I don't know about y'all but for me the week before Xmas is eggnog latté week. This year, the best version I had was from Joe Van Gogh. Or maybe Bean Traders. They were both very good. Just the right amount of nog, good coffee, proper amount of whipped cream on top. What's not to love? Well, assuming you like coffee and eggnog, that is. The less wonderful versions were from Starbucks. There's was serviceable. Certainly a big improvement over a couple of years ago when I got one that tasted like they'd dumped a whole jar of nutmeg on top (John Legend, call your office). I think the problem with the Sbux version is that the eggnog they're using is probably a crappier version of what the locals are using. Also, frankly, their coffee (even tho the barista coffee is better than the drip) is also a crappier version of what you're getting from JVG or BT. But it was an okay eggnog latté and I'd probably have been fine w/ it if I hadn't had the better versions. Sadly, my least favorite was from the recently opened Bull Street Market. It just seemed thin and lacking punch. Or something. Might have been operator error. Or maybe just a different vision of what the drink's supposed to be like. I've loved both of the sandwiches I've tried there and the first time I went they made a wonderful café au lait. So I'll certainly be going back.

Following up on yesterday's seasonal beer post, here's a brief write-up of Bell's Christmas Ale. Which I think I tried last year but I'm not sure so it's maybe not all that memorable. Bonus comment-mention of the Xmas ale from Great Lakes, which I agree is excellent. They were sampling it at last year's beer festival and it was one of my faves. Alas, Great Lakes (based in Cleveland) doesn't distribute here in NC.
If you're watching the new season of Top Chef, you really need to be reading Hugh Acheson's blog on the Bravo site. His blogging is up with some of the stuff Bourdain was writing in earlier seasons. The one for this week's show is some primo snark. To the extent that I'm wondering how long before the network or the producers reel him back in. So, enjoy it while you can. I had been thinking that it was too bad he wasn't on the show more (aside: I'm over how Top Chef, in all its iterations, makes a big deal of announcing someone as a "regular" judge only to have to missing for half the episodes) but his blog's actually better the week's that he's not there. Cos then he's just watching the show on TV and recapping. En fuego!

Okay, okay, one last Pie Holiday(tm) post. BTW, if y'all get the Cooking Channel keep an eye out and catch For the Love of Pie which includes a segment on Durham's own Scratch Bakery. We took two of their pies up with us for the holiday -- the shaker lemon and chestnut cream pies. Both so good.
Two things from our drive up on Thursday AM. We were on 301 in Maryland and kept passing these big box stores with cars in their parking lots. I wasn't, I'll admit, paying much attention to what stores were open when. I knew (cos a friend of a friend works there) that Target was opening at mignight and I'd seen an ad online that said Toys R Us was opening at 9pm on Thanksgiving. Actually, the week had been so hectic that I wasn't 100% sure if I'd seen an ad or had a dream about stores opening at 9. My point, tho, is that I hadn't been paying attention cos I wasn't planning to shop. Hell, I don't even own any pepper spray. So it wasn't until much later that I realized that the stores with cars in the parking lots at 10am on Thanksgiving morning were not open for business. Those people were there waiting for the stores to open. In 11 or more hours.
The other thing we learned is that there's not too many food options when you're on the road on Thanksgiving morning. Not sure how we've dealt with this in previous years. Brought food with us, probably. But this year we didn't and around the time we started getting hungry we also started to realize that the places we'd been hoping to stop (Panera, Wendy's) were all very closed. It was starting to look like a McDonald's morning but we were saved by the fast food shoppe previously known as the Slowest Bojangles in the World. It was on a previous trip along 301 when we stopped there. And waited and waited and waited. Until we finally walked out without ordering and went on in search of someplace else to eat. But this time they were open and the line wasn't long and (extra bonus) they hadn't even put up any Xmas decorations yet. It was still scarecrows and autumn leaves. Altho they were playing Christmas music (but it was quiet enough that we didn't even notice until we were almost ready to go). So, kudos and huzzah to you, Life-Saving Bojangles!

Pie Holiday(tm) week continues. I know what you're saying -- but there haven't actually been that many posts about pie. The one pie-related link was mostly about beer. Well, while it's true that I did discover the wonderfulness that is Baron Ambrosia, there hasn't been a lot of pie news that I've seen lately. And the few that I've seen I've ended up posting over on Facebook. Sure, I could just repeat those here but that gets boring. To me, at least. And, honestly, with commenting broken I'm really doing this for my own amusement at this point. So, anyway, here's Ruhlman on gravy. Interestingly, on Sunday (just before the DVR started failing -- yes, again, after only having had this new one for less than two weeks) I was watching Alton Brown's Thanksgiving show and for his gravy he used a slurry of flour whereas Ruhlman is using a roux. They both make good points in favor of their approach. My instinct is to go with the roux but I can see that the slurry method would probably make for a slightly lighter gravy (as you wouldn't be adding any extra fat). Don't think I'll actually be making any gravy this weekend, though. Actual field testing will have to wait for another day.

I was actually thinking about the post I was planning to write while driving home tonight. Which was mostly gonna be me moaning about how the internets were letting me down this year. Seems like last year there were a lot of fun, wacky, whatever food stories out there (thermite turkeys, etc). Which made for good thematic material for Pie Holiday(tm) week. This year, not so much. Or so I thought. But then I discovered Baron Ambrosia. Now that I'm thinking about it, I might have read something about the Baron in the NYTimes a few months ago. But it didn't click, somehow. But the Cooking Channel is running an episode now, which seems to wrap up the Baron's adventures in the Bronx and get him ready to go nationwide. Basically, a pilot. Since that episode has been running for a few weeks now, I wonder if they're testing to see what kind of outside-NYC appeal the show might have before moving ahead. The show (looks like there's about 30 episodes online) got its start on Bronx community cable. Like I said, I just found the show and am just getting started watching. If the Baron does go national, I'll be interested to see if the shows (and character) can stay on point when they get out of the neighborhood. There's potential for something like that to maybe cross the line between larger-than-life to cartoonish when you take it out of its original context. OTOH, Guy Fieri has made a metric ass-ton o' money being a human cartoon doing food television so there's definitely a business model w/ a track record of success. And Grom knows I'd rather watch Baron Ambrosia than Divers, Driving Rain and Dunk Tanks...

And so it begins...
We're all less than a week out from Thanksgiving. Which (you'll know this if you've been reading this blog for a while) my cousins have dubbed the Pie Holiday. What can I say? My family, or at least that side of my family, is into food. Especially pie. Anyway, as in previous years, I'll be marking the looming food-pocalypse with some thematically appropriate linkage and ramblings. Up first, beer pairings for pie. Beer and pie... fabulous idea! Why have I never thought of this myself? Oh, I'm sure I must have, at some point, been still finishing a beer I had with dinner while I was eating pie but I don't think ever in a planned way. Also, I can't bring any specific tasting experience to comment on these selections. The only one of these I've tried is the Smith's Winter Warmer (altho I haven't had this year's version yet). I haven't been terribly crazy about the few beers from Weyebacher or Southern Tier that I've tried. But I have enjoyed a couple of beers from Founders.
More beer thoughts coming up. And possibly some pie experiences as well.

Fortunately for y'all I've forgotten exactly what it was I had wanted to get my rant on about the other day. The details of whatever triviality finally pushed me over the edge have faded and I just remember it as a day overloaded with head-crushing stupidity. The few specifics that have stuck with me mostly relate to people doing particularly moronic things while driving in my general vicinity. Annoying, certainly, but who really needs to read about that. We all live thru it on a regular basis. (Side note: if you feel like you never see anyone around you driving like a fucking maniac, that might be cause for concern. The world is, alas, full of people who drive like maniacs and if you never see one, there's a possibility that you might be one... I'm just saying)

And, hey hooray, the new season of Top Chef started up this week. And it included one of the great moments on Top Chef. Ever.

When we were watching it on the show, my comment was that it was probably how Colicchio would react if a particularly incompetent stagiaire showed up at Craft. So I'm kinda chuffed to see, in this extended version, that in fact that's pretty much exactly what he was saying to the guy.

like fun

Tonight was Pieology 101 at Scratch. Some of the info would have been familiar to any dedicated viewer of Good Eats. But it's an great format and a small enough group to be manageable (mostly). Basically we got to watch Phoebe Lawless making pies while she provided running commentary on what she was doing and why. Plus she was taking questions from the group. Several great pro tips on crusts and filling Which I won't go into in detail here because (1)what's interesting to me might be old news to you; (2) more importantly, I don't think it's appropriate for me to be paraphrasing Phoebe's class. There's another one next Tuesday and last time I checked there were still a few spaces left. Definitely worth checking out if you like pie. And if you don't like pie you really should look back over your life and try to figure out where it all went tragically wrong. Did I mention that there's wine and light snacks to start (pigs in blankets and cheese sticks). And there are samples of all the pies that she's making. Also too.
Informative, fun and lots of pie to eat. What could be better?

You're probably not pondering what I'm pondering but after seeing someone on fbook this AM snarking about how Sisters of Mercy was basically Eldritch and whatever bunch of guys he'd rounded up this year, I got to thinking about what (or maybe rather who) bands are. There's no set rules for this, I don't think. Mostly it's all just opinion on who you think are core members. Sometimes it's the whole band, sometimes it's only the lead singer. For me, New Order doesn't seem like it's really New Order w/o Peter Hook. But I've got no problem considering Mark E. Smith and whatever set of folks he picked up at the bus depot to be the Fall. Same thing w/ Robert Smith -- he is the Cure. For obvious reasons, this focuses around singers, the ones who are out front. But it also goes to songwriting (no Smiths w/o Marr) and years together. I'm not sure how much I'd accept as authentic, say, a Beastie Boys that was missing one of Ad Rock, Mike D or MCA. Siouxsie and the Banshees were a carousel of guitarists in the 80s but they were always the same band. I wouldn't consider them the "real" band if they got together w/o Severin. And even tho only Naoko remains from the original lineup, I still feel like I saw Shonen Knife and not some fake impostor.
Meanwhile, it's almost Halloween (everybody scream! everybody scream!). Here's some helpful crafty tips on how to make a cheese covered skull. (via Neatorama)

Had one of those minor "worlds collide" moments tonight whilst surfing the internets. Turns out that John Scalzi is a big fan of John Wesley Harding. As am I, which I mentioned a bazillionty times already on this blog. Unlike the esteemed Mr. Scalzi, however, I have not yet acquired the latest JWH music. I must correct that presently, if not sooner.
And, hey, here's some more fun food facts. As a longtime Harold McGee and Alton Brown fan, I already knew most of these. Altho I was surprised at just how little adding salt to water actually changes the boiling point. I was gonna say that I'd never heard that it reduced cooking times but thinking about it some more, I'm pretty sure I did hear that as conventional wisdom some time in my life. I'm always surprised how persistent the 'searing meat' myth is. I've heard it on Food Network within the last few months. It wasn't one of their hosts but a guest chef interview segment on one of those travel around and eat interesting things show (of which they have so many). Still, you'd think they do something to correct that misinformation.