Quaintrelle Weekender

Murder, mystery, and 5 star service

Friends, it’s a quick one this week. In just a few hours, I’m off to my first event at the weekend-long Toronto International Festival of Authors crime & mystery writing festival, Motive.

I can’t believe how excited I am for this series. Truly, I feel like a kid at Christmas, and it’s been a long time since I was a kid at Christmas.

I’m not even a mystery or crime reader – I’m a big scaredy cat – but the idea of being around interesting people, talking about interesting things, has me itching to get the weekend started.

The motive festival reminded me of an adventure list I created for myself a few years ago and abandoned. Maybe it’s time to pick it up again.

Anyway, I’ll report back on Monday along with my TBR list for summer reading.

And now… on with the show.

Hello and welcome to Quaintrelle Weekender, my weekly postcard of what’s on my mind.

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This Week’s Big 3

Get. This. Planter. (but only if you need one.) I wrote about this last year, but I want to remind you of it, mostly because this company has the BEST customer service EVER. A few weeks ago whilst setting up the lanai for the summer season, one of the bracket thingys that hold the basket to the frame went overboard (I’m 99% sure it landed on my neighbour’s balcony below mine, but he says it didn’t, and I didn’t want to press the matter.) Anyway, I contacted Outland Living, asking if it was possible to purchase one new hinge, and they were so kind, they FedEx’d me a set FOUR for FREE! They’re based in BC but looks like they ship internationally.

Cheap and Cheerful Cocktail Coups for Company. Let this moment be marked in the history books, I’m about to give the LCBO (Ontario’s government-run wine and spirit store) a high-five. I just picked up the coups I’ve linked (though they call them martini glasses), at the giddy value of 2 for $10.

Look, I know you think of my hosting ethos as the enviable height of sophistication, so rarefied you only find similar elegance in the parlours of yesteryear New Orleans’ or the breezy elegance of Lake Como, but I have to burst your bubble: like Elizabeth Taylor, I too, must pay my taxes.

But beyond my budget, it boils down to practicality. Of all the people who regularly come over to my home, I don’t trust the grace of about a third of them. Things just seem to break in their hands. And so very often! I have no idea how they accomplish these literal shattering feats, but they break things with a consistency that borders on admirable. To be fair, it’s a good psychological practice for me, releasing my grip on physical objects and building a sort of fleeting relationship with items that are only meant to serve and not rule. Therefore, cheap and cheerful it is.

Speaking of parties … Because I’m a Canadian, and Canadians get really, really excited any time a Canadian person/place/or thing get the slightest whiff of attention in international news, this (gift link) NYT article about Toronto’s Millennials starting up old skool basement parties like their parents did in the 1960’s titillated me. (Like, to read about. Not to attend. I’ll be at home reading a book and sipping my magnesium lemon tea.)

The Weekend Menu

Last Sunday’s dinner: Grilled chicken with basil-cottage cheese sauce and south German potato salad

This Sunday’s dinner: We’re rounding third on asparagus season, so I’m packing in all that I can. Pasta Salad with Asparagus, Peas, and Pancetta in Lemon-Parmesan Vinaigrette is on deck, and we’ll likely serve it with some buttery, grilled shrimp.

The weekend cocktail: In honour of my writing conference, I feel that a daiquiri would be the deferential thing to do.

The weekend wine: Parajes del Valle Ecológico Monastrell 2024, Jumilla, Spain $19

And scene.

Wish me luck, friends. I just got an email from one of the writing classes that we might be reading our work to each other. Gulp. Think I can get away with just bringing a round of daiquiris for everyone?

Listen – if you are also one to enjoy listening in on chats with writers, why don’t you join me at Vantage Venues downtown Toronto on June 23? My good friend, and enviable writer, Christopher Waters, the wine columnist for the Globe and Mail, is joining me for a chat about wine, journalism and the general state of both. It promises to be a fantastic and fun night out. We’ll have cheese, we’ll have wine… we’ll have a lot of fun. Get tickets here.

Until then –

xo – Erin

Thank you for reading Quaintrelle.

This newsletter is written by me, Erin Henderson, journalist-turned-sommelier-turned-entrepreneur. I literally drink and throw parties for a living, and on the weekends, I share some thoughts on stylish living.

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