Make Me Something: Day #2 Drink #2

The Long Island Iced Tea,  a classic.  Many restaurants and bartenders claim to have been the first to invent the Long Island.  Per Wikipedia: Long Island Iced Tea, a summer drink, was first served in the mid 1970s by Robert (Rosebud) Butts, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn, in the Town of Babylon, Long Island, New York. 



I used what I had, some top shelf, some not so much.



Here's what I know about Long Islands: #1. They don't have any actual iced tea in them people!  They're named as such because of their color when you mix the alcohol, sour mix and cola. 

#2. They mess you up...bad.  In my 13 years bartending, I've seen best friends fight, couples break up, unassuming sweet guys turn into total douche bags and the occasional innocent shy librarian type transform into the worst kind of Cougar.  You know the type, just a little too old to be wearing a skirt that short and a top that tight.  She's had enough liquid courage to dance, but she's not really pulling it off.  She's flashing back to her mid 20's, and assumes she still looks as such, but it's more like a hurt bird with a broken wing.  But I digress.  

Long Islands have a sweet/tart way about them that goes down easy and you don't realize what hit you, and that it was a bad idea, until it's too late...like broccoli before date night.  This recipe was next on my list and I'm not really sure what the 3-Mile has to do with it beside someone trying (and failing) at being clever.  Being that 3 Mile Island is where a nuclear meltdown happened, perhaps they're claiming this drink is "nuclear"...whatever.  Below is the classic Long Island recipe, with the exception of the bitters.  I'm seeing a lot of bitters in my list of recipes which makes me think these have all come from a European source as bitters aren't as widely used in the States. 

3-Mile Long Island Iced Tea

Shake it up with my handy dandy black metal shaker.

      Ingredients:
        1/2 oz Gin
        1/2 oz Light rum
        1/2 oz Tequila
        1/2 oz Triple sec
        1/2 oz Vodka
        Coca-Cola
        Sweet and sour
        Some dashes Bitters and Lemon

Mix all ingredients with the exception of the the last 3 in a shaker tin w/ ice.  Shake, pour into pint glass, top with cola and enjoy...but make sure your skirt is long enough if you're in public.

Ahh Yes.  Looks like tea huh?



That's my Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson tasting face.



 Next Up: 3rd Street Promenade

Beer Makes Everything Better

July 4th weekend 2011.  We were not about to brave the crowds downtown on Independence Day so instead we went to a smaller festival in Greer, SC on Sat. July 2nd.  Pronounced Grerrr (mumble it) by the locals, Greer is a small town outside of Greenville, SC that has recently gone through a revitalization and has quite a pretty downtown area with a beautiful new park.  Knowing we'd need a little strength (and a little beer) to handle 3 excited kids we headed to our favorite (and only one we know) restaurant Wild Aces.  It's a pizza and beer joint with lots of craft beer on tap.  I didn't photo the food but rest assured we consumed lots of wings, salad and pizza.  We didn't choose this eatery for the food...oh no...it was for the beer. Enjoy the picture montage.



Rogue Dead Guy Ale - yum





Nothing like having your kid sit at the bar.  We call this "Early Training".



Notice the matchy shirts.  They won't let me do this for much longer.



Things were getting a little silly





Waiting for the fireworks. What's that smell?





Awesome.  We found our fireworks watching spot right next to the pet waste area.



Make Me Something

Make Me Something is my new series of posts where I'm gonna "Julie and Julia" the heck out of a list of 2000 cocktails my father-in-law was jerky kind enough to send me.  If you recall my post about Crowjito's, you'll see where I got the title from.

I thought long and hard about doing this challenge, weighing the pro's and con's, the cost involved and the sheer pain of having to try 2000 drinks, (cough cough) but....I'll do it!  I'm going to start at the very top of the list and work my way down (the first drinks begin with number and number names, and then we'll get to the A's).  If I find some to be repetitive we'll just skip em. 

**Please note that the bartending/service industry world is a scary, scary place filled with little more than foul language and sexual harassment.  I will do my best to protect you from the raunchy names of most of these drinks but please look away if you get embarrassed *blush*. 

Day 1 - Drink #1   The 2"x 4"
I did a little research and per Southern Comfort recipes this is also called a BearF*cker or a Jumpstarter for those faint of heart.

OMG.  I had to read the text underneath this drink several times to make sure I saw it correctly.  Let's begin with the recipe first and then we'll all have a good guffaw.

Recipe

2 cl* whisky

2 cl* Southern Comfort

3 drops Angostura bitters

Ice Cubes

* a cl is a centiliter which no one uses in the states...that should've been my first clue as to where this drink was originally from.  For our purposes, I used .5 oz. for a tasting.

Here are the directions that followed the recipe:



Somebody needs some botox.

First put the ice in the glass. Then pore the whiskey and the Southern Comfort
into the glass. Drip with the Angostura. Stir it together.

The drink was originally invented in my home town Arendal. Me and a friend was
looking for something that really gave a "kick". The name 2" 4" was given,
because its like to be hit in the head with a 2" 4".
------------------------------------------------

Holy crap.  I'm crying because I'm laughing so hard.  I'm not sure what's funnier, the poor spelling or the poor grammar.  So I looked up where Arendal is, the Deliverance banjo playing in my head, praying it was some back woods town in a southern state (calm down, I live in a southern state, I'm allowed to say things like that) and it's in Norway! What?! Alright, alright.  I forgive you and give you a pass for the grammar. 

Getting back to the drink, I give it a 2.5 out of 5.  I love me some SoCo but whiskey is not my poison of choice.  Tastes like it would put hair on your chest and I'm having enough hormonal problems at my age.  I could see myself in Vegas, at a blackjack table with a cigar drinking something like this.  But I stink at blackjack and cigars are gross (but I heart Vegas!) so nope, won't be having this one again. 

SN: As I reach the end of my review I have surprisingly found myself with an empty glass and a buzz, guess it wasn't all that bad :) Cheers!

Coming up next: 3 Mile Long Island Iced Tea (which I seriously may get to tonight)

What's For Dinner? Asian Glazed Salmon, Crispy Potato Cake and Cucumber Radish Salad

Most of my Facebook friends see my daily status updates of "What's For Dinner" where I describe what I'm cooking that night.  I get lots of comments like, "Stop teasing us." and "When can I come over?" and "How about a recipe?".  I thought I would share some of my (better) dinners on here so you can maybe try them for yourselves or just take away a little inspiration.

This night I made one of my favorite lighter summertime dinners using salmon.  I prefer to buy fresh salmon but frozen will do, especially for our busy schedule. 

I first took 4 skinless salmon fillets (you can keep the skin if you like that) and marinated them in a terriaky glaze.  You can buy it bottled or just simply throw together a sauce of soy, ginger, garlic and pineapple juice. 

While those marinated, I thinly sliced a cuke and a few radishes.  I then add white wine vinegar and a Tbs. of sugar which makes a pallet cleansing salad, like you would find in most Thai restaurants. 

While the cukes and radishes were soaking in their tangy, sweet pool of goodness I got started on the potato cakes.  I happened to have a bag of shredded potatoes used for hash browns which works awesomely as a time saver.  I swirled a small amount of vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet, let it heat up to med - high and placed piles of the potatoes inside.  I squished them down with a spatula and seasoned with salt and pepper.  These actually take quite a while to get a good brown crisp on them but it's worth the wait.

I have a handy, dandy grill pan that gets used almost every night of the week.  I heated up a bit of olive oil in my grill pan and cooked up my salmon.  Now some people like their salmon cooked hard but I like mine just done through so about 5 min. one side and 3 on the other.

I plated my salmon, my salad and my potato cake, adding a dollop of sour cream and some green onions from my garden to make a delicious, fresh, healthy, whole food meal.  Bon Appetit!

Beach Bumming

What's one of the perks of living in the south?  A short drive to the beach! I LOVE the beach.  I love the sand, the surf, the crabs, the seagulls, the shells, the sound of the ocean, the blaring sun, the cliche, neon, filled with junk "one on every corner" souvenir shops.  But most of all I love people watching.  I love that some of these people actually tried their bathing suits on in a store, looked in the mirror and thought to themselves, "yeah, I look good in this".  Shameful, but I digress.  Well maybe that's not my absolute favorite thing to do, that would be making happy memories with my family.



This past weekend, Cory, the kids and I went to Myrtle Beach, SC to meet up with some old friends Mike and Kristy and their 4 year old Nicholas.  We sunned, we ate and we drank.  Here is a little overview of it all.



The first awesome thing we saw was a Delorean.  How often do you get to see one of those?

We were only going to be in Myrtle for 2 days so we had to make the most of it.  We hit the sand first thing, with a stocked cooler of beer and juice boxes.  After baking for a few hours we headed to dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, The Flamingo Grill.  Now, Myrtle is full of chain places to eat but we don't subscribe to that.  We prefer the family owned, eclectic places with awesome food.  It was (Yes!) happy hour when we got there.  I, of course, sampled the martini menu, and Cory, of course, had beer.



When vacationing near the ocean you just have to take advantage of the fresh seafood.  I started with a cup of She Crab soup.  For those of you not familiar, She Crab is a thick, rich bisque-like soup finished with sherry.  The names comes from the fact that it's only supposed to be made with female crabs, which today doesn't always stand true.  I make sure to try it in every SC restaurant.  This one was in my top 5 favorites.  We all shared a big ol' fried plate of calamari, crab cake and fried lobster bites.   For my entree I had a half portion of their Scallop Pasta which was super flavorful and plenty of food after that decadent soup.



Appetizer



 

Scallop Pasta








She Crab



After filling our bellies with delicious local seafood and a couple cocktails, we retired to our friends hotel room to take in the 16th floor view.

Nicholas & Quinny




 

Mike & Cory

Kristy and Me

The next day we hit the hotel pool where surprisingly there were many other activities besides swimming.  The kids kept themselves busy playing a game of giant chess, and Quinny not only had a few shallow kid areas to play but we also got to tye-dye a little canvas beach bag for her.

No trip to Myrtle would be complete without a stroll around Broadway at the Beach, a big ol' pier around a man-made lake with every shop, restaurant and tourist trap you could imagine.

On our departure day we had promised the kids they could spend their "vacation money" on something and they chose to take a ride on a trampoline jumper.  Abby was the only one who managed a flip - see pic.

I also got a few quick videos of the kids taking their turns: (Sorry they're sideways!)

Delicious Irony

Memorial Day Weekend 2011.  A trip was planned to visit Cory's sister Jenifer & fam, and to meet their new baby Lucas.  Always on a quest for a blog-worthy culinary experience, I attacked Google head on during our 9 hour car ride.  I was on a quest to find what delicacy was indigenous to Indianapolis and determined to try it and write about it.  Upon first search it seemed steak houses were the #1 most popular food destinations amongst Hoosiers.  While I love a good steak, it was certainly not the gem I was looking for. 

Here in the story is where my title "Delicious Irony" is born...with of course a little back story for entertainment. 

The Back Story

My corn-fed mid west husband grew up in the small rural Illinois town of LaSalle/Peru lovingly referred to as LP.  (SN: I've often wondered if the two town names are combined due to the small size.)  I've been to this town numerous times and the locals have very strong (positive) opinions about the restaurants found there.  I've been lucky enough to have had the super crispy fried chicken at John's Northstar, the Buttermilk Dill salad dressing at Uptown Grille and even a drunk 3am post wedding chow down (with the bride and groom still in full dress) at the Steak N' Shake, but there is always one place I refused to go.  The Igloo. (see above right) The Igloo is categorized as a "Drive-In" although I'm not sure why.  It's a small white concrete building that serves (apparently) awesome food.  They serve their food on wax paper and Febreeze seems to be the principle cleaning agent.  Being that we didn't get too many opportunities to visit Peru, I was forced happy to eat lunch here because Cory had to have a "pork" while in town.  A "pork" is a flattened, fried pork tenderloin sandwich that sticks out about 2 inches in every direction, served on a hamburger bun with your choice of condiments.  Never in my life have I heard of this, and I was nervous about the restaurants condition so I was unwavering in my refusal to try one...it just sounded gross and I highly doubt an "A" sticker would be placed on the front door if visited by DHEC.  I now know that the smallest, dingy-est dives are where you usually find the best food but I digress.  Here is where we connect the first part of the entry with the now. 

The Now Story

Ironically, the #2 most popular food in Indianapolis is...you guessed it...a fried pork tenderloin sandwich!! What?? I've been shunning it all these years (10 to be exact) and here it is, I now know I have to try one.  Indianapolians (not sure if that's a real word) have very strong opinions about where to get a "pork".  Mug N' Bun (best name ever) seemed to come up as the most favorable.  After arriving at our destination, I asked our hosts where this place was and OMG! It was only 5 miles from their house!!!  It seems the tables had turned and I was the one forcing urging everyone to go get a "pork" for lunch.  Well after about 6 hours of impromptu yard work, we were ravenous.  We headed dirty, tired and hungry to the Mug N' Bun and as we pulled in the clouds parted, the sun shone through and I'm pretty sure Angels started to sing somewhere in the background. 

A true Drive In, the carhops still place trays on the your car window (half rolled down!) . The air was thick with the smell of something, everything frying in hot oil.  It smelled like...well...nostalgia.  The Mug N' Bun is over 50 years old and I guarantee not much has changed in that time.  The "pork" is their most popular menu item but coming in a close second is the house-made root beer which was cold and frosty and vanilla-ee.  I surveyed the area, camera clicking away and the anticipation of impending artery clogging was almost too much to bear.   Not wanting to stay in the car there was also a second option to dine on picnic tables around the side of the building.  We went for the third option of eating inside a small building with about 10 tables.  Being that it was not only a holiday but also the weekend of the 100th Indianapolis 500, the place was packed!  Even at 2pm!  I will reiterate that we were all very very hungry when I tell you we ordered $77.00 worth of $4.00 items.  Obviously we all had a "pork" as well as the fries, colossal onion rings and the second most ridiculous sweet potato fries ever, the first being in a previous post which you can read about here: Duck Fat Fries.

 



Monster Onion Rings as big as your head!

They served them with cinnamon sugar! Genius

Yeah, yeah...I know.  I look terrible. Just remember this was after 6 hours of yard work.

The "pork's" were tasty.  I asked everyone what their condiment preference was and everyone was different!  Not even the waitress could tell me what was "typical".  I really wanted the complete experience so I tried a little of everything.  American cheese, lettuce and tomato on the whole thing and then a bite with mustard, a bite with ketchup and a bite with pickles.  My only complaint is that the meat itself was breaded (not floured like in LP) and it was a little on the bland side.  I'm thinking that may be by design since people add so many salty condiments. 

What else can I say?  Those LP'ers know their food!  I was delightfully surprised and I can now cross a "pork" off my never have must-try list.  I hope you've enjoyed my deliciously ironic story :)

PS - For all you LP'ers reading this, I may just devote another entry to Rav's vs. Tortellini...you know who you are.