"pairings" news and stories

Alabama-born LeNell Smothers defines herself first and foremost as a bartender, but she's been called many things, most recently the owner of LeNell's liquor store. She's owned her own whiskey label called Red Hook Rye and been recognized by her home state as an honorary Colonel. Other interests include gin, sin and men.

You survived the Derby Day parties, and your annual mint julep tickled everyone's fancies quite nicely. Now you are wondering what to do with that leftover bottle of bourbon.

How dare you have a leftover bottle of bourbon, first of all! But if you do, here's an easy way to get rid of it.

Wine and chocolate? Blech. At least that's my usual ho-hum reaction when I read (yet another) Valentine's wine-and-chocolate pairing story. If you ask me, pairing wine and chocolate is usually a futile exercise in taking two perfectly delicious things and ruining them by forcing them together. They bring out each other's worst qualities: overharsh tannins, weird flavors and aromas lurking beneath the surface, personality quirks that don't come out when they're alone.

But then I tried Brix, a line of chocolates made especially to go with wine, and I changed my tune. Brix is made from a single-origin chocolate from Ghana blended with Belgian chocolate. Each of the three blends (milk, dark, and extra-dark) was developed to complement different varietals and styles of wine. The darkest is good with Cabernet Sauvignon and other powerhouses; the middle complements Syrah and Zinfandel, and the milk chocolate is good with dessert wine and Pinot Noir.

My husband and I decided to go all out experimenting with the chocolates. We lined them up with a bunch of wines, and added some Dove dark chocolates and Lindor milk chocolate truffles to the mix.

Results after the jump.

I first experienced the combination of hazelnut purée and dark honey at Slow Foods' cheese festival in Italy. The Piedmont region of Italy is known for its hazelnuts. You can find the most succulent rich hazelnut cakes and cookies. My favorite hazelnut concoction was hazelnut purée and dark honey. My first taste on toast brought about a dionysian state of gastronomical enchantment. The sweet nutty flavors and intensely smooth creamy buttery texture were all so overwhelmingly perfect!

When I returned from my trip, I looked all over NY for another hazelnut and honey mixture. And, I was surprised by the many shops that carried this delicious treat. Recently, Time Out New York had an article about one in particular from southern France called Avelline. This was probably my favorite one that I tried.

How does one enjoy hazelnut purée and dark honey?
Besides eating it plain on toast, you can use it as a condiment with cheese. I suggest you pair it with Montgomery's farmhouse cheddar or Stilton Colston Bassett. You can even pair it with a variety of nutty pecorinos.

Some kids want peanut butter on everything - and it's hard to blame them for loving the salty/sweet nut spread. But when Cyndee Emel's 7-year old son Russell wanted her to spread peanut butter on his hot dog, she refused to prepare the unusual combination. Instead, she turned to her town's online forum and made a half-joking plea for someone to produce peanut butter hot dogs so she wouldn't have to.

Local award-winning meat market owner J. LeRoy Palumbo Jr., of Palumbo's Meats of Du Bois, obliged and created a 25-pound batch with his staff. He admits that the completely expected the combination of beef and pork, spices, water and peanut butter to be horrible when the started out, but for the people trying them, it was love at first bite. The first and second batches sold out in hours and now, several weeks later, Palumbo is talking with peanut butter companies to perhaps market the product at a wider audience and the town (population 8,000) is talking about starting a peanut butter hot dog festival to get themselves on the map.

And Russell? He's thrilled with his hot dogs and a veritable hero among his first-grade classmates.

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