The experts say that cooking with wine adds dimension to your dishes.  One of the most popular ways to do so is by braising meat with a full bodied red.  It helps to bring out the flavors in the meat and also has tenderizing properties for the meat because of its acidity.  You can also use the same wine to deglaze the pan and make a wonderful sauce.

Other ways to include a sampling from your wine rack in your dishes might be to add it into a stock for flavor or use it to make fondue.  Fondue is one of my favorites.  There is nothing better than dipping yummy things in cheese!  I am pretty sure that cheese should be its own food group.  Speaking of fondue, there is an amazing restaurant not far from us up in Tacoma.  It is called the Melting Pot.  Not only do they serve everything fondue style, they also have an amazing assortment of wines in the cellar!

Just because you are on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a nice glass of wine.   With the recessions in our midst, many wineries are producing wine for the budget savvy consumer.  Below are some other money conscious tips to getting great wine on a tight budget for your wine rack from the financial blog Get Rich Slowly:

- Buy wine by the case.  Often you get a bulk discount!

- Stock up on wine during the Christmas season (November through January).  Retailers have massive sales on wines during this time.

- Wait for a sale.  Yes, your favorite bottle may be $25 but, trust us, it goes on sale!

With our highest temperatures ranging in the mid to upper 20s the last few days, you can imagine the ice that has made things difficult for many people.  I’ll give you an example from my own personal life:

This morning, I woke to my alarm clock blaring it’s usual ‘time to get up’ nonsense.  I stumbled to the door to let the dogs out, wishing I had remembered to toss on a coat.  Once they had finished their business, I made my way back inside and into the bathroom.  I was just thinking how great it would be to hop into my morning shower to defrost a bit when I turned on the water.  Much to my disappointment, no water came out.  It seems as though ‘no freeze’ pipes are quite the scam because ours are currently frozen solid.  With no water to be had, I ended up washing my hair and brushing my teeth with bottled water.  I sure hope that everything thaws back out a bit before tomorrow.  I would hate to have to cancel my very first Thanksgiving because I had no water to boil potatoes in.  If that ends up being the case, I think I will spend my Thanksgiving bundled up by the fire with a glass of wine pulled from my wine rack.

These past few days have been close to unbearable here in Washington.  Record low temperatures and snow are making things absolutely miserable.  The first day of snow was very pretty but then when it stopped snowing and the temps got down to 7 degrees ad everything froze, it became quite a hassle.  I mean, come one, 7 degrees?  Is that even a real temperature?  All of our roads are solid sheets of ice, which definitely makes for an interesting commute.  You could almost make a game of seeing how many vehicles in the ditches you can count on your way to work.

The remedy for the cold weather here at the Wine Rack Store?  Well, you can bet that it’ll take something a little stronger than what I have on my wine rack to thaw out!  I am picturing the nice little snifter of brandy or peppermint schnapps that will be adorning my coffee when I finally make it home tonight!

My how times flies!  It seems like just the other day I was bringing home a tiny little newborn.  Now my son is almost 1 and I can hardly believe it.  I am having so much fun planning his birthday party.  There were so many fun little themes to choose from that it took me a while to decide.  Finally I chose Wild Wild West.  I am going to cover cardboard boxes in brown paper and paint little western style buildings on them, top his cupcakes with little cowboys, and dress him up as a little sheriff.  It is going to be so cute!

Now, my only decisions are what to get him for his birthday.  Because a good bottle of wine for our wine racks isn’t very appropriate for a 1 year old, I think I’ll go with the standard toys and books.  He loves books so I know they’ll be a hit and who can go wrong with toys?