We have thing for getting sideways with classic cocktails and then turning them into poptails. This week the classic rum and coke has been flipped to a Dirty Pirate.
That’s rum and coke with a some Kahlua. While we’d love to take credit for this awesomely name cocktail, we can’t, but we are taking credit for turning it into poptail ,at the suggestion of a co-worker.
Pirates, Coke and booze, yeah, Wednesday is getting better already. And just in case you need a variation, replace the Kahlua with peach schnapps for a Dirty Pirate Hooker.
Play nice and play safe. Happy Pirating this Wednesday.
It’s America’s favorite meal — the state fair! Every year, the fairs across this great land compete with each other to invent bigger, badder, greasier fair food. But after Texas stepped up its game last year with deep fried beer, this thing hit a whole ‘nother level. The 2011 state and country fair foods have been more insane — and more amazing — than ever. Here are our top 10 favorite finds.
10. Chocolate Covered Corn Dog – Orange County Fair
Could there be anything more American than dipping a hot dog in batter, deep frying it and eating it off a stick? Why yes, there could be. You could cover it in chocolate and put sprinkles on top, a treat that was found at both the OC Fair and neighboring San Diego County Fair. My Burning Kitchen has more on food at the San Diego fair. (Photo: www.myburningkitchen.com)
9. Deep Fried Kool-Aid – San Diego County Fair
In another strong showing for California’s other great fair — and originator of last year’s hash brown covered hot dog, San Diego debuts what is surely the trashiest food ever conceptualized. It’s just unclear why they didn’t wrap it in bacon. (Photo: Cuttlefish)
8. Deep Fried Butter on a Stick – Iowa State Fair
Texas may have invented deep fried butter at their own fair a few years back, but Iowa thought to put it on a stick. See, America, we can do great things when we work together. Yes, this involves frying an entire stick of butter, and yes, you simply have to watch the video for full effect.
7. Buffalo Chicken in a Flapjack – Texas State Fair
The first of several entries from the Lone Star state, this monstrosity is a chicken strip, coated in pancake batter and jalapeño bread crumbs, then deep fried and…you guessed it — eaten on a stick. (Photo: State Fair of Texas)
6. Red Velvet Funnel Cake – Florida State Fair
Funnel cake has fallen behind on the list of outrageous fair foods recently. After fried beer and fried Coke, plain old fried dough starts to look pale by comparison. But this year we saw funnel cake get a new southern fried twist that injects some new life into it…and probably injects all kinds of chemicals too. Why eat fried dough when you can eat red fried dough? (Photo: Bob B. Brown)
Time to celebrate back-to-school season with some kid-friendly, no-bake goodness. But since we couldn’t keep our busy hands alone with the just the classic Rice Krispie treats, we threw a few extra add-ins for a scaled-up version.
Don’t worry — we didn’t get too complicated. What we did do was add was some peanut butter and chocolate, plus some bananas to cut through the richness, and because three is never a crowd when it comes to those flavors.
So yeah, sit back, have a few bites, and go ahead — wipe your mouth on your sleeve.
Ah, s’mores. That simple-but-perfect campfire treat that ranks as one of America’s greatest food inventions. Gooey, crispy and chocolatey, they just couldn’t get any better. Or could they?
We got pretty excited when we saw frozen s’mores on a stick at the Iowa State Fair and wondered what other new takes on s’mores are out there. Turns out food bloggers have been busy giving this old-fashioned treat a new-school makeover. Check out these seven inventive treats that take s’mores to the next level. Give us some more indeed.
1. S’mores Cookies
An entire s’more submerged in a chocolate chip cookie? Yes, ma’am.
It’s hard to believe it, but September is already here, which means apple season is ripe for the picking. But this year, don’t think just apple pie and apple sauce. Think apple jelly and apple pizza. Apple soup and apple grilled cheese. If you must, go ahead and think apple pie, but at least top it with bacon.
From Endless Simmer and all our favorite blogs around the web, check out 100 ways to use an apple.
Sometimes life gets too busy for dessert. You’re playing defense, offense, triangulating with co-workers and family members to keep the things moving with forward momentum and with as little conflict as possible, right? By the time you finish up all this life-playing, you’ll probably have enough time to catch a syndicated Seinfeld episode before falling asleep.
Wrong. You still have time for this s’mores bar recipe, which is super easy and pretty much fail-proof. The only difficulty comes with the wait period in which the chocolate needs to set.
Oh, and Cocoa Pebbles is my secret ingredient to keep the chocolate portion from being too rich and give it a textural contrast.
Ed Note: Our friend Jake recently returned from the Basque Country, eager to tell me about his love affair with food from the region. I think he might have even said it was his favorite cooking from around the world.
Baby Eel
And Jake’s been around, growing up in Philly, living in Boston, DC and Portland and traveling through Asia and India and many more places.Especially, Costa Rica, where he toured with teenagers around the hills, farms and lakes of the country. He also wrote about it on Simmer a few years ago. Here are a few highlights from his taste of the Basque Country.
Beans, Jamon and Olives
Basque Country (Pais Vasco) claims to be neither a part of Spain nor France, rather an independent region with its own take on how eating should be done. I like.
Anchovies
I’m pretty sure everyone knows tapas, you sit down to eat with a few friends, share a few small plates and leave hungry and feeling like you overpaid. I get it.
