Yes - it is that time of the month again - .It's Daring Bakers!!

This month our challenge was Opera Cake. What - you never heard of Opera Cake? Me either, until the beginning of this month. You know me, my food is a little more rustic - I like my stuff to use a few bowls as possible. Less clean up means more time to eat.

Actually, though the recipe looked complex, once I broke it down into parts, it was actually pretty easy. The challenge rules stated that Opera Cake is usually made with coffee and dark chocolate. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.....but alas! this time we were to make pale cakes loaded with white chocolate in celebration of spring and all the happy birds, flowers and bunnies... Which kinda stank, as I really dislike white chocolate. Ah well...

The recipe consisted of cake layers (joconde - kinda easy),a flavored simple syrup (super easy!), a white chocolate ganache/mousse (which was optional, so I skipped it for the aforementioned reason), a white chocolate glaze (easy peeezy!) and an Italian buttercream (kinda tough but not too bad!). You take all these elements and build a leaning tower of Opera Cake.

We also had the option of favoring the cake and buttercream with anything our little hearts' desired. Me - I chose to stick with an almond based cake, but decided to make a mango flavored buttercream. I had some dried mango I picked up at Trader Joe's and decided that when cooked in a little water, would make a really nice paste which could be mixed into the buttercream without adding too much moisture. I also flavored the simple syrup with cardamon and cinnamon - plus I cheated a little and used the excess cooking water from the dried mango for the liquid. (I've been on an Indian food kick, so the flavor combination seemed to fit.)

Once of the things I liked best about this project is that I could tackle it in piecemeal fashion - one day I made the syrup and buttercream - the next, I baked the cake and assembled it. Unlike a lot of fancy recipes which require a ton of time all in one chunk, this one I would make again just because I could fit it into my busy schedule. The recipe states that the icing can even be made ahead and frozen for up to once month - that makes it a winner in my book!

Finished Buttercream

The buttercream was a pain in the patoot! For those of you who have not made Italian buttercream - it requires you to add blisteringly hot boiling sugar syrup to beaten eggs while the mixer is running with a whisk attachment. Yeah - I was sweating it hard. I could just see something bad happening - burn units and plastic surgery in my future. But thankfully, my luck held and no bodily harm came to me or any member of my household. Also, I had to guess at temperature of the boiling lava- I mean syrup. I do not have the right sized pan to hang my candy thermometer off of - and the instant read I have on hand only goes to 220 degrees. That was kinda scary - but I guessed right and the buttercream came out fantastic. It was all I could do to keep the family out of the bowl once I put it in the fridge.

For the syrup, I just threw in some whole green cardamon pods and a couple cinnamon sticks. The finished flavor in the cake was not super strong, but lent an air of mystery to the whole affair...

The cake batter came together nice and easy. It's once of those recipes that is very simple - therefore you can crash and burn quickly if care is not taken. Tons of eggs whites, beaten to stiff peaks are folded into a nut meal and egg yolk mixture. You can't over-mix or you have almond hardtack - under-mixed, you have big pockets of eggy tasting pockets of fluff. Though the recipe didn't state it - I used the trick of "lightening" the batter by mixing in some of the beaten whites before folding in the rest.

Assembly - well, I could not find my offset spatula. I realized as I was making this at 2 am in the morning that I had loaned it to one of my friends. Yeah me! So with the help of a butterknife, I assembled everything. Cake, syrup, icing,cake, syrup, icing,cake, syrup, icing,cake, syrup, icing, and then.... the glaze. I did white chocolate for the glaze. I would have loved to figure out how to do a fruit based glaze...but I was too darned lazy by this point.


Here is my pale, pale creation with all of its hidden exotic flavors. It made a boatload of cake which I ended up taking to work and calling friends to stop over and help me eat it. The hubby's verdict: The cake was simply a buttercream delivery system but on the other hand he said he never believed that he would like a non-chocolate cake this much. My friend Eric simply asked us to leave the room so he could have some private time with his slice.

So yes - this is one of those recipes that I would make again. In fact, I know that I will get requests very soon.

This month's challenge was hosted by four of our group: Lis, Fran, Shea and Ivonne. This month's challenge is dedicated to Barbara of winosandfoodies.com and her commitment to the LiveSTRONG foundation founded by Lance Armstrong. Barbara, despite her own everyday challenges, hosted an event called Taste of Yellow in support the LiveSTRONG foundation. On her site, Barbara shares with us her own personal story. That takes a lot of courage. It also takes a lot of courage to want to continue when it is easier to submit. So I am dedicating my post to Barbara, Lance and all the other people out there who find the courage to get up and keep on going.

Book Review: Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs

A while back Penguin Books emailed me asking if I would like to review a book. I like to read books and I said "Sure - send it!"

The premise behind Comfort Food is that "Gus" Simpson, an aging star of a cable food network, hits a big hiccup in her life and career - her ratings are slipping, her two daughters are in the midst of turmoil - and to make matters worse, the network has saddled her with a younger, glamorous co-host who is constantly trying to upstage her. Sounds like a pretty good premise right? I thought so too when I cracked the cover.

After spending two days reading this book, I felt as though I was never going to be done soon enough. The problem was that poor execution really kept this book from reaching its potential. The first half of the book is more of an expose on all the characters - even minor ones - that went on and on. Did I really need to know that much about the contest winner that was introduced about halfway through the book? And what real purpose did she even serve? The character really didn't further the plot and kind left me feeling as if I had been cheated in the way she was kind of swept under the rug after the big build up.

The whole thing smacked of soap opera at its cheesiest. What was the next big drama?! The daughter who has been engaged 5 thousand times is engaged again - and it might stick this time! Gasp! Wait wait - Gus's best friend has a terrible secret from her past that caused her to become a recluse and it's about to be revealed!! Double Gasp! The whole crew is sent to a "bonding weekend" - watch the fur fly!!! Triple Gasp!! Ummmmm...not really...

So what was it that I wanted? More, that's what I wanted. If you are going to go for the soap opera approach - let's just go over the top. The co-host should have been a uber-bitch who would stop at nothing. Gus should have had some personal earth shattering event - like her uterus falling out during the taping of her new show. Yes, I wanted pure unadulterated over-the-top melodrama. As it was, what happened to the characters was just plain dull - and the wrap up even duller.

Once the "introductions" were over the book was pleasant enough. Just think "Chick Flick" and you would be dead on. If you can get past the bad plotting, the two dimensional characters, slow pacing of the book, and the "everybody is happy" ending, then this book is for you. God help ya if you can't find anything else better to read. I've got an extra copy of Valley of the Dolls if you want some dirt for your summer reading list.

Yeah yeah yeah you say - so what did you expect? I should have known better I tell ya! You always pay for the things you get for free!

Let's break for a news bulletin!!

So - I moved to a new position at work and ended up with a schedule that makes it impossible for me to go to the Farmer's Markets on Saturdays. I am very sad.

And to make matters worse - I also can't get my garden put in. It's just been too damn wet. What's up Mother Nature?! Do you have it in for me?

I am excited about a lot of non-food related things coming up in the next month.

The first is Cinevent, a movie convention that will be held over Memorial Day weekend. Tony, Annie and I are all old movie buffs. And that is what this convention is all about - movies that were made 1955 or before. If you like Turner Classic Movies - you'll probably love this convention. Talkies, Silent, Westerns, Comedies, Action, Animation - you name it there is something on the bill for everyone. We've been going to Cinevent on and off for almost 15 years now and every year we see something that we fall in love or discover an old star that shouldn't have been forgotten. Plus - and a big plus for me - is the dealer's room. Posters, movie stills, 16mm and 35mm films plus tons of other movie related items to buy and enjoy at home. I usually add a few more posters to my collection every year. And for the folks who really love eye candy and have the deep pockets to own it, a huge movie poster auction is held every year as well. Even if you don't care to bid, it's worth it to take a spin through the auction room during the preview.

While I love newer movie posters, some of the old ones have a impact that is hard to resist. As a little treat, here is one of the posters I picked up last year. I wanna see the evil orgies now! God I love schlock!



Now after sitting in a dark hotel ballroom watching old movies, where do you think I'll be heading on Monday night? You guessed it! Right back to see more movies!! This time we are heading to Studio 35 for the opening weekend of the new Indy Jones movie. I am in total movie geek heaven - watching one of my favorite characters in a great theater drinking really good beer and eating pizza. So folks - if you want to see Indy Jones opening week- please head on over to Studio 35 and say "Hi!" To Eric and Rita. Tell them Rosie sent ya!!

Lastly - we are heading out to another magic convention, this time in Vegas. Now you would think we would have learned our lesson, but nooooooooooooooo... Like moths to the flame... Amazingly enough, three of our non-magician friends have decided to come with us. The poor fools - little do they suspect...

Well, on the food front - not much happening here in my kitchen. My work schedule has kept me busy and I've been eating a lot of my stand-bys like pasta, salads and sadly - lots of take out.

I did get to go out for Mother's Day. The family took me to Smackies - the best 'que joint in Columbus. Sunday brunch was fine as always - in fact they have extended the offerings to include a custom omelet station staring their signature omelet names the smokehouse special. It contains pulled pork, brisket, cheese and onions. Yummmmm... The really great news is that they seem to have a better handle on the waitstaff - considering how busy they were, the gal who waited on us did a great job. Since the summer is coming up, I hardily recommend stopping in for some sweet tea and brisket. (I am having a hard time eating any pulled pork after my Carolina experience... no reflection on Smackies..)

I am working to perfect a good pickled egg recipe for football season - anyone have any suggestions?

Daring Bakers is coming up very soon and I can't wait to show you this month's disaster..I mean, challenge.

So that is it for now - I am trying hard to get some more stuff written, but I can only squeeze it in here and there until things simmer down.

And just in case there is a sugar daddy out there who wants to buy me a nice present (hint hint hubby!!!), here is a link to the poster I want most! !!

Fayetteville part two

So we finally got into Fayetteville NC - land of strip clubs and bars (saw a couple of pawn shops too!) . Yes there are other businesses in town but at 11pm coming in along Bragg Blvd - that was all we could see.

Prince Charles Hotel: I confess - I stole this picture from the internet - mine didn't come out!

We pulled into the Prince Charles Hotel about 11:30 pm. It was the tallest building we had seen in the town since we pulled in - eight stories tall. It was built in 1924 and like all grand dames, while she may have had a face lift on numerous occasions but once you get a close look, she isn't fooling anyone - there are places that are sagging that give away her age. We got checked into our suite, which we thought would have a king sized bed, but instead had two full sized beds. Now those of you who have met me and the hubby know that we are not going to fit into one full sized bed - a queen would be a tight fit. After the appropriate Hays office jokes we proceeded to tuck into our separate beds and pass out.

Next morning we get up - are surprised to find out there is no breakfast. The hotel had offered a free breakfast. Now I assumed it would be along the lines of what most hotels offer - juice, milk, coffee, rolls, toast - American "continental" fare. Nope - turns out they cook to order. Except for this morning. Someone had locked up the kitchen the night before and not left the key for the morning staff. No free breakfast for us!!

Being adventurous, we hopped in the car and started driving looking for a chicken and biscuit place recommended by one of the idle kitchen staff. Well - we never found it. Never found the liquor store she was talking about either. (Yes were were looking for booze at 10 am. This should be an early warning sign.) We did find the Rainbow restaurant. You know the old adage about "look for a full parking lot - the locals know what is good" - in this case it was dead on. We sat in "The Smoking Section" - yes in the heart of tobacco country, free choice is alive and well. I insisted we sit in the smoking section for the novelty of it and I am glad we did.

Jada: Best Damn Waitress Ever!

There we met Jada - one of the highlights of our trip. Jada was handling her section of the restaurant with a grace that only comes with long years of practice. Regulars were coming in and asking to be seated in her section - and were greeted with a big bottomless cup of joe and a big smile. Some of them even got hugs. We got to chat with Jada a little bit as she hustled to and fro in her section. She had started waiting tables when she was 15 and ended up saying with it for over 20 years. She asked our names - and even gave us a little hug as we went out the door. I only wish the Rainbow was a little closer to home...we would be regulars.
The food was great too - nothing fancy, but correctly prepared every time. And I do mean every time, as we ended up eating there three out of the four days we stayed in the Prince Charles. Eggs done right, buttered toast, crispy hash browns - it's what you want TeeJay's to be when you stop in and rarely ever is. The highlight for us ended up being the country ham - a huge piece of salty hammy goodness. All that and many many cups of hot black java steeled us for what was would be a very exciting weekend.

Ah yes - the convention. The whole reason for the trip. Tony and I do about 2 or 3 conventions a year. Sometimes we get a dealer's table, sometimes Tony will lecture and sometimes we just go to be going - and we always throw a party when we get there. The convention - which for reasons which will become apparent - will remain unnamed. This was the first time we had been invited to this convention - and at first we had sat on the fence about going. But as the line up of talent got larger and larger and included some of the best closeup magicians in the world, we eventually broke down as decided to go as a dealer. The organizer, whom we had never met before, has said there would be about 100-150 people at the convention. While that was a pretty small number of attendees, it is still possible to make a enough money to cover your nut plus a small profit. Plus, Tony had talked to the organizer who has said he would pitch in some cash to help cover the expense of an after hours party - free booze and snacks tend to get pricey after three nights.

Friday and Saturday went great - several of the lecturers were people we had hung out with before and they actually seemed glad to see us. Some of the folks we had been chatting with over the Internet and it was great to put faces to names. And lastly we met some new people who - after Sunday - would become connected to us as well. The lectures were great - some really top notch folks were in attendance. However, by Saturday morning, we could only count about 40-50 people at the lectures - much less than the number we expected. The dealers room was dead - and no one was making any money. Tony worked like a dog to get people part with their cash - and it was like pulling teeth. We hoped that there would be a last minute buying frenzy on Sunday to help offset expenses - plus we would get some money back from the guy who ran the convention to cover our party expenses. In the meantime, we just talked with folks and had a blast.

Downtown Fayetteville from the 8th floor of the hotel

One of the best things about hanging out at conventions is going out to eat with the folks who are attending. Downtown Fayetteville is in the middle of a rejuvenation that brings to mind the Short North of 15-20 years ago. On a street that used to contain some of the most notorious strip clubs and bars there are new restaurants and "nice" bars opening up with the encouragement of the city. A local was telling me of how the city has made a concerted effort to clean up the area and how back in the "old days", many people would get robbed, stabbed, shot and sometimes killed every weekend. In fact, the city bought the property from the worst strip club, tore down the building and built the new city hall on the land - with the main police station right next door. So yeah - downtown Fayetteville is a much quieter place than it used to be.

Lots of things were within walking distance of the hotel - even a Gameworks-type of business. To be truthful, only one restaurant of the many in this part of the city would survive here in Columbus and it was a sports bar franchise named Beef O'Bradys. Really pedestrian fair, adequately done and served in a clean modern environment surrounded by large flat screen tv's. Oh and if you want your burger rare - no doing. The franchise has a rule against serving "undercooked" meat. (We recently encountered this same policy at the Red Robin up at Polaris - I can see "we don't wanna get sued" written on the menus.)

The other place I ended up eating at was a small tapas restaurant called Blue Moon Cafe. The cafe was small - it maybe sat 25 -30 max and that would be pushing it. It was doing a fairly lively business when I went in to get something to take back to the hotel. They served wine and beer - no hard liquor. Someone at the hotel mention that you have to have a separate licence to sell the hard stuff. The kitchen was open - and I watched the one poor kitchen guy turn out item after item without a stovetop - yup no burners for him! He had a refrigerated prep station, a microwave, a panini press and a small oven/broiler set up. See I have this thing about watching people work in open kitchens - it kinda fun to critique their technique. Lots of items were prepped and held cold - like stuffed mushrooms, shrimp in garlic and olive oil and French onion soup. (I didn't think that was tapas - but hey what do I know?) The cook would then use the oven and/or the microwave to heat items up. For example, the onion soup was nuked - then grilled bread and cheese put on top and popped into the over to be finished off. Sandwiches and sliced of bread would be heated on the panini grill. I ended up getting a salad, some hummus with grilled bread and some marinated olives - for a whopping 20 dollars. Yeah - I felt ripped off. An OK meal with no alcohol for $20?! Bite me!

The next morning - this being Sunday - the true adventure began. Downtown Fayetteville closes down on Sunday morning. Not even the local coffee shop was open. That meant no caffeine for the hung over magicians who missed breakfast.

Since we had a car, I offered to take a couple of the attendees to the closest Starbucks. It turned out to be in a location of the local grocery chain called Harris Teeter. Boy was I glad - we had found a Wal-mart on Friday and as much as I hate shopping there, we had bought party supplies and a few other snackies. Harris Teeter reminded me more of Kroger's - more upscale so the prices were a little more expensive, but they had made to order sandwiches on really excellent bread (which I bought for brunch), a nice deli, a wide selection of beer and wine, and the aforementioned Starbucks.

The three of us loaded up on groceries and caffeine then headed back to the hotel. As we were going back up to the convention floor (the ballroom on the 8th floor), the staff at the front desk stopped and asked me if I had seen the organizer of the convention. This was about 11 am.

My spidey-sense started tingling. When we got up to the ballroom, I saw the other people working the convention huddled together talking in hushed tones and looking around. Rut-ro Shaggy! Tony asked me what was wrong as I gave him his coffee and sandwich - I told him my suspicions - that the convention organizer was not around to pay the bills. True - it was still early - he might be passed out or hung over - we had made a late night of it on Saturday. Time rolls on as we watch some of the lectures.

By 2 pm though - things were starting to happen. The organizer was still no where to be found. Some of the lecturers were having to head to the airport without getting paid. The hotel was still asking the convention attendees if they had seen him. The dealers were getting spooked - along with many of the attendees - and started packing up their stuff. Tony and I decided to head back to our room - and several other followed us, including our friend David from France and proceeded to grab a few beers. We started relaxing and making jokes - not much you can do otherwise. After a few minutes one of the other performers, Jon, came into the room. He had been up all night and our noise had woken him. Jon was rubbing his eyes and taking little steps - just like a little kid who had just gotten up from a nap.

"What's happening?" asked Jon.
David looked at him and said "I've got good news and bad news."
Jon looked at all the faces turned toward him. "I think a I better sit down." And he did.
The room was hushed with anticipation....
"So what's the good news?"
David looked at Jon. "The good news is - You don't have the cancer, and you don't have a spot on your dick."
The room roared.
Jon looked concerned... "And the bad news?"
"You ain't getting paid!!!"

Good news - Bad News!

Damn my sides hurt after laughing...I thought I stopped breathing at one point..

The convention staff decided to call a meeting - yes it's true - we have no idea where the guy with the money is. No - we don't have anything to do with the business end of this - we just volunteered to get in the door for free. We called the young man's mother and she said didn't know where he was either. The hotel also had a representative in the room - who stated that we would have our credit cards charged for the rooms when we checked out if no payment was forthcoming from the convention. There had been no formal contract between the organizer and the hotel stating that he was going to pay for the performer's rooms - just a verbal promise. However, the performers had contracts that did have a clause that promised payment of the hotel by the convention.

Then Chino stepped forward - I haven't mentioned Chino up until now. It's hard to describe Chino - to a certain extent he is an archetype in the magic world. The guy who is a member of the local magic club - the man whose love of the craft far exceeds his skill of the craft. But his enthusiasm and tenacity are really what make him a valued member of a club - we've all met a Chino in our time.

May the Chino be with you!

Chino has been good friends with the organizer - and in the words of the other club members - "knew him best". They called upon Chino to give an account of this young man's character as they had spent the most time together. Chino talked about what an upright guy he was, how he was kind and generous he was. The performers, looking at their empty purses asked - Generous - how did he show he was generous? To which Chino replied - Why I once saw him give $500 to a titty dancer!

All the performers howled. I think I lost control of my ability to reason at that point. We had - as a group - entered some kind of warped and deranged pocket universe where the rules of normal life had ceased to apply. Once the laughter had died down, the volunteers and the performers started making arrangements to call the police. The volunteers talked to the hotel and worked out a deal where the deposit that was payed on the public rooms would be used to cover the performer's bills - thereby saving some folks' bacon. At the end of the meeting, I turned to an acquaintance of my hubby's, Robbie (also a broke performer!) and said, "Damn, I am worn out. I need a beer and something to eat." Robbie said,"I could go for a bologna and mayo sandwich right now." I said, "OK - I can do that!" And off I went to Harris Teeter once again. I figured these guys would need food and drink as most of them were stuck in the hotel until the following morning when their flights were taking off. I got a bunch of sandwich makings and more beer - including a big bottle of mayo, some white bread and a bunch of pretty decent garlic bologna.

This is how wild a magic party usually gets!

Once we all come to accept that we were going to be monetarily poor but richer in friendship - things went pretty smooth. We drank beer - we talked - I filmed guys playing with cards and coins - over all, it was a fun convention.


So what did we come home with - even if it wasn't money?

Harris Teeter Deli Style Mustard - awesome product. I am thinking of having someone down South send me a couple more bottles.

Brooklyn Brown Ale - Kevin W. is a self confessed beer snob and travels with his own supply of Brooklyn Brown and his own glass. He was kind enough to share one of this precious beers with me and now I am hooked. Kevin arranged for me to receive 2 cases of this fine beverage once I got home - yummmmmm.

Seeing old friends - You know who you are! Always good to catch up!

Making some new friends - including Jon who we will get to see at conventions in both June and July - looking forward to seeing him there!

A really fine story - one that is sure to get us many beers for years to come.

So that was my spring vacation...

My Spring Vacation: North Carolina (part 1)

"So what have you been up to, Rosie?"

Yes yes - I hear you.

Lots of things - but most importantly the hubby and I drove down to North Carolina for a convention. As a money making venture - it was a bust, but as an adventure it came out on top!

Yes we made the decision to drive to North Carolina because we wanted to take our time getting there, PLUS (and a big plus it was!) I wanted to stop and eat some North Carolina Barbecue. In retrospect, I am very glad we made the decision to drive - the first and foremost being that we were considering Skybus as our airline of choice. Everyone knows how that would have turned out. The second was - well I would have had to rent a car anyway to find my way into the wilds of NC to get my some que.

So which establishment should I eat at? That was a tough decision. I knew I would only have one shot at eating NCQ while I was there. Our schedule was pretty tight. After much research, I decided to go for Allen & Sons. It had received rave reviews online and was supposed to have a great all around menu.

The day started off overcast - and as we progressed South, the rain started to come down in buckets, then in cauldrons...it rained all the way down Rt 33, I-77 and into NC proper. As we traversed the state, we had to pull over several times because we could no longer read road signs. And as you all know - it's important to see when you need to get off the interstate and into the wilderness.

Ok here comes my first mistake - never trust Google maps for locations in the wilds of NC. Yup - I followed the directions to a T and guess what? It was wrong. No Allen and Sons. So we found a gas station here are the instructions - "So you go up two roads, turn right. Then you follow that road until it dead ends into 10-105 and turn left. Allen and sons is just before the bridge." So we drive and we drive and soon we are truly in the depths of the countryside surrounding Chapel Hill NC.

I finally break down and pull out the cell phone and call Allen & Sons. Turns out they have two locations - neither of which are at the location that Google maps gave us. The one the gas station attendant told us about is the slimmed down version of the main location. The main location is about 30 minutes to the North of where we were right then.



I looked over at the hubby. His left eye had developed a pronounced twitch. When he spoke - it was in tight controlled phrases. I knew I had about worn out his patience for the great BBQ hunt. We were now about an hour and a half off of schedule and we still had to make it to the hotel that evening - which was still 2 hours away - or lose our reservations.

To make things worse - Allen and sons closed at 8pm and it was almost 7 pm by then. I took the lesser of two evils - I chose the closer location "just before the bridge." It was actually right where the guy at the gas station had said - but we still went right past it in the pouring rain. We made a u-turn and hoped they were either legal in NC or no one would witness us breaking traffic regulations.

Tony was really unhappy by this time - well that is kind of an understatement - he was damn pissed off. He had been driving for ten hours by this time with only a couple extended breaks and he was ready to call it quits. The place looked like a walk up ice cream shack. So I walked up and waited behind a lady ordering burger and que for take out. While the waitress went in the back to place her order I asked her - "So IS this the best bbq in NC?" "Oh yes" she said, "I've eaten a lot of que and this is my favorite."


So I got some pulled pork, slaw and hush puppies for both me and Tony, plus a hunk of homemade cheesecake and some sweet tea. Now I can't vouch as to whether this was the best que in NC, but it was the best Que I have ever had. The flavor of the smokey pork shown through a minimal dressing of vinegar and pepper. I have always been used to people drowning out the flavor of the meat with lots of sauce - but here - it accentuated the sweetness of the slow cooked pork in ways I had never imagined. An added bonus was little crunchy bits of the browned outside mixed into the soft interior for a hit of dark smokiness. The slaw rocked - it was a very simple vinegar based dressing, but it matched the que perfectly and you could still taste the cabbage. The hush puppies were acceptable and the cheesecake was good, but of course you can always make better at home.

Tony was somewhat mollified - but still tired and cranky. If we were get down that way again I will definitely get better directions before we go. And to make matters worse - all the instructions I had printed off the internet were useless - as they had assumed we would be near Chapel Hill, which we no longer were. So armed with a flashlight and a road map - we proceeded South on 10-105 and got lost not once, not twice but you got it - three times before we pulled into Fayetteville.

Thank freaking goodness we only added 3 hours onto that supposed nine hour trip...

Ok more about my adventures in Fayetteville next time...

It's Time To Be Daring Once Again!

I missed doing last month's French bread challenge - which sucked. I had everything lined up and then the crap hit the fan.

Oh well.

This month it's cake! Woot! Perfect timing - as you know - for my daughter's birthday. I usually make her a nice dinner with the dessert of her choice. This time I told her I had to make this cake and she was cool with that. I figure she just wanted to rubberneck at the impending disaster.

The Daring Bakers' challenge this month was Dorie's Perfect Party Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours. It was hosted by Morven over at Food Art and Random Thoughts. Thank you for giving us another wonderful challenge. And it was a challenge - I rarely if ever bake real cakes from scratch. My mother was never much of a scratch baker - she had had her fill of it when she was a younger woman. Imagine making butter cream icing with nothing but a hand whisk. *waits for the horror to set in* Yeah - you can see where my mom's generation thought that pre-made icing and cake mixes were a godsend. Personally, I usually stick to mixes - *gasp* - for things like layer cakes.

I jumped into the project with a lot of zest - lemon zest (har-de-har-har -nudge nudge wink wink). The whole flavor theme of the cake was lemon. Lemon zest and extract in the cake, lemon juice in the icing along with raspberry jam in between the layers.


The batter came together pretty dog-gone well. It was nice and silky looking as I put it in the pans and stuck it in the oven. However, it failed to rise properly. The layers came out flat - damn flat. Having read other bakers' comments I had used cake flour and made sure my leavening was very fresh. Personally, I am wondering if not flouring the pan had something to do with it. The recipe does not specifically call for greasing and flouring the cake pans. I thought that was in contrast to some kind of "cake wisdom" - I remember my aunt always flouring her pans. But being a neophyte cake person, I just went with the flow on this one. Also, I think my oven is running too hot again. I had my landlord adjust the thermostat about 6 moths ago, but its an ancient piece of crapola - and who knows if the adjustments need made again. Looking at the sides of the finished cake - plus the fact it was done about 5 minutes early suggest that this would be a factor.

You can see by the crumb that I also over-mixed the poor batter. Those tunnels - bad bad bad.

So basically I ended up with flat dry cake. Not good. In retrospect, I probably should have brushed on some raspberry liquor to help moisten things up some. Nothing I could do about the height. Because of the height issue, I decided not to attempt splitting the layers. That and I am a chicken. Cluck cluck.

So on to the icing. It sounded good - but the recipe calls for a meringue butter cream - lemon flavored of course! The first step is to heat the eggs and sugar over simmering water until all the sugar is melted. This went fine. I then beat the egg whites and sugar as directed. It didn't really fluff much. I was not sure if this was correct or not. I felt the recipe was a little short of "indicators" like - "after 5 minutes of beating, you should have stiff peaks" or " if your egg whites look flat you should just go buy a can of frosting, you git." It would have been a big help.

So, soldiering on, I starting dropping the butter in - 3 WHOLE STICKS!!!!!!!!! The icing looked great. All creamy and buttery... Assembly got a bit messy. I was never any good at icing my cakes - it is all a matter of practice and I just don't do it often enough to be proficient. A telling sign - my daughter came in while I was embattled with final coat and said" Wow Mom - I am sure it will taste better than it looks!"

So here is the final cake. It isn't very decorative. That's OK - we ate it up anyway.

The good news - Mom is much better at Photoshop than she is at icing a cake - so here is the cool cake I would have liked to have made....


Happy Birthday Annie!!

Like sands in an hourglass....

Well here I am!
The last three weeks have been very interesting. A funeral, a snowstorm, and a birthday - you have to learn to love the roller coaster of life.
I've been to a lot of funerals in my 40 years. My parents were older - so a lot of my relatives passed on when I was young. Many of my friends have only been to one or two funerals. Many of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and parents are still alive. And since funerals are for the living, I expect to attend a lot more funerals in the next twenty years. It's important to the people you know that you show up and say "I am sorry for your loss." And to bring a covered dish for the post funeral dinner. That was how I was brought up - you say good bye to the dead and fed the living. I still remember all the food at my dad's funeral - a ham, casseroles, salads, cakes and pies. The leftovers fed us for a week while we figured out that we could keep on going despite the huge hole that was left in our lives. Yes, funerals are uncomfortable - especially when you happen to run into that cousin you pissed off years ago - but they are as important as births, wedding and all the other happy times in our lives.
After being emotionally drained by the prior week, the snowstorm was a much needed vacation. Yes-vacation. It is really nice to say, "Sorry, I can't make it. Circumstances beyond my control." We sat around the house, cleaned out closets, watched movies together, cooked some fine pot roast and hash, finished novels that have been on hold, played games - it was fantastic. I loved it. Our family did not have one bad word to say to each other - we were just happy to be safe at home together. Saturday evening, I ventured outside to liberate my car from its snow drift, as I had to be at work on Sunday, and - bless their hearts - two of my neighbors joined me. We dug out our cars, snapped pictures of the interesting snow formations and I shared some homemade rolls. We were being neighborly. Everyone was happy - even when we should have been tired or worried. Why should kids have all the fun? We all need snow days as adult every now and then as well.
Here is a picture of my improvised wine and beer chiller (since no designated driver was needed!)...

My car (Couldn't have DWI'd if I wanted too)...

And the roof of our house ...

And at last - the birthday. My daughter turned a glorious 17 this past week. Scary, scary! I can truthfully say that it is very hard for me to come to grips with the fact that the tiny crying, poop-producing machine of seventeen years ago is the same creature as the large crying, poop-producing machine of today.
Annie's friends pitched in and bought her a cake from Mrs. Goodman's bakery here in Worthington. It was a pretty darn good cake. Of course I missed getting pictures of it - as the pack descended on it within minutes of arrival. Annie was sad that there weren't leftovers. She had wanted to eat it for breakfast the next day. I promised her another cake sometime this week. You'll see details of that soon...
I also took time to make one of George's favorite dishes - Italian Beef. I talked about making Beef way back in 2006 - it is a fairly intensive process - with the making of rolls and the slicing of beef, but oh so worth it.

See my battle scars from making the bread? I tangled with the 500 degree oven and lost. The hubby says that he is scared when I bake because I always burn myself. No - I do not burn my self every time. Usually only 30% of the time. Of course that doesn't stop him from eating his share of the goods.
So that is pretty much it on the homefront. I have been cooking a lot lately - so I hope to get caught up and give you all the steamy details. Cakes, casseroles, soups...making you hungry? Good.

Sorry for being absent

This last week has been pretty rough. I learned that my last surviving uncle has terminal cancer and a good friend's mother passed away last night. Needless to say I don't really feel like being funny right now. Funerals tend to do that to me....I am sure I will recover my sense of humor quickly, cuz' if you don't laugh, you'll only cry...

PS I did make some clam chowder for dinner and it was good.

Butter Me Up!!

Stopped by the Meijer on Sawmill Road while out shopping today and found pounds of salted butter for $1/pound. No shit - a single green back for a pound of butter. Hot Damn!

If cars ran on butter, it would be a hell of a deal. Since cookies do run on butter - I guess it's even a better deal!!

I immediately purchased 33 pounds of butter for Gail, Debbie and me.

My freezer overfloweth; my hips expandeth.

Ketchin' up

I know I have been lax in posting recently but boy do I have a lot to talk about.
Let me get my excuses out of the way first...
1) About two weeks ago, our car was broken into for the second time in two months. The culprits threw a cinder block through the passenger side window, sending millions of tiny balls of safety glass all over the interior of the car. Bastards. The loot: Two packs of cigarettes, a cheap lighter, an mp3 player from the glove box and most devastating for me - a new waffle iron. I had picked it up at New Uses for a song ($20) that afternoon, then gone straight over to gaming night without stopping home to take it out of the car. My thought is that the damn thing was big enough the thieves thought it was a laptop or something more exciting. HA! Joke's on them. Maybe they can get their moms to make them some waffles now - with ground glass syrup on the side...
Of course, that meant the whole next day was spent dealing with insurance, glass replacement and cleaning. I am still finding tiny balls of glass in the seat cushion - and in my pants cuffs, my washer and tons of other places. Sigh....
And a plug for my brother - who runs Integrity Auto Glass. If you even need your auto glass replaced, ask your insurance company to send him along. He does a great job! Thanks John!!
2) A record setting span for most viruses that one person can have in a two week period. Well probably not, but it has certainly set a record for me. I won't go into the gory details, but I will say I am so glad we bought a really comfortable mattress, as I spent a lot of time sleeping on it lately. That means I didn't spend a lot of time eating or even wanting to think about food. So I broke weak and let things slide.
I did buck the trend Thursday night by going out to dinner with the hubby for Valentine's day at Cananas Mexican Restaurant (5225 N. High St. Columbus 43214). I read a review in the Dispatch and decided to give it a try a few weeks ago. We have been looking for a good Mexican place close to our house. I figured the worse that would happen is that we would never go back. I've eaten at lots of bad Mexican places - so what would one more be?


I liked Cananas. Quite a bit actually. It's got the bright gaudy interior that you've come to expect of a small eatery. The waitstaff have been very nice both times we've visited. They do serve booze (despite what a Google Search will say) - having a cold frosty beer with my food is requirement when eating Mexican. A big chunk of the food seems to be homemade - the beans, rice and in particular the guacamole. Wow - great guacamole! Made fresh to order, it is some of the best I've had outside my own home. My recommendation is to stop in during happy hour - 6-8pm - and splurge on some $2 imports and get some tasty food. It definitely gets two thumbs up from our household!

The other part of our Valentine's outing included a viewing of Casablanca and The Princess Bride at Studio 35. If you live in Columbus and haven't been to Studio 35 - shame on you. It is the last of the independent movie theaters here in Columbus. The owners do a fantastic job of bringing their customers a great mix of movies - classics, first run, second run, documentaries plus lots of special engagements. An added bonus - they serve beer! Lots of good beer - plus pizza and subs. And most important to me and Tony - they have fat people seats!!! Yes, double wides just for those of us with extra cushioning! (And I can say the F-word being fat myself...) Next special event - The theater has been around for 70 years now and will be hosting a birthday party on Sunday (2-17-08) to celebrate. You must have a pass to get in - so you might want to stop by the theater to see you can score some passes before it's too late!

Another cool thing we did was stop at Sunflower Chinese Restaurant for Dim Sum. While I like Lee Gardens, I have never been 100% thrilled with the service. Several people had recommended Sunflower, including my boss who claims to have eaten there three times a week when he was a single man-about-town. Tony and I stopped in with some friends back in January to give their Sunday Dim Sum menu a run for its money. Boy - was it good. They had a least 5 carts running at all times - savory and sweet, meat filled and vegetarian. The food just kept coming and coming. They stopped by our table often - pretty soon a couple of them just started camping out.

Just to cap a few of the things that we really loved - the small-neck clams in black bean sauce, steamed pork buns, shu mai, beef meatballs with little bits of water chestnut mixed in, curried keel bone from chickens - damn the list kinda just goes on doesn't it? Sunflower serves Dim Sum all week long - but we love going on Sundays for brunch best. The service was great and the staff did their best to explain unusual dishes to us newbies. So check it out and let me know what you think...maybe this could be another destination for the Meetup group?

As for cooking at home - well I've been kinda keeping everything low key. The most exciting thing I've done recently was grab some excellent sauerkraut, pastrami and Swiss from Thurn's and make Rubens here at the house. I am sorry I didn't take pictures, they just didn't last long enough... I also pulled out some short ribs and threw them into the oven early last week so we could eat on them throughout the week - no pictures of those either I am afraid. I promise to reform and use my camera more often here at the house...
So that is it for the moment - I promise to try and be better. Really.

Oh one last parting shot - to the politicians in Mississippi who want to draw attention to how obese people are by proposing a state bill to prohibit fat people from eating in public - kiss my fat white butt.

Just a quick note to all you vultures - Sunflower Foods is pretty much picked bare with only a 25% discount. I stopped by today out of morbid curiosity and was shocked at how bare the shelves were already. True - they are closing down for good in about a week, but I did expect people to hold out a little longer for deeper discounts. I picked up some canned clams and sardines, a kilo of green beans and a couple chunks of cheese.

I had shopped at Sunflower only once since it open. I was underwhelmed by the store - especially after having been to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods just a few days before the visit. I think the owners of the chain really didn't understand the market...

Another quick note - The Meetup Food Group started by Becke is going to meet at Anna's this Sunday for brunch! If you want meet new people who love food like you do - please join us!

Well that's it for the moment. Last weekend was Magifest and we spent the whole time taking people out to eat - the two favorites were Smackies and MiMi's. I could tell you a lot of the magicians we hung out with - but I am saving all my stories for blackmail material. Those of you who know what I am talking about - I need those checks in the mail soon!!

This is a lesson on how not to make a lemon meringue pie

For some reason, I just never got the hang of meringues. Everything else - not too bad. My crusts are pretty darn tasty, my fillings always draw rave reviews but my toppings - well let's just say there is a lot of weeping involved.

With the help of the Daring Bakers, I had hoped that this time I would be the victor - but no! I failed again.



First lesson - don't bite off more than you can chew. I had decided that a lemon meringue pie would be the perfect dessert to a baked ham, macaroni and cheese and green bean dinner. Comfort food x 10000000000. Home made pie for dessert! Oh yes! I would score big time on the home front!

Ummmm yeah. Not how it turned out at all. Dinner came out fine - but I was so focused on the main meal I total ruined the pie.

That's the second lesson here - remember to set your timer. First, I took the weights out too early and the damn crust shrunk up. It wasn't deep dish - it was a shallow saucer crust. Then I forgot to take it out and it got a little too toasty. Sigh.

Next - the filling came out great. I loved how tart it was. Nothing like four lemons worth of juice to get your pucker on. Of course since my "tart" (that was now it's official designation) was so shallow, I had tons left over. So I have a couple of custard cups left in the fridge. I plan on eating that out of the fridge as a midnight snack later on tonight.

Lastly - Lesson number three - never rush the meringue. Yes - it looked great but it wept like a baby who wants its mommy. So I got it over with quickly - served it, and let everyone make fun of me. So there!

Humbled again! Ah well - I think I will try the suggestions from the Daring Baker's board about cooking meringue in Cookwise. Maybe - just maybe-I can have a happy smiling pie just once. A girl can dream can't she?

PS Thanks to Jen (Canadian Baker) for giving me the chance to try try again!

Screw the Colonel - I am hanging with the General!!

I want to say this right up front - I love my daughter. love her love her love her. I also love a little peace and quiet with the hubby - and that is a hard thing to get when you are parents. Tony and I joke about how your romantic life gets put on hold the moment the doctor slaps the baby's butt. And every parent out there knows exactly what I am talking about. When our daughter was little, we would hire a sitter occasionally - just to see a movie that didn't star a G-rated animated critter. When she got older, it became a little harder - she liked watching the same movies we did and - even worse - she loved eating out with us as well. No private time for mom and dad. Last year, when Annie finally joined a club that met twice a month - we were so happy! Two and a half hours of face time! To do what WE wanted! Squeeee!!

For a long time, we used to go to Gallo's and get a couple beers, a snack and play gin. Lately, we have been using the time as an excuse to eat out at various restaurants. There are lots of little restaurants here in Columbus - stand alones that offer all kinds of really great food. I think that the average diner is scared of these places - it takes them out of the comfort zone provided by the big chain restaurants. But exploring is all about getting out of that comfort zone and trying something new - and the hubby and I love exploring (food..get your mind out of the gutter!).

This week, we went to General Tso's on Godown Road. Lisa over at Restaurant Widow had mentioned it a long while back, plus it had received a stellar review from Gail - who is very picky on how she spends her dining out dollars. We have purchased carry out from the restaurant before and been very please with the results. This time, we decided to eat in.

I am going to warn you - this place looks just like any other hole in the wall. But it's not. It's in disguise. Once you sit down - you know you are in an excellent restaurant.


To start we picked out beef tendon kikil and crab shu mai. The crab shu mai were good - but the beef tendon was fantastic. It is not your normal kinda dish - the waiter kinda ogled us incredulously and asked "You sure you want the beef tendon?" It a very deep beefy flavor, but the texture is very odd. You ever had jello skin? You know, the stuff that sometimes forms on the bottom of a bowl of jello if you don't stir it fast enough? its kinda thick and rubbery, but melts in your mouth as you eat it. You either like it or you don't - I loved it as a kid. The texture of beef tendon kikil reminds me of jello skin. I know that is kind of a weird analogy - but it is really the best description I could some up with. I mean gelatin is made from the collegian in bones and the tendon is really just cooked connective tissue that eventually become meltingly tender gelatin - but beefy. Well, you have to try it to see what I mean.


For the main course, we chose to order the Shabu Shabu, a shared hotpot for two. A pot of broth is placed over an open flame - danger and excitement!! It comes in beef and seafood - we chose the seafood. The pot of broth came loaded with a variety of different meats (fish cake, squid, shrimp and chicken among others) veggies and other stuff - like bean curd skin. You also got a raw egg and some glass noodles on the side. The whole procedure is to eat the contents of the pot down, then the waitstaff top it off with a little more broth, beat the egg and then add the glass noddles and finish eating the soup.

It was a blast. I love interactive food - I never got over wanting to play with my food despite my mother's best efforts. I like searching out little morsels, trying them, then finding the next bit to share with the hubby.

The staff was very friendly and helpful - even giving us instructions on how to tackle our hotpot.

So - yeah - We'll be going back to the General's very soon. If you get a chance, grab a hotpot with someone you love and share away - it's a great bit of food romance.

Making Dough!

A couple fun things have been going on - the first is I got to meet lots of new friends at the The Columbus Food Lovers Meetup Group. We met at Lee Garden for Dim Sum. I love meeting new people - it was fantastic! If you don't believe me -check out what the good folks in our group have to say ! We are thinking of meeting up at Anna's Greek Restaurant next time - if you would like to join us and have restaurant suggestions for future adventures, let us know.

I also wanted to let people know to keep tuned to Lisa's Blog - she should be announcing her fundraising event soon. I know that money is tight this time of year, but please remember that people need assistance every part of the year - not just at holiday time!

I hope every one has been having a happy new year! Did you resolutions involve learning something new this year? (I also hope all my readers are avoiding the evil flu that is going around. It's had our house incapacitated for over a week now. I love missing three days of work! Yes yes I do!)
Being boring old people, we had people come over to our house for New Year's Eve. We had a couple of beers and I made pizzas from scratch. Ever since I made potato bread with the daring bakers, I've really rekindled my love of working with yeast raised dough. I made a multi-grain bread recipe from Cook's Illustrated and then the pizza dough.

The Multi-grain bread - sorry I was a total slacker and did not take any pictures of it. Mostly because I was pissed off. I usually have good results with the recipes from Cook's Illustrated. True, I think their recipes can be a bit too "fiddly" at times - requiring too many steps to achieve "perfect" results. Sometimes I might settle for less than perfect if it will save me a hour of time. I was intrigued by this recipe for multi-grain bread because it called for using a multi-grain hot cereal. I thought I can afford that! I really hate buying 5 or 6 different ingredients for a recipe, only to be stuck with lots and lots of leftover materials and no idea what to do with them. It crams my already full pantry to bursting and even worse, it deflates my pocketbook.

Being as I am going to discuss specifics, I can't really reprint the recipe. While the list of ingredients isn't copyrighted, the instructions are. You can obtain a copy by cruising over to the Cook's Illustrated site and getting their 14 day free trial. Look for Multi-grain bread in the search engine. However, I can tell you a little bit about how the recipe works. The recipe calls for a natural multi-grain cereal that is combined with boiling water and then allowed to cool until it reaches about 100 degrees. Then the rapid rise yeast is added along with the sugars. You then mix in AP flour and whole wheat flour and proceed with the kneading and rising from there. This is the part that didn't work for me. The whole raising part. Yup - it just sat there mocking me. Damn yeasts. It could have been a couple of things - the rehydrate cereal could have been too hot. I did measure the temp with an instant read before throwing the yeast in - so I do not think that was the problem. The yeast could have been bad - but the other four packets I purchased from the same lot have been fine. So I thought that was probably not it either. My suspect was the AP Flour. The dough just didn't have that smooth glossy feel you get when you are producing gluten during the kneading process.

To confirm my suspicions, I went and got Shirley Corriher's book, Cookwise. She is my go-to gal when things go bad for me in the kitchen. Reading up on her recipe for multi-grain bread, she mentioned that small rough particles can puncture the gluten strands during kneading. True, in this case the grains were pretty finely ground, but AP flour may have been so low in protein that it didn't take much to sabotage the whole mess. So according to Shirley, I could make a batch of new yeast with added flour and knead it back into the mess to salvage the bread. To insure the whole gluten structure, I added a couple of cups of bread flour when making up my "salvage dough". Whoo hoo! victory over microbes achieved! The bread was OK in the end. I think the whole recipe has potential, but will require me to re-work it so I know it will work every time. I will let you know if anything develops.

The pizza dough on the other hand is a tried and true winner - it came from my favorite book "Bread in Half the Time". However, instead of doing their micro-rise system that turns you microwave into a proofing oven, I tripled the batch of dough and did everything the old fashioned way. The reason I love this dough so much is the cornmeal - I know that is kinda nontraditional, but I like thin crisp crusts under my toppings and this crust fits the bill. Of course having a pizza stone helps a lot too.



I did try to make this same dough into calzones – but the cornmeal dough was just not right texture.So back to the drawing board on that. Here are some pictures of the calzones in progress.

A note - I made too much dough for New Year's Eve so I stashed it in the fridge for a couple of days until I could use it. It still rose like a champ. Next time I am going to try and freeze it in small amounts to see if it is something that can be made ahead then thawed for the next evening's dinner.

Cornmeal Pizza Dough

2 C. bread flour
1/2 C. cornmeal
1 t salt
1 T nonfat dry milk
2 t olive oil
3/4 C. hot tap water (120°-130°F)
1 1/2 -2 t. 50% faster active dry yeast
1 1/2 t. sugar
1. Place the pizza stone in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 500°F for at least 30 minutes before baking.
2. Mix the bread flour, cornmeal, salt and dry milk in the bowl of your mixer fitted with a dough hook.
3. Mix the water, yeast and sugar together and let proof for about five minutes. It should look all bubbly on top.
4. Slowly mix the yeast/water mixture and oil into the flour with the hook. The dough should start to come together into a ball. If it stays crumbly, add some warm water little bit at a time until it comes together. Knead until the dough comes away from the side of the bowl.
5. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead by hand for a few minutes until the dough feels smooth and elastic. Form into a ball and put into oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap or tea towel. Rise until doubled.
6. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead by hand a few seconds. Then roll out into a circle. (Here is the tricky part. The original recipe made one 14” pizza. I roll mine so thin it makes two 10-12” pizzas. ) Place this disk on a pizza peel or a cookie sheet with no sides that has been heavily sprinkled with cornmeal. The cornmeal should act like little ball bearings and slide the pizza off the peel/cookie sheet with no problems. I will “test” the dough before I put the toppings on by shaking it a little bit to see if it will move freely.
7. Apply sauce and other toppings. (Be sparing with the sauce, too much will make the dough soggy. For a 12” round I will use 3-4 tablespoons.) My current favorite topping is fresh mozzarella, crispy bacon and finely diced onion, Yum Yum.
8. Lower the oven temp to 425°F .Carefully slide the topped dough onto the stone in the oven. (Please be careful – I still have burns healing from New Year’s) Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the crust is nice and golden brown on the underside when you peek.
9. CAREFULLY!!! Slide the peel/cookie sheet back under the finished pizza and pull it out of the oven. This is tricky – it took a couple of tries the first time I did it and I messed up the pizza. Trust me, it gets easier with practice.
10. Let cool briefly before cutting and serving.

Ok - enough boring stuff!!! Went to Thurn's this past weekend to stock up on bacon and lo and behold! They had awesomely cool hats that said "oink" on the back. Go buy one - NOW! I command it!
Here is Tony representin'

Lincoln, Lincoln I've been thinkin' - What in the World have you been drinkin?

I have always been interested in Absinthe. The mystery, the history - the name of it just conjures up images of sitting in a cafe in Paris hobnobbing with the artists and writers of the Belle Epoque... The thing that has always stopped me is the fact that it was impossible to get here in the states. Recently, the rules have become more lenient and I figured I would order a bottle to share with my friends Tate and Moose, who has expressed an interest in it as well. So when the folks who run Buy Absinthe asked me to review their site, I said yes. As part of the review, I ordered a bottle of the green fairy and had it delivered to me. For free. Yup, I received remuneration for the text that is about to follow. So take that as you will.

Buy Absinthe consists of the website for ordering, plus a blog that extols the virtues of drinking the product. The website offers a limited selection of products from Spain and France, but does not stoop to offering some of the lesser products from Eastern Europe - which are basically grain alcohol with flavoring and coloring included. Absinthe is made by macerating herbs into grain alcohol which is then distilled. After the distillation, the product can be left clear or colored with either a second maceration of herbs or artificially colored. The best liquors use the all natural approach.

Buy Absinthe Alcohol does offer a FAQ on their product, which discusses how to serve the liquor, the possible side effects of drinking absinthe, as well of the legality of purchasing said beverage. The site is easy to navigate and gives a brief description of each item along with the cost and a button to add it to the shopping cart. The cost of shipping is the same or cheaper as many of their competitors.

After looking at all my options, I elected to purchase Bitter Abisinthe 72°, which seemed to be a fairly traditional product. However, several of their products were out of stock - all of the Lemercier brands plus some of the absinthe spoons, which I had planned to purchasing separately as part of the "ambiance". I ended up purchasing a bottle of Versinthe la Blanche - which has the same flavors as the green variety, but does not have the second infusion of herbs that give the drink it characteristic green color.

I ordered my bottle of "the white fairy" on December 12 - and received notification that it was waiting for me at the post office on December 29th. I did have to go and sign for it as a registered package. And no one came out and interrogated me about importing alcohol - honest! The bottle was well packed and survived it trip intact.

So that's it! The site has a limited number of products, but for a novice such as myself, it helped me narrow the field. The blog and the FAQ were useful for provided basic information on the product and the ordering process was painless. I had a very positive experience with Buy Absinthe and would use them again to purchase some of the Lamercier products should they become available.