Basic Corned Beef Dinner This is a delicious basic corned beef dinner, made with a variety of spices and vegetables. Feel free to add turnips or cut-up rutabagas to this recipe. INGREDIENTS: 8 allspice berries 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 2 bay leaves, crumbled 2 fresh thyme sprigs or about 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf thyme 1 corned beef, about 4 pounds 3 cups beef broth Water 1 medium onion, cut in 6 to 8 wedges 1 clove garlic, minced 2 1/2 to 3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, washed and quartered (peel if desired) 4 large carrots, halved and cut into 3-inch lengths 1 small head Savoy cabbage or green cabbage, cored and cut into 6 to 8 wedges Chopped fresh parsley, optional PREPARATION: Combine the allspice berries, peppercorns, bay leaves, and thyme in a cheesecloth bag; tie tightly. Put the corned beef in a 6- to 8-quart saucepan or Dutch oven; add beef broth, the seasoning bag, and add water just until beef is covered. Add garlic and onion. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours. Remove the corned beef to a platter, cover with foil, and keep warm. Skim fat from the broth and add the potatoes and carrots to the broth (remove some of the broth if there is too much liquid). Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes. Add cabbage wedges and continue cooking for about 20 minutes, or until cabbage and vegetables are tender. Slice the corned beef and serve with the vegetables. Sprinkle parsley over the potatoes and cabbage, if desired. Serves 6.

Cuban Tossed Salad Cuban tossed salad is a simple yet delicious salad. Serve the tossed salad for a light lunch or with dinner. This recipe is very versatile; you can substitute any variety of tomato, onion, lettuce or radish. The fresh dressing is worth the extra effort to make, but if you don't have time you can use bottled vinaigrette. INGREDIENTS: 2 Roma tomatoes (cut into wedges) 1 large onion (sliced into thin rings) 1 each 5-oz package lettuce mix 4 to 6 radishes (thinly sliced) ___________________________ Dressing: 2 to 4 cloves garlic (minced) 1/2 cup olive oil 1/4 cup white vinegar 1/4 cup lime juice salt and pepper to taste PREPARATION: Arrange tomatoes, onion, lettuce, and radishes on a serving platter, or toss them together in a salad bowl. Using a blender, mix together garlic, olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, salt and pepper to make a vinaigrette type dressing. Chill the salad and dressing until ready to serve.

 

How To Host a Spirits Tasting Party Tasting parties are becoming a common social event, often for wine, beer and cheese. Why not host a spirits tasting? These intimate gatherings are very easy to organize and a unique party with a purpose. Your party can be as simple as inviting a few friends over, gathering a variety of spirits and having glassware, water and crackers on hand. It can also turn into a regular event, with each member of the party hosting once a month or so, each focusing on different distilled spirits. Tasting parties of any kind are an enjoyable way to try out different things and see what you like and dislike compared to others. Invite friends and family to join you for a spirits tasting. Keep the event intimate with around 5-10 people. This gives everyone an opportunity to sit and discuss their impressions of each bottling without becoming overwhelmed with too many opinions. Plan on at least 2 hours or if you'd like to serve food before or after, 4 hours. Serving food after the tasting is best so that everyone has clean palates while sampling. Choose your spirits . For your first few tastings stick with one type of spirit (ie. vodka, tequila, whiskey, etc.) and choose one or two familiar brands, at least one value brand and at least one super-premium brand. This can become an interesting personal experiment and it is often surprising to people when they understand the difference between the quality of liquors produced and that of brands of the same quality. Ask the question: Do I want a blind tasting or a known brand tasting? Blind tastings are more exciting because of the mystery involved. Today we are influenced so much by marketing and brand identity that we tend to have preconceptions about almost everything, spirits included. You’ll sometimes find that people will unknowingly prefer a cheaper spirit to a more expensive one. Known brand tastings are good for comparing premium brands against one another, such as a selection of 15 year Scotches or fine Cognacs versus Armagnacs. In these instances branding is usually not influential. Disguise the brands for a blind tasting. There are a couple of ways that you can hide a brand’s identity from your guests. The least expensive and easiest way is to cover each bottle with paper, a bag, or a towel. However, depending on how you do this, it can look tacky and many bottles have such a distinct shape that many people can recognize it. Because of this, it’s best to pour each liquor into a separate carafe or pitcher. This looks better and takes away all the brand recognition. Number each carafe with a neck tag or tape and have an answer key so that you are the only one who knows which brand is inside. This is especially interesting with known brand tastings. Have a fact sheet for each bottle that lists it's distinguishing characteristics. For instance, knowing that a bottle of Square One Vodka is made with rye and that Chopin Vodka is made with potato can lead you to understand the characteristics of the two distillates when they are tasted side by side. In the same way, gin from Holland can be distinguished from gin distilled in England. These bits of trivia can help lead discussions and further understandings of the spirits your trying. Have paper available for taking notes. You can either supply small tablets for each guest or print out the tasting notes form. If you use the prepared notes form you will want to print one per spirit per guest (ie. 5 spirits and 5 guests equals 25 note forms). Taking notes while tasting is helpful when reviewing what you've sampled; if nothing else, for the simple fact that by the time you get to the fifth spirit it can all become a blur and notes will remind you what you liked and didn't like. Guide your guests through each spirit. As you progress through this process allow your guests plenty of time to take notes, then open the discussion of each step before going to the next. Pour one spirit at a time and pass a glass to each guest. Begin by observing the appearance of the spirit; it's color, opacity. Swirl the liquid around in the glass and observe its legs and thickness. This motion will also intensify the spirit's aroma. Hold the glass under your nose and, with your mouth open, inhale the fragrance. What do you smell? Noting the tastes. Take your first sip and allow the liquid to slowly enter your mouth. Note the feel and taste of this initial entry. Allow the liquid to sit on your tongue, swirl it around inside your mouth and analyze the flavors and feel of the spirit. Is it silky, smooth, warm? Swallow and take note of the feel, heat and flavor. Also, notice how long the taste stays with you. Does it last a long time or is it short? To fully understand and analyze each spirit, you will want to repeat this process a few times. With each sip you'll notice smells and tastes you may have missed the first time. Cleanse the palate in between spirits. After your party has finished tasting one spirit you'll want to take a short break before pouring the next round. This pause allows people to regroup and absorb their impressions of the previous spirit, as well as giving them time to refresh their palate. It's important to remove any lingering flavors before proceeding and the most common way to do so is to drink a small amount of water or eat a few unflavored crackers. During this time your guests can also discard any unwanted liquor in an ice bucket or bowl. Follow up on everyone's thoughts and reveal the brands. Continue tasting one spirit at a time until all have been sampled. When you're done, ask everyone which spirit was their overall favorite, least favorite and general impressions. If you're doing a blind tasting, this is the time for the big reveal. Announce which brand corresponds to each carafed spirit and use your fact sheets to begin a discussion of the distinguishing characteristics. Make a game out of it A simple guessing game can add some extra excitement to a blind tasting and is great if your guests are already familiar with a variety of spirits. Make an unordered list of each brand that will be tasted and give them to your guests. Challenge the guests to name the brand of each sample as you progress through the liquors. Reward the person with the most correct answers with a bottle of one of the spirits tasted. Tips: Pour small amounts of liquor for each tasting. Typically, you'll want to use between one-half ounce and one ounce of each liquor for each person. If you serve more than this, the higher alcohol content will take its effect on your guests quicker than it would during beer or wine tastings. Choose glasses (whether glass or plastic) that are about the size of an old-fashioned glass. Glass is preferred, as are those with a rim that curves inward at the top to "trap" more of the aroma inside. Stemmed glassware (not cocktail glasses) is even better because the body heat from your fingers does not warm up the liquid. If you have left over spirits at the end of the tasting offer your guests a cocktail shaken with their top pick. It's a great way to finish the evening and see what your favorite tastes like mixed. If you begin a regular tasting club it may be convenient to ask each member to contribute one bottle. As the host, it's appropriate for you to purchase the most expensive bottle. It's also a good idea to assign each person a brand to bring so that there are no repeats. You can find out a lot about a brand by reading the labels. If you need more information you can often find the company's website or from my selection of spirit profiles and reviews. What You Need: 5-7 bottles of your choice of spirits Glasses or small plastic cups for tasting One carafe for each bottling being served, numbered with tape or a neck tag Glasses with water Unflavored, dry crackers to clean the palate in between spirits Ice bucket or bowl for discarding unwanted liquor Small, light hors d'oeuvres for snacking