American Madness

On Monday I posted a link to New York Magazine who had a recipe for a bacon infused Old Fashion and directions for making bacon infused Bourbon. I remain skeptical about Bacon infused bourbon. Regardless, showing themselves a little love, Grub Street, one of New York Magazines Blogs picked up the post and added into their daily email.

So now we have an AmericanMadness post linking to New York Magazine being linked from New York Magazine. They even give an oh-so-brief commentary on Bacon “We said it here first: Bacon has jumped the shark.”

Fantastic, loving the love-fest (and clearly contributing to it as I write this), but it goes a level deeper. I got an email from New York Magazine last night informing me about a video they shot of the bacon-infused bourbon and it’s creator Don Lee mixing up an Old-Fashion. They were addressing my concern (and gag -reflex) from the previous post where I said a bacon cocktail seemed a bit much:

I noticed you linked to New York’s bacon-infused old-fashioned recipe the other day. We shot a video demo of PDT’s Don Lee preparing the drink, which makes the bacon infusion a little easier to swallow.

So that makes this post an AmericaMadness post about a New York Magazine post about an AmericanMadness post about a New York Magazine post.

And of course I am going to link the video (watch the ball of congealed bacon grease bobbing in the bourbon, if that doesn’t make you want to try this, I don’t know what would).

So, you might think this is going to be a post about boats and bacon or seafaring bacon or even bacon life preservers or something, but no, when I say going overboard, I mean too much bacon.

New York Magazine has a recipe for a Bacon-Infused Old Fashion from PDT. Part one of the recipe is making Bacon Bourbon.

Here is where I am torn: Bacon and Bourbon are two flavors that go really well together. I know this from mixing up some Bourbon Maple Syrup and pouring it all over my waffles and bacon. Great flavors. The richness of the bourbon complements the smokiness of the bacon really nicely.

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So, it is obvious we are fans of New York Magazine. We’ve used their content (usually crediting them). They’ve used our content (sometimes crediting us).

Any-hoo, it just came across my inbox that they are doing a website re-design which will probably launch next Friday. If you’d like to see a little preview of what the new New York Magazine homepage will look like, check it out here.

According to their announcement: “the new homepage has a more consistent organization—now you’ll always know where to find whichever type of news you’re looking for, and you’ll be able to search our restaurant listings, runway galleries, and product guides more easily.”

While it might seem like I all of a sudden have found a ton to say after quite a bit of silence, what really is going on is that when I come across a link I want to write about I keep it open until I have some free time (or bookmark them until I have a chance to get back to it or it is no longer timely). I am just going through my various windows right now and finding those things I have been meaning to write about.

Fortunately some of them fall into similar categories and can be linked together n a post just like this one.

There is a movie out now called “Be Kind Rewind” the premise is, essentially, that Jack Black and Mos Def remake a bunch of classic movies. The process is apparently referred to as Sweding
(I have yet to see the movie so I am basing this on the preview, hearsay from friends and this article). To coincide with the release of the movie last month Esquire made up a list of The Five Most Awesomely Sweded Movies.

New York Magazine did a little leg work of their own to come up with their annual Best of New York list which has everything from “Fitness Classes for Kids” to the best steak. You can even check out the list broken down by neighborhood or as a straight A-Z list.

Last up for our list of lists we have another Esquire piece: The Best Sandwiches In America. At first I wasn’t too sure about this list, I mean it is one thing to find good sandwiches across the country, I am sure there are some great ones, but a Reuben from outside New York City? And a non-traditional one at that. Come on… (more…)

When it was just a few articles here and there posted days after we posted them folks started saying it was just a “coincidence” that New York Magazine had written about the exact same thing that we had just covered.

Now, I am getting a little scared. I have had a small bottle of Lucid Absinthe sitting in my apartment for the last two months now waiting to be tasted and reviewed. The biggest problem I was encountering in getting around to tasting it was not having an absinthe spoon. Though technically not necessary you know me when it comes to my reviews I like to drink alcohol the “traditional” way. In terms of absinthe, this means with an absinthe spoon, sugar cube and water (and maybe some flame as well… we’ll see about that).

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When it happens with New York Magazine, well, I don’t mind, ’cause, really, who reads New York Magazine?

When it happens with the New York Times, that’s a different story.

Buying into the Green Movement is an article that discusses how just because a product is labeled ‘green’ or ‘organic’ doesn’t necessarily make it better for the environment. Organic Raspberries flown in from Chili in the middle of winter are not helping the environment, the answer, according to the Times, is not eating raspberries in winter.

Oddly, the NY Times, even after cribbing my examples of Whole Foods, Home Depot and every other company jumping on the bandwagon still manages to misstate facts that it published itself: The article states that customers can “browse among the 60,000 products available under Home Depot’s new Eco-Options program.” In the article the published on June 25th (which I wrote about here), they state that companies submitted 60,000 products to be considered for the Eco-Options line, and that of those only 2,500 were selected (and they are looking for a total of about 6,000 products for the Eco-Options program). I mean, if you can’t be bothered to read your own paper….

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Following up on Josh’s Thursday post on New York Roof Top Bars. I have a few more resources for those looking to score a drink after work one day.

First up we have New York On Tap, claiming to be “Your map to every bar in New York City.” A mighty big claim there, especially with the ever changing bar-scape of the city. It feels like a new bar is opening or closing every 15 minutes around these parts. Anyway, the site has listings of events taking place at bars, a map, a search guide and much more. If you are looking for a new spot for drinks, this might be a good place to check out.

Unthirsty is for those looking for instant gratification. Do a search for Happy Hours going on now in your neighborhood. You can specify if you want an out door area, food specials, drink specials or WiFi access (for the blogging community who just needs a drink to write a post). Unfortunately, Unthirsty is a bit light on the bars, but they are working to update that, listing more and more bars on a regular basis.

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Isn’t it nice when things just fall into place? So, I have this recipe, I can’t take credit for it unfortunately, but it is a great recipe, especially on hot summer days like today. Unfortunately I couldn’t really think of a decent post to go with it besides “This is a great recipe.”

Then today I get an email from New York Magazine (written by Faran Alexis Krentcil*) for these molds.

Anyway, the recipe is for making frozen Rhubarb Yogurt with Raspberry Syrup Pops. Personally, I like to make them in Push-Up Pop form, but these molds will work just as well. The recipe can be found here. They make an excellent treat and are pretty simple to make. Though remember they are frozen pops- think ahead, make them today so you can enjoy them tomorrow. Oh, also, with this recipe I recommend reading it straight through before starting, personally I cut back a bit on the sugar in both the rhubarb and the yogurt, it gives the frozen pop a nice tangy flavor.

*Same writer from the Snoopy Sno-Cone maker incident
P.S.- Faran, I don’t recommend trying to make Frozen Daiquiri’s in spaceship form. Due to rum’s low freezing point you are just going to get slush, no frozen spaceships, well, unless you leave the rum out, but really what is the point then?

As it is an election year, most of us, I am sure, have been waiting to choose which presidential hopeful we will be supporting based on which celebrities have come out in support of them. Well, this just in:

New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer reports that both Christina Aguilera (that would be the Pop) and Jenna Jameson (that would be the Porn) have both come out and said that they are backing Hillary Clinton in the Primaries.

I am sure this will help some of you in making your decision once the primaries roll around.

So, either American Madness is so in tune with what is going on and what is big out there or someone is reading American Madness and not crediting us with our genius.

Tuesday afternoon, after posting the blog entry about the Snoopy Snow Cone Maker, I received this email in my mailbox:

Snow Blowing
BY FARAN ALEXIS KRENTCIL
A confession: When we found this resurrected Snoopy Sno-Cone machine, we literally jumped for joy. It’s the same ice shaver from the eighties, without the chipped paint and residue that comes from impulse eBay buys. The machine is great for cooling down on a sweltering afternoon or mixing frozen margaritas. Bet you never thought of that when you had your first Snoopy Sno-Cone in kindergarten.

$20 at Fredflare.com.

Apparently someone at New York Magazine is spying on us (I’m looking at you Faran Alexis Krentcil). If I get an email about Eating Lemons, I am calling someone out.

(Image from BrickBox)