Norwegian Glögg

A mulled wine at Christmas is a tradition in the Nordic household. Our ancester William Cornelius immigrated to Canada from Norway in the early 1900s, by way of North Dakota. He introduced the Norwegian version of mulled wine, Glögg, to his family in Saskatchewan, and the tradition came down through the family since then. I really enjoy the highly spiced flavor of this warm drink.

An ancient Romanian wine starts off our evening with Dracula

An evening with Dracula

The idea for our Dracula-themed dinner party this year stemmed from a bottle of wine we received at Christmas. Tāmâioasā is an indiginous grape variety from Romania, the Eastern European country that harbors Dracula’s castle in the province of Transylvania.

Holiday Open House, Sun Nov 27, 1-4pm

‘Tis the season, whether we like it or not. I personally love it! So much fun getting together with old friends, sharing some sparkly, sampling baking made at special times of the year, remembering happy days from years past… and meeting new neighbors! I even love the whole shopping thing, searching out little baubles to put under the tree and surprising the people I love.

That’s why I happily agreed to help my daughter Kristina host an open house at her place this year to launch the holiday season.

Drink Agua de Valencia for some Spanish sparkle

Spanish tapas dinner party

It’s that wonderful time of year when we host our annual gourmet dinner, which has been going on for a very long time now. We never get tired of trying out new recipes for our friends.

This year we chose a Spanish tapas theme, with the hope that we could prepare many of the dishes ahead of time and just enjoy ourselves on the evening.

To welcome our guests, we served a cocktail originating from Valencia, where oranges reign supreme.

Let’s party! Portuguese sangria, perhaps?

Last week I posted a menu for a special dinner party. We started our Mediterranean evening off with a pretty wine cocktail hailing from Portugal. Choose a good quality wine, preferably from that country and preferably red (called Tinto in Portuguese). Pair it up with a dry Porto. Throw in a few swigs of