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I know I do! Sure, in some supermarkets in the US selling liquor, they have those wine chillers so you can cool your wine before hitting the checkout counter. However, if you’re home and you already have your room-temperature bottle of wine, it would be a hassle to go out just to buy some wine. And if you’re like me who have impulse cravings for wine that doesn’t leave enough time to chill anything (and don’t own a wine chiller), that puts a damper on saying yes to instant gratification.

That’s where ravi comes in! ravi is an “instant wine refresher”. I prefer to call it my enabler of instant wine gravification. I just have to take out the inner cartridge out of the freezer, assemble the unit in two snaps and place on the mouth of the bottle of my preferred wine and I’m good to go!

ravi looks like the cartridge of a faucet tap water purifier, and is almost the same size. Yes, the liquid passes through it as it’s being cooled down. Instead of cooling the bottle, wine is being cooled as it’s poured. It doesn’t change the flavor in any way.

I put it to the test with a bottle of red wine. The wine’s original temperature is 25°C, as you can see here.

I took out the ravi cartridge out of the freezer and set it up as indicated. The first two glasses I poured registered an almost 10-degree drop in temperature right there. You will see that even after 30 and 60 minutes, ravi was still able to hold the chill and cooled the wine to about 17°C. That’s pretty good, I think. I drank the wine at the “start” and “ravi” temperatures and they difference is noticeable.

I mentioned above that ravi has a valve that you can block with a thumb. This valve controls the flow of liquid through the  cooling tube. The principle is simple: slow down the flow and the liquid stays in longer, thus chilling it longer. Based on experience, I didn’t have to do this for the first 3 glasses. It cooled down quite nicely to a nice 15°C.

The possibilities are endless: you can use ravi for red, white, or rose wines. Just like your ice cream maker bucket, you can place it in the freezer and forget about it until you need it. I put the cartridge in a resealable sandwich bag in the freezer door. Cleanup is a breeze–just rinse and dry the internal tubing with the included pump.

I can definitely see this coming to potlucks (at private residences) for instant wine chilling, and placed in a tiny cooler, or even in those lined keep-frozen bags when traveling. As a self-confessed “girl scout” who brings whatever may be needed, this is another great gadget to have on hand!

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If you like this product, you can purchase it here right now for USD$40. If you order anytime between today and August 16 and use the coupon code FREESHIPPING, you’ll get free shipping!

A few weeks ago, on Earth Day, I posted a link to Lindsay Coulter’s homemade green cleaning recipes. I also said I’d give them a try sometime. That sometime came last weekend.

The recipe for the all-purpose cleaner called for 3 ingredients. All I had to do was mix these with a gallon of hot water:

• 1 tbsp Borax**
• 1/2 cup castile soap [I used Dr. Bronner's almond castile soap]
• 1/2 cup white vinegar

[optional is 20 drops essential oil like lemon, lime, grapefruit, bergamot, lavender, tea tree]

Note: If you don’t have a container to fill a gallon of water, use your big pot for mixing.

The resulting liquid is whitish (castile soap becomes foggy white with the addition of water). I’m thinking this batch will last us for months unless I go on a tri-weekly cleaning spree. I filled one empty bottle spray with the liquid, and was able to fill an empty tequila bottle and an empty bottle of soap refill with the remaining liquid. If you’re planning to make this, have empty bottles to reuse — wine bottles, milk bottles, etc.

For anyone thinking that it would be expensive to make your own green cleaners — it’s not. The most ‘expensive’ ingredient to buy was the 1qt/944ml bottle of castile soap and it will last you a long time for quite a number of uses.

After having gone ‘greener’ and biodegradable with my all purpose cleaner, the big question in my head when I started this was — Does it really clean? YES, it does! It worked on the counters, on the stove, and on the super greasy areas that were casualties of cooking. I was honestly very surprised, but it worked! I also used it to clean the microwave oven and the refrigerator.

If you’re looking to make your own, the complete list of green cleaning recipes are here. You’ll find “Green Spa” recipes from there as well.

**If anyone can enlighten me more on Borax, I’d love that. I’ve searched all over the ‘Net and found that it has a low level of toxicity, but regardless, one shouldn’t ingest it. It’s a naturally occurring compound but that doesn’t meet it’s fully safe, just like your other household chemicals.  Lethal dose for humans would be 5 grams. Direct contact of pure borax with skin is not recommended because it can be an irritant. It’s not to be used by pregnant women.

Sunset in Stanley Park, July 2007

A few readers of this site know about my penchant for snail mail and letter writing. I have penpals, as well as friends who request that we write each other through letters. We enjoy the fading art of handwritten words, crafty things, and art that fit into small package. Instead of dreading to see piles of bills, we look forward to getting each others’ mails. Love it! Even when I travel, the mailing goes on. I make it a point to send post cards — and lots of them!

Yesterday I went to Granville Island (the artsy fartsy district with good food — I’ll talk more about that later) and passed by the Postcard Store there to get a few–what else–post cards! And they’re going out to you!

If you’d like one, let me know in the comments section and I’ll email you back to ask for your address. I’m doing it this way so others will know if they still can join in the fray. :D I’ll send the posties to the first 5 commentors (for now).  Update 4/21: The postcards I have for now are all accounted for.  More later.

Cheers, and enjoy your Sunday!

P.S. And yes, we did have snow, sleet, and rain in some parts of Greater Vancouver. My good luck goes to the runners of the Vancouver Sun Run. No one was expecting winter-like conditions this weekend. Yikes.

I would like to deviate slightly from the normal Gourmeted path and share something that I feel needs discussing. 

By now, I’m sure you have heard the controversy concerning Robert Irvine fluffing his resume. He has always shocked me with what he is capable of performing. He has an amazing history of leadership and producing fantastic foods from the most unusual circumstances. Why should this impair his ability to perform when the point of the show is wholesome cooking entertainment?

I once believed that the episodes of Dinner:Impossible were staged, but the more I thought about it the more I realized there was more going on than just on the 30 minute performance. He may have had 20 people helping him over a span of 13 hours, but that is 13 hours of instruction, preparing, cooking, leading, and organization. There is amazing pressure to perform these tasks he has been given and he pulls through, almost always within the time given to him.

Pulling Dinner:Impossible will have a substantial impact on Food Network’s quality programming. There was an article released around the new year from the LA times discussing the future of Food Network and how they are faltering with attracting new viewers and retaining current ones. I believe Dinner:Impossible and Robert Irvine makes food preparation worth watching and exciting to follow. If Robert was given a cooking show that was different from Dinner:Impossible, he would bring a show worth watching that would compare to Emeril from so many years ago.

Revoking his command of the kitchen to one of Food Network’s most popular shows just because a few misunderstandings should not be his punishment. His track record speaks for itself. According to his Wiki page, he had a Chefography that was due to play this month, hopefully with this online petition I found here, we can learn more about his journey. Please sign this petition to bring back the glory that he has maintained over the years. Thank you very much for reading. Please continue on our journey of culinary teachings.

[Not food related unless you count the raw meat fed to the tigers. Hah.] Here are photos I took during our trip to Sedona, AZ. Most are taken at the Out Of Africa Wildlife Park, where we spent half of our Saturday afternoon with giraffes, lions, zebras, rhinos, etc. There are even action shots from the “Tiger Splash” when tigers played and jumped into a pool. That was awesome. Enjoy all 130 photos of them. :-)