Tri2Cook

Yeah, that's probably a more accurate representation of where I'm at with it. I may be able to snag a bottle at the lower price if it doesn't jump in Manitoba too soon but otherwise I'll live without it.

I saw a reference to a drink recipe that calls for "almond bitters". Apparently it's an old recipe (the person didn't share any information about the drink but referred to it as a "vintage cocktail"). Is this a type of bitters that existed at one time or is it more likely to refer to something like bitter almond extract? Again, I have no information about the drink itself but I am curious about what the almond bitters might have been.

Yes it did... and I'm seriously considering not replacing my almost empty bottle because of that huge price jump.

And on that note, went to tiki-land tonight with the Montegomatica... 1 1/2 oz Wray & Nephew overproof rum 1 oz Fernet Branca 1 oz falernum 1 oz lime juice Shake with crushed ice, pour into a tiki mug, float 1/2 oz Cruzan Black Strap (Gosling's Black Seal), mint sprig garnish.

Another nice one Kerry! I'm planning to seriously tiki it up this summer. Well, I might have to slip in a few other cocktails here and there but I have a long list of tiki drinks that'll take me a while to get through so that's going to be the focus. Now if I can just find a Thurston Howell style straw hat to go with that bamboo-look mug I ordered...

Barbecue and homemade ice cream... now you're talkin'!

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting your cultural deprivations. I don't know. I love my Havana Club, have 3 of them on the shelf right now, but I'd easily give them up for the selection and prices available at a good well-stocked U.S. liquor store.

Love the bitter, have a tougher time with the very dry... but I'm working on it. Maybe I should check that one out.

I didn't cook but the menu was baked ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, rutabaga, cauliflower, fresh baked bread and a pie for dessert. I was too stuffed for dessert so I'm ashamed to say that I don't even know what was in the pie.

Nice! Glad things worked out the way you wanted.

Yeah, the Bols isn't too wonderful. But compared to the other LCBO option, McGuinness, it's pure top shelf. I've been trying to convince myself to do a K&L Wines order but so far cheap keeps winning. They will ship to Ontario but they told me that it pretty much ends up doubling in price by the time it goes through the LCBO. I think they only ship in case quantity (mixed cases are okay, as long as it totals 12 bottles) so even if I justify the markup (the LCBO comes pretty close to doubling, and sometimes more, most new things they bring in anyway), it still becomes a considerable cash outlay because of the quantity involved. Oh well, I probably have more than I really need as it is and I still have a few things the LCBO carries that I'm trying to get the local store to order for me... I guess drawing the line somewhere is necessary.

Road trip or Bols with the rest of us. Tasty sounding drinks you mixed up there!

This has not been trussed properly. You didn't tell us there was going to be a test.

Big buttermilk biscuits covered in a peppery milk gravy full of spicy/sagey breakfast sausage. I'd eat it every day (well, maybe not every day), consequences to the arteries be damned, if good sausage existed where I live. The Canadian take (at least in the area where I live) on breakfast sausage is "make it bland with a few gristly chunks to offset the thoroughly pureed meat and bread mixture". I guess I could quit complaining and make my own... No guesse on who the blogger is though. I don't seem to be very good at this game.

Those questions will tell you if the person knows anything about food cost and portioning, if he's observant enough to recognize someone's sneaking something out the door and if he's had to deal with refrigeration issues before... but they still won't tell you that he is or isn't a chef.

Finally got the book. I was going to preorder it and didn't. When I remembered to go back and order it, it was out of stock. Arrived yesterday along with Beachbum Berry Remixed. Looking forward to exploring both.

Finally got around to doing a book order. Playtime...

I've made Eeyore with straight up dry vermouth before I got my hands on a bianco. My first couple of Eeyore's were actually inauthentic that way but I enjoyed them. I'd have to do a side by side to be sure because it's been a while but I'm not sure that I enjoyed it any less with the dry vermouth even if it was wrong.

That's awesome! If any of my equipment did that to me, I'd be laughing so hard I wouldn't be able to do any work.

I'll second that. One of my personal favorite drinks.

Have you seen this Kerry? A Starchefs article on artisinal vermouths with a few recipes to go along with it. I bookmarked it a while back but have never done anything with it.

I've been a bit confused on the Zombie topic as well. I narrowed my research down to the following three and decided to stop there unless I find something that warrants further investigating. I didn't keep in my notes which name goes with which version. Other than the serious rum content, they're not particularly similar in taste. Hopefully somebody that knows more about it will jump on this one because I'm curious too. 1934 Zombie: 1 1/2 oz gold rum 1 1/2 oz aged jamaican rum 1 oz 151 demerara rum 3/4 oz lime juice 1/2 oz don's mix (2 parts grapefruit juice to 1 part cinnamon syrup) 1/2 oz falernum 1 tsp grenadine 1/8 tsp absinthe 1 dash angostura bitters shake with 6 oz crushed ice, pour into tall glass 1950 Zombie: 1 oz light rum 1 oz gold rum 1 oz 151 demerara rum 1 oz fresh lime juice 1 oz lemon juice 1 oz pineapple juice 1 oz passion fruit syrup 1 tsp demerara syrup 1 dash angostura bitters shake with 6 oz crushed ice, pour into tall glass 1956 Zombie: 1 1/4 oz gold rum 1 oz dark jamaican rum 1 oz 151 demerara rum 1/4 oz falernum 3/4 oz maraschino liqueur (I have it in my notes that it was suggested to lower this to 1/4 oz on the site where I found it) 3/4 oz lime juice 1/2 oz grapefruit juice 1 1/2 oz pineapple juice 1/4 tsp grenadine 1/8 tsp absinthe 2 dashes Angostura Bitters shake with 6 oz crushed ice, pour into tall glass All three call for a mint garnish.

That doesn't surprise me. The number of restaurants using sous vide equipment is probably a pretty huge minority. The number of restaurants doing much of anything you find in MC is probably a huge minority (with the disclaimer that I haven't read those books).

I honestly don't know, I wasn't there. He said he couldn't find any of it so I took his word for it. He was doing me a favor so I didn't want to sound skeptical about his efforts. It's really not that big a deal, would have been nice though. Another friend is returning from Nova Scotia tomorrow, she was going to see if she could find a bottle of Cruzan Black Strap for me while there. Apparently the NS stores carry it. So there could be a nice surprise or another mild disappointment tomorrow.

Okay Kerry, now I can officially concede the full extent of the jealousy you were due. My friend from work says he went to stores in Duluth and Minneapolis with my list for Lemon Hart 151, La Favorite Rhum Agricole blanc, Ransom Old Tom gin, a Del Maguey blanco mezcal, Smith & Cross rum, Batavia Arrack and Zirbenz Stone Pine liqueur. I told him to only grab 4 with that being the order of preference, he was unable to find any of it. I am depressed (no, not really)... and a bit surprised. He doesn't really know much about the stuff so I was hesitant to okay substitutions. Oh well, it was worth a shot.