Hello Burger Fans! The Sutter Home Build a Better Burger program this year is going to be awesome. We’ve made some amazing changes that we think you’ll love! More to come on that later.

The first change is that we took down the Sutter Home Build a Better Burger Facebook page. All of the activity for the contest, entry help, photos, recipes and more will happen on the Sutter Home Facebook page. Why? We want all of you to be in one place! This is one of our biggest promotions of the year and we want everyone to see how cool it is.

As we get closer to the opening of the recipe contest, we’ll have more to tell you. Until then, start thinking about which recipe you’re going to enter this year and start the winter barbecue!

Last week, we launched the Sutter Home Wine Cocktail of the Week (COTW)! We’re choosing delicious recipes from the entries into our cocktail contest on our Facebook page. Each week, we’re featuring a fan recipe that gets its own Facebook status update, blog post & even gets added to our profile pic for that week! You could be famous – enter now! Follow us on Twitter too – @sutterhome & #SHCOTW.

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COTW – January 26, 2012
Moscato Pucker Up
-3 oz. Sutter Home Moscato
-1 oz. watermelon liqueur
-1 oz. seltzer water
Combine ingredients together, adding seltzer to your preference of taste.
Cocktail submitted by: Karen O. from Ohio

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COTW – February 2, 2012 (Happy Groundhog Day!)
Southern Belle Cosmo
-Sutter Home Pinot Grigio
-Triple Sec
-Cranberry juice
-Limes
Mix 2 parts Pinot Grigio to one part triple sec combined with one part cranberry and the juice of half a lime.
The cranberry mainly adds colour and should not excessively dilute the drink.
Cocktail submitted by: Tracy E. from Mississippi

Month 1 of our Sutter Home Wine Cocktail Contest has ended but we have fun news: it’s a monthly contest! Every month we’ll be picking a winning cocktail! We’re also going to start featuring a fan cocktail each week on our Facebook page so head on over there for new cocktail ideas.

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Orange Sutter Home-sicle
-2 oz. Sutter Home Bubbly Moscato
-1 oz. white rum
-3 oz. orange cream mixer
Pour ingredients over ice & mix with bar spoon. Cheers!

Cheers to the weekend! We’re thinking you may need a couple of fun & easy recipes for your football parties this weekend. Who are you rooting for?

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Pom-Merlot Fusion
-4 oz. Sutter Home Merlot
-2 oz. sparkling pomegranate-blueberry juice
-Sugar rim
-Garnish with lime
Take a salad plate and add a small amount of water. Take another plate and add a thin layer of fine sugar. Dip the rim of your glass in the water, then roll the rim of the glass around in the sugar. Add ice, Sutter Home Merlot, sparkling pomegranate-blueberry juice. Garnish with a slice of lime & enjoy!

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Shredded Chicken Sliders
-4 frozen chicken breasts
-1/2 bottle of Sutter Home Merlot (750ml)
-2/3 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
-Shredded cabbage & carrots for coleslaw
-Kings Hawaiian small buns

Chicken
Add chicken, Merlot & BBQ sauce to slow cooker. Set to high for 4 hours or low for 8. Chicken should fall apart when done. Slice King Hawaiian buns in half, lightly toast in the oven. Add more BBQ sauce to chicken as needed.

Coleslaw
Mix shredded cabbage & carrots with small amount of mayo. Use chipotle mayo for a kick!

Finish it up
Top bun with shredded BBQ chicken & small amount of coleslaw on top. Serve with Pom-Merlot Fusion cocktail & enjoy! (The messier the better!)

Our fan Laura B. posted this awesome & unique White Zinfandel Sangria to our Facebook page and we just had to share. Even though it’s not warm out right now, Sangria is still a fun choice for so many occasions: Football Sundays, Friday Girls’ Night, Book Club… Test out Laura’s recipe this weekend for the NFL Conference Championship games! Pairs perfectly with spicy football foods like hot wings & jalapeno nachos.

Tip: make a big batch of this sangria & put it in a drink dispenser. That way you can watch the game & enjoy the party!

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Laura’s Sangria (big batch!)
-Sutter Home White Zinfandel – 1 bottle (750ml)
-1 cup peach schnapps
-1/2 cup vodka
-2 cups white cranberry peach juice
-Fruit ice cubes (add slices of peaches, strawberries, oranges, etc into your ice cube trays, fill with water & freeze)
Combine ingredients over fruited ice & serve out of a drink dispenser or pitchers

We’re here to offer you some easy to follow tips for making wine cocktails.

1. Don’t be intimidated! Cocktails are fun ways to change up how you drink wine. Tip: Take a cocktail you love & make wine the base or add wine to your favorite drink.
2. Have the right tools. A simple shaker, bar spoon & shot glass make all the difference. Learn more in our past blog post! Enter our contest to win $250 towards a new set of bar tools so you can show off your bartending skills.
3. Try new things. If your first idea doesn’t work, try something else! When we were making cocktails, we made some that were undrinkable. We replaced a few ingredients here and there and ended up with the fantastic drinks we’re sharing with you. (More cocktails!)
4. Use mini bottles. If you want to try a new drink recipe, buy Sutter Home 187ml mini bottles! They’re the perfect size to shake up your new drink.

Any way you mix it, making cocktails is fun, exciting and the perfect activity for a rainy weekend night at home with friends this winter. Get shakin’!

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Sutter Home Sweet Red Cuba Libre
-3 oz. Sutter Home Sweet Red
-3 oz. diet or regular cola
-Juice from one lime wedge

Squeeze lime juice into bottom of the glass. Add ice & Sutter Home Sweet Red. Stir. Add cola, garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy!

Have you thought about starting a book club? Book clubs are a great way to sit back with a glass of Sutter Home with friends and tackle those books you wanted to read. We’re here to help you kick one off this winter!

Where Should We Meet?
If you have a group of local friends/family/coworkers in mind for your book club, you can share hosting duties with the group (once a month at someone’s house), meet at a coffee shop or a favorite restaurant. If your group lives in different cities, go online! You can use our Book Club app on our Facebook page to discuss the month’s book with friends and other Sutter Home book lovers.

How Should We Choose Books?
That’s an easy one! You can read the book of the month along with us in the Sutter Home/Harper Collins Book Club! When you get together, you can even help us choose next month’s book by voting on our Facebook page.

How Should We Run Our Book Club?
Every group is different! Some groups get together to go over the books in detail along with thought-provoking questions. Some groups use the time to chat about the book but also catch up with each other. On our website, we provide a book synopsis, information about the author and much more. We also link over to Harper Collins’ website where there are book club discussion questions and even more information about the month’s chosen book. Whatever your group decides to do, there really truly is only one rule: have fun!

What Should We Serve?
Food: If your book club meets in the evenings at someone’s house, an easy dinner of apps or tapas is perfect. Baby quiches, flatbread, veggie platters and caprese salad kabobs are perfect for a casual book club dinner. Put the food out on the side tables and coffee table, with small plates and invite your club to enjoy.
Wine: We have so many varietals to choose from, it will be hard to just grab two! We recommend serving a red and a white. For a tapas-style dinner with a lot of flavors, our Sutter Home Pinot Grigio and Sutter Home Merlot are perfect. If you are serving spicy egg rolls or another spicy dish, Sutter Home Moscato or Riesling can handle the spice. Pop a bottle of Sutter Home Bubbly Moscato to celebrate your first Book Club meeting or just because!

This is our first installment of how to start (& continue!) your own book club. We’re excited to have you as a part of ours! Cheers!

Do you have a book club? Post your tips in the comments or on our Facebook page!

Usually we spoil you with cocktail recipes, but today we’re going the food route with Sutter Home Moscato Vanilla Cupcakes! Try these out for your friends with a glass of chilled Sutter Home Moscato – we know they’ll be sweet on you!

SUTTER HOME MOSCATO VANILLA CUPCAKES
-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-1 tsp. baking soda
-3/4 tsp. salt
-1 1/4 cups sugar

-1 cup oil
-1/3 cup Sutter Home Moscato
-3/4 cup buttermilk
-2 large eggs
-1 tsp. white vinegar
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 cupcake pans with liners. Combine first 4 ingredients and sift. Combine next 5 ingredients and mix until blended. Mix wet ingredients into dry and mix until just blended. Scoop into prepared cupcake page, filling each 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until done. Should make 12-18 cupcakes.

SUTTER HOME MOSCATO VANILLA FROSTING
-4 oz. cream cheese – room temperature
-4 oz. butter – room temperature
-2 tbsp. Sutter Home Moscato
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
-2 cups powdered sugar
Combine cream cheese and butter, mixing well. Add Moscato and vanilla, mix together. Add powdered sugar and whip until smooth and light. Frost your cooled cupcakes.

Like we said yesterday, anything you like you’ll probably like in a cocktail. Today’s recipe includes muddling ginger. You can buy a muddler and keep with your bar tools or, in a pinch, use the handle of a wooden spoon. Put the spice/herb/root/fruit/etc at the bottom of a pint glass or shaker and use the wooden spoon to smush (the technical term) it. Muddling releases oils, flavors & aromas that you wouldn’t normally get just by dropping the item into the cocktail.

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Sutter Home Ginger Posey
~2 oz. Sutter Home Bubbly Moscato
~1 oz. pineapple vodka
~1 oz. blood orange soda
~1 tbsp. lime juice
~1 tbsp. sweet & sour mix
~Muddled ginger
Muddle ginger in the bottom of your shaker. Add ice, pineapple vodka, lime juice & sweet & sour mix. Shake until cold. Strain into a glass, add ice, top with Sutter Home Bubbly Moscato & blood orange soda. Enjoy!

Have you created your cocktail yet? Visit our Facebook page for more cocktail inspiration & the contest entry form!

Sutter Home Wines are delicious on their own, paired with food, family & friends. Sometimes, the occasion calls for something a little more and that’s where our Sutter Home wine cocktails come in! Shake up something new!

Let’s talk ingredients.

Wine
The base of all of our cocktails are, of course, Sutter Home Wine. We have so many varietals to choose from and each one offers so many cocktail options. The sweeter wines tend to be easier to work with but with the right mix, all of our varietals will work. Tip: If you want to test things out, our Sutter Home 187ml mini bottles are perfect for cocktails! They give you the opportunity to test out different drinks without opening an entire bottle. Unless of course you want to use a few ounces for a cocktail then enjoy the rest!

Mixers
Some examples of mixers are orange juice, mango juice, sweet & sour mix, club soda, lemon-lime soda, cola, and really anything else you enjoy. Try different proportions of wine to mixer to find the perfect mix. Tip: Start with 1 ounce (a little less than a shot glass) of your mixer to 2 – 3 ounces of wine. You can always adjust from there – add more if you want the mixer flavors to pop!

Garnishes
Some garnishes are used for decoration and some are used for flavor & decoration. If you’re using orange juice, let’s say, for the mixer in your cocktail, your garnish can be an orange wheel (cut as a circle), a thin wedge, or a twist (just the peel!). If your orange-y cocktail needs a little bit of zing, try adding the juice of one lime wedge & garnish with a lime! Tip: Slice up fruit for garnishes before you make cocktails. You can add squeezes of different citrus fruits as you go along until you get the flavor you’re looking for.

Shaking up cocktails shouldn’t be intimidating – just get your favorite Sutter Home wine, your favorite mixers & garnishes and start playing with the amounts. In no time you’ll have custom concoctions perfect for entertaining – and our contest!

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Splash of Sparkle
~3 oz. Sutter Home Sweet White
~1 oz. white rum
~1 oz. sparkling water
~1 tsp. lemon juice
~Float of Sutter Home Bubbly Moscato
Shake Sutter Home Sweet White, rum & lemon juice together with ice. Pour into a champagne flute and add sparkling water. Slowly pour a float* of Sutter Home Bubbly Moscato on top. Cheers!

(*To float the Bubbly Moscato at the top of the glass, pour it very slowly and most of the Bubbly will float on top of the other ingredients.)