Quaintrelle Weekender

The days are turning.

Mornings are cooler – I almost need a sweater for my sunrise al fresco coffee. Evenings are blissfully breezy – a real relief from the afternoon heat, which, of course, is still intense and will be until October.

This is why August is my favourite month of summer. We’ve struck a happy balance with Mother Nature, a little heat, a little cool, a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll.

I spent a good amount of last weekend in the kitchen. It was mostly overcast in Toronto, and humid as the devil’s nether regions, rain thundering all around the city, but not actually in it. I don’t subscribe to the, “it’s too hot to cook,” mantra of summer: I have both air conditioning and a hearty inventory of well-chilled rosé (currently: Caruso and Minini “Frappo” from Sicily), so the wet-blanket heat wasn’t an issue for me.

I made a bright, mailbox red, long-simmered tomato sauce with basil (tis the season!), meatballs, a superb gnocco fritto stuffed with fontina… I was too stuffed for the three-cheese polenta and fritto misto I had planned, but, as you’ll read below, those are on the deck for this weekend.

I love cooking. I can happily spend all day in the kitchen, and, when my schedule allows, I do.

Along with having taken a dozen-plus culinary courses at the college where I teach wine classes (employee discounts have their privileges) and attending cooking classes in Beaune, Bologna, and Umbria, I’ve also been the lucky beneficiary of the intel from a few nice chefs (when I was working in restaurants, nice chefs were as lucky a find as a four-leaf clover. Interesting how quickly those mad men have changed their tune. A story for another time.) The underpaid minions at Canoe helped me figure out why my gnocchi was tough as shoe leather; the executive chef at a private club taught me the value of double frying French fries and how to make a seriously good steak tartare. I constantly beg the chef I work with now for his recipes (when the weather cools, give Laird’s sausage rolls a try. Stunningly simple and outrageously delicious.)

The tips and tricks from instructors and colleagues have taken my food from fine to really, really good (if I do say so myself): soaking lettuce in ice water to get super-crisp leaves; sprinkling sugar over sliced onions to lessen their harsh bite and dominating after-taste; leaving meat to rest for about as long as it took to cook; how lemon zest almost always makes everything better.

Of course, no one’s perfect, and you’ll be shocked to hear that includes me. While attempting my first round of dough for the gnocco fritto, I went into such a zen state that I didn’t realize I used regular yeast instead of fast-acting. When I came out of my fugue, looking at the (fairly attractive, TBH) dots sprinkling my otherwise smooth dough, I realized I needed to start again.

Ah, such is life. It’s August. Pour another rosé. The living is easy.

Mel Robbins podcast Maybe this is revealing more about my current vibe than I should really admit, but this podcast spoke to me. I’m already a big believer in manifestation and visualization, but this conversation with psychologist Cassandra Vietan had me taking notes. Seriously. I listened to it twice, saved it, and put the good doctor’s book on hold at the library.

A313 OK, I feel like I’m the last person on the planet to know about this miracle potion. My sister bought one for me in France, initially thinking it was a thick, hydrating foot cream. But, no. It turns out this unremarkable, utilitarian tube is filled with skin magic. Fine. It’s filled with retinol. But this Vaseline-textured ointment is truly next level. After two weeks, my skin is noticeably smoother, softer, even-toned, and my pours seem clearer, too. It’s $50 in Canada (in France it’s between €6 - €13), so when my sister returns to France in the fall (lucky ducky) I’m sending her with an order for at least three more bottles.

Green Pan. In my view, every kitchen needs one of these hard-working pans. They’re ceramic non-stick, meaning they don’t have the toxins that other non-stick pans have, they’re durable, and, best of all, super affordable (you can get them at Costco.) When I was deep in the weeds of my 23-pound weight loss (now 26 thank-you-very-much) I relied on this for oil-free cooking that didn’t leave me scrubbing until my fingers bled.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. Carley’s a bit of a local superstar. Well, she’s probably a national superstar, at least as far as novelists go, and potentially an international star. She’s a Toronto girl, about my age, and has a background in journalism, having even worked at one or two of same places as me. Her main character in this book even lives in my neighbourhood of Roncesvalles. So, naturally, when she came on my radar (the local book pods from CBC and Chatelaine all gushed how she is THE voice of Canadian summers) I flew to my Libby app to put her first novel on hold. This book came out in in 2022, catapulting Carley to mega-success. She’s written about a book a year since then and one of her latest novels has been turned into a streamer for Amazon Prime. Who? Me? Jealous? Nah. Well…yeah.

I’m about 25% in. It’s super fun identifying many areas listed. Have you read it yet? What did you think?

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Last Sunday’s Dinner: my favourite meatballs in slow-roasted tomato sauce with basil (so simple: I just simmered crushed garlic in about ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil for a minute until they were lightly golden and fragrant, then added two cans of whole tomatoes, crushing them up with a potato masher. Add a little salt and pepper and a big handful of chopped basil, and simmer on low for about an hour – you still want it loose and bright red, not claggy and wine-coloured.)

Tonight’s Dinner: Grilled chicken with three cheese polenta (from Ammazza! by Hillary Sterling…recipe is not online, but here is one using the same cheeses.)

The Weekend Cocktail: Whisky Sour

The Weekend Wine: Westcott Estate Chardonnay, VQA Niagara Escarpment, Canada $32

No one panic, but we’ve got four weekends left until Back to School. And even though it’s still technically summer until the end of September, we all know the vibe changes once the school busses start rumbling down the road.

On the upside, Back to School also means Back to Wine School. If you happen to be in Toronto this fall why don’t you join us for a tasting or two? You can check out the class list here.

See you next week, friends. Be good. Let me know what it’s like.

xo – Erin