Legless, the Pirate Corkscrew

     So I have something a little different for you today.  Instead of a recipe or food review, this is a kitchen tool review for a tool many of us are familiar with, a corkscrew.  This is not your average, run-of-the-mill corkscrew though, this is a pirate's corkscrew!

     Meet Legless, the pirate corkscrew and waiter's friend!

by  SuckUK

     Like most of us pirates, he's very durable as he's made almost completely of stainless steel, with only a light coating of heavy duty plastic for his "clothing."  He weighs in at about 1/4 of a lb so he's not a lightweight but he won't weigh you down either as he rides in the pocket of your favorite waistcoat.    The plastic doesn't have a cheap plastic feel, instead it feels like a nice powder coating and the little skull & crossbones on his bandana is raised so it won't just rub off with time.  It even comes down a bit in the back so that it looks like he's wearing an eyepatch.   If you look to the right, he's sporting a small steel hoop earring as well.

     I tested out all three components of this tool and everything worked well and reliably.  I tested the bottle opener on some beer I had in the fridge and it popped the top off nice and quick, I didn't have to move it around to another spot to get the cap off so that's always a plus for me.  The foil cutter worked better than I had hoped!  The blade is not a plain edge, nor is it a traditional serrated edge, instead the makes at SuckUK had this made with a scalloped serrated edge.  For those of you not familiar with this kind of a knife edge, it tends to cut much better than a traditional serrated edge but is more expensive to produce and worth it in my opinion.  I really like having the curved pivot arm for the cork remover, it made it a little easier to pull out the cork using it as a lever than most other tools I have used before.

     Legless comes shipped in a blister pack and is definitely worth the $15 price tag.  He's durable and definitely stands out in a crowd or similar corkscrews, just like any good pirate!  Mine will be with me at every event I go to, just in case I need a hand opening a bottle or two.  So feel free to head on over to their website and check out all the other cool stuff they sell, just click on Legless below!

     Happy Memorial Day everyone. I think this marker says it all on this day. WE have the freedoms and rights that we do because of those who fought for them, those who died for them, and those who never came home defending them. If it wasn't for those willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, who knows where or who we would be now.

      So please, show our vets the respect they deserve, this day may be harder on them then you could ever realize. They have seen things we could never comprehend, and have lost brothers in arms during times of war.

     This day is to remember those who gave their lives defending our rights and freedoms, so remove your hats when the national anthem plays and let their be a moment of silence to honor the fallen.

     A Happy Memorial Day weekend to all of you!  Please remember to honor the memories of those fallen soldiers who gave their all defending our rights and freedoms!

     I have a refreshing drink recipe for you today, may it please your tastebuds and quench your thirsts this holiday weekend.  It's a variation on one of many recipes for agua fresca, calling for fresh watermelon and vodka!  We often see lots of people at this time of year eating watermelon and drinking margaritas, but this drink is light and crisp while still packing a bit of alcohol to it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Watermelon Vodka Agua Fresca

by

The Pirate Chef

Ingredients:

2 Cups of cold water

2 Cups of watermelon (rind removed, seeded and chopped)

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (this will vary depending on how sweet the watermelon is)

Juice of half a lime

4 1/2 oz of vodka (I use St. Augustine vodka*)

Directions:

1) Cut the watermelon into cubes, roughly 1 inch

2) Combine all ingredients in a larger blender and blend till smooth and no chunks are seen

3) Pour mixture through a strainer into a pitcher, pushing down on the pulp

4) Chill for at least 30 minutes

5) Pour into an ice-filled glass and enjoy!

* I use St. Augustine vodka because it's made with sugar cane and has a sweet taste to it, reducing the amount of sugar I needed.

     Well, I just took a small step and opened up a Cafe Press store featuring the logo on a selection of items.  If there's an item you want to buy there that I don't have listed, please contact me and I will try to get it listed as quickly as possible!  Have fun and I'll have a new recipe for you guys next week, just in time for Memorial Day!

Click Here to be taken to the store!

     Sorry for the long time since posting but we've been busy with closing on a new house and moving, lots of fun and excitement there!   Here's a recipe for you from a dish I made for last night's housewarming party, enjoy!


                                              Spinach Dip
                                           by The Pirate Chef's Mom

Ingredients:

1 C mayonnaise

1 C sour cream

1 small onion, chopped

1 can water chestnuts, chopped fine

1 pkg vegetable soup mix (I prefer Knorr, just make sure you remove the peas)

1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Whole (unsliced) round loaf of dense bread (sourdough works well).

Directions:

1) Mix ingredients with spoon. 

2) Cover and refrigerate several hours. (I would do a minimum of 2-3 hours)

3) Cut round of crust from top of bread. Hollow out loaf and cut removed portions into large cubes. 

4) Put dip into hollowed out bread and serve with bread cubes.

     I have a review for you today of an interesting nature, a hard root beer!  Now why is it interesting you might ask?  Well, that would be because the inspiration for Abita's Bayou Bootlegger is none other than the French-American pirate and privateer, John Lafitte!

     A little history for you on John Lafitte, born in the late 1700's, John Lafitte was a privateer who would prey on Spanish commerce and sell the smuggled goods through a shop that he and his brother owned in New Orleans.  In addition to smuggling stolen goods and property, he was also known to be running a bit of a bootlegging operation.  John Lafitte and his brother took a small respite from their smuggling ways in during the War of 1812 in order to aid the US in the Battle of New Orleans, which lasted from 1814-1815.

     This did not last long, as John Lafitte and his crew returned to their pirating ways after the fighting was over and set up the commune of Comanche.  That lasted until 1820, when several of his lieutenants attacked US ships, bringing down official pressure on their operation and causing John Lafitte to leave the US coastline with his ship and a select crew.

     All of this inspired the fine folks at Abita brewing to create their Bayou Bootlegger Hard Root Beer.

     This hard root beer is not like some of the other ones out there that I have tried, at 5.9% alcohol, it is definitely an adult take on the root beer we grew up loving.  This is a beer that has been seasoned very well with the flavor of sassafras in order to convey the taste and sensation of drinking a refreshing root beer.  In addition to the sassafras, the people of Abita Brewing have also incorporated the flavors of vanilla and wintergreen into this drink.  Sassafras is the flavor that is most strongly associated with root beer because back in the old days, they used exactly that to make root beer and some other sodas so that flavor is still around today.  I really enjoyed the undertones of vanilla in this drink though, it added a creamy taste to it that helped to tone down both the sassafras and the alcohol to make this quite the tasty drink and one that I will likely keep stocked in my fridge over
the next several months as summer rolls in.

     One thing that I truly do like about this hard root beer is that they don't use any artificial sweeteners or corn syrup in the manufacturing of it.  They use good old fashioned Louisiana cane sugar.  Now my rejection of corn syrup and artificial sweeteners is not based on health reasons or the latest food fad, although the health reasons are kept in mind, it's because drinks made with real sugar just taste better to me overall.

     When it gets to be a bit hotter out there and the thought of ice cream starts buzzing around my head, I think I might make a root beer float with this and see how it comes out.  I have done it before with a different beer and it came out well enough but this might be a way to a simple root beer float of our childhood and bring it forward into our adult lives!  Only time will tell!

     Every so often, I try something that I hope is good but end up realizing that it's not so good.  That's the case with this week's food review of Pirate's Booty Mac and Cheese Mild Cheddar.

     From the picture on the box, it doesn't look that bad, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  I don't normally eat boxed macaroni and cheese, I prefer the homemade stuff but I'd give it a shot since their basic snack was so good (see prior review for more info about that).  So I made sure to follow the directions on the box, to ensure that the dish would come out as specified and possibly look like it does on the box, here's the resulting dish.

     Well, it did come out looking like a classic from-the-box macaroni and cheese dish, but that's also where the problems started with this dish.  The actual dish came out much milder in color to the image on the box, although it doesn't look so bad in the picture I took of it.  I thought that maybe the color doesn't show how much flavor is actually packed into this dish.  It did make about a bowlful of food, and there was also a 1/4 cup of milk and a tablespoon of butter in it as well, so there's a possibility for some richness of flavor here.

     Again, I was disappointed in my hopes, the flavor was so very mild that I actually went to the fridge and added some shredded colby jack cheese to it in order to give it a better cheese flavor.  Now let's think about that for a second, I had to add shredded cheese to mac & cheese in order to get a cheese flavor out of it.  That's not a good thing and I was not pleased with it.

     While I would not buy this version again, I have heard that other version of their mac and cheese are much better and have placed well among different tests so who knows.  I think I will try a different one next time, but I'm not trying their mild cheddar one again in the future.