Ever wondered just what goes into making wine? This tutorial is clear and in-depth, and will have you making your own wine in no time!

How To Make A Mojito (courtesy of Howcast.com)

Yes, it’s a trendy drink. But on a hot summer evening while drinking with good friends, this cross between the Mint Julep and the Daquiri doesn’t feel like a trend. It feels like destiny. You will need:

2 oz. light or gold rum
Some fresh mint
2 tsp. sugar
A lime cut into 4 wedges
Some soda water
Some ice
A collins glass
A measuring jigger
A muddler
And a spoon

Step 1: Pull off mint leaves. Set 1 mint sprig aside, and pull the leaves off the remaining sprigs. Some mojito recipes call for as many as 2 dozen mint leaves—how many you use depends on how “minty” you want your drink to taste.

Step 2: Add mint, lime & sugar. Line the glass with the leaves and add the 4 lime wedges and the sugar. Gently muddle everything against the sides and bottom with the muddler or back of a spoon. In Cuba, where the mojito originated, just 1 tsp. of powdered sugar is used.

Step 3: Fill the glass with ice.

Step 4: Pour in the rum & mix again.

Step 5: Add soda & garnish. Top off the cocktail with soda water and garnish with a sprig of mint. Mojito!

Did you know? While the Mojito was a favorite of “Carrie” and the gals on Sex & the City in the 1990s, it was also a favorite of Hemingway and the guys in the 1930s.

How To Choose Wine (courtesy of Howcast.com)

Hi! My name is Ernie Paquette, and I’m a certified, first level sommelier, and I’m here to talk to you about how to choose a wine.

So, the next time you find yourself in a liquor store and you’re trying to figure out which wine to choose, consider your audience – who are gonna be your dinner guests? Consider what your food is. High acid wines require fat, so, whether it be a white wine or a red wine that has high acid, you’ll need to – let’s say for white you’ll need to choose perhaps shrimp to be the accompanying dish. And, for huge, tannic malbecs, cabernets, you want meat that’s got some fat in it. A nice, thick steak, short ribs, something to that affect.

I’m not a firm believer in white with fish and red with meats. One of the most incredible pairings I’ve ever tasted was a very expensive chardonnay with a venison dish. The accompanying vegetables and starches have to go along with it, but there are no steadfast rules in the pairing of wines with fish. Tuna, for example, is a fish that can easily be paired with red wines…pinot noir, lighter seras. Mahi mahi is also a fish that can be paired with a red wine. It tends to have a little higher fat content, and pairs well with lighter reds.

Sparkling wines can be paired with, perhaps, an oyster or lobster bisque, is a great pairing. A cremant champagne can be used a a dessert wine! So, there are no hard, fast rules about what wine to pair with what food!

Learn How To Make Homemade Popsicles (courtesy of youtube.com/BeforeAndAfterTV)

Hi Everyone! I’m going to show you today how to make really delicious, homemade popsicles. Super quick, really easy, and most importantly, very inexpensive. Today I’m going to show you how to make three different kinds – orange creamsicles, chocolate fudgesicles and strawberry yogurt pops. And I’ll show you everything that you need, and how easy it is to do.

So, for all of these popsicles, you’re going to need, of course, your popsicle containers. Each of these recipes is going to yield twelve popsicles, and first we’re going do the strawberry yogurt pops, which is the most nutritious.

For the strawberry yogurt pops, you’re going to need a package of strawberry jello pudding (that’s about $1.25), you’re going to need a container of strawberry yogurt and two cups of fresh strawberries – but you can also use frozen strawberries. So the first thing you’re going to do is pour the entire contents of your strawberry jello into your blender. Then you’re going to need one cup of boiling water…pour that on top in your blender.

Then you’re going to add a cup and a half of strawberry yogurt, and we’re gonna pour that right on top. Then we’re gonna add two cups of sliced and rinsed – I’m using fresh – strawberries. You can also use frozen strawberries. And we’re ready to blend. And, then, that’s it! You’re ready to pour it into your molds. Again, this is going to make twelve popsicles. The nice thing about yogurt pops is that they’re really nutritious. And then you’re gonna pop your tops on. They’re gonna have to sit in your freezer for about 2 – 2 ½ hours. And you’re done!

The next one is my favorite – it reminds me of being a kid. Orange creamsicles. Really easy. You just need a package of four-serving of orange jello pudding. Pour the entire package in the blender first, and one cup of boiling water on top. And one cup of orange juice – you can use concentrate, freshly squeezed – adds a little bit of healthiness to these. And, then, the best part – four very generous scoops of vanilla ice cream, right in the blender. And then you’re ready to blend it. And then pour it into your molds. And I figure all of these popsicles average about…the yogurt ones might be a little more expensive…but they all average probably about 10 to 15 cents a popsicle, so it really is a big savings. And again, all you have to do now is pop the sticks in.

And the last recipe, Fudgesicles – my kids’ favorite. Always a hit. You’re gonna need a four serving package of jello chocolate pudding, and pour the entire package into the blender. Then you’re going to add two cups of milk – you can use skim milk, whole milk, whatever your preference is, and pour it into the blender. And then four scoops of ice cream. You can use vanilla, chocolate, if there’s no nut allergies, you could even use rocky road or something that has nuts in it…whatever your preference is. And then we’re blending. Fill up your molds, and, again, this makes twelve but I’ve run out of molds, so we are going to make six with it – and we pop our sticks in.

So there you’ve got your Orange Creamsicles, your Strawberry Yogurt Pops and your Chocolate Fudgesicles. Very inexpensive, nutritious and the kids find them really delicious. You’ve got lots of treats on hand for when their friends come over. All you have to do is pop them into the freezer. Hope you enjoyed watching, and I hope you have a great summer – thanks a lot!

How To Make French Press Coffee (courtesy of ParisiCoffee.com)

Hello! I’m Jasper with Parisi Coffee, and today, we’re gonna show you how to make fabulous coffee, using a press! It’s really very simple.

The first thing we’re gonna do is get some water heated. It doesn’t matter if you use a microwave or the stove top. For this demonstration, we’re gonna use 34 ounces of water. The ideal water temperature for making coffee in a press is between 195 and 200 degrees.

It’s very important to have the right ratio of coffee to water. In a press, we recommend a gram and a half of coarsley ground coffee to every ounce of water. While the water heats, we’ll prepare the press. Take a regular home scale, put the press on it, and zero out the weight. Because this is a 34-ounce press, and our ratio of coffee to water is 1.5 grams of coffee to each ounce of water, I’m gonna put in 51 grams of coffee into the press. If you don’t have a scale, the french press does come with a scoop that holds roughly 7 grams of coffee.

Today, for our coffee, we’re using a Parisi Original Kengua blend. It’s an intense coffee that enhances the palette with a smooth, mellow flavor, rich body and distinctive bouquet. So, how do you know just how coarse the coffee needs to be? One simple way is to go to your nearest grocery store, buy a small amount of coffee beans – maybe a quarter pound – and grind it in the store’s coffee grinder, just like this one. Grind it on the coarse setting. Use this as your control sample, so you know what the coffee should look like when you grind it at home. You want to make sure there’s no coffee in the store’s grinder before you prepare your sample.

Once the water comes to a boil, give it a quick stir, and if you have a kitchen thermometer, check the temperature. Now, all you do is pour your heated water into the press and let it steep for 4 minutes. After about one minute, take a spoon and break the top crust of the coffee and give it a stir. Put the lid on to hold the heat in. Now we wait. Four minutes is just the right amount of time needed to extract the best flavors from the coffee beans.

Now, all you do is push down the press, and you’re ready to serve! Here’s a serving tip…if you make a full press of coffee, take the extra coffee that’s still in the press, and put it in either another press, or a thermal container. If you let the water stay in contact with the coffee for too long, the coffee may become bitter.

If you want to make really high quality coffee for a large dinner party, make as many presses as you need, and pour them into a thermal pot to keep your coffee hot. Enjoy!

Now, that’s a great cup of coffee!

How To Make The Perfect Martini (courtesy of Howdini.com)

I’m Allen Katz for Howdini.com, and today, I’m gonna teach you how to make a martini, one of the great classics in American cocktail culture. It’s a very simple cocktail, and, when done properly, is one of the most refreshing drinks that you can serve to you and your guests. It’s a wonderful combination, historically, of Gin (which I know surprises some people) and Dry Vermouth, or French Vermouth.

Now, many people consider a martini to be a combination with vodka and no vermouth at all. But, what we’re gonna try today is this wonderful co-mingling of 2 classic ingredients, that have such a crisp flavor and such a wonderful finish, that I think you’re gonna like this extremely, extremely well.

What we’re gonna start with is some of the essential bar tools:

Mixing glasses, of course
A Bar spoon
Several measuring tools called jiggers

The wonderful thing about preparing a home bar is that all of these tools can be purchased for 25, $30 at most, at a restaurant supply store, at a local liquor store, or even at some specialty food stores that now have cocktail ingredients. It’s quite a lot of fun! So, the simple recipe that I’m gonna try today is:

First, our most important ingredient is ice. We’ll take one mixing glass and fill it with ice.

And, in our 2nd glass, we’ll combine our ingredients. First, the gin. And, of course, ingredients are paramount in a good cocktail. And what you want to start with is a softer gin. Now, gins come in a wide variety, from very fragrant and profound with the juniper perfume and flavor, and you can try that as well. But it’s a fun thing to experiment to see how the variations in a simple cocktail (again, just 2 ingredients) can change, by changing the gin.

So, I’ve got 2½ parts of gin, and I’m gonna do about ½ a part of dry vermouth. Now, I know what you’re thinking. What am I doing with all this vermouth? Now, I’ll be honest – one, I’m a big fan of vermouth. It has a wonderful, fruity flavor. Vermouth is simply an aromatized wine. And really, a great martini is not a martini without vermouth. The idea of waving it over the glass, rinsing the glass with it and throwing it over your shoulder…it’s another cocktail altogether! And if you’ve never had it, get over that fear and try it with dry vermouth.

And, as you can see, all I’m gonna do is stir the cocktail. I know it’s a lot of fun to shake a great cocktail, but for the martini, the idea is just to get it exceedingly cold and a little bit diluted as well. Of course, we’re just using 2 spirits, and so we want to bring down that alcohol content by diluting the ice, adding a little bit of water into the cocktail. So, about 30 seconds,and we’ll be ready to go!

Now, once I’ve stirred the martini, I’m gonna prepare my glass. And, again, with just a little bit of ice and a little bit of residual water, I’m gonna get the martini glass well chilled. If you’re doing this at home, ideally if you have space, put a couple of martini glasses in the freezer. Get them well chilled…it will take 15, 20 seconds…and then, when you’re ready to serve the cocktail, you can take them right from the freezer.

So, we’ve got our martini glass chilled, we’ve got our martini well chilled, and then we’re simply gonna take a strainer…and it’s just a beautiful, clean color. And, even that fragrance of a little bit of vermouth, the gin is not too overpowering, is a wonderful combination. And, to finish it, there are several varieties that you can try. One is an olive, of course. I prefer a little bit of a lemon twist, and I just use a simple vegetable peeler to take a twist. You’re just gonna squeeze gently. If the lemon is fresh, you get some of those essential oils right in over the cocktail, perhaps just taking it to the rim a little bit. And, there you have a wonderful, classic martini!

I’m Alllen Katz for Howdini.com!

Learn How To Make Tea With Loose Herbs (courtesy of mountainroseherbs.com

Learn How To Taste Wine (courtesy of Winetasting.com)

How To Make Homemade Wine (courtesy of EgyptianPriest)

How To Make Almond Milk (courtesy of Chow.com)