Fred Jauss

A family member is going to Amsterdam in a week and has graciously offered to bring back a bottle (or two) of spirits that are usually unavailable in the US. My first thought would be to request a very nice aged genever or a Corenwijns. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I've recently made a batch of Jamie Boudreau's Amer Picon replica. Does anyone know if it needs to be refrigerated? Thanks!

I recently purchased this in a small grocery store near my home. I went in with the sole intention of picking up some stamps, but the 20 oz bottle of this caught my eye in the refrigerated case. To me, regular canned iced tea always has that "powdered ice tea mix" taste to it. I tried the lime flavored version. Being on a lime-flavored soda kick as of late with the introduction of Coke with Lime and Pepsi with lime, I had moderate hopes... The lime flavoring was decent and a change from the standard lemon flavor that is notmally added to the Lipton Brisk and Nestea iced teas. However... The cooling sensation of whatever-it-is that they add to it was utterly disgusting. I guess it was like drinking iced tea while sucking on one of those red and white peppermint starlight mints. Needless to say, I will not be purchasing this again....

I had Coke with Lime over the weekend in Nashville, TN. After having tried Pepsi with Lime in Mexico about 3 years ago, I had high hopes. I have to say that I was completely underwhelmed. I couldn't detect the lime flavor at all. My wife, who is a Diet Coke with Lime fanatic, agreed. Whatever lime flavor was present certainly did not stand out at all. I might buy it one more time just to make sure that I didn't get a bad bottle, but it will most likely not be a regular purchase.

I completely agree with you. I've had nothing with success with the Goya canned beans, and have never found a stone or dirt clod in thir dried beans, either. Their "black bean soup" is really good for a quick beans and rice or adding onto a taco. I've yet to try it as "soup"!

Reminds me of a friend in college who had his own version of this type of drink. It was (almost) never the same from party to party and consisted of one shot glass of every hard liquor available at the party dumped into a plastic tumbler and stirred. Mixers were only added if the number of types of alcohol were few and the volume of the beverage needed to be increased. At a typical party, there would be cheap vodka, cheap whiskey, cheap rum, usually a few various bottles of schnapps (peach, cinnamon, peppermint), midori, cheap kahlua, tequila, Southern Comfort . . . The possibilities were endless (and in retrospect, pretty foul).

Glutton for punishment that I am, I picked up a bottle of Pitch Black at the grocery store this weekend. My wife asked how it was after I tried it, and I said, "It was . . . interesting." I didn't think it was quite as bad as Dimetapp or other grape cough syrups, but my first impression was that it tasted like grape soda with a Mountain Dew base. Probably not a probable repeat purchase like Pepsi Edge, but not horrifically bad either.

Fifi - I made your crockpot paprika chicken last night for dinner. Needless to say, it was fantastic!! It's even better the next day on toast as a sandwich! Thanks for the great idea!