Quaintrelle Weekender

The warmest (and cheapest!) parka, fashion lights, home made flavoured syrups, and how to get people to leave your house. Four ways to a better weekend.

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.

If you like this post, please click the heart above. Thank you for reading.

Drop and Run

It’s hilarious watching dog walkers in winter.

Toronto was hit with its first wincing crack of minus 15-degree temperatures a few days ago. (Well, technically -5, but the unrelenting windchill dropped that to -15.) Focused and pointed, the winds, like frozen arrows, sliced along the dry, grey streets with merciless stealth.

In the pre-dawn dark, humans (myself included – 7am Pilates class! Up and at ’em, yes, indeedy) were cocooned in their enormous puffy coats, doppelgängers for sleeping bags, really. Cheeks searing fire-engine red, and blinking back tears from the slaps of howling wind gusts, it was like I could read their minds, “please just shit fast so we can retreat home.”

The dogs, on the other hand, were oblivious to Mother Nature’s sharp spanking. From the anguished looks on the frozen human faces, the happy canines, tails a-wagging with early morning enthusiasm to discover all the new smells laid fresh overnight, were in no rush to make their morning constitutional.

(My late cat would have literally looked down on these slap-happy dogs with supreme condescension from her perch in the window. Idiots.)

Despite me not being a dog walker, I am a walker, happily having logged 3,781,729 steps so far in 2024 – an average of 10,898 steps every day. But no walker is an island, and there have been a few necessary tools to help me reach that goal with relative comfort. We shall talk about that today.

Hosting Q of the Week

“Hi Erin,

At the risk of sounding inhospitable, how do I get people to leave my house?” – (Want to Be) Home Alone

Dear Home Alone,

I’m assuming you mean your dinner party guests and not your adult kids. I can not help you with the little freeloaders darlings. Potentially, depending on the clinginess of your guests’ I may not be able to help you with them, either. But I’ll give it a shot.

My friends and I are like-minded when it comes to ending the night, so luckily I don’t often have that problem. But I take your point; at this time of year we are often hosting in-laws and friends of friends and co-workers … the people we don’t normally party with.

In this case, I usually do one of two things to call curtain.

First, I state it on the invite, as we discussed, partly, a few weeks ago: “come by for a cinq et sept.” Sometimes I even blame the end time on the potential child care or transit schedule (masquerading cleverly as my utmost concern): “for those of you managing your babysitter’s expectations/train boarding, dinner will wrap up around 10.” You shouldn’t lie, but this one time won’t hurt.

My other option is that about an hour before I’d like to wind things down, I stop offering alcohol. Perhaps, depending on the gravity of the situation, I might even say something like, “anyone like one last glass before I put these away?” I’ll re-cork bottles, or put spirits back on the shelf, but I do not, repeat, do not, begin cleaning up because that’s just rude, and really, late-staying guests are the cost of doing business.

The client for whom I wrote the invite? He had his mother, who was babysitting his kids, drop them off at 9pm. Nothing kills a party faster than bedtime stories.

How do you handle late staying guests? Please share your strategies, as I’m sure we could all benefit from the collective wisdom!

Me, toasty and warm in my parka. The dog could care less about my comfort.

Bundle Up

Joe Fresh Parka

My mother – you remember Babs – has always been concerned about my sister’s and my kidney health. From the time we were babes, she has bundled us up in a comical number of layers to ensure no chill would befall our backs and therefore risk cooling our ever-important kidney function. She did alright, my ma. You’ll be happy to hear my entire urinary track is ticking along with stellar German efficiency.

Even though I am old enough to potentially be a grandmother myself, Babs’ kidney concern has not cooled. Still worried about my daily dance with the friluftliv lifestyle, a few years ago, for Christmas, she gave me a long, down-stuffed parka from Joe Fresh – a Canadian “high street” clothing store known for inexpensive, trendy fashion.

I have to say, this thing is a miracle. I’ve not been sold on many JF items, but this coat is fantastic. It’s held up beautifully over the years, and holy smokes, it’s warm. So warm, that I can’t wear it in temperatures higher than freezing, as it quickly gets stiflingly hot. I’ve also bought a waste-length jacket of the same stuffing and material for less numbing days and I also give it five stars.

Let’s Get Lit

Running Lights

About 12 years ago I was hit by a bike rider while I was out for a jog. I broke my arm. Well, technically, if we’re pointing fingers, he broke it. Specifically, the break went through my elbow. It hurt. A lot. And it made opening wine a tad difficult – which is annoying for cocktail hour, but detrimental when you are employed as a sommelier. Apparently the five-star restaurant where I worked didn’t like it when I put the $150+ bottle between my legs and pulled with my one, good arm. I, on the other hand, feel we should have charged extra for that mildly erotic performance.

Anyway, more than a decade later and I’m still wary – even paranoid – about anyone on wheels. This includes cars and cyclists, naturally, but also those annoying people (adults!) on motorized scooters.

Hit me once shame on you; hit me twice, shame on me. Now I wear a light-up runner’s vest thingy (it’s not really a vest, but a series of LED wires that fit over your torso similar to the one pictured) when I’m out after (or before) dark. And if it’s a really foggy, grey day, I wear it, too.

The bands I’ve linked to aren’t what I have, but I think I like them more. The vest can be tough to fit around puffy coats, but the bands can go around ankles, arms, or wrists for ease.

Unique Gift Idea for the Cocktail Lover

Flavoured Syrups

Years ago, I wrote an inflamed blog for my company’s website that barely contained my ire over the price of bottled simple syrups. Cocktail and homewares shops were selling small bottles, albeit beautifully packaged, for up to $30 for five ounces! Sure, these concoctions were flavoured with “organic satsuma,” or made with “hand harvested raw sugar” or some such extravagance, but honestly you guys, simple syrup is literally sugar (or honey or agave) dissolved into an equal amount of water.

My colleague at Vantage Venues, where I host Wine School, is a huge cocktail lover. He fancies himself to be a bit of an amateur barman, yet when I was telling him about the honey syrup needed for my version of a Penicillin cocktail, his first reaction was to say it was too much effort. It’s literally two minutes’ worth of active time and probably a $2 worth of expense for a litre of syrup.

All of this is to say: if you have cocktail lovers in your life, consider giving them a few simple syrups for their favourite cocktails. They last forever in the fridge and are so handy.

Feel free to play around with the sugar source (raw sugar, coconut, honey, maple syrup, agave etc.) but start with the basics:

• 1 cup water

• 1 cup white sugar

1. Combine in a sauce pot and gently dissolve sugar over low heat.

2. Add flavourings of choice and gently simmer for 15-20 minutes and allow to cool. Strain and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Spicy Syrup

• ¼ cup mixed black, white, and pink peppercorns

• 1-2 whole Arbol peppers

(Use in savoury gin and tequila-based cocktails)

Herbal Syrup

• Handful of basil, dill, or cilantro

(Use in summery vodka, gin, or tequila-based cocktails)

• Rosemary, sage, thyme

(Use in wintery vodka, gin, or tequila-based cocktails)

Ginger Syrup

• ½ to 1 cup of fresh, sliced ginger (depending on how strong you like it)

(use in whisky cocktails, warm drinks like hot toddies, or lemon-based drinks.)

Citrus Syrup

• Replace water with equal amount of citrus juice (lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange – blood orange would be really nice this time of year. Depending on how sweet the citrus is, you may want to halve the portion of sugar.)

• Zest of the citrus fruit used

• Once the sugar has dissolved into the juice, remove from the heat and add the zest. Allow to cool. Strain the zest from the syrup and store in the fridge indefinitely until needed.

(Use in anything from sparkling wine cocktails to margaritas or daiquiris to old fashioneds.)

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 every Saturday, I share some of my favourite finds for better weekends.

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