Grilled Shrimp Tacos are not only easy to make, but absolutely delicious and crowd friendly. Add a slightly spicy lime crema and your favorite taco toppings and you have a great feast for a crowd or just a weeknight family dinner. Tacos are on regular weekly rotation in our house. Almost any protein or vegetable…
White Wines
Spring 2020 Wine Finds
Wine recommendations that are fantastic for spring sipping. From light bodied whites, to rosé, to elegant reds, to what to drink while staying home, there’s a wine for all occasion this season. This is what we’ve enjoyed as we’ve been home this season. I like to review wines the way most people taste them, with…
Fresh Grilled Salmon Burgers – Not From Can
Making fresh salmon burgers is incredibly easy, and it doesn’t require using the canned stuff. Start with high quality salmon, and add your favorite toppings for some incredible Grilled Salmon Burgers. Looking for more fun salmon recipes? Check out our popular Cedar Plank Salmon with a maple chipotle glaze. With any good burger, it’s about…
Smoked Beef Brisket Nachos (perfect for leftover brisket)
These Award-Winning Smoked Beef Brisket Nachos are the perfect way to use up leftover brisket! Easy to make and crowd friendly, these are sure to become your new favorite appetizer! For the perfect Brisket recipe, click here Update: This recipe was the grand prize winning recipe in the original Traeger Grills Meat Madness Competition in…
Grilled Lobster Tails with Red Chili Pepper Herb Butter
Grilled Lobster Tail is incredibly elegant and also incredibly easy to make. A simple compound butter adds even more flavor to this amazing date night meal. Grilling lobster tails is so much easier than you think! It may sound intimidating, but we’re here to break it down into some easy steps. Selecting the Right Tails…
The Ultimate Smoked Chicken Wings (with crispy skin!)
The best method for Smoked Chicken Wings (Buffalo Style) with crispy skin is to dehydrate the wings in the fridge, smoke, then sear. Learn the tips and tricks for getting crispy skin when cooking smoked chicken wings low and slow. Check out some of our other favorite Buffalo flavor inspirations like this smoked chicken dip…
Grilled Oysters with White Wine Butter Sauce
Grilled Oysters make for an awesome appetizer and decadent treat for your favorite friends. This grilled oyster recipe highlights what oysters are best for, grilling, and a simple butter sauce with a secret ingredient, white wine. Grilled Oysters We all know raw oysters can be absolutely incredible, and need very little to jazz them up….
Smoked Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze
Smoked Ham is the perfect meal for any holiday, like Christmas or Easter dinner, or even to have on hand for sandwiches. This brown sugar glaze is absolutely incredible over the top of your smoked ham! Smoking precooked ham is truly easy and a simple honey glaze is a great way to add incredible flavor….
Thanksgiving Wine Guide
Trying to figure out what wines to serve with Thanksgiving Dinner this year? You’re not alone. Below is a fool-proof guide to finding great wines in all budgets for your holiday meal. I am a traditionalist when it comes to this meal, and my advice has remained the same year after year. The most important…
Smoked Sausage and Mushroom Risotto
Smoked Sausage Risotto combines smoked sausage and mushrooms for a creamy, meaty, hearty and comforting risotto recipe. This risotto recipe uses homemade smoked chicken stock giving it a rich mildly smoky undertone. This delicious meal also comes with wine pairings. A traditional mushroom risotto has just taken traditional risotto up about 100,000 notches by adding…
Wild Mushroom Soup with Sherry and Thyme
A hearty Wild Mushroom Soup is the ultimate comfort food in our house. This recipe calls for both dried wild mushrooms soaked in sherry, and cremini mushrooms for a delicious, savory, earthy soup. This soup was also adapted from our very first cooking class we ever took, and in some ways launched our food and…
Smoked Salmon Dip
Smoked Salmon Dip is the perfect appetizer for smoked salmon lovers. This dip combines flavorful and tender chunks of hot smoked salmon (not lox) a mix of cream cheese and crème fraîche base, seasoned with a little dill and lemon. The Best Smoked Salmon Salmon is one of the first things we cooked when we got…
Tomahawk Pork Chops – Reverse Seared
You may have cooked pork chops, but these pork tomahawk steaks are just as dramatic and delicious as their beef counterparts. Pork tomahawk chops are incredibly tender, and make for a great dish to serve at a dinner party. Sometimes when we have friends over, it’s fun to have a great visual reaction to the…
Grilled Shrimp with Garlic Wine Butter Sauce
Grilled Shrimp with Garlic White Wine Butter Sauce is quick and easy and can be made on the grill or adapted for the stove top. Shrimp is a regular thing in our family. The hubby is usually craving beef, and I’m often in need of a beef break (yes, that’s a thing). Seafood, or specifically…
Grilled Peach Crostini with Mascarpone and Honey
Grilled Peach Crostini with Mascarpone and Honey is the perfect summer appetizer. Grilling peaches is a must during the summer months! Grilled peach wedges and baguette slices are grilled up, the bread is topped with some creamy mascarpone, layered with a grilled peach wedge, and topped with honey and a drizzle of aged balsamic and…
Rosé Wines (mostly from Oregon) for the Summer of 2019
12 Rosé Recommendations Perfect for Summer. From light to bold, find out about rosé wines and some of our current favorites. I like to review wines the way most people taste them, with food. Many of the wine reviews you’ll see on this site are accompanied by a recipe. When we test recipes we usually…
Apricot Glazed Grilled Chicken Recipe
Apricot Glazed Grilled Chicken is quick, easy, and oh so delicious. Add lime for a citrus pop and fresh diced jalapeño and you have a lip smacking dish for your next grill night. We can’t get enough grilled chicken recipes around here. It’s a weekly staple, and our kids love this healthy protein! This version spends a…
12 Wines for Spring
12 Wine Recommendations Fantastic for Spring. From light bodied to full, white to red, there’s a wine for all occasions this season. I like to review wines the way most people taste them, with food. Many of the wine reviews you’ll see on this site are accompanied by a recipe. When we test recipes we…
Pulled Pork Sliders with Grilled Pineapple Coleslaw
This recipe for sweet and savory Smoked Pulled Pork Sliders is a take on Asian-meets-Hawaiian flavors with a dry rub of Chinese five spice, dry ginger, and brown sugar, topped with a soy based glaze and a bright pineapple citrus coleslaw. These pulled pork sliders pair perfectly with one of our favorite white wines – dry riesling….
Double Smoked Ham with Cherry Bourbon Glaze
Double smoked ham, or twice smoked, is a great way to add wood fire smoke flavor to your favorite cured ham. This Cherry Bourbon Glaze takes a Smoked Ham to the next level giving it that extra wow factor! Find out how to double smoke your next holiday ham. If you are looking for a…
Grilled Wine Can Chicken
Wine Can Chicken is flavorful, moist, and incredibly tender. This grilled chicken takes the classic beer can chicken method to a whole new level with the addition of a can of wine. What Is Beer Can Chicken? Beer can chicken and its cousin, wine can chicken, is the method of inserting a can of liquid into…
Grilled Sriracha Sweet Chili Chicken
Grilled Sriracha Chicken is an incredible combination of whole cut up chicken pieces in a savory marinade, grilled to perfection, and then finished with a sweet and spicy sweet chili glaze. Grilled Sriracha Sweet Chili Chicken is great for a whole quartered chicken, or even chicken breasts. Chicken is a blank canvass, and we love…
Back to Bourgogne: An introduction to Burgundy wines
A beginner lesson on the wines of the Burgundy (Bourgogne) region of France. Good Burgundies can be life changing. They are the kinds of wines that, in the 60’s and 70’s, motivated crazy folks to pack up and plant vineyards in Oregon, because they saw the potential for the kinds of life changing wines they…
Grilled Salmon with Orange Maple Glaze
Grilled Salmon with a Sweet Glaze is a great meal to ring in the new year. Healthy, yet indulgent enough to eat on a date night! Throw in a glass of Prosecco Superiore and you’ve got yourself a perfect meal. As the year wraps up we start to plan our goals for the new year….