‘Tis the Season
…to stay inside and watch movies.
Check out this list of Ten Holiday Movies for Guys Who Don’t Care for Holiday Movies that I collaborated for Debonair.
~Sam
Silence of the Lamb…Chops
This recipe came to me through a childhood friend - writer, producer, & director Frank Sabatella.
Ingredients
Lamb chops, round bone shoulder cut
olive oil
fresh garlic
fresh rosemary
fresh parsley
crushed red pepper
black pepper
salt
butter
a lemon
a nice drinkable white wine (I recommend the Carlo Rossi Chablis, but you can use any white)
Chop up about 2 or 3 cloves of garlic as finely as you can.
Chop up the parsley, about a fistful not as fine.
In a dish, give the lamb chops a dry rub of salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper on both side.
Pour some olive oil in your hands and give a little rub of oil on both sides of the lamb, then rub on the finely chopped garlic and rub on the chopped parsley, on both sides.
Place them in the dish and pour the wine directly on top of the chops so that the wine reaches about half way up the meat.
Take a rosemary sprig and scatter the needles onto the lamb and into the wine. Only use half the needles on the sprig at this point and place the remaining sprig in the dish somewhere.
Cut the lemon in half squeeze the juice out of 1 half onto the lamb. Place the other half in the dish but don’t squeeze it out yet.
Take a pat of butter and place it on top of each lamb chop.
Cover the whole thing in tin foil and let it stand at room temp for about 1 to 3 hours.
When you are ready to cook, use a cast iron pan, get the pan very hot, drop the chops in and brown 1 side.
Once 1 side is browned, reduce the heat, flip them over, and add the remaining wine and juices that were left behind in the dish.
Squeeze out the other half of the lemon into the pan and add the rest of that rosemary.
When the wine reduces, they are done.
Serve with asparagus or any veggie of choice and enjoy the rest of the wine!
My First Article for Interfaithfamily.com
In less than three weeks from today I will go from being a single guy (on paper) to being a married guy. I signed up with a website, www.interfaithfamily.com in search of a rabbi willing to perform an interfaith ceremony as I m Jewish and my fiancee is Catholic. I found the rabbi, and also found that they were seeking writers for some new pieces. I connected with the publisher and agreed to write a piece about what I want my new relatives to know about me. The article was published on October 9th. This is very exciting for me as it is my first article that doesn’t relate back to food or drink…although, I did mention Christmas ham.
Update – Tuesday, October 13, 4:00 PM
I received a very nice e-mail from someone who’d read the article and wanted to share her own feelings on the subject. I was very surprised, flattered, and honored to receive such a letter that I thought I should post it here:
Hi Sam,
Firstly, sorry for the random email – I found your address on Eating Brooklyn, and I had just read your article, Preservation on interfaithfamily.com. (I’m a fellow Brooklyn Jewish writer in an interfaith relationship). I just want to say I was very moved by your article, and I really appreciated hearing your story (and – Mazel Tov!). I very much empathized with your experience, and in fact, I am about to publish my own piece in the Forward about the same topic. (I think it should be published either this week or next?). I’ve been reaching out to other Jews in interfaith relationships, because it’s been surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly) difficult to manage the negative reactions I’ve experienced from my family as I’ve been in a serious interfaith relationship for over a year now. So I just want to say thank you for your words – this gives me hope and comfort. The reason I wrote my article was to let the Jewish community know it’s imperative to accept and support those in interfaith relationships, so again, it’s really helpful to have all these voices speaking out about it.
Thank you! (and do look out for my piece soon!)
Hila Ratzabi
www.hilaratzabi.com
The Best Rum I’ve Ever Tasted
Berkshire Mountain Distillers – True American Spirits
For some, Fashion Week in NYC is the be all, end all of NYC events. For me, it’s a time of year when my wife-to-be is stressed out beyond all recognition due to the constant shuffling of samples, and her time, setting up shows, etc. This year her parents came in for a long weekend starting on a Friday – a night during which her company was doing the PR for a certain Miguel Antoinne show in midtown. Her colleagues were in full control of the show. She wanted some alone time with her folks leaving me to my own devices. My first choice when I have a free Friday night would not normally be to attend a fashion show, but alas I also had a friend in town – a tall Danish fellow who is interested such festivities, so my lovely wife-to-be suggested taking him to the show. He liked the idea.
The show, as one can imagine was crowded with fashion industry types – not my favorite crowd, but also not the worst of New Yorkers. The show, itself was interesting. I wouldn’t wear any of it, but Jens (my Danish friend) thought a lot of it was cool (I guess it has something to do with being tall, lanky, and Scandinavian.) I was more impressed with what came with the after-party. There were plenty of hors d’oeuvres and cocktails made with liquor provided by Berkshire Mountain Distillers. I took one sip of the Ragged Mountain Rum, and knew that what I was tasting was something special. I spoke with the company founder, Chris Weld for a few minutes and promised to be in contact to write an article for Debonair.
Over the next few weeks I spoke with him, exchanged a couple e-mails, spoke with a vendor, and tasted the vodka & gins. All are fantastic. I was more than thrilled to write an article on a product that I truly believe is high quality, delicious, and American – a detail that often goes overlooked. At this time of economic uncertainty it feels good to support a homegrown company especially one as fantastic as this one.
New York’s 10 Best Steakhouses
New York’s 10 Best Steakhouses
How am I supposed to know if these truly are the 10 absolute best? The data was based on reader opinions, my own knowledge of steakhouses, and some friends opinions. But how do we know there’s not some hidden gem up in the Bronx just waiting to be included in the Old Boys Club? The truth is, when it comes to NYC restaurants the 10 best anything can and usually does change from day-to-day. But I guess it’s safe to say that top rated steakhouses, especially the oldest of the bunch are probably pretty darn good, and high up on the scale of top NYC restaurants. Yeah, I think that’s a safe assumption.
Old Town Bar
Vintage Manhattan|The Old Town Bar
Last week I had the pleasure of grabbing a beer with an old friend who happens to have written and directed a new horror film. I interviewed him for Debonair, but was also able to use the experience to write a post for the new Eating Manhattan. I’m still in the middle of transcribing the interview, but the review of the venue, The Old Town Bar is online. Since I write restaurant reviews for Eating Brooklyn, and other food and drink related articles for Debonair it was decided that my role with Eating Manhattan would be mostly to cover older Manhattan venues like The Old Town Bar, Peter Luger, Chumley’s (if they ever reopen), and others with rich historical significance. I’m very excited about this as I tend to prefer these types of places especially for drinking. Not that I drink that often. But when I do I take comfort in knowing that Pete Hamill may have enjoyed a pint or two while rocking the same bar stool.
Looks Delicious!
I’ve taken my obsession with food to the next level, and created a new blog that’s mostly photos of food and drink, and people (mostly friends) enjoying both. I’ll also throw in the occasional quote about food or drink, perhaps a video, and today even found an MP3 by my favorite band of all time, Morphine and their song Birthday Cake in honor of my 32nd birthday. Today. And this is what I’m doing today. I had my quinoa toast and coffee, so I’m happy.
Anchors Aweigh
To make a great lamb burger, mix the ground lamb with salt, pepper, garlic, a fist full of Italian bread crumbs, an egg, and a teaspoon eachof tarragon and garam masala powder. Form the patties. Grill or broil as you would a normal burger. Serve over mixed greens and sliced cherry tomato. Crumble some goat cheese on top, and drizzle with olive oil.
New York’s Best Burgers
Funny how a sandwich named for a city in Germany has become the signature of the great American backyard cookout. Well, I’m not laughing about it. Although, a good burger does make me rather happy. I like it when the burger is so juicy that it runs down your arms. Unless I’m wearing a white shirt or a sweater. Let me rephrase – I like it when I’m wearing an old t-shirt and the burger is so juicy that it runs down my arms. Not too far down though. Wouldn’t want burger juice in my pits.
Cobbler
When you’re given three choices for dessert:
A dish of ice cream topped with espresso
Chocolate mousse with whipped cream and crushed Oreos
Or blueberry cobbler a la mode
Choose the cobbler
Because
How often do you really get to eat cobbler?
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