Woman in Real Life

This weekend was a bit of a party weekend for us - more about the wine, beer and good company than the food. Our friends had a holiday party on Saturday night. Our kind host is a wine enthusiast, so I brought along this lovely bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from PondView Estate Winery, a family-owned winery in the Niagara Region.




To be honest I don't know a whole lot about wine. That's why I asked the group for their thoughts. Here are two of our wine tasters, including our host (above right). This particular wine is a full-body red from the winery's Bella Terra series. The 2011 vintage is now sold out. The wine was harvested very ripe on November 6. It cold soaked for three days and then sat on the skins for 22 days. Then it went into French and Hungarian barrels for 19 months. Sounds good to me!

PondView describes it as "deep ruby in colour, with aromas of blueberry jam, tobacco leaf, dark chocolate and a hint of eucalyptus. The flavours are bold and rich. Black currant, cigar and bitter chocolate, with silky smooth tannins and a nice lasting finish." I don't think my palate is that refined, but it's interesting that a couple of my tasters noticed the black currant flavour. They also mentioned a distinct cherry (sweet but not sweet) flavour. Overall, everybody thought it was an excellent wine. All of PondView's reds are vegan too.


Here are more of the party guests. The majority of them are from Newfoundland so you know they have character. We shared quite a few laughs that night.







Come Sunday it was time for our Grey Cup gathering. My husband made a big pot of this Martha Stewart vegan chili and I made lentils and rice (of course - I make it EVERY time there is a "crowd"). My sister-in-law made a lovely salad. This is my leftovers plate that I had for lunch the next day.


There was still some lentils and rice left for Tuesday's lunch too. I had it with broccoli and asparagus left from Monday's dinner.


On Tuesday morning, I had a refreshing, creamy strawberry mango banana cranberry juice smoothie.


For dinner I made a very easy (and yummy) pasta with pink sauce from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen.


If you are looking for a comforting, warm, but quick and easy meal, check out this vegan quinoa chili recipe I posted yesterday.

Are you into the holiday party season yet?

Linking up to: