Quaintrelle Weekender

Topics of Conversation: a podcast and a book for inspiration, an ingenious idea for eggs, and the last word on coffee.

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.

How Bad Do You Want It?

I was wrapping up a Wines for Beginners course not long ago. It’s one of my favourite classes to lead; the students, all adults of course, are interested and engaged, and being that they all have different cultural backgrounds and work in various industries, generally have really insightful perspectives.

But one of the biggest challenges of embarking on a new hobby when life is already stretching you across many areas, is carving time, outside of class, to study, improve, build, and, at the very least, retain, what you’ve just learned.

I had one student, a lovely person with a demanding job in the banking industry, tell me she harboured fantasies of becoming a sommelier, but she wished there was a way she could just know what she needed to learn, not have to actually dedicate time to reading and tasting and studying (which, sadly, is not as much fun as drinking wine while watching Under the Tuscan Sun.)

I joked with her that I really wished there was a way my mortgage could be paid off without me having to actually make payments.

As an annoying personal trainer once said to me (when I still had disposable income for a personal trainer – so, clearly, pre-mortgage), “I can’t do your pushups for you.”

(Sure, but couldn’t you at least try?)

As part of my series in Adventures to Make Me a More Interesting Woman, next week I begin a drawing and watercolour course (as a student, not a teacher). I’m super excited about it, but I also wonder how much time I will find outside of the weekly classes to brush up on my new-found skills. Will I create excuses for myself? No time, no space, laundry needs folding...

But should I come up with a series of excuses that keeps me from the thing I say I want to do, I understand that it’s not me, it’s Resistance. Resistance with a capital R.

A tiny corner of the impressive, The School of Athens, by Italian Renaissance painter Raphael. The painting depicts ancient artists, philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Plato, Aristotle, and Michelangelo all under one roof, learning from each other, despite living in different eras.

Listen to This – I learned of Resistance from author Steven Pressfield, who came up with the concept when he was desperately trying to write his first novel (released at age 55!!), but in equal desperation, finding everything and anything to avoid doing it. In this fascinating talk from 2021 on the Rich Roll Podcast, Pressfield, who wrote the cult classic, The War of Art, says anyone who wants to accomplish anything – start a business, perfect a golf swing, bake a birthday cake, solve a case, write a book, or get on TV – will have to do battle with Resistance. I keep this podcast in my saved folder and listen to it once or twice a year when I need a little pep talk. I also thing asking, “what do you think is keeping you from doing what you really want to do?” is so much more interesting of a dinner party question than “so, what have you been watching on TV?”

A Life in Full Bloom – I have no idea where I first heard about this book, but it wasn’t long ago, and I immediately ordered a hard copy, sight unseen, to keep in my own library. I generally give books a test run at the library before committing, but something compelled me to buy Bloom: On Becoming An Artist Later in Life by Janice Mason Steeves, a Canadian painter who exhibits and teaches around the world, but didn’t become an artist until her 40’s. Maybe it’s my own itch I’m yearning to scratch, or maybe that’s what happens to all us ladies as we tiptoe away from our 40’s and into the call of the wild. If you need me I’ll be dancing naked around the fire and howling at the moon.

Sp-EGG-tacular – Well, I’ve gone this far down the bra-burning, tincture-brewing, Mary Oliver rabbit hole, so let’s keep marching, shall we? (The unsubscribe button is below, but please don’t. I promise I’ll be better next week. Well, I don’t promise that, but you have to admit it will be great fun to watch me spin wildly out of control in a hot flash supernova.)

I’m planning my balcony garden for the upcoming season (which I fondly refer to as Le Clos Condo.) I’ve been saving my egg shells to add to the soil to help build nutrients in the dirt. The research I had been doing did come back with mixed opinions, natch, but most were in favour of the practice of drying out and pulverizing egg shells into a powder to mix with potting soil. The final clincher was when a winemaker friend of mine said, “a very talented organic farmer” advised her to do it. Worst case scenario, it can’t hurt.

Coffee. The Last Word. – As I write this, I’m enjoying a delicious little pick-me-up. It’s my first espresso of the day but it won’t be my last. If you’re curious about my coffee habits, and why wouldn’t you be dying to know, I start my day slowly, giving myself an hour to enjoy two cups of coffee, read, and putter around before clocking in. At my desk, I have a quick espresso, and maybe another one, or even two, throughout the afternoon. Some balk at that level of caffeine, and being that I am very impressionable, sometimes I panic that maybe I’m not living as virtuously as I should (I try not to should all over myself, but I’m only human). So in a quest to see if my coffee routine is too good to be true, I consulted the University of Google, and found the answer I sought: the bright minds at Johns Hopkins Medicine give nine solid reasons to enjoy coffee. They seem to know what they’re doing, so I don’t need to hear any more.

Church Ladies Know Where it’s At – I’ve told you guys a million times, I am not a baker. And I believe this to be true. However, something is changing in my world, and it is definitely my hormones. What does that have to do with anything? Well, lots, as I have unabashedly outlined above, but specifically in this case, it’s my baking acumen. When I received an email with the subject line of “best church recipes” I was going to delete it, then I thought it might just be an interesting tidbit of culinary history from my friend

Jolene Handy

who pens the highly engrossing Time Travel Kitchen. When I opened the email, it was not from Jolene, but indeed a laundry list of jello molds, blondie bars, and potato salads, but this recipe for a simple and elegant vanilla wafer caught my eye. I’ve tried it out, and it is as easy and delicious as the 100+ reviews attest.

Wine, Women & Wealth – A quick reminder it’s the last weekend for early bird tickets to April 24th’s Wine, Women & Wealth symposium downtown Toronto at Vantage Venues. If you’re going to be in the area, I hope you will join us. It’s going to be an inspiring and empowering evening of great wine, delicious food, and real talk about money and getting in control of your future.

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.

Every Saturday I share links to to a better weekend, and every Wednesday, I share a premium post with my best tips and tricks to easy, elegant entertaining.

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