Red wine isn't just good for your heart - now experts say it may even prevent HEARING LOSS

This week's news comes from Anna Hodgekiss over at MailOnline. New studies show that wine has multiple health benefits.

It has long been touted as the tipple with a host of health benefits, said to protect against conditions such as heart disease and dementia. Now scientists say red wine may also protect against hearing loss, too. It's thought that the chemical resveratrol, found in red grapes and red wine, is the reason why.

This is the same compound that has been linked with other positive health benefits such as preventing cancer and heart disease. In a study conducted at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, healthy rats were less likely to suffer noise-induced hearing loss when given resveratrol before being exposed to loud noise for a long period of time.

Study leader Dr Michael Seidman said: 'Our latest study focuses on resveratrol and its effect on the body's response to injury - something that is believed to be the cause of many health problems including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, ageing and hearing loss.
Resveratrol appeared to reduce the damage to hearing from loud noises

Resveratrol is a very powerful chemical that seems to protect against the body's inflammatory process, as it relates to ageing, cognition [brain function] and hearing loss. Hearing loss affects half of people over the age of 60, but many begin to suffer problems in their 40s or 50s. It usually sets in with the death of tiny 'hair' cells in the inner ear as a result of ageing.

The study found that resveratrol reduced noise-induced hearing loss in rats exposed to potentially deafening sounds. Dr Seidman said: 'We've shown that by giving animals resveratrol, we can reduce the amount of hearing and cognitive decline.' The study is published in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Last month, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reported that washing down red meat with a glass of red can actually prevent the build-up of cholesterol in the body. The researchers, from the study found that after eating red or dark meat, compounds called malondialdehyde accumulate in the blood stream. These can help to form the type of cholesterol that can raise the risk of heart disease.

Meanwhile drinking a large glass of red wine every day could help prevent bowel cancer, Leicester University researchers said recently.

Kahlua Cocktails

Kahlua is a liqueur made in Mexico from the finest Arabica coffee beans and sugarcane. The two ingredients are grown side by side in rural Veracruz. The beans are actually the seeds of grape-like "coffee cherries," which are harvested from October to March. The cherries are pulped and processed, and the coffee beans are extracted. The beans are air-dried and aged in burlap sacks for a minimum of six months.

While all this is going on, sugarcane is harvested and juiced, and left to ferment until the sugar turns to alcohol, and distilled. The coffee is ground and extracted, and the sugar and coffee extract are combined to create the familiar Kahlua spirit.

Kahlua is the main ingredient in many popular cocktails.

Mudslide
-1 3/4 oz vodka
-1/2 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur
-1/2 oz Bailey's® Irish cream
-1/2 cup ice
-1 oz vanilla ice cream

Blend ingredients together and serve in a chocolate-drizzled goblet or martini glass.

* * *
Black Russian
-1 part vodka
-1 part Kahlua

Fill a rocks glass with ice, add ingredients and stir.

* * *
White Russian
-1 1/2 oz vodka
-3/4 oz Kahlua
-3/4 oz cream

Pour the Kahlua and vodka into a glass with ice and stir. Gently pour the cream on top.

* * *
B-52 (shot)
This layered shot not only tastes delicious, but it will impress your guests if you can get it right!

Pour the Kahlua on the bottom of the glass. Then, very carefully pour Bailey's Irish Cream over a barspoon so that it settles on top of the Kahlua and doesn't disturb it. Just as slowly and carefully, add the top layer: Grand Marnier.

Spodee? Whats a Spodee?

Here at Joe Canal's we have a new product that defies categorization, Spodee.

Spodee was a Depression era hooch that mixed up homemade country wines with garden herbs, spices, and moonshine. The resulting brew was then put into whatever containers they happened to have lying around…hence, the milk bottle. It may not be fancy pants, but it sure is tasty!

Let your Spodee bottle be everything to you. Fill your cupboards with Spodee bottles as glassware, use it as a home for fresh picked flowers from the yard, have your pens and pencils sit somewhere other than all over your office desk and if worse comes to worse and one of the zillion uses don’t apply…make sure to recycle!

At first, we at Joe Canal's were a bit skeptical of this genre defying beverage, but after a staff tasting this product quickly became a store favorite.

"This unusually delicious wine beverage is truly a treat.  When I first tasted it, I really enjoyed the flavors of chocolate and herb that were layered nicely over the sweet red wine base.  The flavor is reminiscent of Tootsie Rolls and mixed with cola, this beverage takes on a whole new characteristic.  This Depression Era hooch is an awesome throwback to days of yore, definitely not to be missed." - David Rudd, Wine Supervisor, Joe Canal's Woodbridge.

Today's Innovation, Tomorrow's Classic

For this week’s Mixology Monday, Wine Supervisor at our Woodbridge location, David Rudd gives us a glimpse at today’s cutting edge of modern cocktails.

So, have you noticed the kids these days, what the heck are they drinking now?  The kids are home from college, so you overhear them sharing stories about this “small batch” or that “macerated infusion”, and you’ve never heard about such things…what’s really on the forefront of the modern cocktail? 

Well, I’m here to help.  Today’s contenders for “Modern Cocktail That Will Go Down In History To Become A Classic” are numerous and varied but share some similarities with celebrated libations from days of yore.  We still have the same classic glassware, we still have the same basic construction (foundation, modifier, juice, sugar, accent, bitters and garnish), and we still have creativity to back it up.

Check these out and see if you think the modern cocktail can stand the test of time.

Topiary

(Adapted from the recipe served at Cure, in New Orleans, Louisiana)

1 oz. Shrub (recipe below)

5 oz. Sparkling wine (dry, crisp Zardetto™ prosecco is a good choice)

Build in a champagne flute and float an orchid on top.

(Shrub)

1 c. fresh coconut

1 c. chopped pineapple

1 c. diced apple

1 c. chopped celery

2 ½ c. sugar

2 c. white vinegar

1 T. ground allspice

1 handful parsley

Combine fruit, vegetable and sugar in a glass jar and muddle the fruits with sugar with enough pressure to break up the fruit.  Cover and leave in a cool, dark place overnight.  Add the vinegar and aromatics and stir until the sugar has dissolved and return, covered, to a cool dark spot (refrigerator) for a week.  Press the contents firmly through a cheesecloth to release all the liquid from the fruit.  Store in a clean container in the refrigerator for another week until the acidity of the vinegar mellows and fades into the background.  Shrub will keep for 6 months in the refrigerator.

Ardoise

(Adapted from the recipe served at Craigie on Main, in Cambridge, Massachusetts)

3 oz. Rain™ vodka

½ oz Sage and Juniper simple syrup (recipe below)

Juice of a lime

In an iced cocktail shaker, combine ingredients and shake for an 8 count.  Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a tarragon leaf.

(Sage and Juniper simple syrup)

1 c. sugar

1 c. water

5 fresh sage leaves

10 juniper berries

Heat ingredients in a saucepan until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes, and then strain into a glass container.  Keeps refrigerated for up to a month.

Angel’s Face

1 oz. Gin (The Botanist™ is a good choice)

1 oz. Applejack

1 oz. Leroux Apricot Brandy

In an iced cocktail shaker, stir the ingredients together and strain into a martini glass.  Garnish with an orange peel.

The Modern Cocktail

1 ½ t. fresh lemon juice

1 t. sugar

1 ½ oz. Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch Whisky

1 ½ oz. Plymouth Sloe Gin

1 dash Absinthe

1 dash orange bitters

In a cocktail shaker, dissolve sugar and lemon juice.  Add ice and remaining ingredients and stir.  Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Bubblegum Cocktail

(Adapted from the recipe served at Tailor Restaurant in New York City, New York)

2 oz. Bubblegum vodka (recipe below)

1 T. fresh lemon juice

1 T. fresh lime juice

1 T. simple syrup

½ egg white

In an iced cocktail shaker, combine ingredients and shake for a 20 count.  Strain into a martini glass.  Do not garnish.

(Bubblegum Vodka)

16 pieces of bubblegum (Double Bubble™ is a good choice)

2 c. vodka (Svedka™ is a good choice)

In a large airtight container, combine bubblegum and vodka.  Seal and allow to infuse, stirring every 6 hours, for 24 hours.  Pour vodka through a fine mesh strainer, discarding bubble gum.  Vodka stored in an airtight container will last indefinitely.

Alien Brain Hemorrhage

¾ oz. Peach schnapps

¾ oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream

¼ oz. Blue Curacao

Splash of grenadine

Pour the chilled peach schnapps into the shot glass, filling it halfway.  Add the Irish cream slowly on top of the schnapps.  Slowly add the blue Curacao, once that settles, a small splash of grenadine should top off the drink.  When the grenadine sinks, you’ll see why the drink is named Alien Brain Hemorrhage.  Enjoy!

Napa's 2012 Grape Crop Sets Records

This week's article, written by NapaValleyRegister.com's L. Pierce Carson, is all about California's 2012 record setting grape harvest.

The reason area growers have been all smiles since last fall came to light Friday with the release of state-gathered statistics for the 2012 grape crop.

Not only did the value of Napa County’s harvest increase by leaps and bounds to $648 million, tonnage jumped by 50 percent to a record of 181,183 tons.

Grape prices, on the whole, remained relatively constant, save for a 9 percent hike in the average paid for a ton of cabernet sauvignon grapes. So, the huge jump in the overall value of last fall’s crop can be attributed for the most part to record tonnage.

Released midday Friday by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the preliminary 2012 grape crush report shows Napa’s 2012 crop weighed 383 tons more than the previous record of 180,800 tons crushed in 2005.

“The tonnage is simply amazing,” noted Mike Fisher, partner with St. Helena’s Global Wine Partners. “I’d heard people talking about crop totals being up 20 percent. We have a vineyard in Rutherford that was up 50 percent ... all of this was borne out in (the report’s) total tonnage. It’s been a good year for everybody.”

“(Napa Valley’s) growers are wearing big smiles as they walk to the bank,” added industry analyst George Schofield. “The bankers should  be opening the doors for these guys.”

Schofield maintains 2012 was “a fantastic year” for the wine industry. He was surprised that prices increased at all, especially for cabernet sauvignon, due to the bumper crop. “But don’t expect the same thing next year,” he added. “There should be a bit of a slowdown in prices because of this (harvest) ... (but) I suspect there’ll be a shorter crop this year.”

He doesn’t expect there will be a lot of wine for the bulk market because this year’s bumper crop is making up for wine shortages in both 2010 and 2011.

Tonnage skyrockets

The record 2012 grape harvest weighed in at 181,183 tons, half again as much as last years total of 121,137 tons. Crop value grew by 57 percent, clocking in at $648 million compared to the $412 million grapes brought in last year.

Cabernet sauvignon remains the king of all Napa County grapes, with tonnage up by 40 percent to 70,935 tons cabernet sauvignon accounts for 39 percent of the entire Napa Valley grape crop.

At an average of $5,101 per ton, the price for Napa cabernet was up by slightly more than 9 percent last year, according to the state report. The price paid for Napa cabernet is more than twice what’s paid per ton of cabernet in Sonoma County, noted Sue Brewster, who works with Schofield in analyzing trends and issues in industry reports.

Chardonnay tonnage in the valley also was up 51 percent over last year to 31,791 tons. The average price per ton was $2,363, a hike of 4 percent.

Brewster said Napa growers receive, on average, 25 percent more revenue per ton of chardonnay than their counterparts in Sonoma do.

The valley’s other early maturing Burgundy variety, pinot noir, registered a record crop of 11,696 tons, nearly doubling in size last year, right on the heels of a significant decline of 20 percent in 2011. The price of a ton of pinot noir dropped by 1 percent to $2,485, the only price drop of the major valley grape varieties last year.

Growers harvested 75 percent more sauvignon blanc last year than they did in 2011, with total tonnage listed at 14,788. The price for sauvignon blanc rose by 2 percent, to an average of $1,881 per ton.

Merlot production was up by 51 percent, as 24,977 tons were crushed in valley wineries last year. The average price for a ton of merlot rose by 3 percent to $2,662.

Additional tonnages — that increased significantly for all — and average prices paid for other Napa Valley grape varieties in 2012 include:

• Muscat blanc, 404 tons, $1,833, indicating the growing popularity of this grape variety.

• Pinot blanc, 982 tons, $1,914.

• Semillon, 882 tons, $2,598.

• Riesling, 447 tons, $2,654.

• Viognier, 337 tons, $3,098.

• Cabernet franc, 4,000 tons, $5,053, an average price not far below that for cabernet sauvignon.

• Malbec, 2,384 tons, $4,021.

• Petit verdot, 2,862 tons, $4,774.

• Petite sirah, 3,483 tons, $3,286.

• Syrah, 2,955 tons, $3,039.

• Zinfandel, 5,358 tons, $3,024.

The highest price paid for a ton of grapes in Napa County was for the variety, refosco, widely grown in Friuli, in northeastern Italy. The grower who planted refosco was paid $5,500 per ton for the fruit, but only five acres of refosco are planted in Napa Valley.

“Internationally, I think we’re standing in good stead,” Schofield declared. “Other (wine-producing) countries didn’t have such great crops last year. But there’s still a lot of bulk wine flowing in, especially from Argentina, so it’s no time to be complacent.”

Sonoma and state statistics

The value of the grape crop in neighboring Sonoma County was up even more than in Napa, jumping by 68 percent to $581 million. Last year’s Sonoma crush was valued at $345 million. Last fall’s Sonoma harvest weighed in at 266,124 tons — an increase of 100,000 tons over 2011.

Sonoma’s chardonnay crop was 50 percent heavier in 2012, weighing in at 80,879 tons, while the total cabernet sauvignon crop was up by 40 percent, to 46,770 tons.

Grape prices for these two varieties remained relatively stable in Sonoma County last year — $1,894 per ton for chardonnay and $2,311 for a ton of cabernet sauvignon, the latter an increase of about $200 a ton.

Statewide, the 2012 grape crush also set records. Tonnage was up by 13 percent to 4,383,100 tons, which is 1 percent higher than the previous record high in 2005. Red wine grape varieties accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 2.3 million tons, up 19 percent. The 2012 white winegrape crush totaled  1.7 million tons, up 21 percent from 2011.

Last year, chardonnay accounted for the largest percentage of California’s harvest volume at 16.8 percent. Cabernet sauvignon was second at 11.3 percent of the total crush.

While prices in Napa and Sonoma counties were up minimally, that wasn’t the case statewide. The average price paid for a ton of California grapes last year was a record high of $734, up 24 percent from 2011. The average price paid for red wine grapes increased by 24 percent to $879, while the average price paid for white wine grapes was $624, a hike of 21 percent.

Grapes grown in Napa County received the highest average price statewide again last year — $3,579 per ton, up 5 percent from the previous year. Sonoma County growers received the second highest return of $2,182, up 5 percent from 2011.

“The 2012 crop delivered an economic boon for California,” noted John Aguirre, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers.

“Average record high winegrape prices combined with the largest ever winegrape crop, means the 2012 harvest was worth $950 million more than the prior year,” Aguirre said. “As a result, growers will shore up their finances and invest in their businesses, which means more income and economic activity in the many communities where winegrape production is strongest.”

Valentine's Day: Sweet Shots

This week, our resident mixology expert, Wine Supervisor David Rudd reveals some of his favorite Valentine's Day shots.

Traditionally, Valentine’s Day is celebrated with candle lit dinners, roses, chocolate and a good bottle of champagne.  Really, I can’t think of a good reason to break any of those traditions, even if they are a little unimaginative.  While I was thinking about how I was going to woo my boo this year, I decided to explore other ways to make my true feelings known.  I figure that a deliciously sweet shot could be the perfect representation of Cupid’s arrow – and so I started dreaming up recipes for super short, super sweet concoctions to share with my sweetheart.  I chose three of my favorite liqueurs for these little sweet shots.  You’ll need to grab two shot glasses and a cocktail shaker – see which one of these makes your Valentine say “Be Mine.”

Torombolo
¾ oz 360™ Double Chocolate Vodka
¾ oz Licor 43™
Shake and strain

O’Julius
¾ oz Licor 43™
½ oz Orange Juice
½ oz Three Olives™ Vanilla Vodka
Shake and strain

Maune Kea
¾ oz Bacardi™ Gold Rum
½ oz Trader Vic’s™ Macadamia Nut Liquor
½ oz Godiva ™ Chocolate Liquor
Splash of cream
Shake and strain

PSILoveU
¼ oz Bailey’s™ Irish Cream
¼ oz Di Saronno™ Amaretto
½ oz Bacardi™ Rum Superior
¼ oz Kahlua™ Coffee Liquor
¼ oz Trader Vic’s™ Macadamia Nut Liquor
Shake and strain

Honeycomb
½ oz Barenjager™ Honey Liquor
½ oz Jagermeister™
Shake and strain

Liquid Candy
½ oz Barenjager™ Honey Liquor
½ oz Bailey’s™ Irish Cream
Shake and strain

Amber Ambrosia

This article from Boston.com's Steve Greenlee tells us all about one of this seasons most highly sought after brews.

Nugget Nectar is a so-called “imperial amber ale’’ made in Harrisburg, Pa., by Tröeg’s Brewing Co. Despite its immense popularity, Nugget Nectar is brewed only once a year, so once it’s gone from liquor store shelves, it’s gone for a year.

Its devotees take pains to make sure they get some before it runs out. Message boards on BeerAdvocate.com have been filled with posts in recent weeks by people wondering if the prized ale has landed yet. Queries were posted with the kind of breathless excitement one would expect from a UFO fanatic watching the aliens land at Devils Tower. “Any updates on Nugget Nectar in the the area yet?’’ reads one board, which is peppered with comments about which liquor stores are getting six-packs and which bars are putting it on tap. When the beer finally hit stores a few days ago, the board lit up with sightings across the region.

The frenzy has increased gradually in the seven years since Tröeg’s started brewing Nugget Nectar. “It certainly caught us off guard,’’ said Chris Trogner, who co-owns Tröeg’s with his brother, John. “You can’t guess what people are going to love.’’

But is the beer’s popularity a result of its limited availability? Or is it really that good? Let’s have a taste.

An extreme version of Tröeg’s HopBack amber ale, Nugget Nectar has a striking color that’s somewhere between orange and copper. The beer pours with a small head that quickly dissipates but leaves some nice webbed lacing sticking to the glass. The aroma is that of a West Coast IPA, with a blast of hops and alcohol. As the label indicates, a fistful of hops — five varieties of them — hit you in the first sip, along with notes of oranges, grapefruits, and caramel. While the beer is bitter, it’s not one-dimensional. It has a smooth and warming finish, with just enough earthy malt character to distinguish it from an imperial IPA.

No question, this is the best amber ale I’ve ever tasted, and it’s no surprise that it’s one of the most sought-after brews in the Northeast. All of which prompts another question: If the beer is so popular, why not brew it year round?

The answer: Tröeg’s doesn’t have the capacity to make more — yet. The company is building a new brewery that should be running by fall.

“We hope by next year we should have more Nugget Nectar,’’ Trogner said.

He’s not the only one.

The Three Biggest Health Myths in Wine

This article by Jennifer Fielder from Wine Spectator, originally posted here, debunks three of the most prevalent wine myths.

Of all the health-related questions that end up in the Wine Spectator electronic mailbag, some get asked with a you-can-set-your-watch-by-it type of regularity. We've answered them before, and we'll answer them again, but I thought I'd address these topics here with the help of Dr. Andrew Waterhouse, professor of enology at the University of California at Davis, to weigh in on the three most enduring topics.

Health Myth No. 1: Wine contains a lot of sugar

It's easy to see where this theory may have started. Grapes have sugar. Wine is made from grapes. Therefore, all wine has sugar? Not so. "If a wine is considered dry, the amount of sugar consumed is quite small," said Waterhouse. The fermentation process for dry wines eliminates almost all the sugar and converts it to alcohol.

Let's go to the data: The USDA Nutrition Database lists the amount of sugar in a 5-ounce serving of red table wine at just 0.91 grams. Not to pick on orange juice, but an average 8-ounce serving of the stuff contains 20.9 grams of sugar, so 5 ounces of orange juice contains nearly 14 times as much sugar as the same amount of dry red wine.

However, if you're a diabetic looking to understand how alcohol affects your blood sugar levels, that's an entirely different question complicated by the rest of your diet, activity levels and insulin therapy. Even medical practitioners have divided outlooks here: Waterhouse pointed out that in the United States, the convention has been to discourage diabetic patients from drinking, but not so in the United Kingdom. (Recent research suggests that moderate alcohol consumption, which can temporarily lower blood sugar levels, is associated with a lower risk of developing diabetes.) If you're concerned about how wine affects your blood sugar levels, you should talk to your doctor to find the best approach for you.

Health Myth No. 2: Sulfites in wine cause headaches

Headaches caused by wine consumption are a real problem for some folks. Sulfites—which can occur naturally in wine and are also often added as a preservative to wine and foods such as dried fruits—incorrectly often bear the brunt of the blame. "There is no medical evidence that sulfites cause headaches," said Waterhouse.

Only a very small percentage of the population has a true allergic reaction to sulfites, and that allergic reaction ranges from rashes to breathing problems—not headaches. Wine-triggered headache research has identified many possible culprits other than sulfites, including histamines, daily stress, any number of compounds in wine or the alcohol itself.

But as Waterhouse noted, "Everyone is very ready to draw conclusions [about sulfites and headaches] from their own experience." For the true believers in a link between the two, he concedes no study has been done to address this query. Don't hold your breath, he said: "As far as we know yet, no one has died yet from 'sulfite headaches,' so the NIH [National Institutes of Health] is not rushing to study this."

Health Myth No. 3: We know what component of wine promotes health

Studies on the correlation between the consumption of wine (or a substance in wine) and disease X or disease Y seem to come out every other week  (See this round-up for examples.) As such, we get many questions that ask, "Which wine is the healthiest for my particular condition?"

But Waterhouse said, "These studies can't prove that a particular substance in a wine is the causal factor." The reason is that "the best data is epidemiological data"—from studying large populations of individuals over time and determining patterns of disease. You can imagine the number of variables involved with this type of study: how much a person exercises, what they eat, what else they drink, and how all those factors interact. So pinpointing whether health benefits are due to alcoholic beverages in general or wine in particular, much less a particular substance in wine, is a challenge.

So it's something of a moot point to try to determine what type of wine is "healthier" because it's rich in substance A or B. The amount of any compound in an individual wine can vary not only by grape or region, but by growing-season conditions, viticultural techniques or winemaking practices. And different compounds could have different benefits.

One relationship that the data shows? "Most experts are willing to say that non-drinking is a risk factor for dying from cardiovascular disease," Waterhouse said. "The effect is quite substantial. … If you look at 10,000 people, a mix of [moderate] drinkers and non-drinkers, half as many people will die in the drinking group. That is really clear."

Tools of the Trade

You've probably noticed bartenders break our various shiny tools while preparing drinks. What exactly are they, and what are they used for? Here are some items that are commonly found in bars, and you might want to pick up to make cocktails in your home.

Shaker: A shaker is used to vigorously shake the ingredients of a cocktail with ice to rapidly chill it to the coldest possible temperature. There are generally two types of shakers: A Standard shaker, which has the strainer built into the top, or a Boston shaker, which consists of the stainless steel cup, a glass cup, and a separate strainer.

Strainer: The strainer is the strange object with the coil. You use this type of strainer with a Boston shaker to separate the cocktail from the ice used to cool it. With this type of strainer, care must be taken to always use it to strain the cocktail from the metal end of the shaker, because the metal and coils could scratch or damage the glass end.

Barspoon: A barspoon is a teaspoon-sized spoon with a very long handle that is used for stirring cocktails durectly in their glasses. (James Bond would have no use for a barspoon.) The long handle ensures that the spoon will reach to the bottom of any glass. Another use for the barspoon is to layer different types of liquors in a glass. Pouring a liquor over a spoon lets it fall into the glass more slowly and steadily than pouring from a bottle.

Muddler: A muddler is simply a long, hard tool that is used to mash ingredients, such as fruit, sugar or herbs, for drinks. Muddlers come in a wide variety of materials, from wood, to acrylic, to steel. Some have knobs or spikes on the end for better mashing of fruits.

At Joe Canal's, we have a wide variety of bar tools and accessories to help you recreate your favorite special cocktails in the comfort of your own home. We also stock an incredible inventory of mixers, juices, sodas and garnishes, from bar staples like Rose's Lime Juice or Grenadine, to more obscure ingredients like Falernum. Spice up your martini with a jalapeno stuffed olive, or try something different and pick up some olives that are stuffed with blue or feta cheese. We've got salt for your margaritas, onions for your Gibsons, bitters for your Old Fashioneds, tabasco sauce for your bloody marys and lots more!

Super Bowl Party Planning

Today, Internet Manager Art Edge shows us how to throw an awesome Super Bowl party!

When planning a Super Bowl party the first thing you need to decide is how many people can you comfortably fit in your house or apartment and still see a TV! We have between 30 and 40 people every year for our party. Not everyone fits in our family room where we have the big flat screen TV so we have another, smaller flat screen HDTV in our kitchen since it always seems that people gather in there... after all that's where most of the appetizers and drinks are laid out! And one more thing, don't plan on watching much of the game as you’ll spend much of your time helping out your guests... sorry!

Of course, food is a big deal at a Super Bowl party. What we like to do is have our guests bring either an appetizer or a dessert, while we provide the main courses for dinner and the drinks. It's kind of cool to have everybody contribute, especially when other guests complement one another on their apps and desserts! Of course, you want to get the credit for the main courses, so do it up nice. We always have a couple of apps ourselves and add to them as the guests arrive. We serve dinner at halftime and desserts come out during the last quarter of the game; some folks wait until the game is over to indulge.

I always make chili. There are a million chili recipes out there so pick your favorite and go for it. I always make the chili the day before the game because mine is kind of labor intensive. My recipe is from The Whole Chile Pepper Cookbook by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach, . There are only three ingredients:

-8 dried New Mexico Chiles
-4 cups of beef broth
-2 pounds of meat, cut into ½" to 1" pieces (I use half beef and half pork)

I multiply this recipe by 6 for my party.

The preparation of the chiles takes quite awhile. I use half medium and half hot chiles that I get from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico, because I find their flavor to be superior to all other chiles. However, you can find similar chiles in your local grocery store. Start by roasting the chiles on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees for 5 minutes. Tear them apart (I use gloves to handle 50 chiles!) and empty out as many seeds as possible, but try not to lose the membrane... lots of flavor there! Soak them in some of the beef broth for an hour or so, then blend them in batches in a blender with the broth until smooth. It may take 5 or 10 minutes of blending per batch to get rid of all the little pieces. If you don't, you'll be picking them out of your teeth all night!

Brown the meat in some vegetable oil in a big pot. Deglaze the pot with some broth. Add the chile puree and the rest of the broth and bring to a boil. Simmer for a couple of hours uncovered - you want it to reduce down. Just taste some, you'll know when it's done. I always put out some shredded cheese and sour cream for those who can't take the heat!

Whatever you cook for halftime dinner in addition to the chili, put it all in those serving racks that you see at a buffet dinner. You can get them pretty cheap at your local party store along with the fuel cans to keep the water underneath the pans hot. You can use the racks over and over again. Those same stores have all the foil pans too - the really deep, long ones for the water and the half-size, shallower ones for the food. I always get the covers too. Most of the food I preheat in the oven when the game starts and transfer over to the racks just before halftime. I usually start the fuel heating the water by the end of the first quarter of the game. Some suggestions for the other dishes are: Chicken with artichokes, eggplant parm, baked ziti, ravioli in vegetable sauce, penne in vodka sauce or sliced ham. And of course don't forget sturdy paper plates (small for apps and desserts and large for dinner) and plastic utensils. We usually get all this at our local party store along with the pans and fuel for the food. We lay it all out on our dining room table and it's buffet/self serve style.

Of course, there are also the drinks. You need to know your crowd so you know how much beer and wine you need. We usually have a cooler with ice in our kitchen and put the beer and soda in there. We set aside part of a counter in the kitchen for the mixed drinks and wine. We set it up so that it's self serve as much as possible... we at least try to watch part of the game! We usually provide vodka, gin, tonic, OJ and both red and white wine. Our guests also usually bring some wine and beer so we put those additions out as well. Don't forget the ice for mixed drinks and soda. I usually take it out of the icemaker a few days before the game so I have homemade bags of ice in the freezer. Also, don't forget some limes depending on your drink selection. What would be really cool is to get a couple of Growlers of beer at Joe Canal's and have them on your self-serve bar. If you need help with your selection, or planning the amount to have on hand, you can always ask one of the friendly wine managers at your Joe Canal's store.

The final item is the pool. We draw it on a large piece of poster board. Use a yardstick and marker to draw enough vertical and horizontal lines to make 100 squares. Each square can cost $1, $2 or more depending on the number of people coming. Number the squares from 1 to 100, because many people like to pick by a number that's important to them. Put one team's name down the left of the big square and the other across the top. Number 10 little pieces of paper from 0 to 9 and fold them over. Just before the game starts have somebody pick them and put the numbers in sequence across the top, so that they're in a random order. Refold them and repeat down the left side. We have a prize for each quarter end with the largest for the final score.

Have a Happy Super Bowl Party! Make sure to leave us a comment and let us know how it turns out!