Birthday Celebration

In addition to pizza, I decided to have a red wine tasting party for my birthday. I know a little, very little about wine tasting, so thought it could be a lot of fun to have an informal tasting party. Everyone brought a wine and something they thought would pair well with it or something that tastes or smells like the wine in tow. (I said that if someone brought a Malbec, they could bring a leather belt and say "I smell leather" and that would be perfectly appropriate!)

No one took me up on the belt, but someone did bring a Malbec (one of my personal favorite wines!) along with at least 20 other options, plus food! It was a truly amazing night with a great spread of food, including:

-roasted veggie dip (head of garlic, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, caramelized onions, cumin, coriander, red wine vinegar and olive oil)
-prosciutto wrapped prunes
-cheeses!
-cumin encrusted beef with tomatillo dipping sauce
-lamb meatballs with tzatziki dipping sauce
-potato chips
-tortilla chips
-hummus with zatar
-rice crackers
-honey candied clementine peel
-red wine biscotti, mocha biscotti
-dates
-kumquats
-candied fennel
-Kerala chick pea mix
-chocolate dipped ginger snaps
-gf licorish & chocolate waffer cookies

In addition, there was a smelling plate comprised of different things for people to try to smell in the wines:
-lavendar
-chicory
-coffee
-vanilla extract
-tamarind
-molasses

There was so much food, so much fun and so many wonderful people. Hands-down, the best birthday ever.