Porch Climbers

Recently re-named "bowl huggers" for obvious reasons...

Your summer just won't be complete without trying this punch!

Equipment required:

• large punch bowl or pitcher or serving device of this nature
• several friends willing and able to consume copious amounts of alcohol (don't try this alone!)

Ingredients/Directions:
One can frozen concentrated pink lemonade, empty into punch bowl, then using the pink lemonade can as a measuring device, measure one can of vodka, one can of whiskey (Crown Royal for example), and one beer into the punch bowl.

Mix with ice, serve and climb the porch!

Mrs. Hall Recommends

Welcome to Mrs. Hall Recommends; where I share what to eat, drink and enjoy. Let's begin with Basil Hayden's bourbon whiskey.

I'm a big believer that women should never ask for wine coolers or weak drinks. It takes practice though. If you only drink fruity drinks, I suggest starting with Captain Morgan and diet coke. It's nice transition to booze like Basil Hayden's.

To drink this, fill a glass with ice. Pour. Take a minute for the alcohol to chill. This will take the bark out of the bite. Then, sip. At first, it may be a bit jarring or rough on the palate. Power through this. After a few sips, everything comes together. Your mouth goes a bit numb, yet the taste buds remain intact.

Just a side note: I don't suggest drinking this at a barbecue or other social gathering. This is the good stuff. It's meant to be experienced. Not gobbled while you chat about your pedicure. I drink this after the kids have gone to bed, when Mr. Hall and I are alone. We lounge on the leather couch, watching a movie. Shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, holding hands.

Then, after a while, things start to change. At least for me. The booze soaks in, permeating my perceptions. My vertical hold becomes a bit fuzzy. My worries are hushed and my frenetic, forward motion is slowed. I don't fight this, I let it all happen.

At this point, the taste really starts to come through. The experience is almost complete. As I roll it around in my mouth; the golden spices linger, coating the inside. The bite is all gone now, nothing but warm nuzzles.

Somewhere around this point, I realize my toes are a bit numb. That's when I stop.

Take care everyone and happy drinking to you!

For more Mrs. Hall, read her blog here.

Hard Boiled

I'm the kind of guy who buys a dozen eggs and winds up throwing out six of them after a couple of weeks of them sitting in my fridge.  I just don't cook eggs or cook with eggs often enough to go through a fresh dozen in the proper time.

But I bought a dozen eggs a few days ago because I was making this tomato/roasted red pepper stew that calls for an egg poached in the middle of it.  Delicious...I've posted it on my regular blog, but I'll post it here again sometime soon.  Anyway, after a few servings of that, I still had 8 eggs left over that I needed to do something with.

Tonight, I decided to make some tuna salad.  And, occasionally, I like to add a hard-boiled egg or two.  So I figured this was a good opportunity to cook all the remaining eggs and leave the rest for some egg salad or something in the future.  But I've always...ALWAYS...had a tough time with the peeling of the cooked eggs.  I read about all the secrets and tried them all, but none ever worked perfectly.  Most of the time was like peeling an orange with half the rind coming off or half the fruit coming with it, instead of a freshly peeled and perfect egg.

Well, no more.

Tonight I watched this video on Youtube...and it changed my world.  Check it.

I didn't use the baking soda because I didn't have any, but all 8 eggs came out perfectly. Almost TOO perfectly. It was both awesome and kinda weird.

Dig it. I'll never try to peel an egg without the blowing technique again! Ahem.

Catdaddy Orangina

Since I've been talking about it non-stop on my not-so-personal blog and on Twitter, I figure it would be a good jump-into-the-fray point for this here food and drink blog.  So here it is.

The Catdaddy Orangina

Ingredients:
3 oz Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine
1/2 oz OJ
Ice to taste
Seltzer (soda water) to taste

• Fill yer favorite glass with the moonshine and the OJ.  If you can't find any Catdaddy in your local liquor store, feel free to substitute with any "White Dog" whiskey.  What's that you say?  It's basically a watered down version of the booze that is used to eventually make bourbon, or rye or what-have-you.  White whiskey, corn whiskey, moonshine...it's called a lot of things.  
• Now fill the glass with some ice. Use as much as you like.
• Now fill what's left of the glass with seltzer.

That's it.  What you will have will be a cool and crisp summer drink that has soooo much more character than a screwdriver ever did.  Why?  Because whiskey is better than vodka. Period.

Oh, and be sure to drink it with your rubber ducky.  At sunset.  It's just better that way.

Quack!

Greetings and Salutations

Since I haven't been blogging much lately, I decided that the best way to remedy that was to start ANOTHER blog. Silly wabbit.

Actually, I've been planning this blog for quite a while now.  I even wrote about it on The Verdant Dude several months ago, but I've been too lazy to get it going.  Now is the time. Simmer, Sip, Share is the place.  What's with the name? Nothing really.  I just wanted it encompass everything that I hope will be written about on this site. Cooking, eating, drinking and sharing those gastronomical delights with the rest of the Blogosphere.

So expect food recipes, drink recipes, restaurant and bar reviews and really anything at all that any of the contributors would like to share that has to do with food or drink.

What's that you say? Contributors? Hell, yes! I don't plan on doing this all by myself.  So I've sent invites out to some folks who expressed some interest in joining this collaboration.  For that's what cooking, eating and drinking is to me.  A collaboration amongst friends and family.

So add us to your feed reader, tell your friends, chat us up on Facebook or Twitter or whatever social media platform is your particular brand of whiskey.  And join us as we simmer, sip and share our experiences with you.

And if anyone out there would like to join in, let me know here in the comments.  I'll send you out an invite to join our merry band of funsters pronto.

It should be a fun ride.