Editor’s Note: Asiago and the Accomplice (Whine & Cheese Cozy Mystery Series) by Judy Volhart is now available. Click here to order your copy.

I don’t know about you, but every now and then, I get a hankering for a nice, red, Frisky Beaver. Canada is quite well known for its beavers, so it should be no surprise that this wine is from the Port Dover, Ontario area and made from 100% Canadian grapes.

Available in red, white and Riesling, I chose the vibrant red garnet cabernet/merlot blend, described as having aromas of black cherry, blackberry and spice, with a hint of oak. This was one of my tastiest picks to date.

If you’re more of a white wine fan, the white sounded good too; hints of pineapple, golden delicious apple and lime zest so I may just have to give that a try too. As you can see, this is very hard work and takes a huge amount of dedication…

Last week, I’d been wondering what would go well with a Poutine, and lo and behold, it’s as though the wine Gods were listening to me. What do we see written right here on the back of the wine bottle? That it would even go well with Poutine! I will have to put it to the test, of course, and make the three-cheese Poutine I’ve been craving.

If you’re mouth isn’t watering yet, let’s throw in the Black River Pepperjack cheese and the parmesan salami that I bought to go with the wine. The pepperjack looked delicious, with flecks of red chili peppers throughout its semi-firm cheesy body. It was not as spicy as I expected, but it was a sharp cheese with a definite spicy, peppery after-bite that gently punches you in the throat as if to say “Hey, how’d you like that, ay?!” Later, it was melted into a pasta dish with a cheesy sauce (Kraft Dinner) and was divine.

The parmesan salami was my greatest surprise; it was actually wrapped in fairly thick layer of parmesan cheese. This made it quite sharp and combined with the sharpness of the pepperjack cheese, it was just a bit too much for my unadventurous taste buds. Someone with a more sophisticated palate would surely enjoy it, but, of course, it was nothing that a some more Frisky Beaver couldn’t fix.

Cheers, my friends

Judy

In all the excitement, I must confess that I had conveniently neglected to mention anything yet, to anyone, about the unwelcome welcome package I had found in my office. I thought of it briefly before I quickly pushed it away again. The best way to deal with it was to ignore it.

With the moving van unloaded, we were buried in a sea of boxes. I surveyed the mess around me and sighed in frustration, holding a finger to the pulsating vein that was throbbing above my left eye. Where did I put that dust pan? I had been sweeping up in the living room. It had to be here somewhere! I tore about the room looking for it, doing my best imitation of the Tasmanian devil, with my cat Hummer in hot pursuit.

My brother called out from the kitchen. “Sis….why do you have a dust pan in the fridge?”

Aha. I knew it would turn up. Irked by the smugness in his voice, which clearly indicated that he thought I’d lost my mind, I coolly responded.

“Why, where do you keep yours?” I turned and left the room in a huff.

—Excerpt from Asiago and The Accomplice (Whine & Cheese Cozy Mystery Series)