12/08/05 Food and wines - Chilis

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran, and today is Food and Wine Pairing Day. With the holidays in full swing, I am going to share a few of my favorite quick holiday meals and the wines that go with them. Now you may or may not be busy during the holidays but I can assure you that I am. However, I still want to do some cooking but I want it to be easy. One thing that I find to be very simple is a savory crock pot of chili. Now everyone has there own favorite chili recipe but I find that they fall into basic categories, with beans or without beans, and ground meat or chunks of meat. We like chunky meat and beans with lots of smoky flavors cooked until the meat is tender to the tooth. With that style of Chili you can pull out a Shiraz a Cabernet Sauvignon or even one of the Malbecs from Argentina that we talked about yesterday. Or if chili isn't your thing - whip up a quick pot pie using that basic refrigerator pie crust. Fill it with veggies, leftover turkey or ham, sour cream, cheese, whatever sounds good to you and bake until golden brown. I like Beaujolais, Rose' or Pinot Gris with that simple supper. Focaccia bread used to make grilled sandwiches and served with a tossed salad is always a fast and fun meal. To keep things authentic serve it with Pinot Griogio or Chianti. Most of all; keep it simple and enjoy the time with family and friends. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.