
Oenophiles, rejoice: This week is packed with wine tastings around the country. Perhaps everyone's gearing up for the
holidays, or brainstorming early pairings for
Thanksgiving. I'll take the wine, whatever the reason.

Since the
election night party starts around dinnertime, I plan on providing guests with some substantial snacking. However, the party is at
Elixir, a bar with no kitchen, so all of the food has to be made in advance, and it must taste delicious served at room temperature.
To keep up with the patriotic theme,
LibertySugar and I have come up with clever names for each of the dishes.

After publishing her first cookbook,
Around My Mother's Table,
Ribbon Chick Lisa Burton, continued her crusade to raise breast cancer awareness with
A la Pink, a breast cancer survivors recipe contest. Over the past year she's invited women to share their story and their best recipe. The winner,
Tina Herold and her scrumptious recipe, buffalo chicken cheese dip, were announced in September.Herold used her experience to open a wig shop that provides support and compassion for women with cancer.

Labor Day weekend means food-happenings galore. At front and center is
Slow Food Nation '08, the country's first ever
slow food event, to be held in San Francisco. I'll be in attendance, so I can learn more about eating sustainably.

After stuffing myself silly with Mexican food nachos on
Cinco de Mayo, I just couldn't bear to have another plate of tortilla chips covered in cheese. That's why I started thinking about other types of chips and toppings. Before I knew it, I was in my kitchen crazily making these buffalo — as in wings not mozzarella — nachos.In this insanely tasty dish, sour cream and onion potato chips are topped with diced buffalo chicken and a blue-cheese sauce.