Celebrate local foods, local wine and fantastic cuisine along the old Santa Fe Trail at the Santa Fe Trail Food & Wine Festival September 25. The farms and vineyards of the Old Trails Region of West Central Missouri will show off their cornucopia of goods at Fahrmeier Farms near Lexington, MO. Festival highlights include seminars on food, wine and local cuisine plus a VIP Wine Dinner where five chefs and five winemakers will join forces to work their magic at a special dinner served right in the vineyard.
 
This event is sponsored by AgriMissouri, the Missouri Wine & Grape Board, the Center for Agroforestry, the Institute of Continental Climate Viticulture & Enology and the Old Trails Regional Tourism Partnership.  

 

For more info on the Santa Fe Trail Wine & Food Festival visit: http://iccve.missouri.edu/events 

Congratulations to Pat Finkes of Steelville, MO, winner of the first annual Cooking with Missouri Wine Contest held at the 2010 Missouri State Fair. Pat's winning recipe, Romance for Two, a pear sorbet made with wine from St. James Winery, earned her the $150 first place prize.

 

Go behind the scenes with MoWineGirl and view all the Cooking with Missouri Wine action at the State Fair: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWohFf3NeVg

 

To enjoy a little "Romance for Two" yourself, try Pat's award-winning recipe:

 

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups St. James Friendship School Red (or another MO semi-dry red wine)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring (gel)
2 pears

 

Place cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in a small piece of cheesecloth; tie to form a bag.  Place spice bag, wine, sugar and food coloring in a saucepan that is large enough to hold the pears.
 
Peel pears, leaving stems on.  Stand pears upright in mixture in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer about 20 minutes, or until pears are tender.  When pears are tender and a nice color of red, lift out of pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. 
 
Boil wine mixture in pan until it reduces to 3/4 cup.  Let cool.
 
Cut 1 inch off the top of each pear, reserving the tops. Remove and discard cores. Scoop out flesh in pear bottoms. Put hollowed-out pears and tops in refrigerator until 2 to 4 hours before serving time; transfer to freezer for 2 to 4 hours to partly freeze.
 
Combine scooped-out pear flesh and reduced wine mixture in blender container; blend until smooth.  Pour into a container and place in freezer for 4 hours, or overnight; stir a couple of times while in freezer. 
 
At serving time, scoop sorbet into hollowed-out pears; replace tops. Serve at once.
 
Yield: 2 servings.

 

Harvest Video Series - Learn everything you always wanted to know about making wine in this fun four-part video series titled "The Sexy and Sticky Side of Wine" from crushing, destemming and pressing the grapes to filtration and inoculation.

Part one:

Part two:

Part three:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By1gAvA2DaI

Part four:

China Bound - Mount Pleasant Winery wines are not only available in stores locally, but will also be available in the East, the Far East, as the winery has begun exporting to China. Their first shipment of 900 cases will be offered for sale in stores and restaurants in cities throughout China, including Beijing and Shanghai. Visit www.mountpleasant.com for more info.