The first thing I thought when I read about the new project from British designer Kacper Hamilton was, "How many times has this guy seen the movie Se7en?" The second thing I thought was, "How the hell do you drink out of such funky glasses?"
Hamilton's "7 Deadly Glasses" is a set of bizarre red wine glasses based on the 7 Deadly Sins. The one representing sloth, the fourth sin, is pictured here. It's an especially apt design since someone has to turn the the valve at the bottom so the sinner can drink. The glasses representing the other sins seem much more difficult to drink from. I'm not sure if it's because these sins are considered deadlier or what. Take wrath; it's a glass that has a teardrop shape hollow cut out of the top. It looks impossible to drink out of without cutting one's face.
Hamilton says the glasses are "about celebrating passion and encouraging the user to be sinful in a theatrical passion." I can understand why he chose red over white to embody sinfulness. I suppose a set of white wine glasses would have revolved around a less punitive bit of Western culture, like the nine muses of Greek mythology.
Every year I make food resolutions. Oh, sure, there's the inevitable "eat better, exercise more, lose weight" resolution that 98% of us make, but I'm talking about resolutions that have to do with specific foods and specific eating habits. Here are some of mine for 2008.
1. Drink more alcohol. Yes, that's right, more alcohol. For some reason I haven't had much in the past year or two, but alcohol (especially red wine) has a lot of health benefits (as long as you don't overdo it, because too much will negate the benefits you get). So, 2008 will become the Year of More Alcohol for me. I think this is one resolution that will be easy to keep.
If I were a famous musician who went on tour a lot, I'm not quite sure what special demands I'd have. I think I'd want a TV in my dressing room and maybe a few snacks and drinks for me and my friends, but I can't really think of anything outrageous. Remember when Van Halen demanded no brown M&Ms?
Now take a look at what Diana Krall wants. This is a wine list that would make the Gallos jealous. This isn't what she has in her wine cellar; this is what she wants in her dressing room when she's on tour in North America. Obviously, she doesn't want all of them, it's just a list of wines she'll accept. There's Clos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon, Falesco from Italy, D'Arenberg Shirz "The Laughing Magpipe," Landmark Chardonnay (2001, 2002, and 2003) and a ton more.
OK, OK, this is a little twist to our usual "Happy Hour" feature. It's not a drink but a recipe with the words "Happy Hour" in it. But it is a good appetizer to eat while drinking and it does have wine in it, so I think it fits.
It's Happy Hour Mushrooms, and utilizes monterey jack cheese, garlic, butter, wine, soy sauce, and Ritz Crackers. Full recipe after the jump.
And that headline is your first answer in this quiz over at AOL Food (via The Smoking Gun). Match the contract demand with the singer that makes the demand on their contract.
All the same names seem to pop up: Britney, Christina, Mariah, Celine, Madonna, and Paula Abdul. I didn't realize that Abdul even toured anymore, but she actually seems to have some reasonable demands when it comes to dressing room food. One diva demands NO TOMATO, APPLE, OR GRAPE JUICES. And another wants only Diet Coke - IN CANS!
For the record, I only got 3 out of 10. I guess I don't know my divas.
Here's a clever idea: online wine videos! It's The Winery Channel, and they have everything from instructional videos that teach you what foods go with what wine to visits to various vineyards and vacation spots.
The site has a sense of humor too. Make sure you watch Rex Havoc (and his horse "Brokeback"), who shows you the best wine bottles to use for shooting practice, and Dave in Los Angeles, who rants about his neighbor Walter, a wine snob. The stuff he says...well, you know people like Walter (and not just when it comes to wine). You'll be quoting a couple of Dave's lines to your friends later this week.
There are many "shows" to watch, including "Hot Legs," "The Wine Bar Show," and "Got Wine?" (the videos can be kinda glitchy - took me a few clicks to get each video working, but it's worth it).
The world of wine can be intimidating, so you have to go into it with a few rules, and David LeClaire, the sommelier at The Tasting Room in Seattle, has some advice, including:
1. There's no such thing as peanut greg-io. Learn how to pronounce the big names, or you're going to sound like a big geek. You don't need to know everything - and it's OK to stumble on the obscure French boutiques - but do yourself a favor and take "Gewurztraminer" out for a spin before your big date.
7. Move over, Scrooge McDuck. More expensive wine is not always better, especially in the store (bottom-shelf shoppers, rejoice!). But, since a bottle of wine in a restaurant is marked up, by up to three times its retail price (four times for wines by the glass), the cheapest bottle you'll want to buy in a restaurant is $30, says LeClaire. If you're watching pennies, go for wines from Spain, Chile, Argentina or Australia - they're good and half the price.
We always make general resolutions like "eat better" or "exercise more," but what about specific food resolutions? Here are five of mine I hope to keep in 2007.
1. Drink more wine. I drink a lot of wine anyway, but I want to learn more about it and drink it on a more regular basis. Oh, and get into white wines more. I never drink any because I've tried some white wines in the past and didn't like them. But I gotta find something I like.
2. Cut down on cookies, cakes, and crackers. Yeah, they all say "0 Trans Fats!" on the boxes now, but they can't be that great for you, especially the amount I seem to eat.
3. Stop eating after midnight. When you're a writer, you work a lot late at night. Which means you might eat later too. And when you add in television and the fact that there are several pizza places near my apartment...ugh. And then the next day you were up so late you want to sleep in and not run in the morning. I gotta stop eating so late, staying up so late, so I can get up early and exercise.
4. Eat out more. I get into these long ruts where I don't go out to restaurants, especially new places that have opened. But there's a lot of great stuff out there and I really should explore a lot more than I do.
5. Actually make some of the food I see in magazines. I think I accumulated around 40 issues of various food magazines in 2006, but I don't think I made anything in them. I keep seeing great recipes and I keep saying to myself "that would be great to make, I gotta try that!" And then the magazine sits on my coffee table for three months and then gets put on the bookshelf with the rest of them. Do you do this too?
The Feudi di San Marzano Primitivo di Manduria D.O.C. Sessantanni 2003 is 14.5% abv. and is produced from very old, 60-80 years, Primitivo grape vines that are very low yielding. The vines grow in Puglia in the Neviera and Casa Rossa vineyards in the district of San Marzano. Old vines with low yields of fruit tend to mean a wine that has lots of intense and great flavor to it, and this is certainly the case here.
This 100% Primitivo grape wine has an intensely deep ruby color to it and a medium/heavy body. The aroma is full of fruit, and hints of coffee and the barest whiff of sweet aged pipe tobacco. This is a smooth and rich wine, almost like a young and intense port, with a big, mouth filling, forward fruit and berry flavor full of cherries and hints of dried fruit. This is supported by a dense and complex middle with just enough tannic bite to it to balance the huge flavors, and ends in a incredibly rich and silky finish. This wine will go very well with beef, such as my Beef Rib Roast, or with lamb and game.
Usually this bottle sells for around $30 each, and well worth it. Luckily my local store, run by a friend, was having a sale. I loved this big wine so much that I ran back to the store the next day and bought every single case and bottle they had left in stock at the the amazing price of $14 each. If you can find this wine for under $30 in your area it's really worth trying. It comes in a very dark, thick, heavy oversize bottle that looks like it holds a liter but holds the typical 750 ml. The bottle is perfect to hold such a big wine, and will help store it as it ages and improves over the next 6-8 years.
The holidays can get pretty expensive, with gifts, food and entertaining expenses piling on until after the New Year (especially if you want to hit one or two after-Christmas sales), so it is always great to find a way to save some money without loosing out on quality. Food is one area where it is difficult to cut back, since price and quality are often closely linked. Paying more will usually get you better meats, cheeses and chocolates, for example. When it comes to wine, however, price are quality are not necessarily as closely inked - not unless you're talking about $100+ bottles of wine, anyway. Since AOL Food has a much larger staff than we do, they went through many bottles of wine to find five great ones that are $5.99 a bottle or less, perfect for serving with holiday dinners or bringing along as a hostess gift to a party because they are guaranteed to taste good without breaking the bank.
Admit it: every time you read another study about how one food or another has been shown to have a direct link to cancer, heart disease, good health, long life or intelligence, you roll your eyes a little. It's interesting to read the studies to find out what scientists are working on, and, even if you take the study with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to stay on top of what foods have been shown to have health benefits. The sheer number of studies may cause you to wonder whether or not anyone really takes them all seriously. We can't follow up every single study to see whether people are buying into them, but we do know that the at least one industry is enjoying some benefits of the well-promoted health benefits of their product: the wine industry. Red wine is enjoying a huge boost in sales, a boost the benefits producers and retailers. From October to November of this year, sales were up more than 8% over the same period last year, and the holidays are expected to boost sales even further.
Consumers say that the health benefits are just another plus for drinking something they already enjoy, but they also admit that it gives them an excuse. A Harvard Medical School researcher behind the study that said a chemical in red wine could increase life expectancy said that "wine drinkers were going overboard."
Every year I make food resolutions. Oh, sure, there's the inevitable "eat better, exercise more, lose weight" resolution that 98% of us make, but I'm talking about resolutions that have to do with specific foods and specific eating habits. Here are some of mine for 2008.
If I were a famous musician who went on tour a lot, I'm not quite sure what special demands I'd have. I think I'd want a TV in my dressing room and maybe a few snacks and drinks for me and my friends, but I can't really think of anything outrageous. Remember when Van Halen demanded no brown M&Ms?
And that headline is your first answer in 
Here's a clever idea: online wine videos! It's 
This summer, how about 
The world of wine can be intimidating, so you have to go into it with a few rules, and David LeClaire, the sommelier at The Tasting Room in Seattle, has 
Add wine to your weeknight meals, including 
We always make general resolutions like "eat better" or "exercise more," but what about specific food resolutions? Here are five of mine I hope to keep in 2007.
The Feudi di San Marzano Primitivo di Manduria D.O.C. Sessantanni 2003 is 14.5% abv. and is produced from very old, 60-80 years, Primitivo grape vines that are very low yielding. The vines grow in Puglia in the Neviera and Casa Rossa vineyards in the district of San Marzano. Old vines with low yields of fruit tend to mean a wine that has lots of intense and great flavor to it, and this is certainly the case here.
The holidays can get pretty expensive, with 
Admit it: every time you read another study about how one food or another has been shown to have a direct link to cancer, heart disease, good health, long life or intelligence, you roll your eyes a little. It's interesting to read the studies to find out what scientists are working on, and, even if you take the study with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to stay on top of what foods have been shown to have health benefits. The sheer number of studies may cause you to wonder whether or not anyone really takes them all seriously. We can't follow up every single study to see whether people are buying into them, but we do know that the at least one industry is enjoying some benefits of the 
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
Morbid thoughts? Have a cookie
