It's a Christmas Party

Christmas Party? In June?  Yep, my family & godparents always have a ridiculously fun Christmas party.  This year we finally got around to celebrating it in June.  I know what you're thinking, "But that's almost 6 months after Christmas!"  Yes, true true; however it's really just an excuse to eat good food and drink delicious wine.

My family was assigned to bring appetizers and our choice of wine.  My mom and I (mom doing most of the work) prepared a lovely Antipasto platter for the party.  It included prosciutto & provolone wrapped asparagus, roasted bell peppers, grilled baby red artichokes marinated in spices, pepperoncinis, kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, and of course fresh mozzarella.  It was both veggie & meat-lover friendly dish, which is always a plus in party situations.

Of course being my mom, she decided to go above and beyond her call of duty.  She made a wine bucket, from scratch I might add, in order to keep our Chard chilled.  Earlier that day she had gone all over town to find little Christmas trees and/or fat santas to put in the bucket mold; yet was unsuccessful as it is June.  Instead, we went more with a summer theme and got multi-colored (fake) fish & water plants.  You can see it in the midst of us all devouring the antipasti.

Getting on to the more important things, I brought a wine that I had been hoping to try for awhile.  The Coppola Claret was not only packaged in a way that made me already LOVE it, I had heard great things about it.  It is part of the Francis Coppola Diamond Collection.  The Coppola winery has made wines that celebrate Sonoma County from its beginning.  The term Claret was "originally coined by the British to describe Cabernet-based wines." This includes Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.  These 5 varietals blend together to create a deep, rich wine that offers wonderful aromas of wild berries, plum, and anise.  I have become especially knowledgeable of this particular wine because we sell it by the bottle at work.

For the main course, Jane & Howard prepared an ensemble of delicious Thai dishes.  The chicken was carefully marinated in a red curry paste for 30 minutes to give it an extra flare..then quickly transferred to a panang curry paste.  From here, Howard grilled it to perfect on their round red BBQ overlooking Santa Barbara. Along with the chicken, Jane prepared a flavorful green bean & Japanese eggplant dish, along with Thai noodles seasoned with fresh peanuts. Everything was stunning and prepared to perfection.  In other words, it was damn good!  I still regret not having a seconds and/or thirds.  I suppose at the time I was saving my room for dessert!  Which brings me to the piece de resistance...the Pavlova.

Served with fresh seasonal berries, the Pavlova (Meringue) was light yet decadent.  It was the perfect sweetness for the palate after a flavorful meal.  This of course, I did have seconds of.

If you would like recipes for any of these dishes/how to make your own wine cooler, you can email me at heathervanburen@gmail.com or just comment.