Not Your Traditional Holiday Game

Hope y’all had a fabulous holiday!!! The past two weeks have been such a blur! I love all of the holiday parties with Friends and Family (and getting dressed up for causal events and it totally being acceptable.) This year we had a cocktail party for Friendsmas. It was similar to Friendsgiving but with a traditional game that was pretty amazing. 

Have you heard of “White Elephant” or Ornament Exchanges? Well we don’t do those. ;) We play a game that I high suggest for wine drinkers. It requires all guests bring 2 glasses of wine and have a lot of fun!

Here is how it is played:

• Every player brings 2 bottles of wine that are the same.
• One bottle is wrapped in a paper bag and numbered. The matching bottles of wine are set aside as prizes.
• Everyone keeps a score card and grades each bottle of wine. Use whatever system works for you. I graded them A+ to F-- as any good teacher would. Others took a more emotional approach: “Good” to “Not Bad” to “Yuck” to “Smells like Marijuana” to “Worst Imaginable”  to “Worse than Worst Imaginable.”
• Once you have tried all the wines collect the ballots. If your scoring system only makes sense to you then mark your favorite and runner up and the bottom one.
• Tally the scores for the best, second best and worst. (Only use the  runner up votes as a tie breaker to keep it simple.)

Score cards revealed!

Prizes...

The worst should be named first, that way you can show them the door. Only kidding. They get their bottle of wine back… because no one else will want it. 

The runner up gets their bottle of wine back to take home and selects another bottle of their choice.

The winner takes home all the remaining bottles. Yes I said ALL. In some cases there maybe enough to fill a wine rack.

 Image Via

Here is a little hint…

 if you are with a large group a sweet white or even blush will always win. I would bring a nice red but I would likely be one of the few who would enjoy it. Here are my recommendations if you want to be the  winner: Schmitt Sohne Blue Bottle Spatlese or Berringer White Zinfandel.

Have you tried this game before? SOOO much better than "White Elephant" am I right?

Cheers to only 364 More days till Christmas!!! 

XOXO, Elle 

Hot Wine Take 1

Happy Wednesday Ladies!

Via ParisPerfect.com

This week has been draggginnnnnggg! Last night I stayed in just me, Brandy, and some Skinny Girl.  I decided to attempt to “cook” my favorite French drink: Hot Wine.

Hot Wine is a holiday season drink I feel in LOVE with in Paris. They sell it everywhere! Street corners, pastery shops, the baguette stand… you get the point.  It is a variation of Mulled wine that we have in the States. Mulled Wine is basically Hot Apple Cider except you substitute the Apple Juice for Wine, and Hot Wine has slightly different spices. After days of Google searches on my lunch breaks, I went to Le Kroger with full intentions of making an authentic Hot Wine from scratch… then somehow as I wondered through the produce department this little packet of magic spices popped in to my cart.  I feel like it was somehow the fault of Elf on the Shelf.

I had full intentions of posting my A-MAZ-ING recipe! BUT I will be honest it was kinda like a candle… It smelled so good I wanted to eat drink it… but I just couldn’t. Yes, it was that bad. In fact it was such a fiasco I decided to do a for entertainment purposes only tutorial on what NOT to do!

To Do: Wear a vintage apron and heels every time you cook, says the single girl. (Wha? This is a special occasion for me!)

Not to Do: You will need a bottle of red wine and a couple of shots of brandy. When you read ingredients on the internet are cheap red wine… DO NOT buy $6 Concord grape wine. Give a girl a break… “Cheap” is a relative term, and tonight I will be trying again with a $15 bottle of my fav French wine.

 To Do:  Heat stove to the lowest setting.

Not to do: what is wrong with this picture? Let me give you hints… cork screw + twist off bottle. 

To do: Pour entire bottle of wine into saucepan. 

 

Not to do: Add “cheap” brandy… this did not mean the $6 bottle off the bottom shelf. Gawd Awful!

To do: Add Spices to the bottle of wine and 2 shots of Brandy and heat on lowest temperature for 30 minutes. 

Not to do: If you have followed all of these instructions including the “Not to Dos” the DO NOT taste it. Your house may smell better than White Barn candle but it will taste very icky! You have been warned!

Do you have a homemade version of Mulled Wine? I would LOVE to know your recipe! Tonight is Take 2! Wish me luck! I promise to post a legit recipe soon! (Hopefully.)

XOXO,

Elle