Just before Christmas, my husband completed a short term assignment in Senegal. When he went through the duty free shop, a magnum of Veuve Cliquot Champagne leapt into his basket with just a small assist from him 😉
Scrooge-like, we were set on splitting the magnum between the two of us for either Christmas or New Year’s. As M. Parret says, one bottle is never quite enough between two and a magnum is perfect. He swears that a magnum even tastes better than a regular bottle, this having nothing to do with quantity 😀
Christmas passed without us broaching the bottle and guilt set in. It would be unconscionable of us not to share with our friends who have always shared with us, and to be honest, we knew it would be a lot more fun with them. Feeling almost evangelical, but in a good way, we invited our friends to a small cocktail party to share wine and food, everyone bringing a dish and/or bottle(s).
As it seems to happen, more often than not, at some point during the festivities I forget to blog and just eat and drink. In this case, it was such a shame because although I did get a picture of Trix Render’s delicious lamb kofta (before cooking), I didn’t get them when they were cooked and served with a marvelous yogurt sauce. Worse yet, Anne Lynch’s best ever stuffed mushrooms didn’t make it on the camera roll at all. Lord have mercy!
We had such a good time with these folks! Much better than we would have had alone, no matter how big the bottle 🙂
So the next time selfishness attempts to distort our usual generous natures, I’m going to ask “What would Jesus do?” 😀
Cooking in Sens 
M. Parret is correct – there’s less air in a magnum than there would be in two bottles, so therefore there’s less contamination of the wine. It looks like you had a feast to go with the champagne and good company!
Thank you Dog. I just thought it was another M. Parret tease 🙂
If you were to buy vintage wine, a magnum would increase in value far more than two bottles of the same wine, because it’s less likely to spoil.
Lucky Parret has vintage magnums in his cellar.
Ha ha – I can believe it! Get him to take you wine shopping after the vendange in the fall – there are a lot of bargains to be had, even in the large supermarkets. They bring in the winemakers and do free tastings too.
He has promised to take us and we’ll probably do that this next trip.
The Autumn is a fantastic time to be in France 😉
I know! I don’t know what we were thinking last year.
I’m sure you’ll make up for it this year 😉
Ha!Ha! A good laugh for the puny under the weather for me. Merci beaucoup, & thanks to you too Mad for the science of it all. Jesus would probably turn it into a whole bunch more magnums, one for each of you all!
😀
Magni?
M. Parret is a very wise man.
He does know his food and wine.
I love that the magnum didn’t make it to the photographs. I managed to dress, debone, and make a pie with two pheasant this week (a gift from a hunting friend) and I neglected to blog about it. The pheasant hunting season ends very soon and I am hopeful of a second brace so I can get my act together and photo the process as the pie was lovely. Onwards and upwards.
Rosemary, What a nice blog of our evening..it was all delicious and delightful. We did miss you today at Alan’s…it was just us 3. I will comment on your blog.. Hope to see you soon. xoxo
On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 1:40 PM, Cooking in Sens wrote:
> cookinginsens posted: ” Just before Christmas, my husband completed a > short term assignment in Senegal. When he went through the duty free shop, > a magnum of Veuve Cliquot Champagne leapt into his basket with just a small > assist from him 😉 Scrooge-like, we were set o” >
I usually completely forget about photographs once I get stuck into cooking and/or eating!! 🙂