More on Boxing day fox hunts at Mister Crew.
Holiday Fare: The Chop’s Roasted Kale Greens Recipe
This is about as far as you can get from a food blog, but December is a pretty slow month for public events, and you can only post so many cocktail recipes before the whole city starts to think you’re kind of a drunk.
We’re heading up to Mom and Pop Chop’s house for our annual Christmas Eve party and they’ve requested we bring a vegetable side dish. Much as we cringe at the idea of being a food blogger, we do believe that eating well is integral to living well. We do some pretty damn good cooking here at the Chophouse, even if it doesn’t show up in the blog. So just this once, just to prove that we can, we’ll show you what we’re bringing along tonight.
2011 Will be the year of the kale. You heard it here first.
Roasted Kale Greens
- A bunch of kale.
- An onion
- A red bell pepper
- 3 oz. Olive Oil
- 1 oz. Champagne vinegar
- 1 oz sugar
- 1/2 oz. water
- 1 tsp. each salt and pepper
First of all, all those measurements are guesses. So are the cooking times. Another reason we’re not too keen on writing recipes is because we like to play it by ear in the kitchen, cook on the fly and all of that. Anyway, cut the pepper in half and 86 the seeds. Slice it and the onion. Coat them both in olive oil and roast them at 450° until they look nice and roasty.
In the meantime chop the kale into pieces, getting rid of most of the stems and coat in evenly in a mixing bowl with olive oil. In another bowl mix up your vinegar, sugar, water, salt and pepper. Once the onion and pepper are roasted mix them in with the kale and move it all into baking dish. Lace it lightly with that seasoned vinegar and roast the whole mess at 400° until the edges of the leaves start to blacken, shouldn’t be too much more than about 10 minutes.
The Christmas Congress: Our Bi-Weekly Political Roundup
It may be very near Christmas, with everyone taking off from work, and being preoccupied with , uuh, Holiday Cheer, but the country is still facing major issues, and the important work of barstool punditry does not cease. Baltimore’s Drinking Liberally chapter will be meeting as scheduled tonight at the Laughing Pint.
Firstly, we’d like to say thank the little baby Jesus that most of that War on Christmas nonsense is well buried beneath a mountain of yellow snow where it belongs. Those fuckers at Fox have tried to sneak in a few War on Christmas stories this month, but for the most part they fall on deaf ears these days. Better than that, they all sound pretty ridiculous at this point.
Secondly, we’d like to point out that every year some asshole congressman in the leadership (from either party, either house) likes to make a big blustery show of saying something along the lines of “I don’t care if we have to extend the session all the way through Christmas night, we’re going to stay in Washington and get this bill passed for the American people.” And every year it’s bullshit. Congress will always vote itself pay raises, always be in the business of pork barrel politics, and always always always take a nice vacation at Christmas.
We don’t even have a problem with any of this. It’s all fine by us. It’s the way the world works. But for Christ’s sake don’t insult people by pretending it’s not. We’d love to see congress in session through Christmas. For any reason. We’d eat that shit up like fruitcake and gingerbread. To hell with the yule log, at next year’s party we want to see a miserable John Boehner gavel his way through an all-night floor debate- preferably on some intriguing, fascinating, crucially important legislation like which font should be used in the Federal Register.
Finally, the biggest story this week, and one of the biggest of the year is the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. We watched it live on TV and all we could think of was “Jesus H. Christ was that so fucking hard?” Seriously, was that really so fucking difficult to do? It wasn’t. Giving people basic human rights, dignity and respect is as easy as a bunch of guys sitting in a room pushing a button marked ‘yea.’ The whole thing is over quickly and quietly and the country is better off than it was an hour ago.
We still don’t know what the hell took so long, but all things considered we’re going to miss this congress. It was fun while it lasted, and at the end of the day we’re a lot better off than we were two years ago. It’s been nice seeing laws get passed and business get done, but we’re not holding our breath for any more of that in the next session.
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Laughing Pint is located at 3531 Gough St. in Highlandtown.
The 10 Top Chops of 2010
Well, here we are at the end of the year. The holidays are well nigh and everyone is busy buying gifts, planning parties, eating, drinking, making merry, and of course, looking back and taking stock of the past year.
Yes, looking back and taking stock is one of America’s favorite holiday pastimes, as is screwing around and doing as little work as possible during the holiday season. Now is the time when magazines, TV shows, newspapers, and even bloggers get lazy and flood the world with top 10 lists rather than do any real writing. The Chop is no exception. We’re always trying to stay busy, and also always looking for a good way to fill the blog on a slow day when not much is happening. Like today.
The Office Christmas Party
So enjoy our choices for the top 10 non-event posts from our archives throughout our first 13 months or so of existence. And remember, we’re making all this up as we go along, so it can only get better.
10– The Best Bars to Visit After an Orioles Game at Camden Yards We name names on the best places to swill suds after an O’s game. See if your favorite spot made the list.
9–House Rules: How to Make a Polite Introduction It’s rude not to introduce your friends to one another, and not much better to do it half-assed. Here’s a simple guide to get it right every time.
8–Chop Style: Five Good Reasons to Wear a Blazer This Weekend We’re big on blazers and sport coats. You should be too. Here are five good reasons why.
7–The Chop Sorts Out Your Love Life There are some very specific and well-established rules to backing out of a date if you ever want to go on another one. This post explains them in detail. (Text messages are not okay after all…)
6–House Rules: The Chop Approves of Brunch More than a meal, brunch is a lifestyle choice, an institution, and a tradition. We approve of it highly.
5–Chop Style: Guide to Thrift Store Shopping: Part II The second in a two part series that will ensure you walk out of the thrift shop looking more stud and less dud.
4–House Rules: Puking in Public Discusses how to gracefully extract yourself with your dignity from that most ungraceful and undignified of situations.
3–Thoughts on Being a Grown-Up Punk If you’re not going to live fast and die young, you’ve got to do something with the rest of your life. Here’s how to be a 36 year old that your 16 year old self would respect, and maybe even like.
2–Chop Style: Rick Dempsey is the Worst-Dressed Man in Baltimore Our gentle send-up of a Baltimore hero who was a great catcher but perhaps not such a great dresser. Bonus: Look for the comment from Rick’s son, Christian Dempsey.
1–How to Stock a Home Bar, Part 2 Also the second of a 2 part series, this is our guide on how to build up a truly impressive home bar on even a modest income. We strive to avoid the pitfalls of most bar building advice, and give you a real strategy for building a bar you’ll be proud to show off and want to drink from every day.
There you have it Baltimore. The best of the best so far. Check those out if you missed them the first time around, and bookmark them if they’re already old favorites.
Happy Holidays, Choppers. Don’t work too hard, okay?
The Sweet Russian Cocktail Recipe
The holiday season is that time of year when the Amaretto rears its ugly head in homes and hearths from Highlandtown to Upper Park Heights. In cookies, candies, hot chocolate mix, or liqueurs, the stuff is bound up with Christmas just as much as eggnog and greeting cards.
Whether you’re forced to keep a bottle on hand for Aunt Marie, find yourself at a party with off-brand booze, or have the great good fortune to be entertaining a snowbunny with questionable cocktail tastes, it’s helpful to know how to use amaretto.
'Tis the season for amaretto.
This is a cocktail we’ve been calling for occasionally for a few years now. It’s good as an after-dinner drink, nightcap, that sort of thing. It’s as simple as it gets, tastes sweet and smooth, and being all liquor, it’ll knock you down if you’re not careful.
The Sweet Russian
- 2 parts vodka
- 1 part coffee liqueur
- a splash of amaretto
Stir in a shaker and serve up or over ice.
Yep. A Black Russian with a splash of amaretto. You’ve got to love a cocktail that you can call for in any bar in America, and make at home with no effort at all. You can even get one at the Chinese restaurant on Christmas night.