Food & Wine AND a Giveaway (for wine lovers!)

This contest has ended. The winner, as decided by Random.org, is #1, Fizzgig!  Congratulations Fizzgig! Please email me at cleshopaholic@gmail.com, with your full name, date of birth, email address, and preferred date of attendance (July 27th or 28th). Don't forget to take ID to the event!!


A few months ago, I was contacted by Chateau Ste. Michelle gauging my interest in reviewing a cookbook written by John Sarich, Culinary Director of  Chateau Ste. Michelle. I luuuurve Chateau St. Michelle wines and I enjoy cooking, so I figured, why not?

The book is set up sorta like a winery tour of the Pacific Northwest and California, featuring 10 wine estates in tool. Each estate is represented by a chapter giving some background, visitor details, and menus prepared the executive chefs at each of these estates, including wine pairings, obviously. You know the white meat = white wine rule? Well, the book helped bust that myth for me. Turns out that besides lamb, game, and beef, there's pretty much at least one white and one red that can be paired with your food!

Overall, I would say that the book seems suited to special occasion dinners, and by that I mean celebrations, date night, etc, not necessarily everyday food. I really like that each recipe gives you wine pairings (and not each recipe includes wine as an ingredient), so you could plan a TOTALLY FABULOUS dinner party with wine pairings for each course and DAZZLE your guests. Given that the book is west-cost based, there's a good number of seafood receipts for you seafood lovers.

I sampled a couple of recipes: the Oven "Fried" Chicken and the Avocado and Orange Salad, which I paired with the Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay. While I would probably adapt the recipes if I were not serving it with wine, as presented they paired REALLY REALLY well with the wine.  You can see the results of my handiwork here (please excuse the lack of "prettiness", this is why I'm not a food blogger).

Overall, a winning combination! I'm looking forward to trying some more recipes in the upcoming weeks!!

Now, for the SUPER FUN part--- A GIVEAWAY!! This giveaway includes TWO TICKETS to the Cleveland Wine Festival on July 27th or 28th, where you will get to same Chateau Ste. Michelle for yourself (among other wines of course).

Here's what you need to do to enter:
1. Leave me a comment letting me know of your favorite wine (and leave me your contact info if I don't know how to reach you), or
2.  Follow @SteMichelle on Twitter and let me know that you did so in the comments, or
3. Tweet: I entered @cleshopaholic contest to win tickets to @CleWineFest via @SteMichelle http://tiny.cc/g9sphw

(You get 3 entries if you do all 3 things)

Rules: You must be 21 to enter, and should you win, you must provide your full name, date of birth, email address, and preferred date of attendance (July 27th or 28th).

The contest ends at 7:00 pm on Wednesday July 25th, with the winner announced later Wednesday night. Good luck, and Cheers!!

Disclosure: Chateau Ste. Michelle provided me with the cookbook in exchange for my review. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.  They also provided the two tickets to the Cleveland Wine Festival for the Giveaway.