Drunken Chicken Master: Hosting and Toasting

Cooking with red wine

Well, I had my usual get together of friends yesterday and the lime* was great. Tiring, but great. I love entertaining but Lord, it can be exhausting especially when the catering team is a team of one – moi. On paper, it was nothing too hard – a couple casseroles, some rice, salad, chicken – but of course you want stuff to taste good. Lol. Luckily, it seems like everyone enjoyed themselves and more importantly, enjoyed my cooking (as it should be!).

I tried a new chicken dish yesterday - chicken in a red wine and mushroom sauce, which I was so happy with in the end. Woot woot! The keys to success?

- A good red wine. Most people think if you buy a cheap wine then it is good just for cooking. I think if that crap is not good enough to drink, then it won’t be good enough for your food either. I was trying hell hard to open the cheaper, albeit still perfectly good and drinkable bottle of merlot but my supposedly universal wine opener was not cooperating on the wider mouth of this ridiculous bottle, time was upon me and I needed to grab a shower, and I thus had to use my good shiraz-cabernet. In the end, it worked!

- Don’t drink the wine while cooking.  You don’t want to pass out and have the chicken or the sauce burn do you? Luckily for me, it was red wine and not white, so the urge to pour myself a glass while the apron was still on was not strong. The chicken, the sauce – all survived to make a good and lasting impression.

I was really pleased with my chicken and with everything else in fact. But believe me, the next time I will either not be hosting, or will be making sandwiches. It is not something one can do every day unless there is the added incentive of being paid to do it, à la professional caterer.

I had maybe one drink too many yesterday and I always end up mixing, cause I must have wine and I MUST have a cocktail (or 4) so after the dishes were done, I crashed like a stone on the bed. But all in all it was a good lime. Looking forward to my roti lime tomorrow and not just because I am the curry master. I love Christmas holidays and all but if I have to eat another piece of ham, I may stab myself.


*Lime – (according to Urban Dictionary)
Of Caribbean origin; often heard from a Trini. Closest American translation is "hanging out," but it can be used to describe a party, a planned or unplanned social gathering, or just some people sitting around, killing time together. It's a Trini's favourite pastime.