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Sunday, November 29, 2009

I'm Back

Hope everyone (in America) had a good Thanksgiving holiday; hope the rest of you had a good weekend. The family and the dogs and I went to my parents' for Thanksgiving (the pies were great, and I made a batch of scalloped oysters, too). Cathy and I took off Friday morning for a rental along the Potomac River outside of Sharpsburg, MD; we were celebrating our 20th anniversary. Didn't do much except read, do crosswords, and drink East End Brewing Toaster Imperial Stout in the hot tub. We hiked around the Antietam battlefield a bit, and did some shopping in Shepherdstown, WV, then went out for dinner at Brewer's Alley in Frederick last night. Good pilsner, very good English-type IPA (a 2009 GABF Bronze), and a delicious dessert of Blackfrost barleywine. Then the cottage ran out of water...but that's another story.

Anyway, we're home now, so it's blog-biz as usual. Miss me?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see you're back, how about the recipe for the scalloped oysters???

Lawrence A. Shanaman said...

Was in Fredrick also on Sat w/gal friend at Brewer's Alley-I had the Scotch served in thistle glass and she had the brown, her favorite-great stuff. Didn't get out to Dogfish-great on Saturday afternoons. Going back-- this Sat is first Sat of month-always a celebration in Fredrick-will have dinner at Firestone's-a great restaurant w/good beer selection.
Larry in Mifflintown,PA
P.S.We are both over 70
yrs old

Lew Bryson said...

Good on you, Larry! We were in the back room on the far wall.
We almost went to Firestone's; always a good alternative to Brewer's Alley.

Lew Bryson said...

I was going to post the recipe for scalloped oysters, but when I went looking for an image to use, I came across this recipe: www.foodhistory.com/foodnotes/range/missbettie.htm
It is very close to our family recipe, unlike most of the others I found online. It's simple, and it's easy. Here's what we do differently. Use one pint of Selects (see below), and save the liquor. We don't bother greasing the casserole; it seems redundant. We use Ritz crackers (we used to use Falcon crackers...but they're gone); this batch took about a box and a half. When you add the milk (whole milk, not cream), add the oyster liquor first. We put a layer of unbroken crackers on top, for pretty. Finally, I've settled on setting the oven at 375° for 45 minutes. That's what I did this time (except I used two pints of oysters, and it was almost too much), and it was a damned good batch. There you go.

sam k said...

Larry is an awesome cat who loves truly great beer, has a cellar full of it, and can party most guys half his age into the ground. The same can be said of his "gal friend," the fair Libby, another lover of life, good beer, and any social occasion where she can enjoy both. I speak from experience.

I also have a recipe for scalloped oysters from The Wilken Family Cookbook, published right after Prohibition by the distillery (which was another iteration of Schenley). Will let you know what the differences are once I find it.