Of course the meal is delicious on Thanksgiving. But….isn’t there something special about eating the same meal for the next 3 days? It never gets old until it’s gone! Sadly it is, but not before I captured the full experience.
Our entire meal was gluten free, and amazing. All the way down to Heather’s molasses cookies. Which is the same recipe as I posted before, just with Cup4Cup flour.
Now that you saw the photos, you can watch me eat it! Enjoy!
By mess I mean garbage plate. I’ve always wanted to come up with a Rochester hot sauce, or meat sauce, or whatever you’d like to call it. And this was just the excuse I needed. Linh Phillips from Sir Rocha Says is going to be presenting at the RAF 20 Minutes and a Beer on April 19th (see the Facebook event). We needed a photo for the event creative and I thought why not pay tribute to Linh’s (and my) love all all things food and drink….including Sriracha.
The garbage plate was made famous in Rochester. And while mine is not exactly the classic from Nick Tahou’s, it was super good. I started with Wegmans frozen sweet potatoes fries. I pan fried them in a touch of oil then caramelized them with maple syrup. Those are topped with Wegmans deli macaroni salad. Two Zweigles pop-open red hots come next, followed by the hot sauce and Sriracha.
Don’t forget the Sriracha Hot Stout from Rogue Ales & Spirits. It’s an easy drinking stout with hints of chocolate, malt and coffee. The pepper spice is definitely there, but not nearly as strong as you may think given the bright red Sriracha bottle look. A very interesting beer and an excellent pairing for our plate.
The hot sauce was pretty easy to make and ridiculously good. I mixed a touch of sweet in, to go with the spice….especially since I knew the Sriracha was coming. Given it’s a Rochester recipe, I used the Dundee’s Porter instead of only water….and it’s way better! Here is the recipe.
Heat oil in large skillet, then fry onion and garlic in oil until lightly browned. Break up meat and add to pan with all spices. Stir continually until browned to keep loose. Once browned, add the porter, tomato paste and brown sugar. Simmer 1 hour, adding water if necessary to keep it moist.
Heather and I shared this and it was splendid! Let us know your “plate” suggestions and favorites and we’ll make another! Cheers.
This post was 40 years in the making…straight from the pages of the 1976 edition of Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook handed down from Heather’s Grandma. (Thanks Betty!) We decided to celebrate New Year’s Eve by making a few retro recipes. What better way to ring in 2016 than to party like it’s 1976?
The elusive cherry. Do you remember being so excited? So excited that there was a cherry in your bowl of fruit cocktail? Current cans seem to have way more cherries than I recall from my youth. At 6 years of age, I certainly wasn’t asking mine to be served in ginger ale with a dash of bitters over it, but we ate this Ginger Fruit Cocktail and it was a nice trip down memory lane.
What’s a party without a log? A Salmon Party Log to be specific. Laugh all you want, but this is remarkably good! We both thought it would be disgusting, but dared each other to try it. It turned out to be our favorite recipe of the day. This might be due to the high quality canned salmon used, Bumble Bee Prime Fillet Atlantic Salmon. Or it might be due to my impressive log-rolling skills.
For our final course, we went with the Broiled Grapefruit. Heather wasn’t a fan (too bitter). The broiling didn’t add as much flavor to it as I anticipated. But we like the picture.
This was so much fun, we’d like to do it again some time. Do you have any retro recipes that you dare us to try?
We had a great 2015 (thanks for the 15,000+ views!) and look forward to 2016. Hope you all have a great new year. Cheers!
One of our days in NOLA we took the Ferry over to Algiers. I highly recommend this if you have a couple hours to spend. It’s a beautiful little residential area with lots of character. It was nice to walk around and check out all of the architectural styles. Plus, you may get to meet Cool Bob (from Buffalo of all places) at the Old Point Bar! We chatted with him for a while before we had to head back out into the heat, and across the river.
After the ferry ride back, we meandered our way over to Latitude 29, again. We weren’t aware that famed rum collector Professor Remsberg was going to be in the bar for a meeting. I wish we could have said hello, but didn’t want to interrupt.
Professor’s Remsberg’s Punch is the inspiration for my version of Planter’s Punch. Most versions of this punch are different, so feel free to make it your own!
2eat2drink Punch
Shake with ice and serve in a well garnished glass. Or you can always mix up a pitcher and stir!
The Lapu Lapu I created is based on the Disney version from The Tambu Lounge at the Polynesian Resort. I altered the recipe slightly from what I found only because I wanted to use a better rum for the float than 151. Plus, I can’t bring myself to use sour mix.
The Lapu Lapu
Mix all ingredients except float and stir well. Pour into a hollowed out a fresh pineapple filled with ice. Gently pour additional rhum to float on top. Garnish with orchids and mint and serve with a straw.
What is your favorite tiki drink? I’d love to know so I can do another series. Cheers!
First, I hope you all had a marvelous holiday! Mele Kalikimaka! Happy Christmakuh! Etc.
The rest of this post is long overdue. Heather and I went to New Orleans in July. It was a marvelous get away, despite being all too quick. But it had a purpose, besides going to one of the most fun cities that we’ve been so far: I wanted to shoot some new pictures for the RAF On The Side Expo. As the incoming president (current president, given it’s December!) of the board of the RAF, I was super excited about our first partnership with the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, and I wanted to have some new work to highlight. It was a show for RAF members to share the artwork they do “on the side”, or those things that aren’t paid work.
What does that have to do with tiki drinks? Latitude 29 is one of the coolest places in NOLA, and we went there. Twice. It served as great inspiration, even 5 months later, to create this post (and tomorrow’s, where you can see more).
Here are a few pictures from the On The Side show.
These are the 4 pieces that were in the show along with 2 others in the series. Reflections of Abe and Spirits of the Bar sold during the show!
Here are a few other highlights from our trip.
And last but not least, your tiki inspiration! This is my take on the huge variation of Mai Tai recipes that are out there.
Mix all ingredients well (except grenadine) and pour over crushed ice in a hurricane glass. Top with a splash of grenadine. Playfully garnish and serve with a straw. Cheers!
Happy Friday to you all! My District 2 regional Addy award just arrived, so it seems like a good time to share the news!
Last year I was asked to be part of an amazing project: Cohber Fuel. 12 local artists were each asked to create an image for a calendar, based only on one word. My word was texture. This is what I came up with!
This link will take you to my page on the Cohber site for a brief description, but you can also follow the Fuel button in the corner to see a video about the entire project and view the rest of the images. Cohber determined a printing technique to highlight each artist’s creation. My image had dimensional ink to highlight the texture!
I entered the image in the local American Advertising Awards show and it won silver. It then was forwarded on to the D2 regional show and won gold! (Page 30 in this PDF.)
This seemed like the perfect excuse to make a blueberry crumble (like I really needed a reason?) It was super good, and I decided to make it gluten free so our son with celiac disease could enjoy it as well. It was fun trying to randomly come up with a recipe for this. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it!
Ingredients for the berry mixture:
Get out your favorite 8″ square baking pan, throw everything in and mix it up. It should look like this. (I dare you not to eat some.)
Ingredients for topping:
Mix it all up in a bowl with a fork and spread evenly on the top with your fingers (only licking when you are done). Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. Enjoy!
Only as wild as the vines in our back yard. Every year the wild black raspberry vines creep a little closer. It’s almost overwhelming to keep up with, but this time of year it’s all good. Because there is pie (made by our friend Dan) and wild black raspberry mojitos! The pie was gone from the 4th of July party before I got a picture, but the mojitos made their debut this evening.
See the recipe here. Just add a handful of black raspberries after the limes…and muddle them in as well. Cheers!
Today is a momentous occasion. Though I’ve been a partner in Studio 2B for 15 years, I’ve just completed my purchase of the remaining shares from my friend and now former business partner, Ken. As of today, I am the sole owner of Studio 2B.
In honor of this occasion, let’s raise a glass to Ken. Thanks for all the great years! May your days be filled with great Scotch, good health, more fun pictures, race cars, and Keuka Lake breezes!
Aberlour A’Bunadh seems appropriate for a toast. This rich amber Scotch comes straight from the sherry casks it’s aged in, at 59.6%. It boasts loads of flavors; toffee, ginger, vanilla, nuts, and dried fruit among them. Being cask strength, it does have a kick, but is creamy and smooth. Highly recommended!
Stay tuned for big things to come! Cheers!
Did you know that this week is Negroni week? If you didn’t, you know now (and it’s the last day)! I hope you’ve had one, if not because they are awesome….at least because it’s for a good cause. I had a couple at The Revelry the other day, as you can see from my Instagram post. (I’d love to have you follow along!) And also from Shannon’s post!
I wanted to share a variation on the classic Negroni that I make on occasion. It’s fun to swap out different ingredients to see what you can come up with. In this case, tequila for gin, and Ancho Reyes for vermouth. Cheers….enjoy!
Ancho Tequila Negroni– 2 ounce reposado tequila– 1 ounce Ancho Reyes Ancho Chile Liqueur– 1 ounce Campari– 2 dashes Fee Brothers Grapefruit Bitters– wedge of ruby red grapefruit for garnish– chili powder and sugar for rimRub the rim of your glass against a cut grapefruit and dip in a mixture of chili powder and sugar to coat rim. Add ingredients over ice and stir well. Garnish with wedge of grapefruit.
My lovely bride has published another book with her brother, the third installment in the José Picada series entitled Act of Abduction. During my private reading (yes, I am privileged), I learned that this book has a pivotal scene featuring the José Picada Margarita. Heather asked if I could come up with a recipe that would be appropriate for Chef Al. I did my best. I hope you enjoy the José Picada Margarita as much as I know you’ll enjoy the book. Salud!
The José Picada Margarita
Shake and pour over crushed ice. Garnish with jalapeño and lime.
You can find the José Picada, P.I. series on MuseItUp Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.
2eat2drink 