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Dry Pinot Noir rosés are absolutely wonderful and good ones can be on the top end of the rosé price range. Trade it with a wine lover for something you like! But I'm guessing you already opened it...

You could use it as a pan sauce for salmon, where the color won't be an issue, or for a stewed chicken dish--think coq au vin without the dark sauce. It would probably work well for a braised pork dish, say something that included some apples and dried cherries.

If you're not going to use it in the next day or two, just freeze it in an ice cube tray, pop the frozen cubes in to a plastic bag, and keep it in the freezer for when you just need an ounce of wine here or there.

Most people who claim to hate vermouth haven't had good quality, freshly opened vermouth. That half empty bottle of Martini & Rossi that's been sitting under the bar for ten years is going to taste awful.

Like with anchovies (another delicious food with a bad reputation), at some point it became fashionable to hate vermouth and to state this loudly and often.

My preferred martini:
3:1 Gin:Vermouth
Twist of lemon peel

I like ordering odd stuff off the menu--not to be difficult, but because I love obscure foods and like to reward the places that have them on the menu. So if I'm with a couple of people and I order sweetbreads or skate wing, I'll convince my fellow diners to try a bite. Unless they have some sort of ethical/religious objection or a serious phobia, I'll dump a forkful on their plates. Sometimes that's the only way people ever try new things.

The reverse is usually not the case; no, I'm good without a glop of fettuccine alfredo or plain roasted chicken breast.

Northerners have a habit of sweetening cornbread batter--I've never understood it, but to each their own. With Southern cornbread (or non-sweet johnnycakes), you get a bit more flexibility and can even do some cool things, like topping them with wilted kale, crabmeat, and fresh corn kernels.

The last time I made a batch of johnnycakes it was for a dinner party, and I had a steady procession of dogs and people coming through the kitchen begging for "just a little one, can I have it fresh off the griddle?" There are times when you must make threatening motions with the spatula or dinner will never get done.

Last year I made a traditional Québec trotter recipe... the touch of maple syrup made all the difference:

http://wine-by-benito.blogspot.com/2008/12/benito-vs-hoof-pied-de-cochon.html

While the meat and skin was delicious, I think I'll take your cue there and shred it next time, forming it in a ring mold for my fellow diners that might not be willing to take apart a whole hoof.

There is what seems like an inevitable, natural progression for any niche cable channel:

Cool, Detailed Shows about Subject X -->
Viewers are gained, channel becomes popular -->
Material is dumbed down to please advertisers -->
Original viewers disappear, grumble about the channel

Examples:
MTV: went from music to all reality programming
A&E: no more arts, reruns of legal dramas
Discovery: no more science, motorcycle shows and Bigfoot "documentaries"
TLC: isn't much about learning, unless you want to know about lots of babies and little people

Even the Cartoon Network is increasingly adding live-action movies and series...

Tiramisu? Mascarpone and espresso. ;)

It should be noted that this is all because of Health Department regulations that forbid the teams from giving out samples to the random public--to do so they'd have to have all of the facilities and go through the same inspection process as a restaurant.

It was a lot more fun back in the 80s when you could roam around and try alligator and kangaroo and all sorts of things as long as they had extra and you were friendly. On a similar note, I stopped going to the Sunset Symphony when they were enforcing the "no outside food" rule, thus killing off one of the great picnic experiences in the city. (This particular rule has recently been rescinded.)

Leslie, good to hear from you again here on Serious Eats!

Friday for dinner I made scacchi, an Italian Passover dish that is what some are referring to here as "matzo lasagna". My writeup has links to the recipe:

http://wine-by-benito.blogspot.com/2009/04/2006-galil-mountain-barbera.html

It's good, definitely something different.

A lot of the new energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs can make food look dreadful. Certain kinds of raw fish look spoiled or oxidized, and I once had a veal chop that was a perfect medium rare under sunlight but looked overcooked under the fluoros.

My favorite one was a restaurant that for a while had pinkish red lighting, and everyone tried to send back the grilled chicken because it looked pink and raw.

I've got that set of 8 different bitters from Fee Brothers, and they're incredible. Not only do they provide an amazing grace note to any cocktail, but even my non-drinking roommate likes to open them up once in a while and give them a sniff. I think the cherry and the old fashioned are my two favorites.

One glaring omission: every cocktail enthusiast needs a muddler! From inexpensive aluminum/plastic models to the lathed wooden ones, these are essential for getting the essential oils out of herbs and fruit rinds.

Here in Memphis game is pretty readily available via friends that hunt: duck, venison, squirrel, goose, quail, I tend to avoid raccoon and possum

And then there's the commercially available "game":
alligator, turtle, rabbit, crawfish, frogs

I think my favorite game meat is feral pig, the mostly-wild descendants of domesticated swine. They get huge out in the forests and swamps, feeding on roots and acorns. I used to know a guy who hunted them and made his own cured sausages, hams, and the best kielbasa I've ever had.

I've often felt that the South had a lot in common with France and Southeast Asia in the "eat anything that swims, crawls, or flies" sense.

Do blind tastings of a few hundred wines and you'll actually experience most of the aromas and flavors listed above. And yes, the gasoline aroma on certain German Rieslings is incredible. Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau smells exactly like banana Laffy Taffy. Stranger things have happened, and there's a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc actually called "Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush".

However... Sometimes if I'm hosting a tasting, or we've opened a few bottles during a dinner party, I'll get the idea that people are getting intimidated or confused about wine terminology. So I'll swirl, sniff, and say "This has elements of quince and lychee fruit--it's assertive but not pretentious." I wait for the awkward looks and then explain that it was pure BS. Lots of laughter, and it eases the tension.