Awesome list! I'd suggest adding the Corpse Reviver #2 which was the first cocktail to really open my eyes to the magic that happens when you combine the right ingredients in the right proportions. For those who have never had one - go order or make at home! It's 1 oz gin, 1 oz Contreau, 1 oz Lillet, 1 (scant) ounce lemon juice, and a few drops (~1/4 t?) of pastis or absinthe.

This is *so close* to a flourless cake. Do you think that skipping the flour would be terribly bad for the cake? I have a friend with celiac disease and would love to make this for her. Could I perhaps add a bit more of the hazelnuts to make up for the lack of flour?

While in grad school I had the misfortune to love a bar that changed ownership and went from a good bar to a very bad bar. The bar was good for what it was - a bar in a university town that served a lot of poor twenty-somethings. It had good grub, a nice selection of beers with one or two quite fine beers on tap, bartenders who had been there a long time and knew your favorites, and a juke box with a decent selection of tunes to pick.

But then it changed ownership and the new owner thought boobs were more important than good service or an ability to mix a drink, that an already lively Friday night could be made absolutely bustling by adding wet tee-shirt contests and theme nights, and that a decent selection of beer and serviceable cocktails should be replaced by cheap beer and a selection of -tini's of more and more ridiculous names (chocotini, bananatini, and the like). Oh, and the new owner apparently bought the bar because he thought it gave him carte blanche to harass the female customers, believing that owning the bar would make him a chick magnet. Or something. Needless to say that the place was deserted within 3 months and underwent another change of ownership within the year but never really recovered. It's now closed.

As crazy as it sounds, that owner is a man for whom I bear a not-small amount of anger towards (to the point of confronting him if I were to see him in public). He took something that was well loved by many people and turned it into a shithole. May he burn in a very hot hell.

I must be in the minority, because I love key lime pie made from the pre-squeezed juice you can get in the grocery store. It's the perfect mix of lip-puckering tart and oh-so-creamily sweet. Yum!

Thanks, seriousreader. I was taken aback by some of these comments. Serious Eats is normally a wonderful place on the internet with lovely and helpful commentators, but a couple of the comments above go beyond critical to being mean. (I'm looking at you, Lacey. Your comment is terrible in just about every way.)

I only occasionally pop over to Pioneer Woman -- I prefer other blogs/sites to hers. But I am impressed that she started out as a regular blogger much like many of us and has achieved really remarkable things. And I think she's done great things to get people who wouldn't otherwise cook (or do photography) to start experimenting and getting more comfortable in the kitchen (or behind the camera). That's a really admirable thing she's doing.

:( I'm so jealous of those who live in places with tart cherries. The closest I can find are the frozen variety.

I have a jar of the Trader Joes morello cherries. Maybe adding some of those and decreasing the amount of sugar could recreate the drink?

Regardless, it looks delicious!

Thanks for the recipe! I have some fresh strawberries just crying out to be used for this!

One quick question -- what do you do with the lemon slice in the cocktail? Do you muddle it with the strawberries? Juice and add at the end?

How can cocktail recipes be trademarked but normal recipes not be trademarked? Presumably the trademarkers would argue that the precise ingredients and proportions dramatically affect the resulting drink...but surely this same argument could be made against, say, chocolate chip cookie recipes. So what's the difference?

(And I think that (a) being able to trademark a cocktail and (b) suing and winning over variation from the trademarked recipe are both quite ridiculous.)

Steel cut oats keep in the fridge really, really well. I make a pot on Monday and then scoop portions out over the week. A few minutes in the microwave and I have a hot, steaming bowl of delicious oats. (My preferred treatment: oats, vanilla and cinnamon, dried tart cherries, and pecans with a smidge of maple syrup to finish it off.)

I've been doing this for a few months now, and it makes my pre-coffee stumbling in the kitchen so much easier, as all I have to do is scoop some oats into a bowl and stick it in the microwave. Of course, it does require a bit of thinking/planning/acting ahead, so I'm grateful for the taste test!

I think it may have to be a simple white roll with a thin layer of mayo and some ham. It reminds me of growing up when this would be our meal the day after Christmas, using up some of the leftover ham and rolls from the Christmas day dinner. I remember grabbing one of the sandwiches and then running off to play with my new treasures. :)

It's amazing how memories can add so much to the taste of things!

I was about to say french press but realized I've been using my espresso machine pretty regularly for the last few months. I go in phases. Usually in the summer I make espresso so that I can have an iced latte. Once it gets colder, I'll switch to hot coffee via my french press. And then there's the sludge in the office...that comes via one of those industrial sized coffee maker things that can have four pots simultaneously.

Being just a mile and a half away from El Guero Canelo - home to one of the best sonoran hotdogs in Tucson and, dare I say, the whole of the United States - does mitigate the fact that the high this last week been averaging about 104, topping out yesterday at 108.

(El Guero Canelo, if I recall, uses a big roll, pinto beans, a chopped tomato/onion salsa, jalapeno relish, some mayo and mustard, and a bacon wrapped dog.)

In Tucson, I'd suggest:
* Cafe Poca Cosa - delicious and inventive (central and southern) Mexican food. I have a feeling I'm going to crave their tamale pie until the day I die (well, other than when I go and eat it, that is!)
** And Little Poca Cosa, which is the little brother to Cafe Poca Cosa. Nestled in a small little building a few blocks away from CPC, it's got a lot of the same food for much cheaper and it's a much more casual environment. It may have the best huevos rancheros in the city.
* El Guero Canelo - gotta get a Sonoran dog!
* Ghini's French Bistro for a lovely brunch. Their hash browns are delicious. And there's an attached bakery to bring some tasty bread and pastries.
* The Dish - for the mussels and a fantastic selection of wine
* The B-Line, for good, solid lunch fare (and it has a pretty damned good breakfast, too)