Quaintrelle Weekender

Should you blow up your life or just put your wine in a blender? Thoughts and ideas for 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.

“In fact, looking back, it seems to me that I was clueless until I was about fifty years old.” – Nora Ephron

This is a cozy weekend. It’s scheduled to snow buckets all Saturday and Sunday, on top of the buckets we got Wednesday and Thursday, so winter has finally hit Toronto. It’s good for the polar bears. Not that we have polar bears in Toronto. Well, the zoo, I think, has a few, but I’m speaking more generally. Snow is good for polar bears.

This is the kind of insight that comes with age. Yesterday was my birthday. Forty nine. I am quite fine with it, as I’ve already said, it beats the alternative. But sometimes I’m surprised by it. For example, 49 is supposed to be old. But, I’m not old.

I mean, I’m not young, I suppose. I’m old enough to embarrass my 19-year-old niece and 14-year-old nephew just by simply existing.

But I occasionally see a photo of someone my age and wonder if I look as old as they. Not that I think they look awful, but they certainly haven’t been asked for ID in a while. I haven’t been asked for ID in a while either, come to think of it.

But sometimes if I fumble with my camera, and accidentally snap a selfie in bad lighting, and not well-posed, and certainly without a filter, and I think, how the hell did that happen? Not the fumbling with the phone part. That happens constantly. The part about my suddenly sagging neck. I now empathize with Nora Ephron. I feel bad about my neck, too. But I always thought, and still do think, Nora was gorgeous. She didn’t have a thing to feel bad about! Not that I want to shame her for her own insecurities. I don’t want to be an old dick about it.

I listened to a really fun podcast… I think it was Table for Two… where Rita Wilson was the guest and telling a story of her 50th birthday dinner. Nora Ephron stood up to toast, “Here’s to turning 50! GREAT THINGS happen to you after you turn 50! I didn’t direct my first movie until I was 50.” (It was This is My Life in 1992, quickly followed in rapid-fire succession of mega-hits including Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and Julie & Julia.)

I can’t wait to see what my 50’s bring. One more year til I find out.

Wine Q of the Week

“Does decanting wine in a blender work?” Kieran, a student in one of my wine classes

Le sigh.

I’m not sure when or where this idea came to be, but I blame Tik Tok. Which seems like a fair outlet for most blame placing.

The idea behind putting wine in a blender is to hyper-decant. Decanting wine, whether hyper or regular, is done to allow the wine to get some air, open up, and reveal its aromatics and flavours. Traditionally this is simply done by pouring the wine from the bottle into another vessel like a fancy decanter or even a ceramic pitcher. And call me old fashioned, by the traditional way still has my vote.

I understand the human need to find the wackiest alternative to standard practices (opening a wine bottle with a stiletto heel comes to mind), but just because something can be done, doesn’t mean it should.

Firstly, nothing will make a bad wine taste better: blitzing it in a blender, pouring it into an expensive glass, nor tickling it with a feather.

Secondly, if you’ve got a great bottle, the aggressive agitation of a blender – the heat that rises from the machine, the whirring of metal blades, and the blast of extra oxygen – would likely do more damage than good by stripping the wine of flavour.

In short, Kieran, if you’re interested in party tricks, go for the blender, but if you want flavour and structure, take the old fashioned route. It may be slower, but I don’t need to remind you of the story of the tortoise and the hare.

Questions or concerns about wine and hosting? Our operators are standing by!

Great Read

The Cliffs by J Courtney Sullivan

A cozy, snowy weekend calls for a roaring fire, thick socks, and an absorbing read. And have I got the one for you! I just wrapped up J Courtney Sullivan’s compelling novel, The Cliffs. This is a swirling novel about family relationships, the secrets and shame we keep, and the ripples of a ghosts from long ago. In hindsight, there was a lot going on, many characters with layers of complexity, but J Courtney Sullivan did a masterful job keeping it all straight and clear. I found myself retiring to my boudoir early every evening to snuggle under my duvet and get back to reading this fantastic story.

Trigger Warning

Miranda July

“Keep an eye on death and who you want to be as you near it.”

This was one of the more catchy points Miranda July, author of 2024’s bestselling, and polarizing, novel All Fours, wrote in a January post on her Substack. Should I Blow Up My Life resonated with me so deeply I saved the article and have revisited many times.

Now, I always get introspective around my birthday, and her post wounds in all the right ways: like picking an-almost healed scab off your knee to reveal the tender, pink flesh underneath.

Be warned, this writing may make you uncomfortable, perhaps extremely so. But it strikes me that Miranda July is not worried her writing may offend some people. You may not believe it or agree. Interestingly I mostly found that I would rather not agree with what she writes, but ultimately I do. Here’s hoping the truth will set me free.

Cocktail of the Week

French-Canadian Martini

A French martini is a blend of vodka, pineapple juice and Chambord, a raspberry liqueur the colour of deep amethyst. I’m creating a slight twist, making a French-Canadian martini, using Framboise, a ruby-red raspberry liqueur from Ontario. (But if you’re not in Ontario, there are plenty of versions to find.)

An electrifying shade of crimson, this is a very thematic drink for a Valentine’s Day weekend. But, of you’re bahumbug about the occasion, it’s still a cocktail worthy of your affection.

Makes: 1 cocktail
Bartender level: easy

Ingredients

• 2 oz vodka

• ½ oz raspberry liqueur, such as Southbrook Framboise

• 1 oz pineapple juice

• Fresh raspberries, for garnish

How to Make It:

1. Fill a coup with ice and set aside while making the cocktail.

2. Add everything but the raspberries to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake for a 15 seconds or so, until very well chilled.

3. Drain the ice from the coup.

4. Strain the martini into the chilled glass, garnish with raspberries and serve.

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