Tipsy Hazelnut Hot Chocolate

Just last night a friend came to me for some professional advice on a cocktail to serve at his holiday party. He wanted something that could be served warm and had that "Irish" quality we all love. Well fellow party givers, here is a tasty treat from Chow.
Tipsy Hazelnut Hot Chocolate
Total time 10 minutes
Makes 2-4 servings
Very Easy Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of whole milk
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of Nutella
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of hazelnut liqueur such as Frangelico
2 tablespoons of brandy

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place the milk, Nutella and 2 tablespoons of the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk until the Nutella has melted and has been incorporated into the milk and cream.
2. Reduce the heat to low, add 3 tablespoons of the hazelnut liqueur and the brandy and stir to combin. Heat until the mixture is hot. Do not boil. Turn the heat off.
3. Place the remaining cream in a medium bowl and whisk until the cream is stiff and forms peaks. (about 2 minutes). Add the remaining liqueur and whisk it in. Pour the hot chocolate into cups and top it with a dollop of whipped cream.

I doubled the amount of liqueur when I made this drink. It was a bit strong, but I prefer it that way. Happy Holidays!
You can find many great holiday ideas and recipes at Chow (click here)

Cheese Sauce

Tips for making Cheese Sauce

Here are some tips I used to learn to make perfect cheese sauce, which always leads to perfect Mac n Cheese.

1. Starch, such as all-purpose flour, cornstarch, or potato flour will keep the cheese from curdling. If you use all purpose flour, add it to the mixture before the cheese; it needs to be cooked for a few minutes to remove the starchy taste.
2. The less you heat the cheese the better. When making soup, sauce or fondue, add the cheese last; then heat it only enough to melt the cheese. Often you can remove the pan from the burner and the residual heat will be enough to melt the cheese.
3. Shred, crumble or finely dice the cheese before melting it. Smaller pieces melt faster. (easier to do with cold cheese)
4. Allow the shredded cheese to come to room temperature before melting it and it will melt faster.
5. Reduced fat cheeses have different melting characteristics than regular cheeses. They take longer to melt and are not as smooth and creamy in texture. You will need a low temperature flame to melt reduced fat cheeses and they must be shredded or finely diced first.
6. And now for a tip I learned at the Melting Pot. A small amount of an acidic liquid will keep the cheese from getting stringy. You can use white wine or lemon juice. Just sprinkle a tablespoon of your acidic liquid over one cup of shredded cheese before melting it. Or use white wine as part of the sauce base.
Mac n Cheese is a crowd favorite and it is as impressive as a home baked cake. I am still perfecting my cheese combinations so I do not have a recipe yet. Why not post your favorite Mac n Cheese recipe for me to try. By the way, this dish serves well with a medium to light bodied red wine or a very crispy white selection.
Chateau-Ste-Michelle-Eroica-Riesling-2008 from www.wines.com is the wine we served with our Mac n Cheese dinner most recently. This white wine is the bottle to bring the hostess this season when you attend holiday parties. Wine Spectator gave this wine 94 points. In fact in each of the four reviews this wine did not score below 91 points.
Happy Holidays.

Whipped Feta with Sweet and Hot Peppers Recipe

Whipped Feta with Sweet and Hot Peppers Recipe

30 Minute Meals Mac & Cheese

30 Minute Meals - Macaroni and Cheese
This dish is so overlooked as a perfect meal. Much more popular than you would think, not easy to prepare without a good recipe but a real crowd pleaser, great Mac & Cheese
is a dish you want to know how to prepare! Here is my version, bon appetite.
This recipe feeds 6-8 adults, takes 15 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to finish. You will need a stove and an oven to make this dish and an oven proof casserole dish to finish.
Shopping list:
1. 1.5 pounds of elbow macaroni
2. 4 cups of grated cheese. I use a blend of three cheeses, Romano, Parmesan and Mozzarella. Mozzarella must account for at least 2 cups of the mixture so you get that creamy texture that makes Mac & Cheese so fine.
3. ½ cup of all purpose flour
4. 3 cups of chicken broth. ( I use Knoor)
5. Kosher salt and course ground black pepper.
6. 1 cup of plain bread crumbs
7. 2 tablespoons of melted butter
These are steps:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the melted butter and breadcrumbs together and set aside.
3. Boil enough water to cook the pasta. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 6-7 minutes.
4. In a large mixing bowl combine the cheeses and flour. Mix thoroughly.
5. Heat the chicken broth almost to a boil and slowly and continuously stir in the cheese mixture until it is a smooth cheese sauce. This will take 5 minutes of constant stirring.
6. Drain the pasta.
7. Place the pasta and the cheese sauce in the casserole dish and stir to evenly distribute the cheese sauce.
8. Turn on your broiler.
9. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top.
10. Place under the broiler for 2 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are a golden brown color.
Serve this with Chianti. Chianti is a red table wine produced in Tuscany, Italy. Chianti dates back to the 13the century and was originally a white wine. Today most Chianti is a made from a blend of red grapes. The most popular grape in Chianti is Sangiovese. The Chianti producers of Italy cover a vast area of Tuscany. Chianti is the second most popular wine in Italy and a great bottle can cost as little as $12.00. Currently my favorite Chianti is Ruffino 2009. It is selling for under $11 per bottle. What I love about this bottle of wine is it only needs 20 minutes to breath and then it is perfect to drink.

Festivals Try New Techniques to Promote Attendance

Festivals Try New Techniques to Promote Attendance

30 Minute Meals Salmon Pasta Toss

Ever find yourself at the grocery store, too spent from the days activities, trying to be creative with dinner. Even the most inexperienced chef can go into the kitchen and WOW your dinner companions with this dish.

If I haven't said so before, I should have....if you intend to cook once a week, keep in your cupboard, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Fresh Garlic, Fresh Shallots, Dried Basil, Red Cooking Wine, White Cooking Wine, Kosher Salt and Black Pepper. In your refrigerator always have Butter and Parmesan Cheese.  Start a list today and call it Julie's Must Haves. Fell free to comment on things you want to add to Julie's Must Haves or email me at Mise en Scene your comments and questions.

This recipe serves four, takes 15 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes from start to finish. Your list of ingredients:

1. 8 ounces of linguini
2. 1 tablespoon of butter
3. 12 ounces of salmon fillet, skinless and cut into 1 inch cubes
4. 1 cup of sliced mushrooms
5. 12 asparagus spears cut into 1 inch pieces
6. 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic 
7. 1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh basil or 2 teaspoons of dried
8. 12 grape tomatoes
9. 2 green onions sliced using only the green part
10. 4 teaspoons of corn starch
11. 1 cup of chicken broth
12. 1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan Cheese

Here are your four quick steps to a delicious dinner.

1. Cook the pasta in salted water for 7-9 minutes. 
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat the butter in a 12 inch skillet over a medium heat. Cook the salmon pieces in the butter for 4-5 minutes. Fully cooked salmon will flake apart when you put a fork into the pieces of fish. Remove the salmon from the skillet. 
3. Increase the heat slightly and add the mushrooms, the garlic, and the asparagus to the skillet and cook and stir for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the tomato, the basil and the green onion and cook for 1 more minute.
4. In a cup stir the cornstarch into the chicken broth. Pour the broth over your vegetable mixture and stir for 1-2 minutes. Add in the salmon pieces, stir and turn off the heat. Toss it with the pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese.

If you like spicy foods you can add a finely shopped jalapeno pepper to the skillet when you are cooking the other vegetables.
I suggest you try a Columbia Valley Wine from Chateau St Michelle. Their Chardonnays from 2007 fetch 89 points for Wine Enthusiast. Bevmo carries it and sometimes offers these wines in their 5 cent sale.

You can enjoy some discounts from wines.com, just click here. Monthly wine clubs at Wine.com

Horseradish-Cream Sauce Recipe

Horseradish-Cream Sauce Recipe

Pinot Noir

Find the best deals on top rated wines under $20.
We are looking for suggestions on what dish to prepare with KJ Pinot Noir 2007

Click here to shop for this wine at Wines.com.
 http://www.wine.comv/V6/Kendall-Jackson-Vintners-Reserve-Pinot-Noir-2007/wine/101976/detail.aspx
The price per bottle is just under $20.00 and we plan to pair it with a meat dish, after some careful research into the tasting notes. Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator both gave this wine 86 points. Taken right from the http://www.wine.com site, these are the wine makers notes; "

winemaker's notes:

Black cherry and raspberry fruit with velvety tannins typically found in hillside grapes along the North Coast mingle with flavors of plum and spice from our bench land vineyards along the Central Coast. Oak aging adds hints of vanilla, nuances of toast and a soft, smoky finish.

http://www.wine.comv/V6/Kendall-Jackson-Vintners-Reserve-Pinot-Noir-2007/wine/101976/detail.aspx

I could not find any reviews on this wine.

Quick Spaghetti Sauce

This recipe has been my life saver for years. I have prepared this dish hundreds of times and every time it gets high marks for delicious. This is a simple tomato based pasta sauce with Spicy Italian Pork Sausage and Mild Turkey Sausage.

I am about to embark on perfecting this recipe. You see, Sunday, I prepared this dish for the 100,000th time. Only this time, I made a minor change to my recipe and the sauce finally was the sauce I always wanted it to be.  It was quick, delicious, did not taste overcooked, but it was thick and it clung to the linguine. This recipe is worth sharing.Keep in mind that this was a special birthday meal I was preparing so of course I wanted perfection.
 
A little background....
I had invited Anne Kelly to spend Sunday with me in celebration of her birthday. I had missed seeing her for her birthday. She graciously accepted. I invited her to spend the day Sunday with me. Even though I had work to do, I knew she would not be lonely at my place.  I was busy Saturday night with a wedding reception at Sangria in Hermosa Beach. www.sangriahermosa.com.
When I got home I found Miss Kelly resting comfortably on my couch surrounded by her Redondo Beach Fan Club.

On Sunday on my way back from the Beach House in Hermosa Beach I ran by the grocery store and picked up:

1. 1 large can of crushed tomato
2. 1 bunch of fresh basil (wash before you use)
3. 1 pound of Sweet Turkey Sausage
4. 1 pound of Spicy Pork Sausage
5. 2 medium shallots
6. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (this should always be in your cupboard if you cook)
7. 1 pound of pasta (get what you like)
8. Salt & pepper to taste (use only Kosher salt when you cook)

I forgot to get red cooking wine. You can not make great tomato based sauce without red wine.

1. Finely chopped the shallots and saute them in 1/4 cup of olive oil over a low flame.  
2.  Squeeze the meat out of the sausage casing into the pan and break the chunks of sausage into smaller pieces. Let the sausage brown. This takes about 5-7 minutes. 
3. Add in the can of crushed tomato, and 1/2 cup of thin sliced basil leaves. stir and let it get hot. 
4. When the sauce is bubbly add in 1/2 cup of Ruby Port (my new secret ingredient). Let the sauce cook for ten minutes.

1. Cook the pasta by following the directions on the package. 
2. Drain the pasta. 
3. Put it into a shallow bowl and toss it with your spoonfuls of the sauce until the pasta is covered in rich, thick tomato sauce. 
4. Garnish with fresh chopped basil and shredded Parmesan. By the way every cooking kitchen should have Parmesan cheese in the refrigerator and Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the cupboard.

 I would suggest that you serve this dish with a Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico reasonable priced under $15 a bottle. This wine makes the Wine Enthusiast Buying Guide list. I like the pairing of Chianti with this  rich sauce because the fresh fruity quality that the Sangiovese grape adds is just what it needs to balance the spicy sausage flavor with the sweet basil.   This particular Chianti Classico is lighter than most. If you prefer a more concentrated and intense wine try Castelli del Grevepesa.