I get asked all the time “what is your favorite wine”? And I really don’t have an answer, even though I lean toward Pinot Noir, but I never like to limit myself on a “favorite”.

However, I will tell you that 2 wines came to my rescue a few weeks ago while I was trying to finish my last post “Wine, Wigs, & Fondue”.

Some of y’all may know that I use a MAC to do this “blog” and I was trying to be really creative in trying to place the photos. WordPress is not easy to use when it comes to photo placement. Whenever I import a photo, it automatically creates a “gallery” and places ALL of the photos as a group. I thought I had gotten around the system and could break them out of the “gallery jail”. It took me a long time trying to place those damn things and I thought it looked terrific! Unfortunately my PC readers couldn’t see all of them.

The next day, I decided to start over and place the photos in the restricted “gallery design” and maybe I could do 2 galleries! Well this was not simple either. It tried to go to the help page and found out I was going to have to type in “codes”. I didn’t have clue what they were talking about or where to put the codes if I found them!

I kept messing with it and calling my dear neighbor and friend, Joanna who has both MAC & PC, to take a look each time I tried to fix the damn photos. Her answer was always the same, “I see it on my MAC but not my PC and I liked how it looked before you messed with it!” Do you know how disheartening that gets being told that, over and over, on a Sunday afternoon when I would rather be chill’n on the couch watching football?

So I decided to try and repost the original but I wanted to compare what I had done with another version. So I clicked on the “Compare” button and all of a sudden the page went black and “someone” was typing a note to me telling me something about “it will destruct” and “follow the white rabbit, go back Lori”… WHAT?!?? the gerbils in my brain kicked into hyper drive and I went into a panic! Did I just get a virus? Because I sure as Hell did not listen to any Jefferson Airplane or “drop acid” before writing this!

So I decided to write to one of the “Happiness Engineers” (I’m not kidding you) at WordPress to tell them about my ordeal. While waiting for a response, I called Joanna. Her solution was to drink wine. God love her! That is exactly what I did.

I opened a 2006 Calais Winery La Cuvee Du Commerce (a Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah blend) www.calaiswinery.com. The smell; earth, dark fruit, clove. The taste; earth, black cherry, smoke but not heavy on the tongue.

The other wine: a 2008 Fess Parker Viognier, Santa Barbara County, www.fessparker.com. The smell: peach, ripe melon, butter. The taste: honeysuckle, citrus, mineral. It is a full-bodied wine so it “carpets” the tongue.

Since I was having a bad day, I needed my Mother’s cooking! So I paired the wines with one of my Mom’s “comfort” dishes that I have modified. I combined my Mom’s “Curry Chicken” with Paula Dean’s “Chicken Divan”. Both dishes are full of cream, spice, and cheesy goodness. I think the only heathy items are the chicken and the broccoli.

The wine from Calais brought out an earthy quality to the dish. I think it enhanced the meat flavor of the chicken and the earthy flavor of the broccoli. The earthy, smoky flavor of the wine smooth out the tangy richness of the dish. I was glad this wine was not big and bold. It complimented the dish perfectly.

The Fess Parker wine made the dish sharper and tangier. It brought out the lemon, curry, and mayonnaise ingredients. Because of the citrus and mineral flavors of the wine, it cut through the richness of the cheeses and creamed soup ingredients. It was a good pairing but sometimes a little too lemony.

So, after I calmed down and finally got a response from one of the “Happiness Engineers”; I found out that the “virus” I thought I got was actually an “Easter Egg”. They actually congratulated me for finding it….I wanted to say “congrats for scaring the Hell out of me and get your Happy A@% over here and help me!” They told me how to deal with the “gallery” issue, but for right now I don’t have the energy….maybe I’ll spin some vinyl and listen to Grace Slick sing about White Rabbits and drink wine…

Paula Deen’s Chicken Divan: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chicken-divan-recipe/index.html

Lora Lee’s Curry Chicken: 2 cans cream of chicken soup, 1 cup mayo, juice of one lemon, tbsp. curry, Mix this together. In a casserole dish, layer cooked diced chicken(about 8 breasts) then 2 bags worth of cut up broccoli (but cook & drain the broccoli before adding to the dish). Pour the sauce over chicken & broccoli. Then top with a lot of cheddar cheese and crushed croutons. Bake @ 350 til bubbly.

The boring gallery of photos: