This year we rang in the New Year with delicious food and an intimate two person party.
Nine hour Burgundy Mushrooms are absolutely delicious! But they do really take nine hours. Six hours of simmering with a lid on and three more with the lid off. The new Mauviel christmas pot (my best present by far) was perfect for the job.
We also roasted a chicken and veggies in the new pink pot using one of Romey’s recipes. Likewise delicious.
This was “first dinner.” The coup de grace was still to come.
Mr Skaggs paid a visit while the cooking proceeded and we had a couple of Seelbach cocktails (take care of the time warp!). We’re pretty sure that’s why we accidentally fell asleep before midnight. LOL.
This was a fancy pants Seelbach iteration with veuve clicquot champagne and blanton’s bourbon. Absolutely fantastic.
And then it was time to cook up blinis for the caviar. We went to the “gold plated groceries” store for the fixins. Crème fraîche for the win. So delicious.
Incidentally, these were fried to perfection in another new pan.
This special meal called for a vintage bottle of pink veuve clicqot.
We attempted to watch Fight Club (which I had never seen) , but we fell asleep just before the end (and just before midnight). We blame the Seelbachs.
The leftover champagne and blinis made a great first breakfast of 2023.
Fresh eggnog is really good come solstice time. I’ve made a number of batches over the years, but this recipe is my favorite. This came from an article by Derek Brown of DC bartending fame. Apparently it is called “Baltimore Eggnog.”
It was an interesting evening…a fundraiser for the USO at the best local distillery (well, the best legal local distillery anyway). The dress instructions were vague and a bit confusing. Something about casual something or other with red and black. LOL.
Our dear friends Donnie and Geri came and we scored the head table with our excellent hosts and good friends Scott and Becky. Scott and Becky are the powerful couple behind Catoctin Creek.
Scott pinged me and we did the kilt thing!
I love wearing my kilt, and I especially love it when my buddies wear theirs too. More kilts is what we need to solve global warming.
The kilts and the stills
Romey was resplendent in her red shoes.
The food was good. The company was interesting. And the 1908 Rye? Well, you only get to try that once or twice in one 2021 life.
We ran the proof in the back.
Great night for a Great Cause. Thank you Fred and all who participated! The 1908 Mellon Overholt measured at 94.7 proof. pic.twitter.com/kOt27d040Y
After purchasing some items, many of which were plastic, we headed to the aquarium, driving like lost tourists.
The parking angel (really does something indescribably to the Audi)
The National Aquarium was mobbed on a Valentines Day night.
\
And then it was back down to Old Town for a very late dinner indeed at the Majestic. Super fun at the bar (happy Catoctin Creek day!), and a delicious dinner.
A VERY VERY LARGE BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE. VERY LARGE.
The bar at the Majestic
Scallops. If you can’t watch them in an aquarium, by all means eat them.
Last word
I will dearly miss Proton Tuesdays (and Radioactive Valentines), but I hope they never happen again.
For the penultimate Proton Tuesday, we celebrated at the Columbia Room (which is turning 10 not too long from now). Craft cocktails are curative. There was also Manifesto before zapping.
Hirshhorn
The best museum hot chocolate evah
Manifesto
Entranced and entrancing
ZAP
Corduroy (on a whim)
The Columbia Room
Happy Birthday Columbia Room
Course one from the days of yore
Yay!
Popcorn with truffle
Chartreuse (green and definitely good for you)
scallop
The fog
You have no idea how good this duck BBQ is. OMG.
Happy Birthday!
Proton Tuesday Alive
Other Proton Tuesdays included: the Portrait Museum and Fiola Mare as well as the Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy, car buying, and Jojo Rabbit. Love you Spool.
The weather cooperated spectacularly for the 2018 solstice party. The rain cleared for a day or two. The moon was full. It was a crisp cold night with a beautiful sky.
Our ritual of gathering good friends from all walks of life every six months took place again without a hitch. Thanks to all who came to help us turn the sun.
Sunset before the party
This year, the fire lighting was cheered on by a rising full moon. The fire caught quickly and burned hard and fast.
Full moon and unlit pile
Lighting (time to run away)
Lots of people arrived for the lighting this year
Every solstice party is different in interesting ways. This year lots of people showed up for the lighting at 5:45. Then the BOILO got the party rocking. The lighting is always a sight to see.
The fire gets going
2018 solstice fire
The moon was incredible and lent a silver tinge to everything.
The barn was alight in party mode
This year the unplanned potluck food supply was great with chilli, meatballs, sloppy joes, fried chicken, and even krispy kreme donuts. The barn bar took a licking. Gonna need some serious restocking before summer!
Sorry about the terrible Christmas music in the barn. That’s just how it goes. At least there is a disco ball.
Marco. BOILO! There’s nothing quite like extremely local product.
A violin burns
Possibly the most ridiculous and surprising part of the evening was the violin sword fight instigated by Josh Henry (my trusty and talented violin and bow repair guy). Unbeknownst to everyone, Josh brought three dead rental violins to the party. So when we got them out and started sword fighting vigorously with them and then threw their remains into the fire, the 20 somethings who were already wondering just what those old people across the fire were all about, freaked out. They thought just for the smallest moment that I was destroying my actual violin.
LOL! Got you.
There was lots of music this year. It started early and went late. Thanks music makers! We love playing with you all.
Ever since we made a batch, we’ve been running around yelling “Marco” “Boilo!” which after enough boilo is highly amusing. But I digress. What IS boilo anyway??
There is nowhere with more authority to turn to than David Wondrich, who wrote this Daily Beast article. Thanks for cluing us in!
After reading the article (you should read it) we were bummed to find that there was no associated recipe.
Twitter to the rescue! David provided this pointer.
An unofficial boilo recipe. Realize that boilo is an individual thing. Make it your own.
Of course we had to make some…
#boilo NPS step 0. All non-booze ingredients: honey, black cherry seltzer, ginger beer, oranges, lemons, cinnamon, caraway, clove, allspice, mace, star anise pic.twitter.com/fr40Np4CpP
We made some adjustments to the recipe…abandoning raspberry ginger ale for black cherry selzter and ginger beer. We also added Star Anise and Mace which we just so happened to have sitting around. This is upscale boilo by god!
We boiled for a good 15-20 minutes, letting the spices infuse. But then we let the liquid cool down so that none of our alcohol would evaporate when we added it.
Since we have very good access to local shine, why, we used that. the gallon that we used clocked in not too hot at 107.4 proof. Believe me, the shine from around here is an outstanding product, and it clocks in higher than that with some regularity.
At first we were thinking 2 quarts. But then, what the hell…
Final product came out just shy of two gallons. We imagine it’s somewhere between 60 and 80 proof. Can’t bubble it since there is so much crap in the liquid.
Visited the Lorien Hotel (a Kimpton) in Alexandria for an evening where friends of ours from different lands and lives unknowingly were working on the same project – a tasting of Catoctin Creek’s locally distilled and bottled rye and brandy’s paired with Chef’s choice hors d’oeuvres from the Lorein. Our friends Becky and Scott Harris have created a high level distillery in Purcellville, VA and Steph Vogel, another amazing person-friend runs the Lorien. The perfect cocktail storm.
