When LH’s Jana Boswell proposed gourmet food trucks on the Lake Highlands Town Center property back in April, some (including me) thought it was a lightning bolt of genius. While waiting for vertical construction to begin there, bring Lake Highlanders (and their dollars) to the property and get us used to that spot as a foodie destination.

No one bit on the idea, but you can still experience delicious food truck fare at nearby Shops at Park Lane each Friday in December. Food Truck Friday has been drawing crowds in the hundreds to the shopping center at Park Lane and Central Expressway.

“It’s been a huge hit so far,” said Claire Butterworth, of MCA McCrory & Associates, who’s coordinating the event. “We started the first week with six trucks, and this Friday we’ll have ten. It’s growing and everyone wants to be a part.”

The food trucks, with names like Ruthie’s Rolling Café, SSahm BBQ, Jack’s Chow Hound, Butcher’s Son, 3 Men & a Taco and Trailercakes, have loyal followings on Twitter and Facebook with patrons willing to find them around town. “We have a contest on our Shops at Park Lane Facebook page each Friday, and whoever gets the most ‘likes’ wins a week of free advertising,” said Claire.

While having lunch last Friday at Gordon Biersch with some Lake Highlands Women’s League buddies, Jana, Debby Kondrach and I ventured over to investigate the cupcakes – purely for journalistic purposes, you understand – and they were heavenly.

Food Truck Fridays continue from 11am to 2pm throughout December.

The Spanish have been making vin ordinaire for what seems like forever, but given that Spanish wine has traditionally been overlooked in the U.S., the only cheap Spanish table wine that most of us know is Sangre de Toro.

Which is too bad, since the company behind Protocolo does a more than decent job as well. The red was a little boring — mostly fruit that had been too heavily handled, though not nearly as overdone as some. The Blanco ($7, sample, 12 1/2 percent alcohol, widely available), on the other hand, was a nice little surprise in the midst of holiday wine tasting. It’s made with two Spanish grapes — airén and macabeo, which is also used to make cava. The Blanco had a little lemon fruit, some earthiness and even a bit of minerality, though not as much acid as I expected. This was probably because it was a previous vintage; even so, it held up well.

Chill this and keep a bottle handy for wine with dinner (chicken comes to mind, though takeout that’s not too spicy would work, too). It’s mostly a warm weather wine, but I’m not going to pass up a chance to drink good cheap wine just because it’s cooler in December.

If you outdid yourself cooking for holiday parties over the weekend, you’ve earned a well-deserved break. All this week, you can visit Picasso’s for lunch or dinner and the pizza-pasta-grill-bar will kick back 15% of sales to the Lake Highlands Area Orchestra Club.

The offer is valid at all locations, (pop in if you’re out shopping or working near their Preston Forest or Bent Tree restaurants) but their popular LH spot is at Skillman and Walnut Hill. You have to mention LHAOC when you order, but you can dine in, pick up or have your food delivered. The orchestra booster club supports music students at 11 LH elementary schools, both junior highs, LHFC and LHHS.

And order me the Gorgonzola and Pear Salad. I’ll see you there.

One of the reasons why I enjoy cheap Italian wine so much — besides its quality, of course — is the sense of adventure that is part of tasting the wines. For one thing, the grapes aren’t what we’re used to in the U.S. For another, the Italians often seem baffled by marketing their wines in the U.S., which further complicates the grape problem.

The Li Veli ($11, purchased, available at Jimmy’s) is a prime example. Or, as one of the comments on CellarTracker (my web-based wine inventory software) noted, “Not sure what primonero means. …”

In fact, this wine is a 50-50 blend of two red grapes from the Salento region in Puglia — primitivo and negroamaro, or Primonero. Get it? Told you the Italians were often baffled by U.S. marketing techniques. It’s not like a California winery would ever call a wine CabLo.

Nevertheless, the wine is well worth drinking. It’s very dark, almost plummy, and very Italian — spicy, earthy, food-friendly acidity and low alcohol (13 percent). The negroamarao seems to dominate, providing the fruit and earthiness, while the primitivo balances the wine. This is winter dinner red wine — red sauces, stews, and the like — even if you’re not sure what the name means.

Sparkling wine has traditionally been something the wine business loved to hate. But lots of producers are now making sparkling wine, and it seems to be selling. So as you look for something to toast the holidays, keep in mind that bubbly doesn’t have to cost a fortune:

Several people emerged from the house with overflowing boxes of lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, peaches, kiwis, plums and — is that eggplant?

It’s perfect weather for a hot, steaming cup of joe, tea or chai from one of these neighborhood coffee shops.

Hypnotic Donuts has started construction on its first fully operational storefront, near White Rock Lake, and is set to open in January.

This is my gift to the California wine industry. Taste this, and you’ll see what great cheap wine should be.

This is not surprising, of course, to anyone who has been paying attention. Bogle has long been one of my favorite producers, and it has been in the $10 Hall of Fame for as long as there has been a $10 Hall. But given how California wants to make cheap red wine so that it tastes like slightly sweet grape juice with too much alcohol, I figured I’d better make the point again.

First, what doesn’t the Bogle ($10, purchased, widely available) have? It doesn’t have that cough syrupy sweet fruit that is all the rage. The alcohol isn’t so overwhelming that that you feel it coming out of your nose. What does it have? Enough blueberry fruit  to be noticeable, but not so much as to overpower the wine. A beginning and an end, including some very zippy tannins and a little earthiness — again, something not only rare in $10 wine, but especially these days, as winemakers try to make red wine taste as fruity as possible at the expense of everying else.

Highly recommended, and one of the best California red wines I’ve had in years. Embarrassingly better. This will earn Bogle a special citation when the 2012 Hall comes out in six weeks, and you could do much worse than to serve it at Thanksgiving. Much, much worse — as, sadly, too many will do, seduced by scores and descriptors that make them think the wine tastes better than it does.

I have a variety of Thanksgiving wine suggestions on my wine blog (plus a great picture of a turkey). Enjoy the holiday.