So I'm beginning to realize that there's only so much I can do with red wine. I bought a bottle of cheap "table wine," a label I erroneously assumed was indicative of higher quality, last week to cook my famous pan-seared venison. I haven't tried the "cooking wine" at the grocery store so I don't know if paying double the price if actually worth it; suffice it to say that I didn't think so when I walked into the liquor store, but now I have a whole bottle to get rid of.

Suddenly my mom's advice — only cook with a wine you would drink — seems prescient. I tried having a glass with the last of the venison steak but it tasted like the cheap merlot it so definitely is and I ended up pouring half of it into the sink.

And the bottle is still in the fridge. The cork is cool, I should point out. I prefer the new plastic corks to the old wooden ones, which seem like more of a hastle. In Freiburg there were rumors that the Germans had a special drop-off for recycling old wooden corks, which wouldn't surprise me really — though as far as I know no one ever found it.

I got the Joy of Cooking in the mail today, and though I have to report that cooking has advanced since 1975, there was some good advice on cooking with wine. So tonight I stirred a 1/4 cup of red wine into my beef stew after it was done cooking, with tasty results.

Still, I have about two or three cups left in the fridge, and I'm running out of options, people.