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Wally's Wines out of LA has always been my go-to for hard to find spirits. I, too, am living in WA. While we've shed the most draconian of the blue laws [am showing my age, but I remember when they made it legal for bars to have windows in the 70s], the Liquor Control Board still thinks that Galliano is the height of fancy. I've ordered several times from Wally's and have never had a problem - and because of our craaaazy liquor taxes, the shipping from CA is almost the same of what the cost in-store/in-state would be [deduced by pricing out a common bottle of scotch].

And did I mention, they have the Maraschino liqueuer [yum!] and the St. Germain Elderflower [yummier!].

http://www.wallywine.com/

Oooooh, such a tough choice. Some crumbled tangy Oregonzola, spicy Chipolte Curds from Beecher's, or a smoosh of decadent Délice de Bourgogne. Did I mention Tillamook vintage White Cheddar? Or Port Madison chèvre? Or... sorry, must go eat cheese now.

Also a child of the 50s and 60s, we were pretty much relegated to apple & orange juice, milk and tap water - except when we were at my grandparent's house. Nana & Ausin's was the home of exotic [to us] drinks. Fresh-from-the-tree peach milkshakes, cold Hires from the cellar, limeade with crushed cherries and watermelon sodas, blended in the Waring and fizzed with some tonic. All sipped through glass straws topped with a big red bubble, meant to look like a cherry.

And the one glorious moment on a baking Salt Lake City afternoon, when Ausin a thimbleful of his icy Coors' beer into a cordial glass so that I could take a sip. The heat of the day, the sound of Ausin's voice, the sparkly, grownup glass, the tingly bubble of the beer and that new, complicated taste - forever emblazoned onto my 5-year-old brain.

Fresh chanterelles, plucked from my front yard, cooked with some brown butter and a splash of sherry. There are some benefits to the rain here in the NW...

I know it's summer when I see Ginger Lemonade appear on the shelves @ Trader Joe's. But if looking to do cocktails, nothing beats my own picky variation on a Moscow Mule: Equal parts Stewart's Ginger Beer [nice & spicy], Simply Limeade and dark Jamaican rum. Sometimes I like to add some fresh mint if it's handy, but either way, that and a good book, and I'm set for an evening on the porch.

I agree with sallyforth, good local honey is a fabulous accoutrement for cheese. Another good side item are spicy nuts that add a kick to the plate! Equally important: wine! It's also a good idea to group cheeses by flavor profile, so you can easily pair a good wine with the course. Good to try are Chardonnay with mild, delicate cheeses or a sweet wine like Sauternes with pungent aromas and strong flavors.

OK, the disclaimer to Angus is mostly untrue, rather than true. We raised our own steers for a while, and one of the most important determiners of flavor is the feed that the cattle are raised and finished with. This also helps determine how lean or fat they are. To that end, grass fed steers taste a bit gamier than those who are finished with corn or a mixture. But there is an important caveat to all of this: to wit, bison, oxen, elk, and genuine Angus taste quite different than do most domestic cattle breeds, even when raised on a pure grass diet -- their meat is leaner, yet quite flavorful and relatively tender. The more that cattle run or graze over wider territories (like in the movies where they would herd them to the stockyards over hundreds of miles or more) the tougher the meat.

So saying that Angus taste like any other beef is false, but conditions do amplify or improve the final result. Why is Angus specifically different? It's because the Scots bred the Angus from hybrid stock to begin with, they are part old European zebu buffalo and more modern cattle strains. If you have ever actually seen Angus bulls in person, the resemblance to other cattle breeds ends fairly quickly. They are big, very big. And their heads look like something halfway between bison and cattle.

Again, all that being said, there are grades of Angus, just like any other beef and perhaps low grade Angus is indistinguishable from better grades of Hereford, Limousin (which I also like), et al, but a good cut of Angus can be easily taste tested as different from an equal cut of the others.

Let's face it, if all cattle tasted the same, or provided the same quality of meet, then they would all sell for the same price per pound, which they never have, even before the "marketing ploys" of the last decade. That is why dairy cattle are rarely the choice for meat, and why the Japanese can get $100 a pound for Kobe beef -- and yes, again, how they feed and prepare the beef is critically important.

There are many of my friends who cannot taste the difference between
ground chuck and sirloin, too. And those who cannot appreciate the difference between a Grand Cru Bordeaux and a low price bottle of California Pinot (don't get me wrong, there are some extraordinarily good California Pinots -- I live in the Central Coast!) but that does not mean that others cannot tell the difference or even recognize by taste the origins and identities of what they drink or eat.

Bon Appetite!

Barbecue:
A.) is always a noun
B.) is something you get invited to in a friend's backyard
C.) cannot contain liquid smoke

Ok, so I know it's A.

But,

If someone is nice enough to invite me over to their backyard for food and a good time they can bloody well call it whatever they want with no reprisal from me. Does that make me a reverse reverse snob?

Rather than echo Cook's Illustrated and Saveur (or did I?) I'll go with Art Culinaire. It's expensive, but it's the standard bearer for chefs. And the Liquor Board of Ontario puts out a nice one as well.

Gourmet is the best - I also love the Gourmet blog at epicurious.com