Wine and cheese at the Tucknesses

Periodically, as a special meal, I like to fix a cheese platter for me and Alex. Our favorite ingredients are: several kinds of cheeses, including both soft and hard (we always have Brie), fruit such as grapes and pears, baguette slices, and chocolate. We also sometimes include olives, roasted garlic, toasted walnuts (especially good with bleu cheese and pears) and of course, wine.

I had brought back a bottle of apple wine from a trip recently and was excited to try it. I wasn't sure if we had a corkscrew, so I took a walk downtown in search of one. Realizing that I had left my credit card in the car and I only had a couple dollars, I didn't go to Cooks', reasoning that I couldn't afford whatever option they would have. So I ended up in the coin collecting place, of all things--he now has a section of the store devoted to making your own wine and beer. For a quarter, I purchased the small black plastic object shown in the bottom right picture.

That evening, we examine our bottle-opening options. We start with the metal corkscrew we found at the back of a drawer. And soon afterward it comes apart.

Moving on, then, to the maroon-colored bottle opener--this doesn't get us anywhere.

Coming to the small black tool, we screw it down into the cork and pull. And pull. And pull. The shopkeeper had said something to the effect of, "That will take quite a bit of finger strength--we call it an emergency corkscrew." Alex's estimation--maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger could get it open this way. Remembering physics and the power of levers, he uses the wooden spoon--with the results also displayed above.

We then take a break and call several friends to see if we could borrow one, but to no avail.

Google finally came to our rescue. We typed in "open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew," and got this helpful video. Thus the handyman tools in the other picture (just need a screw, hammer, and screwdriver). It worked like a charm, and we highly recommend it if you find yourself in the same pickle we did.

Even without the wine, pairing the above foods together makes a great special date meal or easy company hors d'oeuvres!