What You Should Have Eaten #38

Shrimp Martinis and Manhattan Steaks

Manhattans seem to be the drink of choice for my dad, but I’ve never been that much of a whiskey lover. But you know, this isn’t bad. I was expecting the vermouth to really sweeten it up and make it undrinkable, but it cuts the bite of the whiskey perfectly.

I was talking on the phone while making this, and taking a picture of the ingredients totally slipped my mind. I used Canadian Mist whisky, Gallo sweet red vermouth and a bit of Angostura bitters. A maraschino cherry was dropped in afterwards.

I’ve been looking forward to fixing this for a couple of weeks now. Food flavored with Manhattans and martinis? SOLD!

Two-thirds of my kids will eat broccoli, but only crowns, not spears. Hey, I’m just amazed they’ll eat any part of it at all.

I know I didn’t get the right type of steaks, just regular strip steaks instead of New York strip steaks or porterhouse steaks, but those were just too damn expensive. I’m hoping that won’t affect the meal.

Yes, I know that shallots are onions, but they’re fancy onion, and I only got a small one instead of the large one that is specified, so I’m okay with it.

I have a shot glass collection. I don’t know why I started it, but whenever I go on a trip, I get a shot glass from the city I’m in. The last one I got was a Maker’s Mark shot glass from Louisville, KY.

Toast points? Is that just cutting a piece of toast into triangular quarters? Whether it is or not, that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m not all hung up on presentation with my meals, so no pitcher for the cocktail sauce. Although, my pilsner glass looks like it might work well. And correct me if I’m wrong, but this looks more like a Bloody Mary than a martini.

I tasted it, and while good, I didn’t get the required 2 cups of cocktail sauce, so it’s a bit soupy…and very vodka-y. Not that that’s a bad thing.

If I ever don’t have enough pictures to go with a meal, that means I started the cocktails too early.

This was the first time I’ve ever flambéed anything. I was a bit nervous at first, putting long lighter next to the sauce and clicking it, seeing the flame shoot up under the microwave. I blew it out before the kids saw it, then called them into the kitchen and did it again. The flame was MUCH smaller, but they freaked out. It was all-around awesome.

Well, that was quite a tasty dinner, and now I’m extremely tired. Since shrimp and cocktail sauce is a staple at Rosenblatt family gatherings, I think I’m going to have to bring a bit of THIS cocktail sauce and see what people think. As long as the young-uns are kept away from it, I think all will be well.

Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!