Wine in the Recipe Dinner

I (Christine) wanted to make a starchy side dish with wine that would also help me use up the produce from my weekly CSA delivery. I stumbled upon this Baked Rice with Butternut Squash recipe through a non-CL website. I wanted the dish to have more rice than butternut squash, so I used 1.5 cups of rice instead of just 1 cup. It was still more squash than I would have liked, but I enjoyed it and would make it again. It was super easy to put together.

I (Christine again) *really* wanted to find a good use for the rutabagas I received from the CSA delivery. I thought Marsala-Glazed Winter Vegetables sounded very interesting. Instead of using the vegetables in the recipe, I used what I had available that day - rutabagas, carrots, and potatoes. I loved this dish because the rutabagas turned out to be sweet and tasty, very much like parsnips.

Even though the calendar said it was spring, our weather was not paying any mind. I (Kim) decided to make something that normally would have appealed to me in the fall, not spring.

From Eating Well, I made Red Wine Braised Roots I used a combination of carrots, parsnips, celery root and beets. I'm not sure if I would make it with beets again as they just seemed to permeate everything!

I (Cindy) made Orzo with Shrimp, Feta Cheese and White Wine from Epicurious.com. I really liked this and would make it again.

I (Rebecca) came across this recipe for Fallen Chocolate Cake with Cherry Wine Sauce on the Cooking Light website and immediately knew that it was what I wanted to bring to our dinner. The cake is a standard flourless chocolate cake except that it has no butter in the batter which makes it lighter. Though humble-looking, it has a satisfyingly rich chocolate flavor and a fudgy, almost brownie-like texture. However, what really makes this cake special is the delicious cherry wine sauce. The recipe called for "Kosher red wine", with no further information on what type of wine to choose. I found a Kosher Merlot at Trader Joe's that is cooked down with sugar and frozen Bing cherries into a very delicious sauce that would also be good with other cakes or frozen yogurt or ice cream.