Okay friends, today marks the official end to the World’s Worst Run Internet Contest. (Capitalized because I believe no one else can challenge me for the title.) That would be the similarly capitalized Big Verjus Giveaway discussed here.

Actually, if I read back through the rules, the contest should have ended November 15th. But then a lot of things should have happened with this contest. Like constant hyping and reiterating of the rules and cross-promotion on Facebook and Twitter and stuff like that. Unfortunately, the world’s most delayed grape harvest got in the way. Is it just my imagination or does every harvest up here seem to go on a lot longer? Maybe it’s because I’ve also established Flying Terrier Farms and added a large vegetable harvest to the grape harvest. Anyway, it seemed to take forever to get four different grape harvests through crush, primary fermentation, press and finally to their current resting place in steel secondary fermentation tanks. A long drawn out process which didn’t have me cleaning up, shutting down and getting back to San Francisco until just a few days ago.

Yes, I’m pleading the Loretta Lynn Defense on this one. Specifically the fifth verse of Coal Miner’s Daughter:

The work we done was hard

At night we slept ’cause we were ta’rd

Yes, I ran a crap contest. I'm pleading the Loretta Lynn Defense.

So excuses aside, I’m ready to name some winners. And, as a small act of atonement, I’m picking, not one, but four. And I’m promising that next year, I’ll have my act together and run a tight contest.

In the meantime, the names have been pulled out and added to the hat and, as I promised, every comment since the contest started gets the commenter another entry. So with the ballot box stuffed and the random number generator activated, I was pleased to find that mostly frequent commenters are the winners. But that’s the beauty of voting early and often.

So without further ado, the winners are:

SusanA of Redblur Ramblings and proprietess of Dachshund Downs (also the proud owner of a Smooth Fox Terrier)

Frequent commenter and loyal reader, KathyB

Another frequent commentator, Christina

And, surprisingly enough, a man! Tony Hobbs

Winners, I have your emails, which you had to submit to comment. I’ll be contacting you to get your mailing addresses. Or you can rush me your particulars to lisa@leftcoastcowboys.com. Depending on how fast you get them to me, a bottle of verjus will be winging its way to you soon.

sidecar cocktail

Longtime reader and Flickr Buddy, Kingdufus, is busy retrofitting classic cocktails with verjus.

I’m hoping all of you will help to expand the current paucity of verjus-inspired recipes and tell me how you used it. A friend of mine who works at the University Club in Boston is making drinks with it by replacing the lemon juice with verjus:

Sidecar:

Two Terrier Vineyard Verjus (about 1/2 oz.)
1/4 oz. triple sec
2 oz. cognac

Jasmine

Two Terrier Vineyard Verjus (about 1/2 oz.)
1/4 oz. triple sec
splash to 1/4 oz. Campari
2 oz. gin

Both are shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.

I’m hoping Tony, who is a salmon fisherman in Oregon, will give us some delicious fish recipes with it.

Remember, if imagination fails, use great lashings of it in place of vinegar for an excellent vinaigrette. Just remember, whatever you do, once you open that bottle, use it early and often. Verjus has the shelf-life of pixie dust on fairies wings. Use it within three months of opening or it’s gone.

Congratulations winners!