Il Forno: Fabulous Favourites Festival Roundup, part 1

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Hosting a blogging event is always been fun for me. Co-Hosting two events at once, together with Lenn, even more so. Yet the creation of a theme, makeing adjustments and putting the announcement up are all foreplay. The real action comes, in this case, on the event's day in an explosion of cooking and wine drinking. Going through the blogsphere searching for the single entries can be a bit of a pain though and so here is the first part of the event's entries round-up: our highlights of the match, if you wish.

I hope you will have fun reading the round-up below. I sure enjoyed going through all the entries, reading about the appetizing dishes and mouthwatering wines. Now though, I feel the terrible urge to pour myself a glass of wine ;-).

Visit Lenn's blog for the other half of this roundup.

Fff1 We kick off with A Chicken in Every Granny Cart and her Rizot dalmacjia (and warm Hvaranin salad) paired to Chateau Jolys Jurançon. This post has everything I love about food blogs and more. It has food and travel memories as inspiration for tasty food and a lovely wine to go with that. Even more, it is the result of a food blogger and a wine blogger working together. Ann came up with the recipe and The Caveman came up with the wine. Perfectly in the spirit of this event!

For our next entry we have again a collaboration, of a more domestic type this time. Over at A Guy, a Girl and a Bottle the guy chose the wine, the girl cooked the meal and the bottle... well, I guess the bottle got drunk. The end result was 2004 J. Lohr Arroyo Vista Vineyard Chardonnay with Cornish Hens. Don't miss the Podcast that goes with the post!

Fff3 Derrick of An Obsession with Food couldn't decide which "favourite" to pick from: food or wine? Luckily for us he went for both with a double entry. He paired Duck Confit with Barolo and Zinfandel wines and then told us about his favourite wine of the moment: a mouthwatering 2004 Merkelbach Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Kabinett, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, sharing a few food pairing tips for that too.

Fff4 I have often wondered how to best pair the delicious Hungarian paprika, stew that we foreigners often call Gulash –a dish I fell in love with while travelling to Huingary before the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communism– with wine. I can cook the dish, but my few pairing attempts were n ot really convincing. Hungarian blogger Aubergine used the chance to give us a few tips on pairing and how to recycle leftovers (not that any would be left in my home!) and then went on to successfully experiment Bandol with the dish. Thanks for the hints!

Fff5 My vote for best opening line for a FabFavFest submission definitely goes to "Life’s short--eat desert first!" from Avenue Vine. How can you argue with that? The Baklava with vanilla ice cream was drizzled with PX Sherry and paired with... coffee is perfectly in spirit with the opening sentence, and keeps the wine lovers among us happy with some interesting tasting notes on Javier Hidalgo's Pedro Ximénez Jerez Viejo.

Fff6 It's always a pleasure to see non-food/wine bloggers join our events: Dave of Breakfast with Pandora took his inspiration from Digital Dish, the collection of food blogging writings which appeared on Press for Change. He picked a Spanish tortilla recipes from toomanychefs and created an all Latino match with some 2004 Los Cardos Malbec from Argentina.

Fff7 Bron Marshall baked a stunning Leek and Brie tart for the occasion and paired it with a 2004 Hawke's Bay Chardonnay from Vidal Estate, one of New Zealand's oldest wineries. I cannot do anything else than agree with her; it sounds like a delectable match.

Pim once more demonstrated us all her knowledge of Thai food putting together a great post on how to pair Thai food and wine. A lot of smart tips concerning both a reasoned approach to wine pairing with spicy Thai food and a few wine sorts suggestions. If you love Thai food and wine, you should not miss this.

Fff9 Haalo of Cook (almost) anything at least once brought us a special Australian treat. Many of us associate the wines from down under with those made from international grapes like Shiraz and Chardonnay, but here's a chance to see that there is more to Australian wine than that. An in triguing Baileys of Glenrowan Founder Liqueur Muscat, made with petit grains Rouge Muscat grapes, is matched to white chocolate tart .

Fff10 WBW and IMBB are always great chances to learn something new and this joint edition did not disappoint. I had heard (but alas never tasted) of Canadian Eiswein but had no idea that there is also Ice Cider. Thanks to Dessert by Candy now I know. On top of that doesn't the pairing of Domaine Pinnacle 2003 Ice Cider Pairs with Goat-Cheese Cheesecake & Caramelized Apple Sorbet sound perfect?

Fff11 Wine and food are perfect friends, so enjoying them with good company is even better. The only thing that can top that is having your friends wash up after you after that. Lucky for Doktor Weingolb to have a friend like Eric. To celebrate the WBW/IMBB event they had a steak and red wine dinner with a Domaine Magellan Ponant 2003 Vin de pays des Côtes de Thongue pairied to grilled steak, asparagus with terragon and brown rice with peas.

Fff12 If we ever have another joint WBW/IMBB event I think Fork & Bottle has just the perfect name to host... should Jack and Joanne want to, clearly. Getting back to the present event, they paired a Slow Roasted Steelhead with mustard glaze to a 2000 Rochioli Estate Russian River Valley Pinot Noir .

Fff13 Since WBW/IMBB were born as international events, it is not surprising that this time we have a submission in Italian from my friend Muccapazza over at Il Gastronomo Riluttante. His Cuttlefish with squid paired to 2004 Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Emidio Pepe goes beyond the all Italian match and includes a short explanation on how to recognize freshly caught and seasonal cuttlefish from the frozen stuff. Mucca, it's really time you learn some English, there are plenty of Reluctant Gourmets waiting for you out there!

Fff14 From Italy to Protland, Oregon and Je Mange la Ville. Another cheese tart and Chardonnay match, Asparagus Goat Cheese Tart with Argyle Chardonnay. Who said repetition is bad? I could have puff pastry cheese tarts washed down with a nice white wine any time, and can't you just taste these beautiful asparagus?

Fff15 I never thought a blogging event can turn a beer loving German to wine, even for a single occasion. Maybe I should have a little more trust in the power of blogging persuasion. Ulrike of Küchenlatein joined our food-wine matching spree with a Baby Spinach and Chicken Liver Salad paired to a 2004 Falasco Garganega. Plus she learned that choosing wine can be more fun than just picking the right bottle ;-).

Fff17 Gabriella of My Life as a Reluctant Housewife followed our suggestion to pick a favourite dish and look for a wine to pair it. The final result sounds and looks thoroughly appetizing: her Lamb Kebabs with the Three C's and Couscous with Pine Nuts and Dried Apricots was paired to a nice 2003 Napa Valley Syrah from Esca.

Fff16 And finally, last but absolutely not least, comes my co-host and wine blogger extraordinaire Lenn. When plans of a big five-course meal became hard to fit with his busy schedule (I know what you mean, mate) he decided to have a go at his second-last bottle of Wolffer Estate 2003 Late Harvest Chardonnay and pair it with Grilled Poundcake with Grilled Peaches. Sounds delicious Lenn, but what we all want to know is: will that last bottle make it through the next five years?