Cocktail Confessions

I’m usually pretty good at creating my own content here, but I came across an interesting article over at FoxNews.com and thought it deserved a little attention here.  I’m cutting out some of the fluff, but you get the meat of it.  If you want to read the full article as it was written by Elena Ferretti, go ahead and click here.

Article

It’s axiomatic: from summer barbecues to Octoberfest, beer makes the party. Lucy Saunders takes it a step further. Beer, she says, makes the meal when the meal’s cooked with it. And she’s talking more than beer-battered onion rings.

She’s talking Cheddar Ale Spread with ancho, chipotle and pale ale, and Chocolate Malt Ganache. Saunders, author of “Cooking With Beer,” “Best of American Beer and Food” and “Grilling with Beer” also runs Beercook.com, whose emphatic motto is: “Because beer is Food!” Beer, specifically craft beer, she says, is for far more than just quaffing.

Most people understand - intuitively if not practically - that cooking with wine infuses food with depth, distinction and subtlety. Some dishes use the harder stuff, too; think Penne alla Vodka, or Bananas Foster aflame with rum. Beer hasn’t (yet) become part of our pantry, says Saunders, because while cooking with beer has been part of culinary history for centuries, “it’s been under-appreciated as it’s generally been the province of home cooks, via hand-me-down recipes.”

A craft beer’s flavor is determined by how barley is treated during malting, the process of germinating barley to create a high-starch content seed. The starch will eventually be converted into a fermentable sugar. The ‘maltster’ heats the grain to stop seed growth, which retains the starch content, then roasts it to develop various flavor characteristics and color, similar to the process of roasting coffee beans. Briess Malting in Wisconsin, says Saunders, is the last independent specialty maltster in North America and makes an incredible range of specialty malts for brewing.

Saunders, a Midwest native who, in addition to teaching, runs water conservation workshop for brewers and cheese makers, says she has a “palate for grains” and has loved the taste of beer for as long as she can remember. It started with her mom’s Cheese and Beer soup (beer, caramelized onions, asiago, cheddar and parmesan), Carbonnade (a jaw-dropping ale, beef and onion stew and a major Belgian culinary contribution along with waffles and chocolates) and her dad’s beer-based steak marinades.

The first commercial cookbooks, including some with recipes for cooking with beer, appeared in England during the Tudor era, late 1400s to mid-1500s. That was due not to beer’s ubiquity but to Gutenberg inventing the printing press in 1440. Previously, cookbooks were hand-written and used primarily by monasteries and the upper classes, says Saunders, who majored in Old and Middle English. Instead of a term paper she translated Tudor recipes, cooked and catered a medieval feast for her professor and other students and “hired frat brother friends as serfs to serve dinner.”

Americans’ love affair with craft beers started in the 1980s for a few reasons, says Saunders. By the mid-70s many states lifted a Prohibition-era ban on home brewing allowing people to recapture a forgotten craft. Also, in the late 70s and 80s, study-abroad programs proliferated and students started tasting European beers that had been crafted from long-standing brewing traditions, introducing their palates to flavors other than Budweiser and Miller Lite.

Saunders says that craft brewing combines the artistry and creativity of cooking with the rigors of science. It’s about fermentable sugars, final alcohol content, color and mouth-feel, and evoking flavor and aromatics from grain’s entire taste spectrum. “It’s a continuous learning and creativity curve. That’s the allure. It’s a great challenge and when the results are delicious they are shared and enjoyed. It’s why it’s here to stay.”

Two of my favorite activities are drinking beer and playing video games.  Both allow me to enter my own alternate reality where the day to day minutuae is temporarily forgotten and I block out the outside world.

Now if I chose to, I could spend $189.99 and combine my love of World of Warcraft and my drinking skills by purchasing a “Legendary” edition beer stein.  These comes of the heels of the previous released 4-version “Epic” steins that sold for roughly half (approx $100). 

Representing either an Alliance or Horde faction, these mugs have 18k gold lids and trim and are limited to only 999 for each design and hand-signed by Blizzard artists.  For those anti-socialites who fear the warm glow of a real sun and really need to know the characters that adorn the sides, the Alliance gets Glenn Rane, and the Horde gets Samwise Didier.  The only other information I have is that are planned to be released for in March of 2010, so you may want to go to Blizzard.com for more information.

If I had $200 just lying around like Tiger Woods does for wiping his tuckus, I may be tempted to buy one, for they are pretty (although like most, I’d go for the Horde one as it is much coller looking).  But other than placing it on a shelf and pretending I may drink out of it (I wouldn’t, and ergo defeats the actual purpsoe of buying a stein to begin with).  However, there is so much other stuff I’d like to spend money I really don’t have on first, say cool Star Wars or G.I. Joe memorabilia, or pesky bills and home improvement projects.

DJ Hero

Eh, well, not because I’m an advocate of throw away episodes, but once in a while it’s just kinda nice to put something out there to let the masses know you’re still alive and kicking.  It also helps in remembering how to craft and use technology so you don’t forget it so easily if you don’t do it too often.

Like most things that I really get excited and interested in, it appears that putting this podcast together is a bit harder than I first anticipated.  Not so much from a  technical aspect, but more of getting actual content down and getting guests to commit.  It’s been much more difficult than I ever would have surmised to get friends and neighbors to agree on a time to sit and chat, and every time it seems we plan on something it generally gets delayed for one reason or another.

That’s not so much the case in point here.  As I stated in my last post, I’ve been under the weather as of late.  I can’t remember the last time I has such a bad cough or case of bronchitis that has more or less just put me out on my butt.  My throat has been a bit raw and I’m all jacked up on various OTC medicines…none of which seem to be doing me much good by the way.  The nagging and uncontrollable hacking at all hours has been very frustrating to me, and while I’m not 100% right now, it seems I’m finally on the tail end of a good eight day cough fest.

Episode 13 is a bit short, clocking in at just about twenty one minutes and it just informs you up on a few recent things in my life

Stone Smoky Porter

like Christmas goodies such as DJ Hero, my new Blu Ray player, some movies and Netflix we’ve been watching (like season 1 of Dexter), and of course Stone Brewery Smoky Porter (5.9%).  Speaking of DJ Hero, that game is bad ass.  As a child of the 80’s and really into old skool hip-hop/rap and more current euro dance/techno, this game is right up my alley.  Some of my friends have laughed at me spinning a plastic turntable and making up DJ names for me, like DJ Wingman (thanks Chip).  I hope the game does well enough to spawn some additional DLC because I just love it.

Show Notes:

Intro - “Come Again” by Beastie Boys & Daft Punk (as heard on DJ Hero)

2:08 - Cornocopia of OTC drugs I’m taking including Emergen-C bullshit.

6:30 - This & that and a little fluff.

7:15 - Stone Brewery and porter talk.

8:05 - Blu Ray and movie talk (Star Trek, Paranormal Activity)

11:45 - Microsoft + Xbox RROD blues 

12:29 - Dexter: clean versus ‘R’ versions for Showtime and CBS

13:49 - Xmas continued + DJ Hero

18:39 - SkurvyMonekys.com podcast discussed

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$150 and 27% baby!!

Holy shnikeys..

Priced at approx. $150 a bottle, this limited release run brandy-colored ‘beer’ sure packs a punch.  Known as an ‘extreme beer’, this beverage has been banned in at least 13 states.  Why?  Oh, maybe because it packs a whopping 27% alcohol by volume!!

First introduced in the 90’s, Boston Beer Co. (aka Sam Adams) has really been pushing the envelope of science.  The extreme brews are indeed still considered beer, because the law states they must be based on fermented grain, and the Utopias are.

A little history and trivia: In ‘93 brewer Koch introduced Trible Bock with a 17.5% alcohol by voulme.  Dogfish Head responded in the early 2000’s with brews containing upwards of 20%.  But Adams 15 year aging process which is finished in wooden casks now reigns supreme.  And the run is limited to about 10,000 bottles.

According to tasters. it sips like a cognac combined with vanilla, honey, and maple flavors.

Hmmmm…..If I’m feeling a little squirrly this winter, I may buy a bottle myself and share with a few of my friends as a real treat.  I’ll have to look online later…

It’s been a long time coming, but I spent a lot of the day yesterday editing this podcast episode into something I really wanted it to be.  It took a bit longer than expected to put this together as I was looking for the perfect music (thanks Limewire) for the introduction to set the mood and a great tie in to an overall theme. 

I also kind pushed myself here at a technical level in editing.  First, I used my portable Zoom H2 in the field for the first time.  It worked pretty well, although I did misplace the manual, so I had a few hiccups at first.  I have to work on the microphone gain.  For my initial recording I had set it to medium, and although we were sitting only a few feet from it with no other background noise, the recording seemed somewhat fainter than I expected, so I boosted it in Audacity.  It also took longer than I expected to transfer the raw MP3 from the Zoom to my PC.  This Podcast has a total of 3 mono tracks and 2 stereo tracks that I spliced together, remixed into a single track (to help save on bandwidth and space), faded out some entrance music and for the first time added an end trailer, and I’m pretty happy with the result seeing this is the most complex editing I’ve done thus far.

I also used Limewire for the first time, trying to find the perfect lead in bumper.  I had a specific song in mind, and I actually own a clean copy of the song somewhere but couldn’t find the CD, so I opted to download from the wild-wild-web.  The thing is, you never know exactly what you are going to get in quality or length, and sometime the descriptions don’t always match what you’re looking for so there is a few trial by fire attempts to get the right track.  Anyway, in this case, I chose “Grim Grinning Ghosts“, better known as the overall soundtrack for Disney’s Haunted Mansion.  It appears in a few various incarnations and pressed a few times in some rare LP’s and CD’s many of which are now out of print.  To me it was worth it.  For those that really like the Haunted Mansion, here’s an interesting and detailed site about the ride, it’s history, the story behind it, and its look throughout the various theme parks: DoomBuggies.com.

Also appearing in this episode is yet another libation.  The website is called ‘Cocktail Confessions’ for a reason, and so it keeping that dream alive I bring you Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale from Michelob.  It’s a seasonal beer (fall) that clocks in at 5.5% alcohol with hints of cloves, nutmeg and allspice.  As I explain in the podcast, this years batch didn’t taste all that ‘pumpkiny’ to me, and I might suggest you try Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale or even Blue Moon’s, Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale.  Both of these have a richer pumpkin and spice taste, and there are plenty of others.  If you know of any good ones you’d like to suggest, please drop me a line.

The meat and potatoes of this podcast however is the interview I recorded with my grandfather Harold.  He recently just turned 91 years old, and I kinda wanted to get some time with him before it was too late.  We’re all lucky he is still around after surviving being a tail gunner in a B-17 during WWII, having had open heart surgery, a pacemaker installed and a few other medical issues.  He’s still going strong…at least mentally.  He’s 100% Italian, being born here but his parents were immigrants.  I initially wanted the recording to be about his days being a master carpenter and working on the early builds of the Tiki Room, some of the facades on Main Street, and other contributions he made at the park, but after 40 minutes of great stories, I realized I wasn’t recording properly.  So instead of having him rehash everything all over, we just segued into his early days growing up in Wakefield, Michigan then eventually moving out to Anaheim, CA.  The actual recording was almost an hour long, and for this podcast I decided to break it up into a smaller segment I’m calling part 1, which is approx. 20 minutes long.

Finally my garage door died a loud and expensive death last week.  We had to buy a new one, and thus opted for the Heritage 3000, triple layer door: steel + insulation + steel.  It looks very nice, much quieter than the old one, and will hopefully help in reducing both our cooling and heating costs in the long run.  The really funny thing to me is how my neighbors have reacted.  To me, it’s just a garage door.  It’s white, it opens, it closes and does what any other garage door was designed for.  However, many of the men on my street have taken a very keen interest in its look, its operation, and overall functionality.  A real ‘Tim the Tool Guy Taylor’ moment where they all had to check it out and kick the tires per-se.  I personally found it very amusing that the men were all into it as much as they were.  In the end, it’s still a garage door.

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This episode/entry was fun to do for a few reasons: we (that is Brian Liles and I), had already had a few pitchers of Sam Adams Summer Ale under our belts that we enjoyed over at a beautiful day at Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon, CA.  Then as we proceeded to records this, we had a surprise visit from Chip Gahagan of Smogtown who popped on by for a few minutes, and lastly we discuss a little bit of G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie as well. Listening back to make show notes was a little embarrassing as I caught myself being tongue tied and repeating myself multiple times.

Cook's Corner

So to start with Brian of Brians4×4adventures.com, or friend Scott W and myself headed out to Cook’s Corner (Wikipedia entry) for a little Sunday afternoon beer bonding.  The short synopsis of the place is as such: Built by Andrew Jackson Cook around 1884, the original building was meant to supply local miners as a mercantile and a few years later a place to eat as well.  It survived the prohibition era and was converted into a bar.  In 1970 a motorcycle accessory shop owner from Santa Ana bought the property and publicized it as a place for motorcycle clubs to enjoy.  It has changed hands once again a few years back and actively participates in the promotion of several charity motorcycle rides.  It’s now considered a historic landmark and is enjoyed by numerous social clubs and O.C residents.

It’s a great place to spend the afternoon, especially the weekends where one can typical witness 200+ motorcycles parked out front.  They have a very large outdoor patio area that has seen many improvements the last few years including new picnic tables, umbrellas, outside bars (three portable at last count), and a place for local merchants to sell various motorcycle accessories.  They have a small kitchen that turns out various burgers, tacos, and finger foods along with a inside band stage and the occasional outside band as well.  I’ve been coming here for at least 7 years now, and it really never gets old.  I have yet to run into a bad situation with a ‘biker’ and quite the contrary all the ones I have met or spoken to have been pretty personable for the most part.

Music for this episode

I’ve listened quite a few bands there over the years, and while I’m not a huge fan of classic rock they have the occasional bluegrass or jazz band out there and it always sounds good under the Southern California weather and sun with a couple of pitchers of beer and friends.

In this podcast episode Brian discusses his recent FJ Crusier trip across Canada and into Alaska that he took part in with his friend Luke from Radrod57.com.  Head over to Brian’s site for some gorgeous high quality pictures he took and read some of his continuing exploits.  You can ever read more over at Luke’s page as well.  Makes me wanna cash everything in, grab an RV, and do a roadtrip across America myself and hit up some hidden bbq joints, some town festivals and make some new acquaintences in local camp grounds.

Baroness

Finally we discuss G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie (hence the ‘criminals’ in my title).  For those of you who grew up on the property that made it famous back in the 80’s, you may be slightly disapointed in some of the character origin reboots in this 2009 feature film.  Being a comic book purist in my own right, and being a huge fan of Larry Hama’s creativity for the Hasbro line and the yarns he spun for Marvel, I have a few problems with the treatment that gave Cobra Commander, Zartan and the Baroness.  Also the Ripcord/Scarlett love angle and the CC/Baroness sibling reveal really bothered me.  But if you can put those issues aside ,(and the accelerator suits) then this was a pretty darn good matinee action-comic movie.  Good fight scenes, neat technology, grand in scope….but clearly sets up and demands a sequel.  I mean it is called ‘The Rise of Cobra’ after all, and we just get a taste of things to come towards the last 15 minutes of this movie.

The one that did surprise me however was the Joe’s dropping the “Shit” bomb as gratuitous as they did.  There were a couple of things in the movie that may have made the old cartoon watchers smile, like “Knowing is half the battle.” and the of course the reference to the “Kung Fu grip”.

Show Notes

• Bumper Music: “My ‘98 Old’s” - Public Enemy, Yo-Bum Rush the Show (1987)
• 00:35 - Introductions
• 01:10 - Discuss Cook’s Corner memories and atmosphere.
• 07:55 - Brian talks about recent trip with Luke across Canada, including camping, camera’s, and food.
• 29:59 - Brian gives us an update on his incredible wieght loss thus far.
• 33:30 - We talk G.I. Joe the movie (lore vs current re-imagining), Transformers, comics

Cook’s Corner

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Disaronno

Okay, I know I start this podcast by calling it number 7, but in fact it is actually episode 8.

I wanted to try something in a new direction, and seeing that I got some favorable response from a Facebook entry I posted recently on a grilled steak sandwich recently, I decided to devote an episode to basic grilling.  I’m not sure I’d call it Grilling 101, because I could talk on and on in regards to different subjects as it pertains to outdoor grilling, but I thought this was a good place to start, especially for those that are just sick and tired of plain hot dogs and hamburgers or may be afraid of the grill.

I’d be interested in what you think about this episode.  It ran a bit longer than I initially expected, but I’d like to think there’s a lot of good information in this episode.

Disaronno (pictured) is an Italian almond tasting liqueur which strangely does not have any nuts it anyway has an alcohol content of 28%.

Show Notes:

• 01:11:  Intro Song: Holiday for Strings (written by David Rose, performed by The Voice of Walter Schuman).  I ripped this segment from one of my Ultra Lounge CD’s.  I like it because it has a real ‘camp’ factor to it, and should transport you somewhere back into the early 1950’s.
• 01:55:  Disaronno liqueur and A&W root beer cocktail.
• 04:35:  Grilling 101 (charcoal v. coal, picking oils, cleaning, meat choices and quick grilling tips)
• 31:10:  Grilled steak sandwich recipe.

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Da Comrade!

I’m very excited to present this episode to you all.  I was finally able to get my childhood friend Brian Liles over for my first guest podcast, and hopefully we’ll do plenty more together in the future.  It was actually pretty easy to accomplish with just one microphone and turned out better than I anticipated.

So, here’s the setup…A few of my neighbors (Chip Beef & Ryan) and Brian went out earlier in the day to have a mess of hot wings and beer over at Wingstop.  Between the four of us we ate approx. 100 buffalo wings of various degrees of hotness (including the habenero induced ‘Atomic’) and went through at least five pitchers of beer.  Afterwards, Brian came over to my place, we cracked us some 22oz russian beers called ‘Baltika #3 ‘(4.8%), and sat down for this very podcast.

Brian has his own site dedicated to his love for offroading and his FJ Cruiser.  Go visit him at Brians4×4adventrues.com or click on the link in the right margin under my favorite links.  As I post this episode, Brian is actually on another roadtrip in Canada and he’s been updating his pages as well (finally).  You can see some gorgeous photos over there, but anyway, on to my show:

Oh, and the bumper music today is ‘Back in the Saddle Again’ by Gene Autry, so dig it!!

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Here’s the semi-official episode #2.  The guest that I had planned for the day had to reschedule so I took the time to put out a slightly longer solo episode today of me just burning off some rants and discussing Guinness Draft beer.  Think of this as an extended ‘test’ podcast as I continue to work out some kinks.  Just raw speech, sorry no music this time around.

Show notes:

:01 - Welcome and introduction to this episode.

1:23 - Guinness draft.

2:50 - History on Guinness.

4:15 - General ranting

4:40 - Grocery store parking in red.

5:19 - Texting or calls during movies.

6:35 - Work related calls.

12:02 - Rancho Santa Margarita trash receptacles

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Overflowing trashcans

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The last two Friday’s in a row, (and could tonight be the third?), I have found myself at a local water hole in RSM known as Amazing Grapes.  It’s a nice little place if you’re into wine tastings, but my friends and I discovered they have a nice little hand crafted brew section with a few fancy imports and domestics.

Best Extra Stout

Personally, I’m not really a wine person, or at least a pretentious wine snob who swirls a glass and stares at the ‘legs’ as they drizzle slowly downward as they cling to the glass.  I like a nice Pinot Grigio, an occasional Italian red, or even a mellow merlot.  But I don’t know enough to tell you the difference between a $8.99 bottle and a $49 bottle.  I do like my champagne though, and can tell a cheap bottle from a more mainstream and classy one.

But that’s not why my friends Jon, Joe, Chip, Ryan, Paul, and I go there.  No, like I said we can get a really good microbrew in this non-bar setting without drunken a-holes around, or a myriad of plasma flat panels all competing to grab your ear with the various sports highlights and a stereo system that only plays Brown Eyed Girl ad-nauseum.

One beer that I have discovered there is a stout from an Australian brewer, Coopers.  It’s called ‘Best Extra Stout’ and clocks in at 6.3% alc/vol.  It’s has a very robust and hearty flavor, but especially very smooth and dare I say creamy.  I enjoy stouts a lot, from Guinness to the various oatmeal varietals as well, and I must say this Cooper’s is one of my news favorites.  Has a very distinct smokey yet chocolaty taste.

If you get a chance, check it out.