Airplane wine

This is a “two hours on the tarmac” story.  Recently my family and I boarded the plane in Madrid and were kept on the ground for over 2 hours before takeoff.  The reason?  While loading the luggage somebody noticed that a screw was missing on a panel. Long story short,  a man in Montreal [Air Canada office] took 2 hours to give permission for an EU maintenance man to put in a screw.

I have several thoughts on this – mostly because I had two hours staring at the loading dock next to me.

1. Why the heck can’t I get a glass of wine while all this is going on?

2. I had time to estimate there must be at least 14000 screws on an airplane minimum

3. There’s no way that was the only screw missing and the chance that screw was a safety hazard?  Come on.

4. I asked my kids how many screws they thought were in  a plane like this. “One less than there should have been” was their reply. Kids don’t care. They just sit there and watch Spiderman. Twice!

Now if by “screw” they meant “engine number 2” then my apologies Air Canada.

Scruffy Scruffington, where were you when I needed you?

Gravy Gift

I have recently come to the conclusion that I have the gift of making great gravy.  I think that’s important. In fact I think some of you right now are saying “I wish I knew how to make great gravy”.

Here are the secrets to my success.

1. French copper pot purchased in Paris (point of purchase optional)
2. A whisk, some butter, some flour to make a slightly browned roux
3. Drippings from the meat that you just cooked
4. Boiling water from a kettle and a small amount of a stock cube
5. A good glug or two of what ever red wine you’re drinking.

My guess is that the glug of red wine makes all the difference.

What wine do you use to make gravy?

My favourite gravy quote comes from a Simpsons episode.

Dr. Hibbert: Well, your cholesterol level is lethally high, Homer, but I’m more concerned about your gravy level. 
Homer Simpson: Now, wait a second. You doctors have been telling us to drink eight glasses of gravy a day! 
Dr. Hibbert: [laughs] Well, you’re a little confused. 
Homer Simpson: Oh, confused, would we?

Back to the Basics

Whenever I feel like my wine selection has gone off the map I go back to a Côtes du Rhône. Really any CDR will do.

Whenever I feel like my perspective on wine has gone astray and I start using flowery descriptive words I go back to Billy  Munnelly – my wine guru / sansei / Yoda.

Billy’s back with a fresh new web site and a great Facebook feed of wine recommendations and descriptions.  His last recommendation that I acted on was the Chateau Hauchat Fronsac – a Bordeaux for under $15. I bought 6!

Check out Billy’s “Wine by Mood” – the cleverest thing ever written about wine.

Who is Billy?  Billy is my favourite wine writer – funny, irreverent, slightly silly, and a man who appreciates a good glass of wine (although I suspect that it seldom stops at one glass).

What’s not to like about this man?

Help! I’m trapped

Two weeks ago I didn’t even know what a guest blogger is – now I am one! Find me this week at www.linktrap.com – a website dedicated to looking for the best and most productive waves the world wide web can offer.  He traps them at linktrap.com.

Read Any Monkey Can Choose Wine – the places I go on the internet to research for my blog

John has trapped me in one of 4 billion available Internet protocol (IP) addresses shown on this “map”. Image would be courtesy of the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis if they knew I existed