If you are unaware, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program is the replacement for the “food stamps” program and offers a supplemental payment to individuals who are unable to afford sufficient food for themselves and their family.  The average weekly amount for a recipient in Arkansas is $30.43.  I know that it can seem like a “game” or could be insulting to individuals who require this program to do this for a week. I hope you, the readers, will understand this is an attempt to shed a little light on food insecurity for people who may not have faced it and to provide a hands-on experience with the kind of stress and difficulties many of our fellow citizens face.

A few caveats on how I approached the week: 1. I limited myself to going to the closest grocery store, which happens to be the one I go to the most often.  I could have planned for a few weeks and found a number of places selling different things around town at different prices, but the spirit of this challenge would, I think, be undermined. 2. I only allowed myself use of parts of my pantry.  I tend to keep a significant stock of food in the pantry because I like to cook and being a boy scout in my youth left me with a desire to be prepared to feed myself, and possibly large numbers of people.  Herbs and flavoring agents are okay; oils and vinegar are not.  Oils, like the olive oil I use almost constantly, are a source of calories and using the different flavorful oils I have as a crutch to sneak additional calories in seemed contrary to the goal of the challenge.

The biggest challenges I saw ahead of the week were my tendency to eat large portions of food and my coffee addiction.  I was going to be cutting back on my coffee, and would not be using the office coffee pool as a crutch either.  I don’t usually eat large breakfasts in the week; I don’t have time in the morning.  That was one easier step, but my wife does like her morning eggs.  She is also in a graduate program, so several dinners and snacks had to be portable for her.

Originally, we had planned to do an entire seven days, but then I got the unfortunate news that The Food Truck was shutting down.  I feel a distinct need to say one last goodbye to The Food Truck and couldn’t square cheating on the SNAP Challenge with that.  We opted to go with 5 days instead of 7 for that reason. For 2 people over 7 days, the SNAP challenge budget was $60.86.  With only 5 days, we were limited to $42.50 for two people. We spent $40.73 on the following:

SNAP Shopping Receipt

Part of the larger plans involved using a modified Roast Chicken recipe for the main protein for several different meals, baking the bread myself so that we got more than a loaf or two worth out of the same price, and paying attention to the veggies. With the bread baking, I have a “pet” in the form of a bread starter recently passed on to me that is over 3 years old.  I was going to have to “feed” the starter anyway so used it as part of the dough in the bread I baked.  I bought fresh yeast packs instead of using the yeast I had, and the starter was fed with flour from the SNAP challenge shopping trip.

Saturday

We started on a Saturday night, and made pizza with unleavened flat breads I made, spinach, and some Italian sausage.  The marinara sauce we used was put into the fridge for repeated uses this week. Before going to sleep, I started a double batch of a modified “No-Knead” dough.

The unleavened flat bread was a bit of challenge to get right.  It is just flour and water mixed up and poured in a cast iron skillet to bake until cooked through.  That is, however, hard to judge. The marinara sauce was a heavily herbaceous tomato sauce making full use of the dried herbs kept in my pantry for such recipes and allowed a long slow cooking to let the flavors combine.  It wasn’t quite the Red Sauce I’ve posted before, but that should give you an idea.

Sunday

Sunday morning, I made the wife scrambled eggs & sausage with a little shredded cheese while saving my eggs for later in the week. Instead, I had generous slices of fresh baked bread with my sausage. I dipped it in olive oil and cracked black pepper for slight flavor enhancements and to get the calories in the oil.

My loving wife’s breakfast

My breakfast

 We ate breakfast so late that we decided to coast into dinner.  Both of us ate pieces of bread repeatedly throughout the day going through an entire loaf by the time dinner was done. I spent a lot of time cooking Sunday in preparation for the week.

In the early afternoon, I prepared the Roast Chicken.  A few things had to be modified from that recipe – I lightly rubbed the chicken with a little olive oil and had to skip the stuffing the cavity.  The chicken was broken down and all the pieces, save one thigh, as well as the veggies roasted with it were saved for later use including the carcass and lemony fat rendered from the cooking.

I also prepped the wife’s breakfasts for the week.  She found this recipe and requested I make it work for her breakfasts in the SNAP Challenge week, so I did.  I made a half dozen of these gems in the muffin tin using a quarter pound of the sweet Italian sausage, six eggs, cheese, and some spinach instead of broccoli.

Arroz con pollo with garlicky spinach

Sunday Dinner was arroz con pollo.  I shredded the two chicken thighs from the roast chicken and placed them over an herbaceous rice enhanced with a few tablespoons of the marinara sauce.  Pieces of crispy chicken skin were used to add flavor and visual interest to the plate. On the side was sautéed garlicky spinach with a little lemon zest.  I put some olive oil in the pan and heated it with a few garlic cloves to get the flavor of garlic in the oil.  I added the spinach and sautéed it with a pinch of salt until wilted.  I used my bar zester to create the little strips of lemon that also left a light aroma of essential lemon oil over the spinach.

The leftover arroz con pollo was placed in the fridge for use in upcoming lunches and I may have sneaked a few scraps of chicken from the carcass while cleaning up the kitchen.

Bread for the next few days

Monday

Monday morning breakfast is emblematic of the entire week.  My wife grabbed an eggy cheesy muffin thing while I just tried to find the time to drink my coffee.  I probably should grab a slice of bread or some of the yogurt in the mornings. I tossed a nice handful of black beans to soak as I made my coffee, a little weaker and a little less than usual.

Lunch – The arroz con pollo was such a hit that my wife claimed one of the leftover servings for her lunch. I cooked the black beans that I set to soak with a chopped tomato.  I added the vegetables roasted with the chicken and had a makeshift ratatouille.

Makeshift ratatouille

Dinner – It was a class night, so my wife packed a sandwich with half of a roast chicken breast on the

Pasta with onions, garlic, and pepper flakes plus half a chicken breast.

bread baked Sunday morning(She declared it not pretty enough for blog posts). Since she was gone, I could indulge in two things I enjoy far more than she does – onions and a little heat.  I took my half of the chicken breast and crisped the skin a bit before serving over a southern Italian style dish of pasta with sautéed onions, garlic, and heavy on the red pepper flakes.  Because of how quickly I was going through my olive oil, I used some of the chicken fat when crisping the chicken skin and starting the onions.

We had gone through most of the two loaves of bread baked Sunday morning.  I started another double batch of my half-knead bread late at night.  It would sit for the next 18 hours.

Tuesday

Breakfast was the same as before.

Tuesday Lunch – I took most of the arroz con pollo leftovers and made a quick fritatta with two of the eggs. I was again told her lunch was not pretty enough for posting.

Tuesday night  was chicken noodle soup. As soon as I got home from work, I started a stock.  The chicken carcass, including the bits of chicken still on it, with some herbage, half an onion, and garlic was set to simmer to infuse the water with some wonderful flavors.  If I had stretched a few more dollars, I would have added more rough chopped veggies.

While the stock was simmering, I kneaded the bread and added some more flour to get it to the consistency I wanted and let it have a second rest. I am usually loath to break noodles, but one pound of pasta has to serve many purposes this week. I also added some carrots, more herbs, and a touch of the leftover arroz con pollo rice.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Finally, I added a little bit of lemon zest to wake up the flavors and bring it together.  Yes, I love my lemon zest. While this was happening, the bread also went into the oven to bake.  Fresh baked bread is a wonderful smell.

Wednesday

Breakfasts are the same.  The morning crunch does not leave much time for improvisation.

An egg salad made with fat free plain yogurt, and a heavy dose of dill for my wife while I put together a Sweet Potato Hash.  Sweet Potatoes, Onions, carrots, the last of the spinach, and garlic came together for a light, but flavorful lunch.

Dinner is a nice sized mound of pasta in the marinara sauce using the last quarter pound of the sausage.  I like my sauce thicker or chunkier but my wife likes it smooth as velvet so it was blitzed to her preferences.

Pasta with leftover marinara sauce

Thursday

Breakfast was the same.

Honestly, even I didn’t think my leftovers were pretty enough for a picture for Thursday lunch.  Suffice it to say that I had more pasta, bread, and olive oil.

I did get a cup of coffee from the doctor’s office midway through the week and my wife used some of our meager cushion in the food budget to treat herself to a sweet tea.

On the SNAP challenge, it takes a lot of effort to preplan not only the meals but the value of the components of the meals.  Each shopping item needs to be able to be used for multiple dishes to maximize the bang for your buck in the shopping.  I wasn’t  feeling underfed, but I did feel a little nagging hunger more often than usual.  The plans for the remaining days involved using leftover marinara sauce to make eggplant parm served with leftover pasta, another batch of bread, and similar combinations. The rice and beans were staples with which we stretched the other components.  To get from our seven days to five, the eggplant was dropped from the shopping list as was the corn that was going to be roasted in husk, reduced the amount of carrots, reduced the amount of tuna, and used some of the eggs, rice, and beans earlier in the process than planned.

 It was doable for the short period, but over time it would really constrict what you got to eat.  Some of the staples I got in large enough quantities that they would roll over like the flour and rice but “treats” seemed few and far between in the budgeting.  The fact that I was able to do all of this as cooking from scratch is one of the only reasons that the meals were as full as they were.  If we had tried to buy premade or processed food it would have been more expensive and certainly reduced the amount we ate.  This goes into the two luxuries I had on this challenge – confidence in my cooking knowledge and time. I walked into the store knowing how to roast a chicken and what I could do with all of the different components.  I have absolute faith in my ability to bake loaves of bread.  Everyone doesn’t have these skills or the confidence in these skills to put together a shopping list that lets the grocery list stretch. I also had the luxury of having the time to do all of this cooking.  Sure, I put off extracurricular activities – some reading, some blog writing – but how does a family or a couple that doesn’t have the luxury of that time handle the tightrope of prepared foods on this kind of a budget?  Think about how you approach your food every week and then think about how so many people have to approach it as a restriction.

If you can consider food a luxury or a stress reliever, try to do something to help alleviate the stress and restrictions food insecurity and hunger cause for so many. I’ll be taking part in the Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale, partnered with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and No Kid Hungry, on May 4th.  I hope to see you there.

Food Blogger Bake Sale benefiting No Kid Hungry

Adjacent to the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market

7th and Main, North Little Rock

Saturday, May 4, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

The Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale 2013 is coming together! Join us for a huge selection of sweet and savory baked delights, offered by bloggers, individuals and baking professionals. Every penny raised goes to No Kid Hungry, a powerful and innovative campaign by Share Our Strength to end childhood hunger in America.

This marks the third year for the Arkansas team to participate in the Food Blogger Bake Sale, which is celebrating its fourth anniversary this year nationally. On the same date annually, food bloggers across the nation hold bake sales at the same time, creating an exciting day of fundraising and fun. Our Arkansas team has raised just over $1000 each year its first two years, and we hope to double that number in 2013.

If you click on the link to Fancy Pants Foodie, you will also see a list of who is donating their time and precious baked goods to this endeavor.  If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you probably have seen repeated pictures of focaccia. Since I volunteered to take part, I have been trying to perfect my focaccia recipe, which now includes different proportions of three different flours and use of a three year old starter I adopted. I’ll be selling hunks of this as part of the savory wing of the bake sale, but rest assured the sweets will be on center stage.

I know we are all busy, but take time out of your day on May 4, 2013 to come to the Food Blogger Bake Sale and buy some delicious baked goods for a great cause. If you are not a local who stumbled upon this blog, check the No Kid Hungry Bake Sale Locator to find one near you.

Want to get more vegetables but you’re always eating on the run? Maybe you hate vegetables but feel you should get more of them? Well then, how about a vegetable cocktail? No, not that nice little glass of red stuff Grandma put at each place setting—we’re talking something with a kick in it. You can definitely start with the little glass of red stuff and expand it to a Red Snapper-style drink like a Bloody Mary. Or how about a cucumber-scented cooler like a Pimm’s Cup, or maybe a cocktail featuring a vegetable-based ingredient like Cardamaro or celery bitters? Maybe you’ve been wondering if you can get more mileage out of that juice extractor before consigning it to the garage sale. However you get them in that glass, be prepared for the most fun with vegetables ever. Here‘s what to do.

My lovely wife insisted on getting a juicer as part of our new life together and I wanted to use it for this post.  I’ve gone into my love of a Pimm’s Cup before so I didn’t want to just add cucumber juice to the Pimm’s Cup.  I thought I would try something entirely new.  The Bloody Mary is probably the best known vegetable cocktail so I started with that template.  I also wanted to see how to work in a dark liquor instead of my usual gin based comfort zone.

I settled on rye, a bottle of Bulleit Rye is one of the staple components of my home bar, and beets.  Beets have enough sweetness I thought they would add the needed dimension to a cocktail, have a wonderful color, and were not a vegetable I had used in a cocktail before.  The problem came when I was pondering accents to add that needed dimension to the drink.  Some sort of tart agent was needed to lighten the drink and create the tension for the beet’s sweetness to shine.  Peering in the bar, I settled on Bauchant, a cognac based Orange liqueur.  Bauchant is sweeter than Cointreau, more like Grand Marnier adding complexity and some needed sweetness to the drink.

Finally, I added a Lillet rinse to the glass. Over the weekend, I attended the “Drinking with Men” session of the Arkansas Literary Festival.  One of the cocktails featured was the Seersucker devised by Spencer at the Capital Bar & Grill as a way to use a sazerac methodology for new drinks.  The Lillet rinse adds an intriguing dimension to the complexity of the Seersucker and I thought it would work here.

The Sanguinary

Step 1 ) Juice a beet. I juiced two just in case I needed to make multiple versions.

Step 2) Set a cocktail glass to chill.

Step 3) Add 1.5oz rye whiskey, .75 oz. beet juice, .5 oz Bauchant or other sweeter orange liqueur, and .5oz lemon juice to a shaker, 2/3 full of ice.

Step 4) Shake.

Step 5) Toss the ice to chill the cocktail glass and add a wee drop or two of Lillet.  Swirl around to coat the inside of the glass.

Step 6) Double strain the cocktail into the glass.

Step 7) Add an artfully prepared piece of beet leaf for garnish.

How did it taste?  It was not what I was expecting, but I kept going back for another sip. And another. And another. It had an earthy complexity that was heightened by the herbal LIllet notes from the rinse. The sweetness made the drink quaffable, but didn’t overwhelm the distinctly “beety” flavors while the rye provided the backbone to stand up to that flavor.  It was a drink that challenged my taste buds and made me much more introspective than I planned, focusing on the interplay of the spicy rye, earthy sweetness of the beet, and complexity from the Lillet at once.

The Sanguinary name is a play on the blood red color, from the beets, and a word of warning to avoid mixing this up when you are wearing a nice white shirt.

Aside from checking out the main Mixology Monday post, I want to give specific shout out to Zach of The Venture Mixologist.  We had almost identical ideas and his Beet Down with cachaca also sounds like a winner.

This year, a fine group of gentlemen have determined that Monday, April 1st will be Seersucker Monday. Jordan Johnson, Gabe Holmstrom, Grant Tenille, Ben Noble, and Bill Vickery have decided to not only encourage the return of spring with seersucker, but to do it for a good cause.  If you wear seersucker, of any kind, on Monday, they will donate $1 to the Arkansas Foodbank and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. You’ll hear some more about the Hunger Relief Alliance when I talk about the Food Blogger Bake Sale next week.  The Facebook event described the Seersucker Monday for Hunger here.

To take part, wear your Seersucker Monday.

Upload a picture to Facebook or Twitter

On Facebook, tag one of these fine gents.

On twitter, use the hashtag #seersuckermonday

A lot of us are fortunate and don’t remember how many people in Arkansas struggle with food insecurity and hunger daily.  It doesn’t take much to help just a little bit on April 1st and you have an excuse to pull out the seersucker for a good cause.

I’ll be looking for more seersucker on Monday

This falls into the category of dishes that you can throw whatever you have into the recipe to clear out the cupboard or fridge. Despite being at the beginning of Spring, temperatures are running 10 to 15 degrees below average, so this sounds like a good plan. I have been meaning to write this up for a while, but I failed to update the blog often enough; I hope to do better. Also, calling it a cassoulet and giving it a little hint of presentation value will wow people despite how easy it is to prepare.

Ingredients

• 1-2oz Bacon/Guanciale chopped
• 2 4oz toulouse or other sausages
• 1 Medium White Onion, chopped or diced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 8 ounces white or cannellini beans (the traditional beans of Southern France can be hard to find in the states.)
• 4 ounces of chicken (Leftovers from a roast chicken work well)
• ¼ Cup Brandy (or dry vermouth)
• ½ Cup or more of Chicken Stock (Or water)
• Thyme
• Breadcrumbs
• Parsley

Optional:

•  Carrots
•  Celery
•  Other veg
•  Other herbs
•  Other poultry or game

Directions

• 1. Start with a bit of oil or fat in the pan.  My preference is to take a few ounces of good bacon, guanciale, or other cured pork product and render out the fat over medium-low heat for around 5 minutes.
• 2. Add the sausage. I used a toulouse sausage from H.A.M. with the traditional white wine and garlic base. If you don’t care or the flavor or hewing towards authenticity, any good flavorful sausage will do.  Slightly brown the sausage over medium heat.
• 3. Add the chopped onion and garlic cloves.  Add a pinch of salt and stir occasionally.  You want to cook the onions.  Once the onions begin to turn translucent and fragrant, add your chicken if you are using it.
• 4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
•      4A. Add any other vegetables you are using.  I often add carrots and celery, completing the French mire poix, here. Carrots are sometimes added first because they take longer to cook, but I want the flavor from the onions infused in the rendered fat first.
•      4B. Add some herbage. Thyme and rosemary are traditional and add to the depth of flavor wonderfully, but you can use  whatever you have handy.  I’ve added oregano and celery leaves for versions.
• 5. Now for the beans!
•      5A. If planning ahead, at lunch, set a few handfuls of dried beans under half an inch to an inch of water.  It should be six hours later or so when you are cooking dinner, so drain the beans and add them to the pan.
•      5B. If, as it is more frequently occurring in my house, you realize you don’t have soaked beans or leftover beans from earlier in the week, take a can of cooked cannellini or great white northern beans.  Make sure that you add the liquid in the can to the cooking pan.
• 6. Add a quarter cup of brandy here.  The idea is to add some richness and depth of flavor with the brandy being absorbed into the components while the alcohol cooks off. If you don’t have an open bottle of brandy, I have used dry (french) vermouth to great effect. Simmer until the alcohol is mostly evaporated and the flavor infused in the food.
• 7. Stir everything together and add the half cup of stock or other flavorful liquid. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes.
• 8. Transfer your pan to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.
• 9. Add a thin layer of breadcrumbs on the top of the cassoulet, press them in with the back of a spoon to make sure they are damp. Return the pan to the oven for another 15 minutes.
• 10. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.  Plate so sausage, chicken, beans, and veggies all share the plate and top with as much chopped parsley as you want.

If you are cooking for more than two people or more than two servings at a time, you may want to pre cook the sausage and slice into rounds more like a traditional cassoulet. This makes it a lot easier to portion when ready to serve.  Instead of layering the separately cooked beans, sausage, chicken, and veggies into a large pot to bake for hours on end, you can make a delicious cassoulet in an hour and a half

Maybe I went a little heavy on the parsley

The Little Burger Caucus has finished the first round of the 2012 Burger Brackets! In an attempt to determine the best hamburger for central Arkansas, the Burger Caucus established the Burger Brackets.

The Burger Caucus is a loosely organized collection of ne’er-do-wells primarily with some political bend who meet every month at different locations to have burgers and engage in what can only be called jibber-jabber. A collection of politicians, reporters, wonks, and pundits gather in our quixotic quest to discover the best burger in the Little Rock and central Arkansas areas. If you like a dose of politics, but not political theatre, with your burgers, look us up.

Members of the Burger Caucus were allowed to nominate the top three burgers in central Arkansas.  These rankings were converted into a seeding of the top 16 vote getting burger joints.  If there was a tie, my enlightened despotism as chair allowed me to flip a coin. Once the brackets were seeded, it looked like this:

Members of the caucus then voted in a daily poll to determine each winner. And before anyone comments, I have already been informed about how I made a slight error in the bracket advancements.  Next year, we’ll fix it.  

A review of the opening round:

#1 Big Orange vs.

#16 The House Gastropub

The Top Seed,Big Orange, came charging into the brackets with half of the number 1 votes and took the Little Rock dining scene by storm as they prepare to open another location! The House Gastropub just revamped their burger menu as a mainstay of the Height’s dinner rush.  

The interesting part of this matchup is that the restaurants use the sanem meat, the same bread, and some of the same condiments.  Before opening Big Orange, Scott McGhee worked with The House on their menu explaining some of these similarities.  

Big Orange has made a distinct name for putting together a fantastic burger, cooked to order, with simple but delicious toppings.  The House has pushed their burger comfort zone lately with the new menu but they have been known for their Burger’s since opening.  The Mac & Cheese Burger shown above is a great example of that.

The vote in the 24 hour voting window was Big Orange 13 to The House Gastropub 6.

#1 Big Orange advances.

#2 Midtown Billiard’s vs.

#15 David’s Burgers

Number 2 seed, Midtown Billiards, shocked some people ranking this highly but the burgers served at the over 75 year old Midtown are the stuff of legend.  The best bite of food in the city after midnight, the Midtown Burger is prepared on a spotless griddle with a blend of “Midtown” seasoning without fuss or complication (beyond the optional egg you can add).

The number 15 seed, David’s Burgers, is part of a burgeoning line of Butcher Boy’s burgers that is focused on making simple but high quality burgers.  Pattied fresh, cooked fresh, with an unlimited supply of french fries, David’s provides a clean and uncluttered hamburger experience.

With few votes, Midtown won with 6 to David’s 1

No. 5 The Root vs.

No. 12 Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro

The Root Cafe is South Main’s premier dining destination.  With a pride in locally sourcing and sustainably producing as much as possible, the Root Cafe offers a fantastic vegetarian and vegan set of options as well as a wonderful Burger.  Each burger is prepared with care, one at a time in a unique location.

Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro offers a wealth of different food, including their award winning cheese dip, so the quality (and quantity) of the burgers was a surprise.  These massive burgers are cooked well and topped with a variety of different ingredients, like Boursin cheese.

This was the closest match of the preliminary round! Every vote counts and after 24 hours, it as tied at 4-4.  One flip of a coin later, and Gypsy’s has the first upset of the Burger Brackets!

No. 6 Doe’s Eat Place vs.

No. 11 Cotham’s in the City

Both Doe’s and Cotham’s serve southern style griddle burgers with a long history behind them.  Doe’s has a soft spot in the Burger Caucus because it is the location of the first ever Caucus in 2011.  Doe’s also offers its chili to quickly turn a regular cheeseburger into a chili drenched chili burger favored by several caucus members

Cotham’s in the City is the Little Rock version of the Scott legend.  Southern through and through, the hamburgers come from regular burger sized up to the awe-inspiring triple hubcaps!  There is no easy or gentle way to describe what can happen when a multiple hubcap, plate sized burger is brought to a table.

Despite the sentimental beginnings of the Burger Caucus, Cotham’s prevailed 11 votes to a single vote for Doe’s Eat Place

Okay, not a burger, but Ooey and Gooey nonetheless

No. 7 The Food Truck vs.

No. 10 The Kitchen at White Water Tavern

A year ago, how many people would have thought a food truck and an arguably “dive” bar would be in the top burgers of the region? Jeffrey Palsa of the The Food Truck puts out a fantastic product with exquisite sandwiches every day you can catch him.  He has a particular genius for handling melting cheese and The Truck Burger is no exception.  I was so enchanted by the ooey gooey cheese enshrouded burger I didn’t remember to take a picture.

Johnathan Wilkins has transformed the Kitchen at White Water Tavern into a force with which to be reckoned. White Water Tavern has spent a few years without real food service in the bar, then Johnathan came in and it has become a hands down favorite in the city.  Dubbed “The King of Bar Food” by the Arkansas Times, Johnathan turns out what has been called the best bar food in the city with 100% grass fed locally sourced hamburgers.

By a vote of 10 to 2, White Water Tavern advanced to the quarter finals!

Photo by Kat Robinson

No. 3 CBG vs.

Photo by Kat Robinson

No. 14 The Town Pump

The number 3 seed, Capital Bar & Grill, has been a perennial contender for best burger in Little Rock since the Capital Hotel reopened a few years ago.  The burger is lovingly prepared in house with the options of adding house made bacon and pimento cheese.  The third place seeding came from it being a consistent second choice among the nominations.  At it’s best, The Burger is meaty, juicy, with just enough of a char to give it a nice contrast served in what may be the nicest surroundings of the entire bracket.

The Town Pump is another dive going through a resurgence.  It has returned to the forefront of the local scene consistently packing in the younger crowds with music and good times every week.  The burgers there are some of the best in town, including an olive-studded example of the burger that brings a salty relief to the meat.

CBG brought the heat in this match with a commanding 11 votes to Town Pump’s single vote advancing to the quarter finals.

Photo by Kat Robinson

No. 9 Arkansas Burger Company vs.

No. 8 Gadwall’s

The walls of ABC show a collection of Arkansas memorabilia of Arkansas on Cantrell road. The burgers are a little greasy but flavorful with a meaty juiciness that threatens to soak through the buns from a basic burger up to the Rock supersized meat and cheese and the Cap CIty mushroom swiss variants.

Individualization is the name of the game at Gadwall’s in NLR. The burgers at Gadwalls can be topped with a dizzying combination of toppings all available for your own creativity to apply. North Little Rock is well represented by this mainstay.

Arkansas Burger Company with a resounding groundswell of support came out on top with 10 votes to 4!

No. 4 The Box vs.

No. 13 Reno’s

The legend accompanied The Box from the original location to the newly reopened location. The same griddle used for decades remains the heart and soul of The Box. It took nearly two years for the griddle to return to use in a new space after construction and permitting delayed reopening, but The Box has lived up to its namesake ever since. The Box serves up a salt-crusted Southern style burger that exemplifies the Greasy side of the burger equation in the brackets.

The second North Little Rock entry this year, Reno’s boasts a comfortable setting and tasty burgers served in the Argenta District. The half pound Argenta Burger will give you a great time for the money, though even this Burger Caucus aficionado may recommend looking at the rest of the menu from time to time.

The Box’s legend prevailed, garnering 14 votes while Reno’s, despite a valiant effort, remained at a single vote.
With the quarterfinals set for this week, who is going to prevail?  All caucus members can vote on the Facebook group page for the approximately 24 hours that each match is open.  

• Monday, March 11 – #1 Big Orange vs. #12 Dizzy’s
• Tuesday, March 12 – #2 Midtown Billiards vs. #11 Cotham’s in the City
• Wednesday, March 13 – #3 CBG vs. #10 The Kitchen at White Water Tavern
• Thursday, March 14 – #4 The Box vs. #9 ABC

It has been quite a ride getting from engaged to married and that was the priority for me, instead of posting.  I wanted to post this not only as a way of explanation for the fewer posts, but because of how happy I am.  My (now) wife was absolutely lovely, and I don’t have any shame in admitting to crying the first moment I saw her in the wedding dress. We had friends and family from across the nation join us in Little Rock, including a total of four generations of DiPippas.

I wanted to give a quick thank you to all of the vendors who worked their tails off and helped us have a wonderful wedding that we will always remember:

Bella Baxter Special Events – The planners helped keep us on track and probably saved more of our sanity than we realized.

Simply the Best Catering – They did a bang up job on the food, which as you can imagine was pretty important to me.

Jacob Slaton Photography – Jacob did our engagement pictures and has really gotten a great view of all of us.  He is a good guy on top of being a rather talented photog.

Tanarah Luxe Floral – She was almost as excited to work on the arrangements as we were to get married, and they added a fantastic touch to the entire venue.

Sweet Love Bakes – Kelli Marks baked a beautiful wedding cake, and absolutely delicious bat-brownies for my groom’s cake.  I cannot recommend her enough for your dessert needs.

Chris Raymond – Our friend Chris happens to be a talented artist.  He drew the Save the Date card you see in the picture above. You can reach him through his website here.

Especially for You Entertainment – Patrick is a friend of ours and he also happens to be a DJ so it worked out well and he helped keep the party going.

Korto Momolu – We were fortunate to have Korto make Amanda’s reception dress.  An all around good person who helped Amanda feel as beautiful as I always see her.

Kate Worrell & Melanie Bradshaw – Hairstylists at Chop Salon who helped take care of people’s hair (and who happen to be great people we are honored to know)

Christina Skye Lynn – Our friend, and half of Golden Skye Design & Alterations, is a makeup artist at Chanel Fragrance and Beauty (inside the Dillards at Park Plaza Mall) who helped Amanda and others look their absolute best.

Danya Golden – Another friend, the other half of Golden Skye Design & Alterations, who helped on some last minute alterations.

The Little Rock String Quartet- If food is one of my major sticking points, music is one of Amanda’s.  The String Quartet helped set the mood and make the entire event unforgettable.

The Capital Hotel- We stayed there as our immediate respite from the wedding, and they certainly made us feel special.  Nick and his crew took care of us and the Ashley’s brunch the next morning was a fantastic way to start our married life together.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has a write-up and gallery here. I am still cobbling together a good Storify to put up with pictures from everybody using the #somebodysgettingmarried hashtag.  Yes, we had our friends live-tweeting the event. A huge thank you to our friends and family who came to celebrate with us and help us begin this next stage of our lives together.

Photo courtesy of and (c) Jacon Slaton Photography

Finally, a thank you to my beautiful wife.  Before I met her, I was pretty sure I would never find anyone who would want to put up with my peculiar brand of insanity for a life together.  Never in my life have I been more pleased to be wrong.

Hot Dog Mike has won acclaim and fame, frankly, the world over.  He has been featured in numerous local news stories as well as the Today Show and his charity hot dog sale for Most  Expensive Hot Dog in the World made international news. The franks themselves, were not the most impressive or special of franks(Sorry Mike).  Any of us could go and buy the hot dogs that Mike used.  What set him apart was the creativity of his topping concoctions and his personality.

The classic hot dogs were available – chili cheese dog, polish sausage with sauerkraut and brown mustard, or my personal favorite the Chicago style dog(steamed poppy seed bun, pickle spear, sliced tomato, neon green pickle relish, chopped onion, sport peppers, mustard and celery salt).  Not everybody liked having their dog dragged through the garden, so Mike had to stop carrying the poppy seed buns required for the Chicagos a little while back. These were all tasty and, for this area of the nation, it was a great novelty to get them from a hot dog cart. These may have been the beginning of HDM’s journey, but they are far from the end.

Where Mike shines is how he would come up with new topping combinations.  HDM would treat the hot dog like a sandwich in any high end shop and work through flavors and toppings that would bring a unique flair to the frank.  He once told me that he had a notebook with several hundred hot dog ideas he had not yet made on the cart. The CAPITALDog (cream cheese, relish and sport peppers). The WOOPIGDog (all beef dog topped with bacon, slaw, onion, bbq sauce and a hint of spicy sriracha sauce).  The SRIRACHADog (All beef dog, cucumber, onion, mayo, Sriracha sauce) was one of my favorites.  The chill of the cucumber perfectly offset the heat of the sriracha. The HO-HO-HotDog Christmas season special (All beef dog, black forest ham, garlic mashed potatoes, spicy brown mustard. Limited edition, only available during the holidays.

Mike is quick with a quip, but also with a greeting.  He is a man who recognizes his customers, and his friends.  He makes sure that you feel like you are getting his attention when you are trying to wrangle a dog from the cart and even used the long lines created as the basis for bumper stickers.  He firmly kept his tongue in the side of his cheek while reveling in the chance to spend his days making, selling, and eating Hot Dogs.

The final piece of the puzzle that is Hot Dog Mike was the influence he had on the food scene here.  He brought the idea of food trucks and carts into main stream popularity.  While there had been a few that would bop around time, primarily taco trucks in the Southwest portion of the city, HDM caught lightning in a bottle when he tapped the rising national popularity of food trucks and exploited Little Rock’s social media scene.  He did this through masterful use of social media, a commitment to the food truck community as a whole, and having a real heart behind the gab.

He is a prolific twitterer[@HotDog_Mike] and sets the bar for any other food truck in the region for how to communicate with the customer and fan base through social media.  We know where he is going to be and when.  He tells his fans and consumers when he is running a few minutes late and why.  He engages and responds to his followers on Twitter and Facebook creating a closeness with his consumer base that was rare in this town.

Mike never failed to encourage others to eat at his competitors’ stands.  He wanted the food truck scene and component of the central Arkansas dining community to thrive.  He worked with the Main Street Food Truck Festival, was out at the World Cheese Dip Championships, set up at University Market at 4Corners, and drove people to these places where as often as not they would grab somebody else’s fare.

He also had a heart.  He sold the most expensive hot dog in the world for $1501.  The hot dog was a quarter pound all beef dog topped with lobster tail, saffron aoli, and gold leaf. Actually, he sold 4 of them.  He donated $1500 from each of those hot dogs to charity, the One, Inc. which is a 501(c)(3) focused on homeless outreach and assistance.

During the 2011 Legislative session, when he was a quick walk away from my day job, I ate there once a week bringing hot dogs back to my co-workers.  I had him make a delivery to my class (teaching on the side because I don’t have enough to do already). He was part of the ebb and flow of central Arkansas.

More than any of this, I call Hot Dog Mike, a fellow member of the Brotherhood of the Fedora, a friend. I understand and commend his decision to return home and place such a priority on family, but I will miss his company and all of Central Arkansas is indebted to him for making Food Trucks part of the popular local culture.

This month, it is JFL of the Rated R Cocktail Blog hosting. The theme is “Humbug,” or as described in more detail:

• Lets face it the holidays suck, yeah I said it. You put yourself in debt buying crap people will have forgotten about in a month. You drive around like a jackass to see people you don’t even like, or worse they freeload in your house. Your subjected to annoying music, and utterly fake, forced kindness and joy. Plus if you work retail your pretty much in hell, so don’t we all deserve a good stiff drink? So for this Mixology Monday unleash your inner Grinch. Mix drinks in the spirit of Anti-Christmas. They can be really bitter and amaro filled. They filled with enough booze to make you pass out in a tinsel covered Scrooge heap. They could be a traditional holiday drink turned on it’s ear. Or they could be a tribute to your favorite holiday villain. If you celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa then you still suffer through the holidays, so feel free to join in with your Anti-Holiday drink as well. Whatever it is add a hearty “Humbug!” and make your drink personify everything annoying or fake about the holidays.

Read more here. 

We have all had less than joy-filled holiday seasons, so this one got me thinking pretty quickly.  I wanted something not unlike a Manhattan where near all, if not all, components were alcoholic.  I wanted to play up my love of the bitter flavor profiles.  I wanted something that just sort of screamed “Humbug.”

I started with the idea of a Rob Roy, a Scotch based Manhattan.  I thought about how to sharpen the profile, and decided to make it perfect.

• Start perfect sidebar. Cocktail geeks will refer to a “perfect” drink when you split the vermouth evenly between dry and sweet.  You can also split a clear liquor so you could order a Perfect Martini Perfect to get a ⅓ gin. ⅓ vodka, 1/6 sweet vermouth and ⅙ dry vermouth.  End “Perfect Sidebar.”

Considering all the attention Skyfall has been getting, I decided to go ahead and toss some Lillet in as my dry vermouth but then I ran into a roadblock on the sweet vermouth.  The Cinzano in the cabinet didn’t seem right. I love Campari, but I had used it for another MxMO post too recently.  As long as I am just offering minor twists on existing cocktails, I should try a little bit harder.  Punt e Mes was the answer.  This is a stronger, richer, more bitter component from Italy.  My mind had images of something bitter, bracing, and gloriously humbug dancing in my head.

Finally, in a few twitter conversations, the name “Perfect Wee Bastard” was suggested by Muse of Doom from Feu de Vie. She & I are both geeks, so brownie points to anyone who identifies the phrases origins.

Without further adieu, my idea of what to mix together to quench and quell the Humbug spirit:

1. Prepare for the drink.  Chill a brandy glass.  Add ice to your mixing tin until ⅔ full. Prepare a long strip of orange peel for garnish.
2. Add Blended Scotch.  Please note glass decanter labeled “Scotch.” It is blended. It is not expensive. 1.5 ounces
3. Add Lillet. .75 ounce
4. Add Punt e Mes .75 ounce
5. Stir.
6. Empty chilled glass, rub orange peel on lip for essence.
7. Strain into glass.
8. Add several dashes of bitters.  I used good ole Angostura.
9. Twist peel into spiral and place in drink.  Or be more artful and drape it over the edge if you have the time.

I was concerned that I had overstepped my good taste when the smoky nose hit me.  I took a sip and an assertive drink manifested itself.  Then, it died down.  It didn’t linger or leave me feeling the components on my tongue.  I took another sip, and it happened again.  This came out even better than I had expected. The Punt e Mes cut into the drink, preventing the scotch from overpowering the drink.,  The lillet added a sharpness to the drink, highlighting some of the fruitier flavors of the scotch, and I believe is what helped prevent the finish from being overpowering.

It was so pleasant that I promptly got up and made another, letting the complex flavors linger on my tongue.  The Perfect Wee Bastard is, indeed, a nigh perfect drink to collapse into after a stressful holiday outing.

Background

Sur Oeste translates from Spanish to English as southwest. The story and correlation behind the name for this cigar is that My Father’s Cigars (the parent company (no pun intended) of Jaime Garcia) was releasing a cigar that was milder than their other cigar lines to attract a larger base of customers; Sur Oeste is that cigar. It was originally intended to be released in the southwest region of the United States including Texas and Oklahoma. Being that I live in Arkansas I am thankful that My Father’s Cigars’ geographical delivery boundaries are not bound by my personal definition of our country’s regions because I would hate to have missed out on this jewel of a cigar.

I have been able to smoke and enjoy this cigar several times and it is quickly becoming a go-to cigar for me. Although I must admit that the Corona Gorda vitola is my preference. The larger vitolas: Robusto (5” x 50) and Toro (6 x 52) are in my opinion not the same in their taste and are, what you could call, too much of a good thing. The Corona Gorda to me is just the perfect balance of flavors for this cigar. It doesn’t smack you upside the head and knock you out with overpowering flavors but it also isn’t whisper-in-a-library volume level so you strain to try to figure out what flavors are going on with the cigar. It’s just simply the perfect balance of flavors.

Construction

This cigar is an absolutely gorgeous cigar. There are some cigars that look nice, and then there are others that make you want to run to your lighter and get toasting the cigar as fast as possible – this Sur Oeste is definitely the latter. The wrapper is caramel-colored, satiny smooth with visible veins but no visible seams, and it has a nicely constructed triple cap that allowed for an easy cut without any tears when I cut it – it is very annoying when a tear happens. The cigar has the same exact band as the Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial, but the distinction showing this is a Sur Oeste is the grey ribbon foot-band (for those who are new to cigars, you always remove foot-bands before lighting the cigar).

The Nitty Gritty -

Vitola – Corona Gorda (5 5/8” x 46)

Country of Origin – Nicaragua

Wrapper – Nicaragua

Binder – Nicaragua

Filler – Nicaragua