Tri2Cook

I thought it was ground beef and hamburger helper. Complete with the little packet of sour cream powder... modernist cuisine before it was cool.

Understood. I was a bit too simplistic in my reply. What I should have said was, from the perspective of what's in the glass, it doesn't serve a particular function that couldn't be accomplished in some other way.

So it is indeed, at the heart of it, ritual rather than function... but suggesting that the ritual is simply for entertainment purposes could lead me down a road I may not want to travel with the dedicated?

Other than tradition, is there any real reason for the full absinthe ritual? If you know what dilution rate you want for a particular absinthe and choose to use the sugar is there any reason you can't dissolve the correct amount of sugar in the correct amount of water, store it in the fridge and drip a measured amount into the absinthe minus the spoon and sugar cube? I realize there's no inconvenience involved with having the spoon and cube sitting there while the water drips, I'm just curious if it does more than simply provide an entertaining vehicle for dissolving the sugar.

This was fun, thanks for the peek into your world.

Yep, I have a dehydrator. I just prefer to freeze them. The texture is messed up either way compared to fresh and the frozen retain a much closer to fresh flavor than the dried.

Yes they are. I foraged some nice ones along with a few chanterelles over the weekend. Still waiting for the matsutakes to show up (I found one so it shouldn't be long). The chanterelles are fading now but they were crazy this year. I've been using them like crazy and still have about 10 lbs. that went in the freezer. Hated to do that to them but it seemed better than tossing 'em in the compost.

I agree with many of the ideals, I just don't like the way they sometimes choose to get them across. I can be convinced through sound argument to change the way I do some things but I can't be guilt-tripped into anything. It usually has the opposite effect... I start digging my heels in.

Convincing the people we cook it for that it's okay to eat it that way is much more difficult than convincing cooks it's okay to cook it that way.

...and maybe that's the reason the non-fernet hatters, the ones who couldn't get it, were mad.

And you can multiply that frustration by a pretty good margin for those of us who are much less cocktail-experienced. At least those more in-the-know can probably make a reasonable guess based on the rest of the recipe... I'm not sure I can. Not with any degree of confidence anyway.

Understood. And I'm not raising any questions regarding your parenting... that's none of my businees. I'm actually trying to politely question whether you are in fact responsible for his culinary taste. But I agree that you are responsible for trying to steer him in a good direction so hopefully some good ideas will surface. I was just thinking that if you can come up with a substitute that satisfies what you want to accomplish while somewhat resembling what the other kids are eating, it may make the job a lot easier.

I think the stumbling block here is that he wants to eat cold pizza with the boys. You want to show him that there's something better but if it doesn't look something like what his buddies are having, it probably isn't going to do the trick no matter how tasty.

Yep... nothing makes a beer-soaked hangover gut happier than discovering a few slices of pizza still in the box on the table the next morning. I no longer wake up with beer-soaked hangover gut but table pizza and gatorade sent me out the door happy on many mornings when I was younger. I had leftover pizza (homemade and commercial) that sat in my lunch bag at school all morning many times when I was a kid. Tasty stuff. I'm kinda glad I grew up in a time before all of the things that didn't hurt us were deemed unsafe.

I'm keeping my eyes open for that one after reading Matt's post about it on his blog. I already have the Double Barrel Reserve but this one sounds interesting.

Then I'll definitely have to give it a try... hard to imagine that it could be better than it already is but I can't doubt the word of the man who created it.

I did a corn consomme with corn, corn cobs and freeze dried corn as the corn components. I reduced it a bit to concentrate the flavor, freshened it by steeping more cobs and corn then used syneresis filtering to clarify it. It had a clear and distinct corn flavor but I actually never got around to doing anything with it. It's been vac-packed and in the freezer for a couple months... thanks for the reminder to do something with it!

They are sweet, I couldn't just pour it in a glass and drink more than a few sips.

Amaretto And so much less tasty than the Luxardo... but that's just my opinion.

I make the one without the gin. I don't know if it's considered definitive but it sure is tasty. I've seen the version with less Campari and Cynar and the addition of gin but haven't tried it. I'm willing to but it's going to have to be pretty convincing to be better even if it is authentic.

Too late, I already did. Very nice... can't wait to see what you go with and what you do with it.

Yeah, yeah... burger, bun, fries. Tasty stuff. Let's hear more about all that local product you have access to (and I don't). My head would explode, I'd be in idea overload from all the possibilities. We have a short, unreliable growing season and not a lot of local resources so I get all excited when I see an abundance of tasty ingredients to work with.

My recommendation for Drink Talk Like a Pirate Day is an authentic pirate Bumbo: • 2 tsp. demerera sugar • 1 oz. cool water • 2 oz. good gold rum (Sergeant Classick gold) • grated nutmeg to taste • grated cinnamon to taste Stir the sugar in the water to dissolve, add rum and spices, stir, drink pirate style without ice. The Sergeant Classick is actually unbelievably good in this drink. It's actually the only drink I have found where I'd consider Sergeant Classick as the preferred rum. As a pot still but unaged rum I wonder if it isn't somewhat similar to what 17th century pirate would have had access to. Top of the list for this evening... won't be with that rum, I don't have it, but I'll try it anyway.

That one's now on the short list to try. Sounds tasty.

I'm trying to get better acquainted with drinks balanced through spirits and bitters without the use of citrus. I have more difficulty enjoying some of these than other types of drinks so I think I need to make it my mission to learn to appreciate them more. Tonight I tried this one from Imbibe... The Remaining Balance 1 oz. Grand Marnier 3/4 oz. sweeter single malt whisky (Highland Park 12) 3/4 oz. Islay single malt whisky (Laphroaig Quarter Cask) 2 dashes Ramazotti amaro (Lucano, don't know enough about amari to know if that's a suitable sub but it's what I have) 3 dashes Angostura bitters 1 dash grapefruit bitters Stir, strain, lemon twist. Tomorrow will be a break from the above mission. Apparently it's "international talk like a pirate day". I don't plan to talk like a pirate but I think I'll mix up a rum drink or three and drink like one.