This post has been sponsored by Holland House® Cooking Wines, and all opinions and content are my own.
If you think that wine is just for drinking during the holidays, then think again! While you may know it’s possible to cook with wine, did you know that incorporating wine into certain recipes helps enhance the taste of the other ingredients? Holland House has a line of five different varieties of cooking wine, and I am SO excited to have had the opportunity to create a delicious recipe inspired by their Bold Boost of Flavor!
Home cooks and chefs alike are able to achieve bold flavors that excite the taste buds. I can tell you first hand that adding a dash of cooking wine from Holland House into this dish at a couple key moments during cooking really allowed the flavors of every ingredient to come alive and shine.
This recipe is a little bit like making a bread pudding in the fact that it contains bread, egg and lots of other tasty ingredients. The dried cranberries added a bit of sweetness to an otherwise savory recipe, too. This is a great Thanksgiving or Holiday Recipe Hack, because it can be prepared the night before, or even a few hours in advance, and be served warm right out of your Crock Pot when guests are ready to eat. The other part of this cooking hack is the imaginative and unique flavors that cooking wine adds to this dish.
Holland House® Cooking Wine adds a Bold Boost of Flavor to nearly every meal!
Are you familiar with what cooking with wine actually does to your recipes? If the proper varietal of wine is chosen to use in your recipes, it enhances the flavors of the meal, and the cooking wine gives the recipe a deep, rich flavor without adding a ton of extra ingredients!
I grabbed this information from the brand’s website. Here’s what they have to say:
Why Cooking Wine?
“Some wines are great for drinking. But they just don’t cut it when it comes to cooking.
Because a wine for cooking has to do so much more than just taste good. Holland House Cooking Wines are specially selected for their rich robust flavor, which means they stand up to cooking temperatures that cause the flavor of delicate table wines to cook away. What’s more is Holland House flavor does not vary from bottle to bottle as table wines often do, making the flavor last and bring great consistency from meal to meal. Studies show that meals prepared with cooking wine are as good or better than their more expensive table wine counterparts.
And not only can they take the heat, Holland House Cooking Wines last longer without refrigeration too, making them perfect additions to your pantry or spice rack! In fact, we recommend you keep a bottle out by your spices and use in place of seasoning the next time you cook. You’ll notice the difference.
The Holland House Difference
Since 1887, Holland House has been making wines specially formulated for cooking. Only Holland House offers the finest ingredients, aged to perfection, and built with flavor and preservation that will transform any dish from ordinary to extraordinary. Holland House is a quick and easy way to bring bold flavor to almost any dish. Made with fresh grapes, hand selected from our fine wineries for their rich robust flavor, then fermented and blended with our special seasoning just for cooking and flavor that lasts!”
The labels on Holland House Cooking Wine actually helped me so much to decide which wine to incorporate into this meal. Since this recipe contains ground pork, I chose their Red Cooking Wine because the label said that it “Enhances sauces, meats, and marinades”. Then, after researching the product further, I was even happier, because I learned that this Red Cooking Wine goes well with: MEATS: Excellent with beef, lamb and pork, especially dark meats”, so everything worked out perfectly!
Like I mentioned previously, I was able to use my cooking wine in two parts of the recipe. First, after I browned my sausage, I added a little bit of the Red Cooking Wine, and also once everything was put into the Crock Pot to cook.
In addition to their Red Cooking Wine the other Holland House® Cooking Wines include Sherry, Marsala, White with Lemon and traditional White Wine.
I am so excited to have received this assortment of five varieties of cooking wines PLUS new kitchen goodies from the brand, because I am currently renovating (well, re-painting) my kitchen, so this is the perfect time to refresh my kitchen goodies. I received some of the sweetest gifts ever, including a brand new Crock Pot, Amco Houseworks measuring cups and spoons, amazing wooden spoons from Calphalon, and a Williams Sonoma Cutting Board (see below). I am so excited to have been able to use the items to help me prep this delicious meal, as well as many, many more to come!
INGREDIENTS
(SERVES A LOT – great for a crowd of nearly 8-10 people as a side dish)
4-8 Tbsp (or more to taste) Holland House® Red Cooking Wine
2 (12 oz) All Natural Pork Sausage Rolls
4 tablespoons butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
5 celery ribs, chopped
10-12 cups dry bread cubes
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt (and any of your other favorite seasonings)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 pears, cored and diced (I used Red Pears and they worked extremely well)
1 cup dried cranberries
3 eggs
2 cups chicken broth
DIRECTIONS
1.) In large skillet, brown sausage until cooked through, breaking it up as it cooks. During this point, I added about 3-4 Tbsp. of the Holland House Red Cooking Wine, and I thought it really enhanced the flavor of the sausage and other ingredients.
2.) Drain excess grease and set sausage aside. I just kept my strainer in the sink while I prepared the next part.
3.) Wipe out pan and add butter over medium heat. Add onion and celery, and more seasoning, and sauté 8-10 minutes or until soft. Add sausage back to pan, reduce heat to low to keep warm. (See below.) The house smelled amazing during this step!
4.) In your cool crock pot, toss bread cubes with sage, seasoning, salt, pepper, diced pears and cranberries. Add sausage mixture and stir to combine.
5.) Whisk eggs and chicken broth together and pour over bread mixture. Stir to combine.
6.) Transfer mixture to greased slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 3-4 hours, until mixture is moist and spongey. Yield: 8 servings
Look how beautiful this recipe turned out! It filled the crock pot nearly 2/3 of the way full, so you may even have some leftovers!
MY IDEAL THANKSGIVING MENU:
Last year, we made a beautiful ham covered in bacon and pineapple. I made a few sides, but nothing too fancy. This year will be awesome! I have been cooking so much this year, and have had lots of time to think up my dream Thanksgiving menu. This menu would include of course, this delicious Crock Pot Wine-Infused Stuffing with Sage, as well as other awesome faves like a roasted ham, Baked Sweet Potato Casserole with Toasted Marshmallows on Top, corn casserole, a salad, and more.
And for refreshments, I’d serve guests fruit-infused water from a big, pretty spouted carafe, coffee, hot cocoa, cold and warm apple cider, and spiked apple cider for those who drink. For dessert, we will have both a chocolate cream pie AND a homemade pumpkin pie. It’s going to be divine!
What are your favorite side dishes to make for the holidays? Let me know in the comments, below.
