I can't afford to go get a bottle of Port Wine to make a sauce. I only need about 3/4 cups, and since no one drinks wine it would go to waste.

I have white sugar and also a bottle of Chardonnay. Can I mix the two to make a sub for Port?

I suppose you could if you must, but it won't be at all similar. A red would be better. And if you're going to do that, I think I'd put the wine in a saucepan and reduce it by half (although I'm totally guessing here). But because of port's high alcohol and sugar content, it keeps a long time in the fridge. You can probably find a small bottle for like $5, and it would be a good investment. It really does make a huge difference. Oh, I just remembered... if you put the port in the freezer (put it in an ice cube tray so you can take out just what you need), it will keep indefinitely.

And if you need to use up extra port, you can always poach some (slightly under-ripe) pears in it until they're just tender with a little sugar and some orange peel. delicious (and I don't usually like pears).

Oh that is a super great idea about the left over wine. I will put some in ice cubes, so I can pop some out for cooking next time.

I went to go buy a Port and found one for like $45. I had no idea you could buy some for about $5. Do you know if Trader Joes would have any for that cheap?

OMG, $45 port is not for cooking!! That's for sipping. We don't have trader joe's here, but any grocery store with a wine section or any liquor store should have port. And you should easily be able to find a bottle for less than ten bucks.

edit: just saw your recipe here www.dance.net . . .
You could absolutely substitute any full-bodied red wine for the port, and it would still be delicious. But the port will make it EXTRA delicious.

And here's a great tip - If you're using canned/boxed beef broth (this goes for ANY recipe), replace half of it with chicken broth. Homemade beef broth is delicious, but canned beef broth ALWAYS tastes better when you mix it with canned chicken broth. It will still taste like beef, but it will just taste better.

I did see some Port Wines in smaller bottles next to the olive oil and pasta sauce. Do you think that is a "cooking port"? It was about $6 so I thought it had to be cheap to be a real wine port.

To your credit, I was doing my Christmas Shopping quickly, so I just looked at a few Dessert Ports which were like $30-$45. ( I think they were dessert ports, they had a stack of them in the christmas aisle next to the chocolates and christmas flowers. I didn't actually look in the real alcohol section)I will take a look at Trader Joes more carefully and see if they have a more reasonable port.

Is there anyway I can poach some apples and add cinnamon? I have a bunch of apples that I am trying to get rid of, and if I can poach them that would be great. I am truly a cooking retard, so I would need like step by step directions on how to poach something. I guess I can google in general, but I want to know if you have personally poached apples before. Have you also ever made a cinnamon sauce to go over apples?

Cheap port is fine to use in this recipe. There is no such thing as cooking port. "Cooking wine" has salt added as a preservative. Port has a higher alcohol content than regular wine so it keeps very well without the added salt.

I'm sure poached apples with cinnamon and port would be great, although pears are traditional. The recipe is basically 4 parts port to 1 part water. Add sugar and a pinch of salt. And cinnamon, allspice, whatever. You just heat the liquid until the sugar melts, then add the fruit (halved or quartered). Boil over low heat until the fruit is just tender - five minutes or so. And that's it. GREAT with ice cream.