Text 27038, 158 rader
Skriven 2009-08-04 19:24:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: picnic sunday II 976
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Mudslides - Lynn wanted one, so I made a batch using Turkey
Hill vanilla ice cream, Tia Maria, and Smirnoff: I'm told these
were very strong and good; the one slurp I allowed myself from
the blender pitcher seemed okay.

Lots of beer (already discussed elsewhere); various soft drinks -
one of these was an abomination of an energy drink that Lynnie
brought; it apparently has something like 5x the caffeine of
regular energy drinks. I put one drop on my tongue and could
feel just a tiny rush; others took up to a full swig, and whether
they got any sleep the next night I doubt. Maybe someone can
chime in on the identity of this product for the benefit of those
who might want to buy of it. Oh, yes, the flavor - sort of like
Juicy Fruit gum, only a little bitter, probably from the caffeine
or the guarana, and a little worse for it.

Ah yes, the two beers not discussed elsewhere:

Southern Tier porter - rather mild, pleasant, not very assertive;
a little coffeeish. A well-made, quenching beer.

Ommegang Abbey Ale - one of the most lauded domestic beers, which
does such a grand imitation of a real Belgian ale that many who
taste it can't believe it's made in New York. Darkish in color,
spicy nose, malty, a bit of banana and clove on the palate (a
signature of the Belgian style, and I don't like it). Long finish.
Also a hair thick and sweet for me.

Opera Prima Tempranillo 08 (La Mancha) was a dark purple,
very grapy wine, not bad for the price ($5), a little pineapple
to add interest, a little dried fruit, lots of fresh fruit, a
slightly astringent mouthfeel, a long fruity finish.

Nancy brought several kinds of relish for a tasting - 
inconclusive results except that Weggie's and Safeway's
appeared to be near-identical and I'd guess made at the
same factory (I didn't check the codes on the jars to see
if they really were). Not being a relishy sort of guy, I
will not comment further. She also brought Cadbury mini-eggs
in two different color schemes (so we could see if the colors
had different flavor characteristics, something I've claimed
in the past; but this activity got lost in the shuffle) and
the almost legendarily scarce dark chocolate Reese's, the
one food that I unequivocally claimed for myself at the end
of the picnic (that and the fat of the pastrami).

Downstairs Nancy was supposed to bring a veggie tray, but
instead she showed up in the middle of the afternoon, totally
stoned and empty-handed, and talked loudly and incessantly and
lengthily about subjects inappropriate to the company and the
setting (for example, trashing the upstairs neighbor, who is
quiet and nice and pretty and I guess that's why she did this).
As soon as she left (to change her father's colostomy bag, as
everyone learned), there was a collective sigh and laughter of
relief, followed by some choice commentary on the quality of
my friends. This was a mistake, see later.

For dessert, Lynn the elder had made banana bread in three
flavors, plain, with nuts, and with artificial sweetener. These
got mostly eaten at breakfast, but some was on hand to nosh on
later. I had the last, which tasted okay but altogether too
artificially sweetened.

Also I made a lokshen kugel mit kase, which nobody tasted, but
see later, and almond float (shin ren dofu), which I forced
people to taste. Like, you're not getting out of here alive
unless you have some of this.

There were fresh figs (a mix of ripe, underripe, and gone to wine)
and sugar plums; also and Betty Crocker candied blackberries and
blueberries (quite good, gotten from the supermarket on markdown
by Dave), as well as fresh grapes and blueberries from Nancy, and
a few Bing cherries from me. About the candied berries: the
blackberries seemed to lack much blackberry quality, being more
like figs with especially big nasty seeds, not bad for that, but
I couldn't see eating many of them - people seem to have agreed,
as I have quite a number of these left. The blueberries, however,
despite their sticky dried-fruit texture, have good typical aroma
and flavor, and people gobbled them right up.

Unfortunately, at an inopportune time, both Clean Dave and
Lynnie announced that they were feeling rotten. We sent them
all on their way, with best wishes. Maryanne drove the four
of them back, with Dave asleep the whole way. The recent
report is that Dave appears to have a flulike virus, but not
a particularly serious case, and Lynnie's is something that
manifests similarly but is not the same thing, also not serious.
I suspect that too much activity and not enough to eat, whoops,
I meant to say, sleep may have tired out their immune systems.

Things not eaten, some not prepared:

Sweet capicolla from Dave - I believe that two chunks
arrived; one left with the Fords; the other I thought of
importing to Canada, but the customs site says that all
meats are subject to quarantine and inspection (not the
other way round), so I guess that's a nonstarter. Someone
may get to taste it sometime, though. I do believe that
there's a midmonth Tacoma venture coming up for me.

Lettuce wraps - there is a nice big iceberg lettuce and
a pound of ground pork sitting there; the former will rot,
as I won't eat it unless as lettuce wraps, and there aren't
guests to help me with these, and lettuce wraps are not a
solitary-eater dish; the latter I shoved into the freezer.

7-bone steak - a nicely marbled one; I got this for just
a couple bucks so we could play; there wasn't any need for
it, and the Sacs had left in haste, depriving me of four
eager tummies and one very expert sous chef, so into the
freezer it went, too.

A pork tenderloin was going to be made into pork and
bamboo shoots and red roast pork. Ditto the freezer.

I won't be here much between next week and the first week of
September (going to Seattle, Williamsport, and Yellowknife),
so I guess Bill will be the beneficiary of most of this stuff.

Tribe roasted red pepper hummus - this was leftover from
a previous party. I guess it'll be left over to the next.

Bar Harbor brand canned whole cherrystones. Dave had
recommended this brand to me, so I figured on buying a bunch
of them; unfortunately, there was no room at the inn, so
there are four cans just sitting there. I can't put them
into the cabinet, as the thing is already overloaded.

Wine gums - from Dave, leftover from some other gathering -
for some reason these keep getting forgotten. They are
little gummy candies in fake wine flavors, with the
identity stamped on them so you can tell what's what.

Dave's hand-painted baby harp seal on a white coconut.
A piece of true folk art, but it had been sickly intended
by him and me to be clubbed to pieces and the coconut
meat extracted and eaten.

Another piece of meat from Market Basket, a shell sirloin
that was labeled and priced as select, but which I thought
marbled enough to be a mislabeled choice. I pan-broiled it
today for a minute a side and used it to taste the Bacon
Salts. All these products are about the same (the peppered
one has a little pepper, duh) - tasting halfway between
bouillon cube and that BBQ flavoring on potato chips that
stains your fingers red. I found that eating a little bit
of the fat from Dale and Gail's pastrami with it made a far
better taste.

I don't remember anything else offhand, and I've beat the
magic 100 lines anyway, by like 50 percent.

But wait, there's more, see later.


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