There’s nothing better than waking up late on a Sunday, being greeted with a fresh cup of coffee, a hearty breakfast, and the first cocktail of the day.

Hook in Georgetown, is known for using local produce, meats, and sustainable fish.

And now they will be known for giving me everything I ever dreamed of.

Hook’s brunch menu had the usual suspects–eggs, pancakes, french toast.  However, I spotted the Lobster Omelet and Bacon Bloody Mary.  Ahoy, sailor!

Large chunks of sweet Maine lobster folded into a rich, creamy sauce, nestled between fluffy, scrambled eggs.  There was enough for two meals, so I saved half for dinner.  But not before I sampled the crispy, golden home fries, fat-sliced bacon, and ate the garnish—I’m trying to get more veggies in my diet.

Sadly, the Bloody Mary was not made with bacon-infused vodka, as I had secretly hoped.  It was simply a regular Bloody Mary with an albeit artfully-arranged bacon strip on top.  Would it be the same?

I nibbled off a bit before I sipped.  That didn’t work.  I pushed the bacon to the bottom of the glass, stirred, and waited five minutes.  That didn’t work, either.  The flavors refused to mix, but I drank it anyway.  I’m no quitter.

Hook has incredible desserts, like the Caramel Pine Nut Tart, with Gorgonzola Dolce and Rosemary Ice Cream.  But who could indulge after a gargantuan meal like that?  Maybe next time.  Oh, their menu changes daily, so if you want a luxurious lobster breakfast, go this weekend!

Just a quick update…

The bacon has been made (I was sure to make a few extra pieces to eat)

Vodka and bacon are now in a jar, getting to know each other a little better.

I added a little black peppercorn before sealing the lid tight.

Do not open until Christmas.

I love Bloody Marys.

Almost as much as Whiskey Sours.

It’s the breakfast of champions, complete with all the nutrients and vitamins your mother hopes you’re getting, now that she’s not there to provide you with something hearty in the morning.

So when I heard there was a bacon-infused vodka, well, I got a tingly feeling from head to toe.

Then I remembered: I’m unemployed, and fairly broke.

Now it’s true, the less money I have, the more I need to drink—it’s a twisted irony of life.

Unemployed=bottom shelf liquor in plastic bottles.

I thought about asking for some as a Christmas gift, but every time I ask my family for hard liquor as a present, be it my birthday, Easter or Arbor Day, they get a sad look on their faces, shaking their heads solemnly while considering a holiday intervention.

But I will not let these trying economic times mess with my cocktail hour.

I’ve always been a believer that anything that can be done, can be done better at home.

I don’t buy sour mixes for my whiskey, I don’t purchase Mr. & Mrs. T for my bloodies.

If you want something done right, do it your own damned self.

That’s how I roll.

So I’m going to make my own.

Watch this blog in the coming weeks as I chart my progress…More to come.

Scott-St. Paul, MN

A few weeks ago I had Anna and our friend Sean over for brunch.  We had all had particularly fun Friday nights, which called for the perfect hangover cure: getting drunk again the Bloody Mary.  A few of these and we were all feeling great again, maybe TOO great because we ended up in the pub after we we finished eating.  

Anna brought the bloody, Sean brought the Mary.

Along with round after round of bloody Marys, we had bacon*, eggs and a southern speciality: cheese grits.  The cheese grits were far too salty and oily (they did call for a half pound of cheese and a quarter of butter), but I found another recipe to serve with rabbit stew which was more restrained.  Grits are a lot like polenta and although they are traditionally breakfast fare, they can certainly be adapted and served with dinner.

Bacon and Cheese Grits

Just what the Doctor ordered... if the Doctor was a fat alcoholic

*The bacon came from the local butcher.  I was surprised that there wasn’t much difference in price from that purchased in major supermarkets, but the quality was vastly superior.

BACON!

- Ryan

You’re a hateful, socially-inept, charmless, morally spineless, cowardly, free-loading, Skeletor-faced, spunk-brained, king-sized loser of a limp dick. You’re a cock, you’re a tosser, you’re fat-arsed chair glosser. You make me sick.

Admit it. Reading that paragraph made you reflect on what an atrocious cunt you are. Experiment in cold-reading over. It’s ok. I’m not singling you out. The rest of us are scum too:  mankind is lots of tiny bits of scum floating towards other bigger clumps of scum to form a planet-sized ball of scum hurtling towards death, the biggest scum of them all, apart, perhaps, from life. One bloated rotten putrid scum together. Listen to Jeff Lewis’ East River song and this might somehow seem like a wonderful, magical thing. But it isn’t. It’s awful. And if you think differently you’re deceiving yourself like the self-deluding skin-sack of rotting scum that you are.

I’m especially scummy. I know this because I’m the target of a campaign of vicious bile-bombings by Charlie Brooker. Brooker has made my scummyness absolutely clear. The other day he verbally and physically assaulted me. Last night, he repeatedly kicked me in the face – I bled profusely, turning a snow-white pavement from the old Trebor Mr Soft adverts into the river of blood from the Shining. He didn’t say anything, mind – just raised an eyebrow, shook his head and walked off.

I’ve never spoken to Charlie Brooker. I don’t know him. Like every other respiring liberal, I love his column and Screenwipe and even the show he did on Channel 4 when it didn’t have Frankie Boyle and Josie Long on it making me want to fry slices of my own left-hemisphere, like a lonesome Hannibal Lecter, with the hope of making speech recognition an impossibility. But that’s as far as it goes.

See: Charlie Brooker is the Freddy Krueger of vicious satire. He’s terrorising my dreams. I’m not sure how he does it or why, but it appears he won’t stop until he’s successfully pummelled my self-esteem into submission.

So ok, it’s my sub-conscious doing a poor imitation of Brooker through a limited lens of uncreative swearing, with an eccentric bad vigilantism borrowed from The Punisher. But I’m convinced he’s got something to do with it. I walked past him in Clapham the other day, holding hands with a woman who looked like/was Konnie Huq, off of the new Aids adverts. It might not have been her, but the two are permanently associated in my mind after he made her do this. Whatever, she looked slightly ashamed. To be fair, we were gawping at them like drooling newborn infants unable to control our eye movements. But then CB looks like a grumpy Mount Rushmore president coming at you in real life: his head is all massive and granitey. With the added Huq-factor, there was plenty to involuntarily gawp at.

Mainly though, we were gawping cos we’d successfully, though accidentally, summoned Brooker like an evil comedy genie. Moments before he appeared, conversation had randomly turned to a loud discussion of his TV output. Coincidence? I’m pretty sure I said his name at least 3 times: anyone familiar with the Candyman films will know this is enough to invoke an evil spirit. Upon revealing himself, Brooker looked a bit angry (presumably because we’d rudely extracted him from the dark netherworld in which he usually dwells). I suspect it was at this point he used his nefarious powers to enter my subconscious, where he’s been stalking me ever since.

So: does anyone know how to stop a bilious dream satirist? Burying him in ground consecrated by Holy Water would seem like the obvious way to go, but I’m happy to consider other suggestions.

I like brunch, but I can not deal with the “brunch types”.  People flock to every “just decent” restaurant in the city, like the fuckin’ joint is handing out free food and booze.  C’mon people, it’s just lunch & breakfast served at the same time. Ugh, fuckin’ white people.

by cacophonies

Today’s Bloody Mary was enjoyed at The Bulldog Uptown. It was thick, creamy, smooth, and very tomato-ey. Garnishments included two green olives and a pickle. Too tomato-ey for my taste. Almost sweet, even. Flavor was quite bright, which isn’t what I generally expect from a bloody. I want spice and pepper. Unidentifiable beer back. Probably a light beer of some kind. Can’t quite place it. The rim salt was barely there.

Drinkable, but not awesome. Too dull for me.

Overall grade: C.

We hate Web Design Blog, and we hate the post 200+ Shopping Vector Icons.

1. WE HATE how Christmas invaded our life this year. You think you’re being generous by letting your reader(s) download these icons. But you aren’t being generous. You’re hastening the cheapening of Christmas.

Subtle.

When we were young, Christmas stood for something.

2. WE HATE your design. It’s way too busy. Glaring. Loud. Seizure causing. But don’t just take our opinion without hearing our solid scientific research.

Yes, we are a scientist. And we tested your web design by holding it front of our bathroom mirror, turning out the lights, and hitting refresh three times.

Bloody Mary hates your web design, too.

3. WE HATE your membership system. You advertise free downloads for vector graphics, yet you want us to become members and pay for it. We don’t understand. We can only assume that your members have access to the Non-Suck templates and graphics.

Boy howdy. Why would we ever need fonts other than these fine specimens?

4. WE HATE your membership fees. You charge “$9.99 / life.” $9.99 per life? This is ridiculous and offensive. (Ridicuffensive.)

Ridiculous: Do you really think that we will be swayed be the amazing savings of one penny over a lifetime? Charge ten bucks.

Offensive: Why do you hate Hindu believers so much? Do you have any idea how much membership would cost an ātman?

5. WE HATE your business model, which we can essentially summarize as “Why offer the cow for free, when you can get the milk for free as well?”

Free vector graphics on the internet? What a rare and unique opportunity!

Look. Maybe this isn’t a growth-industry for you. We googled “Free Vector Graphics” and got almost four million hits.

We googled “Jobs in Vector Graphics.” We got 744,000 hits.

Consider our business model, which we summarize as “We hate the cow, and we hate its milk. And if you like either cows or milk or write a blog about either, we will hate that blog as well.”

VJ PIXALOT will be joining the BLK MARKET Krew on visuals this Friday, Nov. 13th ( spooky ) for a killer night of minimal tech with special DJ’s representing the best of the Berlin scene.
BLKMARKET MEMBERSHIP with residents TAIMUR+FAHAD present:
KONRAD BLACK [Wagon Repair - Berlin]
ANTHONY COLLINS [Freak n' Chic / Vakant - Paris] -NY DEBUT
KATE SIMKO Live [Spectral - Chicago]
SHAUN REEVES [Wolf+Lamb / Simple -Berlin]
BLOODY MARY [Contexterrior / Berlin]
Opening Set by: K1W1 [Basic Matter - New York]
AT SECRET LOCATION: MUST RSVP TO ATTEND:
BLKMARKET.FRI13th@GMAIL.COM
MIDNIGHT TO NOON

Related Post:
VJ Pixalot Makes Fondue with Swiss Chocolate

www.prizzispiazza.com

Monday thru Thursday — 4:30 p.m. to 7:00p.m Happy Hour at the bar and on the patio.  $1.50 Slices(cash only bar and patio seating) Meatball Sliders.

Saturday & Sunday Brunch—All Mimosas and Bloody Marys are buy one get one free per customer during brunch hours

Monday Night is . . . $5 Mojito and $6 Martini-Madness.  Mojitos always made with fresh mint and fresh lime.

Tuesday Night is . . . $5 Glass of Wines—All day and Night $5 glasses of Candoni Italian Wines.

Wednesday Night is . . .25% Off Vino—Order any entrée & order a wine by the bottle from our wine list at 25% off the list

price (Excludes any Wines from the Reserve List).
Thursday Night is . . .Late Nite Happy Hour.  Offering Our Happy Hour appetizers from 10p.m. until close.

Friday Night is . . .Cash Savings—Pay Cash and save 10% off the Food Portion of your Bill!

No other Coupons or Discounts accepted…

All promotions subject to change without notice and are offered at the sole discretion of the management
Savings Not Valid With Any Other Discounts orCoupons

Um homem morre de derrame em frente a um espelho, mas Sam e Dean acreditam que alguma coisa ou alguém (Maria Sangrenta), pode estar por trás de sua morte. Dean tenta ajudar Sam a superar a morte de sua namorada, logo depois de descobrir que ele não contou tudo a respeito do que aconteceu.

by cacophonies

The plan for Saturday was to go to The Uptown Bar & Cafe for one last breakfast & Bloody Mary (apparently, they’re award-winning) before they closed down. An added bonus to their Bloodys is that you get to take home the glass it comes in. My glasses from the Uptown now outnumber the set I got from Target. Their bloody’s were simple, yet satisfying. Unfortunately, we found that the Uptown had already closed. Here’s to hoping they find themselves a new location.

Change of plans. Jesse and I instead opted for breakfast at Bryant Lake Bowl. BLB offers a choice of four different Bloody Marys, each one unique and awesome and totally worth trying. I’ve had two of theirs before, but this time opted to try one I hadn’t yet sampled: Amanda’s Rock ‘n’ Roller. It was advertised as containing mild green Tobasco and some other ingredients I don’t quite remember being listed, and combined with the name, looked like it would be spicy and savory.

Along the rim was not a celery salt or pepper concoction, but rather… sea salt! Pure sea salt. Now, I am quite a lover of all things sodium-infused (much to my blood pressure’s dismay), but this could have possibly been a bit too much. I solved this problem by brushing the salt chunks into the drink. They dissolved and it was no longer overwhelming.

What made this Bloody Mary especially unique was the abundant use of garlic. When I say abundant, I mean that I was drinking alcoholic, tomato-flavored garlic. A full glass of it. There were garlic chunks in the drink itself, and the garnish of two green olives were stuffed with garlic. The pickle spear, thankfully, lacked additional garlic flavoring.

The consistency was medium-to-thin, which isn’t usually my favorite. I added more Tobasco, as usual, because nothing can ever be too spicy (or salty).

I am not 100% positive about which beer was used for the beer back, but based on the location (Minneapolis hipster headquarters) and the bland, thin taste, I think I’m safe in assuming that it was PBR.

All in all, I’d rate Saturday’s Bloody Mary a solid B. As far as my personal preferences are concerned, it was a C, but I think that people who are bigger fans of garlic would love it. My mom, for example, would probably ask for another tablespoon or so to add to it. (Love you, Mom, and your spaghetti-flavored garlic!)

Saturday’s Bloody Mary was enjoyed with the above-referenced Mom at Mayslack’s. I’ve had their Bloody Marys a few times, and always thoroughly enjoy them. They have one standard Bloody Mary that includes a slew of garnishes, including: Pickle spear, two large green olives, a lime, and a beef stick. The beef stick, while not the awesomest quality meat ever, appears to be included as part of their inaccurate slogan, “Nobody Beats Mayslack’s Meat!” I say inaccurate because all of the meat that I’ve had there, with the exception of their bacon, is chewy and fatty and gross.

Anyway.

The consistency of the Bloody Mary is quite thick, and the rim is covered in what seems to be a mix of salt-and-pepper spices and other unidentifiable (but delicious and complementary) spices. The beer back is also unidentifiable to my taste buds, but it is presumably some cheap tap beer. Not PBR, either way. Drinkable, nonetheless.

Overall rating: Solid A. I love how thick it is, I like the beef stick, even though it’s not fabulous, and the mix is savory and a little spicy.

Oh, and the omelet I had there was amazing and the jalapenos were actually spicy, which is a rare thing in these wimpy Northern parts.

Anyone sample Bloody Marys at either of these places? How do you like them?

Mensch bin ich muede

Während ich mühsam an meiner BA schreibe, hat sie schon Weekend.
Heute abend werd ich mal sehen was ich machen werde. Ich werd vielleicht ein bisschen tanzen gehen.

Eigentlich wollte ich mich ja mit einem netten Typen treffen, der hat dann aber abgesagt
Tja, kann  man wohl nichts machen, mein Liebesleben wird irgendwie nix mehr.

Vielleicht mach ich mir aber auchn ruhigen Abend un trinke Wurst, das ist für dich spanksen
Genau Wurst trinken!!!
Oder ich schau ne DVD. mal sehen, ob jmd Lust & Zeit hat?!

Bis dann ihr süssen
XOXO Eure Marie

• Birth= 18 February 1516
• Death=17 November 1558
• Marriage=Prince Philip at the age of 37
• End of Education=age of 14
• Her goal= when her name is said, she will kill
• Mother and father= King Henry (father) Queen Mary (mother)
• Death causation= Coma
• Dislikes= hated her sister and wanted to KILL HER.

Compiled by Oliver Wright

It’s been a little while since we last posted an assortment of links, but this is a selection of some of the things which have been going round the office lately:

• Boris – the London Mayor – officially launches the city’s ‘cycle superhighways’, a cycle hire scheme, and demand for cycle parking in the capital is (apparently) on the rise…
• The inside-out bloody mary – a new take on an old classic!
• By way of previewing a forthcoming post on data visualisation – two great articles discussing the state of the art on CNNtech and Creativity Online
• This fun website from Dutch company Hema (similar to Ikea in the UK) won some awards for its playful approach to household products. Although the site’s in Dutch, the visual gags are pretty universal.
• Portuguese workers are struggling in the recession to find jobs – and some are heading to former colony Angola in search of better fortunes
• The Atlantic publishes a somewhat timid and fairly American list of ‘Brave Thinkers’ – I mean, Steve Jobs? Mark Zuckerberg? We’re working on a list of people who deserve a place but aren’t here. Do you have a contribution?

Gestern hab ich mich noch mit meiner Freundin Julia auf nen leckeren cappu im Extrablatt getroffen.
Es war wirklich gut.
Sie hat mir zwar viel über das Thema Kanalsanierung erzählt wovon ich zwar persönlich die Schnauze voll habe, aber dennoch konnte ich es mir anhören. Denn es ist eigentlich ziemlich praktisch, dass ich meine BA über kanalsanierung schreibe, wo sie jetzt ne Ausbildung als Klempnerin ;D absolviert.
Naja, wenn es ihr spaß macht. ^^
Ich sollte ihr vorschlagen meine BA zu schreiben.

Nachdem ich gestern für ungefähr 9 Stunden in der Uni war, habe ich anschliessend nach dem Cappu mein Bad in der Badewanne sehr genossen.

Gleich werde ich nen wenig über kanalsanierung tippen.
Also seid gespannt
Eure marie :*

I have been a little unsure about whether or not I should be blogging about some of the more touristy things I have been doing lately – is anyone really interested?  (Feel free to tell me if you’re not btw, I won’t mind as long as you tell me what you are interested in)  In the end I have decided that I will share because visiting the regular tourist haunts has been super interesting and really helped shaped my picture of London.  Plus I’m new enough to still get away with it.

The best of the bunch by far in my mind has to be Westminster Abbey.  This place was astounding, and to think my boyf and I weren’t even going to go inside when we first walked by.  It is one of the only big tourist spots in London to charge admission – about £12 from memory.  Boy am I glad we decided not to be stingy that day.

Aside from the fact that it’s a stunningly beautiful building (think your typical European Cathedral and you’ve got a good picture) this place is PACKED to the rafters with English history – all made readily available to you through audio guides which are included in the admission fee.  There are so many things going on I’ll just focus on highlights.

Queen Elizabeth I is buried here under a striking marble statue made in her likeness.  Mary I or Bloody Mary, her sister, is buried directly underneath her.  On their tomb is inscribed “Consorts in realm and in tomb, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary, sisters, in hope of resurrection” – consorts here referring both to siblings, and to sharing something in common.  Interestingly, her rival, Mary Queen of Scots is buried in reverence at the exactly the same location as Elizabeth on the opposite side of the chapel.  Both the positioning of the tombs and the inscription on the tomb of Elizabeth and Mary I were placed there by James I, Elizabeth’s successor who truly united the 2 kingdoms.  Other notable royal burials include Edward the Confessor (made a Roman Catholic saint in 1161) and the Plantagenet Kings of Crusader fame (Lionheart, Longshanks).

All English Royal coronations have taken place in Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror in 1066, and since 1308, would you believe, all in the same chair.  You can see the rather plain looking chair on display in the abbey.

The infamous Poets Corner is also housed in Westminster Abbey, with tombs and memorials for England’s most predominant artistic types.  My fav’s included Jane Austen, Shakespeare, the Bronte Sisters, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Laurence Olivier and Rudyard Kipling (but the list goes on). 

And finally for the Da Vinci Code fans (and who’s not?) there is also the memorial to Sir Isaac Newton which features at the end of the book.  This is next to the Charles Darwin memorial in the Scientists corner (the less famous corner it would seem)

Basically, this place is a history buff’s wet dream – and for the rest of us, it proves to be one of those occurrences I mentioned in my last post, another amazing door that London has opened and dares you to want more. Yes, please.

by cacophonies

I am on a quest to find the Twin Cities best Bloody Mary. For my own research purposes and for the benefit of other Bloody Mary lovers in Minneapolis, I’m going to start a weekly Bloody Mary blog, where I critique a new Bloody Mary somewhere in the cities.

Today’s Bloody is being enjoyed at Two Stooges in Fridley, a northern suburb of Minneapolis.

Bloody mix: medium-to-thin consistency, rich and tangy flavor. Visible chunks of pepper floating in the drink (this is a plus).

Garnishments: Pickle spear, two stuffed pimento olives.

Beer back: None?!

The drink itself, while tasty and satisfying, could have been more… exciting. The pickle and olives were good, but in order to make up for the lack of the beer back, they could have made the mix a little thicker, possibly added some celery or spiced it up a bit.

Overall grade: B+. It would have been higher with a beer back. It’s possible that the server forgot, but it’s also possible that they just don’t include one here. Red Lobster doesn’t. I don’t usually want beer for breakfast, but a small glass of beer, aka the beer back, is an expected and necessary part of any good Bloody Mary and complements the overall flavor and experience of the Bloody.

Breakfast, on the other hand, was delicious and inexpensive. I ordered a three-cheese omelet, which was enormous, and came with hashed browns, for only $4.99. I will likely be coming here again!

Any suggestions on where I should go next week?

Yesterday, instead of writing about Kristin Lavrensdatter like I needed to, since it’s time for part 1 wrap-up posts, I unpacked and put out all of our DVDs (nearly 300 titles!), music, and of course my books. Then I made my Halloween costume.

I wanted to be the character “9″ from the movie of the same name, an animated post-apocalypse story about a small group of soft robots who are fighting to survive the same terrible machine that assisted in the destruction of human civilization.

My costume, while not being exactly what I had envisioned (I had high hopes for a great deal of burlap…!) turned out well and throughout my shift at the theater (where we were playing 9, incidentally) I got a lot of good comments. The zipper, of which I am particularly proud, made it through a costume party at the Lompoc, and the nearly hurricane force winds and sudden rain that plagued the night. I’m going to hang it somewhere in my house – I discovered that giant zippers are really visually interesting!

Here’s another really visually interesting thing – click for a bigger image if you want to really peruse the shelves!

Nonsensical ramblings about Kristin Lavrensdatter coming soon, I promise… Maybe after I finish this Bloody Mary.

Sin lugar a dudas el Bloody Mary, es el cocktail perfecto para el Brunch. El mejor  en Public NYC (se admiten sugerencias de lugares). Preparación: 1/3 de vodka,  2/3 de zumo de tomate, 2 golpes de Perrin´s, un golpe de Tabasco y, unas gotas de zumo de limón, todo ello servido con mucho hielo en un vaso con sal en su borde. Por ultimo, decorarlo con una rama de apio que le otorga cierto amargor final.

Una variante interesante a la española, aunque no para todos los gustos, consiste en sustituir el vodka por fino andaluz.

Bloody Mary is the most popular cocktail all over the world. It’s made of 1/3 vodka, 2/3 tomato-clam juice, 1or 2 dash of lemon juice, 2 drops of hot sauce (Tabasco) and 2 drops of Worcestershire sauce (Lea Perrins), served on the rocks in a glass rimmed with celery salt. The best in Public NYC.

Cualquier comentario sobre lugares donde tomar un buen Bloody Mary serán muy bienvenidos. All your comments about where to find the best Bloody Mary are welcome.