First, my whine:
Well, I must say I am truly surprised at the division there seems to be in Massachusetts over Ballot Question # 1. This is the ballot initiative that, if passed, would allow the sale of wine in food stores. Read the full text of the proposal here. I am supporting this initiative 100%. I think the convenience and competition between stores is a.o.k. I love walking into my grocery store after work, mulling the aisles for ingredients for dinner and grabbing a bottle of wine on my way out. I guess I am spoiled by already having this in our local grocery stores in Quincy (and the whine being that if this initiative doesn't pass they better not make my local grocery stores give up their wine licenses!). I had no idea there would be such a strong reaction by the public. I assumed liquor stores would try to fight it, but the mass consumers I thought for sure would be ecstatic about this measure. I stand corrected. It seems the three arguments for the opposition of this amendment are:
1. Alcohol will be more readily available to minors.
2. Drunk driving will increase.
3. Big business supermarkets will drive the mom and pop liquor stores out of business.
I find the first two arguments ludicrous. Our local grocery store already sells wine (I don't know how they are allowed to do this if it isn't yet a law, but who am I to question? ;-) In order to purchase the wine, the item must be scanned. It immediately brings up a screen on the cash register that requires the input of your birthdate and a security code that needs to be entered by a cashier after scanning a special card. Every single time I have purchased wine at the grocery store I have been carded. I would say I do not get carded 8 out of 10 times at my local liquor store. As far as drinking and driving, I don't see people suddenly popping open bottles of wine on their drive home from the grocery store. It makes no sense whatsoever where this argument came from. It doesn't hold wine, er, um, I mean water, to me.
As far as argument #3 goes, I can see where people have the fear of the local mom & pop shop going out of business. However, I think the average liquor store is not going to be hurt by this. The consumer is still going to have to go to the liquor store for liquor and specialty beer. Also I would think any consumer who is going to purchase wine by the case or for a special occasion is going to visit their liquor store as well. I hear people's fear that society is being "wal-martized" to steal an expression from a friend, but I still see the viability of liquor stores as they will have the sole right of selling liquor. (On a side note - the entire world is shrinking through Globalization and it's a sad fact that people are going to have to get assimilate to.)
Anyhoo - now for the wine! In honor of being able to go to your grocery store to buy ingredients for dinner and WINE to add to those ingredients, I made up this recipe the other night and wanted to share.
Liss's Sundried Drunken Chicken
4 boneless chicken breasts
8 slices bacon, cooked
Smoked Gouda cheese
1/2 jar of sun dried tomatos in olive oil
1/2 cup of white wine
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Fresh crushed garlic
Crushed red pepper
Ground black pepper
Cut a slit in chicken breast and stuff with small pieces of gouda and bacon. Season chicken. Bake chicken in a baking pan, covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 15 minutes or until cooked through (I like to put some chicken stock in the bottom of the baking dish to keep it moist).
Heat a saucepan on the stovetop, once hot, add sundried tomatos and white wine, bring to a rapid boil and let wine reduce. Once wine is reduced add cream of mushroom soup. Season with garlic, crushed red pepper and black pepper. Simmer on stovetop for about 10 minutes.
Serve chicken with sundried tomato gravy. And wine. Lots and lots of wine. Enjoy!
Peace, love and all that other bullshit,
Liss
