For The Pantry - Merlot Wine Jelly

As embarrassing as it may be, I seriously enjoy browsing the shelves of the grocery store and I get excited when I see something new for the kitchen. Even if it is something I would not use for myself, I'm interested none the less. Catalogs like Williams-Sonoma and Stonewall Kitchen also get me very (probably overly) happy. Perusing through those pages of cooking equipment, tools, specialty food, and other kitchen items is similar to a 10-year old in a toy store; including the "oooooh I like this! This too!".

As far as specialty, gourmet, or just plain tasty pantry items, I will post the ones I have actually used or that I think is worth actually sharing (for good or bad reasons). If I were to do this for all that catches my eye in the kitchen department, I would probably get carpal tunnel from typing nonstop.

Let's start with this; Merlot Wine Jelly. Ironically, I actually can't take credit for finding this one. My mother got these off a QVC presentation by Colorado Mountain Jam and knew it was something we would like to try. I love fruit preserves, so I was happy to try it. Being a jelly, it is rather sweet and would be great as a warm dessert sauce, but can also be used as an ingredient with savory dishes too. For chicken or meat for instance, you can add it to the sauce you are making to accompany it with. I tried it with some herb chicken and it was great. As I said though, it is sweet, so using it as is on a savory item by itself is not something I would recommend. For the chicken I blended it with red wine vinegar (balsamic is great too), low sodium chicken broth, and shallots. If you would rather use it on beef simply swap out the chicken broth for beef. Red wine is probably used in more dishes with red meat than any other, but since I don't eat red meat I went with a chicken breast. If the rest of the family is hankering for a roast or braised beef any time soon, I will use it in there too.

All in all its a pretty unique product it made some darn good chicken. I can only imagine what it tastes like warmed over cold vanilla frozen yogurt. The company has many varieties of jam but if it is the wine that has you interested, they also have Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Curious for more? Here is where we purchased it from : QVC-Colorado Mountain Jams