Sunday, September 6, 2009

damson gin

As I mentioned over on casa rakkaleff, we have this damson plum tree in our back yard. The plums aren't really hand fruit, but they're good for canning and stuff. As soon as we figured it out, I ordered a bunch of canning stuff (which I wanted anyway). Everything got here quick, with the minor exception of the actual feckin' jars. So the jam is on hold.

The le parfait jars did make it here, and so did a couple of fifths of gin. And that's all we need for damson gin. Rakka found this recipe on cottage smallholder. It's super simple, and we both love gin, so we thought we'd give it a go.

Damson Gin
Damson Gin

We don't have a kitchen scale (yet), so I had to estimate how many plums in a pound. I thought about rigging up a stick with a can of beans on one end and a bowl of plums on the other and yadda yadda yadda. Sounded like work though. And really, we're talking about gin that will be more or less plummy depending, right? Should be fine.

'Course, we won't know if I screwed it up for three months. Assuming I didn't, it's important that you get your name on the casa rakkaleff new years party guest list. The gin should be about ready then, and seats are limited. natch.

Fritz European Fry House

To be honest, I've only been to Fritz European Fry House a handful of times. The trouble is that I love fried potatoes and Fritz fries a really good potato.

Portrait of a Fry Cone
Portrait of a Fry Cone

If I don't keep it in the special treat category, I'd soon be rolling down there on a hoveround and reserving 2 seats for myself on airline flights. As special treats go, they're fantastic.

The fries come in a cone, street food style. The tables, which are more bars to stand at, have holes in them just the right size to hold a heaping cone of fries. There are 10-15 different sauces to choose from. Plain ketchup and tartar sauce, obviously (it's close enough to seattle that the tartar sauce is a given), but they have some unexpected stuff like thai peanut sauce, bbq and red pepper parmesan. This time, we went with curry ketchup.

Large Cone and Spicy Curry Ketcup
Large Cone and Spicy Curry Ketcup

There are a selection of belgian beers to compliment your fries with, which makes sense.

If a giant cone of fries isn't enough fried food for you they have fried chicken and sausages. I've never tried any of that stuff though. I'm just there for the fries.