FrogPrincesse

Leap Year Cocktail: gin, grand marnier, sweet vermouth, lemon juice, lemon twist

I really like the meatballs and make them regularly. The recipe uses ground beef, eggs, bread, garlic, pecorino, plenty of fresh parsley, and roasted pine nuts (recipe here). The meatballs are browned first and then simmered in the sauce. They are very tender. The best part is the pine nuts inside - a delicious surprise! Neapolitan Meatballs (Polpette alla Napoletana) They are delicious with homemade tagliatelle (purists, please avert your eyes), or on their own.

I agree with Zachary; there are both excellent examples of rhum agricoles. I love them both with a slight preference for La Favorite.

Classic? Where's the Campari? The Campari is a given! It is hiding in the back between the bottles of gin and Carpano Antica.

I made him a Lion's Tail: bourbon, allspice dram, lemon juice, simple syrup, Angostura bitters.

That looks good, mukki. How do you like the Charbay meyer lemon vodka? I really like their blood orange vodka. After all this talk about Negroni variations, I decided to take the classic route. Junipero, Carpano Antica, Regan and Angostura orange bitters.

Thanks for taking one for the team and reporting your results, I really appreciate it. Based on your findings, I may give this drink another try. It's funny but I liked the bourbon version right away, it just worked for me. In general, I seem to have a hard time with rum + Campari combinations that also show up in some tiki drinks, for example the Jungle Bird, another drink I really don't care for. That puzzles me because I really like Campari and the Negroni happens to be my favorite drink!

How does Luxardo Bitter taste compared to Campari, Aperol, Punt e Mes, etc? I am looking at my notes and there is a rum negroni that I liked much better recently. The recipe was from Matt Robold/rumdood. "Damnably Delicious" 3/4 oz each of La Favorite blanc, Dolin rouge, and Campari, 1/2 tsp petite canne syrup. Stir, strain over rocks, orange twist. La Favorite is extremely distinctive so it worked pretty well.

I was surprised too. The recipe on the Bittermens website only calls for 1.5 oz of rum so that's what I used. Maybe increasing the amount of rum would help, as in the version you posted.

I had a nice pork belly banh mi from MIHO today, it's one of their specialties. I really liked the fact that they used high-quality bread. PORK BELLY BANH MI all natural pork belly, house pickled local carrot & daikon, local cilantro, local jalapeno, sesame aioli, baguette {7.95}

I never thought of a labne wrap as breakfast food, but now I want one! It looks delicious.

After the trying (and liking) The Left Hand, I tried The Right Hand. It's another Negroni variation with aged rum (1.5 oz), carpano antica sweet vermouth (0.75 oz), campari (0.75 oz), mole bitters (2 dashes). I used a nice rum - El Dorado 12 year. But I was disappointed as the rum got lost in the drink. The campari really dominated with the other ingredients only providing some (good) undertones. mkayahara suggested, and I agree, that an aged rhum agricole or Smith & Cross may work better in this drink. The El Dorado 12 that I used is excellent, but simply not assertive enough for this drink.

Picked up a few goodies at Hi-Time Wine Cellars yesterday. I noticed that they had the Buffalo Trace "experimental" bourbon that was mentioned upthread, along with a large number of other things that I decided to pass on, at least for now...

I can't believe nothing has been posted on this thread for months. Little pre-dinner snacks/appetizers (I like to call them pupus, Hawaiian or not) are my favorite food. They are fun, generally easy to put together, and they allow you to taste a variety of things. And they can easily morph into a full meal as long as you have enough bites and diversity. Here is an example of what we had with our cocktails last night. Pears, Parma ham and saba; homemade ricotta on malted brown bread with a little bit of eureka lemon olive oil.

Trottoir = sidewalk I assume they are referring to sidewalk cafés? Great blog so far!

Japanese cocktail with homemade orgeat and a newly acquired bottle of Boker's bitters. It's a good thing that the bitters are exceptionally delicious because I suffered a major dropper disfunction and ended up with a rather massive amount of bitters in the cocktail.

A couple of weeks ago we had friends over for dinner and I made the Lamb Osso Buco (p. 192) again. On the first day, I prepared the seasoning for the lamb: lemon zest, thyme, garlic, rosemary, olive oil, and plenty of black pepper. The (giant) lamb shanks were marinated in the fridge overnight. The second day, I browned the shanks in a Le Creuset pot after having removed most of the herbs/garlic. Using the same pot, I cooked the aromatics: onion, carrots, fennel, thyme, bay leaves, and the herbs/garlic from the lamb. Then I deglazed with white wine and reduced it before adding chicken stock and a few parsley sprigs. I did not have veal stock so I used demi-glace and water to cover the shanks. Then the pot went in the oven for 3 hours. When it came out the meat was starting to come off the bone. I made the dish up to this point, and the night of our dinner party all I had to do was brown the shanks in the oven, reduce the sauce, and prepare the vegetables and tapenade. For the vegetables, I borrowed from two other recipes in the book and made red chard sauteed in olive oil (p. 301), and fingerlings sauteeds in butter (p. 86). I was a little skeptical about the tapenade but decided to give it a try. It's a chunky tapenade with a portion of the ingredients pounded in a mortar and the rest chopped and mixed in. The ingredients are traditional: black olives, garlic, anchovies, capers, parsley, olive oil, and lemon juice. Here is the plated dish. In the end the tapenade was wonderful and added a welcome acidity to the dish.

I made my desperation dessert tonight: a soft chocolate cake with whipped cream. Prep time less than 10 minutes, baking time 10 minutes.

Wow these ribs look fantastic. Tonight we had grilled local pastured chicken. On the side we had caramelized carrots baked with Lillet, coriander, and herbes de Provence.

Enjoying a cocktail with Averna tonight. A Black Manhattan with Bulleit rye, Bittermens mole bitters, and a brandied cherry. It is complex and a little spicy with the bitters. Really nice.

His cocktail, the Rack & Rye, was really wonderful. For mine I made the Rhum Club, a twist on the Pegu Club. I used La Favorite rhum agricole blanc (the book calls for Banks 5 Island rum), Clement Creole Shrubb, lime juice, Angostura bitters and Angostura orange bitters, simple. They were both very nice (and completely different). If I had to choose one I would pick the Rack & Rye. Too bad I am almost out of Batavia Arrack!

Rack & Rye: rye, batavia arrack, demerara syrup, angostura, angostura orange bitters, expressed lemon and orange peels (discarded).

Last night we had cocktails with a friend. We started with an Eastern Sour from Beachbum Berry Remixed (originally from Trader Vic). Bulleit rye, Cara Cara oranges, lemon juice, homemade orgeat, simple syrup. Then we had a very nice Corpse Reviver No.2 with Junipero gin and Cocchi Americano, and a brandied cherry.

Trader Joe's sells both grades.

Oro blanco grapefruit, blood oranges, almonds, pomegranate and avocado salad.