Grimm Tactics #2: Jell-O Pudding Snack Pairings Guide

Recently I was cranking out a dirt cake for a friend’s birthday, original Montefalco style, and picking up the requisite ingredients: Cool Whip, cream cheese, and instant vanilla pudding. This prompted some reflection on the proper pronunciation of Cool Whip.

During the pilgrimage to the Safeway pudding aisle I decided I wasn’t about to make instant vanilla without a refrigerated Jell-O swirl pack.  What came later was divine intervention: chocolate stout plus chocolatey pudding snack.  Or, Lunchables: Happy Hour Edition.

Highly recommended. Maybe a nice Porter would do well too.

As for a proper dirt cake?  Not quite sure.  It’s vanilla based, sugary as can get, and in this case I found it best served in a bucket.

When possible, serve food with plastic spade

….I’m thinking Dirt Cake + White Russian?  Definitely would have at least one taker.

The End of the Day Old Fashioned

I suppose for historical record I should clarify that I now live in Washington, DC, a bittersweet state of affairs given that much of the inspiration for these posts has come from New York – its markets and restaurants, bars and bistros, food trucks and counter delis.  Simply put, there’s no better place to eat. There’s no better place think about eating.  There’s no better place to think about eating, and then eat it, and then use that as  inspiration to exercise your amateur right to get creative domestically.  I’ll miss it terribly.  But I have a backlog of entries from 507 W. 111th St., so for a few posts at least New York is alive and well.

One of the many perks of NYC living was living with a roommate who was at one point living with a mixologist.  She had indispensable advice about where to eat and drink and an indispensable ability to make a mean Old-Fashioned.  Or two.

Roommatey conversational fuel

We shared quite a few of these drinks this year, winding down after work, low light of the lamp in the living room, served with a how’d your day go or a what are you up to this weekend.  Sometimes it was just ice clinking in a glass and laughs from the Daily Show.  Every time it was a sweet, strong sip, a slow evening crawl before the rush of the 2 train to the Bronx early the next day.

This is a simple enough drink, as its title would imply.  But the craft is in the technique, igniting the oils of an orange rind for a citrusy splash and a little preparational flare.  Rest assured this is not my handiwork:

Old Fashioned Technique from Mike Wolking on Vimeo.