Food and Drink

yesterday's intake... food breakfast: steel cut irish oatmeal (150) coffee (2) lunch: zone cedarlane (300) dinner: cpk waldorf salad with balsamic dressing (675) & tomato basil bisque (250) late snack: almonds (150) beverages water: 8 large glasses one glass of red wine (90) total calories: 1,617

Pretty stupid request I know. Apparently my brother is trying to help his friend who is buying a bottle for his wine geek brother. I have no other preference details besides maybe a bordeaux or californian vintage. Not sure why people make these kinds of poorly thought out extravagant gifts. Feel like it's similar to if my brother asked a headphone audiophile what they think is awesome and they say Grado PS1000 and he gets me a Grado PS1000. That being said... that's the gift givers problem not mine I guess. Said I'd ask though so here I am Throw out whatever you'd get if you won 500-600 bucks in a lotto and felt like blowing it on a bottle of wine. Thanks in advan…

I'm doing this for my own amusement...but if anyone else wants to add info/pics they should feel free to do so... also, most of this is being taken from Three Floyds themselves, Hoosier Beer Geek &/or Beer News...if interested, I can provide you with the many twitter accounts associated with those three groups... to summarize...this pic: first indicated that there would be Brandy Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean Dark Lord at this year's Dark Lord Day... then this pic: on Chicago's MetroMix page suggested that it'd be available in bottles... & now Beers News posted this story where they report having spoken with Lincoln Anderson from Three Floyds who's sa…

Our faithful espresso machine has stopped working about two months ago and I've been rolling on French press coffee since then, but I miss the habit of waking up with a good espresso. The cost of repair (replacing the boiler) would be 100$+ for a machine that's worth at most 300$ new (it's 10-15 years old), I don't think it's worth it. So I was wondering, is there such a thing as a good modern espresso machine (manual of course) that can be had for 300$ or less?

My son and I are doing a Goruck Light (https://www.goruck.com/en/light). The company was started by a retired Army Special Forces soldier. The company sells backpacks amount other things and puts on events like the one we are doing. Some of the money from the events goes to the Green Beret Foundation (http://www.greenberetfoundation.org). Rather than ask for donations, I thought I would raffle off some Scotch and Beer. With the going rate for the Yamazaki 18, I figure the value of the bottles is at least $400. Thefollowing bottles go to the winner: Yamizaki 18 Highland Park 18 Bourbon Big Sound Baller Stout Abyss 20012 Surprise Bottle $25 per ticket. The raffle will …

Spoiler alert: I can't. Compared some $5 and $10 bottles of vodka that have been in my liquor cabinet for at least 10 years to Grey Goose, and I'll be damned if I can tell the difference. I had heard years ago that most people can't differentiate premium vodkas from something like Smirnoff, so I just Googled it. All kinds of funny articles about it where vodka snobs got shut down consistently, when drinking it naked/nude (whatever the hell they call it when you drink it straight). I especially liked the article where the tester poured the same vodka in 6 different glasses in the 3rd round of testing, and all of the participants were busy making inane comments about the …

Right, so for years now I've noticed that my listening experience is better when I'm not sober. Generally I go with spirits, either brandy or whisky, I'm not a fan of vodka and I haven't tried rum yet. Beer makes me a bit too sleepy and makes me wanna go pee, which messes up the flow of my listening. So what do you drink to make your listening sessions better?

A local wine store that opened a couple of months ago is exit the beer part of their business. Here is a snippet from a recent email: I don't know Belgian beers at all. Please recommend some things I should look out for. Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

Apparently, I'm the only one of us going...but, rather than subject y'all to a bunch of random comments in the drinking thread, I figured I'd go ahead & start my own... Here are some of the known details courtesy of http://hoosierbeergeek.blogspot.com/:

So, I have an idea for a new thread. Basically, I'm going to be playing bartender for an upcoming bachelor party. What I want to do is to make up a small drink menu, where the names of the drinks are somehow related to my buddy. He's a English PhD with research on Lovecraft, who is converting to Catholicism and enjoys fencing and Japanese culture. So, we'd either throw out drinks that would fit the genre (i.e. Lucien Gaudin Cocktail) or a name of a cocktail that doesn't exist, and people would work up a recipe that matched the name, which is either an original cocktail or somehow modified. Okay! So, the first name would be 'French Letter' and then someone would post…

I figured I would start a thread on the subject since it comes up from time to time. As at least some of you know, I like to cook, mostly involving bbq and smoking. I have been thinking about getting some higher quality knives then the ones from Sharper Image I have been using that were a gift from a couple of years ago. I started to do some research but have a lot more to do. I have a big birthday coming up and my wife tells me that some others (in laws) want to buy something nice for me (first time for that but that's another story). I suggested knives for the kitchen. I have been considering some Shun Classic, starting with a chef, paring and slicing knives. A…

And Tokyo* are available again in limited quantities from Brewdog. (Tokyo* was forced out of shop sale by the portman group so what is available is the remaining returned stock). Penguin is whatever bottles are left from the second batch of 100 or so bottles. I would be happy to buy some for people and pass it on (that is to say, you send me the money). But You can't post booze to the states so It'd have to be brought over at Canjam. Which is a long wait. If you're in Canada I don't know what the rules are. If you're in Europe it should be a piece of piss. If anyone is interested let me know. http://www.brewdog.com/product.php?id=46

I'll start. For an everyday bourbon this is one of my favorites. Good flavor and a very reasonable price.

Here in Colorado, we are somewhat spoilt for festivals. Between RMAF and GABF, most of the esoteric items in the world I would truly want access to are annually dropped on my doorstep for my consumption. So I'm going to attempt to give back, in an ever-so-slight kind of way. Take a look at this list here and tell me if there's anything you've always wanted to try, or wanted someone else to try and confirm your feelings, and I'll find it and drink it for you, with notes. My tastes are broad, and I've picked up a respectable amount of knowledge in a few years of attendance, so hopefully I can shed some light on something for you. Of course, if you simply have…

I would like to get a new pepper mill for Christmas, a good one, since all three of mine all suck. Any suggestions? Things I want: Lasts forever Can change grind from coarse to fine Holds a lot of pepper Easy to refill (the peppercorns always fall all over the floor when I fill mine since the opening is too small) Not "made in China" (you know what I mean) I don't like the ones with little handles on top (would prefer a standard turn the top type) Will not stop working with large peppercorns

The Burger Lab: The Ins-n-Outs of an In-N-Out Double-Double, Animal-Style | A Hamburger Today

Have you ever put butter on a pop tart? It's just like the family guy song says... It's so freaking good! I just tried it.

I did a search and saw a few of you have these. Vicki, the model you picked up from QVC may be the way to go but I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions. There are so many models and variables. I would like to keep it around $400 or a bit more. It looks like the CIA on Amazon Prime is close or the same to the QVC model, so leaning that way. Gail is going through withdrawals since our blender died over the weekend.

My Anova has shipped. I need a food sealer. Any recommendations? I want to keep the price on the low end, if possible. If I need to spend more, I will. I saw a Food Saver V2244 for $70 on Amazon Prime. Any thoughts? Thanks.

It appears that those chaps at BrewDog Beer - Award winning brewery have upped the ante in the Beer arms race. As a response to http://www.benz-weltweit.de/derbraeuvomberch/index_eng.html 40% tipple they now have produced the 41% Sink The Bismark! Scots unleash world's strongest beer ? The Register Sink the Bismarck! You know what to do Duggeh!

Budget flexible, the more idiot-proof the better -- for obvious reasons. Pellet seems like the lazy fucker's way to go and MAK and Cookshack get good reps online. Opinions?

Did my first, hopefully annual, crawfish boil yesterday. It was a busy day of cooking, 140lbs of the little buggers, but tons of tasty fun. Good call on the limes Dan! Cleaning them up Ready to cook Cooking Time to start eating Don't bother me when I'm stuffing my face Our sole survivor. Found him crawling toward the liquor cabinet.

Anyone have have one of these made at your local Mc D's?

This is just a long shot idea that would take some serious work(sheep herding), planning, and cash, but I figure I would present it any way. We should make a Head-Case wine. I'm sure the serious wine-o's here know about www.crushpadwine.com but for those that don't, check out the website. We could have a mini meet around the production of the wine and possibly another around the bottling. It also helps that we have a somewhat large group of members in that area. Of course it would take a serious cash outlay for those involved for a wine of unknown quality but I still think it might be worth looking into. Discuss.

Question for the coffee experts: I want to buy my husband a new coffee grinder for Valentine's Day. Right now we have a Cuisinart Burr grinder but it is having some problems. We drink drip coffee (pour almost boiling water from a tea kettle into a porcelain cone filter with a paper filter). We don't need it for espresso. Any suggestions of good grinder than don't cost a million dollars. I would prefer to have a quiet grinder if possible.