Food and Drink

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…

Because some of us are really into this horizontal stout release. http://www.fiftyfiftybrewing.com/2012Futures.pdf

So a couple of you have purchased whiskey rocks, which got me to thinking about better things to use with more thermal mass. I came up with the idea of 1 gram pure .9999 silver bars. Or gold plated pure copper balls. What you think?

What barware do you use? I'm looking for a good set.

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.

I was at my mother's some time ago, and remembered that my stepfather (long since passed away) had some old liquor bottles in an armoir in her basement. I found several botttles of scotch and one cognac there. Was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on them. Worth bringing to a H-C meet? Literally, the only one I had ever heard of was Pinch....and the Ambassador is labelled the "lightest scotch in the world." The others are VAGUELY familiar, but most likely because I had seen them previously in the armoir. Please take a look, and any thoughts/opinions appreciated. Going to do some innernet searches as well...... Thanks! Todd.

Since I blame Head-Case for getting me started on the BBQ Path, I thought I'd start a thread for Grillin and Chillin folks. I've mastered steaks, so I've ventured into pork. (other than bacon) Just finished a nice low and slow set of Baby Back Ribs. Apple wood chunks for smoke, indirect on my Big Steel Keg. Cooked them at 225 F for 8 hours, with 300 F for 1 hour at the end for the final sauce glaze for that nice candy coating. Fall of the bone, indeed. The third rack is missing from the photo because it's been eaten. I use an Auber Instruments temperature controller so I can be extremely lazy about "setting and forgetting". And with a nine hour cook,…

A friend of mine in denver was telling me about his neighborhood tradition, and I thought it was a good one. Candy for the kids, shots for the parents. Just have a few shot glasses and a bottle of your favorite libation available for the parents who are walking around in the cold. It'll make their night!

From the Piddle Brewery, Dorset, that is. Recently when driving through the picturesque and amusingly named village of Piddletrenthide I saw a van similar to this. Subsequent investigation revealed the existence of the Dorset Piddle Brewery and their amusingly named collection of Beers. They certainly know how to work a theme. You can even get They even have merchandise They have even made it into a sorbet So, do you fancy a Piddle, then?

A huge thanks again to Al and Claire for making such a great afternoon possible. What a double-whammy of cooking skills to boot! And thanks to everyone for coming and making it a night to remember. Claire's lovely blueberry pie cools near an open window Strip after strip of uncured applewood smoked bacon adorns the tenderloin Even more bacon hits the pan...destined for desert Grahame tucks the chocolatey bacon goodness into the deep freeze... ...and proceeds to reap the benefits of being the chocolatier Mikey's high-proof stash isn't taking prisoners Conversation heats up as the bacon cooks (…

I'm in LV for one day. Could somebody please recommend a good and interesting place for breakfast? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

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 would like to make margaritas for a 4th of July BBQ we are having on Monday. As much as I like my guests, I don't think I want to use $50 tequila in their margaritas (just because I don't really think they would appreciate it). Any recommendations for budget "party" margarita tequila? Let's say under $35. I was thinking maybe El Tesoro Platinum ($35) or Cazadores Blanco or Reposado ($23/$27). I have had these in bars but don't remember them that well. Any suggestions?

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…

Found two threads, one on the other on interestingly enough. Why should I go one way or the other? I understand the value of a decanter -- lets the wine breathe, albeit in a controlled fashion, while cat hair and asbestos doesn't settle into it. I seem to remember someone (tyrion?) getting something and having a positive opinion of it, but it's not coming up while searching for "aerator'. Something like a hand-held or bottletop device like this one. So...any new opinions on this? I don't have room for that whole let it drip thing, but I could probably find room for a proper decanter/carafe thingy. But I'll probably go with the decanting pourer if no-one pipes…

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.

So I'm in the market for a decent cheapish pot type thing. I only want to buy 1 all-purpose item, so I'm thinking a stainless pasta set should be cool for pasta and soups. I braise a fair bit as well, and that's got me considering enameled Dutch ovens. However, I still need something for pasta, and intuition tells me Dutch ovens wouldn't be perfect for pasta. Sooo would I rather use a stainless stock pot to braise or a cast iron oven to boil pasta? No idea... Actually, I don't even know if enameled is considered better than bare cast iron; seasoning sounds like a pan in the bum, though. I'm a lazy cook for sure =D. Any good cookware forums out there for me to peruse? I…

Yes. Yes it is. Anvil # 97 Whiskey Skin The Anvil list calls for Scotch but I used Irish Whiskey to compare to the Toddy since the only difference is the lemon rind aka skin. (Use small bar-glass.) Take 1 lump of white sugar. 1 small wine-glass of Irish whiskey. 1 small piece of lemon-peel. First rinse the glass with hot water, put in the sugar, fill the glass half-full of boiling water, add the whiskey and stir. Serve with a spoon. No you are not having Deja-vu. It is pretty much the same drink as the toddy with the addition of the lemon rind. There is no spoon.

Perhaps a new thread that focuses on cooking and recipes would be nice. Here's what I cooked tonite. I haven't perfected the recipe, but a stew in my new Dutch oven: ... and for tomorrow night, a chicken marinade that's hanging out in the fridge:

mostly for my own usage/amusement, I'm posting this a) on the off chance that any of you are near enough to The Fickle Peach in N.E. Indiana to attend any of these five days... because i'm going to be there the evening of the 8th reporting my findings w/a friend or two & a drinking group...taking cruddy, lowlight pics etc.... c) just to get the word out about these two bars (see below for The Heorot) in case you ever find yourself passing through... some details of note: the Bell's Jazz Series has never been poured outside of the brewery & select festivals... this is happening the weekend of homecoming & there's also some football goin…

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…

In a quest to stop drinking soft-drinks I think I'm going to give coffee a try. Any suggestions on a mild coffee for a first-time coffee drinker?

I'm looking into buying one of these after doing some reading. I was curious if anyone owns one, has used one or has any knowledge regarding The Big Green Egg.

Those of you with a taste for rum and 600 quid to spare might like to uncork a bottle of Black Tot "Last Consignment" British Royal Naval Rum, lovingly decanted from the official stocks held by the Senior Service since sailors' final rum ration in 1970. [url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/29/black_tot_rum/]Authentic Navy rum: Yours for

Not sure if anyone posted this here, saw it in another forum..... It's the World's Strongest, Most Expensive Beer -- Inside a Squirrel - Asylum.com Duggeh? Drink one for the team?