This month's theme, chosen by Megan (Wannabee Wino), is wine made from the Petite Sirah grape, also known as Durif. Of the two wines we drank, the 2002 Switchback Ridge was big and alcoholic, and the 2002 Carver Sutro was more balanced and food-friendly.

Two new reviews: Jack dines alone, and then a second visit, with family. We like this restaurant/wine bar and, if we lived near enough in L.A., we would visit regularly.

Joanne and Trent have been building Gingerbread Houses for three years. We have compiled a gallery of Christmas Gingerbread House photos. 2007's houses are currently underconstruction (not up yet). Cross the yellow tape at your own risk.

Athough our second visit to The General's Daughter is not quite as good as our first visit, we still regard it as the finest restaurant in Sonoma (that we've been to).

While we're far from experts on parenting, we think that kids should get to eat real food at nice restaurants. Joanne offers encouragement to parents and then explains the rules plus tips, tricks and gadgetry to make it a success.

We love butter. Unsalted, salted. We've been tasting the butters of the world and Joanne has compiled a list of the ones we've tasted. A few years ago we even hosted a butter tasting. This page will grow and expand as we sample more butter and find more butter sources.

Joanne, for the first time, mixes and bakes the walls of a Gingerbread House using a bake-your-own ginger bread house kit. Although this page is not a step-by-step instruction set, it's close enough that most questions you'll have are answered. (It's not rocket science, but it does take some careful planning.)

Putting together a holiday cheese platter? This quick guide from Joanne might help expand conservative cheeselover's horizons and their guests. Included are tips on plating and choosing cheeses as well as ideas on what cheeses to choose for your holiday cheese plate. Joanne also offers some suggestions for more kid-friendly cheeses.

This is our third year of Joanne doing a diary leading up to our Thanksgiving meal. This year, we're having one of the rarer breeds of heritage turkeys, a Slate Blue. Except for the wines, just about everything being served is local, organic and/or from the farmers' market.

Updated with final photos, menu and text.

This month's theme, chosen by Neil (Brooklynguy), is Burgundy from the Mâconnais and Côte Chalonnaise. A biodynamically grown wine we chose was the 2005 Guillemot-Michel Macon-Villages Quintaine. It was delicious and very appealing right now - restaurant ready. The 2005 Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes was in need of at least several years, if not more, before we would be loving it. (It took three days for it start to come around, showing great promise.)

Both of our wines really impressed us and we would buy them again.

Brusse