A Pumpkin Bowl of Recipes

　　After the colonists came over to America, they used pumpkin in side dishes, desserts, stews, soups, and even beer. Although the colonists had a good idea when it came to baking with pumpkin, I have to admit, when it comes to choice of drinks, I’ll choose a pumpkin spice latte over pumpkin ale and save the ale for the stew.

　　If you are addicted to pumpkin spice lattes and can’t afford to buy one every day, you might want to try the Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe below. Depending on how good of coffee you have and whether or not you grind your coffee fresh, the pumpkin spice latte made from the recipe below tastes pretty darn close to one from Starbucks.
When it comes to baking with pumpkin, sugar pumpkins, also known as pie pumpkins, have the best flavor. While Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are grown for their large shell, sugar pumpkins are grown for their flavorful insides. With a thicker shell, these types of pumpkins are delicious when baked and have the tasty flavor of their squash relatives.
For an alternative to the bread bowl, take advantage of the plentiful supply of sugar pumpkins available at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. When it comes to homemade soups and stews, sugar pumpkins make delicious and edible bowls without all the extra carbohydrates. Whether you are looking to add extra vegetables to your diet or simply looking for a way to add a decorative touch to your dinner table, be sure to add a few of these pumpkins to your shopping list.
Not only are sugar pumpkins a nice alternative to the festive fall dinnerware sold in stores right now, nothing beats the look of them on your table. After baking just until the inside of the pumpkin is tender, each individual pumpkin can be served as its own serving bowl. The baked pumpkin adds delicious flavor to the other ingredients inside and can be eaten just as you would baked squash. As cute, edible decorations, you might find that your children who otherwise wouldn’t eat squash as a side will eat these with their stew or soup.
Since stews and soups always taste better when heated the se

　　cond time around, I like making a pot the day before and using the leftovers when filling pumpkin bowls for the next day’s meal. Cute pumpkin bowls will perk up your otherwise boring leftover food while serving the dual purpose of adding bright color to your kitchen. Not only that, if you are serving these for company, these bowls make it easy to entertain by taking the place of a fancy centerpiece.
For an easy recipe to fill your sugar pumpkins with, the recipe for Beef Stew below is tasty and filling. Make sure, though, that you bake your pumpkin bowls on a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Like many recipes made in my kitchen, I learned this one the hard way. After baking a large pumpkin filled with stew for way too long, three hours to be exact, the bottom of the pumpkin baked itself into my oven rack. After lifting up the large seventeen-pound pumpkin, the bottom broke away and broth from the stew spilled all over the bottom of the oven. Fortunately, a new idea was born out of this kitchen catastrophe. Thanks to my oldest daughter, the idea for the individual pumpkin bowls came about, becoming our newest and favorite way to bake our fall squash.
In keeping with a pumpkin-themed meal, delicious pumpkin desserts don’t come any easier than the recipe for the Pumpkin Sheet Cake below. Capable of being whipped up in minutes, the recipe below is one I’ve been making for years. As one of my kids’ favorite cakes, I make this one a lot throughout the fall and winter. Depending on the size of the crowd, this recipe can be halved for a standard baking pan or in a large jelly roll pan for a crowd of 25. Although some might prefer this cake served with pumpkin ale, some like myself will opt for the pumpkin spice latte. However, whatever your drink, three cheers to your next fall meal.

　　Pumpkin Stew (6 servings)
2 pounds beef stew meat
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 cups water
4 beef bouillon cubes
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes, not drained
4-6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
6 medium carrots, sliced
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
6 sugar pumpkins
1) In a Dutch oven, brown meat in 2 tablespoons oil. Add water, bouillon, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onion, pepper, and salt.
2) Bring all ingredients to a boil. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender.
3) Meanwhile, remove tops of pumpkins and set aside. Discard seeds and loose fibers from inside. Place pumpkins on a large cookie sheet. Scoop stew into pumpkins and replace the tops. Brush outside of pumpkins with remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
4) Bake at 350 for 1 ½ hours or just until the inside of the pumpkins are tender (do not over-bake). Serve in bowls or plates.
Kitchen Tip: If you like extra broth, add an extra cup or two of water to the recipe for Pumpkin Stew above.
Pumpkin Sheet Cake (20-25 servings)
2 ¼ cups pumpkin puree
3 cups sugar
1 ½ cups oil
6 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1) In a mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, and oil. Beat in eggs. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix just until blended.
2) Pour batter into a greased 15 in. x 10 in. x 1 in. jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
5 cups confectioners’ sugar
3-4 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1) For frosting, beat cream cheese, sugar, milk, and vanilla.
2) Spread over cake.
Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte (makes one tall latte)
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon canned pumpkin
1-2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup strong coffee
1) In a saucepan, combine milk, pumpkin, and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until liquid is steaming. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and cinnamon. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
2) Pour pumpkin mixture into a large mug and add coffee. Top with whipped cream, if desired, and add a light sprinkling of cinnamon or nutmeg. Drink and enjoy!
About this column: In The Kitchen With Jodee brings you easy, economical recipes from Avon Lake's mom-of-eight, Jodee Brooks.

Explore Desserts That Taste Good & Make You Feel Great!

　　One of the easiest ways to cut calories and get away from high sugar and high carbohydrate desserts is to indulge in healthy desserts. It’s those sugary, carbohydrate laden desserts that are standing in the way of becoming healthier. However, there’s no denying that everyone wants to enjoy a delicious dessert every now and then.
Nearly everyone has a sweet tooth to some degree and ending a delicious meal with a sweet treat seems very natural indeed, especially at holiday and family gatherings.
Fortunately there are some tips, tricks, and ideas that for low carb desserts and sugar free desserts that can be easily prepared. These desserts don’t take much time and the ingredients are inexpensive. However, some of these tasty treats contain carbohydrate-free sweeteners, so if you have issues with an irritable bowel caused by these kinds of sweeteners, be sure to carefully read all the ingredients in each recipe you are considering.
If you like to bake, but aren’t crazy about exploring new options on your own, there are a few things that can be used for excellent dessert items when cutting carbs, calories, and sugar from your diet. An ideal inexpensive, low carb, and no fat dessert is sugar-free gelatin. Sugar-free gelatin provides a light dessert with a sweet, fruity taste that will satisfy anyone. Adding a single teaspoon of a non-dairy whipped topping makes gelatin into a satisfying dessert that will surely please anyone. Adding a teaspoon of fresh fruit will make ordinary gelatin into a light tasty parfait that’s low in carbs and calories.
Sugar substitutes like Nutrasweet can be used or one of the new sweeteners that are made from natural plant extracts. These can be used to create amazing desserts with no calories and lower alcohol sugar content.
Healthy desserts are typically simple. Things like berries or fruit with some extra flavorings make excellent healthy desserts. For example, add some fresh raspberries or pineapple chunks to some fat free yogurt. It’s easy to satisfy a sweet tooth with the combination of tangy and sweet combination and cut down on calories, fat, carbs, and sugar.
Another great healthy dessert idea is to slice bananas lengthwise and sprinkle them cinnamon. When looking for healthy dessert ideas, choose fresh ingredients that are in season and substitute use these instead of other rich desserts that are packed with carbohydrates.
Sometimes it’s a little more of a challenge to prepare sugar free desserts, especially if you’re cooking for someone that has diabetes. Preparingsugar free desserts for someone that’s following a diabetic diet is difficult because fruit is packed with the kind of sugar that’s bad for a diabetic.

Time for Apple Picking

We were very tired, we were very merry-- We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry; And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear, From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere; Edna St. Vincent Millay Is there anything better than an apple? Fall is my favorite season and apples play a large role. When October arrives and the leaves turn scarlet and orange, and the air turns cool and crisp, it's time for apple picking. I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania where apple picking was mixed with a ride in the wagon through the pumpkin patch. A generation later, my daughters had the same experience growing up in Connecticut. We returned home with bushels of apples, gallons of apple cider, pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, and of course, you had to try some of the warm apple cider and fresh baked cinnamon donuts. I can smell them now. There is so much you can do with an apple. Eat it plain; slice it, and serve it as a snack with peanut butter; sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon; bob for it; make delicious tangy candied apples that are so good you can't even wait for the candy to set. And did I mention caramel apples? My mother made them for her ten children all the time. Sometimes, she dipped the caramel and candied apples in coconut or chocolate and candy bits. Perfect for Halloween! Then there's apple crisp. This is my youngest brother's favorite because it's so quick and easy to make. Just slice the apples and dust them with cinnamon sugar and put them in a buttered pie plate. Then you take a handful of oats and some more butter and cinnamon and crumble it on top of the apples and bake them for a half hour or so. Instant heaven. And you don't even have to make a crust. But of course, there is nothing like a great homemade apple pie. Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness. Jane Austen I don't like desserts, or even eat many desserts. But I make an exception for apple pie. I barely think of it as a dessert. As far as I'm concerned, it's real food. And you can dial the sweetness up or down. I personally like my hot, two crust, homemade apple pie (the only kind I will eat) with a piece of melted sharp cheddar cheese. But there are those who like some vanilla or ginger ice cream on the side. Who can blame them? People say it's as American as apple pie. That has always surprised me. First of all, only the crab apple was native to America although now there are more than 7,000 varieties grown here. Let's remember Johnny Appleseed and the debt we owe him for planting so many orchards. Plus you can find great apple tarts in France, in Spain, and in England. They vary in process but each one is a taste delight. There are many delicious apple pie recipes on my DishandDine website. But I thought it would be a special treat to share a new apple recipe with all of you. Our dear friend, Francine Segan, is a true Renaissance woman. We've read her themed cookbooks, listened to her talks on food history, and watched her cook. (See her videos on DishandDine.com) As fall begins, Francine has a beautiful new cookbook, Dolci: Italy's Sweets. Here is a recipe for a fantastic Rustic Tuscan Apple Cake. I felt that we could all use a scrumptious new apple cake recipe. Try it, and the book, too! Rustic Tuscan Apple Cake 　　Cookbook Title: Dolci: Italy's Sweets Photo: Ellen Silverman Description: Pareva la torta di Nonna Papera! Looks like Grandma Duck's cake! Said of a particularly pretty cake or pie A classic! At first glance it may seem like a huge ratio of apple to dough and you're going to be tempted to cut down on the apples. Don't! It looks like a lot of apples, but they magically meld into the batter. You'll love the result. The top half of the cake is chock full of tender apples that float over sweet moist cake. Deceptively simple, exceptional results. Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter, plus more for the pan 7 ounces, about 1 1/3 cups, whole wheat or all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan 2/3 cup, plus 1 tablespoon, granulated sugar 2 large eggs or egg substitute 1/2 cup whole milk 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda Zest of 1 lemon 4 large or 5 medium apples, about 2 pounds total Preparation: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch cake pan. Beat 2/3 cup of sugar and the eggs in a large bowl, using a whisk or electric handheld beater, until creamy and light yellow. Beat in the flour, milk, baking powder, baking soda and zest. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Peel and core each of the apples. Dice one of the apples and stir the dices into the batter. Cut the remaining apples into thin slices. Spread the slices over the diced apples in the pan in a neat pattern. Press into the batter. Scatter thin pats of butter or drizzle olive oil over the apples and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for about 75 minutes, until dark golden and cooked through. This recipe and many other family favorites are available on DishandDine.com. Stop by and become part of this grass roots global food community!

Dessert review: Meso Maya in Dallas

I’ve been getting more e-mails from people telling me that I need to sample the Pastel de Moras from Meso Maya than I get about my Nigerian Lottery winnings or about how I really need to do something about the size of my penis.
I could wait no longer! This place hasn’t been open for that long and the word is out. They don’t take reservations, so prepare for a wait on a Friday or Saturday night. The strip mall location at Preston and Forest was packed on a Friday night and I settled in for my hour wait for a table with good friends at 7 p.m. The weather was beautiful and I managed to steal a seat on the comfortable patio furniture from the Bettie White look-alike.
Once we finally got seated, I prepared the table for the masterpiece I had heard so much about. We were also drooling at the description of the other desserts. We formed a pact right then and there, that no matter how full we were, we needed three of the desserts on the menu. See, this, folks, is why I love my friends. Never one to back out on a pact or a pinky swear; they understand the importance of dessert.
An hour, several cocktails, and many delicious dishes later, dessert was served. Now, since I consider us to all be good friends by now, I will gift you this one piece of advice. If you do nothing today, do this: Go to Meso Maya and order the Pastel de Moras. The Pastel de Moras is a skillet blueberry cake paired with vanilla bean ice cream. This is a blueberry muffin on crack. It is the Johnny Depp of blueberry muffins. The blueberry “cake” is baked in a cast iron skillet, which is the best part. It gives the edges a crispy texture and the warm blueberries practically melt in your mouth. Pair that with a bite of the vanilla ice cream, and well, I may need some alone time, and extra napkins.

                           
Next up is the Crepas Con Cajeta, which is a buttermilk crepe, caramelized plantains, goat milk caramel, pecans, and vanilla bean ice cream. Think Mexican bananas foster. Not everyone at the table loved it, but I did love the taste of the rich, ripe, cooked plantains with the tart goat milk caramel. It is definitely a taste you have to get used to because when you take a bite, it tastes completely different than you would expect, but that is exactly what I loved about it.
Lastly, we ordered the Pastel de Chocolate, which is a double layer Mexican chocolate cake with strawberry sauce and Rompope. I am a huge fan of the slightly spiced Mexican chocolate cake, and the dollop of muddled strawberries on top was fantastic. However, I fully believe that the Rompope made this dish complete. Rompope is a type of Mexican egg nog, and I am no stranger to the sauce. However, I would have liked to seen more of it on the plate or perhaps infusing the frosting with Rompope? Hell, just bring me the bottle.

                          
Between all the actual sugar and the sugar from the alcohol metabolizing, I was soon about to crash. Once I did, it was not sugarplums I was dreaming about, but the delicious Pastel de Moras whom I plan to meet again very soon.

Volcano Pizza

Volcano Pizza, as the name shape is similar volcano would erupt. But if that is, lava is so tempting.

The process is a bit complicated, but if so, satisfaction beyond measure. If curious just try the recipe for one serving pizza volcano below.

Volcano Pizza Ingredients :

Basic dough skin II, 1 / 2 recipe

Shitake mushrooms, 4 pieces, cut into triangles

Chicken breast fillet, 150 grams, cut into rectangular

Onions, 1 / 2 fruit, cut into triangles

Red bell pepper, 1 / 2 fruit, cut into triangles

Tomato concase, 4 tablespoons

Mozzarella cheese, 100 grams

How to make Volcano Pizza :

Contents : Saute onion until fragrant. Add chicken, cook until it changes color. Add tomato concase, shitake mushrooms and peppers. Cook until done, remove and set aside.

Unroll half of dough skin. Place the contents on it.

Unroll remaining dough skin. Together with the skin is given the content, the gyre edge and reserving 1 cm for the pump hose hole.

Pump pizza until fluffy and cover tightly. Bake in oven at 220 degrees Celsius, until cooked. Remove and serve.

Home fruit planting

A home fruit planting carefully selected, properly located, and well managed can enhance the home landscape, provide high?quality fruits and serve as a satisfying hobby. Though is about Apple, Pear, Peach, Plum, Cherry, Apricot, or Strawberry, Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Grapes, Persimmon, the home fruit garden requires considerable care.

Thus, people not willing or able to devote some time to a fruit planting will be disappointed in its harvest. Growing fruit at home can be fun and provide your family with fresh, flavorful and nutritious food. The benefits are many:
You can grow large amounts of fruit in a relatively small area • Fruits are a good source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and fiber •
If you carefully choose the kinds and cultivars (varieties) of a fruit before you plant, you can harvest dessert-quality fruit from early summer through the fall
As an added bonus, the fruits you grow will taste much better than the fruits you find in the grocery store. Before you begin, you need to invest considerable effort into site selection, soil preparation, and planting plans. Before you order plants, you also need to learn about their pollination needs, their winter hardiness, and how susceptible they are to pests.
Some fruits are easier to grow than others. Tree fruits and grapes usually require more protection from insects and diseases than strawberries and blackberries.

So, strawberries aren’t much harder to grow than most annual garden crops and bear fruit quickly. Most tree fruits, on the other hand, require a large commitment to pruning, pest management, and care, and they won’t bear fruit right away.
Generally speaking, flowers and fruits of fruit trees must be protected by pesticide sprays from before blossom?time until harvest.
In addition, sprays may be required to protect leaves, the trunk, and branches. window.google_render_ad(); Small fruits are perhaps the most desirable of all fruits in the home garden since they come into bearing in a shorter time and usually require few or no insecticide or fungicide sprays.
Make sure you are ready to devote the time to your planting before you start. The success of your home fruit planting will be determined largely by:
• how susceptible your fruit site is to frost?
• whether your fruit site receives adequate sun.
• whether your site has well-drained soil at least 8 inches deep.
• whether you choose plants that are adapted to your fruit site and winter hardy.
• your ability to prevent fruits damage from diseases, insects, weeds and wildlife. • your ability to use good fruits cultural practices, including providing adequate water.
• your ability to do what is required in a timely manner. Fresh fruits can be available throughout the growing sea­son with proper selection of types and cultivars (varieties). Fruits soils and sites Plant fruits avoiding poorly drained areas.
Deep, sandy loam soils, rang­ing from sandy clay loams to coarse sands or gravel mixtures, are good fruit soils.
On heavier soils, plant in raised beds or on soil berms to improve drainage. All fruit crops are subject to damage from late spring freezes. Hills, slopes or elevated areas provide better air drain­age and reduce frost damages.
Make certain that the air can move freely throughout the planting site and is not “boxed” in with surrounding terrain or tree borders. Fruits do best in full sun. They can tolerate partial shade, but fruit quality will be lowered. Size of fruits planting area Plan the fruit planting to fit the area involved as well as family needs.
A smaller planting, well cared for, will usually return more quality fruit and enjoyment to the grower than a larger neglected one. One?half acre or less planted to adapted cultivars of the best kinds of fruit is usually adequate for the average family. Plans for fruits planting While growing fruit at home can be rewarding, it will cost time and money. To reduce these costs, carefully consider the design of your planting, including arrangement, spacing, cultivar selection, number of plants, and aesthetics. Develop a planting plan well in advance of the planting season.
Determine the kinds of fruits, cultivars, and quanti­ties of each needed. Locate a source of plants and make arrangements for plants to be available at the desired time of planting. One common mistake is to put the plants too close together. Allow ample room for growth so you can prune and perform other tasks.
Another common error is to put in more plants than you need. A small planting that receives proper care will yield more good-quality fruit than a larger planting that is neglected. Perennial weeds such as bermudagrass and johnsongrass compete heavily with young plantings and should be elimi­nated before planting. This can be done by spraying with a post?emergence herbicide such as glyphosate (Roundup‰) in late summer the year before planting or by shading out weeds by growing hybrid sudangrass for the year prior to planting. Strawberries especially should not be planted in newly turned under bermudagrass sod.
Not only will the bermu­dagrass regrow and cause extreme competition problems because of the short height of the strawberry plants, but the white grubs that frequently infest bermudagrass sod can destroy the strawberry roots. For best survival and production, supplemental water should be provided in the summer. Locate your fruit plantings near a water source.
Fruit planting If possible, set the plants immediately after arrival. If fruits roots are dry, completely immerse the roots in water for a few minutes or overnight before planting. Always water plants immediately after planting. Never allow the roots to dry out or freeze. When trees planting is delayed several days, heel in the trees by forming a mound of loose soil or mulching material. Place the roots into this mound, cover them, and moisten.
The trees may be vertical or horizontal as long as the roots are covered. This protects the fruit trees from drying or freezing.
Set trees about the same depth that they grew in the nursery row. Trim off broken and dried roots. Place topsoil around the roots and firm the soil to exclude air. Settle the soil with water and make sure the roots are left in a natural outward position. Leave a small basin one or two inches deep around the tree to aid in watering.
Prune back about one?third of the tree top. Wrap the trunk from the soil line up to the first branches (or 18 inches above the ground) to protect the trunk from sunscald, rodent injury, insect damage, and drying out. Fruit plants cultural practices During the first summer, cultivate or mulch around the fruit plants to reduce competition from other plants and to conserve moisture and fertility. Irrigation is especially important in the first few years while the planting becomes established. Pollination and fruits set One of the most common questions home fruit growers ask is, “Why won’t my plants set fruit?” There are many possible reasons for poor fruit set, including:
• a late spring frost.
• cold or rainy weather during bloom.
• disease.
• poor plant nutrition.
• inadequate pollination.
• lack of a compatible cultivar for cross-pollination in species that are not “self-fruitful.” Pollination and subsequent seed development are prerequisites for fruit set. With most fruits, flowers that appear in early spring begin as buds that form in the axils of the leaves during the previous year.
Flowers of many fruits bloom during early spring and can be damaged by frost. If temperatures fall below 30 degrees F when the flowers are vulnerable, some or all may be killed, reducing or eliminating fruit set.
Pollination occurs after the flowers have opened. Some fruits, such as grapes and peaches, shed pollen from their anthers (the male part of the flower), which falls by gravity or is carried by wind currents to the pistil (female part of the flower). With strawberries, blueberries, apples, plums, and sweet cherries, insects carry the pollen from flower to flower.
Heavy rains during bloom can interfere with pollen distribution or insect activity. Seed formation will be poor if pollination is inadequate, and seed formation is essential for the growth and development of most fruits. For example, apples with only a few seeds will fall off the tree in June or remain small and misshapen.
Some fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, peaches, tart cherries, and grapes, are self-fruitful fruits. Each plant can set fruit with just its own pollen. Other fruits, such as apples, sweet cherries, pears, plums, apricots, and elderberries, are not self-fruitful fruits.
They require cross-pollination from another cultivar for fruit to set. Blueberry plants are self-fruitful, but berry size is larger with cross-pollination from another cultivar. Most nursery catalogs provide information about which cultivars are good for pollinating each other-for blueberries and other fruit crops as well.
Certain apple cultivars, such as Jonagold and Rhode Island Greening, produce pollen that is ineffective in setting fruit on other cultivars. To be sure of adequate cross-pollination, plant at least three different apple cultivars. With groups of sweet cherry cultivars, the pollen of some cultivars is not compatible with others within the group.
Yet the cultivar Stella is cross compatible with most sweet cherry cultivars and provides a good source of pollen for other cultivars. Stella is also self-fruitful. Many European plums (often called prune plums because of their high sugar content) are partially self-fruitful. But you can improve their fruit set by planting two or more cultivars.
You will need to plant two or more cultivars of Asian plums because most are not self-fruitful. Plant all fruit trees used as “pollenizers” within 100 feet of the cultivar to be pollinated. You may need fewer plants if you rely on neighbors’ trees as pollenizers, but you could have a major problem if those trees are destroyed.
Aura Angheliu is a Romanian floral designer with many ideas of natural decorations, freelance writer of nature, flowers and plants, traditional treatments and of the flower shop business. She also loves nature, flowers and to make floral arrangements.

One bottle of wine

If you have ever bought a bottle of wine you thought you loved and felt disappointed because it didn’t taste as good as the last one, you’re not alone.

There are a 1,000 reasons why this might happen. The more processed and industrialised a wine is, the more likely you are to find uniformity from one bottle to the next.
At the extremes of this scale, you might say it’s like buying a lurid packet of Mr Kipling’s cakes (Blossom Hill, anyone?) compared to a box of plums (natural wine), some of which will taste sweeter than others and one or two of which might have a little bruise.
But what about all those wines in between? The ones we find in the supermarket that aren’t corked or oxidised or anything else but just… don’t taste as we remember them?
Timing makes a difference, of course: wines develop, which can be a good thing or, on occasion, a very bad thing. Some cheap wines don’t have the power to last the year they need to be on shelf before the next vintage comes along.
Like a marathon runner who hasn’t put in the training, you can feel them flagging after six months; by the 10th they’re lying by the side of the road waiting for St John Ambulance.
There were a couple of those at the recent Asda press tasting. “This is completely shagged,” as one of my tasting colleagues put it of the Asda Corbières 2009 France (£3.56), a technical term that didn’t go down awfully well with the buyer.
The 2010 of the same wine, by contrast, looked really good – but it was an as-yet unbottled tank sample, due to arrive some time before Christmas, so I’d want to taste it again in its finished condition before recommending it.
With the cheapest wines, it’s common practice for supermarket buyers to tweak the blend that goes into a particular label across the year to keep it tasting fresh.

For example, a white blend of colombard and ugni blanc from southern France might be made dryer as the year wears on because as its acidity fades, too much sweetness will make it taste lazy and sluggish.
You’re not necessarily being short-changed by being given a different wine; the idea here is to create a greater semblance of consistency, although you may well notice a difference.
Talking of blends, a bottle of wine looks so neat and tidy it is easy to believe that one is identical to the next, but it’s logical that the number you can make from the same batch is dictated by the size of your largest mixing bowl.
That’s why Ernest & Julio Gallo have a subterranean blending tank so large they have been known to invite a full-sized orchestra to play inside it.
And why, at the Cave de Saumur, an excellent co-operative in the Loire, they have eight tanks each with a capacity of 100,000 litres, or about 130,000 bottles of wine. This blend can then be stored in smaller tanks and bottled to order – wine ages more slowly in tank than it does in bottle, so the idea here is to keep the wine fresh until it’s sold.
In theory, new bottlings should taste virtually the same but, somehow, sometimes, they just don’t.
I’ve known buyers ask for fresh samples to be sent out to journalists because a new bottling wasn’t showing as well at a tasting as they felt it should.
I’ve also tasted wines that appear to be the same but vary so wildly in quality I find it hard to believe they could possibly have come from the same blend at all.
A case in point was Waitrose’s own-label claret which, last autumn, I tried on several occasions inside a week, fascinated by its extreme awfulness. How could anyone let such a wine through? It tasted as if a small family of mice had been drowned in it and left to decompose.
Two months later, I called the wine in again, feeling certain that it would make the grade for an article I was writing on what not to buy. And guess what?
It tasted completely different – an improvement I would find hard to put down to a couple of months of ageing in bottle.
Sometimes wines go the other way. I’ve seen competition judges frowning in lack of recognition over wines which, just a few months earlier, they had garlanded with awards.
Could it be that, sometimes, a winning blend sells out and a lesser blend, from different tanks, is made and bottled in its stead?
“That would be a very big accusation,” Philippa Carr at Asda points out.
All of this variability might seem taxing, but it’s life: if we really want wine to be produced on a grand enough scale to stock every supermarket in the land, then different bottlings and blends are an inevitable outcome.
And, most of the time, they do work in our favour.