The Beaujolais Nouveau is here!

While everyone else in the country camped out for a midnight screening of the latest "Twilight" movie, I was getting off of work and heading to the wine department of the local grocery store with one thing on my mind...I went up to the man working that department and asked, unable to conceal my excitement, "Excuse me, but has the Beaujolais Nouveau arrived?"

It's really quite nice, I like it a lot better than last year's actually. There's a certain brightness to it, a very pleasant fruitiness that doesn't come off as too sweet as some previous Beaujolais have done. They say that this year's press is the best they've had in 50 years. I'd definitely recommend buying it. I had mentioned it to a few people at work before I was able to get out and buy mine, and told them that I'd toured that region in France this past summer. The connection makes it even more fun, to think that I had been where the grapes were grown, it's pretty cool.

I had the day off today so I had a little fun with my Pepperidge Farm puff pastry. One of my favorite things to make with this dough is finger food. Just wrap up some tasty morsels into a little bundle, and that's what I did today. I had a package of little frozen scallops, which I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with when I bought them. I cut some of the puff pastry into squares and placed a thin slice of butter on each one. Onto that, I spooned on some finely minced celery, onion, and garlic. Four (thawed) scallops went on top of that, salt and pepper, and they were ready to wrap. They turned out to be very good! Simple yet tasty, which is just what I was going for. I still have plenty of dough left over, and with the holidays coming up I'll certainly find a use for it all. I might make napoleons with it, or make individual tartlet shells, that's what I love about puff pastry, it's so versitile!