Treat Mom to a sip trip this year
Impress the mom in your life with your local wine savvy this weekend by taking her to the Spokane Winery Association’s Spring Barrel Tasting. Better yet, give her a day (or two) off so she can head out with her friends and sample the latest releases from the 10 wineries in the Spokane area.
The fun includes sips of new release wines, a taste of wines that will be released soon and samples of wines still in the barrel or tank. The wineries serve appetizers to complement the wines and some offer specials on wine prices.
Winemakers and winery staff will be there to answer questions about the wines from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The wineries include: Arbor Crest Cellars, Barrister Winery, Caterina Winery, Grande Ronde Cellars, Knipprath Cellars, Latah Creek Winery, Lone Canary Winery, Mountain Dome Winery, Robert Karl Cellars and Townshend Cellars.
Maps can be found at each winery. If you don’t know where to get started go to www.spokanewineries.net for information and maps.
Another place to look is at www.spokesmanreview.com/grapevine. Over the past year, we caught up with each of the wineries for our Grapevine series. You’ll find the stories along with recipes each winery shared that pair well with their wines.
For more information about the Spring Barrel Tasting, call any of the local wineries.
More help with home cooking
There is one more place to turn if you’d like to stash the freezer full of home-cooked meals: Chez Cuisine. We overlooked them last week in a listing about meal preparation stores.
Claudia Minzel opened the business about a year ago after owning a motorcycle business for 13 years. Minzel, who grew up in Spokane, is using her hard-earned cooking expertise as the mother of five children in the business.
“I really wish they had something like this back then,” she said.
Like other meal preparation places, customers choose from a menu of meals and go to the store to prepare them. Minzel and her staff do all of the chopping, slicing and organizing and clients leave with a ready-to-cook meal that can be stowed in the freezer and then popped into the oven (or on the grill) for a fast meal. Most places charge about $200 for the service. If you’re really busy, you can pay extra to have them assemble it for you.
Chez Cuisine is at 10411 N. Newport Highway. For more information, call 468-1201 or go to www.chezcuisine.com.
Class Act open house, new owners
Another meal preparation business, Class Act Cuisine, is holding an open house Saturday to introduce its new owners.
Salli and Anthony Dutton moved from Las Vegas to Spokane, with their two children, and bought the business. Salli Dutton worked in menu planning, catering and sales at two Las Vegas hotels and is a certified by a nationally recognized food safety program.
The open house will be held at the Class Act Cuisine at 9021 N. Indian Trail Road from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The phone number is 467-4272. Class Act also has a store at 3022 E. 57th Ave., Suite 15. in the Albertsons shopping center, 443-8788.
For more information, go to www.classactcuisine.com.