Middle Aged and Living Well

Ok, I am a little behind, but last week, as a part of a donation we did to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, we put on a wine food pairing event for 10 people at a very posh home on Lido Island in Newport Beach. One of the couples attending spent $1,600 to have us educate 10 guests on how to match food and wine. My friend Nick does the education while I prepare the food and wives and friends help with the service and cleanup.

Nick is a master at breaking wine down to its simplest components and makes it easier for people to understand wine and how to choose a wine that will go well with multiple types of food. My job? Its easy. Make a killer soup and a desert. The rest of the food is simple. Chicken breasts and steak simply seasoned with salt and pepper and serve it with several types of sauces on the side. Salads are lettuce with multiple dressings on the side. Nothing fancy and no plating skills required. The key is good quality ingredients as they must stand on their own, and great help to prep  and serve. Annette (who prepared the printed menu), Mary, Bob and Edie get a lot of credit for making the evening run so smoothly.

It went over so well, they want us to donate two events to next year’s charity, and they promise a larger donation per event.  If you want to see some of the recipes, please click on the Wine Dinner tag on my recipe blog.