Monthly Archives: April 2024

It’s been a pretty cold Spring so far in Nova Scotia. I really feel for my Newfoundland friends, who have seen snow recently. We haven’t received snow, it just feels like it. But I have a recipe for Asian pork chops and a brand new white and a brand new red wine to help warm up those chilly evenings.

Once you’ve beat Cancer, a little cold weather doesn’t bother me. I make the best of it with good food and good wine. I found a new marinade for pork chops and it was so good.

I put my centre cut pork chops in an old fashioned roaster. Seasoned with salt and pepper, and I added some of this marinade before cooking. And again just before they were done.

This simple marinade contains brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, soya sauce, sesame oil, garlic, honey, and I added some hoisin sauce. The hoisin is optional. I love it, I feel it adds depth of flavor. I forgot to take a picture once the pork chops were done. I was hungry, LOL and they looked and smelled so good.

I tried 2 new wines this week, first let me tell you about the white wine.

From local winery Benjamin Bridge, my friend Joan bought this bottle of Piquette to our Saturday get together. It’s made in a very unique way. They use upcycled Chardonnay pomace. From their website “The historic Piquette winemaking style adds water to gently pressed grape skins, extracting their full fragrance and flavour potential while providing a lower alcohol beverage (5.0%).” It might be light on alcohol but it was very flavorful with gorgeous citrus notes. And at $17 a bottle, a great value.

The new red I tried, is from Portugal.

I have to be honest, I don’t often head down the aisle featuring wines from Portugal. But I’ll be doing it more often, this wine was so good and such a great value. It’s a blend of 4 grapes. Touriga Nacional, the national grape of Portugal, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Aragonez. I had to look Aragonez up, as I’ve never heard of that grape, but I learned that it’s another name for Tempranillo. This $18 rich velvety wine was a great new find.

You know I like to end my blog with a little cuteness. My rescue kitty Gabriel loves to watch bird and squirrel videos on my laptop. As a matter of fact, when I bought out the laptop to write this blog this morning, Mr. Gabriel jumped up with me, hoping for some home entertainment.

Well that’s it for me for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Till next week, Cheers

I saw my cancer surgeon on Thursday, Dr. Kenyon, he’s awesome. When he removed my tumor, he took 5 tissue samples from the area, they all came back with no trace of cancer. Which means, he got it all during the surgery. I can’t convey how happy I am, absolutely elated. It’s been an incredible 17 months, and I want to send my thanks and love to all the readers of this blog who sent me love and good wishes. Your notes of encouragement were very important to me.

And how did I celebrate? My favorite meal, ribs, wings and rice. Normally I love adding corn but I’ve been avoiding corn for obvious reasons. And the wine I celebrated with. An Italian Ripasso by Sartori. You all know I love a Ripasso and this one is priced at $27 and so delicious. The ribs I had cooked the evening before, when I grilled burgers for a couple of my co-workers. I’m reintroducing beef to my diet, because it didn’t agree with me when I first got out of the hospital.

The celebrations continued last night with friends, wine and karaoke.

I even got up and did a number with my friend Raymond. We did a duet, I’m definitely not the best singer, but it’s all in good fun. We have a good building, I’ve been here 12 years and we do a lot of fun things together.

Now I have to tell you about a new find that is a spectacular value.

This is Hax Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. Look at that gorgeous color, and it’s priced under $15 a bottle. Not a typo. $14.99 Beautiful well-structured full-bodied Cabernet and the tannins are just perfect, in my opinion. Not too strong but a great mouth feel. I had a glass before karaoke last night, but this is also a perfect BBQ wine.

You’ve heard of hangry (angry because you’re hungry), now there’s wangry! You have my permission to use this word.

Thank you so much to all of you for reading my blogs. I know they haven’t been consistent this year, but I appreciate everyone that has followed me on my journey.

Love Darlene