tommy:eats

Skinnygirl margarita: sold out

Edit:  Click here for the taste test/review.

A sign of the end of civilization as we know it.  People are gobbling this stuff up.  Draining bottles of it into their naive gullets.  Few having any clue of what a proper margarita should taste like, much less how easy one is to make.

A sign by the door of Harding Liquors in Ridgewood, NJ

Stirrings: Simple Syrup

There's a discussion on chowhound.com on where to find simple syrup...made by Stirrings.

At first I thought I must have misread the post; surely Stirrings isn't bottling sugar water and selling it as "simple syrup" (and if they were, surely no one is foolish enough to buy it).  Bottling and selling sugar water (or more accurately, corn syrup water) is nothing new of course, but at least you get the satisfaction of a clever name like "Coke" or "Grenadine" with other sugar water products.  However, a quick jump to the Stirrings website confirmed my fears:  they are selling simple syrup.  At 5 bucks for 12 ounces!

Brilliant stuff.  

My first inclination was to ask the posters on Chowhound what advantage they see in using this product, rather than making simple syrup on their own.  However, the moderators (and quite frankly the posters to a large extent) at Chowhound do not appreciate questions and open discourse, and my question would have ultimately gone unanswered in any satisfactory way, and then removed.

That's OK though, because it seems that the folks at Stirrings knew people might be questioning the rationale behind such a ridiculous product, so they do offer an explanation:

Abma's Farm: Wyckoff, NJ

If you're like me, you call it Amba's Farm.  For some reason it's tough to get my head (and mouth) around "Abma".  But, it's Abma's Farm.  Somewhat related, I realized only this weekend that the word is "Valedictorian", and not "Valevictorian".  Thankfully I don't claim to be very bright, although my class rank was in fact 17 out of over 200.  But spelling/grammar/English wasn't my strong suit, as anyone who reads the drivel on this blog can attest to.

But on to what I do know about...

I visited Abma's Farm a few times a few years ago, and mentioned it here and there on this blog.  Others have been mentioning it as well, so I thought I'd give it some more exposure.

Abma's grows and raises a lot of its stuff.  For that reason alone, you should support them.  I don't know of too many family owned farms around our parts these days.  And that's yet another reason to support them.

In the spirit of the lowest common denominator bloggers that pepper the internet, I'm going to simply post a bunch of pictures, while pretending I've said something substantive and interesting.  And here ya go (please note that I resisted the urge to blur out 80% of each shot under the deranged impression that you should only be able to see "the important part"):

Bacon-wrapped filet: for the EXTREMELY busy

The Midland Park A&P has this.

I hope you find this as amusing as I do.

Super Bowl: Margaritas

It's 6 hours until kick-off.  And when I say kick-off I mean the time when the shaker meets the ice.

This year's Super Bowl theme at the t:e organization's home base is "Mexican," having recently returned from a trip to the beautiful Riviera Maya where I fell in love again for all things tequila, including Anejo and Reposado, which I had yet to warm up to.  

But, we're talking about margaritas here (not very Mexican, actually), and for that particular cocktail, I'm partial to un-aged tequila. Ask me in two years and I'll surely be going on about how a Reposado is much better in a margarita.  I've been known to change my mind on these issues.

Let's make something clear right up front, and set the tone here:  a margarita should contain no more than 4 or 5 ingredients.  It should also not be neon green in color.  And it most certainly shouldn't taste like candy.  If you see anything like this stuff pictured below, run the other way.

Cici's Pizza Buffet: commercial

I'm slack-jawed.  I just saw something on TV, and had to rewind it.  Twice.  To try to figure out why I wasn't getting the joke.  I came to find out that it wasn't a joke at all.   This is really a commercial for Cici's Pizza, a chain which specializes in a spongy, rubbery, doughy product, which I can only assume is supposed to be reminiscent of pizza.

They've managed to make unappetizing food seem even more unappealing than it already is.  This, is a masterpiece.

Assuming you actually want to eat something notable in New Jersey, check out New Jersey Monthly's recent article on pizza.  You can find it here (click).

Masaokis cooking and cleaning

I'm endlessly fascinated by this.  I don't know if it's real, fake, sad, funny, but I know I can't take my eyes off of it...

Sliders: small burgers are better!

Who doesn't love a good slider.  Practically every bar and restaurant are serving sliders of some sort, and people gobble 'em up.  But you can make them at home, too.

I must admit, I love sliders as much as the next guy. Those tiny little nuggets of beef and onion, and a little tiny cute bit of bread.  So much fun.  So little.  A quick little mouthful of goodness.  What's not to like.

I made a pretty good slider today.  I decided to err on the side of small, because smaller is better with sliders, right?  Who doesn't like a plate of 4 sliders.  That's awesome.

Food drive: North Jersey, Sunday, October 4

I just saw this on the Second Helpings blog.  I'm not sure why I'm just seeing it now, but better late than never.

This Sunday, October 4, from 12-4, there will be a food drive throughout the north Jersey area.  Honestly it couldn't be easier to get food to a food bank, since you can just drop it off at your local supermarket while you're there picking up ingredients for larb or whathaveyou.

Click here for info on Action Against Hunger.  Click here to see where you can drop off food.

Give til it hurts, and then eat larb.

Butchering a pig: Jeffrey Ruhalter, a video

I saw this video on Gourmet magazine's website, gourmet.com, and was fascinated.  It's one of the best demonstrations and explanations of pig parts that I've seen.  Even though you will likely never butcher a pig, I think it's helpful to understand where those chops and ribs are coming form.  Putting it all into context may help you make better decisions.  And to refer back to a rant I had earlier, you'll see there's no mystery meat on a pig, just as there's none on a chicken.  Or you, for that matter.  It's all very clearly defined, and very good.  

Take a look! (click me).

And of course, if you want to butcher a cow, there's a related video for that, and all kinds of other good stuff.