I can't have strong drink anymore; I have been consoling myself with President's Choice not-from-concentrate grapefruit juice and ginger beer mixed about half and half. A shot or two of vodka wouldn't go badly in that for those so inclined.

Oh, bad pun.

Graydon's ginger beer and grapefruit juice also makes a nice combination. A little sprig of mint goes well in that. In my opinion so does a little sprig of thyme, but you risk having people think you're weird.

Carlos: Gen. Thomas liked fried peaches? Fried how, with what? That's just weird. Peaches are meant to be sliced thin and used in roast pork sandwiches.

Any day now, someone's going to figure out where that second drink gets its name.

"When Major Philip N. Barbour stepped off the boat in early August [1846, in Camargo, Mexico], he found that Thomas and the advance party had commandeered the plaza and were cool in its shade. "Dined with Thomas and fared well," he recorded. "They had a most excellent dish that I never saw before, though it was an exceedingly simple one, viz.: fried peaches. Thomas told me there were plenty of fine peaches in town just ripening." Eating well and sleeping comfortably, Thomas would always be stout." -- from Buell's _Warrior Generals_, 18-19 of the paperback.

Given the locale, I am thinking they were fried in manteca. Powdered sugar and canela?

Would an alternate name for "Liberal Forage" be "Bummer's Delight"?

C.

As for that, my guess is that it's what you had on hand one evening, rooting through the fridge for yummies...the ingredients themselves would be more liberal with Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

I'd love to try these, but presently I can have neither alcohol nor ice cream. Ginger beer, I am happy to say, remains one of the delights of my life. The big healthfood store in Hoboken, Basic Food, sells a brand that comes in three different strengths; I prefer the strongest, which has 26 grams of ginger per bottle...I can't remember the brand name, alas.

OK, I'll pick up the dumb stick. Where does Liberal Forage come from?

-l.

I suppose the worst that would happen is that I'd wind up with ginger-smelling brown glup.

One of the lines in it is, "The army will forage liberally on the country during the march." Sherman's troops took this to heart. This is from the third volume of Shelby Foote, p. 643:

Riding with Slocum past Stone Mountain, ... Sherman pulled off on the side of the road to review the passing troops and found them unneglectful of such opportunities as had come their way. One marcher who drew his attention had a ham slung from his rifle, a jug of molasses cradled under one arm, and a big piece of honeycomb clutched in the other hand, from which he was eating as he slogged along. Catching the general's eye, he quoted him sotto voce to a comrade as they swung past: "Forage liberally on the country."

Sherman afterward told how he "reproved the man, explaining that foraging must be limited to the regular parties propertly detailed ..."

And no, Christopher, I didn't scramble it together out of the freezer and liquor cabinet one hot afternoon. That one was formally devised.

Carlos again, peaches fried in butter are an interesting idea. There's that stage where the peach is nearly but not completely ripe. It's not best for eating, but it'll hold up well in a pie, and I suspect it would take very well to being lightly fried.

Confession: I'm the reason that the Bordertown continuity includes a restaurant called The Army of the Cumberland. Now we know what they serve as their featured dessert.

Probably it wasn't the best root beer in the universe, but I remember thinking it was swell. What's really good is the carbonated frozen root beer that forms in the bottom of the tub if you've put in enough dry ice.

http://www.foodtv.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_18931,00.html

I like this because you can adjust the sweet/hot to your own taste - most of the commercial ones are way too sweet.

Sangria

About one third each red wine (Rioja type, ie fruity), orange juice & Soda water. Sugar to taste. Add some chopped fruit & refrigerate until very, very cold.

I checked with my Spanish contacts to get an authentic recipe. There is no authentic recipe. One serious suggestion was to use red wine & Fanta so feel free to experiment. if it's cold, fizzy & involves red wine stick it in a jug & call it Sangria. It might be good to substitute ginger beer for soda water.

Happy summer drinking.

Incidentally, if you make sangria with white wine and peaches rather than red wine and oranges it's called zurra.

Soak sliced oranges, lemons and cherries overnight in 2/3 bottle of Brandy (or spiced rum; Capt. Morgan's is our favorite). Mix the fruit/brandy (or rum) with lemonade and limade (the little frozen concentrate ones you get at the grocery store) and slightly less water then recomended on the containers. Pour together with a light red wine. If you have a cheep bottle of some red that looked good in the grocery store but turned out to be too sweet or too heavy, that works well. add sugar to taste.

This makes roughly a gallon. Goes well at Holloween parties.

My mother-in-law makes a great peach tart that involves sautee-ing thin sliced peaches in lots of butter and sugar (and probably a little brandy, for those so inclined); then when it is gooey you drop a pie/tart crust on top and put it in the oven. Must be done in a cast iron skillet, of course.

Holly, that sounds wicked good. How deep is the layer of peaches?

Jfwells, I haven't tried the ginger beers in question. If they're fizzy, mildly sweet, and have a non-wimpy amount of ginger in them, they should work. I definitely wouldn't salt the glass, though. The salt on a Margarita is there to balance the acidity of the fruit juice. On a General Sherman it would just taste awful.

Now, a salted rim on double-size Caipirinhas would be interesting in hot weather. You'd want to leave a note identifying your next of kin.

Hm. Perhaps that could be used, just with the ginger beer, as an "Appointment in Savannah".

Incidentally, for anyone who finds Pimms too sweet (that would include me) it's worth seeking out Plymouth Fruit Cup, made by teh Plymouth Gin distillery -- same general idea but with bitters in it and a slightly more orangey taste. Available from Waitrose in the UK, no idea about the US

Jfwells, as far as I know, Sherman never sowed any ground with salt. Closest he came to that was burning Jackson, Miss. three times over.

Didn't work, grew back. You can't burn them out, you have to pull them out, roots and all, or they come back.

Oh, wait. I'm confusing Jackson, MS with Kudzu. Why on Earth would I do that?

Living in the Pacific NW, our local historical figures do not inspire mixed drinks. Can you imagine a Lewis & Clark Cocktail?

1 Tbsp. Camas Root
Pinch of Salmon Pemican
Fill glass with glacial run-off
Stir & garnish with stick of elk jerky
Chase with a Dr. Rush Thunderbolt (calomel & jalap)

MKK

A family breakfast tradition is apples-n-onions fried together, usually served with german sausage and orange biscuits (make rolled biscuits, before baking thrust a sugar cube in the center of each, having soaked the sugar cube in melted frozen orange juice concentrate).

I'm still thinking about things to do with fresh pineapple.

My first reaction to the pineapple remark is that what you do with fresh pineapple is to eat it as soon as possible. However, if we're talking drinks, I believe rum is tradtional and spiced rum strikes me as an interesting possibility.

MKK

Wouldn't that propaganda go the wrong way?

I just assumed you were getting your urbicides mixed up. Carthage is the most famous case of earth-salting, and I'm not entirely sure that one isn't apocryphal.

Hmm, 'urbicide' -- couldn't use that in speaking, could I? I'd probably say 'policide', even though that's half Greek and half Latin - and unlike the most famous case of that hybridization ('homosexual') not ironically fitting.

I need a drink.