I am, believe it or not, working on new content for the blog but I did want to point out this cool piece I had in The Baltimore Sun last week. Mad Men came back to TV and to complement the return of the show I wrote a piece providing retro food and drink recipes. For the food we researched old recipes from long-gone restaurants in the Baltimore area that had their renaissance in the 60's. Most of the recipes came from a great book called "Dining In -- Baltimore". It's a fun book featuring classic recipes that might not be easy to make but is definitely worth a read (if you can find a copy). I changed a few ingredients here and there to make it easier for the home cook to handle while trying to maintain the integrity of the original recipe.
Link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bal-pictures-mad-meninspired-dining-20120316,0,7711264.photogallery
Along with the food, I also got to pair drinks with each course. I'm not a huge mixed drink aficionado, but the drinks I chose were true to the time and goddamn tasty if I do say myself. The "last word" is now my new favorite drink and will be a staple of this summer's cookouts. I also learned to love Campari while testing the drinks. Drink testing, as you can imagine, is the hardest part of food writing what with the drinking and ensuing inebriation.
The wonderful part of this piece is that although it was written for the premiere episode of the season, you can make these recipes for any episode you want. So go on and read, make the recipes and try not to drink too many of the drinks (I know it's hard). If you have any questions, please feel free to ask as always.
Cheers,
Johnny
