ziti, ravioli in vegetable sauce, penne in vodka sauce or sliced ham. And of course don't forget sturdy paper plates (small for apps and desserts and large for dinner) and plastic utensils. We usually get all this at our local party store along with the pans and fuel for the food. We lay it all out on our dining room table and it's buffet/self serve style.

Of course, there are also the drinks. You need to know your crowd so you know how much beer and wine you need. We usually have a cooler with ice in our kitchen and put the beer and soda in there. We set aside part of a counter in the kitchen for the mixed drinks and wine. We set it up so that it's self serve as much as possible... we at least try to watch part of the game! We usually provide vodka, gin, tonic, OJ and both red and white wine. Our guests also usually bring some wine and beer so we put those additions out as well. Don't forget the ice for mixed drinks and soda. I usually take it out of the icemaker a few days before the game so I have homemade bags of ice in the freezer. Also, don't forget some limes depending on your drink selection. What would be really cool is to get a couple of Growlers of beer and have them on your self-serve bar.

The final item is the pool. We draw it on a large piece of poster board. Use a yardstick and marker to draw enough vertical and horizontal lines to make 100 squares. Each square can cost $1, $2 or more depending on the number of people coming. Number the squares from 1 to 100, because many people like to pick by a number that's important to them. Put one team's name down the left of the big square and the other across the top. Number 10 little pieces of paper from 0 to 9 and fold them over. Just before the game starts have somebody pick them and put the numbers in sequence across the top, so that they're in a random order. Refold them and repeat down the left side. We have a prize for each quarter end with the largest for the final score.

Have a Happy Super Bowl Party! Make sure to leave us a comment and let us know how it turns out!