haresfur

Averna on the rocks with a thin slice of lemon is very nice.

To start a tradition, just do what you love, then repeat... Some of the traditions for me and my siblings started by taking some of my father's dishes and assigning them to particular days, like German pancakes on Boxing Day. You might think about Barbecue, from the description of your friends. And it would give you plenty to obsess over.

I feel sorry for the younger generation! With all that granite and gabbo, I can believe that the springs would respond quickly to the weather. Are there regulations controlling their water allocation?

Left hand is to 1794 as Boulevardier is to Old Pal? Although it sounds like the KC Left hand calls for more bourbon than you said you used.

I'm a big believer in substituting syrups/cordials for liqueur when I can. If you are mixing with spirits then I don't think the alcohol in the liqueur makes much difference. You could always add vodka. I don't think it works for citrus. Then again, I'll try to substitute ginger wine for ginger syrup, too - but that's out of laziness. My aim isn't to reproduce someone else's drink exactly but to make something that tastes good so I'm always adjusting proportions and ingredients.

You get 5 quarts of stock out of one chicken? I probably end up with less than a quart after reduction. I usually use chicken frames but I may go to necks or wings that are usually less expensive. Then again I live in a country where you can still get those things - although they are getting harder to find in the supermarkets. OP could either start with a whole chicken and pull the meat off the bones to eat after cooking and return the bones to the pot or try to find appropriate bits and pieces. Would making stock from cheap necks, wings or bones be ok or do you want free-range stock? I like the idea of raising your own chickens.

Very nice!

My immediate thought was Canadian wine from the same time period. In comparison to Kelowna muscatel, baby duck was divine.

Not at the liquor store but I scored some supplies at Bendigo Wholefoods. On the left is agave syrup - I wasn't sure whether to get dark or light so I went with the dark. On the right is a "Traditional Mixer" that I assume is a shrub. Don't know what the Aussies traditionally mix it with.

I just read an item from a media watch regarding Ito En sourcing tea from Australia and sure enough: http://www.itoen.com.au/product/index.html I guess that means that the tea in my Costco green tea bags may circumnavigate the Pacific from Australia to Japan to the US and back here.

2 oz rye (Rittenhouse) 1 tsp 1:1 simple syrup 1/2 oz blood orange juice 4 dashes Regan's orange bitters Rinse glass with absinthe (Obsello) Build over ice The blood orange season is brief here and I found some small ones at the local Sunday market (1/2 orange was 1/2 oz of juice). Looks lovely and is very satisfying. This was tweak #2 on the proportions and I think further research may be in order

I sometimes leave them out because they are bloody hard to crush!

I don't think the Captain would add anything to your cabinet that you couldn't get elsewhere. I have a nostalgic connection and it is my basic dark rum but it certainly isn't top shelf. If I wasn't up to my limit I'd pick it up duty free. You might want to look for a Venezuelan rum if you can't find them locally. Chris Taylor may remember which one we sampled.

I've heard Smucker's recommended, too, but in the US I just used one of the brands targeted at the digusting-flavoured coffee trade - Toranni, I think. In Australia I like Cascade cordials - available in about any supermarket.

I've been working on a white-bean chicken chili that I'm getting pretty happy with. I've been using black-eyed beans but any white bean would do. I'm sure the taste profile could be adjusted but for the purpose of this thread I think it is a nicely efficient use of the pressure cooker. The procedure is: Take one whole chicken, remove legs/thighs and wings for a separate dish and put the rest in the pressure cooker and cover with water. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Crash cool and remove the chicken. Add 2 cups beans to the broth and pressure cook on high for 25 minutes. While the beans are cooking take white meat off the chicken and shred with forks. Slow cool the beans (or get impatient after a while and crash cool). Drain water to level of beans but reserve to add if needed later. Add chicken, 1 cup chopped onion, 4 jalapenos chopped (or more - family compromises, you know), a green capsicum (or red) chopped, cumin, salt, pepper to taste. and simmer about an hour. Serve with sour cream or shredded white cheese and cilantro. I haven't experimented with pressure cooking after adding the chicken back to the beans because I worry about making mush.

I haven't actually had any commercial product but I think, yes. It is very sweet but the green walnut flavour is powerful. In some way's it is like pimento dram - sugar syrup with a punch. That being said, it isn't like a lot of cocktails call for it. Bonus points if you can figure out how to cook with it. Pork maybe? ETA: Oh, Nocino, maybe. The friend who made it is Polish so he didn't actually name it for me.

I think I like this Not sure 1 oz silver tequila (Sauza) 1+ tsp nocello (homemade gift) 3 drops Bittermans xocolatl bitters This is the prototype size. The three ingredients each have taste profiles that I find rather strange and don't balance but seem to complement each other.

I just picked up another set of these: They are great for stock cubes because they have lids. Aussie seem to only make tiny ice cubes so I use them for cocktail ice, although I'd like even bigger ones. The sloping sides make it pretty easy to release the cubes.

You can tempura elderflowers, too.

Do you eat much fish? I remember from Sweden a long time ago that rodspette is very nice.

I agree with Chris. The Cooper's Celebration is very good. It has the thinness of a real British bitter that I haven't seen in many craft beers. The hops taste more American to me, though.

I think the telling part is, "the pizza at UPN is of the highest caliber. By that I mean that it was as good as any Neapolitan pizza I’ve ever eaten--but no better." It seems to me that Neapolitan pizza has such a narrow specification that it pretty much by definition has "flown as high as it can go." The process is constrained to give a particular result so the latitude to produce something transcendingly different is minuscule. If it was amazingly different it probably wouldn't be Neapolitan. What does he expect?

Our beer-club beer at work this week was Coopers 62 Pilsner. I'm not a big Pilsner fan or mass market beer fan, but this was pretty decent (or maybe I just really needed a beer). I agree that Coopers is the best mass market brewery here. And you don't get a bottle design with less wank factor.

A knife is easier to clean! (and it's probably already dirty).

I usually shave frozen ginger with a knife. Even with my crappy knives I can get wicked thin bits.