Mark Slater

I guess this is the place to post this: CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPE 1 cup of water 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup of sugar 1 tsp salt 1 cup of brown sugar lemon juice 4 large eggs 1 cup nuts 2 cups of dried fruit 1 bottle Crown Royal Reserve Sample the Crown to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Crown again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Crown is still OK, try another cup.. just in case. Turn off the mixer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit Pick the frigging fruit off floor... Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a dewscriver. Sample the Crown to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Who giveshz a sheet. Check the Crown Royal. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of ar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, Finish the bottle of Crown Royal Make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher. CHERRY MISTMAS

Was Miss Beazley eaten? IMWTK.

Arrowine has the Egly-Ouriet. Definitely worth looking for.

My lawyer wants to know who wrote that.

Dean was right about the place of companies like SYSCO. For bulk products, they are the source. Frying oil, 50 lb. bags of rice, ----->cafeteria items<-------- like plastic spoons forks and knives, paper napkins. There is no "little guy" sourcing this kind of stuff. Would I buy a squab from SYSCO? Hell no! Clorox? Of course. BTW, SYSCO has a $500 minimum order for delivery.

Of course, here in the US, "Your call is important to us"

How does it come out? Greel? or Grill-ie? or Gree-lay!

That's a bass question.

Bouchard P&F was purchased by the Henriot family from Champagne several years ago. They first got rid of what they considered sub-par wine from the cellar and have steadily improved the winemaking year after year. This particular Bouchard Beaune 1er Cru left me cold.

Yes, the pictures were misplaced. Those are my comments under my name. The round of white wines produced to most embarassing moments. Ben had told us that he thought one of the wines was Italian, one was American and one was French. I really didn't care for the first wine (the Bouchard), so I automatically assumed it was the Italian (stupid me!). The second wine I took for the French (it was the Montelena California Chardonnay). The third wine I took for the California (egg on the face!- it was the Italian!). We were a lot more cautious with the red wines, needless to say. A word about the Bastianich Vespa Blanca - Joe Bastianich is Mario Batali's partner at Babbo and the other restaurants. He is also listed as the sommelier of the restaurant. In between running several restaurants, importing his own wine label and raising a family, he takes opera lessons! He's a baritone.

New Big Wong followed by Coyote Ugly.

Chestnuts roasting on an open Weber®.

Dean, This is why they invented gin.

There are 2 that come immediately to mind: Bitter Waitress and Waiter Rant. Bitter Waitress has an STD (shitty tipper database).

Little known fact: Rockwell is the demon spawn of Ma and Pa Kettle!

Every Italian chef I know in town makes his own. It has something to do with lemons and 100° vodka.

Mr. Gold, I thought about doing this privately, but I now think the topic will be better served this way. You will be out of business quicker than you can say "Bob's my uncle" if you don't quit posting this kind of tattle-tale stuff in public. If you can't deal with the public, let me be the first to point out that you are in the wrong racket.

The next tasting panel column actually consists of several local wine professionals.

Luckily, P.T. Barnum's maxim is still working overtime.

Having been paid to taste more than 300 wines last summer in France, I can assure you that there is still an ocean of terrible wine being produced in all categories, regardless of size of the house and humbleness of origin. Bad winemaking knows no boundary. The best and only solutions are to read a critic who's taste you agree with or taste the wine yourself.

Order online. Both IWA and Wine Enthusiast have various size EuroCaves. EuroCave

Blue Diamond- who else is going to bring me roast pork egg foo young and combination lomein at 1 in the morning? The breakfast tables at Schwartz's Drugstore at Connecticut & R, more for comic relief than the food (now a Starbucks) Trader Vic's at the Hilton - best damn Poo-Poo Platter there ever was in DC. And, pressed duck, too!

I had dinner at Palena with friends the other night and was completely wowed by the plate of homemade charcuterie that Frank sent out. Best in town!

My calendar says that NYE is on a Saturday night this year. A+B team will definitely be working chez nous.

Popcorn with LOTS of butter.