May The Wine Be With You

It is Saturday, May 4th. I’m sure all over Social Media you’ll see ‘May the Forth Be with You. I am changing it up a bit. May the Wine be with you.

I am also here to tell you the myth is true. The older you get, the faster time flies. Hard to believe another week has flown by and it’s May month. I’ve had a bit of an interesting wine week. Good friends of mine, friends that are like family, were opening a special bottle of wine, and invited me down to enjoy it with them.

My friends Sharon & Max, have several bottles given to them years ago, and were wondering if it’s still good. The one thing I am good at is sniffing out skunky wines. This wine was gorgeous. Bordeaux wines tend to be wines that age very well. As a matter of fact, I find they are much better than the newer Bordeaux wines. This was smooth with no harshness associated with some Bordeaux wines. This wine was hard to do research on. Like all Bordeaux wines, it is a blend with 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was such a treat.

I feel like my readers know Riley, who graduates from St. FX this weekend, but his brother Brady came down for the graduation. And I had the treat of having him and his girlfriend Allison for a couple of nights. Brady works at IOC mines in Labrador City and I haven’t seem him since Christmas. He is so handy, I swear his can fix anything and everything. He’s a big boy who loves to eat, and I love cooking for him because he loves everything.

One night I cooked steaks, chicken kebabs, glazed chicken drumsticks, roasted potatoes and a Caesar salad. There was no food left over. He’s 6’3″ and about 285 lbs. He told me he loved a big burger. I also love big burgers. This one was a new recipe. Carmelized onions with a caramel balsamic glaze, brie (first time I’ve ever used Brie in a burger) and Provolone cheese. Plus of course bacon. I mean, what’s a burger without bacon. It was a hit. The only thing I would change, is that Provolone and Brie are both very light tasting cheeses. Nice and melty and creamy, but I’d also add a smoked cheddar.

This is the one I tend to keep on hand. It too is nice and melty (a new word) and adds a real nice smoky flavor.

Before I go, have you guys heard of Andy Hay from Andy’s East Coast Kitchen.

Andy competed on Master Chef Canada in Seasons 5 & 7. He’s from right here in Nova Scotia. I love his recipes. They are made for people like you and me. Easy with ingredients easy to find at our own grocery stores. Check out Andy’s website here.

Andy featured a recipe lately called bang bang chicken. It had this easy to make sauce.

There are 4 ingredients in this sauce, and it is so tasty with chicken. Mayonnaisse, Frank’s hot sauce, sweet Thai chili sauce and honey. You can make it spicier if you like, but I did it pretty mild. I event made a chicken sandwich and replaced my Miracle Whip with this sauce. Yummy.

Getting back to the beefy week I’ve had. If beef is on the menu, here’s a brand new wine I tried this past week. I really enjoyed it

This delicious wine hails from Spain, and is a blend Garnacha (the Spanish word for Grenache) and Syrah. Easy to drink, nice and full on the palate and a great price point at $17.75 a bottle. Wine critic James Suckling gave this wine 92 Points. Wow. A 92 Point wine for under $18. Definitely worth trying.

Before I go, I had to share the latest picture of Lexi. Just turned 10 months old and still growing. She’s a tank LOL

That’s it for me for this week. Thank you for reading along. Have a great weekend