Food and Drink

Wickedly Sour and Crazy Spicy

Food and Drink, Travel / By

Kimchi, a staple food in Korean cuisine, is a traditional side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, such as napa cabbage and Korean radish, made with a widely varying selection of seasonings, including gochugaru, spring onions, garlic, ginger, and jeotgal, etc. Wickedly sour and crazy spicy, it can be pungent enough to clear a room. It’s one of those things we don’t get at home, like Eggs Benedict and also, well, let’s leave it at that. But on vacation….. in a Bloody Mary!! Couldn’t resist.

  • Jet Cannon

Tropical Salvation

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

We’ve been sucking down tropical drinks for about a week now. We don’t recommend consuming that many alcoholic beverages but we’re not stopping either. And all the sordid news from back home goes down easier with a sugary cocktail.

Just when we start to lament the sorry state of humanity, we meet Rachael and Andrew in the community hot tub. Both are young aerospace engineers who, given time and coordination with their peers, will solve the problems we retired folks helped create. So rest easy. Our problems will be solved. We encouraged Andrew and Rachael to get on a plane and go back to work! Now, where’s my Mai Tai?!

  • Jet Cannon
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Say Cheese!

Food and Drink / By

We like cheese. The holidays offer a good excuse to eat more of it.

Thanks to Costco Connection magazine we are going to impress our friends with pairings suggested by Costco cheese suppliers. Get out the wine and beer!

Fresh goat cheese: sauvignon blanc, a citrusy Belgian beer, or a crisp dry cider

Brie: Beaujolais, chardonnay or wheat beer

Jarlsberg: Beaujolais, chardonnay and most styles of beer

Cheddar: Barbaresco, sauvignon blanc and red beer

Stilton: vintage port

Go forth and pair!

  • Jet Cannon
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Fresh Cranberry Concoction

Food and Drink / By

Back to work after enjoying Buzzed Boomer’s generous vacation benefit we need to use up those leftover fresh cranberries. Not to worry. First we’ll boil the berries for about twenty minutes until they pop. Then we will strain out the juice. A little gin, a little more gin, or vodka, add some lemon juice, and simple syrup added to your shaker and slosh it with ice. Pour into a cocktail glass and toss in a few of those cranberries that you didn’t boil. And maybe a little mint to add some seasonal color. Voila!

  • Jet Cannon
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Apparently We’re Not Paying attention

Food and Drink / By

Killing time at an airport coffee bar, we grabbed a can of Tequila Margarita by Cutwater from the cooler. And guess what? It has real tequila in it. We had thought those cans were all wine coolers or malt liquor drinks. But it was real tequila and it certainly hit the spot after a long flight. And only $9.00 airport prices. Worth it though.

  • Jet Cannon
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Can O’ Cocktail

Food and Drink / By

We’re always on the lookout for a bar’s signature cocktail but in this case we found interesting “glassware”.  Kids, this is something you could try at home if you end up with a nice smooth rim.  

– Jet Cannon

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Pass the Salt

Fitness, Food and Drink / By

Eating Well magazine had an interesting and well-researched article about salty good news and salty bad news. We’ve all heard that a higher salt intake can lead to higher blood pressure. That appears to be true. Nuts.

Salty food is often associated with high calorie food which can lead to weight gain. But salt may also mess with hormones that promote fat storage. Perfect.

Ye,s but salt can reduce cramps for us athletic types, right? Maybe not. Those sports drinks with sodium and potassium may not be as beneficial as we thought. Too many other factors besides depleted electrolytes could be causing those cramps. We don’t care. We like sports drinks and how we look when we’re drinking them.

The salt shaker on the table probably isn’t our problem. Shake, shake, shake up to about a teaspoon. Yes!! The culprit more likely is deli meats, pizza, popcorn, burritos, tacos, soups, crackers and chips that we love to eat. Loaded with sodium.

We’re sticking with the salt on our Margarita and Bloody Mary rims. So there.

  • Jet Cannon
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I get no kick from caffeine

Caffeine, Fitness, Food and Drink / By

Caffeine tolerance is a thing.  We like the Buzz before workouts, for motivation, for focus, and for those times when we need to stay alert.  But tolerance minimizes those benefits.  

We did some reading to get tips on getting a reset and we learned a few things.  First, caffeine is not an essential nutrient!  We agree to disagree on that one.  Next, clearing out the caffeine from your systems takes about a week or even two.  And then the tolerance rebuilds quickly as soon as caffeine consumption becomes a habit again.  Depressing.  

What about just drinking more?  Three or four cups of coffee a day is considered to be fairly safe but more than that is probably not a good idea.  And we need to include all sources of caffeine from chocolate to energy drinks.

After sifting through the suggestions for catching a Buzz when it’s really needed, the most reasonable seems to be either just getting out of the habit of, say, starting the morning with a cup of coffee just because we always do or steadily reducing the amount consumed each day.  Save the big gulp for the days when we really need the Buzz.  It’s common sense that beats going completely cold turkey.

Too drowsy to dig any deeper.  Good luck.

– Jet Cannon

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Beer Buddies

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

We thought you might want to see this story from NPR.  Cats and dogs getting along.  Bipartisan cooperation was on full display during the fourth annual Anheuser-Busch Brew Across America Congressional Brewing Competition, where five pairs of lawmakers, one Democrat paired with one Republican, work with breweries across the country to create new small batch beers and bring them back to Washington, D.C., to find out whose concoction is best.

Said one representative, “You spend time with one another, have a beer with one another — we can still disagree with one another but it’s not going to be the end of the world.” The competition serves as a reminder that people with different political views can work together to create something satisfying.

Cheers!

  • Jet Cannon
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“Tots” Rock

Food and Drink, Recipes / By

Our good friend Captain Tony never sets out to sea (inland waters) aboard his “ship” (Boston Whaler) without a supply of Pusser’s Navy Rum.  Why?  It (was) a time-honored sailors’ tradition.  Per Pusser’s web site, “Rum became an important drink for the British Royal Navy. From the 16th Century until July 31st, 1970, British sailors were given daily rations of a mixed rum called Navy Rum. These became referred to as “tots.”

Daily life aboard these ships was brutal. Not only did they have to deal with the stress of operating a ship in the middle of the ocean, where one mistake could mean death, but they also fought enemy ships “eyeball-to-eyeball.”

These sailors used to have multiple “daily tots” each day to help keep up morale. The practice was eventually halted in the 1970s when modern officers grew concerned with drunkenness and on-deck fighting. 

Here’s some good news: fans of history and rum can still order Pusser’s Original Navy Rum. It follows the same historical recipe used for hundreds of years.” 

Yo ho ho.

Pusser’s Painkiller Ingredients

  • 2-ounces (60 ml) Pusser’s Rum
  • 4-ounces (120 ml) pineapple juice
  • 1-ounce (30 ml) orange juice
  • 1-ounce (30 ml) cream of coconut
  • Freshly grated nutmeg

Directions

  • Add liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.
  • Pour into a big glass or goblet filled with ice. Grate fresh nutmeg on top.
  • Garnish with an orange slice and cherry.
  • Be careful–this is a smooth and sneaky drink. Enjoy!

– Jet Cannon

Stay Classy, Buzzed Boomers

Burgers, Food and Drink / By

We often ponder what beverage to properly pair with our burgers.  Actually, we usually just grab a beer but luckily someone is giving it some real thought.  Fiona Beckett’s Matching food & wine post has some suggestions to help us up our game.

She starts with wine.  Okay, a burger is just ground steak so why not?  Cabernet, preferably, but she suggests a few others.

Next, IPA’s.  Beer.  There you go.  Right up our alley.

Stepping it up, a Manhattan.  Now we’re talking!  Gourmet burger.  Classy cocktail.  She says it really, really works.

Finally, a milkshake.  Not a big surprise there.  Burger, fries and shake.  Well, why buck tradition?

So there’s some things to try that we certainly didn’t previously consider.  Enjoy!

– Jet Cannon

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Baseball Wildcard Cocktail

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

Hoping to share a clever cocktail for the baseball wildcard games, we went on the Interweb and came up with….. several drinks for which we don’t have the ingredients.  Crackerjack syrup, Cardamaro, Genever, Cynar, cherry vodka, agave nectar.  Nope.  Call us unsophisticated or just plain cheap but none of that is on the shelf.  One thing was clear.  There are a number of “Wildcard Cocktails” with very little in common.  There is no trademark on the name, it would appear.

Therefore, we at Buzzed Boomer are declaring, for this season ONLY, a free-for-all on making your own Wildcard Cocktail to your own excellent preferences and standards. We’re sure your creation will be wild and crazy good!  

Cheers!

– Jet Cannon

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