Back in my young twenties I was living in DC and my group of friends would frequently go to a bar called Millie and Als. They had this crazy promotion every night that involved an enormous light bulb over the bar. When the light bulb was on, jelly shots were $1.
This was a fun promotion and we took full advantage of it on many weekends. Then we got friendly with one of the bartenders one night and she revealed a stunning fact: Jelly shots were always $1. They just turned on the light to get people interested.
Fact number two was that the jelly shots were mostly jelly and very little shot.
Go figure.
Anyway, these shots are not those shots. Not only do they look cool, but they have a delicious cherry lime flavor and pack a serious punch. If you’re on your game, you can still make them for New Year’s Eve!
You guys have probably noticed that the last few posts I’ve done have been oyster-related and sponsored by i love blue sea. They sent me a bunch of oysters and kind of let me do whatever I wanted with them.
This was an awesome opportunity and one that I was very happy to participate in.
That said, I kind of screwed this up!
Let me explain…
The last post I was using some wonderful Kumamoto oysters, and while they were good, they were a bit on the small side. This made them hard to shuck, but the flavor was great. Once I got the Blue Point oysters that I used for this post, I realized that I should probably clarify how I would order these oysters now that I’ve tried both of them.
Both types of oysters were delicious, but I think just because the smaller ones are kind of a pain to shuck, I would use them in something like a seafood boil or maybe a stew of some sort where the oysters will open as they cook. They would be perfect for that.
Meanwhile, these Blue Points are easy to shuck because they are larger and they remind me of what you would get in a very nice restaurant for probably $40/dozen.
Just because I did raw oysters last time though, I decided to do something simple, but different, with these.
After traveling two weeks in a row and eating through the holidays, I’m feeling pretty gluttonous these days. I’ve been eating tons of rich food and drinks which I guess is part of what makes the holidays special.
On top of that I’m also working on the pulled pork chapter of my new book at the same time so there’s lots of delicious shredded pork in my fridge.
So, I’m looking forward to it being 2013. I usually like to kick off the new year with some healthy eating and I have some fun healthy meals planned!
Let’s kick it off with a healthy poll for next year!
The Poll
Pick something healthy!
The Links
Since New Years is right around the corner, I tried to feature some links with great party/appetizer ideas!
Fried Pickles – One of my favorite appetizers and super-easy to make. They are actually oven fried rather than deep fried. The Southwest dipping sauce is a nice touch although I’m happy to just eat these plain. (@ Healthy Delicious)
Cashew Dip – I’m in charge of appetizers for a New Year’s party this year and this is on my menu. It’s a wonderful and simple dip. (@ Self-Promotional!)
Baked Artichoke Dip – This is one of my favorite dips. It’s rich and not that hard to make. It also feeds a crowd! (@ Martha)
One of the great things about running a food blog is having the opportunity to discover companies doing truly awesome work. I consider awesome work things like making it possible for me to eat fresh oysters in Wyoming. These guys were shipped overnight to me and I got them just a few days after they were harvested.
To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about eating raw oysters away from an ocean, but they were packaged wonderfully and arrived in great condition.
I didn’t do anything fancy with this batch. I made a very simple mignonette sauce and took my time shucking, slurping, and savoring.
2012 ended up being the year of the egg for me in the kitchen. I set out to find the perfect way to make soft-boiled eggs and I failed miserably.
I failed so miserably that I promised to never try them again. I relinquished myself to only having poached eggs in my own kitchen.
Then last month I opened the latest Cook’s Illustrated to find, apparently, the perfect way to cook soft-boiled eggs.
As you might imagine, I was very skeptical. But after reading the thousands of words that were devoted to finding and testing all the egg-cooking methods, I decided I had to try it.
I did so and I almost cried when my eggs came out. They were perfect. I’ve replicated the results a few times since and so I figured I should write something about it.
As a bonus, I’m partnering with the people over at Cook’s Illustrated to do a cool giveaway at the end of this post! They are the ones who get all the credit for this method and its awesomeness.
Betsy and I are headed up to the frigid, cold tundra that is Wyoming for a long holiday weekend today. Luckily, we have a new Subaru with all-wheel drive this year so hopefully there will be no skidding out or sliding across lanes while we make the journey.
I have some cooking planned while I’m there but probably nothing that I’ll blog about. I’m gonna try my hand at a prime rib for the first time using Chris’s technique which is very exciting. I have no doubt it’ll turn out great.
The Links
Tomatina – I got a nice email from a reader a few weeks ago who has been working on a new line of tomato juice called Tomatina. He sent me a sample of his juice, which is a blend of a whole bunch of stuff, and man was it good! I immediately backed his campaign and I would caution V8 to watch their back. This stuff is delicious and hopefully coming to a store near you. (@ Kickstarter)
Gingerbread Hobbit Hole – I stared at the photos in this post for like five minutes. I will absolutely never make this and I doubt you will also, but man is it cool to look at! (@ Sprinkle Bakes)
Reverse Crackle Cookies- There has been a lot of cookies floating around the Internet this week. Out of all of the ones I saw, these guys caught my eye. (@ Eat the Love)
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After traveling two weeks in a row and eating through the holidays, I’m feeling pretty gluttonous these days. I’ve been eating tons of rich food and drinks which I guess is part of what makes the holidays special.
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