The only good thing that happened to me today was making homemade meatballs and sauce. Not particularly special under ordinary circumstances, but courtesy of Men's Journal magazine, I had a meatball recipe from Mark Vetri at my disposal. For those not living in my corner of the world, Vetri is an absolute giant in the Philly restaurant scene. His establishments have received huge, outsized praise from food critics. Which of course means if he's giving a free lesson on cooking, I'm listening. This recipe was remarkably simple, and I simplified it further, but I can attest that these were absolutely delicious. A spherical little piece of heaven.
It isn't all homemade Italian cooking tonight, there's beer to discuss as well. So let's discuss the Engels, an English cask ale from de Molen, which I found on draft at the Farmer's Cabinet. It pours a cloudy apricot hue, with a white cloud of foam and you pick up grain, malt, and a pleasing lemon aroma. When you take a sip, you get flavors of malt, pine, and citrus, with a dry hop bitterness throughout. A bit more citrus flavor than a typical English cask ale, but nothing too extreme. At 4.5% ABV, this definitely fits the mold of an English Bitter - quite tasty and completely sessionable. If you find it, drink it.
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| Proof of life that I was at Farmer's Cabinet |
Your daily knowledge: this brewery name translates to "Brewery the Mill," which makes sense because the brewery is housed in a historic mill that dates back to 1697.
Thing to Think About Today:
Well, it's getting late, and I'm getting tired. If we're thinking about meatballs, I've already given you a link to the recipe, which I highly encourage you to try. But if you're still thinking about meatballs, then I encourage you to think about Meatballs II, one of those so bad it's almost good sort of movies from the 80s. Long story short? Summer camp of misfits has to battle their arch enemies from across the lake to save their camp from going under. It involves your typical teenage humor, an alien named Meathead who dresses like the Gorton's fisherman, Pee-Wee Herman as a lunatic, the guy who played Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds.... and yeah. What can I say, people did huge amounts of drugs in the '80s. Yes, it's a sequel to Meatballs, but I'm a fan of the second more so than the first.
Trust me when I say that I DESPERATELY tried to find the video clip of Pee Wee Herman uttering a famous line, "This one's for you, and this one's for the horse you rode in on!!!" after making middle finger gestures at someone from the enemy camp. If you find this, please let me know, as it's the highlight of the movie for me. Thanks!
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| Me, Ted? MEATHEAD! |
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