I definitely enjoy drinking dry white wine--never really developed an appreciation of red. I also love Manhattans on the rocks, gin and tonic, and Tom Collins. However, as I grow older I react to all alcohol with a bright red nose and cheeks, very watery eyes and can barely stay awake after one drink. I choose not to drink with others because I look so terrible and I drink alone only if something horrible has happened and I desperately want/need to dull my senses. I didn't even drink after the deaths of two of my Siberian huskies last year. I am looking for a wine to add a little "something" to a recipe. Cooked wine doesn't cause any reaction for me--guess I kill all the alcohol during cooking. That's great because I love Bacardi or Southern Comfort cake. Nancy

Here's what the American Heart Association says about fiber: Dietary Fiber Dietary fiber is the term for several materials that make up the parts of plants your body can't digest. Fiber is classified as soluble or insoluble. When eaten regularly as part of a diet low in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol, soluble fiber has been associated with increased diet quality and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. Soluble or viscous fibers modestly reduce LDL ("bad") cholesterol beyond levels achieved by a diet low in saturated and trans fats and cholesterol alone. Oats have the highest proportion of soluble fiber of any grain. Foods high in soluble fiber include oat bran, oatmeal, beans, peas, rice bran, barley, citrus fruits, strawberries and apple pulp. Insoluble fiber has been associated with decreased cardiovascular risk and slower progression of cardiovascular disease in high-risk individuals. Dietary fiber can make you feel full, so you may eat fewer calories. Foods high in insoluble fiber include whole-wheat breads, wheat cereals, wheat bran, rye, rice, barley, most other grains, cabbage, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower and apple skin. Many commercial oat bran and wheat bran products (muffins, chips, waffles) contain very little bran. They also may be high in sodium, total fat and saturated fat. Read labels carefully. That's why I wouldn't stress as much about "no carbs" as I would look at an overall plan that includes low in saturated fat, trans fats, and cholesterol and higher in fiber. Those "no carb" diets are fads and people only lower their cholesterol because they loose weight fast, but I doubt most keep it off. And the diet allows a lot of saturated fat and salt, which is why I wouldn't follow it to a "T" although I would get some ideas from it beause people eat WAY too many empty carbs. But bear in mind that any refined flour products are going to be high carb, but the biggest thing that zooms up your "carb" ratings on things is SUGAR, another no no that is hard to avoid if you are fighting heart disease. We are bombarded daily by foods that contain the lethal mix of trans fats or saturated fat, high sugar and high salt. I ate two chocolate ones for breakfast this morning, lol! If your hubby is like my dad, it's not the good meals that you put on the table that are probably doing him in. Sounds like he wants a quick fix. Better to make gradual healthy changes to the way you cook to include more low carb, high fiber vegetables and healthy snacks. This is a constant battle I know. And I also know that you have to negotiate this with hubby too! Good luck, I know you have LOTS of company in your struggle here on the board! This kind of low balanced carb, high fiber diet is good for fighting diabetes too. And a lot of other chronic diseases. It's too bad that your husband isn't getting good diet advice from his physician, who should be paying attention to this too and not JUST prescribing pills. But I know that's the way most doctors do it. LOTS of really great stuff on the American Heart Association's Web site. Search "low carb" and you'll find some cautions. Low carb is fine if you include fiber and whole grains which have lots of B vitamins which are also good for the heart and blood. Here is a link that might be useful: American Heart Association Food and Nutrition

See, I have a beef with Cook's Illustrated (aka, America's Test Kitchen & Cooks Country). They are not very "customer" friendly, IMO. I had trouble once with a bill from them for their CI magazine (one I didn't owe, I might add) and they were very nasty and threatening. There are also a lot of complaints about them on line regarding their billing practices so I know it was not just me running into problems with them. That being said, I do like their recipes! I watch their shows but, of course, you can't go to their website and see the recipes unless you subscribe (another pet peeve I have). However, with a little googling, I have found every one of their recipes somewhere else - for free. Years ago I bought a few of their cookbooks, but to be honest, I never use them. The cookbooks I use the most are the Barefoot Contessa's books - I have all of them - about 10 of them. I can't think of one recipe of hers that hasn't been delicious (and easy). Also, my two other favorite resources is allrecipes.com and food.com. On their sites you can ask it to show you the ingredient list for 2 people and I find that very helpful, since we are empty nesters also and don't like leftovers.

I think lindac is correct. The point of adding wine is essentially to bring in some acidity. You are not going to get the complex flavors of a great wine in your stew - it will be cooked and transformed. That's why great restaurants don't use great wine in their cooking. And if you're doing a reduction, taking a bottle of wine down to maybe a cup, there is no reason to use anything great. That's the reason I suggested something fairly tasteless. For example, if you are cooking some mussels with garlic and shallots and wine, and you were to use a really grassy Sauvignon Blanc from Rueda say, you may find notes of bell pepper and grapefruit, and if you were to use a muscat or gwertztraminier, you would have floral and fruity notes and neither would really be great with the mussels. Sauvignon blanc from the Loire is a classic wine to use in that dish, but most of those, from Sancerre say, do not have the pronounced green flavors that some of the others do. With red wine it's a little more complex because many red wines are aged in wood. That is generally not something that enhances the flavor of a dish. As a matter of fact, whenever someone has done a little study of the issue, the simpler, fruitier wines were preferred. But your information on wine is very mistaken. "Cheap" can result from many factors, which could include the relative strength of the economy where the wine was made. Consequently, we can find bargains in the US that come from Argentina, whereas if their economy were stronger, the wines would be more costly. Lightly tapping grapes to release juice? Each individual grape? I promise you that nobody in the world does that. Some wines are made via carbonic maceration, in which case the weight of the grapes in the container crushes a few and the juice starts fermenting. The grapes at the bottom of the tank start fermenting inside their own skins in some cases. The new Beaujolais is made like this and it's also used in other areas to produce light, fruity wines that aren't meant to age and that are in fact good for cooking. In other cases, the grapes are in fact crushed and allowed to macerate with the skins. The juice is then drawn off. This is what is called "free run" juice. If the mass of skins, etc., is gently pressed, there can be additional juice that is squeezed out. That is no longer free-run juice, but is is not low quality. There are many ways of pressing the skins. For example, you can have an inflatable bladder that gently presses out the remaining juice. Incidentally, one of the wineries that uses this charges over $100 a bottle for their wine. And yes, sometimes the stems and seeds are crushed too. Some winemakers feel that the tannins and flavors that are obtained that way add complexity to the wine. Guigal in the Rhone for example, uses whole cluster fermentation, which means that he does not de-stem the grapes before making wine. Then when the juice is pressed, you get some of the flavors and tannins from the skins and seeds. His la Landonne goes for about $270 a bottle and it's entirely whole cluster fermentation. Dropping 1/3 of the crop is called "green harvesting". in that situation, bunches are cut off while still green so that the remaining clusters ripen more evenly and supposedly have more concentration. People around the world do it and people around the world debate whether or not it's actually useful. The idea is that lower yields produce more concentrated flavors. Well, you can accomplish low yields in many ways, including the density of your planting. But don't assume that all expensive wines are from vineyards that have been green harvested. I assure you that is not true. As far as headaches - that comes from alcohol. Sulfur is present in the grapes themselves as it is a component of some amino acids. THere is no science whatsoever supporting the claim of sulfites causing headaches, although there is an urban legend that won't die. Since I cook almost daily and have been doing so for many years, and since I always have open bottles of wine in the house, we've been cooking with all kinds of wine. I promise you that if I use a white or a red in my spaghetti sauce, you will most likely not know the difference. As far as not drinking it and not cooking with it - that's not a bad rule. However, I would even hedge there. Someone gave me some Yellow Tail shiraz. I certainly wasn't going to drink it but it did make a great marinade with some soy sauce, star anise, ginger, honey, and garlic. Cheers!