Chris Amirault

New tip: salt the oil. Just crush the amount of salt you want on the popcorn between your fingers and put it in the oil, then proceed as usual. The salt is distributed throughout the popcorn in a really wonderful way, I find.

Egg (either fried or scrambled), bread (roll, English muffin... something with the right structural support that's also tender), bacon, and yes to cheese. Right cheese is tricky, though; as Steven notes, it can easily be too much. What cheese do people use/get besides American processed non-dairy "cheese" product?

Interesting: lemon, not lime, with the ginger, like the Ginger Square above. Gotta try me that one.

Most excellent. Due to my partner's predilection for ginger in cocktails, I have a good array of go-to drinks, a lot of which use an orange/Angostura double bittering to interact with the potent ginger. (If you make your own, I find that Robert Hess's house bitters work well subbed in for the Angostura here.) Here's Toby Maloney's (Alchemist's) Ginger Square, which I've tweaked a bit: Ginger Square 2 oz cognac 1/2 oz Licor 43 1/2 oz blackstrap rum 3/4 oz lemon 1/2 oz (scant) ginger syrup 2 dashes Regan's orange bitters (doesn't quite work with Fee's) 2 dashes Angostura bitters Shake, strain. I've jiggered the Gingered Gentleman from the barkeep at the Red Fez here in Providence, a great tall drink with stuff we usually have on hand: Gingered Gentleman 2 oz bourbon 3/4 oz ginger syrup 3/4 oz lime dash orange bitters dash Angostura bitters Muddle lightly a few mint sprigs in the above liquid; shake and fine strain over rocks in a collins glass; top with ginger beer (usually Reed's extra at our house); garnish with mint. Finally, a simple sour based on fiddling around with Beachbum Berry recipes: Pimento Sour 2 oz light rum (Flor de Cana) 1/4 oz demerara 151 rum (Lemon Hart, which you can omit and float later if you want) 1/2 oz pimento dram 3/4 oz lime 1 tsp ginger syrup dash orange bitters dash Angostura bitters Shake, strain.

I think that we can all do the world a service by sharing the experiments that have gone down the drain, never to be made again. That way, we can avoid making the mistakes of the past, both ours and others. So, to avoid that doom, I urge you not to try to make a Blood and Sand with bourbon. The absent bite of the scotch is made worse by the corny sweetness of the bourbon, and the whole thing is just a sloppy waste of Heering. More to follow from me, I'm very sure. You?

Surely no one can stand up and declare "Cumin!" Or can it play a subtle background role? Evidence here at the house last night would be, "Uh, no. No cumin."

Use it all the time for fried chicken, simple grill rubs, you name it.

Yep, it's true: loved and lost. Surely I'm not alone in this sad, sad world....

Bumping this up a bit. I had gotten a few Sichuan chili oil/goop jars that I really liked, and then the store lost their distributor. So I got out my trusty old China Moon cookbook and made Tropp's chili orange oil with a few modifications, including using two kinds of chilis, some sesame seeds, a lot of garlic that I let brown in the oil, black beans, peanut oil, and, yes, some orange zest. It's excellent and I can't really understand why I forgot that it's so easy....

My confusion exactly.

Not sure what you mean. I get lots of nose on mine -- part of the point, after all! -- and if you take a few drops and rub them in your hands, you'll bring out the aroma. I dribble a bit into soda water usually myself.

Looking at that menu, I'm thinking that a Michelada would be a great addition....

Katie, this looks terrific. I'm particularly interested in your Blonde Caesar -- my mom will appreciate your release of the recipe -- and the punch. You've done a great job of matching venue to cocktail, it's clear. Tell a little bit about your choices. Why a Negroni -- and what are the non-Campari components you'll use? What apricot brandy? And any specials or themes?

We've got the massive Mint Julep topic here. We've got the Southside covered here. Meanwhile, there are references hereabouts to French Pearls, Rivieras, and more. Let's get a good collection of mint cocktails before the damned weeds take over our houses due to lack of regular harvesting.

If I read correctly, rocler is saying that s/he can't use it bc of the errors, not that s/he didn't "get it." Makes sense that CIA chefs use and like it, as it's largely based on their ratios, isn't it?

Ah, the Annie's shells of its day: hearty, good for you (all that bread, cheese, and warm soup), and the kids actually eat the stuff.

Charles and John, I tend to agree with most of what you've written as well. Still and all, Hesser doesn't do her position favors by setting up the piece with this paragraph: Of course everyday cooking is a chore. Anyone tasked with the responsibility of preparing food for a family (I raise my hand) knows that and would be insulted by the implication that it's not true. It was a chore before Clarence Birdseye and Colonel Sanders, and it still is today. Now please don't suggest that I'm "down on home cooking" or whatever, a polarizing characterization that makes no sense for people who devote time to this little enterprise called the eGullet Society. I love home cooking just as much as the next guy, and my shopping cart is full of raw, fresh things. But that doesn't mean I heart everyday cooking; that cart has Annie's shells and Cheerios in it too. Curing ten pounds of sausages or making hot sauces by the gallon on the weekend? Nothing better. Getting three squares on the table for a family of four 7/365 while working 50-60 hour weeks? Sorry, but it's often a real drag. Hesser should feel free to champion cooking all she wants, and to help the First Lady craft a well-rounded message about the food we eat (not that she asked for the help ). But Hesser shouldn't ruin her own argument out of the box by suggesting that the daily household maintenance of everyday cooking is not, among other things, a chore. et clarify -- ca

Just to be clear, a few members of a food organization taking a position on a subject does not constitute the organization as a whole doing the same. Parts, wholes, all that. Can anyone parse Hesser's "cook" in scare quotes? I'm having a hard time reading that as anything but snarky....

What are the apps? I'm thinking about Wondrich's Weeski or a few others with Lillet, but the pairings matter.

[Principal Skinner] Katie...! Where's the cocktail menu...?!? [/Principal Skinner]

Here's that Norwegian Wood I was crowing about.

I got turned on to Jeff Morgenthaler's Norwegian Wood one night at Clyde Common, and thanks to this blog post, I have a recipe that's less smeared with, well, the drink itself. It's bright, deep, and impossible to describe: a winner. Norwegian Wood 1 oz aquavit (Aalborg) 1 oz applejack (Laird's BIB) ¾ oz sweet vermouth (Punt e Mes) ¼ oz yellow Chartreuse 1 dash Angostura bitters Stir, strain, lemon twist.

Wow, that's pretty bad. Even though many shoot for 225* as a target for low and slow BBQ you still don't want it to be the top end of your temp range. Maybe you should give Bradley a call. You may have a bad element or connection. ← Don't think so. The heating element is the weakest part of the Bradley -- I know pals who won't use it at all -- and it gets up to "200F" or so only bc of the position of the thermometer, 3/4s of the way up the front door. I'd betcha that the lowest shelf gets up around 300F. No matter, though: it's not very well designed, and I punch up to the max only when I know I have the ability to keep a close eye on things.

Nope. I'm going for "easiest brine method," and since I now go entirely by feel & sight to determine whether the meat is cured, I don't care about whether the brine is diluted. It's the ratios of the ingredients to each other in the dredging cure that concern me (salt to sweet to pepper to herb). Given that it's the only water I add, I think that the brine solution is very strong for a wet cure anyway.

Do local media in AZ star restaurant reviews? RI Monthly does here, but the Providence Journal does not. (Good thing: their Thursday reviewer is a movie critic; last week he raved about palm-sized crab rangoons, four for $4.95!!)