This recipe is from Jamie Oliver and tastes like Christmas in a glass. It’s a lovely celebration of traditional festive spices: cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Feel free to any other favorite spices to those in the pot

Ingredients

• 2 clementines
• peel of 1 lemon
• peel of 1 lime
• 250g caster sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 1 whole nutmeg
• 1 whole vanilla pod, halved
• 2 star anise
• 2 bottles of Texas Legato Sweet Surrender 

Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I’m doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It’s important to do make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol. When your syrup is ready turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and both bottles of wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.

 Let everything cook away and warm up gently so the flavours have time to mingle with the wine. Leave mulled wine ticking over on a really low heat and just ladle some into glasses when guests pop in.

6 cups of Texas Legato Chardonnay

1/4 cup super fine sugar

1 cup of white grape juice

1 ripe nectarine, pitted and cut into thin wedges

1 tangerine, thinly sliced

1 cup seedless white grapes, halved

1 cup of club soda

In a large pitcher combine the wine and sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the remaining ingredients, excluding the club soda, mix well. Place the pitcher in the refrigerator and let the sangria sit for at least one hour (and up to 4 hours). The sangria will sweeten with time, so the longer it sits, the better. Just before serving, stir in the club soda and ice cubes. Beware, this Chardonnay is 15% alcohol. Make s 6 servings.

2 cloves of crushed garlic

1 tablespoon butter

2 (14.5 ounce) cans of chicken broth

1 (8 ounce) package of cheese tortellini

1 (14 ounce) can of stewed Italian tomatoes

1 (10 ounce) package of frozen chopped spinach

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, cook garlic in butter for 2 - 3 minutes, add chicken broth. Heat to boiling, reduce heat to low, stir in tortellini and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until tortellini is cooked to desired tenderness. Add spinach and tomatoes (do not drain) and simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Top with fresh grated parmesan cheese. Serve with hard crusted bread.

Makes 6 services, goes excellent with Texas Legato Chardonnay.

16 oz. of softened cream cheese

2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup of sour cream

1 1/2 packages of taco seasoning mix

3 large eggs at room temperature

1 can drained chopped green chilies

1 cup sour cream

2/3 cup salsa

Mix cheeses and beat until fluffy, stir in one cup of sour cream and taco seasoning. Beat in eggs one at a time. Fold in green chilies. Pour into a 9 inch spring form pan and bake until firm. Cool 10 minutes the ice with one cup of sour cream and bake five more minutes. Cool completely, cover and refrigerate. Remove and spoon salsa on top and garnish with chopped green onions. Serve with crackers or sturdy corn or tortilla chips.

15 oz. package of Lobster Ravioli (can be found at Costco)

1/2 pound of bacon, chopped fine

2 clove of garlic, minced

2 shallots, minced

4 cups of brown mushrooms, sliced

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup Texas Legato Chardonnay

4 oz. of vegetable broth

1 cup of heavy cream

3 tablespoons fresh dill chopped

salt and black pepper to taste

Heat a large sauté pan over high heat, add chopped bacon, cook until crispy.

Add garlic, cook for 30 seconds.

Add shallots, cook for 2 more minutes.

Add mushrooms, cook 5 minutes or until brown.

Add lemon juice and zest, cook for 30 seconds.

Add wine and simmer, reduced to 1/4 cup of liquid.

Add vegetable broth and heavy cream.

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer.

Cook until thickened (3 -5 minutes)

Add fresh dill and mix well, remove from heat.

Season with salt to taste.