Rio 2016

The 2016 Rio Olympics start this Friday, are you interested?

I've never been that big a fan of the summer Olympics, I mean Archery, Badminton, and Canoeing? Seems like only yesterday we were watching Michael Phelps swimming. This year they've added  golf, karate, rugby, roller sports and squash.  Roller Sports? And come on, I like playing it but watching Golf is slightly less exciting than watching paint dry.

I began to lose interest in 1988 when they started allowing professional athletes to compete and lost more interest in 1992 when they started the alternating two year cycle between the Winter and Summer games. Beijing - Vancouver - London - Sochi it's all a blur, the games had more impact when they were four years apart.

So what do you think? Are you psyched?

Yup, Still Summer

Many of you may be familiar with the Buster Poindexter version of this song.  It is considered Soca Music which is an offshoot of Calypso.  This version by Arrow is the original:

Bebel Gilberto: Summer Samba

A Bossa classic performed by two classics Elis Regina and Tom Jobim: Águas de Março

Lest you get confused about the waters of March remember that Brazil is in the southern hemisphere and Summer runs from December to March thus the song is about the rains at the end of summer.

It's still Summer

Fredrick Delius: A Song of Summer

Alexander Glazunov: Summer

Felix Mendelssohn: 

Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream 

Sorry We're Closed

I found this interesting... the mayor of Belmar, NJ shut down traffic into the town on Sunday claiming that the town had reached its capacity.  He may have been right, the town which has a year round population of around 6,000 swells to about 60,000 during the summer. On Sunday, the final day of the 29th annual seafood festival combined with near perfect weather estimates placed the number of people in the town of upwards of 200,000.

According to reports, unless you had a driver's license with a Belmar address you weren't getting in.  Makes me wonder what people who have a second home there thought of the entrance criteria, if it was me I'd be P.O'd.  I grew up going to the Jersey shore, and have lived in resort areas on both Cape Cod and here in Colorado and can't ever recall a town closing before.  What do you think? 

And if you're wondering why this town may seem familiar, it was where Tony Soprano kept his boat in the HBO series.

NJ.COM

Philly Mag  

It's getting to be that time of year

Photo: Brian Chu

Doesn't that look good?  My mouth is watering already. Since I jealously guard all my barbeque recipes, secret techniques, and the like. I'll share this with you:

Every year when spring and summer time rolls around we decide on a drink to serve al fresco when we grill.  We've done Mojitos, Mint Juleps,  Watermelon Basil Margaritas, and I still have nightmares about the gin based mint-cucumber cooler. This year I offer you this simple concoction:

The New York Sour

2 oz Bourbon or Rye (I use Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select).
1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice.
1 oz simple syrup

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake, shake, shake... you should get frost on the shaker. Or alternatively if you're one of those squirrelly types afraid of bruising your bourbon, you could stir.  I don't think it makes a difference if you use rye, personally I doubt it makes a difference to the bourbon either.  Pour into a Old Fashioned Glass (lowball or rocks glass) over ice.

Wait you say, that's a Whiskey Sour. Look, I'm not done yet.

Now... float (using an upside down tablespoon) anywhere from 1/2 to 1 oz of Malbec ( I use Ménage à Trois Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina) or Syrah (Shiraz for you Aussie types) wine on top.  There you have it, a New York Sour.

Now that you're finished making it there are two schools of thought on how to drink it; 1. Leave it alone and layered; 2. Stir. I prefer the former.

P.S. One can if one desires, add a raw egg white to the sour before shaking which yields a smoother, silkier drink.  Adding egg whites to sours was once a popular past time until the invention of Salmonella.

Swilling the Planters

We have a tradition in my demense of picking a drink each summer to be served throughout our brief but glorious summer season.  This season we have two candidates currently vying .

Bumbo

The first, also known as Bombo or Bumboo, was popular with pirates and colonial politicians.  George Washington's papers state that he used 160 gallons of rum to treat 391 voters to bumbo during his campaign for the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758.  It was so popular in colonial electioneering that the practice of rewarding voters was known as "swilling the planters with bumbo".

2oz rum (amber or dark preferably)
1oz chilled water
2 sugar cubes
Up to 1/4 tsp cinnamon to taste
Up to 1/4 tsp nutmeg to taste
1/2 tsp Grenadine
splash and garnish with lime

Surprisingly, despite the Christmasy ingredients, this goes quite well in the summer heat, although you may wish to consider that summer 'heat' in my neck of the woods is somewhere in the 70's.

Papa Doble

This drink was supposedly the favorite of Ernest Hemmingway from the El Floridita Bar in Havanna, hence its other name... the Hemmingway Daquiri

2 oz Agricole Rum (can substitute Cachaca)
1/4 oz Maraschino Liquer (no, not the juice from the cherry jar)
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/4 oz grapefruit juice
Shake with ice, strain and serve.

What are you drinking this summer?

Ah Summer! Time for the heat.

Despite the fact that we had 1/4 inch of snow yesterday morning, it is undeniable... Summer is coming! Time to dust off and fire up the grill, make some Mojitos, and break out the chips and salsa.

We've taken to making our own homemade salsa, it's fast and easy with a food processor, just don't go overboard on the processing part, it's supposed to be chunky, not soup.  My Avocado and Mango Salsa received rave reviews during last summer's BBQ season.

Meet the Carolina Reaper.

The lovely red peppers above are Carolina Reapers, current Guinness World Record holder at 2,200,000 Scoville units.  For comparison, pepper spray is generally 2,000,000 Scoville Units. 

Fox Premium Aerosol Defense Sprays use organic pepper resins that have at least a true 2,000,000 Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) rating.

In truth however, the heat of the pepper can vary from plant to plant and season to season, the Carolina Reaper on average ranges from 1,500,000 to 2,200,000.
 
Hmm... Only six bucks for a package of seeds.