Elizabeth Heiskell of the Debutante Farmer is joining TODAY to celebrate National Wine and Cheese Day. She shares four fabulous hacks and two tasty recipes. She shows us how to make the most of leftover wine, keep cheese fresh, cook a perfect grilled cheese sandwich and more.
Wine Hacks
Save so-so wine.
Fix a not-so-great wine by adding sparkling water or seltzer to create a wine spritzer. It's an easy cocktail, and can even stretch out a bottle of wine if you're running low!
Wine Simple Syrup
Turn your leftover wines into a yummy, sweet syrup. It's perfect for pouring over ice cream or fruit to get that wine flavor on any dessert.
Ingredients
Leftover wine
Sugar
Flavorings (such as ginger, vanilla bean, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise or black peppercorns)
Method
1. Add wine to a pot and pour in sugar. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Add in any desired flavorings, if using, while the mixture simmers.
2. Let cook, stirring frequently, until sugar is dissolved and the mixture has reduced to a third of its original volume.
3. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, let cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Cheese Hacks
Perfect Party Platter
To make the perfect charcuterie platter stick with 3 types of cheese: 1 hard, 1 soft and 1 blue. Add nuts, meats, crackers and fruit to compliment the cheeses and stretch out the platter. It's that easy!
Take the leftovers from the platter and dump it into a baking pan along with whipped eggs and cream. Pop it in the oven, and you have an easy and delicious breakfast!
Make cheese last longer.
Wrap cheese in wax paper to keep it fresh longer. The flavors of aged, hard and semi-hard cheeses need space to breathe, so wrap them first in a layer of waxed paper followed by plastic.
Give grilled cheese a grown-up twist with white wine, shallots and a sophisticated cheese blend.