By Heather B. from NoPasaNada

I like wine. I do. In fact I love wine. I didn’t always have such a strong bond with the fermented grape. There was the wine cooler phase followed by Malibu, then cheap vodka and the college staple that is Natty Light. Then during my sophomore year of college my friends and I started to hang around older girls. It sounds much more sketchy than it was but we lived a life of fundraisers where we steady glasses of wine while making the rounds with politicos of all persuasions.

I started off with Pinot Grigio. A smooth, fruity, white wine. I stuck with the Pinot Grigio but never wandered to Chardonnay because everyone drinks Chardonnay. Then one day out of the blue I started towards the reds. My very first love was Yellowtail Shiraz. Now I should mention here that none of these wines spoke to me. I didn’t swish anything to make sure it was good enough for my ‘refined’ palate. I didn’t sniff and spit. I just moved on to what I knew I would enjoy. I like reds but nothing too big and robust. I don’t like earthy. I like fruity. In my whites I like light and crisp in the summer. Something that reminds me of a fresh sheet hanging out on the line in the breeze. Refreshing. If it is winter, I like a full bodied white. A wine with teeth to it and a buttery finish.

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Image from Food and Wine

In the winter, when it’s windy and raw and cold and gray outside, I am rarely in the mood for a greens-based salad. I don’t know what it is, I guess I need something more comforting and warm. So when this month’s Food and Wine magazine featured a very pretty-looking warm winter vegetable salad recipe, I decided to give it a shot. This involved buying parsnips and celery root, neither of which I’d used before, but turned out to be one of the BEST things I’ve cooked all winter. So give it a shot, along with a couple other recipes I dug up on our favorite Internets.

Food and Wine: Warm winter vegetable salad

Kashi.com: Warm winter salad (with fennel, Gorgonzola, walnuts and chicken breast)

Wholefoods.com: Warm winter greens salad

By Jess from Du Wax Loolu

I’ve worked as an editor for four years now. Usually, this is irrelevant to life, but every now and then it makes me very useful. This is one of those times. So, let’s talk grammar!

The most important thing when writing or editing a document is consistency. Many stylistic choices are just that—choices. Different style guides conflict on some basic things. So don’t worry too much about whether the Chicago Manual of Style agrees with your stylistic choice (just make sure that we’re talking about something that’s a choice and not something that’s a rule).

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After simply admiring the richly hued broth I made from a bunch of leftover Baked BBQ Chicken Wings from Super Bowl Sunday, it was time to put the stock to work.  In the winter it’s all about soup in our house, and chicken noodle reigns supreme.  Usually it’s more a classic Jewish penicillin kind of thing, but this slightly spicy and robust stock was the perfect excuse to bust out of the chicken soup rut and I was very eager to make a Mexican chicken noodle soup.

The stock was just perfect as a base, and I am ready to explore the pantheon of chicken noodle soups from all corners of the globe now.
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By Simon from A Girl and A Boy

All things good are subject to variation, based on taste and style. Over my illustrious career as an amateur drinker of booze, I have come up with my own recipe for The Perfect Martini. I have to take into consideration that this is a sensitive topic for connoisseurs, but I hope that my trial and error, appropriate deference to history, and my own touches of modern flair bode well with the martini drinking community. I’ll say it right out in front, though: the perfect martini is not necessarily the classic martini. You’ve been warned.

Ingredients:

· Gin (Bombay Sapphire or Hendrick’s. Old Raj if you’re rich)
· Dry vermouth (I’m partial to Ponti. Noilly Prat is great too)
· ¼ to ½ teaspoon of juice from a jar of cocktail onions
· 1 medium clove garlic (Garlic? Yes, garlic.)

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(Image from Steamy Kitchen)

I’m trying to diversify our vegetable tastes at home and baby bok choy is something I rarely cook with (just like asparagus, actually, although I am getting better with a few of these quick recipes). So here are some ideas to inspire you to adventure out and use baby bok choy - if you have a favorite, definitely post a link in the comments!

Steamy Kitchen: Baby bok choy stir-fry (and some good tips on how to cook baby bok choy in general)

Simply Recipes: Baby bok choy with cashews

Food Network: Seared salmon with baby bok choy

By Kristen Chase of Motherhood Uncensored

{Editor’s note: Many of the links ate not safe for work and the content is a little risque. Read at your own risk.}

We’ve probably all grumbled at one time or another about the commercialization of Valentine’s Day. Since having kids, February 14 just seems like another excuse to market candy to our already crazed children, and guilt us into paying a babysitter an exhorbitant amount of money for an extra expensive dinner. No one wants to be the Valentine’s Scrooge caught spraying a fire extinguisher to cupid’s burning love arrows.

But who says it has to be all about the chalky candy hearts and marked up flower bouquets? Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to ditch the mommy jeans, pull out the handcuffs, and let your inner Mominatrix run free.

Now if your batteries are now powering your kid’s toys and the last bra you’ve got your underwear categorized by butt status or certain weeks of the month, you might need a little more help getting into the groove. So here are The Mominatrix’s Top 3 Must Haves for Naughty Moms that will be sure to make your Valentine’s Day sweeter than that box of chocolates.

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The kind people at Magic Bullet send me one of their handy dandy Magic Bullet To Go! blenders, asking if I would give it a test drive and also and offer one as a prize for one lucky winner, just in time for Superbowl Sunday. Always psyched to check out a new appliance, I said sure.

We just spent the morning whizzing up eggs and fillings for omelets, and frosty juice beverages. The kids thought it was a blast. The fun of this particular model, however, lies in the fact that you can charge it up and take it and its portable battery on the road: to the beach (not today, it’s like 10 degrees, that would be stupid), camping, tailgating, you name it. At first I scoffed at the thought of dragging an appliance to the beach, but then the thought of daiquiris at sundown turned me around.

(My son used the Magic Bullet To Go blender to mix up this awesome juice from fresh blood orange juice, fresh regular orange juice, and some ice — it was delicious!)

So, now we here at Work It, Mom! want to know: What would you do with a brand new Magic Bullet To Go blender for your Superbowl party?

(It chops, it purees, it frappes. So, think guacamole, salsa, margaritas, and soups. Think dips and spreads, think sauces, think smoothies.)

Post your answer in the comments and the person who impresses the folks at the Magic Bullet with their most ardent plea or snazziest suggestion will receive a free   blender, just in time for game day.

So, bring it on? What would you make?

Fine print: Contest open to U.S. residents only. We will pick the winning comment on February 9, 2010. All comments must be posted by February 7th, 5pm EST to be considered. We will contact the winner up to 3 times, and if we can’t get in touch with you, we will pick another winner. Void where prohibited.