Home Work: Mugs and Colors

We've been spending some time over the past few months doing some sprucing up around the SAR homestead. This has been a multifaceted endeavor, entailing everything from evaluating our assortment of drinking glasses and coffee mugs, to adding a couple of new pieces of storage furniture, to rearranging some of our living space.

It started innocently enough: I was in search of a replacement for one of our small Fiestaware plates that had gone missing. My Virgo mind likes order, and it bothered me that we had an odd number of small plates, but an even number of dinner plates and bowls. Also, it just bothered me that I couldn't find the other plate, or determine what had become of it.

We got quite a bit of Fiestaware as wedding gifts; we had chosen cobalt as the color we wanted and put it on our registry. (As an aside, I should point out that I was the one who chose most of the items on our registry, and subsequently was the one who went to the store and walked around with the scanner gun, because the Mrs. just wasn't interested.)

Eventually I clicked my way to the direct-sale website of Homer Laughlin, the company that has manufactured Fiestaware in Newell, West Virginia since 1936 (production ceased in late 1972, but was revived in 1986). I decided that it didn't make sense to order just one small plate, so I added two more dinner plates, which would allow us to stretch our dishwasher cycle a bit.

Before I finalized my order, I looked around the rest of the site. All the mugs that had come with the place settings had long been banished to the top shelf of our cupboard; we never use them, because they are kind of small and almost all our other mugs are around 15 ounces or larger. We'd recently had a conversation about getting rid of them, giving them to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Online I saw a newer, tapered mug design that I was not familiar with, in a 15-ounce size. I eyed the color choices, liking several of them. I added a few to my order.

A day or so later, I found myself thinking about the mugs that were on their way along with the plates. I wanted more colors of them. I found a big home sale going on at JCPenney, and with various discounts was able to order several more for around $9 each. A week or so later, everything had arrived and we had eight Fiestaware mugs in eight different colors: scarlet, slate, lapis, ivory, sage, lemongrass, poppy, and turquoise. I didn't get one in cobalt to match the plates and bowls, because I see the mugs as their own thing, separate and distinct from our dinnerware. I suppose I could still order one, but that would leave us with an odd number...

(Fiestaware is and has always been an American-made product, from a company still in the hands of family descended from its founders. Keep that in mind next time you're thinking about buying dinnerware, either for yourself or as a gift.)

Cheerful Mornings

So yeah, quiet around here lately. I was sort of busy doing stuff over the weekend, but not so busy that I didn't have time for a post, I just sort of forgot. I can offer this:

It came from a web store affiliated with the writer Warren Ellis. The Mrs. accidentally broke my Strand Books mug, and I decided to replace it with this. If you think you'd like one of your own, you can find it over here.

In Praise of the Tallboy

Earlier this summer I deviated from my regular beer, Narragansett, to sample some others. At one point my refrigerator contained Founders All Day IPA, Harpoon's new Take 5, and some Magic Hat that had been brought to the house by guests. Whenever I drank one I'd think, I wish this was 16 ounces instead of 12.

The primary reason for this is that I drink a beer with my dinner, and the larger-size serving works much better as a meal accompaniment. Even with judicious sipping, too often I get to the end of a 12-ounce beer with several bites of food remaining. Draft beer is usually served as a pint, and I think that's probably related to food as well, at least a little.

I don't know who first thought of the 16-ounce can (I suspect that has been lost to beer history), but that person's effort is certainly welcomed by me.

Coffee Break

I was thinking about coffee this morning, as mine was brewing. I don't think there are any other food items that I consume every single day. There's also beer, but there are occasional days when I don't drink a beer with my evening meal.

I was first introduced to coffee when I was around five, when my mother added a little to my milk. But I didn't start drinking it with any regularity until near the end of high school. That's also around the time I started visiting Dunkin' Donuts, which is when I discovered what half and half was. Cream was never used in our household, and I guess I had never noticed it in the grocery store either. If you haven't done a direct comparison, coffee with milk tastes markedly different from coffee with cream. (I don't use sugar, it's just more unnecessary calories and I think it ruins the taste of the coffee.)

In college my roommate had a coffee maker, and when I lived alone as a senior I acquired my first one. I couldn't even count how many of them I've had since, but it's probably at least a dozen. I remember a roommate in a house a couple of years out of college having one of the earliest Braun models that used the cone-shaped filters. I was struck by the thought that had gone into the various elements of the design. Of course I wanted one for myself and I did get one, eventually, but it was a few years later.

Around that same time I tried to develop a taste for drinking coffee black because it seemed like a cool thing to do. Aside from the harshness (which cream does an excellent job of mellowing) and the stomach discomfort, I found that with black coffee there was a very small window between "too hot" and "too cold" and I always ended up missing it, so that experiment was short-lived.

It's funny how some people never make coffee at home, and their only relationship to it is through their office or a coffee shop. I guess it goes along with trying to eat breakfast but I've always wanted the ability to have coffee before leaving the house. But there were times when that wasn't always the most convenient option.

In the mid-1980s I worked at the Harvard Coop, back when it was still an independent store that sold things like records, housewares, and non-university-logo clothing. I always worked Saturdays, and the bus I took to work during the week either didn't run on Saturdays or didn't run as frequently, meaning I would have had to get up significantly earlier (unthinkable in one's early 20s) or take a different route.

This also happened to be during the period when the Mass. Ave. bridge was being rebuilt, and as with the Longfellow Bridge now, there were traffic restrictions. The 1 bus had to be rerouted, and the alternate route took it through Kenmore Square, past BU's main campus, and across the BU bridge to Memorial Drive and eventually back to Mass. Ave.

Where I lived at the time, the 57 bus stopped right in front of our house, so on Saturday mornings I'd take that bus down into Kenmore, go into the old Dunkin' that used to be there (back when they still had counter service), get the recently-introduced Big One (20 ounces, which I think corresponds to their current large) for around $1.25, cross the square, and wait for the next 1 bus to come through.

Amazingly, the timing always seemed to work out perfectly, even during the winter. I think there was only one time when I had to forego the coffee and make the bus connection in front of Marsh Chapel in order to get to work on time. And getting that Saturday coffee was something of a treat, a reward for having to get up and go to work while others were sleeping in.

Beer Math

Normally I buy a case of Narragansett "tallboys" about once a month, but funds are tight so I've had to look to less expensive alternatives. However, I still have standards. I can't stand PBR and I'd rather drink tap water than anything from Anheuser-Busch (and Bud's not that cheap around here anyway). I used to like Rolling Rock but since A-B bought them, I drifted away. (I seem to recall that it's kind of sweet compared to most other beers.)

I will drink Miller High Life, though I hadn't had one in probably 20 years. The first bar I frequented with any regularity in college sold bottles of Miller for $1.10 each in the mid-'80s. As long as it's cold enough, it tastes fine.

When you get into the lower-priced beers there's some strange math at work. There are standard cases, but there also things like 18-packs of 12-ounce bottles and 30-packs of 12-ounce cans. (I think the idea is that the people who buy these block-packs of beer will consume all of it with their friends within a few hours, but who really knows?) I also noticed that brands that offer 16-ounce cans tend to package them only in six-packs and not in any of these other quantities.

We have two large liquor stores in town that devote significant floor space to beer and carry many different permutations of packaging from the major brands, so I spent some time reading signs. I discovered that I could get an 18-pack of Miller for $12 plus deposit, compared to $20 plus deposit for the case of 'Gansett. But those are 16-ounce cans, which is where this gets really fuzzy. I decided I just needed to think of a single can or bottle of beer as a serving regardless of its size.

Then I went to the other big store and saw that I could get the 18-pack of Miller for $10 plus deposit, but only in bottles. After having had High Life in both cans and bottles, I think it tastes better in bottles. Canned beer doesn't taste metallic like it used to thanks to the modern advance of can lining, but something about canned Miller doesn't taste quite right. (This is not true of 'Gansett, so maybe their cans are lined with something different.)

About That Beer

Last week I expressed my excitement at the arrival of Narragansett's new Del's Lemonade Shandy. You don't have to be from Rhode Island to enjoy it, but it helps.

So how's it taste? Refreshing. Like Mike's Hard Lemonade wishes it might taste if it ever grows up. That's the most obvious point of comparison, but it's better because it doesn't have the sweetness of Mike's. It's Gansett lager with natural lemon flavor, just like it says on the can, and that's what it tastes like. It's crisp and light, and very pleasant, perfect for warm weather.

And it's only 5% alcohol, so it's going to go down smooth and not make you feel too weighted down, but at this point in my life I rarely drink more than one beer a day anyway.

Lemony Beer Goodness

For a couple of months, Narragansett Brewery has been throwing out hints of a new specialty beer, a shandy co-branded with Rhode Island institution Del's Frozen Lemonade. Last week they made an official announcement and said the brew was on its way to local stores. I just picked up a six-pack this afternoon, but it's not cold yet so a taste report will have to wait.

Technically it's not a true shandy, which is beet and lemonade, but rather beer with natural lemon flavoring added, which is still nicely refreshing in summer. The cans are done up in the green-and-yellow motif familiar to anyone who has had Del's from its signature cups. (Here's a pic for those of you who don't know what I mean.)

This should be good...

Ground to a Halt

My beloved Krups grind-and-brew coffee maker stopped working over the weekend. Everything was fine on Saturday; on Sunday it ground the coffee beans as usual, but when I turned on the brewing cycle nothing happened. I'm guessing this means that the heating element has given out. I wish I had the ability to repair it, but that's not the case. It lasted six years, which I suppose isn't so bad for a kitchen appliance. I've had other coffee makers that worked for much shorter periods of time. The Mrs. has a french press she used to use at work, so at least we were still able to make coffee.

I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to get to replace the Krups. I briefly considered replacing the machine with one just like it, but to be honest it had become something of a pain to use. The coffee it made was delicious, but the ground coffee never got fully expelled from the grinder, so each day I had to pick up the unit and bang on the side to get all the coffee into the filter (otherwise it wouldn't be strong enough), then add the water. It also made a mess in general, spraying ground coffee dust on the counter when the lid snapped shut.

At first I thought I might take the minimalist approach and get a Chemex pot, which is basically a manual "pour-over" version of a drip coffee maker. It's a beautiful object to look at, plus it's relatively inexpensive (around $40), and there's also a version with a handle. You still have to boil water, but otherwise it's much less fussy than a french press. But then I noticed that the Chemex pots require a special type of filter that costs $8 for a package of 100, which is four times what I pay for cone filters at Trader Joe's or Market Basket. It might seem silly to fret about that, but cost of use has to be considered. Sorry, Chemex.

A Chemex would also require getting a separate coffee grinder, which I'm fine with, since I'm far too entrenched in the pleasure of drinking coffee made from freshly ground beans to revert to buying pre-ground coffee, but those little cylindrical blade grinders that cost $20 are terrible; a burr grinder, which uses plates to crush the beans, is the way to go, and they are large enough that you can grind a larger quantity of coffee beans at one time if you wish. I can grind beans two or three times a week and store the ground coffee in an airtight container.

So I decided I would find a decent drip coffee maker and a decent burr grinder. I still want a coffee maker that uses cone filters, which is harder to find than the kind that uses basket-shaped filters. I settled on a Melitta unit with a thermal carafe, made by Hamilton Beach, because it had good user reviews and because it was available through my credit card reward program by using points I had already accrued. (The Krups was also obtained with gift cards which I exchanged reward points for.) It's already on the way and will arrive Wednesday.

I looked at a lot of grinders, and I noticed that a lot of the negative reviews were from people who said they couldn't get a grind fine enough for espresso. I sympathize with them, but I'm only interested in regular coffee that's going in a drip machine, so I actually want a coarser grind. If you filter out those reviews, the picture can be quite different. I asked a friend what grinder he uses, and it turns out he has the one I was thinking of getting. It's by Cuisinart and is nothing fancy (it's not too difficult to spend more than $100 on a grinder alone), but it will do the job and I can purchase one in a store nearby.

Beer Hunting

Late last year, Narragansett Beer started releasing "private stock" limited-edition craft brews, beyond their seasonal offerings like Porter and Summer Ale. I managed to miss both of the first two; I went to both of the large local stores I tend to buy beer at, and neither one had either of them.

Then I happened to be over in Somerville's Ball Square one day and went into Ball Square Fine Wines, where Giuseppe from An Affordable Wardrobe works when he's not out scouring thrift stores for overlooked gems. He told me that his store had carried both of the previous limited editions, and observed that "this neighborhood is full of beer geeks."

The third limited beer, Imperial Black Steam, was released a couple of weeks ago, and I was able to make my way over to Ball Square again last Saturday and got a bottle. I enjoyed it last night with a burrito from Anna's. It was a lot like a stout, though at about 9% alcohol by volume it was definitely stronger than Guinness. A bit heavy for summer drinking, but still worth tasting.

Top You Off?

It's been a hell of a week, even though we don't live near the bombing site and don't know anyone who was directly involved or affected. But even so, comfort can be found in simple things like a daily routine.

For me, making and having coffee is part of my routine. For the sake of economy, I buy half and half in the half-gallon size. But when I open a new container it's very difficult to hold the carton and pour it into my coffee cup. I tried using a couple of small creamer pitchers we had around the house, and both of them dribbled and made a mess.

Then I came across this item for sale on ThinkGeek: a creamer that looks like a miniature coffee pot from a diner. I loved its appearance and figured it couldn't be any worse than what we already had, so I ordered one. The elongated lip does a great job of preventing drips, just like with coffee in the full-size version.

(By the way, the mug is from Fishs Eddy in New York. I got it because I liked its color and shape. I may also have a thing for coffee mugs...)

Brews You Can Use

Related to the previous post: those of you in my general geographic area may want to stop by the Kappy's Liquors in Medford this Saturday. They're hosting a local craft brew tasting from 2 to 5 pm.

Participants include Cambridge Brewing, Somerville Brewing, Night Shift, Idle Hands, Pretty Things, and others.

Welcome to Castle Guinness

It must be getting close to St. Patrick's Day:

Also while at the liquor store, I noticed that Rolling Rock now comes in tallboy cans. Seems like a desperate grab for some of the PBR crowd.

Ginger Beer for Grownups

Last night I was at Cornwall's in Kenmore Square to sample Crabbie's Ginger Beer, an adult beverage that is quite popular in the UK and is making inroads here.

It's made from a beer base that has ginger and spices steeped in it for several weeks, giving it a distinctive and satisfying flavor. It's not especially sweet, and can be enjoyed over ice with a twist of lime, or in cocktails.

We tasted Crabbie's on its own, and sampled three different drinks made with it: a Ginger Buck (made with gin), a Moscow Mule (vodka), and a Dark & Crabbie (Gosling's dark rum). I have never cared much for gin, and the vodka drink was all right, but the rum combination is a natural match for the ginger and spices in Crabbie's, and I could see this being quite a nice summer drink.

(Full disclosure: the drink samples were provided by the distributor, and we also ordered food, which we planned on paying for ourselves, but it turned out to be complimentary as well.)

Late-Night Snack

I got invited to a media event last night for Salvatore's Restaurants. I first ate at Salvatore's on Northern Avenue about five years ago and really enjoyed it. Last year they opened a location in Medford Square, just a bit down the road from us, and we have had several very good meals there too, but we get takeout pizza from them more frequently than we go there to eat, because their pizza is the best around. (They also operate the Sal's Pizza chain, which has locations all over eastern Massachusetts, but none of those is as convenient as the Medford Salvatore's.)

Last night's event was to introduce a late-night menu that will be available at all of Salvatore's locations after 10 pm: six-inch pizzas for $3 each, available in six varieties. All of them were available in abundance last night, and I sampled all of them (except the sausage and ricotta, because it had two kinds of peppers on it, and peppers just don't agree with me). My favorites were the chicken pesto, which does not have tomato sauce (and by the way, the pesto is nut-free) but has ricotta and mozzarella, and the bruschetta and arugula, which had fresh diced tomatoes and the most divine aroma of garlic coming off it. There's also margherita, soppresata, and spinach and gorgonzola.

We also had a couple of cocktails and chatted with several Salvatore's employees, who are all extremely cordial and knowledgeable. Not only do they love food, they love delivering a great dining experience and they are proud of what they do. I say these things as someone who has experienced it firsthand as a regular paying customer. Last night's free pizza was just a bonus.

About Last Night...

So yes, I attended a beer dinner (my first) which was spotlighting not one craft brewery, but two: California's Lagunitas and Colorado's Left Hand. Both make excellent beer, and having specific beers available to taste side by side, paired with the specific food in each course, was very interesting.

I'd had Lagunitas's IPA before, once, but had not tried anything from Left Hand. As a starting point, I would recommend the Lagunitas IPA and Little Sumpin' Sumpin', and Left Hand's Milk Stout and Smokejumper (which is a limited release). If you find yourself attending this type of event, I would also recommend maybe having a little snack beforehand; while I ate well, the sheer volume of beer I consumed (roughly five pints, give or take a bit, plus factoring in that some of the brews were much stronger than regular beers) was too much for the volume of food I consumed.

Suds Buzz

Tonight I went to a beer dinner at Cambridge Common, that left me (not surprisingly) more buzzed than I've been in a long time. Unfortunately that's all I'm capable of reporting at this point...

Retro Cans

My favorite everyday beer, Narragansett, has released a limited edition can done up to look just like they did back in 1975. People of a certain age who hail from Rhode Island or eastern Massachusetts will probably recognize this design, but those of you who don't just have to remember the scene in the movie Jaws where Quint drains a can and crushes it.

Of course I had to buy some of these for the sake of nostalgia, although I'm a bit disappointed they are only offering the vintage design in the 18-pack of 12-ounce cans. Almost everyone I know who buys 'Gansett buys it in the 16-ounce tallboy cans; it's certainly the best-value option.

Found!

Well, that was strange: someone walking by my cube just noticed that my coffee mug was sitting on top of a bookcase that is positioned against the outer wall of the cube. But I don't actually pass by that spot to get into my cube, so it may have been there for a couple of days without me or anyone else noticing it.

Missing

My travel coffee mug is missing from the office. I didn't end up using it on Friday, and when I went to get it yesterday it was not in the kitchen. An email to my coworkers yielded nothing. This is quite strange; everyone in the office has seen me with it at our weekly group breakfast, and so knows it's mine.

I liked using the mug because it kept coffee hot much longer than in a paper cup, and because the cafeteria gives a discount on their coffee when you use your own mug instead of a disposable cup and lid each day.

Winding Down

Ravioli with bolognese sauce, inexpensive chianti from Trader Joe's, and the football highlights show is a nice way to wrap up the weekend.

TWiA will be up later this evening...