Live the Live ™

There seems to be no end to the bourbon craze, and until it does end, I’m constantly looking for new bargains. For example, for a long time, my go-to bourbon was Eagle Rare 10 Year Old, which I could get for about $32 a bottle. It’s now up to $80 a bottle in some places. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not complaining. It probably deserves that price, being a 10 year old. But I’m not going to buy it for mixed drinks anymore. A good choice to replace Eagle Rare is Buffalo Trace. Interestingly, both are made by the Buffalo Trace distillery. But I can’t always find Buffalo Trace when I want it, so I needed to find something else. What I found was 1792 Small Batch.

 

 

1792 Small Batch bourbon is my latest bang-for-the-buck bargain bourbon find. At $28.99 for a 750 ml bottle, you just can’t beat it for mixing or dropping a big cube in it for sipping.

Barton 1792 Distillery makes the 1792 line of bourbons. They were established in 1879, and continue today as the oldest fully operational distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky.

I originally thought the name 1792 came from the year the distillery first created it, but in actuality, 1792 was the year Kentucky, widely recognized as the birthplace of bourbon, became a state.

 

 

I wasn’t much of a gin drinker until my trips to New Zealand and Scotland, where I discovered a whole new world of gin.

Before my travels, I was looking for a London dry gin to use in my Vesper martini recipe, and had heard about Ford’s gin. It didn’t take much convincing for me to try it when I saw that the price was $28.99 for a full liter!

 

 

Ford’s London Dry Gin was created by Simon Ford, a man who was looking for one gin that would work in all of the gin cocktails out there, making it the bartenders’ choice for any gin cocktail. With the help of bartenders, distillers, and avid drinkers, he came up with this London dry gin, featuring nine botanicals. It’s delicious, not overpowering like many gins can be, so it really does work well with any recipe you might use gin for.

In addition to taste, he thought about the bartenders themselves. The bottle is tall and ergonomically shaped, making it very easy to handle. Back when I was considering going to market with my homemade honey liqueur, the shape and size of the bottle was an incredibly important decision. Shorter, wider bottles might be put in the front row of a bar, but they’re more difficult to pour, and small hands can’t hold them properly. A taller bottle is easy to spot, and easier to handle. Ask any bartender, and they will tell you that they will go for the bottle that’s easiest to use if they have to make drinks all night long. 

The bottle also has measurement markings on the side, which allows you to measure out enough for large batches of martinis, say, if you’re having a party.

But the best part of all is the value. And it’s great in a Vesper or a simple gin and tonic.

 

 

Perhaps the best-known Scottish gin is Hendrick’s, found at just about any bar in the states. But another good choice is The Botanist, as is a harder-to-find Caorrun and Lind and Lime. They aren’t inexpensive, but they are good.

Much of my gin knowledge first came from my recent trip to New Zealand about a year-and-a-half ago. I had some interesting conversations with Nick, the owner of Kismet Cocktail & Whisky Bar in Nelson, NZ, a very well stocked bar with a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff. Finding a place like that in your own town is not as easy as it sounds, as many bars stock the same booze from the same suppliers and don ‘t really make an effort to stand out in the crowd. If you find a place like that, consider yourself lucky!

 

And that’s a great starting point. If you’re curious about different spirits, go to a well-stocked bar where they won’t mind giving you a taste before you go to a store to invest in a whole bottle. A little “scientific research” is a good thing!

Not everyone agrees as to the origins of vodka sauce, some claiming it was invented in Italy in the mid-1970s, and others claiming it was created in an Italian restaurant in New York City. But one thing most people can agree on is that it’s absolutely delicious!

Pasta alla vodka is a favorite of my daughter’s, as are gnocchi (little Italian potato dumplings), so we gave it a shot the other day for dinner, and the results were fantastic.

 

This is not a low-calorie dish by any stretch of the imagination, but we chose to lower the calories at least a little bit by going with half-and-half instead of heavy cream, which is the standard. We didn’t miss it.

I found it interesting that many of the recipes online don’t warn you about being careful with the vodka. It is, after all, 40% alcohol, so when you add it to the pan later in the recipe, take the pan off the heat, away from any open flame, and then ignite it carefully, letting the alcohol burn off before continuing. Don’t walk away from the stove! Serious fire hazard!

We also added some chicken to this dish. I cut up a couple of chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, and sautéed them in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper until they had a nice sear on them. I then removed them from the pan and set them aside. I brought them back to the pan when I heated the gnocchi for a few minutes, then added the sauce. (See below.)

1 lb. pasta (or gnocchi)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup vodka (use whatever brand you like)
14 oz. ground tomatoes
1 cup half-and-half
1 pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

 

In a large skillet over medium heat, I added the olive oil and butter, and then the onion, and sautéed them for a few minutes, until the onions were translucent. Then I added the garlic and cooked a few minutes more.

I removed the pan away from the heat and away from flame, and carefully added the vodka, igniting the alcohol and letting it burn off before returning the pan to the heat. I cooked and stirred for a few minutes.

I added the tomatoes and cooked for a few more minutes. It’s at this point that you can determine just how thick you want your sauce to be. Because we’re using half-and-half later instead of heavy cream, I let the sauce cook down a little bit to thicken it up.

 

I added the red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste, stirring it in.

I reduced the heat to low and added the half-and-half, stirring and simmering for a few minutes, being careful not to let it overheat or it could curdle.

 

I drained the cooked gnocchi and placed it in the pan I sautéed the chicken pieces in, adding a drop of olive oil. Over medium heat, I just kept tossing the gnocchi in the pan until they got a little bit of color on them. (This is where I added the already seared chicken pieces back to the pan.) Then I added the sauce and Parmigiano Reggiano, mixing well.

If you’re using pasta, place it directly in the pan with the sauce, combining well. If the sauce is a little too thick, add some pasta water. Then add all of the Parmigiano Reggiano, and mix well until the cheese has blended into the sauce. Serve!

 

I was going to prepare some teriyaki beef sirloin tips for dinner a few weeks ago, and my daughter requested potatoes instead of rice. But she wanted an Asian-inspired potato side dish. Now, that’s something I’d never heard of before, so we did some research and she came up with a recipe on line that seemed interesting. We took it, and made it our own.

 

 

1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces, skin on
1/2 a Vidalia onion, chopped
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil or other neutral oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 scallion, sliced thinly

 

 

Cut the potatoes into smaller pieces, if needed, and place them in a large pot of cold water. Since you’re using soy sauce, which has a lot of salt in it, salting the potato water is optional. Cook the potatoes until they’re just fork-tender.
Drain the potatoes, and set them aside.

Chop the onion to the same size (or smaller) as the potatoes.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the oil. Add the chopped onion, and sauté them until they’re translucent.

Add the minced garlic and stir.

Add the potatoes, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is mostly absorbed.

Add the sesame oil to the potatoes and mix well.

Transfer the potatoes to serving dish and garnish with the scallions.

My daughter likes to find new recipes on line for us to try. And although they might look like new ideas to her, the ingredients tell me these recipes came from somebody’s cookbook from the 70’s.

Hey, maybe I’m the exception to the rule, but I haven’t opened a can of cream-of-anything soup in at least 30 years…and that includes cream of mushroom for the classic Thanksgiving bean casserole. (I’ve never made one.) Maybe it’s because I wasn’t raised on Betty-Crocker-midwest-American fare. My parents were from Lithuania, and we had our own list of favorites that would probably raise a few American eyebrows.

But my daughter had friends coming over to hang out for a few hours, and I always like to cook something for them. (I learned from my mom and grandmother a long time ago that you don’t invite someone over without feeding them.)

 

This casserole recipe my daughter chose, originally called something like “Chicken Spaghetti,” had some good ideas, but wrong ingredients for a group of teenage girls who could be a bit finicky. For example, it called for 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup. I decided to ditch the mushrooms and I substituted one can each of cream of celery and cream of onion. The recipe called for green peppers. I chose to use peas and corn. And since it was all going into a casserole dish, spaghetti seemed like the wrong pasta. We went with smaller penne instead.

We made it a day ahead…keeping it wrapped in the fridge. But if we needed less than what this recipe made, we would’ve divided it into two smaller casseroles, freezing one of them (before cooking) for future use.

 

1 lb. pasta
1 can (10.5 oz.) cream of celery soup
1 can (10.5 oz.) cream of onion soup
1 cup chicken broth
2 to 3 cooked chicken breasts (about 3 cups shredded)
1/2 cup peas (frozen is fine)
1/2 cup corn (frozen is fine)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I use Lawry’s)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
2 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar, divided

 

Homemade chicken stock is the best. If you don’t have any that you’ve made from the leftovers of previous chicken dinners, and you don’t have any store-bought stock in your pantry, here’s any easy cheat…

Get a pot and fill it with about 6 cups cold, clean water. Put the pot over high heat. Chop up a carrot, a stalk or two of celery, and 1/2 an onion and toss them in the pot. Then add the raw chicken breasts you’re going to use in this dish.

Bring the pot to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium until the chicken breasts are thoroughly cooked and the liquid in the pot has reduced by at least half.

Strain the veggies out, and what you have left is basic chicken stock.

 

If you’re going to cook this dish the same day, pre-heat the oven to 350.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. (Two smaller pans if you’re dividing the recipe.)

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, but stop the cooking even before the pasta reaches the al dente stage. (It will cook more in the oven, so you don’t want it mushy.) Drain the pasta and set it aside.

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until it’s translucent.

Get out a large bowl and add the can of cream of celery, the can of cream of onion, the sautéed onions, the peas and corn, the shredded chicken, the chicken stock, the cooked and drained pasta, the seasoned salt, the cayenne, and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese. Season with the salt and pepper, to taste. Mix well.

 

 

Pour the contents of the bowl into the 9 x 13 pan (or between the 2 pans if dividing), and top it with the rest of the cheese. This is the point where you wrap and freeze or continue to the oven.

 

Bake for 40–45 minutes, until it’s nice and bubbly. (If it looks like the cheese might burn, cover it with foil.)

If you’re freezing this recipe for later, wrap it tightly in plastic and foil before placing it in the freezer. A day before you want to cook, take it out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge for 24 hours. Then cook as usual.

 

To give you a good idea of just how many people walk through the doors of the Guinness Storehouse at St. James Gate, in Dublin, Ireland, every year, the tour was listed in 2023 by World Travel Awards as the world’s leading tourist attraction.

 

 

It’s located on the grounds of the original Guinness Brewery, brewing in that location for over 250 years. Arthur Guinness himself signed and sealed a deal with the city in 1759 to lease the property for 9000 years!

 

 

If you’re looking for a simple brewery tour, this isn’t it! It’s more like a multi-media 5-story Disney walk-through than a brewery tour.

If you go to the website, you can see all the tour extras that they offer, all with an extra admission price, and you can customize the trip to your liking.

 

 

Some folks were disappointed to find that it wasn’t a simple brewery tour, but when you think about it, how could you possibly get that many people through the door any other way?

I thought it was a fun experience, topping it all off with a taste of a fresh pint of Guinness on the 7th floor at their newly expanded Gravity Bar.

 

 

The Gravity Bar is worth the visit even if you don’t want a drink, because it features the best 360° views of Dublin.