Labor Day "Beer" and Wine fest

So this weekend before school gets started back up, we decided to have a weekend of indulgence.  We started off by going to a Winery that is near us.  It is called James River Cellars.  There were having a cheese and wine paring and we had a blast!  It was a really fun time and the wine was really enjoyable, to us anyway.  Not that we are experts but we enjoyed it.

So we got a bottle of one of our favorites and bought some more of the recommended pair cheese and had at it at home, later in the day.  I was really great.  Rad red, which is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and some smoked Gouda.  Life was good!

Another thing that we did with the wine as add it to some store bought brownie mix.  At the winery, on of the ladies doing the tastings said she does this so we tried it.  Just replace the water in the directions with the same amount of the wine.  The brownies turned out fine, but really just tasted like normal brownies.  Didn't really think it was worth the wine, but to each his own.

http://www.jamesrivercellars.com/

Later in the evening we wanted some beer.  Butter beer that is from the Harry Potter books.  Got this recipe from Aaron and Katherine and they said it was very similar the the stuff you get at Universal Studios.  You can check it out on YouTube.

It was really, really, I mean really sweet and rich.  It was pretty good, but since I have never had the real thing, I don't really have anything to compare it to.  Tasted like carbonated butterscotch with a really sweet foam on top.  It is a pretty fun little treat to do with friends just because it is so novel!  This we will do again, but few and far between because it cannot be good for you.  The basic recipe is as follows:

Put around 1/2 cup caramel sauce and 1 tablespoon butter in the microwave until the caramel is bubbling and the butter is melted.  Then pour this in the bottom of a mug.  In a cereal bowl, fill it with whip cream and add a few tablespoons of this heated caramel/butter mixture and stir together (this will be your foam or head).  Fill the mug about 3/4 full with cream soda and stir so that the caramel/butter mixture is distributed, then spoon on the whipped cream mixture.  Yummy!