Quaintrelle Weekender

Champagne cocktails for NYE, a citrus squeezer that works like magic, how to gracefully handle obnoxious guests, and the coziest PJ's to ring in the New Year. 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.

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

I’ll likely be in bed. Or drinking a glass of bubbly and watching an old movie. Depends of the timing of the evening, I suppose.

After years and years of working in hospitality, the shine has sadly dulled on NYE for me (along with Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day). This is not to poo-poo the calendar-flipping revellers – I say embrace joy with both hands any time you can – but have fun without me. JOMO!

I’ve finally convinced my sister, my constant New Year’s companion, to give up the dinner ghost and embrace lunch. Our festive special includes a tower of seafood for starters with ice cold Champagne, followed by duck confit, very likely served with Bordeaux and not the traditional Burgundy, as we like to keep guests’ on their toes. It’s quite possible scandal will ensue.

Which brings me to my next point: what do you do when misconduct crashes your party? A question from a distressed reader, who shall remain nameless, made its way to my inbox, with a query about this very topic. We cover that in today’s Hosting Q’s.

However – before we carry on, I want to remind you next Wednesday’s newsletter, which is for premium members, kicks off a month of gatherings and recipes tailored to suit most/many/some start-of-year needs, and everything will be easily adaptable to your specific requirements. Naturally, we all look to the New Year with a sense of hope and determination for tweaks of improvement, whatever that means to each of us.

Every Wednesday in January I will send ideas for food, cocktails, and gatherings that bear in mind many of us are looking to make changes, whether that means dialling back the meat consumption, tightening our belts on spending, or reducing alcohol. Look for party ideas that include excellent recipes for satisfying salads, welcoming soups, and comforting, healthy mains.

Since the first edition is posted on January 1, I am telling you now to pick up a pound or so of fresh lemons, preferably organic if you can manage it, and a flip-top jar. You’ll read why in a few days.

If you haven’t joined the premium community and want to get in on January’s fun, you can upgrade your subscription for $6 CDN for the month, or $60 a year to save just over 80%.

Hosting Q of the Week

“My family is all over the place during the holidays, so I host a New Year’s Day lunch for everyone. Unfortunately, we have one or two people who always bring up divisive topics like politics. Any tips on how to keep the peace?” – Name Withheld to Protect the Innocent

Ah, yes. The rabble-rousers. It’s a problem as old as families, and if I had a magic bullet solution, I would sipping Mai Tais full time on my own private island.

Each scenario has varying levels of egregiousness, and therefore requires its own solution; you could always pull Great Uncle Thorsten aside to kindly tell him that his thoughts on the surplus population are not appropriate at this time, but that might – and probably will – add fuel to the fire. You could simply not invite him, but that’s petty and small and likely easier said than done.

I’m not a therapist, but I am a professional drinker, and I’ve seen this movie a few times. Let me take a different tack with an example that comes from my own life.

Years ago, I was involved with a guy who wasn’t in control of his emotions (not in a violent or scary way, but easily sulked and pouted and threw personal insults when people didn’t agree with his superior opinions. He’s a lawyer, if that tells you anything.) This was around the time I turned to drinking as a profession.

We had only been together about four months when the holidays came about, and we agreed at this early stage of the relationship I would spend Christmas with my family, who live about an hour west of Toronto, and he would spend it with his, who lived about an hour east of Toronto.

In the middle of my merry making, my texts started pinging about how he needed me to come back to the city; he had left his parents’ early and was all alone on Christmas. Apparently, his mother made the unpardonable mistake of inviting an uncle (her brother) to dinner. An uncle my ex famously did not favour. I guess the uncle said something inflammatory to my ex, and all hell broke loose. My ex demanded his mother make her brother leave; she didn’t, which incensed the ex further. He left in a blaze of fury, returning to an empty apartment, while everyone else he knew was busy celebrating their Christmases.

Of course, his mother was upset her son left; his father upset that his mother was upset; the invited guests, a little embarrassed for his mother; and maybe the offensive uncle didn’t care, I don’t know.

Next, I drew my ex’s ire for not fleeing my festivities to be by his side to join him in his sad, stubborn anger. His outrage in turn offended me (and lit the long fuse that would eventually blow up the whole relationship.)

All of this is to say if someone behaves badly: let them. Hopefully everyone at your party will be mature and strong enough to carry on without getting sucked into the drama.

In my ex’s case, he decided to pull a stunt, that, in his family’s view, and mine, was so beyond the pale, they let him stomp off in a huff, and I let him sit in it. I don’t remember the uncle’s offensive remark, so likely it wasn’t that appalling, at least to me, but it would have been nice if the uncle apologized, or simply kept his mouth shut on a topic he knew would incite my ex. But the uncle didn’t. And the only Christmas that was ruined was my ex’s (and to some extent everyone surrounding him, due to his, not his uncle’s, behaviour.)

Like I said, there are many levels of offence, and just as many levels of sensitivity. As long as no one ends up in tears, I say let Great Uncle Thorsten bolster on. You can always leave the room, step outside for a breath of fresh air, or busy yourself making the next round of cocktails. Hopefully the rest of your crew will be mature enough to rise above the small-minded ranting, or simply change the subject.

How do you handle unruly guests?

The Squeeze is Worth the Juice

Fluicer

I go through a lot of citrus in my house, so when I saw this amazing little invention on Bon Appetit’s Instagram, I immediately bought one for myself. When it arrived, I was slightly worried the plastic gadget wasn’t strong enough, but I needn’t have fretted. This thing squeezes the dickens out of lemons and limes with next to zero effort, leaving only pulverized citrus behind. It’s fast, efficient, and clean. (My metal clamp is fine, but requires two squeezes to get out the juice and still leaves some in the fruit.)

I bought one for my mum and brother-in-law for Christmas, who are both weirdly neurotic about citrus squeezers, and they are impressed, too.

Stylish Sleeper

Love and Lore Pyjama Set

If you are anything like me, you will be deeply into a long winter’s sleep by the time midnight hits on New Year’s. I may not see the ball drop, but I’ll celebrate earlier in the day with a festive lunch, that’s late enough to happily involve several toasts, and by calling our meal lunch, we demurely skirt the blue plate special vibe.

Anyway, I plan to be home, snug as a bug by 9pm (at the latest!) wearing my finest NYE haberdashery: these fantastically soft and cozy PJ’s. My sister got me a pair for Christmas, naturally in the cocktail pattern, and after only three wears, I’m already considering getting a second set.

Simple and Stylish Cocktails of the Week

If there was ever a time to pop the cork on a bottle of fizz, this is it. However, it’s come to my attention – and this may utterly shock you – not everyone likes brut (dry) bubbly. In fact, many actively dislike it. The Wine Lovers who show up to my classes are absolutely gutted by this revelation; but, fearless leader that I am, I will not quit them.

When the clock strikes midnight (or high noon, in my case), it’s Champagne* cocktails to the rescue.

Pom Mimosa

This is a festive option for your New Year’s brunch.

Pomegranates are a symbol of good luck and prosperity, hanging on doorways in Turkey and Greece during the holidays season. On New Year’s Day, Greek homes smash a ripe pomegranate on the floor (I hope they lay out a drop cloth, oozing pomegranate would cause a stunning mess). The more seeds that spill out from the broken fruit, the higher the fortune is to come the following year.

I feast on pomegranates while they’re in season, which is luckily now, but only for another few weeks. I save the sweet and tart juice that spills from the cut open fruit (you can see my preferred way on peeling a pomegranate here) and use it in salad dressings and cocktails.

Makes: 1 drink
Bartender level: easy

Ingredients:

• 1oz fresh pomegranate juice

• ½ oz orange flavoured liqueur

• 4oz chilled brut bubbly (for topping)

How to Make It:

1. Pour the pom juice and liqueur into a chilled flute.

2. Gently top with bubbly for serving.

3. Scatter with pom arils as garnish, if desired.

Triple C Cocktail (Cider, Calvados, Champagne)

Calvados is an apple-based spirit, similar to brandy, that hails from Normandy – France’s chilly northern region that specializes in apples. Calvados has fallen out of fashion in many places, but on my bar, it has prime real estate as it works so beautifully in so many cocktails.

Makes: 1 drink
Bartender level: easy

Ingredients:

• 2oz unsweetened apple cider

• 1oz Calvados

• 4 chilled brut bubbly

How to Make It:

1. Pour the cider and Calvados into a chilled flute.

2. Top with bubbly.

*I don’t use Champagne for cocktails. In my view, there’s no point in diluting the expensive stuff with mixes. Instead, I go for a dry fizz like Crémant, a sparkling wine made in the same style as Champagne, but from other areas of France, which are delicious and generally priced around $25.

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.

If you enjoyed reading this post, you could always let me know by clicking that heart, and consider sharing Quaintrelle with all the party hosts, wine lovers and cooks you know. And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can click below to fix that.