Making an Old Fashioned With Tullamore Dew

I normally make an Old Fashioned with bourbon, usually Jim Beam black label 8-year aged.  I tried it tonight with Tullamore Dew and I liked the result.  Here is the recipe.

Place in tumbler, or more specifically, an old fashioned glass:

1 rounded teaspoon granulated sugar
2 maraschino cherries
1 section mandarin orange, peel removed (2 if small)
1 teaspoon club soda (water will do in a pinch)
Muddle the mixture well (it is best to have a muddler, but the back end of an ice cream scoop can also work)

Add 3-4 ice cubes

Pour 2 oz. of Bourbon or Whiskey
Add 3 dashes of Angastura Bitters

Stir the mixture

Most recipes call for garnishing with an orange slice.  I don't because I am too impatient to get the first sip.

Pictured at left is a stainless steel muddler.

Musing About A Different Style of Men's Fellowship

I was thinking about looking for a different Christian men's group, but felt that I wouldn't be able to find one that I could see myself regularly attending.  It got me thinking about what I was really looking for in a men's group.  Here is a rough draft of that effort.

Three Chord Men’s Group

Ecclesiastes 4:12: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

“All I got is a red guitar, three chords and the truth.” U2.

A men’s group should involve three categories of activities:

• Service
• Recreation
• Bible Application

Rotate the emphasis each week between the three areas and assign each man responsibility for organizing his week.  Meeting doesn’t have to fall on same day every week.  Some men might gravitate towards organizing events in one or two areas, not necessarily all three.  God gives different talents to each man.

Service ideas.
Wounded warrior dinners.
Specific projects of limited duration for the church grounds.
Join Kiwanis or other service organization as a group to be able to find other projects.

Recreation (or learning that is fun)
Learning about beer styles and do a beer tasting. Similar effort for cigars.
Take shooting lessons on 9mm or similar pistol at gun range.
Go hiking or surfing.

Bible application.
Applying bible to specific problems men are facing.  Example might include, money problems, issues with dealing with a difficult boss, or personal honesty about sin.  Rotate responsibility for preparing the lessons.

General stuff.
The group should enforce accountability for putting together a good service plan, good recreation plan or good bible application.  Criticism for poor preparation and performance and praise for good work is expected.  Some of the efforts may require team preparation, so accountability for deliverables is also required. Honesty about one’s personal life is also enforced as men get to know each other.

Explanation for inclusion of U2 line:
Red guitar – Music and celebration of God, like David.
Three chords – Two men and the holy spirit or the Trinity.
The truth – The word of God.

Yes, this mixes the homonyms chord and cord. Tough. It helps makes my point and I like it.

The B-Daddy Channel - Covers Edition

My nephew, Kevin, is a talented young musician. He will be playing guitar in a production of Tommy by The Who. We were discussing Pinball Wizard, and decided that deciding between The Who and Elton John for best rendition was the most difficult covers question we had ever heard. So I leave it to the readers to decide.

Time Warner Cable - High Speed to Nowhere

Time Warner Cable (TWC) is the worst service provider ever. I have had nothing but problems with them over the years, but lately it has just gotten worse. As soon as AT&T U-verse comes to my neighborhood I am going to switch service. A brief litany of their stupidity.

• When I switched phone service from AT&T to save dollars, they didn't install my service on time, leaving me without land line service for days.
• They lied about the price I would pay for my new telephone service. They quoted me a rate for my second line that wasn't actually available. I ended up cancelling the second line because it was so expensive.
• When TWC installed the new phone service they were unable to make every phone jack in the house work, even though they had all worked with AT&T.
• The installation is an ugly mess in my bedroom.
• During the recent power outage, they lost all phone service. They are totally dependent on SDG&E in San Diego, with no back up power. My neighbors were gracious enough to let us use their phones to check on Mrs. Daddy's folks.
• But even if they had power back up, my phone would still have died, because when TWC installed my phone modem, they didn't install a battery back up.
• When I asked that a battery back up be sent to me, they have twice said it would be shipped. After five days, when it didn't show up, I called back and they said the order was cancelled. They offered to charge me $30.00 to have a technician deliver it, when it should have been installed in the first place.
• Their chat room technician said that I should visit the TWC store, but the help desk said not to do that, regarding the battery.
• Every few months, I trek to the TWC to replace my digital cable box, as they start to act up.
• They are misleading in their commercials about free HD. If you want ESPN in HD for example, you have to rent their box for $8 per month per box.

Why they stay in business is only because the city grants them a monopoly as cable provider in their service area. I wouldn't invest in their stock, because if we know anything about technology, its that technical change disrupts monopolies.

Beer Review - Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale

Yesterday we had a little barbecue and Dean brought by one of my favorite beers, Bear Republic's Red Rocket Ale. Someday I'll get around to a top 10 beer list, like Max, but this ale would certainly be on it. (Off the top of my head, I would also include Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Avery Salvation Golden Ale, Delirium Tremens, Alpine Ale, Shiner Bock and Highway 78 Scotch Ale.) Bear Republic also makes an excellent IPA, Racer 5.

As you can see from the picture, Red Rocket pours a dark amber-brown, with a head that is full but disappears quickly. But don't let that fool you, it's full of flavor. It has just a hint of sweetness to balance much more hoppiness than expected from an amber ale. Red Rocket is fairly complex, and always takes me a few sips to absorb all of the different flavors embedded. At 6.8% ABV, its not too boozy so its a nice companion to a bbq meal especially steak. Although not a San Diego beer, it is from California, Healdsburg to be specific. Craft beer is one of the few growing industries in our state, and also the least regulated, figure that.

Beer Review - Palmetto Amber Ale

I was on travel this week to Charleston, SC. We had an after work social at California Dreaming and I asked about the local beer. The barkeep only had one suggestion, the amber ale pictured at right. I was surprised, and he added he add one more, a Pale Ale from Palmetto Brewing, but the delivery hadn't come in. To be honest, I thought a restaurant with pretensions to be Californian out to have more than Miller, Bud Light, Blue Moon, and Widmer Hefeweizen on draft. In fact, other than the one local beer, even the bottled line up was rather ordinary, as Mrs. Daddy's Aussie cousins would say (translation, pretty poor.) The only thing the restaurant really had going for it was a great view of Charleston harbor.

Regardless, I always try to sample the local beer, and this was going to be my one shot. Palmetto Amber Ale pour a dark copper with not much head. The barley is roasted a little darker than a standard amber. took my frist sip and was a little surprised. Fred one of our local hosts had warned me the beer would be bitter; but while it was definitely more hoppy than your average amber, it was not near as hoppy as expected. The beer also had a nice rich malty taste to it, that went down well. Alcohol content seemed about average. This beer was tasty enough to order a second one to go with the overcooked wings and soggy nachos. (The croissants, however, were delicious.)

My final gripe was that they kept the ale ice cold and served it in ice cold pint glasses. I had to let the beer set a while so I could taste it.

Overall, considering that I sampled Palmetto Amber Ale from the bottle, I was very pleased with this local beer. I give it a solid B. Given the richness, they could have easily balanced with more hops.


FTC Disclaimer: I may or may not have received valuable consideration in the form of swag, jack and/or coin to endorse these products. I am not saying and have the right not to do so.

Technology Review: Samsung Epic Android Smartphone

Mrs. Daddy's phone has been eligible for an upgrade since 2006 (she had a Motorola i90c), so today we went shopping at the Sprint store today and picked up a handsome Samsung Epic. No points for guessing which phone is newer.

This is a great phone that costs only $150 with a two year contract. You can read other reviews of the technology whiz bang, I wanted to focus a little on the operational aspects of having this phone linked with Google.

This is our first try at linking a smart phone to calendar, email, facebook, etc. We went with Google's Android OS rather than the iPhone because it seemed to make the integration with Gmail and Google calendar easier. My wife had been using our Roadrunner account for her main email and Entourage as her software client, but I was having a difficult time figuring out how we were going to synch that with the new phone. It was easier just to start over with a new Google account. We also linked Apple's mail program and iCal to the Google account. This will make keeping the synchronization much easier. This is what is meant by the cloud.

Of course, Mrs. Daddy isn't all that interested in that mundane stuff, she is busy using the camera, downloading "Angry Birds" and testing out the GPS enabled navigation. Which begs the question, why did my GPS device cost as much as this Samsung phone, but does only one application? But it points out the larger issue, that these smart phones are a replacement for multiple devices, maybe even a computer. Except for screen size, most of what we really want to do on our computer we can do on the phone.

Exit question: When will someone build a monitor that connects to a smart phone to overcome its only disadvantage?

The only drawback this phone is that the battery drains quickly when your having fun.


FTC Disclaimer: I may or may not have received valuable consideration in the form of swag, jack and/or coin to endorse these products. I am not saying and have the right not to do so.

The B-Daddy Channel

This may be a repeat but I wanted to go with a covers edition, following Dean's lead.

The original:




The cover:



Let me know what you think.

The B-Daddy Channel

Happy Easter this weekend, here is some music to celebrate with.

The B-Daddy Channel

This week were going with obscure eurotrash lounge music from the 60s and 70s. Why? Because we can. Here is Jacques Dutronc performing his hit Le Responsable.




There is another great version here, with live dancing, but can't be embedded.

And some more French pop, just because:

Beer Review - Alesmith Anvil ESB

Today's beer review is one of my favorite beers, that I continue to savor with a variety of meaty dishes. As you can see from the picture, I am talking about Alesmith's Anvil ESB. For the uninitiated, ESB means extra special bitter, from the days in England when most beers tended to be sweeter stouts and porters. An ESB was a lighter beer with light carbonation, and certainly more bitter than a stout. By today's California standards for IBUs, an ESB is not especially bitter.

Alesmith's entry into this category is its flagship beer. It has a nice dark copper tone, with a bit of head and not too much carbonation. It has a very nice nutty taste that always tempts me to drink it too quickly. I like to drink this ale out of a pint dimple mug, the traditional English drinking glass for bitters. Even tough it is a bitter, my palette has become so used to west coast IPAs that I find this to be a little sweet, mainly due to its maltiness. (Kids, that's probably not a word.) However, I would also say that this entry has more hops than its English cousins. For me, that makes the almost perfect beer, sweet, malty but with just enough bite from the hops.

Available, at Keil's and your fine local liquor stores.

Cross posted from Tiger Lily's Island.

The B-Daddy Channel

Over at The Liberator Today I commented on The Big Chill and the transition of the Baby Boomers from college protesters to capitalist consumers of the finer material things our society has to offer. Today's video has some of those elements. Bowie who wrote and performed the song that created the Major Tom character, was and still is popular among the hipsters. But the Shiny Toy Guns have breathed new life into this classic, even as it used to hawk Cadillacs, which the boomers parents were enamored of, but the boomers not so much. I am including the original version by Peter Schilling because we love to compare the covers.

Beer Review - Highway 78 Scotch Ale

I was at the High Dive today with Dean, letting San Diego State give me a heart attack by allowing a second overtime against Temple, in March Madness action. Looking for a second ale to fortify me, and help me resist the temptation to order more food, I noticed Highway 78 Scotch Ale on the board, indicating it was on tap. (We previously discussed why we always go for the beer on tap.) The wait staff helpfully explained that this beer was the result of collaboration between local brewers Green Flash, Pizza Port and Stone. I have always been a big fan of Belhaven Scottish Ale, so I was curious to see what our local award winners had cooked up.

They didn't disappoint. The beer had a nice dark amber pour, with an average amount of head. (I am not a big fan of a lot of head.) As one would expect for a scotch ale, it had plenty of malty sweetness and I had to struggle to slow down and enjoy it. As one would expect from our local brewers, it also had more hoppiness than a traditional scotch ale. However, the hops were balanced well with the malt, making for a very nice beer. I was a little surprised that they chose to pour the beer into a tulip glass, maybe Max can explain, as I normally would enjoy this ale in a standard pint glass. Maybe it was the alcohol content, which pushes 9%, and the tulip glass delivered less volume. Regardless, this was a highly enjoyable beer, a longtime import favorite improved by our local brewers. Overall grade: A-.

Cross Posted to Tiger Lily's Island.

The B-Daddy Channel

Went with what I consider romantic music at TLT for the weekend's music here is some more.





A little more on the memories that go with the second video are discussed at Avocado Memories.