FrogPrincesse

This previous discussion has a lot of good suggestions for American whiskies.

You will find a bunch of ideas in the Ginger thread.

Looks pretty exhaustive already. Missing silver tequila and mezcal maybe. What is your typical formula for Ti Punch?

I made a couple of drinks with a Bosc pear shrub for the MxMo Sours challenge. The first one with calvados, scotch, pear shrub, simple syrup, Peychaud's bitters, egg white, and grated tonka. And this one (a variation on Toby Maloney's Williams Fizz) with calvados, pear eau de vie, pear shrub, simple syrup, egg white, soda water, and grated tonka. More details and recipes here.

Rafa - I've been using Eric Alperin's version (2/ 0.75 / 0.75) but with espelette instead of cayenne pepper.

I would add more grapefruit for sure, with maybe a little lemon like the Sands cocktail from Milk & Honey

Good! My husband the Campari hater actually liked it too.

Free Fallin' (Chris Wilkins): 1.5 oz Blanton's, 0.5 oz each Campari, Averna, and maraschino liqueur, orange twist. I was not sure exactly what to expect, but only good things with the ingredient list. It was reminiscent of a Brooklyn with its pronounced orange flavor; the finish is slightly bitter.

You drink your Torontos up? Wow. :-) That must be really intense. I need an ice cube in mine, especially with 100 proof rye.

There is a recipe for chocolate-stout cake with Guinness ice cream that I've been eyeing for a while in Supper Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin. Great idea for a party by the way!

Well, what exactly did you expect with a name like Junipero? :-)But seriously, I think it's about the same as Tanqueray on the juniper scale.

Plantes Vertes, Carbonade flamande is a classic. It's a Belgian beef stew. Also lapin a la kriek, rabbit stewed in kriek, a sour cherry-flavored lambic beer. In a different style, a San Diego brewery makes a cheddar IPA soup that's pretty satisfying. Recipe here (I've never made it but had it a bunch of times at the brewery): http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/garlic-cheddar-and-stone-ruination-ipa-soup-craft-of-stone-brewing-co-recipe.html

Stone Pale Ale and Julian Hard Cider. Every few years I feel I need to check this local hard cider and see if it had improved. But no, it's still as boring and tasteless as its color (it's the cup on the right hand side!). I do not understand why someone can not make Breton-style cider with our great local Julian apples. I guess it must be a cultural thing, or I was just spoiled with the cider when I lived in France. No complaints on the Stone Pale Ale, as good as always and even better in draft form.

I made different versions of the Martinez with the St. George dry rye gin recently. There was no Old Tom in the house and I thought that the dry rye gin would be interesting, like a cross between a Martinez and a Manhattan. I started with the Bartender Choice's app version with 2 oz gin, 3/4 oz sweet vermouth (I went with vermouth di Torino), a barspoon of maraschino, and dash of Boker's bitters (the app specifies orange but I like Boker's as per the Jerry Thomas recipe). I took a first sip and did not love it. The gin was just too dominant. I then remembered that I prefer more vermouth in my Martinez. So I made another one a few days later with the PDT ratios since the recipe had worked well for me in the past. 1.5 oz each gin and sweet vermouth, 1/4 oz maraschino, 2 dashes Boker's bitters. I also switched the vermouth to Dolin as the Torino was getting bullied by the gin. Martinez craving finally curbed.

Rate Beer published their list of Top 100 Brewers in the World today. There are a lot of San Diego brueries: Alpine, Ballast Point, Green Flash, Pizza Port, Lost Abbey, Stone, The Bruery (Orange County), and last but not least, AleSmith at the number one spot. Modern Times is listed as the best new brewer in California and #9 in the world.

That sounds really good. For those who don't have the book, the recipe was published online on the James Beard Foundation website. What would be an acceptable substitute for the Ardbeg 10 years? Laphroaig maybe?

That's pretty cool. I wonder what the yield would be on that if you are only making a small batch. I imagine that a lot of the product would be lost.

Filter again with a finer filter paper for example, or centrifuge if you want to get fancy. Not sure it is worth the effort though. Since it's dark brown already, the fact that it's slightly turbid does not bother me.

After the fine metal strainer and nylon mesh filtration, there was a little bit of sediment left (not much) so I also filtered with a coffee filter. It took a long while and removed a fraction of the sediment. The resulting falernum is not clear which is fine with me. It's dark brown. I think I will skip the coffee filter step next time. Taste-wise, it's an explosion of flavor compared to the commercial stuff I was using (the commercial product is essentially like a simple syrup lightly flavored with clove and rum). Clove and other spices, lime, and, surprisingly for me, a rich caramel flavor. Very intense. It seems to have a tinge of bitterness/bite in cocktails, maybe from the lime zest or ginger (although I used a microplane to avoid pith, and peeled the ginger). I can't really taste it when I try it neat but noticed it in a few cocktails. I think my taste buds are just getting accustomed to this because it's so intensely flavorful.

I tried something like this last night; slightly more Beefeater gin than Carpano Bianco and yellow Chartreuse. Despite a nice, long lemon twist, something was missing. Bitters! A hefty dash of Regan's and of Fee's Orange really helped dry it out and, as SamChevre mentioned, balance the Chartreuse. I usually don't need a reminder that bitters can really make the difference in a drink's balance, but if I did, this clinched it. Interesting that a white vermouth worked in that variation. With white vermouth being as sweet as red vermouth, and yellow chartreuse being sweeter than the green, the cocktail could have been overly sweet (the Bijou is already quite rich to begin with).

After all this discussion, I just had to go with the Jet Pilot last night. Appleton 12, Barbados 5, and Lemon Hart 151 for the rum combo. St. George for the absinthe, homemade falernum. It's interesting because my homemade falernum has a roasted flavor, almost like a slightly bitter butter caramel. This is a dessert drink for sure.

LA Times article about the glove law. Many chefs including Nancy Silverton (Mozza), Ludovic Lefebvre (Trois Mec), David Lentz (Hungry Cat), and sushi chef Toshiaki Toyoshima, express their discontent.

Nice-looking green papaya salad. Last night I made a salad of fennel, Moro blood oranges, and Parmigiano-Reggiano, based on a recipe by Mario Batali. I drizzled a little bit of Eureka lemon infused olive oil on top for an extra burst of flavor.

I made a batch of these (first time) for Super Bowl and, wow, strong buggers. All of us who tried it liked it, but opted for diluting it with seltzer or tonic. Buncha wimps, I guess. "Bold and direct" = strong, as you have found out. The kind of drink that you sip for a long while.

It's a sleeve for the knife so I don't accidentally lose a finger while looking for it in the kitchen drawer.