07/22/19 – Was With Yuri



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2019-07-17-spacetrawler2c

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Which is why you should always bring a bottle of wine to a dinner.

17 Comments

  1. Coyoty

    “Yuri, there some Hwan at door.”

    “Who is it?”

    “Hwan person.”

    “What’s his name?”

    “No, Hwan at door.”

    “He went away?”

    “No, Hwan there.”

    “Then close the door. You’ll let in thirps.”

  2. War Pig

    I actually bring Russian (really Lithuanian) tea cakes to dinners, along with red wine. I bring them over autumn and winter, October thru February

    Got the recipe from an old Lithuanian woman my wife knew. She was a typical Lithuanian elder aunt (Teta, her family called her), always baking and cooking and ironing. If you stood still long enough in her home, you were fed tea cakes and chai and she would try to talk you out of your shirt to iron it before you left. If you sneezed, you were dosed with comb honey mixed with midus (mead made from honey and heaven knows what else), and fed bee pollen mixed with beeswax on crackers.

    Aged midus can sit you back on your behind and sneaks up on you because it is sweet. Gives me the giggles.

      1. War Pig

        Sure.

        INGREDIENTS:
        1 cup butter (2 standard sticks)
        1 tsp vanilla extract (I use the good, bourbon Madagascar stuff)
        6 drops almond extract (I have no idea why)
        6 TBS powdered/confectioner’s sugar
        2 cups all-purpose flour
        1 cup chopped walnuts
        1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar (for decoration)

        Preheat over to 350 degrees F.
        1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, vanilla and almond extract. Combine the 6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and flour then stir into the butter mixture until just blended. Do not over mix. Mix in the chopped walnuts. I chop the walnuts fairly fine. Roll dough into 1 inch balls & place them a couple inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. I use a heavy gauge aluminum sheet and parchment paper for nonstick.
        2. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When cool enough to handle comfortably, roll them in the in remaining 1/3 cup of confectioners’ sugar. The sugar will melt on them a little so I always wait a few minutes and roll them in the powdered sugar a second time. I’ll make two batches for a party of any size as they usually go fast. I bring Barefoot sweet red wine.

        I have no idea why she added the almond extract and so little of it. I’ve made them without it and they’re just fine but you can taste the difference. Must have been her own signature or something. One of my old friends who is Norwegian drinks aquavit with the tea cakes. Be careful of aquavit if you’re not familiar with it.

  3. Drachefly

    By Russian Tea Cookies do you mean Pryaniki? It’s basically soft gingerbread with less ginger and more other flavors. Or think molasses cake with honey instead of molasses.

  4. Peter Rogan

    Poles in my family have been making these treats for generations. I never did learn the name, more’s the pity. I’d be inclined to let in the person who brought me some too, even in high summer.

    I’ve thought that Hwan and Yuri had some commonality from the time Hwan admitted all his martial-arts studying had come to naught. Modern Galactic tech and culture gave them some respite. But Yuri’s peace is self-enforced, where Hwan still seems to be reaching for purpose, still undefined. That may be what led him to seek out Yuri. But I digress.

  5. Meran

    Chris, this new BIG book you’re planning…. do you use Kickstarter to sell it? I want to be sure to get in on it. I’ve somehow ~missed all your book sales, and don’t want to miss any more.

  6. Muzhik

    @WarPig:
    I bring Barefoot sweet red wine.

    Have you tried it with something like Boone’s Farm Strawberry Wine? The (semi-)official summer drink at Lake Okoboji back in the ’70s.

    Ahh, the ’70’s. I remember going to the corner store with a dollar and coming back with a soda, a bag of chips, and three candy bars. No way could you do that now. They have cameras everywhere.

  7. War Pig

    Sorry, apparently the Notify of Followup Comments dos not work on this page. Just saw it.

    When a young Marine, we used to fill those cheap, imitation wine skins with Boone’s Farm and drink it at the beach. It was less than a dollar a quart as I recall. On the base Class VI store it was fifty cents a quart. We drank a lot of that stuff. Strawberry Hill and Apple Orchard were the two Boone’s farm wines back then as I recall. Hamm’s was the cheapest beer with Stroh’s a close second. Hamm’s was nasty unless it was ice cold.

    1. Gregg Eshelman

      In 1965 the company (Hamm’s) was acquired by Heublein. In 1973 Hamm’s was sold to a group of Hamm’s distributors which in turn sold it to Olympia Brewing Company in 1975. In 1983 Pabst purchased Olympia—along with Hamm’s. It was at this time that the St. Paul flagship brewery was traded to the Stroh Brewing Company; Stroh’s continued to operate the brewery until 1997. When it closed, the operation ended a 137-year brewing tradition on the site. Its buildings were shuttered, and subsequently vandalized, demolished, or left to decay. Miller Brewing acquired the brand from Pabst in 1999. Miller was later purchased by South African Breweries and the name was changed to SABMiller. Subsequently, SABMiller formed a joint venture combining their US and Puerto Rican assets with those of MolsonCoors to form MillerCoors, the current owner and brewer of the Hamm’s Brand. MillerCoors now produces three Hamm’s beers: Premium, Golden Draft, and Special Light.

      Various businesses are in parts of the original Hamm’s site, including Saint Paul’s Flat Earth Brewing Company and 11 Wells Distillery.

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