Smokeydoke

^^ egullet never ceases to entertain.

^^ that looks delicious. I'm curious about the Appleton Reserve, it gets good reviews everywhere, I think I'll buy that next. And coincidence (?) I just borrowed a copy of Liquid Intelligence today.

@blue_dolphin love to see what you do with these, especially the Peche and Strawberry brandy, which I've never seen before. I still can't get into Amaros, I need to give it another try.

@JoNorvelleWalker they used to give you crap about drinking "disgusting" mai tais, now you're the Mai Tai Queen. Congratulations!

Perfect combo.

@lindag you can make your own. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/11/how-to-make-orgeat-recipe-almond-syrup-for-cocktails.html

@EvergreenDan, not understanding what you're getting at, I'm definitely not the Mai Tai queen, nor do I have an desire to be and I definitely don't want to take that title away from @JoNorvelleWalker. I'm predominantly a gin drinker who happened to have a new bottle of Rhum Agricole. But concerning orgeat, point taken, I will try making some. It does appear in a few cocktails I want to try. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/11/how-to-make-orgeat-recipe-almond-syrup-for-cocktails.html

Lasagna by me.

It's growing on me, I've read reviews that use it like bitters and that makes more sense to me than using it like a molasses-based rum. It's a distinct flavor, an analogy would be anchovies, anchovies don't taste good plain, but mixed in Caesar salad, it is delicious. I made a Cuba Libre with it today and it really brought out the flavor of the limes and caramel. I'm sure I'll find a use for my bottle. I'm a big fan of St. George gin (I'm a predominantly a gin drinker), so I had to buy anything St. George on sale. I noticed St. George gin in your cabinet too. There's something we agree on. Cheers.

And not that RumDood is the "end-all" in any rum conversation, here's an interesting recipe he posted on his blog, that won the Bacardi Legacy Championship 2015 Le Latin by Frank Dedieu 45 ml Bacardi White 20 ml Lemon Juice 20 ml White Wine (Viognier preferred) 6 ml Olive Brine 2 barspoons Sugar So, mixing rum, albeit white in this case, with olive brine is not such a travesty after all. It's actually tasty. And olive brine and grass are the predominant flavor profiles of a St. George Agricole, so it's not a far stretch to mix it in this mai tai. Not that it was inspiration, I read RumDood's blog much later, but was surprised to see another using the same flavor combination. If I hadn't tasted it just hours before, I would've thought it was foul.

I'm not interested in getting a perfect reproduction of "the original Mai Tai" and have no desire to do the research to do so. I much rather do my research by making drinks! Sometimes, you have to stop reading, and start making. Besides, the version I made earlier was tasty, as is using DeKruper Triple Sec. YMMV. I had St. George's Rhum Agricole in my cabinet anyways, for honestly no better reason that I wanted to try it and it was the right price. I'm not going to go into debate about whether or not what I made was the a "true" reproduction of Trader Vic's Mai Tai, but just because I perused it, you can read the comments and articles linked in Kindred Spirits page, stating that argicole and dark rum were combined to try to create the original J. Wray 17 year old rum, which is what the original Mai Tai was created to highlight. It had a distinct flavor, that is not common in molasses-based rum, but reproduced by a molasses based rum and an agricole, which must've disintegrated into the mai tai that most of us know today, a dark rum and a (light) rum. Not to mention, there's a handful of other "adaptations" to this exact recipe! So get off my case! If I want to mix it with unaged agricole and report on it, I can. Not many of here have tried St. George's Rhum Agricole, it's not like I'm reporting on Bacardi White. YMMV, I look at the suggestions for using Appleton 12 v/x in a cocktail and gasp.

@Tri2Cook, I went online to see if they sold me a bad batch and the consensus was St. George's is really raw and savory, even for an rhum agricole, so maybe other rhum agricole's aren't as bad. Clement VSOP Rhum Agricole Vieux got good reviews. I really like this version of the Mai Tai, it's a complicated drink, much like a higher-end brandy. It's not cloyingly sweet like the ones I've had elsewhere. So the agricole may be doing it's job. I've been reading that it's used like bitters, it's suppose to provide that je ne sais quoi . And for that, I think it's perfect.

Mai Tai (Trader Vic's) from Kindred Cocktails 1oz Jamaican rum (dark, 7-15 year old) 1oz Rhum Agricole, St. George 3⁄4 oz Lime juice 1⁄2 oz Curaçao (I used Morays Orange Liqueur) 1⁄4 oz Orgeat (I used almond extract) 1⁄4 oz Simple syrup 1 spg Mint (as garnish) I was really excited to try Rhum Agricole, OMG, what a surprise. It's not a rum, I don't know why I thought it was a rum. It's not sweet at all, it smells like pickled olives and grass. Yet it's a key ingredient in the original mai tai. The sweetness of the other ingredients hide its brininess. I really enjoyed the Trader Vic Mai Tai. I'm undecided on the Rhum Agricole. All I can say for now is it's mighty fine in a mai tai and being a St. George product, it goes down smooth as silk, as long as you can hide the taste.

I was thinking about getting the big bottle of Costco American Vodka, Mr. Smokey took the other one to a party. That's ok, it was going on two years, still over half of it left. I love Costco, a bottle of booze from there can last me a decade.

I just checked my Total Wine & More account as I opened this and I can confirm, I've bought a ton of stuff since December. I feel weird posting it, seems like a humble brag. But there's two purchases which aren't humble brags, it's a pure brag. That's my Osocalis Apple Brandy 750 ml that I bought for less than $50 on sale. And my St. George Agricole Rum 750 ml that I bought for $25 on sale. Total Wine & More has amazing discounts on small local distilleries. I couldn't believe those when I saw it, so I had to snatch it up. I'm making a proper Mai Tai with the Agricole Rum tonight.

This was for dinner tonight. Beef Steak with Broccoli and Bearnaise Sauce.

^^ I have the same problem. I have better luck with leaf lard than with butter but not much.

^^ love Kindred Cocktails, I've been spending hours there, lol.

They've never cut their fingers off cutting into a round of Parmigiano-Reggiano with a chef's knife.

Here's a photo of the Brussel Sprouts, I had some this morning and it reminded me of the salad they serve at Japanese restaurants. Last night, Mr. Smokey added some mayo to it and it was delicious! YMMV.

^^ very clever! I will try a Bearnaise.

I was the first excited poster and I failed to make even one dish. My apologies. But it's never too late, right? Tonight I pulled out a random piece of steak. Would this go under steak or beef? Some backstory: I know why I haven't used this, I usually cook two steaks at a time, but the valu-pack for this set of steaks came with 5 instead of 4 or 6. So this lone steak got left behind. I'm going to pair this with broccoli (also from the freezer) and for extra points, I'll create a sauce.

I just made the Raw Brussel Sprouts with Lemon, Anchovy, Walnuts & Pecorino. The recipe can be found here. It was ok, it didn't taste like brussel sprouts, it tasted like a Caesar salad but with a different texture. It was a taste as you go dish, I love how McFadden said, "Did I really only call for half a lemon? Can I get another half?" Imo, it did need more than half a lemon and some black pepper too. I have plans to devour this later tonight, but honestly, it's not going into my rotation. It's a tad ordinary. And I love brussel sprouts, I have several tried-and-true recipes that I never tire of, so it's hard to keep brussel sprouts around here. I'll post pics when I get a chance.

Compound butters look gorgeous!

@Tri2Cook love the Kindred Cocktail site. I don't think I'll like Eeyore Requiem, doesn't sound like my thing, but if I ever get the ingredients, I'll give it a try. Nod to Toby Maloney, if he reads this site, it's a great cocktail. I'm impressed and wouldn't mind trying more of his creations.