Thanks!
The chili recipe wanted a cup of the wine/beer to be used for deglazing and then mostly evaporation. If the wine was totally bad, would it badly affect stuff if it mostly evaporated?

We have dozens of wine bottles and zero beer so I chose to use inventory instead of dealing with getting beer, which also isn’t allowed with self/checkout :-)

can I just use this red wine for cooking onions? I guess I really won’t drink it. I’ve zero idea how or when we acquired it. Definitely some gift elements ...

The only answer is to TASTE IT and see if you want that taste in your food. If the wine is past its prime it will probably be ok (but you need to taste it to see if you want that flavor in your food). If it is vinegar you will have a very vinegary-tasting dish.

This. You are the one with the bottle in front of you, not us. Just taste it. You said that you don't drink wine so the drinkability by the glass is irrelevant. But if is tastes ok, by all means use if for cooking. Deglazing and evaporating just evaporates the alcohol...the whole point is the flavor of the wine or beer stays behind. That is the point of using it---to get the flavor. If you have a lot of wines at home that you will never drink why not give them to others who will? And now I am more confused about buying all the horrible cooking wine when you have lots of wine (that you will never drink) sitting in the house.
And as has been mentioned many times...you can use broth or water or juice. There is no reason to use wine in anything. I never use wine when cooking onions (or fish tacos).

gaobest I think you need to give up on keeping wine for cooking. If you need a glug of something to go with tomatoes (alcohol brings out flavours from tomato that other liquids do not) then some brandy or vermouth will do it. However, I’ve found that sake takes care of all my alcoholic cooking needs, that and Mirin(JP) or Mirim(KR). Sake doesn’t go off and and it doesn’t need to be the good stuff. Last year I was able to pick up some bottles of decent Sherry for half of what sake costs me and use that for Western dishes, but sake is the number one choice for us, works with everything, brings together everything. It’s the ultimate relationship councillor for surly, argumentative foods, a bit of sake and all is harmony.

There was a time when alcohol free beer was just dreadful. Anyone in the UK or Ireland remember Kaliber beer in the 90s?

Now that brewing techniques have evolved, there are some lovely craft beers available. My personal favourite is Lucky Saint. Its 0.5% - so not completely alco-free, but very tasty.

I'd recommend you try out some of the specialist sites like Sobersauce to try a few varieties.

Longest thread on Flyer Talk for many a month and it's got nothing to do with flying! My the world really has changed.

I remember the Billy Connolly ads...

I tried them all during my 16 years of voluntary sobriety ‘82-‘98. I thought Kaliber was about the worst of the lot. Yes, it was available here in the US, however I never saw any advertising. Most of the time, I drank O’Doul’s because it was stocked in bars. But at home, Carling, when I could find it, made a drinkable non alcoholic brew.

Whole30 won’t let me drink anything made from grain and 0.5% alcohol sounds like cheating, even if I wouldn’t feel it. I’d try one of these non alcoholic beers if I could buy a single. I’m not wasting $10-15 on a six pack, although I do that all the time on real beer I’ve never had.

I do occasionally see someone with a six pack of non alcoholic beer at the check out counter and wonder if they’ve actually read the label. This is the home of Florida Man, after all.

I drink very little anyway out of deference to others around me (some alcoholics, some who learned long ago that yes, Virginia, it is possible to drink too much and get horribly sick!). I just tend to drink a lot of iced tea (cue the collective gasp from my friends in the UK!) and flavored sparkling water (La Croix is usually the best; one local supermarket's house brand tastes like it came from the Chicago Sewage Canal). For something special I like a good ginger beer, which I was drinking long before it became an "in" drink.

Gin and Tonic Without the Gin
 

My wife and I opted for a dry January. During 2020 we had added a gin and tonic almost daily to our routine and then had about a half bottle of wine with dinner. We figured we could each skip about 200 calories each day from eliminating the alcohol. We also eliminated virtually all snacks, including chips, popcorn, and ice cream/dessert, as well as lunch, and implemented smaller portions at dinner. We made an exception for January 20, when champagne was served with dinner.

We also walked 159 miles during the month, with almost 19000 feet of elevation gain, and 133000 steps.

The results were quite impressive. Before the end of the month, I had fully achieved my target weight reduction, and my wife was happy with her progress as well (she had not established a specific goal). I have now created two further tiers of weight goals for myself.

We substituted diet tonic water with a squeeze of lime for the gin and tonic, and found that for our purposes it tasted essentially the same.

This worked out so well for us that we have extended the no alcohol program into February, with exceptions to apply on the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, a late arriving Christmas package from Europe arrived on 2/1, with various holiday sweets.

In the future, we will continue to adhere to the smaller portions concept, and may limit wine to the weekends and for special occasions, and when we're travelling. During 2020, our average cost per bottle has gone up substantially given the reduction in travel-related expenditures.

Like many commentators, water has been a good beverage for us as well.

Much more than 200 calories. Half a bottle of wine is about 300 calories alone, and a gin and tonic is about 140 for 12 oz/355ml of tonic and another 100 for a shot of gin.

It's the snack and sugar elimination that I struggle with. Even just now, though I wasn't hungry I still had way too many Trader Joes chocolate chip cookie things and some graham crackers with milk. I couldn't skip a meal though, especially lunch.

I applaud your accomplishments. If you can maintain this, it has benefits that may extend your healthy life.

I’m thinking you miskeyed the steps. I walk about 2,200 steps to the mile. Dividing your steps by your miles, I get 836. That’s some long stride! Maybe it’s 333,000?

Of course, you are entirely correct! It was 313,000 steps, not 133,000. Another interesting stat.: we were out on the trail for 57 hours in January.

Thanks for the encouragement!

We are in the same class. We are pretty consistent with 6 miles a day. I can’t match you for elevation. We don’t have many hills in Florida. With most activities here shut down, we walk. It’s pleasant. And I’ll keep it up until I can’t but I’m looking forward to a change of pace.

Last night I drank for the first time in 33 days. I decided to start slowly and had a pre-dinner bottle of Grolsch. Then another. Then Mrs BV and her dad started raving about a bottle of Spanish garnacha they were drinking so I had to have a couple small glasses of that. In all, it was fun but too much too soon.

I'm saving my jumbo bottle of imperial stout for Sunday night. Tonight will be dry.