Whiskey

Ever see John Wayne take shooters that were fluorescent pink? No. Why is that? Because he drank whiskey instead. Whiskey, apart from exciting the mind and accentuating the taste buds, is absolutely fantastic. Now you may be asking yourself, “What the hell does that mean?” Well, let me tell you. Whiskey, or whisky, has many different classifications based on the type of grain mash. My personal favorite is Bourbon Whiskey, which is an American Whiskey consisting of at least 51% corn. September 2007 was declared by Congress to be National Bourbon Heritage Month. Is there a more American beverage? Hell no. I recommend Bulleit or Knob Creek, but the great thing about any alcohol is trying new ones. Find a small batch bourbon of your liking, there are a ton out there.

Oh yea, drink it straight.

Vodka and Gin

Perhaps the best go to spirits, vodka and gin go great with a lot of mixers.

Aren’t martinis for chicks you might be asking?

Why don’t you ask James Bond and his hundreds of illegitimate children. Martinis are great in the right atmosphere. Don’t be the one asshole in the dive bar that orders the martini. That’s just common knowledge. Vodka and gin both go great with tonic water. They are both great cocktails and go down easy. You might even impress the boss with the right choice of top shelf gin.

Tequila

My father once told me that margaritas are God’s gift to man. I wholeheartedly agree with him. Not only are they delicious, but you can drink them all day. Yeah, I said it all day, as in 9 AM to 3 AM. Surely there must be a downside; they cannot be perfect, right? Wrong, they are perfect. Just be sure to mix them well; meaning very strong.

So enjoy being a grown up, and drink something other than plastic bottle vodka infused with Jolly Ranchers.

Corksavvy.com came out with a cheat sheet for wine pairings, which is great since you can print it out wallet-sized or just put it down in your phone or organizer. Now, anyone can fake wine expertise. Personally, we’ll just stick to making bold, confident generalizations, and have everyone at the table agree with our suggestions.

It is a remarkably simple dish, but when your guests taste it, they will swear they’re in Little Italy.

The recipe is called Chicken Gnocci Veronese.

Chicken Gnocci Veronese

For those that have never tried gnocci, it is a type of pasta made out of potato. Shaped like a dumpling, they have the consistency of play-doh and taste like fresh warm bread. It is remarkably different from any pasta you have tried and by itself will wow your guests. You can either make them yourself or just take the easy route like we did, and buy them pre-made at your local grocery store.

Potato Gnocci

This particular chicken pasta has a rich creamy taste with a zesty lemon chicken bite. It has a wealth of complexity in the flavors and tastes far better than it should.

Try it. We guarantee your guests will be begging for seconds.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small vidalia onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced (julienned)
• 1/2 zucchini, sliced (julienned)
• salt
• 4 chicken breasts, sliced in 1/2 strips
• 2 small rosemary sprigs
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 lemon, juice of
• 1 pound of Gnocci (2 pounds if you’re serving more than 2)

VERONESE SAUCE

• 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 14 fluid ounces heavy cream

Steps

1.) Combine the garlic, lemon juice, rosemary, and small chicken slices in a mixing bowl and let marinate for at least 2 hours. The longer the better.

2.) When the chicken has finished marinating, bring water to boil in a sauce pot. Drop in gnocchi. Reduce heat when it all floats.

2.) While waiting for the gnocci to cook: In a separate mixing bowl combine the ricotta cheese, the heavy cream and half the parmesean cheese together. Set aside

3.) Heat a Sauté pan on medium high. Add the extra virgin olive oil, onions, bell peppers, and zucchini. Saute the mixture until the onions are translucent- do not brown!

4.) Then add the marinated chicken slices into the same saute pan and cook until slices are brown on all sides and internal temperature is 165°F (When you slice the thickest piece open and it’s white the whole way through-no pink!)

5.) Reduce the heat on the chicken and vegetables and add the cheese sauce and bring to a simmer.

6.) Drain the gnocci and add to the chicken, vegtables and cheese sauce. Stir the entire plate together to coat the gnocci with the cheese sauce. Keep the pan on the heat until the sauce reaches the thickness of your liking- personally we like it pretty thick.

7.) Serve on a plate and sprinkle on the remaining parmesean cheese.

Light a candle and compliment with a cold glass of sparkling wine or champagne. This dish is pretty heavy so you’re going to need something light to wash it down.

And that’s it! Enjoy.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting.

-The Haute Spot
Oh and remember- Every guy should have a signature dish, even if it’s his only one.

Rusty Nail

Rusty Nail

Ice

1.5 oz. of Scotch Whisky

Splash of Drambuie

Lemon Twist (Optional)

Grab a heavy glass tumbler. The cup is important. It should fit your hand like a firm handshake. Men don’t drink from stemmed or footed glassware.

Add ice. If you have time, make large blocks of ice and chip to fit in your cup. The large ice cube will melt less than several cubes and won’t water down your drink.

Pour the whisky directly on the ice. This will super chill the whisky making it more refreshing and helping to eliminate the bite (pussy). Swirl several times to help lower the temperature even more.

Then splash the drambuie directly into your cup. Gently, now.The key here is to compliment the whisky, not overpower it.

Gulp down.

Then make yourself another one to sip and enjoy. The first will warm the soul and melt your stress away. The second you can use to savor and enjoy.

Also, leave the lemon twist out. There’s only one kind of twist a man should like, and that’s this one.

Paul Walker to Jason Stratham.

This subtle shift in culture over the past couple of years is being reflected in everyday culture, most notably how advertisers try and target the male demographic.

Old Spice has come out with commercials showing wimps turning into men

Mitchum Man has used a clever campaign littered with matching, borderline sexist, slogans like: “If they look real enough, you’re a Mitchum Man,” “If you still order your coffee Small, Medium, or Large, you’re a Mitchum Man,” “If your socks kind of match, you’re a Mitchum Man.”

Typical Mitchum Man Ad

One shift that has been particularly pronounced has been liquor commercials. Grey Goose commercials showing scantily clad women partying have been replaced by Ketel One commercials emphasizing male bonding. A girl dancing in a club for Beck’s, to the “Most Interesting Man in the World.” In fact, the majority of new commercials coming from liquor distributors have not featured women at all. They’ve centered around the relationships men have with their friends, their fathers, and their ego.

So without further ado the Top 5 Liquor commercials of this era:

5.)

A father-son relationship emblazoned.  Can’t get better then that. We’ll excuse the poetry.

4.)

Although this commercial breaks the mold, and does have women in it, the focus is on being a gentlemen, and not being a pig. We like the simplicity, admiration, and the subtle plug for drinking responsibly. Very well done.

3.)

You really have to watch this one twice, because the jazz overpowers the message. “It took him 12 years to get the gig in this joint, and now he’s been headlining for 25″ We love the mentor, protege, relationship in this one. Truly phenomenal.

2.)

We have shivers down our spine.

1.)

A little predictable we know, and beer is technically not liquor, but you can’t deny the alarming success of this campaign. He exudes masculinity, and probably has never even heard of the term metrosexual. It captures the essence the advertisers were trying to employ perfectly. Blends the perfect amount of humor and message. It is for this reason, we consider “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” the top liquor commercial of this era.

Feel like we’re missing a commercial? Let us know, we’d love to keep this list updated.

Change up the pace in your glassware and snag yourself one of these Ona Pitchers.

BUY IT Ona Pitchers $16.95- $26.95

The Booze:

4 parts scotch(2 0z.)

2 parts Drambuie(1 oz.)

The Gear:

Chilled old-fashioned glass

Ice cubes

Instructions:

You pour the respective spirits over the ice and stir. Done.

Keep this one in mind next time you want to impress without putting in any effort.

I really like the VT-12 because it’s compact and blends in seamlessly with a variety of different decors. It has a stainless steel trim and dual-paned glass door, which block out more UV and are easier to clean. It can carry approximately 12 bottles and sturdy shelf racking for individual bottle storage. It also has thermoelectric temperature control and a digital temperature display which are controlled by easy push button controls, making it easier for you to control how cool the wine gets. Now if you are worried about this being a loud, humming energy leech, put those fears aside. The VT-12 is ultra-quiet and very energy efficient. As a matter of fact, the VT-12 is not only energy efficient, it is ecologically sound, emitting no CFC or HCFC emissions. That is bound to please your more ecologically minded guests and make you seem conscientious and shrewd. This is a smart choice for any serious wine connoisseur.

BUY IT Vinotemp VT-12 $179.00

Mixing drinks seems to intimidate people when the instructions start to go beyond mixing rum with soda, but in reality most drinks are easier to make than a proper omelet. While having the appropriate bar gear isn’t exactly a hundred percent necessary, it really does make things much easier on you. Improvising with whatever objects on hand can work, but this can also easily backfire on you.  This week’s cocktail is a classic: The Dry Martini.

This is the original Gentleman’s cocktail. This is an American classic, with stories of its origins dating back to the gold rush. With it’s telltale cocktail olives, it’s as iconic as Frank Sinatra’s voice or Marilyn Monroe’s beauty mark. It’s a crisp drink, with no overriding sweetness to detract from the simple pleasure of enjoying it.

All you need: Gin, Dry vermouth, cocktail olive, mixing glass, chilled cocktail glass, ice cubes.

For one cocktail it breaks down into 6 parts gin(30z.) and about a 1/4 teaspoon of the vermouth. You combine the gin and vermouth into the mixing glass with the ice cubes and you stir well. Then you pour into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cocktail olive. Purists insist on the liquors and the mixing glass being at room temperature. Now all you need to do is find a beautiful lady to share with.

Hosting is an art

There are tons of way to impress guests when entertaining in one’s home. You can show off the old big screen, flat or otherwise. You can always cash in cool points on having a good collection of pretty much anything that doesn’t make you seem like a pre-teen trapped in an adult’s body. So knives, books, art, and furniture are a yes; baseball cards, and action figures, and we’ll assume the 40 Year Old Virgin was based on a true story.

One guaranteed crowd-pleaser is a stocked home bar. Something about having a home bar, and by that I mean something that is more than a cabinet with a couple bottles of liquor and wine, really gets people’s juices flowing. You don’t even need to build a gigantic fully stocked home bar, just something with the “bar essentials” that can be placed in the corner or a back of a room or salon. Once that’s done, a simple cocktail recipe book and a little common sense is all you need. Here are the basics for a small bar at home.

THE BOOZE:
Beer, Lager(refrigerate)
Blended whiskey or Rye
Bourbon
Brandy
Gin
Pernod
Red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon and/or dry French
Rum, light
Scotch
Sherry, dry
Tequila, white
Triple Sec
Vermouth, dry and sweet
Vodka(keep in freezer)
White wine, dry French or California chardonnay(refrigerate)

Good start

MIXERS:
Cola
Cranberry juice
Diet soda
Ginger ale
Grapefruit juice
Lemon juice
Lemon-lime soda
Lime juice
Orange juice
Sparkling water
Tomato juice
Tonic water

GARNISHES AND CONDIMENTS:
Angostura bitters
Bar sugar
Black pepper
Cocktail Olives
Grenadine
Lemons
Limes
Maraschino cherries
Oranges
Tabasco sauce
Worcestershire sauce

GLASSWARE:
Brandy sniffer
Champagne flute
Cocktail glass
Highball glass
Old-Fashioned glass
Pilsner glass
Wine goblet

TOOLS OF THE TRADE:
Bar spoon
Blender
Bottle opener
Citrus reamer
Corkscrew
Jigger
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Mixing glass
Paring Knife
Standard shaker
Strainer.

Don’t let sheer magnitude of the list scare you. Build your bar slowly by starting with the basics:

1.) A great sipping whisky (Macallan’s 18, Highland Park 21, Blue Label)

2.) A great mixing whiskey (Dewer’s 12, Crown Royal, Maker’s Mark, Black Label)

3.) A premium bottle of vodka (Belvedere or Grey Goose, and Ketel One)

4.) A great Reposado or Blanco Tequila (4 Copas, Gran Patron Silver, 1921)

5.) A great selection of beers (Lagers, Dunkels, and your college favorite for impromptu parties)

6.) Champagne (Either for a celebration, or for girls that don’t like the taste of alcohol)

7.) Amaretto (For making amaretto sours- only for girls that don’t like the taste of alcohol)

8.) Respectable selection of wines (Red, Whites, Chardonnay, Sovereign Blanc, Zinfandel, etc)

9.) Extra’s: Ice! , Quality glasses, Large Heavy Duty Shaker (don’t put anything carbonated in it- rookie mistake), Towels

10.) Mixers: Soda’s, Sour mix, Juices, etc.

11.) Something impressive to put it all in (Go dark wood, with darker leather)

Impromptu Party

Good luck and happy hosting.

Hat Tip