Cheap Cheffery, Just Because

Right.

Now, I personally like vegetables, in most varieties. Properly prepared. But at heart, I am a carnivore. For this reason, I mostly spend the bulk of my cooking time on making the meat, and treat the veggies as somewhat of an afterthought.

So, appreciate this, because it probably won't happen again for a while.

YOU WILL NEED:

Cut vegetables. While fresh is always best, frozen "stir-fry" variety veggies are acceptable.

About 1/2 cup of Manischewitz Blackberry dessert wine.
About 1/2 cup Regina Red cooking wine.
About 3 Tbsp. butter.
About 1/3 cup of cherry juice.
About 1/2 cup lemon juice. It can be bottled, but NOT concentrate. Don't want to go all tart.
About 1/2 cup sugar.

I say "about" because this makes a bigger quantity of this sauce than you really need for two people; adjust proportionally for the number of people you're going to have, and the amount of veggies you want to cook.

In a small saucepan, combine all of the liquid ingredients except for a splash each of the lemon and the red wine. Add 2 of the tablespoons of butter. Put the saucepan on medium heat until the butter melts in, stirring often, and then slowly add the sugar to taste. Err on the side of tartness; the veggies are semi-sweet as well.

Once the sugar is stirred in and has dissolved, lower the heat to Low, and leave it.

Prepare a large, steep-sided frying pan, or a wok, with the remaining butter, wine, and lemon juice, and set it on medium to medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the veggies, and treat as a stir-fry until the vegetables just begin to crisp; then pour the sauce liberally into the pan. The idea is to have the veggies nearly covered; turn the heat up a bit - to medium-high, but not high - and let it simmer a minute or three, stirring constantly, to soak the sauce into the veggies.

Once the veggies are at your desired crispness, remove the pan from heat, and let stand or 3-5 minutes before serving. You can serve it with the sauce, or strain it off; I personally prefer "with," just because the sauce is quite tasty, but it's certainly up to you.

The veggies should be light and crisp; the sauce compliments a stir-fry blend (usually broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts, snap peas, baby corn, and peppers) quite nicely, although I will warn that if you use frozen veggies, it might behoove you to rinse them off before using them, because the amount of ice will water down the sauce quite a bit as it melts.

The most expensive ingredient of this is the Manischewitz wine; it'll set you back about 8 bucks, but it will also last a long time if you use it for cooking instead of guzzling it right down like it was something from Boone's Farm.

The rest of the ingredients COMBINED cost less than the Manischewitz; you should be able to make this pan out into a tasty meal - or at least a bold side - for a whole family, for about $16.

No reason not to EAT like you have good taste, even if your wallet leans you towards Wal-Mart brand.
Enjoy!