1. Use it like fizzy, sweet, wine in a float situation for something like a New York Sour, with the thought that the limited amount of soda compared to the larger amount of strongly flavored rest-of-cocktail will allow for better balance. (If you want to go completely ridiculous, celebrate Queen Victoria's favorite beverage of Scotch and Claret, and make the New York Sour with scotch instead of rye.)
2. In one of the cocktail books we have, someone boils down Coke into a syrup, and uses that strongly-flavored syrup in a cocktail. Maybe you could do that with grape soda? (No, I don't remember which cocktail book this is, because I have too many.)
Also, not saying there's a corgi puppy coming to the Plaid house in July, but I will say dog pictures are in your future, since you're asking nicely.
There is at least one kola nut/cola cocktail syrup that also works great for this purpose! Pratt Standard's True Kola syrup is an excellent cocktail syrup, and also I prefer it to maple syrup on my pancakes and waffles. Goes great with butter on fresh baked whole grain bread.
The grape soda cocktail reminds of two things in the young and stupid part of my life:
1. Grape soda was my favorite thing to drink after smoking <redacted> in college. Just perfect for the occasion. I can pretty much taste it just reading about it.
2. During Beach Week after my senior year of high school, I had the brilliant idea to mix vodka with grape gatorade. My teenage brain reasoned that the grape flavor would mask the vodka flavor well, the electrolytes would make my body absorb the alcohol faster, and I would prevent dehydration. I had a great time until I had a really bad time. The really bad time lasted much longer than the great time.
Honestly Scott, reading about your cocktails is as much fun as I imagine making them would be so please do not feel bad about sharing your failures. I get exactly as much enjoyment out of it as I a perfectly crafted cocktail. It is the ride after all, not the destination!
I think this can apply to most things in your newsletter too! Show me the bad pizza! Show me the book you gave up on! I'm happy to read about them all!
The good news is, I can assure you there will be more failures.
My biggest lesson learned here was when I screwed up the soup dumplings and just made that experience an essay. Still the most-read thing on this site.
Also, my wife has that Ratio book, she's a big fan of that kind of "science of cooking" book. It dovetails with the way she learned to cook from her father, who would work his way through an entire book / books on a specific type of cooking to learn how the pieces all fit together so he could improvise. (Her mother is a good cook but not a jazz player like that)
Guess I'm in remedial summer school (which sounds better when you consider it is single degrees out at the moment). I'm intrigued by the mini-loaf pizza concept, think I shall try to acquire a small pan or two to see what happens when I make my own dough. Thanks for the great idea. I'm having fun catching up on all of the posts.
Is there a way to subscribe to your buddy's labor/sports blog posts? I wouldn't mind giving a try in my email inbox, but I wasn't sure I understood how to do that.
I can't get over the fact that your kids have been out of school for nearly 3 weeks. My 16 year old doesn't finish up school until next week. When do they restart?
oh good lord re: early August. We've had several years of infighting because our county used to restart school just before Labor Day, and our governor decided to force all schools in the state to begin after Labor Day partly to ensure ongoing cheap labor for businesses on the eastern shore and partly to stick it to counties who didn't vote for him / have functioning teachers' unions. There was all sorts of bougie problems that came from that, but whatever. I think this is the last year that we've got this nonsense.
I remember my kids were grumbling once about how late school was ending until I pointed out that when I was in elementary school our summer vacation didn't start until mid-July at the earliest and we were insanely jealous of the American school that kept a traditional American schedule. Unfortunately the kids then found out that we got 2 - 3 weeks at Christmas, 2 weeks for Easter, and half term breaks as well. Ooops.
My kids school decided to start after Labor day this year instead of mid-August. That means my kids (and my school teacher wife) are still in school. Summer won't start for one more week and my house is just mentally done with this school year (but alas not physically).
I picked up famous men who never lived at the library last week and plowed through the whole thing in a single sitting. I'm a sucker for a good fictional story within the story concept, and this book did a great job with it. Tasting notes of both Kilgore Trout and Man in the High Castle. I really enjoyed it, great recommendation
As I ponder my deeply cursed beagle mix (already featured) I wonder what it would be like to have a dog with any sense of chill. My last dog was basically a carpet, though.
This is absolutely a thing, my aunt's Maltese had a similar "old lady" phase that made her 30 times more fun to be around (malteses are cute, but boy are they a LOT if they are not trained well).
Y'all I think I'm gonna get one of those little outdoor pizza ovens. I've convinced myself that's the way I'll make good homemade pizza. Anyone here have one?
We don’t *have* one but are actively building one, from scratch (by scratch I mean bricks). I highly recommend buying one, versus what we’re doing. (Anyone want to haul pavers this weekend? Will pay in pizza.)
My thoughts for grape soda cocktails:
1. Use it like fizzy, sweet, wine in a float situation for something like a New York Sour, with the thought that the limited amount of soda compared to the larger amount of strongly flavored rest-of-cocktail will allow for better balance. (If you want to go completely ridiculous, celebrate Queen Victoria's favorite beverage of Scotch and Claret, and make the New York Sour with scotch instead of rye.)
2. In one of the cocktail books we have, someone boils down Coke into a syrup, and uses that strongly-flavored syrup in a cocktail. Maybe you could do that with grape soda? (No, I don't remember which cocktail book this is, because I have too many.)
Also, not saying there's a corgi puppy coming to the Plaid house in July, but I will say dog pictures are in your future, since you're asking nicely.
PUPPY
also I've used the boil-down-coke method in a cocktail before, it's good! these are some great ideas
Hm. Maybe the cocktail book I'm thinking of is The Collected Beverages of Action Cookbook.
Someone (Nadiya?) did it on bakeoff to flavor cakes and it went over really well with the judges.
There is at least one kola nut/cola cocktail syrup that also works great for this purpose! Pratt Standard's True Kola syrup is an excellent cocktail syrup, and also I prefer it to maple syrup on my pancakes and waffles. Goes great with butter on fresh baked whole grain bread.
The grape soda cocktail reminds of two things in the young and stupid part of my life:
1. Grape soda was my favorite thing to drink after smoking <redacted> in college. Just perfect for the occasion. I can pretty much taste it just reading about it.
2. During Beach Week after my senior year of high school, I had the brilliant idea to mix vodka with grape gatorade. My teenage brain reasoned that the grape flavor would mask the vodka flavor well, the electrolytes would make my body absorb the alcohol faster, and I would prevent dehydration. I had a great time until I had a really bad time. The really bad time lasted much longer than the great time.
Honestly Scott, reading about your cocktails is as much fun as I imagine making them would be so please do not feel bad about sharing your failures. I get exactly as much enjoyment out of it as I a perfectly crafted cocktail. It is the ride after all, not the destination!
I think this can apply to most things in your newsletter too! Show me the bad pizza! Show me the book you gave up on! I'm happy to read about them all!
The good news is, I can assure you there will be more failures.
My biggest lesson learned here was when I screwed up the soup dumplings and just made that experience an essay. Still the most-read thing on this site.
https://actioncookbook.substack.com/p/the-simple-joy-of-fing-up-in-the
New Friday email idea: the Spilly Outtakes. Your food and beverage concoctions that went very, very wrong.
Also, my wife has that Ratio book, she's a big fan of that kind of "science of cooking" book. It dovetails with the way she learned to cook from her father, who would work his way through an entire book / books on a specific type of cooking to learn how the pieces all fit together so he could improvise. (Her mother is a good cook but not a jazz player like that)
Guess I'm in remedial summer school (which sounds better when you consider it is single degrees out at the moment). I'm intrigued by the mini-loaf pizza concept, think I shall try to acquire a small pan or two to see what happens when I make my own dough. Thanks for the great idea. I'm having fun catching up on all of the posts.
Is there a way to subscribe to your buddy's labor/sports blog posts? I wouldn't mind giving a try in my email inbox, but I wasn't sure I understood how to do that.
I think the grape soda might be a good ingredient to a punch bowl style mixture
Pimms Cup with Grape Fanta
I can't get over the fact that your kids have been out of school for nearly 3 weeks. My 16 year old doesn't finish up school until next week. When do they restart?
Early August!
It's strange to me, growing up the end of school was usually right around now, and the beginning was just before Labor Day.
oh good lord re: early August. We've had several years of infighting because our county used to restart school just before Labor Day, and our governor decided to force all schools in the state to begin after Labor Day partly to ensure ongoing cheap labor for businesses on the eastern shore and partly to stick it to counties who didn't vote for him / have functioning teachers' unions. There was all sorts of bougie problems that came from that, but whatever. I think this is the last year that we've got this nonsense.
I remember my kids were grumbling once about how late school was ending until I pointed out that when I was in elementary school our summer vacation didn't start until mid-July at the earliest and we were insanely jealous of the American school that kept a traditional American schedule. Unfortunately the kids then found out that we got 2 - 3 weeks at Christmas, 2 weeks for Easter, and half term breaks as well. Ooops.
My kids school decided to start after Labor day this year instead of mid-August. That means my kids (and my school teacher wife) are still in school. Summer won't start for one more week and my house is just mentally done with this school year (but alas not physically).
It's never occurred to me to try to out-corner Jet's. You absolute madman.
I picked up famous men who never lived at the library last week and plowed through the whole thing in a single sitting. I'm a sucker for a good fictional story within the story concept, and this book did a great job with it. Tasting notes of both Kilgore Trout and Man in the High Castle. I really enjoyed it, great recommendation
As I ponder my deeply cursed beagle mix (already featured) I wonder what it would be like to have a dog with any sense of chill. My last dog was basically a carpet, though.
Holly has mellowed with age and she's a piece of furniture that chases squirrels twice a day.
I'm really hoping my dog mellows. I love him but he's a lot. When did you notice the mellowing?
Hmmm. Initial mellowing out of young nutcase, within 2-3 years. "Retired lady" mellowing, as we refer to it now, maybe 8 years old? (She's 10 now.)
This is absolutely a thing, my aunt's Maltese had a similar "old lady" phase that made her 30 times more fun to be around (malteses are cute, but boy are they a LOT if they are not trained well).
I have at least a few more years of insanity wolf, but the parts where he naps are very pleasant.
Y'all I think I'm gonna get one of those little outdoor pizza ovens. I've convinced myself that's the way I'll make good homemade pizza. Anyone here have one?
We don’t *have* one but are actively building one, from scratch (by scratch I mean bricks). I highly recommend buying one, versus what we’re doing. (Anyone want to haul pavers this weekend? Will pay in pizza.)
Oh that's next level. I'm thinking just one of the tabletop propane deals. A giant brick one would make my whole life