FrogPrincesse

Excellent. I happen to have all of the ingredients, including an aging bunch of celery I did not know what to do with, so I am making this right now! Bruce's corn and chicken soup looks fabulous too.

Other than the Sazerac, other cocktails that immediately come to mind are the Improved Whiskey Cocktail, the Corpse Reviver No. 2, the Rattlesnake, the French Pearl and also tiki cocktails with the Test Pilot or the 1934 Zombie. See the Absinthe topic or MxMo XLVI (roundup part I and II) for more ideas. You could also make absinthe cakes, absinthe ice cream, etc.

The correct spelling is choucroute. Someone posted a recipe in RecipeGullet that looks pretty good. It's an excellent way to include pork in many of its forms: sausage (two or three kinds are typical - frankfurters or strasbourg plus a smoked sausage such as montbeliard), belly (unsmoked, smoked and salt pork), hocks, etc. A few (boiled) new potatoes are nice with the sauerkraut, also some mustard "a l'ancienne" for the sausage. It's a fun dish to make for a crowd as you can incorporate a greater variety of pork products.

Here is the Halibut in Cartoccio from Babbo that I posted in the Dinner thread some time ago. It's a good weeknight recipe. The principle is simple. You place your fish fillet together with thyme, grapefruit segments and puntarella (a variety of chicory, which I omitted) in a papillote and add some white wine before sealing it. This was a local halibut. It stays very moist with this preparation and the grapefruit and thyme just highlight the flavor of the fish. I used foil but parchment paper works too. I served it with acorn squash and kale that I prepared separately, but if you include the chicory or some other type of greens in the papillote, then you have a complete dish with no pot/pan cleaning necessary. I decided to plate the dish but you can also just bring the sealed papillotes to the table and have each person open their own.

I used to be able to find Rittenhouse locally but recently I have not seen it anywhere in SD. It's a shame because I really like it. It looks like this is a result of the new surge in the popularity of rye whiskey in the past few years (see article here).

Here are a couple of links to photos where the topping is more visible. The legend below the second photo says that it is nougatine. I haven't tried the eclairs but Pierre Marcolini makes wonderful chocolates!

It looks like a plaque of nougatine.

I tried a White Hook last night, a Red Hook variation that substitutes genever gin for the rye and dry vermouth for the Punt e Mes. 2 oz genever 1/2 oz maraschino 1/2 oz dry vermouth dash orange bitters It highlighted quite well the flavor of the genever.

I was hoping to find details about the composition and manufacturing process for Lillet in the book Lillet, 1862-1985 by Olivier Londeix but unfortunately it does not include much information. To summarize, it's a Sauternais wine base mixed with wine eau de vie (before 1914 they were using armagnac). The bittering agent is cinchona bark making it a kina (aka quinquina). It's a mix of infusions, alcohol, sugar syrup and distilled water, which is pretty much a generic description for a liqueur. Other flavoring agents are not discussed in the book as far as I could find, and citrus is not even mentioned which is a little odd. In other sources it is reported that peels of sweet, green and bitter oranges are used. The information about Cocchi Americano is fairly similar. The base is Moscato di Asti with a touch of brandy, and citrus peel as a flavoring agent. There is a difference in bittering agent though - Cocchi uses a combination of cinchona bark and gentian. The difference in bittering agents was noted earlier by one of Lillet's brand ambassador (quote below) and also on this thread.

Another one from the Savoy Cocktail Book, the Hoots Mon: scotch, sweet vermouth, Lillet. I decided to try Lillet and Cocchi Americano versions side by side. I preferred the Lillet version and felt that it was more harmonious. I tried very hard to like the Cocchi version but I really could not; it had too much bitterness in the finish for me and did not come together. Interestingly enough, my husband thought that Cocchi produced a more balanced drink. In any case, this is a very good cocktail as Erik already pointed out in the Savoy thread.

Another vote for Trader Joe's. I use the grade B in the glass bottle which is indeed from Canada.

Montenegro - no. See above. Regarding Aperol, I can't detect bitter orange in there. Orange but more like an orange candy. Very sweet. Campari on the other hand tastes like bitter orange and grapefruit to me.

Musk stick lollies- must be an Australian specialty, never heard of it! I can't detect orange in Montenegro. Muscat, lemon, maybe some fennel, bitter finish.

After making a Sazarac the other night, I thought that an Improved Whiskey Cocktail was in order. I used Bulleit rye, Luxardo maraschino, Peychaud's bitters, a spritz of Pernod, orange and lemon zests. One of these days I will have to spring for a bottle of real absinthe...

Heidi, The coconut spinach is based on a traditional dish from the Caribbean, creamed callaloo (aka dasheen). It's from Ann Vanderhoof's book, the Spice Necklace, which tells of her culinary adventures aboard a sailing boat, a fun book which also happens to include recipes. To summarize the recipe, you fry some garlic, onion, green onion, a small bell pepper and a piece of hot pepper. Then you add a couple of sliced okras, followed by the dasheen or spinach. When the spinach is wilted, you add about a cup of coconut milk and you season with s+p and nutmeg. At that point you cover and cook until soft (about 10 min for spinach). Finally, you blend for a short time with a stick blender making sure to retain some texture. You can also blend it a little longer and serve it as a soup. It's very good with spinach and wonderful with dasheen, but I have no idea if the later is available in Southern California (I don't remember ever seeing it but I haven't actively looked for it).

This is great. Thanks for sharing your Halloween creations, dcarch!

I'm just a copycat (I was replicating the photo from Sam Ross' Bartender's Choice app), but essentially it gives people an option - they can choose to add it to the cocktail or not. I tried mine without the lemon peel, then with, and found out that I actually prefer it without. Next time I will just discard it after expressing the oils. But if I make a Sazerac with another rye I am sure I make this experiment again...

The color seems normal to me. Punch isn't going to be red unless there is grenadine in it or some other red ingredient. My Fish House Punch is usually dark brown. Here is a recent batch.

Meatballs, gnocchi, eggplant parmesan, osso buco, pizza... And freeze the leftovers in small portions. It seems almost impossible to have too much tomato sauce!

Help - there is some baby bok choy in my CSA (again). What's your favorite way to prepare it? For some reason this vegetable leaves me uninspired. I've tried it steamed (too bland) and stir-fried with garlic (boring), and would like to try something new. Thanks!

I enjoyed a wonderful Sazerac a couple of nights ago with Rittenhouse rye.

The pot-au-feu looks very nice indeed, although it looks like a TON of work! Here are some of my October home dinners. Braised short ribs (recipe from Les Halles) Grilled swordfish with salsa di Giovanna (Jamie Oliver), grilled vegetables from my CSA I used the leftover short ribs in a pasta dish (lemon ziti) Lamb chops with chimichurri (April Bloomfield), grilled zucchini & bell pepper Grilled swordfish steaks Sicilian Salmoriglio style (Marcella Hazan), creamed spinach with coconut Caramelized carrot soup with ginger garnish (Modernist Cuisine) Arugula, pear and goat cheese salad Pressure-cooked pulled pork, roasted squash and creamed spinach. I learned this technique for pulled pork before Modernist Cuisine, from my local cooking school! Pressure-cooked caramelized "sweet dumpling" squash soup with crème fraîche Fresh lemon-basil pasta shells, homemade ricotta and Babbo's basic tomato sauce

Thanks Dan, I will keep that in mind (although I am not really in the market for another ginger liqueur - I am already running out of space!).

I've seen that but I've been there twice since the change and have been happy. For my first visit the chef had changed already. Our friends who are quite "picky" (in a good way) were impressed.

Beautiful farm cheeses, Dave. They both look great, especiallty the second one (raw goat milk). I made whole-milk ricotta yesterday. I also had some cave-aged Swiss Gruyère from TJ's (my daughter's favorite).