KatieLoeb

Bob, that's great!! Having just recently seen the new Rick Nichols Room, it is GORGEOUS and I'm excited that we're getting to "christen" the room for such an auspicious event. Please let us know as soon as you find out what's happening.

Yes. The dates are 8/9-8/12. I should have more info later in the week. The more centrally located, the more expensive the hotel, as is usually the case. However, the rates I quoted above are pretty good for high tourist season.

Never grooved on grape jelly. I was always a fan of strawberry jam, apricot preserves or even fig jam with my PB. I love the mango chutney idea. Might have to go get some just so I can try this!

Sangre y Arena??

Crustless muffin tin quiches are something I make frequently for my LUPEC meetings. A few of the girls have gluten allergies and several are vegetarian. This covers that ground and the variations are endless. Broccoli-cheddar. Roasted red pepper-pepper jack. Mushroom-Swiss. Apple or pear-gorgonzola. Leftover whatever and whatever cheese you have lying about. Great for cleaning out the fridge. If you have a Russian or Eastern European market near you, fresh frozen pierogies are great. Or any of those lovely prepared salads, eggplant a thousand ways, rice stuffed cabbage, vegetarian pelmeni or vareniki, etc. If you come to Philly for the Heartland Gathering I can send you to the Bell's Market on your way back to New York and you can stock up and get a million ideas of stuff to make yourself. The prepared foods are to die for. edited to add: Sorry - just realized how old this thread is and was directing that answer at Fat Guy. Probably of no use to him at this point, but I hope it's helpful to someone.

So far my friend with connections at the Visitor's Bureau has gotten a reply from The Sheraton Society Hill, located in Olde City at 4th and Walnut Streets. They have offered a $159/night rate for a block of 10 rooms. I also did a little poking around on the VisitPhilly website and there are some great deals on there, some including breakfast, valet parking for one vehicle, or tickets to the Franklin Institute to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit which is there through October. Most are slightly higher than the $159 rate the Sheraton Society Hill has offered. A brief look on .chlds=0&type=hotel&hotel.keyword.key=Philadelphia%2C%20PA&hotel.rooms[0].chldAge[3]=&hotel.type=keyword&hotel.rooms[0].adlts=2&search=Search&hotel.chain=&hotel.chkout=08%2F12%2F12&hotel.rooms[0].chldAge[1]=&hotel.rooms[0].chldAge[0]=&hotel.coord=&hotel.rooms[0].chldAge[2]=&hotel.rating=3&hotel.rooms[0].chldAge[4]=&hsv.page=1&hsv.sortOrder=HOTEL_DISTANCE"]Orbitz for those dates shows rates as low as $135/night at the Marriott Courtyard right next to City Hall, which is basically Ground Zero for downtown (or Center City as we call it) Philly. Comparable rates of $159/night at the Sofitel and Loew's Philadelphia, both of which are centrally located as well. Downtown Center City is not that big, and at most, all places are a short walk or cab ride. Don't know what sort of rates you have all gotten in the past. I will keep pushing my friend to get answers this week, but a little snooping around online could yield excellent results if you want to just get on with booking. Please let me know if you have any questions about locations, neighborhoods, particular hotels or any other preferences. I am here to answer any and all queries. I'll start putting together a guide to attractions and such (other than all the glorious food we'll be indulging in) as soon as I'm able.

Kerry, next time you make a Pisco Sour strain it into a cocktail or coupe glass. Then put 5 drops of Angostura or whiskey barrel aged bitters on the foam (I use an eyedropper for this task) and drag a knife tip or toothpick through it to make the pretty hearts design on top. Not only looks visually appealling, but the aromatics of the bitters as you lift the glass past your nose are quite mouth watering.

I'm working on a one night tiki pop up bar event here in Philly that will take place in August. Went over to the host establishment today and hung out with the owner doing some R&D for the event. After years of swearing I was going to create a cocktail that contained aquavit and had some sort of flaming garnish floating on top just so I could name it a Viking Funeral, the stars aligned and we figured out that a pineapple leaf, with one end stapled together is the perfect small receptacle for a wee pour of overproof rum to be set ablaze before serving the drink. The Viking Funeral is an aquavit based Mai Tai riff with pineapple and lemon juices, orgeat, simple syrup, coconut water and a few dashes of Peychaud bitters to dial it back a bit. We're using the House Spirits Krogstad Aquavit. It's a really tasty drink and the flaming garnish is the gilding of the lily. I'll take photos and post one next time we get together to finalize the menu. It looks really cool!

Will poke my hotel hookup this week while I'm off for an update. Should have an answer/answers by week's end...

Jane: Thanks so much for the props and shout out in the blog! Your drink looks and sounds delicious! And I love that you made some substitutions. The whole idea of the book is to get folks to think creatively with the ingredients. I love that. I've sent a link to your blog post to the folks at my publisher, so they can see what is undoubtedly the first review of my book! Thanks again! Much appreciation for the support!

Jane: Thanks so much for the kind words! It's funny, I've been called "no nonsense" in several different contexts and at this point I most definitely take it as a compliment. I speak from my gut, for whatever that is worth. I guess the visceral approach works for me. The two methods for the grenadine are meant to be combined. Sort of a "best of both worlds" batch when you're done. Fresh fruitiness of the cold and the viscosity and depth of flavor from the cooked half. Let me know how your grapefruit cordial turns out. It occurred to me after the fact that it might make an interesting addition to a Paloma variation. But the straight up gimlet variation has proven popular wherever I've served it too. I'd love to hear your thoughts when your batch is completed and you've played around with it a bit.

For any of you that may have pre-ordered my book from Amazon, first my sincere thanks, and second the shipping date has been moved UP, so they'll be shipping on June 8, rather than July 1. That came as quite a surprise!! Interestingly, they are offering a "bundled" deal of my book along with the PDT Cocktail book for about $35 right now. I'm flattered to be in such good company.

SInce the contestants aren't allowed to reveal too much before the season airs, I can't really get the inside dirt from my friend, other than that apparently Ramsay isn't nearly as much of a dick when the cameras aren't on and that there's quite a bit of editing to create drama that may or may not have taken place. I agree that watching him berate everyone gets old pretty quickly, but I'm committed to watching, at least while Barbie is still on the show. She had fun with the experience, from what little she can tell me, and refers to the other women cheftestants as friends, so for whatever that's worth, it's a bit of an inside view. I don't think she would want to move to Vegas anyway, since she lives in a beautiful home in Lancaster County, PA and has a full farm of gorgeous produce at her disposal. Who'd want to leave that to go to Vegas??

Do the Fernet Branca. It already is minty and would probably go better... I put a barspoon of Averna into my Bellinis to give it a bass note of herbaciousness. It's delicious. Can't imagine it wouldn't work with a mojito too. Anything to take the sweet edge off the front end is a good idea, IMHO. Even balalnced with citrus, those are both sweet drinks, so I like the idea. Report back on the experiment please!

Is anybody watching the latest installment of Hell's Kitchen?? Winner gets the job as Chef de Cuisine at Gordon Ramsay Steaks in Las Vegas along with a 250K salary and the joy of calling Chef Ramsay their boss. I'm watching because there are two Philly chefs competing - Christina Wilson, formerly of Mercato restaurant, one of my favorite little BYOBs in town, and my good friend Barbie Marshall, who is a brilliant chef and also helps out at Han Dynasty, my current place of employ. We hosted a fun viewing party for the premiere earlier this week. Barbie was very funny. I'm looking forward to seeing her best the other contestants and not have to stoop to their level of crazy bitchiness to do it. Those women can be really mean!!

My whole house smells of mint right now. Got a quart and a half of mint syrup steeping in the kitchen. Mojitos for Happy Hour specials all weekend so I'm just getting prepared. Perhaps I'll grab a can of mango or guava nectar just for fun to make a variation...

Just infused up a batch of tangerine peel-dry hot pepper tequila with the Camrena reposado. It's going in to a new drink called a Sino-Rita that is a margarita made with the infused tequila that has a Szechuan peppercorn-salt-raw sugar rim on the glass. A little bit spicy and the rimmer numbs your lips!

Kerry - when you say say "mojito mint" is it the elusive true Cuban hierba buena?

This gorgeous Culver highball is one of a set of six I picked up on eBay recently. The trim is 22k gold, I believe. That's a SIngapore Sling in there. Everything tastes better in pretty glasses...

Boo! So sorry you all won't be able to join us. Was really looking forward to it. Please let us know if plans change. You know you are alway welcome. On a separate note, I should be getting some info back on hotels very shortly. Will post as soon as I am informed.

Care to share for the rest of us who are in our right mind and thus a "sinister" handed cocktailian? Would be delighted to have a channel knife that reduced the risk of having thumb flesh as a garnish... Sur La Table sells ambidextrous channel knives that I find superior even being right-handed. Looks like the one I'm thinking of is no longer available (or I'm misremembering where I saw it) but it has a blade like this: http://www.surlatabl...e-Channel-Knife The channel knife I have is constructed the same way but has a wooden handle, rather than metal. But having the blade facing the long way makes it usuable by barkeeps of either persuasion. No thumb flesh in my drinks anymore. It's alway good to put a little of yourself in your creations. Just not that way.

Excellent point Haresfur! As a left handed barkeep myself, I am forever challenged to find tools that work for me. I finally found an ambidextrous channel knife that has the blade atop the handle instead of at the end so I have finally stopped maiming myself making citrus twists with a channel knife that's being pushed instead of pulled as it was meant to be.

That's a beautiful spoon, up close. Certainly the idea of the curvature, regardless of the shape of the receptacle end of the spoon is a good one. And just like calibrating the measurement, a handmade item will likely have some slight variation in shape too I would imagine. But if the angle is properly measured and executed, those variations will matter little in the functionality.

Tonight, after cooking up an enormous batch of homemade grenadine, I test drove it with a Pink Garter: 1.5 oz. Plymouth gin .5 oz. grenadine .5 oz. lemon juice .25 oz. orange juice 2 dashes orange bitters FIrst attempt with Angostura bitters was tasty too, but quickly accidentally spilled and I liked the second version much better. Orange bitters just went better with everything in the glass.

Make sure the spoon end measures out to one teaspoon. Also a slight curvature to hug the inside of a mixing glass is nice. Tight coil is good - makes the spinning of the spoon between your fingers more efficient. Make sure the spoon end is heavy enough to crack ice with. It's a pretty spoon. The above suggestions will also make it functional. Best of both worlds. If you could marry your vision with one of THESE you would have the world's most Perfect Bar Spoon.