Elaine Ambrose

Bestselling Author, Ventriloquist, & Humorist

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Today’s Cabernet

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Today’s blog was fueled by a glass of 2004 Moon Mountain Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma Valley. A luscious and elegant blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot, this wine offers aromas of mountain blackberry and flavors of cedar and roasted coffee. At $30 a bottle, it’s a little on the high end for every day wine, but I just read that red wine is good for Type 2 Diabetes, so I must have it for medicinal reasons. The article stated that 1/2 glass of red wine helps to lower blood sugar levels. Of course, my glass is a quart jar, so 1/2 glass is just right.

Midlife Cabernet: Blending the Family Frappé

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Organizing an event with blended families requires the logistical coordination of air traffic controllers with the precision of a computerized dispatcher and the help of a licensed counselor. Uniting yours, mine, ours, and theirs becomes a calculated strategy that turns dates on the calendar into targets for negotiation. There’s a reason we never saw the ex-families on the television show The Brady Bunch.

I grew up in a small community during a time when couples married, had children, and stayed married until they died. Our family gatherings often included more than 30 people – and done were divorced. There was minimal tactical planning required to schedule an event. Times have changed, and sometimes I feel the pressure to make sure everyone is happy. I need to get over that.

At a recent family dinner, we arranged for the step-grandkids to join us along with the step-children and assorted step-grandparents. When most of the grandparents and parents have been divorced and remarried, it’s time to stop with the titles. There’s no more “step” because “family” will do just fine.

Both my children married spouses who already had children. That made me an instant grandma, a position I enjoy and welcome. I have been divorced and then married a man with grown children who became new members of the family. At our children’s events, the other parent is often involved. At my step-son’s high school graduation, I sat next to his mother. At my daughter’s wedding, her father and I both walked her down the aisle, even though we were divorced. We do it for our children. Even the receiving line was fun because our daughter’s happiness was most important.

No one is advocating divorce, but it happens. I admire those parents who negotiate joint custody arrangements using common sense. Holiday and birthday parties are less stressful if the parents coordinate plans and speak without assaulting each other. And, what child wouldn’t want to be spoiled and adored by one of eight different grandparents?

A Ceremony for the Rite of Midlife

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Marianne Williamson wrote a wonderful ceremony to celebrate a woman’s passage to and through midlife. How about calling your women friends together to experience the following ritual? Ceremony of the Elder: A Rite of MidlifeBy Marianne WilliamsonAs a generation, we are growing into our wisdom. We are hungry for our wise women, our wise men. We are hungry to know them and to become them. The wise have seen the light at the center of things, and the light at the center of things is who we are. Until we see that, the mission of our lives remains unfulfilled.This rite is very significant when done for someone’s fiftieth, sixtieth, or seventieth birthday. It should also be noted that it is as appropriate for men as it is for women.OFFICIANT: We gather on this day to celebrate an important passage in the life of (name). She is to us a beloved child of God. She is as well the daughter of (name) and (name), the wife of (name), the mother of (names), and sister to the world.The years of her life on earth have brought her to this sacred moment, where she takes upon herself, through the grace of God, the mantle of the Elder. From this day forward, she celebrates and carries forth the purpose of the wise ones, who oversee our human progress, who nurture and sustain us. She shall be grandmother to all children, handmaiden to God and Goddess, revered for her insights and honored for her knowledge.To you, (name), having lived these years, having seen what you have seen and cried the tears of troubled times, we now acknowledge that you have climbed the ladder of the elder ones. May God reveal to you a sacred sensibility. We are blessed by your presence. We are grateful to know you.Please reveal to us your story.(The honoree then tells a prepared story of her life, a letter to the world. It describes her history however she cares to reveal it. She forgives and blesses past times. She offers herself for continued service to humanity and to the world. She claims the full blessings of her maturity, the value of her experience to now share in faith and inspiration with those who seek her counsel.)

Today’s Cabernet

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I’m sitting here enjoying a glass of 2005 Ferrari-Carano Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley. This wine is always yummy with rich flavors black currant, cherry, and anise. It’s about $27 a bottle and worth every sip.

Midlife Cabernet: Do You Cook a Signature Dish?

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Chicken parmesan is my family’s favorite meal, and I tackle the process like a woman obsessed. The ritual never varies: First, everyone must leave the kitchen. Then I tie on an apron and continue with the most important task: I open a bottle of red wine. The experience won’t be a success without that important step, and I am under pressure to produce another stellar recipe so who am I to alter the technique?

Then I assemble all the ingredients and take a sip of wine. For the sauce, I sauté fresh onions, red peppers, green peppers, and garlic in extra-virgin olive oil (imported from Italy, of course.) Then I add tomato sauce and let it simmer. The delightful aroma causes Studley to peek into the kitchen but I shoo him away and take another sip of wine.

Then I cut up fresh chicken, dip it in a raw egg mixture, roll it in Italian bread crumbs and shredded fresh parmesan cheese and brown the pieces in olive oil. It takes several pans to brown all the chicken, so I take a few more sips of wine while it cooks. By this time, spattered oil covers the stove, the counters, and my apron. The wine is getting better, so I really don’t care.

Then I spread the simmered sauce into casserole dishes followed by the chicken and layers of sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, grated parmesan cheese, and more sauce. I cover the pans with tin foil and slide them into an oven heated to 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Then I sit down to sip wine and ignore the mountain of dirty pans, greasy utensils, empty cheese containers, and spilled bread crumbs that make my kitchen resemble a bad day at an Italian mess hall. It’s usually cleaned up before midnight.

Chicken parmesan tastes better the next day after all the flavors have mingled and the dish has cooled and then reheated. For a splendid dinner, I serve it with more sauce, crusty bread, a vegetable dish, and a green salad. For some reason, the original bottle of wine usually is empty, but there will be another one. For a brief moment at dinner time, all is right with the world.