birder53

Then one at a time shall we muddle!

Do muddled drinks need to be made one at a time? I tried doubling a recipe recently and found the muddling part more difficult. Distributing the final drink into the glasses and making sure the fruit was equally shared was a messy challenge as well. Any suggestions on how to muddle more than one at a time?

We ate at Tisha's last Sunday night for the first time. The food was very good but our server was a bit inattentive to things like refilling water glasses and lowering the speed of a ceiling fan which was right over our table. My entree of pan seared halibut with lobster in a beurre blanc sauce was excellent. Hubby had a chicken and shrimp combo which he liked but commented that the shrimp seemed a bit off in taste. Both entrees were served with asparagus and mashed potatoes. There was no room for dessert, but what we saw coming out of the kitchen looked very good. Tisha's is BYO.

Meyer lemons! I prefer my Aviation with meyer lemons. I like the tiny bit of sweet it adds. I'll confess that I also like a big, fat maraschino cherry in my drink as well. I haven't been successfull finding myer lemons lately but once I do I'll make a big batch of Aviations. What a great drink!

Try a Yellow Bird YELLOW BIRD 2 oz. Rum 1/2 oz. triple sec 1/2 oz. Galliano 3/4 oz. Fresh Lime juice Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail/martini glass. Garnish with a lime peel.

Indeed, except for the hangover part. What vitamins are YOU taking? Cachaca knocks me the f$ck out, but... but... I loff eet soo much! Saving my last inch for 5/5 feast. BTW: Some little keylimes are available, called "Susie" packed in McKenna TX, grown in Mexico. Heavily seeded but awesome flavor makes up for it. Domino superfine for the sugar. Cheers! Does Domino make a superfine brown sugar??

I found only one brand - Pitu. These are definitely drinks for home! After I can't coax another drop to drink out of the glass, I sucked each piece of lime clean and scooped up the pieces of cherry with my finger DeGroff's book has several versions and many other muddled drinks to tempt me. Your list of fruits is inspiring! As far as the ginger - about how much would you use for one drink?

Finally tried my muddler! The photos in "The Craft of the Cocktail" of the CAIPIRINHA were enough to inspire me. I tried the Caipirinha Cherry, made with four pitted sour cherries in addition to the following. I used the Amerani Fabrini cherries. This is a great warm weather drink. 2 oz. Cachaca 1 oz. Simple Syrup or tsp. of sugar 1/2 Lime quartered. Place lime quarters in the bottom of mixing glass, add the syrup and muddle extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Chill a rocks glass with cracked ice. Add Cachaca to the mixture in the mixing glass and dump the ice into the mixing glass and shake well. Pour the entire contents of the mixing glass back into the chilled rocks glass and serve.

Thanksfor the info on the red drum. We had two breakfasts at Sam & Omie's. Great hashbrowns! If only their coffee was good.

Since you fish down there, can you explain why the Red Drum seems to be a "famous" fish to catch but was not on any menus we saw? Is it strictly a game/sport fish?

Two people in two different towns steered us away from Meridian 45. One of them suggested The Lone Cedar which we didn't like at all. But both agreed on The Blue Point in Duck which was wonderful. I guess you take your chances whatever you do!

Well, we returned from OBX on Friday. The best meal was at Pelican Isle in Nags Head. It's a nice place on the sound and the sunset was spectacular. We had great crab cakes and fried oysters. My entree was blackened tuna and scallops which I ordered for the tuna, but the scallops were the stars of that dish. I would have never considered blackening scallops, but we'll give it a try this summer. Breakfast at Sammies & Omies was fine but their coffee is awfully weak. I was in need of great coffee when we returned to make up for the weak coffee we encountered almost everywhere. Had lunch at the Blue Point Grill in Duck that was wonderful! I had a special of crabcake on couscous and hubby had meatloaf (why, I don't know) which he enjoyed. We split a desert of a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream. Someone in Duck steered us away from Meridian 45 and suggested The Lone Cedar in Nags Head. We also took recommendations from locals about where to dine on Ocracoke Island. Both recommendations were poor. Lone Cedar was crowded with locals, but the menu and kitchen was uninspiring and the serivce was rushed. We dined at Cafe Atlantic on Ocracoke. Again, boring menu and boring food. However, a recommendation for Buoy's in Buxton turned out just fine. It is also a local place and the fried oysters were fabulous! Lunch at the Bish Box in Buxton was also decent. Had one dinner at the Red Drum in Nags Head which was okay. Unfortunately they had the AC cranked up and couldn't seem to find a comfortable setting so we rushed our meals to get out of there. The wonderful weather and lack of crowds made up for the lack of really great food ( and coffee!!). I was quite glad to be home and doing my own cooking again!

I learned the hard way! Mint goes into pots or planters now. Never again in the flower bed!

mint is best used uncooked. I tried Mark Bittman's recipe for pasta with mint. The mint is not cooked, just tossed in with the pasta, oil and cheese at the end.

I grew several kinds of mint last summer and tried them in various dishes. They looked better than they tasted and I didn't get that real minty spike of flavor I was looking for. What is the best mint to use for cooking? Is there a definitive answer?

I'll be driving to Nags Head, NC this coming weekend (4/17). Any recommendations for meals on the Outer Banks? Looking for a comfortable/casual setting.

Dined at a local, BYO Indian restaurant next to a table of two adults and one small child - maybe 3-5 years old. He couldn't sit still and constantly interrupted their conversation. Well, what looked like daddy and a date gave him some beer to drink. He quieted down and eventually slid off his chair under the table! They quickly got him back in his chair, but he had clearly had too much to drink! The adults continued to have their dinner and ignore this poor child.

My maternal grandmother owned the two family house I grew up in. She usually ate dinner in her own apartment except on Sundays. Sunday dinners were special. Everyone was dressed up from Mass and required to stay that way for the day. My parents cooked together. The meal was always a roast ( whatever was on sale that week at the local butcher), gravy, mashed potatoes ( sometimes those wonderful White Rose potatoes roasted with the meat!) frozen french cut stringbeans, bread (probably wonder bread) and butter. On Sundays my parents had cocktails and we were allowed our one bottle of soda and one bag of potato chips (all split among four kids) before dinner. We took turns among the four kids in picking out the flavor of soda each week. Desserts ranged from nothing to home made (okay - Duncan Hines) angel food cake with fresh whipped cream or - canned fruit cocktail. Sunday was also the day Mom tackled the NY Times crossword. We would all sit together before dinner with our drinks and chips waiting for her to ask for a three letter work for little river or some other new word we had learned through these weekly sessions. My grandmother just enjoyed spending this time with us. Good memories. My paternal grandmother rarely invited us for dinner. We lived about one mile away, so she would invite those who lived further away for dinner and we would join to visit after dessert. On the few occassions we ate with her it was memorable for how bad it was. Everything was cooked to death - meat and veggies. Her speciality was pearl onions in a cream sauce, which was not appealing to an 8 year old! No one was allowed to leave the table until they had cleaned their plate. The atmosphere in that house was alway tense. My father referred to his mother as an "old battle ax". My grandfather was a "dry drunk." Everyone was afraid of him and most of his nine children were active drunks! We were very lucky not to be included in regular Sunday dinners at this house! The Sunday dinner tradition was then picked up by my Italian mother-in-law - be there Sunday at 1:00 or else! She was a great cook and I looked forward to these meals. I haven't found a red sauce to compare to hers anywhere! Since she passed away and everyone has moved farther away from each other we only get together with his family on special occasions. Life has changed and so has Sunday traditions!

White. Red is tough on the stomach!

Our lemon balm also became "aggressive". Some research showed that it is in the mint family It will be relegated to a pot or flower box this year. Last year was our first herb garden. We planted just about one of everything we found and prepared for a good show! The golden oregano died pretty quickly - not sure what happened there. The lavender, rosemary, basils, and sage did very well. Also had borage which was nice for the flowers unti some backyard critter ate it! It's still to early to plant here in NJ, but please eep the lists coming and inspire me for planting next month

I still use the list of drinks from NSM's infamous cocktail parties! I bought the 'Boston' guide in 1978 and never used it very much. I drag out Dale De Groff's 'Craft of the Cocktail' each weekend and look for something new to try. The photos inspire me and we've tried some new and very good drinks thanks to this book.

I love the "Miss or Msss Kathy" way to dealing with addressing those "older". It's very sweet. We had one rule at the table - No Singing! It started after the four of us watched a cartoon where a giant ate his soup. He sang 'I'm a big old meany' in between spoonfuls and always slurped the soup loudly. There were also some Three Stooges routines which were banned. I'm sure my mother can remember a few more rules which I've chosen to forget.

I hope the sad part isn't the fact that I found out I enjoy pure gin!

Spent a few days in Chicago last week on business. Dinner on Thursday was courtesy of one of our vendors and he chose Gibsons. The bartenders looked to be an experienced lot and quite an assortment of drinks and cocktails were being ordered and served in the crowded and very noisy bar. I decided to ask for an Aviation. The 60+ year old bartender got closer, looked me in the eye and said 'A what?'. An Aviation, I repeated. 'What's that?' I listed the ingredients and got another 'What?' I tried to explain the maraschino liquer. Well, they didn't have the maraschino and he had also never heard of it. I mentioned Dale DeGroff's book, trying to assure him I hadn't just made it up to stump him. He said he was going to check into it and asked me what my second choice was. I went with a very dry Bombay Sapphire martini. It was wonderful! I later asked him what vermouth he had used ( I was talking with friends and didn't watch him prepare the drink) as his drink tasted better than any martini I had made at home. The answer - no vermouth! He explained that so many customers sent the martinis back because they weren't dry enough that they just stopped adding the vermouth. Even so, he said some folks still send them back because they aren't dry enough! Now I know I like my gin stirred, not shaken, and hold the vermouth!

There is a restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine called "The Opera House". They have six or seven programs of recorded opera that play. Each table has a list of the programs so you can follow, if you wish, with that evening's "performance". I loved it! It wasn't loud enough take over, but we would stop talking when a favorite aria came along and just enjoyed the music. I shy away from restaurants with live entertainment, particularly where the performers approach each table. It is usually too loud and intrusive. I enjoy good music that adds to the atmosphere of the room.