Varmint

I have the North Carolina market cornered and will begin to sell actively on eBay. The FTC will be sending me a civil investigative demand shortly.

Awbrig's wine glasses for the eGullet event:

Try this amazon.com page: Tavern Menu This is likely dated, but it gives you an idea of the Tavern's offerings.

Let's see, I was home brewing and decided to sterilize my bottles in my lab's autoclave. Beer bottle glass and high pressure steam do not make a good combination.

"Metallurgy" -- The surprising thing is that this is the fifth thread on eGullet where that word has been used. The breadth of discussions on this site astounds me.

Density, Steven, density. Do the figures have anything to do with that?

I was about to post the different Kool-Aid flavors before I realized how many different ones there are. Kool-Aid Website Of course, my mother had us drink Tang for breakfast. C'mon, if it was good enough for the astronauts, it was good enough for us.

I noticed the honey in the crust recipe above and just wanted to add that I truly dislike crusts that have an element of "sweet" in them. Is it normal to add a detectable amount of sweetener to crust?

Made larb gai as one of 6 Thai dishes on Saturday. Of the 14 diners, only one person other than myself had experience larb previously. The larb was the first dish to be depleted, and I started with a lot of chicken (equal amounts of breast and thigh, no offal, all minced by hand). The mincing by hand made for a much lighter texture than any ground stuff I've had. Just to piss off Tommy, I also made a Thai tuna ceviche (thanks, Mamster), shrimp and coconut soup, spicy catfish with eggplant, red curry with sirloin and cashew, and stir fried asparagus & asian green beans. I had also planned on making coconut stick rice served with mango and ginger ice cream, but I got distracted while playing with the L'il Varmints and ended up making curdled ginger cream. Good flavor, disgusting texture. But to get back on track, the larb was excellent.

Had my kielbasa yesterday, and I can only say, "Klink, Klink, Klink, Klink!!!!" In addition, 3 out of the 4 L'il Varmints loved it as well (the 2 year old thought it was too spicy). The 7 year old wanted more pepper!! Finally, after cooking a Thai feast Saturday evening and drinking way too much, I also learned that Klink's kielbasa is a great hangover food.

clearly i'm not pulling my weight. i'll try harder. sorry. That's about 238 12-ounce beers each year, or 4 1/2 a week. Clearly, you're more than pulling your weight, Tommy.

Although my neighborhood Whole Foods peels the garlic themselves. They sell an 8 oz. container (approximately 40-50 cloves) for about 2 bucks. It keeps its potency for 3 to 4 days and is well worth it to me.

The coffee is adequate. The trick is to get the free coffee maker that they're offering and cancel your membership immediately. Thus, for about 10 bucks, you get a respectable drip maker and a pound of coffee. That's a pretty good deal. Of course, you're stuck with a coffee maker with a big Gevalia logo on it.

Will be making larb gai on Saturday as part of a Thai feast. Haven't figured out the rest of the dishes, but we'll do them all family style, served at the same time per David Thompson's recommendations (except for dessert, of course).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Colonel Klink has been promoted to General Klink, by the authority of Association of Carnivorous Smokers International. By the way, the term "luxurious lipids" is awesome and will be part of my daily lexicon. Thanks for all the great reports, Klink.

Umh, we tried it flamed, raw, muddled, without, lime flamed, etc., etc., etc, if you get my drift. Am anxious to try the velvet falernum once it's available.

I brought the homemade velvet falernum down to Charleston to our friends house (what the hell is a falernum anyway? And is the "velvet" version any different than the "satin" type?). We whipped up several of these babies, flaming the peels and all. First degree burns only. Needless to say, we believe we were the first people south of the Mason Dixon line (or at least south of South of the Border) to experience these. Quite good. The flavors are pretty subtle. We think the flaming orange peel made quite a difference, as we tried it with and without. The flaming peel added a profound orange flavor. It didn't taste too burnt to us. We've got lots of limes and oranges left to try more tomorrow. We may increase the lime quantities. By the way, my friend Ralph wants to know why the Angastora Bitters label is so much bigger than the bottle itself. Anyone know why? I agree that it's really stupid.

Baja Fresh is owned by Wendy's. I believe Qdoba is still independent. They all are pretty much variations of each other.

Not to be confused with Satan's Cheerleaders, of course. . . .

When will we be able to order by mail the special "The Restaurant" toque?

Goodness, I make it several times a year, and I really can't say how I do it. I look at what's fresh at the fishmongers and go from there. Everyone who's already posted has identified the basic ingredients; it's just a matter of assembling in proper order and getting it to taste "just right."

Cabin??? OK, we're all summering at snowangel's place!

In my circle of friends, if I made Spaghettios, they'd probably rave. I generally experiment for friends, as they know there are few dishes I repeatedly make. There are, however, a few stand-bys that always work. Bisteeya -- It's a dramatic dish that looks more complicated than it really is. Plus, seeing there are no Moroccan restaurants in the area make it more exotic to the guests. Risotto of any type -- Here in suburbia risotto is still fairly unusual. Cioppino -- Particularly on cold days Fresh Pasta -- Whether it's stuffed, rolled, layered or just tossed with some freshly made sauce, people love to see this. Biscuits -- For the overnight guests, my biscuits are always popular. Desserts -- Anything made with fresh fruit is a winner. Particularly when it's with berries, peaches or figs.

I believe their house Rioja is a Bodegas Breton Lorinon Crianza (at least that's what is was several months ago when I went there with the L'il Varmints).

Whenever guests offer to bring something, I usually say something alcoholic, but I warn them that it may not go with what I'm preparing that evening. That way, they're not offended if it's not opened. At the worst, I'll have a bottle or two of wine to suck down or cook with some day. Occasionally, guests will bring particularly yummy selections!!