Quaintrelle Weekender

Four ways to a better weekend.

Nov 02, 2024

Welcome to Quaintrelle Weekender.

This is a short list of things I am currently loving to make eating, drinking, and hosting easier and a lot more interesting.

At the start of this week I was bundled up in a down vest and wool toque. (A friend said I looked like I was ready to hit the slopes. I looked CUTE.)

Mid-week I was back in summer dresses and sandals as temperatures soared to the mid-20’s in Toronto. It’s unfortunate I had chicken soup on the hob that day. It was delicious, though untimely. (Let me know if I should send out the recipe.)

This weekend we waver on the cusp of single digit and double digit temperatures; depending on which way the wind blows it could be 9°C and sunny, or 10°C and cloudy. I’m glad I have some of that soup leftover from a few days ago.

My chicken soup is loaded with fresh dill. Dill that currently sits in a jar of water on my counter with such regal plumage, it borders on lewd. It’s like my dill is flexing for all the other herbs with its Big Dill Energy.

This Weekender is all about that herb flex. I have got a culinary game changer for you, just in time for picked herb season and the perpetual debate of best ways to keep herbs fresh. Read on, herbal pilgrim.

Hosting Q of the Week

Keep Herbs Fresh

I’m a fledgling gardener (read: what I utterly lack in talent, I make up for in unbridled enthusiasm.)

As basil season wound down at the end of summer, I still had the most impressive bush. Clearly, I could not let it go to waste. Among the basil projects I undertook, was taking cuttings to see if I could grow a new plant for the winter. I am now proud to say I have a strong cutting in rich soil sitting on my window ledge. I’ll tell you more about that adventure another time, but in order to get the cutting to root, I had to leave the stem in water for a number of weeks. Not only did it root, but the leaves stayed fresh, strong, and bright.

I now leave all my fresh cut herbs in little jars of water on the counter (changing the water every few days), and they last much longer than my previous method of wrapping them in damp paper towel and storing in a plastic bag in the fridge. They also look quite charming all lined up in a row.

Do you have a query about hosting and serving? Lay it on me!

Kitchen Hack

Keep Potatoes Fresher for Longer

I was this many years old when I learned this genius hack from Serious Eats.

The linked article wangs on for quite a while, so to save you the time, I’ll cut to the chase: store your potatoes in a cool(ish), dark area, in a well ventilated bag. Be sure to keep them from onions, apples, bananas, tomatoes, and avocados and any other produce that produces ethylene gas, as that causes the sensitive spuds to ripen – and rot – faster.

I used to store my potatoes with my onions under the kitchen sink and always wondered why they would sprout and turn soft and wet with that nauseating fishy odour. Now I know better and my potatoes are happily stored in a dark and temperate cupboard away from offending vegetables. They’ve been there for years with nary a blemish (JK… but it has been weeks.)

Stylish & Simple Snack of the Week

Bresaola and Pear with Parmesan and Balsamic

Last spring I spent a week at the fabulous cooking school Il Ghiottone in Umbria. Owners Thomas and Lisbeth are as inventive with their cooking as they are classic, and I highly recommend visiting if you’re in Italy. They always have fantastic ideas for chic snacks like this seasonal bite for apéro which is more of an assembly than a recipe: lay out thinly sliced bresaola (Italian air cured beef), top with juicy pear and shavings of good Parmesan, and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar.

Wine School + Cocktail Classes

Halloween is behind us, daylight savings (or not savings? I can never remember which is which), we are firmly in November, and the Hallmark Channel is ablaze with Christmas movies (always such a nail biter… will she get the guy or not?!?!), Friends, it’s time to talk holiday planning and gift giving.

Online Cocktail Class – Get set for the holidays, without leaving your home (I feel like this is a strong win.) George Brown College in Toronto is offering this online version of its very popular cocktail course. Naturally, I am leading it. Over six weeks you will learn a mix of classic and modern cocktails as well as snack recipes. And you get to hang virtually with meeee!!

The course starts online November 6, register at George Brown College, through the link.

Wine School – Always a popular gift for the wine lovers in your life, Wine School starts again in 2025 with our popular Learn to Taste workshop, followed by delicious food and wine seminars that include tasting tours of Italy and France, as well as an oyster shucking and wine pairing seminar. These are in person tastings downtown Toronto at Vantage Venues.

The early winter session starts January 15 and runs through February 12. See the class schedule and get and gift tickets through the link.

Winners!

Last Wednesday I announced I would be randomly drawing for three pairs of tickets from the membership of paid subscribers to the new Stanley Tucci thriller, Conclave.

This contest is available to Canadian residents, and the digital tickets are redeemable at the Cineplex website for any date at any Cineplex theatre in the country

Carol Axent
Sheena Robinson
Anne Adler

I will email you privately with ticket info. Thanks for your support!

My next offer for premium membership Quaintrellians is a virtual meet up with me later this month. I’d like to focus on Christmas cocktails, where I will walk you through four festive tipples. Drinks that can be made ahead of time, easily batched for a crowd, and ditch the kitsch in favour of seasonal elegance.

I’m oscillating between a Monday evening or a weekend late morning/early afternoon. If you are a paying subscriber, and would like to take part, let me know what EST timing works best.