Corked by Cabernet Read Online Free

said.
    “Oh, no, there you go with the cheese ball crap again.”
    He took her face in his hands and shook his head. “I know it sounds like a line from a soap opera, but I mean it, Nik. I wake up every day and the first thing I think is how grateful I am for you.”
    She swallowed hard, and then smiled. “You are a lucky son of a gun, aren’t you?”
    He laughed and kissed her, and she kissed him back, thinking she was damn grateful and lucky she had him, too.

Pork Loin with Pearl Onions and Grapes with Tablas Creek Vineyard Côtes de Tablas
    What is Nikki about to get herself into? All she wanted to do was get moved in with the love of her life and get all domesticated, as Simon put it. And she had a decent start there with that pork loin meal she was preparing for her honey. But Nikki is a sucker for those baby blues of Derek’s, and when he said the word, she didn’t need much more convincing.
    When you want to impress your other half, put this meal together with some sliced tomatoes on the side and rice pilaf. This is one of those dishes that are so tasty and unforgettable that it will likely become a requested meal in your household.
    A great wine to drink with the pork loin is the Côtes de Tablas by Tablas Creek Vineyard. It has a wonderful blend of 43% Grenache, 24% Mourved, 18% Syrah, and 15% Counoise. It’s similar to a French Rhone. It’s not too fruity and has a nice peppery spice flavor on the palate.
    SERVES 4.
    3 lb boneless pork loin
salt and pepper
1 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp red pepper flakes
10 fresh thyme sprigs plus 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
¼ cup red wine
3 tbsp warm clarified butter (recipe follows)
1 lb small pearl onions
1 lb red seedless grapes (about 3 cups)
     
     
    FOR CLARIFIED BUTTER
unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
     
    Prepare the pork loin by trimming off any excess fat except for about an ⅛-inch layer on the outside. Salt and pepper pork on both sides. Combine vinegar, honey, garlic, red pepper flakes, and thyme in a small bowl. Marinate pork in ingredients for 4 hours up to overnight.
     
     
    TO CLARIFY BUTTER
    In a heavy saucepan melt butter over low heat. Remove pan from heat and let butter stand 3 minutes. Skim froth and strain butter through a sieve lined with a double thickness of rinsed and squeezed cheesecloth into a bowl, leaving milky solids in bottom of pan. Pour clarified butter into a jar or crock and chill, covered. Butter keeps, covered and chilled, indefinitely. When clarified, butter loses about ¼ its original volume.
    When ready to cook pork, drain marinade and add ¼ cup red wine into a small saucepan and boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about ½ cup, about 5 minutes. Pour glaze through a fine sieve into a small bowl, discarding thyme, and reserve. In another small bowl stir together 2 tbsp reserved glaze and 2 tbsp clarified butter.
    In a saucepan of boiling salted water, blanch onions 3 minutes. Drain onions and peel.
    Heat a flameproof roasting pan, 15 by 10 by 2 inches, in oven 10 minutes at 350°. In the heated pan, toss onions with remaining tbsp clarified butter, and salt and pepper to taste and roast in upper third of oven, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Take onions out.
    While onions are roasting, prepare pork loin. Brush pork loin with about ⅓ glaze-butter mixture.
    Roast pork loin for 15 minutes at 350°. Add grapes and onions to the roasting pan. Arrange pork loin over onions and grapes, and roast 15 minutes. Turn pork loin over and baste with about half of remaining glaze-butter mixture. Roast pork loin, basting with remaining glaze-butter mixture, 10 minutes more.
    Transfer to a platter. Arrange grapes and onions around pork loin.
    To pan, add reserved glaze and on stovetop boil over high heat 5 minutes, or until thickened and reduced to about ½ cup. Season sauce with salt and pepper and drizzle over pork loin.

Two

    ONE week later, Nikki