Monthly Archives: January 2022

January has never been my favorite month. The one holiday day is the very first day and your next long weekend is not till mid-February. All your Christmas decorations are down, so your home looks a little empty, and the weather tends to suck. I’m sitting here right now looking out at a snow storm.

This weekend is the last weekend of January and we are getting hit with another storm, the third weekend this month that we’ve been hit. Lots of snow followed by 4 – 8 hours of freezing rain. Fun times in the Maritimes. So, here’s my advice. Stay in, make your favorite meal and enjoy a glass of wine. I went to the liquor store yesterday and it was busy! The man in front of me says ‘a storm must be coming’.

But first, I want to tell you about a cooking win. In last week’s wine blog I told you about the Orange chicken recipe that didn’t turn out so good, the breading was falling off. So I tried again, but this time learned from my mistake and dried the chicken before the flour and egg mixture. And I did it in General Tso sauce that was so easy to make. Doesn’t it look good?

I made the chicken the exact same way. I cut up the chicken breast in bite size pieces, dried it off, and then put salt, pepper, garlic powder and Chinese 5-spice in the flour. I put the chicken in the flour, then the egg wash (egg & water) and back in the flour. It cooked perfectly. In the sauce is Soy sauce, rice wine vinegar (you can use white vinegar), hoisin sauce, sugar, cornstarch and water. You can get the recipe here.

I also tried a couple of new wines recently, and they are great values.

I shared this with my friend Angie on Wine Wednesday and we really enjoyed it. It’s not an overly heavy Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s definitely medium bodied, with very little tannins. It’s from Chile and is priced at $13, and is definitely a wine I would buy again.

With the crappy and cold weather we’ve been having, I love doing jigsaw puzzles. I finished this one last Saturday and started a new one on Friday.

But I digress. My wine of the week this week is another great value.

I love an Italian Rosso because I really enjoy red wine blends. This is a blend of Merlot, Nero D’Avalo and Sangiovese. Nero D’Avalo is the most important grape from Sicily, and has gorgeous plum and pepper flavors. This was a great blend, and is priced at $14 here. Nothing drives away the January blues than finding a great wine at a great price point.

My Mom turned 87 on January 5th and my super sweet sister had her over for supper and cake. I had to share this picture of my Mom, Jackie and of course Miss Maggie herself. Full grown now, Maggie turned 1 year old in January.

Have a great week. Till next week, Cheers

Darlene

On Monday, January 17, Betty White would’ve turned 100 years old. Sadly, she was taken away from us on December 31st, the very last day of a challenging year, 2021. A global movement started to mark her 100th birthday, asking people to give as little as $5 to their favorite animal charity, because Betty White was such an advocate for animals. Imagine passing away 17 days before you turn 100, and people saying she ‘left us to soon’.

I participated in the challenge, donating money to the Halifax Cat Rescue Society. I chose this particular charity because of this fella.

Gabriel is my second forever foster from the Halifax Cat Rescue Society. They look for forever foster homes for cats that still have lots of life left, but have an illness that makes them unadoptable. Gabriel is FIV+, so I provide a loving home and all his food, they pay all his vet bills. I’ve had Gabriel for almost 4 years, so there is lots of love to be had by these kitties.

Leo was my first foster from HCRS, and sadly he died just before I had him 2 years from Feline Leukemia. But he was so sweet and I loved taking care of him for his final years. As you can see Leo loved his life here.

Betty White’s show business career spanned 8 decades, and her love of animals even longer than that. She was an activist and supported many organizations to make lives better for cats, dogs, and all kinds of critters.

So let’s raise a glass to Betty White. Betty also loved her wine. She has been quoted as saying “A glass of wine a day will help you live longer, let’s live forever”.

She was living proof!!

My friend Angie and I shared a wine Tuesday evening that was definitely a treat celebratory wine.

My nephew Brady wanted to give me a bottle of wine at Christmas and I told him I loved Zinfandel. So when I opened the gift and saw the label, I thought it was the Director’s Cut Zinfandel, which I have had several times, as you used to be able to get it in Halifax. When I opened the wine and tasted it, I did a second take, and realized it was Cabernet Sauvignon. Oh My God! It was delicious. Hands down the most full-bodied wine I have ever had. It was so full and heavy on the palate, I wish I had one to have with a steak LOL. You can’t get it here in Atlantic Canada, but starting in Quebec and heading West you can. If you see it, pick it up, it’s a great wine.

Regular readers know I love to cook, I love to eat, and I like to share recipes. Sometimes I try recipes that don’t work out as well as I would have liked. Case in point – Orange Chicken. It didn’t turn out horrendous, I ate it, but the sauce was a little sweet for me.

I love Chinese Food and I’m always trying the recipes at home. So, I wasn’t sure where I was going with this piece of chicken first, so I always marinade boneless skinless chicken breast.

So I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, so I started with a marinade of salt, pepper, Chinese 5-spice, balsamic vinegar and orange juice. A site I use a lot for recipes is ‘Rock Recipes’, originating in Newfoundland, and let me tell you, this man can cook. Check it out at www.rockrecipes.com I love this site, but I’m not as talented as Barry is.

Check out his Orange chicken recipe or his double crunch honey garlic chicken. I did the flour with the spices and the egg wash. In the flour I had salt, pepper, garlic powder, Chinese 5-spice and a little ginger. However, the mistake I made, I didn’t dry off my chicken pieces before adding the coating. Why is that important? The breading won’t stick to the chicken. You can see the breading falling off as it’s cooking.

I used a cast iron frying pan, and the chicken turned out delicious, just not as pretty as the recipe. I also found the Orange Chicken sauce a little sweet, so I only used half the chicken with that sauce, and used the offer half in a sweet Thai chili sauce. I’ll definitely do the process again, learning from my mistakes. That’s the fun thing about trying new things in the kitchen, they don’t always turn out, but you still have to try.

Last but not least, my wine of the week..

I have many friends and readers in Newfoundland, so this wine is available both here and in Newfoundland. A fantastic Tuscan wine that costs under $20. This is a Super Tuscan wine, consisting of Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, an absolute perfect blend. This is a great food wine, because of the 3 grapes, it will go with anything you serve for dinner.

A big thank you to everyone who donated to their favorite animal charity this past week. I hope everyone is doing OK in January, it can be a long month.

Till next week, Cheers

Darlene

I think many people were expecting to kick 2021 in the ass, and celebrate 2022 in style. Unfortunately, Omicron said ‘hold my beer’. I think this is how many of us are approaching 2022. Very cautiously!

I apologize for the absence, but I just got back yesterday from 12 days in Newfoundland. It was a great Christmas, albeit very quiet. Sadly, I didn’t get to visit any friends, but I did have a great time with family. My Mom turns 87 January 5th and we were being super careful.

Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you for joining me in another year of discovering great wine at affordable prices. I’m not sure how you celebrated New Year’s Eve, but I was in PJ’s by 5 p.m. and in bed by 9 p.m. But I crossed over on the Newfoundland ferry the night before and didn’t get a lot of sleep. I did, however, BBQ on New Year’s Eve.

This might look like a wonky omelet in the making, but it’s the starter of my meatballs. In this bowl, bread crumbs, milk, 1 egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian season, hot sauce, & a little BBQ sauce.

This is what the finished product looks like.

My sauce recipe is very simple

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups water
• ¼ cup distilled white vinegar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour or cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• ¼ cup ketchup

And I used a little curly parsley as a garnish. Delicious, and you can freeze them, and have them any time you need a quick meal.

Ok. Let’s talk some wine. Normally the first wine blog of the year talks about upcoming wine trends. But I’ll do that next week. I want to share a couple of gifts I received.

To say my family went a little overboard on the gifts, would be an understatement. I did very well.

My friend Sandra gave me this Prosecco.

I love Prosecco, it’s so festive. I haven’t had this Villa Francesca yet, but I am willing to bet it’s delicious. It’s so affordable, this particular one is $18 a bottle, and Prosecco is crisp and refreshing and goes with everything.

My nephew Brady, who I stayed home longer than planned so I could see him, gave me this beauty.

I’ve had this wine before, and it’s a gorgeous treat wine. It’s about $50 a bottle and I had bought this one year before to watch the Oscar’s. It is after all, Francis Ford Coppola’s Director’s Cut Zinfandel. You used to be able to buy it here, but apparently the one store that carried it, is not carrying it anymore. That makes this gift all the more special. From Sonoma County in California, this is a rich and full-bodied wine, that I’ll be saving for my next feed of baby back ribs or a steak.

On a closing note, this was Maggie’s first Christmas with our family and what a fun time she had. The gorgeous scarf she is wearing was a gift from me, and made by my friend Angie. It has her name on it and looks so cute on her. She also received lots of toys.

I hope all of you had a Christmas as wonderful as Maggie. Till next week, Cheers. And Happy New Year