Wining Away January Blues

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