Nice Weather = WEBER (VII)

All I can say, thank God the heat wave ended over the weekend, because I was beginning to think my Weber was going to go unused for the rest of the summer, and we were going to get caught in that old Twilight Zone episode where the Earth has left its orbit and the Sun is burning the planet to a cinder (which we discover later that it’s only a fever-induced nightmare, but really the Earth is freezing to death)

In any case, the heat wave was good for one thing, and thats growing garden produce. Our cucumber plants have been producing like crazy, and we’ve already got a few jars of homemade Kosher-style pickles going in the fridge. The Jersey tomatoes have been absolutely fabulous — so good that we’re just using them for insalata caprese, sliced up and put on top of bagels with cream cheese, or eaten in very simple sweet onion, tomato and cucumber salads, as below.

To re-inaugurate the Weber, tonight we grilled up some German-style sausages made by Kocher’s Meats in Ridgefield — Mini Kielbasas, a Fresh Pork Bratwurst, Frankfurters, and a large Veal/Pork Bratwurst, served with fresh sauerkraut from Picklelicious, garden grown grilled hot Banana Peppers and some fresh Jersey sweet corn.

Return of Havana Club Rum in the United States

Havana Club, the rum that evokes memories of toasts at glittery hot spots in pre-Castro Cuba, is coming this week to Florida bars, liquor stores and hotels. Coming on the heels of a favorable ruling in a decade-long legal battle with French liquor giant Pernod Ricard and the Cuban government, Miami-based Bacardi U.S.A. is relaunching the Havana Club brand as a super-premium rum selling for $19.99 a bottle.

MiamiHerald.com | 08/08/2006 | Bacardi to re-launch Havana Club rum label

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Apple Jumps Back on the OpenSource Cluetrain (Maybe)

Hi all, In conjunction with this week’s Developer Conference, we have four great pieces of news for Open Source developers:

A. Intel Kernel Sources: As of today, we are posting buildable kernel sources for Intel-based Macs alongside the usual PowerPC (and other Intel) sources, starting with Mac OS X 10.4.7. We regret the delay in readying the new kernel for release, and thank you for your patience.

B. New “Mac OS Forge” for Community Projects: Mac OS Forge, a new community site hosted by Apple, is being created to support WebKit and other open source projects focused on Mac OS X, especially those looking to transition from OpenDarwin.org.

C. New Open Source Calendaring Server: In order to encourage community participation, source code to the new iCal Server in Leopard Server is now available on Mac OS Forge under the Apache License.*

D. Apache-Licensed Bonjour and Launchd sources: To further enable and encourage cross-platform adoption, the APSL** sources for Bonjour service discovery and Launchd process management are being re-released under the Apache License and hosted on Mac OS Forge.

Apple is more excited than ever about the power of Open Source development to create value for our (and your) products and customers. I’ll be offline much of this week due to WWDC, but I look forward to working with all of you as we move forward to Leopard.

Apple Opens Up: Kernel, Mac OS Forge, iCal Server, Bonjour, Launchd (Apple Listserv)

“If Apple’s sudden re-embrace of open-source developers for Mac OS X turns out to be a merely cosmetic move to modify the free software community, the community is likely to once more turn its back on Apple’s open-source offering.”

Is Apple Serious About Open Source? (Linux Watch)

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Pretty in Pink or What is Old is New Again

When you choose blush wine, you may admire the color of a good rosé, high quality rosé glistens in your glass, often it is a seductive rosy pink but sometimes borders on the orange …

With that in mind, I read this NYT article with great pleasure:

Fashion & Style: The Summer Drink to be Seen With (NY Times)

Rose was popular when I was in college. I literally drank many a glass of the myriad variations of rose …Pink wine. Rose. White zinfandel. White merlot. Blush wine all were divine to quench my thirst … and then, suddenly, it was no longer chic. No one seemed interested in these wines, as this article reminded me …but now?

Rosé wines, long disparaged as too sweet, too pink and too cheap, have improved in quality in recent years and been embraced by food and wine connoisseurs. But a new collection of fans have emerged: club-hopping hipsters and tastemakers, who lay in a stash of rosé for parties and ask for it when out on the town.

“Rosé has replaced prosecco and cosmos as the new chick drink,” said Ken Friedman, an owner of the Spotted Pig, a celebrity-friendly restaurant in Greenwich Village, which offers five rosés on its wine list.”

Excellent article to whet your taste for this wonderful wine …

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Most Expensive Coffees: Forbes Magazine selects Top Ten

In an article from the current Forbes Magazine, there is an engaging discussion of the highest priced of the coffee beans on the market today. As Forbes asserts: “serious coffee connoisseurs, people who are looking for a world-class drink rather than a “gourmet” cup, the top fare is made from the highest-quality beans in the world. The beans come from very specific regions and are prized for their unique characteristics. Cultivated on small farms, they are coddled by farmers who care more about quality than quantity.” So what are these beans and why do they garner the prices they do? The most expensive, Hacienda La Esmeralda’s Geisha coffee, set an online auction record selling for over $50 dollars per pound, unroasted, in May, 2006. The coffee, grown in the shade of old guava trees, is widely and enthusiastically praised for both its flavor and aroma. In the second place, Island of St. Helena Coffee sells for some $79 per pound.

Enjoy all of the Top Ten Most Expensive coffees in the slideshow which accompanies this article.

Full article is here:

Wine & Food Feature: Most Expensive Coffee (Forbes)

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