Girls' Wine Weekend

Since I brought up Girls' Wine Weekend in the last post I thought I shouldn't make yall wait any longer. I know you are just dying to know more about this glorious weekend. Let me tell you one thing.... it is just as magical as you are imagining. A weekend full of good eat, great company, and wine. Lots and lots of wine. I strongly encourage you to plan one with your closest girlfriends right now.

For our Wine Weekends, we come from all around and close in on a little town called Delaplane, Virginia. If you are near there the wine is FANTASTIC! I can't drive home from Pittsburgh to Virginia Beach without my car being magnetically pulled into at least one of the vineyards. It just won't doesn't happen.

This year we decided to bring all of our food. What a nice change that was. We could sit and have a picnic with delicious homemade food at a winery with beautiful scenery and lots of fall foliage. We had cheese. We had chocolate. We had wine. Seriously.... I'll plan another weekend right now and you are all invited.

Pistachio Goat Cheese Balls

(Adapted from Food.com)

Ingredients

1/4 Cup Shelled Salted Pistachios (I used about double this)

6oz Goat Cheese, Softened

2oz Cream Cheese, Room Temperature

Directions

1. Toast nuts in small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes; chop finely.

2. Combine goat cheese and cream cheese in a medium bowl. Drop mixture by heaping teaspoons onto a parchment-lined baking sheet; refrigerate 15 minutes.

3. Roll into balls, then roll in chopped nuts.

4. Refrigerate, tightly covered, up to 1 day.

Another thing brought was an appetizer/snack my family simply calls oysterettes. For lack of a better name, these are oyster crackers marinated in the most addicting dressing ever. As long as I can remember these crackers have been a staple for special occasions so I felt it only necessary that they make an appearance at our annual wine weekend.

Oysterettes

Ingredients

2 Bags Oyster Soup Crackers

1 Cup Oil (I used Canola in this case)

1 Pack Dry Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning

1 Tsp Dill Weed

1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder

Directions

1. Mix oil, ranch seasoning, dill weed, and garlic powder together.

2. Put oyster crackers in a gallon zip-loc bag and pour dressing over top of crackers.

3. Let sit for a couple hours or over night. Every now and then move crackers around in bag and flip bag to make sure all crackers are well coated.

So now you have no excuses. Grab your girlfriends and enjoy in a wine weekend (or just a wine night) soon! Vineyards are everywhere and now you have great tasting snack ideas to go along with it!  

Enjoy! :)

**Bonus**

These delightful digs were also a star component over the weekend. Check out Sugarcoated to see how to make these wine and cheese cupcakes. I promise you won't be disappointed.