Beer: Red Hook Sunrye Summer Ale - 3.5/5

A light to very light ale, initially not to my liking, but after a couple tries, have come to appreciate it's subtle flavor & lightness. Lightly hopped. Little aftertaste.

Hot Chocolate

Now this is hot chocolate...

*4 1/2 cups whole milk
*7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
*2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
*1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

In large saucepan, heat the milk with 1/2 cup of water until small bubbles appear around the edge. Add the chocolate, cocoa powder, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the sugar and a pinch of salt and whisk over low heat until the chocolate is melted.

From Food & Wine, Feb 2007, pg 138.

Basic Tomato Sauce

I'm going make this sauce soon.

Basic Tomato Sauce
Recipe by Mario Batali

*1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
*1 Spanish onion, 1/4-inch dice
*4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
*3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
*1/2 medium carrot, finely grated
*2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
*Salt
*Spaghetti, cooked al dente
*Whole basil leaves, for garnish
*Grated Parmesan, (optional)

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.

When ready to use, the cooked pasta should be added to a saucepan with the appropriate
amount of sauce. Garnish with basil leaves and cheese, if using.

Rustic Kitchen

We had lunch today at Rustic Kitchen in Boston. For an appetizer, we had fried calamari with pine nuts and jalapeños, $7. Our entrée was pizza fired in their brick oven, $11. The pizza had sweet Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, and mozzarella. The crust was very good, nice and thin. I had a glass of an '04 Californian Zinfandel (I can't recall the vineyard right now), nice and smooth, hints of spice, $7.

I also liked their chairs. They're very good chairs. Very comfortable, roomy, substantial. You can lean back in them without having to tip them. These are the kind of chairs I'd like to have at my dinner table.

Black Velvet

Okay, the Black Velvet is my new New Year's Eve toast of choice. Pure genius, the mixing of Guiness and champagne is. I used an extra dry sparkling wine from Domaine Ste Michelle and Guiness in a can. Really simple:

Fill a champagne flute half full with Guiness. Slowly fill the rest of the glass with champagne. Be careful, the champagne will fizz up.