d bar's drunken haze



So I went out with friends to D Bar and the beginning of the night was sharp in focus (and the drink was sweet-tart with maraschino cherry liqueur.) This is called the Aviation, but they were out of creme de violet. The mixologist, we'll call him since I'm bad with names, added a few other things (grenadine, a splash of sparkling something or other) and I liked it well enough. The cherry liqueur made it a bit too cloying for my liking.

I'm very picky with my drinks. I like them very sweet, but they have to be effervescent at the same time. There needs to be a lightness or a tart counterpoint for me to enjoy them fully.

The popcorn in the background had truffle oil, rosemary and some sort of cheese sprinkle on it. It was addictive for something I'd assumed was them trying too hard before I tasted it.

Anyway, the rest of the night quickly got out of focus like the following pictures. I tried an applejack drink with maple syrup, lemon and orange but it was a bit heavy on the orange and tasted like an glorified screwdriver. I would replace the orange juice with a crisp cider for bubbly goodness, up the applejack and use grade B maple syrup with a maple candy cube as garnish (or bribe, I do love maple candy).


I ordered the a meat and cheese platter. Soppresatta, prosciutto and three cheeses I forgot and forgot to take a picture of.  Did I mention it took a while for our food to arrive? It was partly because we took so long to choose, to be honest.

That's the last picture I can actually show at a relatively large size because my vision and my camera hand were quite unsteady, apparently.


 
I also had the creamy cannelini beans, which I loved.  There was sea urchin pasta that I didn't get a picture of and this delicious roast chicken with potatoes that was huge!

picture of porkitude | spring cleaning



This is a shoulder roast I made for New Years. Somehow I missed this picture.

In other news, I've done a little spring cleaning on the site and removed the dates entirely. I found them limiting and hard to place in the flow of the rest of the blog. Since the posts remain listed by date you'll still know when I slack. :P

I've added a few little CSS3 enhancements because I can.

simple shrimp scampi



This is really easy to make. I made enough for at least two days.

2lbs shrimp
8 cloves garlic minced 
half a head of parsley
1 stick of butter
olive oil
gin (yes, gin, I didn't have any dry vermouth on me)
the juice of 2.5 small-medium lemons
pinch of smoked  Spanish paprika
dash of Hungarian paprika
salt and pepper to taste. 

Rinse your shrimp and  lay to dry on paper towels while you melt the butter in a large pan. 

Add a glug or two of olive oil as the butter melts and heat until bubbly.

Add your shrimp either a bit at a time or all at once and remove the fully pink ones to a bowl then set aside.

When all the shrimp is cooked add the minced garlic and parsley till the garlic is golden brown. 

Pour a generous amount of  gin into the pan. 

Add the lemon juice and spices.  Cook till bubbly and reduced (basically until you can discern the oil from the rest of the mixture since most of the liquid will have evaporated).

Put the shrimp back into the pan and coat with the sauce.

Serve over warm pasta. I used thin linguini.