Cooking With Wine 

Image via Food52 because they take way better photos than I ever could.

It was a typical Saturday. I started with a big leisurely breakfast accompanied by a bowl-sized cup of latte. Then I went out to get some stuff I needed (I don’t know if I’m getting clumsier with age or if I’m drinking too much but I needed to replace some glassware), renew my library card and pick up some groceries. At some point I ended up in the Dollar Store and was side tracked wandering the aisles like it was some minor museum to our glut of consumerism and disposable culture. All that crap made me wonder what if I had designed something that ended up in those aisles, would I be proud or humbled? Probably both.

It was a warm day so I planned to get in a run, actually outdoors instead of a monotonous tread mill run where you stare out the window or watch TV. True to form I left it to the last minutes of daylight. I love running in the last light of the day, when the sky becomes darkening blue and the warm lights of houses and shops are starting to glow. By the time I got back, entered my data (workouts without data are dead to me) and had a shower it was getting late. How did that happen? I suppose the time dwelling over the second cup of coffee in the morning, perusing the wares at the Dollar Store or chatting up the attractive and attentive young librarian all added up. This meant I was running out of time to make the ragù I wanted for supper, which could take almost 2 hours to make.

I decided to push on, with the help of a glass of wine or two. After opening the bottle I realized I still needed a couple of ingredients. The wine needed to breath anyway so I ran over to the grocery store across the street. When I finally started cooking and chopping and prepping it was 7pm. I figure that’s okay, I’ll have some wine, listen to some music, sketch, flip through some magazines and sip some more wine, surf the Net, whatever. At some point I just forgot about cooking entirely. I had gone through half the wine, snacked on a row of crackers, and generally whiled away the time doing not much of anything. This meant the sauce, left to bubble and reduce, turned out absolutely fantastic. It is definitely the best thing I’ve made in a long time. Originally I thought about adding a drop of wine to the sauce but it turns out adding wine to a glass is a much better way to make a great sauce.

Coffee Time 

Espresso coffee cubes, blended with milk and sugar and POW! Heat wave coffee explosion!

Canada Dry Day 

Take a tipple from a bottle of ginger ale you made yourself. It's like a science experiment gone right!

It's a been a hot weekend here in Hogtown. It started to feel like the Big Smoke as the sky grew hazier and hazier. Hopefully that haze will be broken with the recent showers.

But what can you do when there aren't any showers to break the heat? Just reach for some olde-fashioned homemade ginger ale. I just made some and it's a lightly fizzy, refreshing drink that goes well with white rum or gin. It's easy-peasy.

For a litre bottle, mix a ½ cup of sugar, with ¼ teaspoon of yeast. Poor that into an empty 1 litre pop bottle.

Grate enough fresh ginger root to make about a tablespoon's worth. Set aside in a bowl, then squeeze the juice of a lemon over the ginger.

Pour this into the pop bottle over the sugar and yeast mixture. Top up the bottle with water but leave about 2" of air space. Shake to combine.

Cap the bottle tightly and leave on the counter for about 24 hours. This gives enough time for the yeast to ferment and create just a little bit of fizz (not soft drink "fizz" but more like a light beer "fizz"). Pop it in the fridge to cool and once it's cold crack it open (slowly) and enjoy.