I Want a Date

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A few weeks back I happened to be looking through September’s issue of Food and Wine Magazine, as I was searching for inspiration for a fall themed dinner. I came across this great recipe for chorizo-filled dates wrapped in bacon — I had to try it.

I’ve wanted to make this recipe for some time now but have not really had a reason to (like one needs a reason to wrap anything in bacon.) However, a friend of mine invited me to a presidential debate party last Friday and all the guests were required to a bring a bottle or food. I was at a loss on what I could make until I saw this; it was great. Prunes and dates are both drupes (thanks wiki) so I figured it was a perfect tribute, McCain was going to get eaten alive by Obama so it seemed fitting that I make these.

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly as indicated in F&W because this was a gay debate party and all dishes had to be free of fats.

Recipe post jump

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Bougie Up That Sandwich

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We’ve talked a lot about crazy sandwiches here at ES,and one of my favorites I’ve ever heard of is the Southside Slope sandwich available at Pittsburgh’s legendary Fatheads sandwich shop: fried pierogies and kielbasa sausage topped with onions, American cheese and “horsey sauce.”

One of these days I’ll make it to Pitt to try this beautiful blue collar creation, but in the meantime I’ll have to content myself with my own knockoff version.

I had a couple of leftover frozen Mrs. T’s potato pierogies the other day when inspiration hit and I started emptying my fridge. Of course, when I empty my fridge, I don’t find things like American cheese and horsey sauce, but some odd slices of prosciutto and a little bit of herbed cheese. OK, I admit, as much as I talk about American food, I’m a pretty bougie motherfucker. But I also have to say, my classed-up Southside Slope–we’ll call it the Southside Park Slope–was pretty freakin delicious…

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Pickle Juice: Officially Makes the World Go Round

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Editors Note:  Some of you may remember the controversial pics of beer can chicken earlier this week.  Well, in conjunction with clawing at a bird until only the carcass was left – we also devoured brats.  And serious brats they were, as we now have our friend Weber, a descendant of the great cheese making state, telling us how to really cook up a brat.  Enjoy his simple, yet brutally honest, directions.  And not to steal Weber’s thunder, but I’ll be posting about the concept of eggplant at a tailgate in North Carolina and what I made with it.     

Wisconsin Beer Brats

Johnsonville Brats (or fresh ones from Farmers Market)
beer (Old Style or any cheap kind,  i.e. Milwaukee Best Light)
1-2 onions (big chunks are fine, peel the layers)
2 cup, roughly pickle juice (serves as a water base and adds flavor)

For Good Results:

Combining the beer, onion, pickle juice, & brats in a kettle and boiling on the stove for 20 minutes will yield “good” results and add tons of flavor.  You then can put beer and onions in a container with the brats to let them soak if you are bringing them to a tailgate.

For Best Results:

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Britannia Returns to the Commonwealth

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Britannia’s Note: This past Wednesday was my fifth year anniversary of moving stateside, so what better way to celebrate this then to head to the newest Gastro Pub in DC, Commonwealth, for opening night. My friend managed to get the best seats in the house, the only table next to the window looking into the kitchen, which was amazing. It’s like having a TV in the restaurant; don’t expect much conversation other than “oooh, what’s that, I want to try that” or for one particular dish, “WTF is that?” referring to the roasted bone marrow and parsley-shallot salad .

The food was really good, lots of dishes to choose from including an array of veggie options. We had the chips and Welsh rarebit to start. I would have maybe added the Scotch eggs to that too as they looked awesome. For the entree we all ordered something different to have a tasting. I’d recommend the Cornish beef and pork pasty as a real local English dish or perhaps the London broil. Oh, and the green bean casserole was fantastic (my friend liked this so much he ordered a dish to go). There are some items on the menu that I have never heard of, such as the frog in a puff — I couldn’t even tell you what that is. I think one of the main differences I noted from this food over traditional English pub fare was the quality — the meat in the pasty was excellent, unlike a traditional pasty in which you really won’t know what meat you are eating. But I guess that’s why they call it a gastropub!

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Now All We Need is Some BBQ Sauce Rain

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Yes, this is incredibly wasteful. Yes, we are all going to hell for our disgusting use of god’s creatures. No, there is no real reason why they’re necessary.

I don’t care, Meat Hats are awesome.

Hatsofmeat.com wans to see your own meaty creations.

Follow the Follower: Is it Chowder?

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So, my hubbie brought home a recipe from a coworker one day that was a take off on the Olive Garden‘s “Tuscan Soup”. I am not a frequenter of the Olive Garden, but had already had a recreation of this soup at a friend’s house and enjoyed it thoroughly. We started making it more or less from the recipe and have loved it for over a year now. Sometime in the last couple of months we lost the recipe. So now that I am making it from out of my head, and have tweaked a little here and there, and this last time we made it, the soup came out the best ever, I’m pretending it’s my recipe version.

I will share the deliciousness with you post jump, and you can help me come up with my own name for it and answer the question, “Is it a chowder?”

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Fartsy Photo of the Day

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Nationals Park – Washington, DC

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