« Archives in March, 2010

Well, I’m Jewish and Scottish, so This Entry Will Be About Cheap Scotch

March 7, 2010 / posted in Drink of the Month, Reviews / Comments Off

I love Scotch. This is fortunate, since I pretty much can’t drink any other kind of whiskey. It’s that corn allergy thing — only a nice single malt Scotch is guaranteed to be corn-free. Poor me, stuck with single malts. Well, poor in the sense that I can’t afford a $60+ bottle to enjoy properly. So, at home at least, I drink cheap single malts, usually priced somewhere in the $20s. I have a few favorites, but I’ve been craving to branch out a little more. Recently, I grabbed a few options below $30 at local stores:

The Three Scotches

What we’ve got here is:

If one Scotch is good, then three must be better, right? That meant there was nothing to it but to have a little tasting.

Bowmore Legend

Bowmore

Typically, I like the Islay Scotches, famous for their peaty, aggressive flavors, the best. So of course I was excited to try Bowmore’s entry-level option. Reviews online are pretty harsh, which I can understand, because this is a harsh whiskey when it hits your tongue. It smells like a proper Islay, smokey and peaty, with a hint of maple. Then you sip it, and it’s… all iodine and burn? But it opens — it’s not a wine, but it opens — and the peat and smoke and maple come out in the flavor. Early or after a while, Bowmore Legend finishes sweet.

The Dalmore 12-Year

The Dalmore

This is halfway to Bourbon in my mind. It smells very, very sweet and caramel-y. Fortunately, it isn’t as sweet to actually drink, which is good because Bourbon is sweet enough to make my cheeks sweat. The Dalmore has a pretty syrupy mouth feel, almost like you’re drinking an after-dinner drink. It’s tasty, but it doesn’t scream “Scotch!” to me. And I’m not usually much for subtle. The palate delivers on the caramel nose and color, although there’s some surprising ashy flavors in the aftertaste.

Speyburn 10-year

Speyburn

This tastes like apples and smells like apples. It’s actually quite astounding. If any Scotch could be described as “refreshing,” this is it. If you think you can guess the winner from this description, well, you’re right. It’s just a satisfying, delicious Scotch, with a unique flavor.

The Bowmore Legend is good, if you let it open; a perfectly nice Islay. Nothing special, except at the price — that’s special. The Dalmore is nice but really lacks anything to make it stand out. It might be a good first Scotch, and it is certainly a nice enough tipple, but it’s not unique.

That said, I have few fears I’ll fail to finish off all three. I’ll get back to you in a few months when I buy another round to follow this set.








Daytime TV-Friendly Dinners

March 2, 2010 / posted in Food, Uncategorized / Comments Off

Christmas brought a lot of things, not least of which was Rachael Ray’s Big Orange Book Cookbook. Now, I’m admittedly a big Rachael Ray fan, not so much for her cooking or her show as for her looks. But this was the first time I actually cooked anything from her. With no puns in mind, I picked a delicious-looking meatball recipe.

First I should probably say something about the Rachael Ray crush. If you’ve met my wife, you could probably guess that an aggressive, brash New Yorker with curvy hips would be just my twice. This came out early in our relationship: it only took a few weeks for me to fake up this photo for DJ L’il Bit:
Courtney or Rachael?

I’ll admit to being happy that I picked a redhead.

Anyway, back to the meal. It was quick, as advertised, although I complicated it up by making a side dish of mashed rutabagas. That’s right, rutabagas. If you caught the last cooking-related entry, you’ll know that rutabagas have become the low-carb household replacement for potatoes. They’re big winners, just boil them a smidge and the bitterness goes away. Tonight, we boiled them with salt and garlic, and then mashed them with rosemary, olive oil, and salt and pepper:
Rachael Ray's Meatballs

A great mashed potato substitute with half the carbs and twice the fiber. But the real point was the main course, the meatballs. I doubled the recipe, to make leftovers last all week long, and roasted them in the oven:
Rachael Ray's Meatballs

Meanwhile, I made Rachael’s fire-roasted tomato sauce with balsamic, adding in a bay leaf and some rosemary, mostly because the rosemary came from the backyard. Fire-roasted tomatoes in a can are incredible things, and, when you pair them with some delicately-sweated red onions, well, it’s just win all around
Rachael Ray's Meatballs

We threw a few frozen asparagus spears on the grill pan with some salt, pepper, and crushed garlic, just real quickly as a side dish:
Rachael Ray's Meatballs

Everything came together even better than I made it sound here:
Rachael Ray's Meatballs

It tasted even better than my non-existent food styling skills makes it look! With nothing but olive oil and lean beef, this dish is a cheap, healthy winner that we’re sure to make again.








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