Bottle Opener
February is filled with fun and festive holidays. There is Valentines Day which if you are lucky involves lobsters and champagne, and maybe some sweet love by the fire. You have Mardi Gras which involves, well, we don’t have to get into the lascivious details. Purim is the Jewish drinking holiday even though there are some who play down that aspect of the festivities.
But don’t forget that the last saturday of the month is also Open That Bottle Night.
If you’ve been a regular reader of the FLB for the past few years, this is old news. But we pick up new readers all the time. And even the well seasoned ones could probably use a reminder. At its core, this holiday was invented to do one thing: open that bottle of wine you’ve been holding onto for a really special occasion that never seems to come.
It’s not your fault. It’s part of the human condition. Almost all of us have bottles like this, whether it’s the last of a case from your wedding, a gift from a loved one who is no longer around, a memento from a special trip that you never want to forget, the list is endless. It does not have to be expensive, but it could be. You may worry that it is past its peak, or perhaps no longer even drinkable.
But wine was meant to be enjoyed. It deserves to be opened. And OTBN can help. Here’s how.
The Good Stuff and Some Bad News
Wow there’s been a lot going on in the last few days. To top it all off I’m off to Providence for the better part of this week with the fussy little children in tow. This Wednesday is already time for another Ask the Profussor, and I still want to weigh in on my picks in the Metroland poll before it closes.
So I have to squeeze a lot of things in today’s post. Because there is one local area restaurant that is doing something amazing, I’m going to file all of this under “The Good Stuff.” It has been far too long since I’ve highlighted a local business for doing good by doing right. And today I’m pleased as punch to share some news from More Perreca’s.
There is other news too. Some of it is good. But some of it is really really bad. First the good stuff.
SOS: Pasta Package
Maybe you saw Albany Jane’s pasta giveaway from earlier this month. Well, little miss motivated got the scoop on me. We both received a generous care package from Giovanni Rana. Ostensibly they were similar, but mine had a little bit of a different selection.
Food bloggers get stuff like this periodically. The goal is obviously for the brand to get a little bit of exposure. But I’ll only write about the things I actually like, and might find myself going back to the store to buy with my own money.
Since I’m both really particular and a tightwad, that list turns out to be precariously small. Which is probably why you may not recall reading any posts like this in a long long time.
So which of the Rana pastas make the cut?
Two Schools One Problem
Childhood is a time for fun. Sometimes that fun involves sugar and other forms of junk food. I’m totally on board with that.
Just yesterday I was making chocolate syrup with the kids. One measured out the sugar, the other scooped the cocoa powder. I explained the difference between dry measuring cups and liquid measuring cups. And together we looked at the bottom of the water’s meniscus to make sure we were adding just the right amount.
And once the syrup was cool they enjoyed it on some Blue Bunny all-natural vanilla ice cream. Sure, the milk comes from factory farmed cows and the eggs come from factory farmed chickens, but the ingredients are just milk, cream, sugar, skim milk, egg yolks, natural vanilla extract and vanilla beans. That’s getting pretty damn hard to find nowadays. Even Ben & Jerry’s now has guar gum and carrageenan.
But the stuff they get at school? It’s killing me.
The Bestestes – Troy Rag Edition
Roses are red, violets are blue
Today’s Valentine’s Day, yadda yadda yadda.
Champagne. Lobster. Chocolates. Indian food. Did I cover everything? Okay. Great. Let’s move on. Mostly because this parade of Best of the Capital Region ballots just never ends. And if it weren’t for Jessica R. and her keen reporting in the comments yesterday, I might have entirely missed this Troy-centric poll by the city’s namesake newspaper.
Did I mention that the last day to fill out their ballot is tomorrow?!?! We better get on that.
I was surprised to see that Jessica R. didn’t mention the Charles F. Lucas Confectionery and Wine Bar anywhere in her list of best things in Troy. Surely that was an oversight, or perhaps she just didn’t feel like typing anything that long. Anyway, I’m going to try and support her picks in this poll as much as I can, but there are some choices where I’ll have to stray. For example, I cannot in good conscience vote for Jose Malone’s as the Best Mexican.
So where did I stay with Jessica R. and where do we part ways? And whose side will you choose when it comes to casting your very own vote in this thing? There’s only one way to tell. On to the selections.
The Bestestes – Glossy Mag Edition
Raf told me once that the Recommendations tab on the top of my blog was really lame. What I need, he said, is something that tells people where to go.
“But that’s what Yelp’s does,” I responded.
Not everybody uses Yelp, For that matter, not everyone looks at the Reader’s Choice polls from the major newspaper in the area either. But the issue of polls comes up every year around this time as a heap of local media outlets decide to compile their list of the best of the best.
Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m doing about the FUSSYlittleBALLOT this year. Last year the changes the Times Union made to the questionnaire really went a long way in righting the ship. Now all we need to do is get them to separate out some of the ethnic restaurants so all of the cuisines of Asia aren’t in competition with Yono’s locally beloved Indonesian cuisine.
Part of me kind of wants to just let it go. Let me stew on it a little bit longer. Today, I have something different along similar lines.
Don’t Fear the Flapper
Last night I was up later than expected finishing up a story for All Over Albany. Given my new bedtime, that means I had to go to sleep before writing today’s post. So today we’re trying something new.
Please forgive their graininess, but these were taken in The Ruck and it’s dark in there. But despite the poor quality of the following pictures, I feel that photos are needed for this simple yet important lesson. Far too often I have seen people avoid the flat part of the wing in favor for the drumette because they just don’t know how to tackle the parallel bones that run through it.
Let’s face it, the flat is the better of the two wing segments. Not only does it have a greater ratio of skin to meat, but the meat is more succulent and tender. But if you are one of those people who has tried to remove the meat trapped between the two bones with your tongue or engaged in a vain attempt to suck it out with your lips, this technique should be illuminating.
And if you have already mastered the flat, then perhaps you will consider passing this along to someone who you know that hasn’t quite yet figured it out.
To Sleep Perchance to Dream
1170, 1171, 1172, 1173. I really stopped counting after 1000. But I went back and checked to see that today’s post is number 1173. They just keep on coming. And it’s a lot of freaking words, mostly about food.
That’s on top of the words I write about food for The Chef’s Consortium and All Over Albany.
Some people have asked how I have the time to get it all done. And it’s a fair question. The short answer is that this has pretty much become my hobby. The old hobby involved video games. And I would stay up late at night playing Halo and other similar shoot-em-up team-based games with my friends on the West Coast.
Now I stay up late at night ranting into my laptop about misguided restaurant menus, magnificent local foods, maligned national brands, and much much more.
But there’s a problem.
The Potential of VD
Shoveling would do my body good. Luckily I’ll have the chance to get a little exercise in later today and tomorrow. I have been falling short of my weekly goals to get sweaty in front of the Kinect. Maybe I need to give up on the actual exercise “games” and just dance. Moving is moving.
In terms of my new and improved healthy diet, I’ve adopted a bizarre dessert that is supposed to help in this regard. However, I’m not entirely convinced. It’s a chia seed coconut milk “pudding”. The pudding part happens when the chia seeds become gelatinous in the hardening fat of the coconut milk as it rests in the refrigerator for the better part of an hour (mixed with a little bit of something sweet – I’ve been using the vanilla sugar from TC Bakery). This seems wrong on many levels, but I kind of like it.
You know what else I kind of like? Valentine’s day. I do. It may be hard to believe, but deep down I’m a big softie. And this weekend is the last chance you will have to think of something special. VD hits on Thursday. School night celebrations are especially rough when you’ve got a couple of rug rats and a spouse with a demanding job.
There is really only one solution.
Breaking Down the Brownie Filled Donut
Donuts are terrible for you, but I love them so much. I love donuts that are impossibly light and fluffy with a thin sweet glaze that cracks and shatters as you bite down upon it. I love crusty cake donuts that are dense, rich and have just a touch of warming sweet spice. I love donuts dusted with powdered sugar that leave their tell-tale trail of joy on your clothes, fingers and face.
I love donuts that are filled with jelly and custard. Donuts that are frosted with chocolate or maple. I love donuts simple and old fashioned. I love modern interpretations of donuts that can be fanciful and topped with bacon or even flowers. And of course I love the cider donuts that we have up here in apple country.
Which is why every time I pass by a Dunkin’ Donuts a little piece of me dies. Every time a see a photograph of a Dunkin’ dozen being enjoyed by some otherwise sensible human being, I silently weep a little bit for humanity.
The Dunkin’ marketing machine is now clearly in overdrive, because I’m seeing lots of people who I know, admire and respect gushing about the new creation that the wizards at this large soul-sucking national chain have created.
Do you know how many ingredients it takes to make a donut? Eight. Not including the brownie batter filling or any toppings, do you have any idea how many ingredients Dunkin’ requires just for the donut? Take a guess. Write it down. Then click through.
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