I bet pneumatic people tubes could work through the interweb too.
2008-08-18
Pneumatic People Tubes
They need to edit this to make the change to "dried plums" and re-air it:
I bet pneumatic people tubes could work through the interweb too.
I bet pneumatic people tubes could work through the interweb too.
2008-08-17
Weekend Tiki Finds
After fighting with my air conditioner for the better part of Saturday morning I eventually made it out of the house. I was hoping to hit some garage sales early but it was already a bit after noon so I figured I was best off hitting the local Goodwill stores and the "antique" stores that surround them.
I found this nice ceramic Ku salt & pepper set at the Flea-Antique Market next to my local Goodwill:
I haven't figured out who made them yet. They're from Japan so it's definitely not some recent casting.
Then within a few feet I found this hand-carved tiki napkin holder. This will hold my bar napkins quite nicely some day. It was really dirty but cleaned up well looks good with a nice coat of Formby's Almond Lustre.
Other than that I didn't find much. The Larryville Goodwill had 4 plastic tiki cups that I passed on (I already have a few of them and they were not a nice as a different model that Bear found me some more of last weekend.) The same store also had a coconut monkey. It wasn't in great shape but even if it was I would have passed. I already have a coconut monkey. While no collection of tiki junk should be considered complete without one, I believe one coconut monkey is enough for anyone.
As long as the camera was out I figured I'd grab a few shots of a toothpick holder I found at Walgreens a few weeks ago. I think I paid 67 cents or something for it... with toothpicks even.
I have him tucked in the kitchen cabinet next to some of the standard bar tender's guides. Next time I need to put a cherry in a Manhattan I'm ready.
I found this nice ceramic Ku salt & pepper set at the Flea-Antique Market next to my local Goodwill:
I haven't figured out who made them yet. They're from Japan so it's definitely not some recent casting.
Then within a few feet I found this hand-carved tiki napkin holder. This will hold my bar napkins quite nicely some day. It was really dirty but cleaned up well looks good with a nice coat of Formby's Almond Lustre.
Other than that I didn't find much. The Larryville Goodwill had 4 plastic tiki cups that I passed on (I already have a few of them and they were not a nice as a different model that Bear found me some more of last weekend.) The same store also had a coconut monkey. It wasn't in great shape but even if it was I would have passed. I already have a coconut monkey. While no collection of tiki junk should be considered complete without one, I believe one coconut monkey is enough for anyone.
As long as the camera was out I figured I'd grab a few shots of a toothpick holder I found at Walgreens a few weeks ago. I think I paid 67 cents or something for it... with toothpicks even.
I have him tucked in the kitchen cabinet next to some of the standard bar tender's guides. Next time I need to put a cherry in a Manhattan I'm ready.
2008-08-14
Hot Sauce!
I'm still recovering from a battle with my sinuses. My new Hot Sauce Delivery System is working quite well though:
Finally a use for those little rice cakes that are supposed to be healthy. I think the Frank's Red Hot does the best job but the Rooster Sauce does offer more control of artistic expression.
Finally a use for those little rice cakes that are supposed to be healthy. I think the Frank's Red Hot does the best job but the Rooster Sauce does offer more control of artistic expression.
2008-08-07
Rum Ramsey
Today got dark 'n' stormy at work and then it cleared up and the sun came out.
I went home.
It was a fairly long day so why not try a new drink. I got out my 1946 copy of Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink to look for new adventure.
I picked the Rum Ramsey.
Why?
I had everything... and it used some Peychaud's bitters so why not?
Not bad. I really like the touch of bourbon and the spice from the bitters. It has just enough sweetness to round it out without being "sweet." I think mine had just a bit too much lime. I guess "juice of 1/4 lime" can vary a bit depending on the lime (not the best way to measure I guess). I found this version that calls for 1/4 ounce of lime juice. Maybe I'll try that next time.
Evidently the drink was made by Albert Martin at the Bon Ton bar in New Orleans. It still exists today and they tout the drink as a family secretbut don't mention Albert. What a shame. :( (See comment below.)
I went home.
It was a fairly long day so why not try a new drink. I got out my 1946 copy of Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink to look for new adventure.
I picked the Rum Ramsey.
Why?
I had everything... and it used some Peychaud's bitters so why not?
Not bad. I really like the touch of bourbon and the spice from the bitters. It has just enough sweetness to round it out without being "sweet." I think mine had just a bit too much lime. I guess "juice of 1/4 lime" can vary a bit depending on the lime (not the best way to measure I guess). I found this version that calls for 1/4 ounce of lime juice. Maybe I'll try that next time.
Evidently the drink was made by Albert Martin at the Bon Ton bar in New Orleans. It still exists today and they tout the drink as a family secret
2008-08-06
Fabulous Four (Minus One)
Bear comes through again with this nifty find at his local Goodwill:
These three are from a boxed set that Tiki Farm used to sell consisting of: Yellow Moai, Green Rarotongan, Blue Marquesan & Purple Lono (click for picture). If someone happens to run across Purple Lono please let me know or go ahead and rescue him for me. It may bring you good luck.
Thanks Bear!
These three are from a boxed set that Tiki Farm used to sell consisting of: Yellow Moai, Green Rarotongan, Blue Marquesan & Purple Lono (click for picture). If someone happens to run across Purple Lono please let me know or go ahead and rescue him for me. It may bring you good luck.
Thanks Bear!
Restaurant Inspection Scores
Since I bothered looking up DeKalb and Gwinnett's the other day and found Fulton's today at lunch I figured I'd share (Cobb's is not available online right now so you're on your own over there).
2008-08-04
AC Fun
Every few years my condensation drain line gets clogged up with algae and other junk. I've tried to pour a little bleach in it every now and then to keep it happy but every once in a while it gets its way, plugs up, and gallons of water start covering our basement floor. The way it drains is annoyingly stupid but I won't go in to that.
This time I just hacked the drain line and have it dripping into a funnel, through a tube into a 6 gallon carboy. I can get 4-5 gallons or so of condensate in about half a day. Makes me wish I had some plants worth watering outside. They sure are heavy though.
This time I just hacked the drain line and have it dripping into a funnel, through a tube into a 6 gallon carboy. I can get 4-5 gallons or so of condensate in about half a day. Makes me wish I had some plants worth watering outside. They sure are heavy though.
2008-07-31
Dark 'N' Stormy
Well it's dark out and I did just see some lightning but it's not terribly stormy.
A few weeks ago I was reading something online where someone was asking what do do with some leftover Myer's Dark Rum. Someone suggested mixing it with ginger beer. That sounded pretty good. I stopped at Tower this week to see what I could find in the way of ginger beer. I've had both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions before but had not seen any lately. I started off in the beer section and completely struck out. Nothing. I think the guy in the beer section thought I might be a little nuts (he might be right) but he did really try to find it for me.
I went over to the rum section just to see what was there and ran across an official pairing:
Evidently the official name for this pairing of dark rum and ginger beer is a Dark'N'Stormy. It's from Bermuda and has to be made with Gosling's Black Seal Rum and Barritt's Ginger Beer. This promotional package came with 2 cans of Barritt's. I figured that enough to give it a try.
When I got home I sampled about a 1/4 ounce of both the Goslings and the Myers's by themselves. The colors are about the same. The Myer's has more going on with the aroma. You can really smell the molasses. The Gosling's hits you a a brighter smell of a gold rum. In tasting them I find the Myer's has many more layers of flavor going on. You really taste the molasses and it has a rocky then lingering finish. The Gosling's it's a much smoother experience: A little burn, a bit of molasses, but then it turns caramel, almost buttery, and has a smooth finish.
I can't really say if I prefer one over the other. They're just different. They're both fairly common dark rums but they each have a distinctive profile. Substituting one for the other in a cocktail recipe would result in a different creation. Probably not bad... just different.
Tonight I actually tried the Dark'N'Stormy (while baking quiches) using the supplied Gosling's and Barritt's. It wasn't bad but I did find it a bit sweet. That's a really odd thing for me to say as I like sweet drinks. Perhaps I felt the sweetness, the heavy spice, and the sweetness of the rum was just an overly powerful combination. It's definitely something I'll try again... perhaps with different ginger brews I manage to locate. I've seen some other Ginger Beers at Cost Plus before so I'll find something else there later. In the meantime a tiny glass of Gosling's or Myer's is quite nice for sipping.
Update 8/23/08
I made this with some Reed's Premium Ginger Brew that I found a my local Krogers. I liked it a little better. I think the lemon-lime taste of it adds something for me. I'd like to try it with Reed's "Extra" Ginger Bew but I'll have to find someone who carries it.
A few weeks ago I was reading something online where someone was asking what do do with some leftover Myer's Dark Rum. Someone suggested mixing it with ginger beer. That sounded pretty good. I stopped at Tower this week to see what I could find in the way of ginger beer. I've had both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions before but had not seen any lately. I started off in the beer section and completely struck out. Nothing. I think the guy in the beer section thought I might be a little nuts (he might be right) but he did really try to find it for me.
I went over to the rum section just to see what was there and ran across an official pairing:
Evidently the official name for this pairing of dark rum and ginger beer is a Dark'N'Stormy. It's from Bermuda and has to be made with Gosling's Black Seal Rum and Barritt's Ginger Beer. This promotional package came with 2 cans of Barritt's. I figured that enough to give it a try.
When I got home I sampled about a 1/4 ounce of both the Goslings and the Myers's by themselves. The colors are about the same. The Myer's has more going on with the aroma. You can really smell the molasses. The Gosling's hits you a a brighter smell of a gold rum. In tasting them I find the Myer's has many more layers of flavor going on. You really taste the molasses and it has a rocky then lingering finish. The Gosling's it's a much smoother experience: A little burn, a bit of molasses, but then it turns caramel, almost buttery, and has a smooth finish.
I can't really say if I prefer one over the other. They're just different. They're both fairly common dark rums but they each have a distinctive profile. Substituting one for the other in a cocktail recipe would result in a different creation. Probably not bad... just different.
Tonight I actually tried the Dark'N'Stormy (while baking quiches) using the supplied Gosling's and Barritt's. It wasn't bad but I did find it a bit sweet. That's a really odd thing for me to say as I like sweet drinks. Perhaps I felt the sweetness, the heavy spice, and the sweetness of the rum was just an overly powerful combination. It's definitely something I'll try again... perhaps with different ginger brews I manage to locate. I've seen some other Ginger Beers at Cost Plus before so I'll find something else there later. In the meantime a tiny glass of Gosling's or Myer's is quite nice for sipping.
Update 8/23/08
I made this with some Reed's Premium Ginger Brew that I found a my local Krogers. I liked it a little better. I think the lemon-lime taste of it adds something for me. I'd like to try it with Reed's "Extra" Ginger Bew but I'll have to find someone who carries it.
2008-07-24
Cocktail Babble
Last week I made a Manhattan. It was good. This past weekend I picked up some Fee Brother's Orange Bitters and made another one with that instead of Angostura bitters. It was good too. Yesterday I made a Southern Manhattan. It was a bit (ok... a TON) on the sweet side... not bad, but a bit over the top.
This week I also found some some Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters. The Stirrings is a bit different than other bitters. It's quite diluted and is in a simple syrup base instead of alcohol. You have to use a bit more than most traditional bitters but it still has a nice spice to it. If you don't want to add more sweetness it's not the bitters to use.
All in all I think I'm liking bitters and will probably pick up different ones when I find them. Each has its own distinctive flavor profile that adds a bit of itself to whatever you put it in. Just a small amount adds something to a drink without taking away from the base flavor profiles. I've even started putting a dash or two of various bitters in 7-Up to give it an twist as well as evaluate the different tastes of the bitters.
Tonight I'm just sipping on an ounce of Meyer's Dark. No bitters. It has a beautiful smell as well as a great taste. It makes me want it to be cold so I could make hot buttered rum.
This week I also found some some Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters. The Stirrings is a bit different than other bitters. It's quite diluted and is in a simple syrup base instead of alcohol. You have to use a bit more than most traditional bitters but it still has a nice spice to it. If you don't want to add more sweetness it's not the bitters to use.
All in all I think I'm liking bitters and will probably pick up different ones when I find them. Each has its own distinctive flavor profile that adds a bit of itself to whatever you put it in. Just a small amount adds something to a drink without taking away from the base flavor profiles. I've even started putting a dash or two of various bitters in 7-Up to give it an twist as well as evaluate the different tastes of the bitters.
Tonight I'm just sipping on an ounce of Meyer's Dark. No bitters. It has a beautiful smell as well as a great taste. It makes me want it to be cold so I could make hot buttered rum.
2008-07-22
I made ABC News tonight!
Well... sorta.
I was cooking dinner tonight when I got an urgent call from JerrBear and Dr. T. Evidently Dr. T was watching a story on ABC Nightly News about Twitter and how people use it to complain about their ISP, phone company, etc. and all of a sudden a little tiki picture with "grantbob" next to it was shown on screen.
I was able to find the newscast on the web.
Yep that's me.
You can go watch the whole thing HERE.
Evidently back when they shot this story (looks like a while ago) they did a search for "Comcast" shortly after one of my problems with them.
Ever since I watched the guy in the Comcast truck cut my cable, drive away, and then had the fine folks on the phone tell me they didn't do that, I really haven't had much faith in the company (it took about a week to get the cable back on.) I think this particular tweet was from a time where I called them to report an outage but did not schedule a service call. Service was restored in a few hours but they spend the next few days calling me and leaving me messages about my upcoming service call. I had to call back on two different days and spend about 20 minutes trying to cancel a service call I never requested.
They probably showed up anyway when no one was home.
BTW: Comcast did reply to at least one of my tweets but I never saw it at the time as my twitter settings were not set to show replies from people not on my list. This is not always going to be an effective method for them to reach out. I think they should spend more time with the people who actually do call and request help.
Update: Here's the original: TWEET
I was cooking dinner tonight when I got an urgent call from JerrBear and Dr. T. Evidently Dr. T was watching a story on ABC Nightly News about Twitter and how people use it to complain about their ISP, phone company, etc. and all of a sudden a little tiki picture with "grantbob" next to it was shown on screen.
I was able to find the newscast on the web.
Yep that's me.
You can go watch the whole thing HERE.
Evidently back when they shot this story (looks like a while ago) they did a search for "Comcast" shortly after one of my problems with them.
Ever since I watched the guy in the Comcast truck cut my cable, drive away, and then had the fine folks on the phone tell me they didn't do that, I really haven't had much faith in the company (it took about a week to get the cable back on.) I think this particular tweet was from a time where I called them to report an outage but did not schedule a service call. Service was restored in a few hours but they spend the next few days calling me and leaving me messages about my upcoming service call. I had to call back on two different days and spend about 20 minutes trying to cancel a service call I never requested.
They probably showed up anyway when no one was home.
BTW: Comcast did reply to at least one of my tweets but I never saw it at the time as my twitter settings were not set to show replies from people not on my list. This is not always going to be an effective method for them to reach out. I think they should spend more time with the people who actually do call and request help.
Update: Here's the original: TWEET
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