Creve Coeur Park and Wine

One of my favorite places in the St. Louis area to drink wine is at Creve Coeur Park. Creve Coeur Park is best know for rowing, sail boats, boat competitions, wind surfing, soccer, etc, however there is a great little restaurant called The Lakehouse right off Creve Couer mill road.

It is a cute little restaurant that has live bands on the weekends, outdoor terrace, fire pits, and really good food and wine. They have a small kitchen area, so be prepared to wait longer than normal places. They are always busier on the weekends and on really nice days.

Our typical trip to Creve Coeur park starts with us parking in the main parking lot (next to the snow cone stand) then walking, biking, running (okay I don't run, but other people do) to the restaurant. Out of the parking lot you will go West (right) towards Creve Coeur Mill road, follow it to you hit the restaurant. I would suggest having the artichoke stuffed mushrooms, they are awesome and pair well with one of my favorite all times wines, Marco Negri's Moscato D'Asti. It is a nice sparkling wine that I have never found anyone who has not enjoyed it. Even if you are not a white wine drinker I bet you will love it.

After the meal, we usually continue to walk around the rest of the park to work off all the food and wine we just drank. So the next beautiful day outside you are looking for something to do, try out the wonderful restaurant in Creve Coeur park. Click here to see more pictures of Creve Coeur Park

Very Easy Homemade Thin Mint Cookies!!!

These are some of favorite cookies to make for many reasons: easy to make, very inexpensive, and they taste amazing like Thin Mint Cookies.

This is all you need:

Andes Baking Chips
Ritz Crackers ****WineWithLori tip**** Use the hint of salt Ritz crackers
Chocolate Melter
Baking Sheets
Wax Paper

Place Baking Pans in the refrigerator for a few minutes till they are chilled, this will help in the chocolate setting process. Heat the chocolate melter to melt, pour in the Andes baking chips and stir until all of the chocolate is completely melted. Once the chocolate is melted, change the chocolate melter to warm. Pull one of the baking sheets from the fridge place wax paper over it. Pick up the Ritz Crackers with thongs and dip into the chocolate completely covering the entire cracker, then place onto baking sheet. Immediately place cookies into the fridge, so they can set. They usually take less than a minute to set! Continue process until you run out of chocolate and/or cookies.


I recommend a nice Petit Syrah with the cookies. MMMMMM

Don't forget to check out the items below:


Andes Baking Chips - 3/5 Lb Andes Baking Mints: GR

DELUXE CHOCOLATE MELTER

Gewurztraminer Wine with Yellow Coconut Curry Thai Chicken Recipe

Domaine Loew Gewurztraminer 2003 Wine

Last night I had a craving for some Thai food and nothing goes better with Thai food than a nice Gewurztraine wine. I had the one above (click on the link and or picture and you can purchase it yourself as well). The Domaine Loew Gewurztraminer is from the Alsace region in France and is perfect for spicy food.




Here are the tasting notes:





A beautiful golden colored wine with a very expressive nose of stone fruit, orange peel, flowers, and spice – especially cloves. large, smooth, emollient wine with tremendous complexity and balance. The fruit flavors mirror the nose, complemented by a long, spicy finish. Drink over the next couple years as an aperitif or with foie gras, rich poultry dishes, quiche, ethnic foods, and, of course, Alsace’s Munster cheese.Pair with: Chinese Food, Duck, Foie Gras, Indian Food, Mexican Food, Quiche, Thai Food




Yellow Coconut Curry Thai Chicken Recipe



Ingredients:
1 bottle of Yellow Cocunut Curry Sauce (I purchased mine at Trader Joe's for 2.99)
1/2 can of cocunut milk
Fresh vegetables of choice (I just used what I had left over from a Stir Fry)
Jasmine Rice (also from Trader Joes)
2 Chicken breasts

Directions:


First start the Jasmine Rice, it takes 15 minutes to cook. After the rice is started, cut up the vegetables. Again I used cut up vegetables I had left over from a stir fry that I had not used. Next cut the chicken breasts into cubes. **** Here's a special WineWithLori tip**** You know those nice plasitc bags you put your fresh vegetables in from the grocery store, do not throw one of them away. Place your vegetables, your chicken, the yellow curry sauce and half of the can of coconut milk all into that plastic bag and shake it up. (a ziploc bag also works, however there is no need to waste more plastic)

Heat up your wok to a medium high setting, use non stick Pam, pour in the contents of the bag, cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked.



Serve over the bed of jasmine rice and Gewurztraminer wine

Bacon Wrapped Potatoes

So you have the appetizer, the entree, the wine, and the dessert.... What about a nice simple side?

The first time I tried this recipe, I was not expecting too much and figured the potatoes would have too much of an onion taste. Wow was I wrong!! There was just the right about of onion flavor and the end product looked like something I slaved over it. Very simple and delightful recipe. Try it tonight!

INGREDIENTS
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 medium baking potatoes, halved lengthwise
4 bacon strips




DIRECTIONS
Slice each potato lengthwise then layer onion slices inside the two potato halves. Wrap each potato with two bacon strips. Secure with toothpicks. Place on a lightly greased baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until potato is tender and bacon is crispy. Discard toothpicks.

Homemade Wine from Potosi Missouri

Many people may not know that I am actually from a very small town in Missouri named Mexico, MO. Yes it is a very original name. So when I first met my friend Jen, who is from another small town in Missouri it was friends at first site.

Okay so that is not really how the story goes. Actually we both had a very STRONG dislike for each other, until we got to know each other a lot better and now we are the best of friends. I am now almost a part of the family. It was her younger sister's birthday so out to the country I went.

Although most of the night consisted of beer drinking, you cannot go visit Jen and her family without trying her uncle's homemade wine.


Lori drinking homewade wine, yes right out of the bottle. So classy! :) The first time I experienced Jen's uncle's homemade she warned me it was strong. I was like, oh I have had plenty of wines, it cannot be that bad. Hmmm.... I should have listened, wow that stuff is tart and strong. Here we are actually trying a cherry strawberry wine.

Usually if this was more than just a "tasting" we would have poured half a wine glass full of wine and then top it off with Sprite. This helps reduce the pungent taste of the wine.

This was Rob's first time trying homemade wine. I am not quite sure he enjoyed it, however next time we will let him try it with the Sprite, it makes it much nicer. Below is a picture of the many bottles of wine their uncle has given them.

I have always considered making my own wine. How exciting would it be to have your "own wine," that you personally made. Does anyone have their own experience with homemade wine? I would be very interested in hearing the difficulty of the process, the time it took, any recipes, and how did the wine turn out.

I found a book on the subject, it is not only on winemaking, however how to make Chateau Style wine. I mean if you are going to make homemade wine, might as well go all out right?