Author Archives: Erik
Christmastime Favorite: How To Make Wassail Pt. 2 – Recipe
We covered some of the history of spiced Christmas cider, known as wassail, in Part 1 of this article. Read up if you missed it, or read on for our recipe!
As some of you may know, PCFG will be providing free wassail at the Patchogue Village Wassailing Crawl this Saturday! If you live on Long Island and will be in the area, stop by and partake in some merriment as Long Island History and Pub continues a Christmas tradition that’s all but lost in the U.S. in modern times. You may learn a thing or two, and at very least it’ll help get into the Christmas spirit despite the surprisingly mild (and pleasant) season we’ve been having so far!
If you can’t make it, well there’s always the option of making it at home. Bear in mind, we will update this post at a later date with photos from the wassailing walk we’re attending on Saturday!
Christmastime Favorite: How To Make Wassail Pt. 1
About 10 years ago, I found myself at a Christmas party at a local department/craft store with my mother, where they were serving this mystical drink known as “wassail”. It was some sort of mystery concoction made of apple cider, spices, and other fruits. Back then I was too young to drink hard cider, so plain old pure cider was my favorite thing to drink; I had pretty high expectations for this weird brew of fruit juices and spices I’d never heard of. To be frank, I got my shit rocked. Wassail was one of the greatest things I’d ever drunk and it had launched a sequence of events that guaranteed Christmas would never be the same after that.
I can’t believe how much that last sentence makes this sound like the opening monologue of some awful Disney channel high-school movie about Christmas vacation.
Pizza Lab #36: Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza (Redux)
Thanksgiving has come and gone once again. And in kitchens all over America, people are trying their damnedest to salvage their leftovers, reconstituting it back into a nice emulation of the delightful feast that took place four days ago. Or perhaps you couldn’t wait that long? Perhaps you figured that Friday is a lazy enough night to eat leftovers for dinner. That’s a possibility as well.
But no, there is a better destiny for your Thanksgiving leftovers… there is a greater cause they can be called to… one special dish that comes round but once a year, just like the aforementioned feast that inspired it. Longtime fans of PCFG may know what I speak of. Of course, that is Thanksgiving Pizza.
Spices 101: What is Cardamom?
Recently a ton of supermarkets closed down in the northeast, especially here on Long Island, resulting from their blanket corporation of A&P going out of business. It was really sad, considering how many people lost their jobs, and to see some old standbys like Waldbaums and Path-Mark close up shop, never to be seen again. Well, sometimes the best way to move past a tragedy is by finding any good you can in it. In this case, legendary clearance prices on all items. I hate to sound like classic consumerist American, but we were able to find some insane deals on food in the last few days when items were being discounted 70%, 80%, and even 95% off.
We took that opportunity to splurge on some cardamom pods, a staple curry ingredient which normally runs for, ohhhh, $15 a bottle. So yeah. Shit’s expensive.
Cardamom
Origin: India
Appearance: Small, green pods
Scent: Fruity, flowery, zesty
Taste: Sweet, zesty, fresh
Foods: Indian, Nordic European
Rareness: Rare
…son of a bitch I just realized these are 3 months out of date. Oh well. We got them for three bucks, as opposed to like $15.
Thanksgiving Quick Recipe: Fried Cauliflower
One recipe my family has passed around for longer than I’ve been born is for breaded, fried cauliflower. I don’t know why. From what I’ve read, it seems to be more of a common thing in Middle Eastern cuisine. My family is mostly Italian, so I’m not quite sure where the crossover came from. Perhaps because cauliflower itself is a Mediterranean vegetable, and Italians really enjoy breading stuff then frying them. Who knows. Oh well, it’s a really delicious and simple way to prepare one of the more “out-there” veggies.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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