1. Weeks and weeks ago, Val told me that if I emailed her my mailing address, she would send me a care package with the ingredients to mix the cocktail, Bourbon Renewal (she calls it Urban Renewal!). Finally, last week, after weeks of forgetting to do so, I sent her my address and she promptly packed a box containing bottles of Plantation's Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple Rum, Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Jacquin's Creme de Cassis (Black Currant liqueur), and Peach Bitters. All I need to provide, now, to make the cocktail, is some fresh-squeezed lemon juice and simple syrup.
I was going to mix myself a Bourbon Renewal today, but Tuesday, December 8th at 7 p.m. is the next Tree House Concert performed by Bill Davie. I always mix myself a cocktail to enjoy while listening to Bill perform live on Facebook and it's highly likely, if not guaranteed, that Val will be in the virtual room, so I will make a small batch of simple syrup, squeeze the juice out of a lemon, mix these ingredients, and enjoy my first Bourbon Renewal during Bill's concert in the virtual company of Val.
2. Marcus Samulesson enthralls me. His latest book, The Rise: Black Cooks and Soul of American Food has just been released and today I listened to Dave Davies interview him on a November episode of Fresh Air. Samuelsson is an enthusiastic ambassador for international cuisine, especially as prepared in restaurants owned and operated by immigrants across the USA. If you've ever watched his PBS series, No Passport Needed, you know that he goes to one US city after another and profiles the cuisine of a wide variety of countries available in these cities. His feature on Ethiopian restaurants in Washington, DC inspired me to have lunch at Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Cuisine in the Flour Mill a year ago September. I hope Queen of Sheba will be open whenever I decide to dine in Spokane again.
In this recent Fresh Air interview, Samuelsson talked about turning his Harlem restaurant, The Red Rooster, into a community kitchen last spring, the details of his new book, episodes of No Passport Required, and what he envisions as the short term and long term future of restaurants in the shadow of the pandemic.
3. That batch of chicken noodles I made a little while ago just keeps on giving. I enjoyed a steaming bowl for dinner tonight and I still have a pint left in the container. At the risk of being redundant, I sure enjoy the impact the allspice and cloves have on the broth that resulted from the way I cooked that whole chicken last week. It's not only tasty, but warming and comforting, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment