Wine and Cheese

[Lightchick]

My BF’s housemate is having a wine-and-cheese birthday party next weekend.  The idea is to bring your favorite wine-cheese combo.  The housemate is female; most of the attendees will be theatre-people (won’t really have to cater to the beer-and-pretzels crowd!).

Normally, my cheese-choice for company is Brie on toasted French-baguette slices with homemade pesto. Because 1) I like Brie and 2) I can buy French baguettes from anywhere and 3) pesto is easy to make.  I almost always have Sauvignon Blanc with it cause…it’s what I like.

I’m 31.  BF is 5 years younger (26 for the mathematically-challenged!), and his roommate and friends are of similar- or less in age.  I am somewhat immature in my predilections, but want to make sure I’m not the old-lady in the house.  Ie, I like being drunk and playing Rockband until 1am.  But at 2:00am, I am no longer up for breaking open a new bottle of booze, and a 3am trip to Denny’s.  At this point, I would rather just go to sleep.

Hints?  Tips?

I was vaguely thinking baked brie could be fun, but I’ve never seen a full wheel of brie to make from scratch, and would have to buy it pre-made…

Maybe Sage Cat, our resident chef, can lend some insight?

[Cassi&Charlie]

No suggestions but sounds like a lot of fun! I love wine and cheese nights (except I don’t have the cheese). Also in winter mulled wine and cake nights…yum!

[Lightchick]

Cassi, how does mulled wine work? I’ve never done that!

[Cassi&Charlie]

oh it’s delicious. You get some cheapish red wine (I like Cab Savs for this) and you heat it up with some sugar (to taste), oragne peel with the bitter white part scraped off, apple slices, cinnamon sticks and some cloves. Then you leave it very gently simmering for a little while until it’s fruity and spicy enough for you and add a bit of orange juice (from the peeled oranges), simmer again and drink from a mug!

It’s so yummy and warming. I just love it. Tates divine with a slice of apple spice cake. It’s really easy to make causeyou just cut stuff up, throw it into the wine and let the wine simmer. People are really impressed with it as well, like you’ve gone through massive amounts of effort (I let them think that lol).

And…perfect for students like me, it keeps for a bit longer than usual and you can just pour some into a mug and heat it up in the microwave

[jerseygirl]

Mmmm? So does the heating reduce the alc content or does the sugar increase it?? Oh who cares I guess, long as it taste good right?

LC, I thought you were asking tips on how to keep up with the “young ‘uns” – hehe! Knock back some Vitamin B between drinks???

[Cassi&Charlie]

Yep, vit B and some sort of sugar hit. And maybe carry some asprin or panadol in your bag.

[hooty22]

Well, if the 25-26 year olds are anything like my friends (I’m 24) then they got all that late night drinking out of their systems 3 years ago, and they’ll be ready for bed at 1:30-2 too…

Ugh, I’m an old lady.

[Deleted User]

yeah, i’m 23 and am ususally ready to pass out early. Best advice is make sure you’re not tired when the evening starts. ANd if you plan on getting totally drunk, start drinking a little later. If I start early and drink slow, that tends to make me more sleepy. I do better if I start later and drink harder! lol!

It does sound like fun! I love wine!!! Bring me????

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ohh that sounds like fun!!

I am not good on wine-food pairings at all-totally escapes me. I am a big wine fan and have recently started doing the spritzer thing (since bubbly costs more)

The only thing I can suggest is what the popular grapes are right now.

Pinot Noir-it’s the new merlot-with cherry and cola flavours.
White Zinefendels (or any ‘pink’ wine-their are now white merlots and white pinot noirs) are popular.

I’ve also never found anyone who turns down ‘Dr. Zenzen” it’s a german white, in a blue bottle. It’s very sweet, a 3 or a 4 and most young people can drink it easily

Cheese, other then blue or swiss, I’m liking it So I”m no help there! I bet Sagecat knows how to pair wine and cheese though!

[MimzMum]

I can’t drink anymore (messes with my adjunct therapy) but the idea of brie on a baguette….mmmmmmm!

I would put on forty pounds just eating the cheese though. I am sorry I can’t think of anything to help, but I do know that bread will soak up much of that booze. So if you don’t mind eating a lot of bread, you may be able to stretch your awake time?

*whines* Can I come too? *lolz* (btw, that’s the only whine you’ll see next to my cheese plate!)

[RabbitPam]

What you like sounds nice – I love brie – and the mulled wine sounds very yummy too.
Tip: Drink a full glass of water right after you’ve had a few glasses of wine. Part of a hangover is actually dehydration, so just before you go to sleep if you drink a large glass of plain water you will feel much better than you might have.

Youre not exactly over the hill. I’d say bring your own car because you can leave earlier and not be dependent on someone else who’s wasted and driving, especially on winter roads. Excuse yourself when you’re tired and go before you stop having fun. You can always say you have to get up early for work, work project, company coming the next day, whatever. Often when a party winds down about half the people peel off and a much smaller group, like 4 people max, keep going into the wee hours. If it’s your boyfriend, let him, just make sure no other woman is making eyes at him until you leave. Often other people feel the way you do but are too self-conscious to go home too, and will jump on your excuse with “me too. Gotta go. It was fun.” and be right behind you.

Everyone else will be in their 30s soon enough. Wait till your 50. (I now would rather make plans for lunch than dinner.)

Oh wait. I just reread your post. Are you sleeping there? So it’s just a need to leave the party and get into jammies in another room? You can just say “please excuse me, but I need to change.” Go behind a closed door to the bedroom as if undressing, then just lie down and snooze. If they miss you, they’ll peek, see you asleep, and back out quietly. You can fall asleep in your clothes on top of the bed if you want to make it look like you just couldn’t help it.

[ScooterandAnnette]

The baked brie really isn’t all that hard to do. I did some for a party a few years back and managed to find appropriate sized brie wheels at Costco of all places.

You can either do just a plain baked brie, or you can add some stuff on top of the brie under the pastry – like a cranberry mixture, or chopped sauteed mushrooms. Either way here’s a few brie recipes to give you ideas:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Brie-in-Puff-Pastry/Detail.aspx

and

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Brie-and-Cranberry-Pizza/Detail.aspx

<- this one actually was a lot more popular than the baked brie! Although I personally preferred the baked, so I didn't mind having a lot of it left over.
– Annette

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL Ok, this is what Dave does when he needs to go to bed and people are still up (regardless of if we’re at home or someone elses house),

He just gets up as if he has to go to the bathroom and disapears. By the time I notice and look for him, he’s curled up asleep somewhere!! Once he went to bed really early and knew I’d try to wake him up so he made a ‘nest’ in my closet and slept/hid there!!

On new years, he just curled up on the couch, while everyone was up playing guitar hero in the same room!! and went to sleep!!

Probably not a tip for you to sneak off to bed, but funny

[Sarita]

Oh those baked brie recipes sound yummy – I don’t think you can go wrong with this.

I prefer white wine as well so a nice Sauvignon Blanc sounds perfect to me.

My mother made a mulled wine for Christmas and it was lovely – strong though because she added some brandy or something but it was yummy.

Also might want to put out some nuts too for people to munch on.

I’m not sure about hints for going to bed though if that’s what you are asking. I just go because that is WAY past my bedtime.

[Deleted User]

lol K&K!!! once Jared passed out in the closet. I was looking for him and couldn’t get the closet door open cuz he was laying in front of it. That was the first day Boston had head tilt. I had had a candle party, so like 5 of my friends from Iowa were here and spending the night. We went out and got drunk and at like 2 AM I decided I wanted to sleep near Boston so I brought her cage in my bed room. Jared was passed out in the closet and I was sleeping on the bedroom floor next to Boston’s cage and I had 6 people sleeping in my living room w/ a perfectly fine queen bed empty in my room!!!! haha what a night!

[RabbitPam]

allenj1, I remember that! You were asking where to put everyone and how to cope with Boston’s bad head tilt and 6 guests if it was really bad. You were kind of frantic, but your friends were all nice and it worked out.

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

I’m a cheddar and Two Buck Chuck kind of girl… really classy! Haha

[Deleted User]

yeah Rabbitpam, it was a stressfull day. And Jared didnt get to sleep cuz he was working nites @ the time and I woke him up in the morn cuz i was freaking out!!!
but my friends rock and so does my BF and Boston!!!

[RabbitPam]

I think when you know someone on line as they go through a crisis and come through it, you feel closer to them.
I think your whole little family rocks!

[Deleted User]

I completely agree Pam!!!

[Author]

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