Whistle-Belly-Vengeance

No, that's not the title of a Cocteau Twins song, it's a beverage recipe from Wines and Beers of Old New England: A How-to-Do-it History by Sandborn C. Brown. I picked this up at Gibson's in Concord. They have an awesome selection of New Hampshire and New England-centric books, and I easily drop $50 every time I go there on weird little titles like this. The recipe for Whistle-Belly-Vengeance:

Sour beer simmered in a kettle and sweetened with molasses. Crumbs of browned cornbread were added, and it was drunk as hot as could be borne.

This recipe is for something called "Hot Cup:"

Warm a pint of ale; add one ounce of sugar, one ounce of mixed spices, and a glass of sherry. When nearly boiling, pour it on a round of buttered toast.

This sounds like something created by mistake, like some old bonneted lady tripped over the hearth and spilled the ale onto some toast and decided to call it "Hot Cup."

Anyway, this book is awesome. The opening line of the preface: This book is written for people who like to go to folk museums, who like to collect antiques, who like to renovate old houses, and who like to drink. I love an author who knows his audience! I'm definitely going to try some nasty old recipe from this book, so stayed tuned for details in a future post!

Steamed

Steamed broccoli with garlic and ginger. I mixed some soy sauce and water together, mixed in some garlic and ginger, and dumped it over a frying pan full of broccoli. Brought it to a simmer, then covered and steamed for about 10 minutes. Then I dumped all the frying pan contents over some rice. YUM! This is my new favorite method of preparing vegetables. Tonight I did the same thing, this time with broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, and red, yellow and green peppers. Those pre-packaged sliced veggies at Basic Organic are a godsend!

Pancakes

This morning I made pancakes with butter, honey, and dark chocolate hagelslag, which I'm assuming is Dutch for "sprinkles." I picked up a box of the milk chocolate and dark chocolate while in Amsterdam this summer. They sold them in tiny, palm-sized boxes too which were so cute! You can see them in this group product shot here.

Survival Salami

My culinary choices were a bit odd this weekend since I was sailing for three days in pouring rain and 25 knot winds. It was wet and cold and there wasn't even time to take a pee down below(goddamn those men can just go off the back). Needless to say, eating wasn't exactly gourmet. Mostly power bars and beer. By the third day, I was resorting to pretzels and salami. Yes, it's true - I ate salami. I haven't had salami in 17 years or more. But I was starving and it was frickin tasty. No regrets. Not like I will make a habit out of it though. Seattle has a great Italian and Mediterranean shop in Sodo called PFI where you can get tons of cheap stuff in bulk. It is in this warehouse so you feel cool if you know how to find it.

Luckily, to save the weekend from complete culinary disaster, my friend Samantha decided to invite me to her party Saturday night where there was a chef cooking seafood paella in a humongous skillet. First time for this Spanish dish and very happy with it. Here's a great recipe that maybe I will try to make in a couple weeks for my friends' potluck wedding. Dee-lish.