Wine Review - The Naked Grape Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is a varietal wine.  It has a profound fruity flavor and little acidity. A medium bodied wine, garnet in color - especially when young. The color and flavor change in Pinot Noir as it ages.  Kind of like how we ladies change with age...for the better of course! It tends to take on a more vegetal aroma.      

Cooking with Cast Iron

Cooking with cast iron may seem old fashioned, but there are many reasons you should consider making it your go to cookware.  You may remember your grandmother or great-grandmother cooking with it.  There's a reason they didn't give up those heavy pans.

Cast iron comes in many shapes and sizes. There's the traditional black cast iron, but there's also the colorful enamel covered cookware. There are benefits to both types.


Traditional cast iron can be used for more than just camping.

Wine Review - Mad Housewife Merlot

Time for another wine review.  This time, lets evaluate a Merlot.  A beautiful deep red Merlot.

Merlot wine is one of the most popular red wines available, and as a matter of fact, Merlot grapes are the second most planted worldwide.  The Merlot grape is a thick skinned, dark blue colored grape. It helps soften other wines, and is used in varietal wines and blends. Merlot's are known to be smooth and rich in flavor.  They go well with a variety of meat dishes and heavier creamy/cheesy dishes.  There is also no need to age Merlot wine.  They taste great young, but you can experiment with aging them to see what satisfies your taste buds.         

Homemade Vegetable Stock

Make your own vegetable stock.  It's one of the easiest things to prepare, and you'll be glad you did!  Vegetable stock is not only good for soup, it is great when used in boiling rice or other grains.  It's can also be added to a stir fry, if you need some extra liquid.  This adds flavor rather than watering down your recipe.  You can also use broth to moisten left-overs when reheating them.

Healthy Stove Top Popped Popcorn

With the New Year and resolutions, have you been looking for ways to improve your eating habits?  Have you always considered popcorn a healthy snack?  Popcorn is a light, healthy snack but are you aware that it is made unhealthy by those microwave bags of popcorn you buy at the store?

Microwaveable popcorn bags are coated with chemicals linked to certain types of cancer and reproductive system damage.  These chemicals are called perfluorochemicals or PFC's. They are added by the manufacturers to make the bags grease-proof.  When heating up a bag of popcorn in the microwave these chemicals are leached into our food.  A serious concern with PFC's is that once ingested, they stay in our system for a long time.  That can't be good.   

Get Your Omega 3's with Ground Flaxseed and Chia Seed

How can you get more Omega 3's in your diet?  There are a number of ways to do so, like taking supplements or eating fish.  Some other foods that provide Omega 3's are beans, walnuts, and olive oil.  But are you familiar with the benefits of Flaxseed and Chia Seed?

Flaxseed and Chia seed are both better than salmon at supplying Omega 3, and are great sources of fiber for your diet.

Wine Review - Verdi Spumante

Time for some holiday cheer! Let's try some bubbly or shall I say semi-bubbly. This time of year there are so many parties and celebrations to host or attend. One way to save money is to bring a reasonably priced gift that everyone can enjoy.

Verdi Spumante  is under $10 and a nice sparkling wine that can be enjoyed by many.  It's good for novice wine drinkers who have not yet acquired the taste for less sweet, drier, or even red wines.  It's also a great replacement for bubbly champagne. The effervescence of champagne is not enjoyed by all, so here you have a celebratory wine with some sparkle.

Easy Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

This is one of the easiest, if not the easiest, cookie recipes ever created!  It is also amazing!  I literally have to hide these from my family or wait until the day I plan to "allow" them to eat the cookies. Each year I have to hide them in a new location!  They know I hide them, so they work pretty hard at finding them.  I can't even say how long I've been making these, but I can say it's been the same every year.

Wine Review - Louis Jadot Boujolais-Villages

Louis Jadot Boujolais-Villages is my husbands favorite wine, so I decided to postpone the wine review on my favorite until after Christmas.  One reason I decided to review his favorite is because it is a great pairing wine. With the holiday's right around the corner, and parties all around us, I figured "what better time".  My hope is that you will add it to your holiday wine list, although, this wine is great any time of the year.  We enjoy it fairly regularly.

Melissa's Chili

Isn't there a chili season?  You know, when the days are shorter, the air is cooler, and football season has returned!  Don't you begin to crave that nice warm bowl in your hand with all the delicious toppings of your choice? 

Chili is one of those recipes that you can easily alter to your liking.  There's white bean chili, turkey chili, bean-less chili, vegetarian chili, and good old traditional chili.  I have tried a variety, and enjoyed them from BBQ flavored to hot and spicy.