Visit The Palm Restaurant, one of the top steakhouses featuring prime beef gourmet steaks. You can also buy restaurant gift certificates, find recipes for steaks and buy steaks online.

Visit The Palm Restaurant, one of the top steakhouses featuring prime beef gourmet steaks. You can also buy restaurant gift certificates, find recipes for steaks and buy steaks online.

Bleu Cheese Potato Gratin

yield: Makes 4 side-dish servings
active time: 10 min
total time: 40 min
Tender, rich, and browned on top, this easy potato gratin gets loads of flavor from a very minimal amount of blue cheese that is added at the last minute.


Ingredients
1 1/2 lb medium yellow-fleshed potatoes
1 cup heavy cream
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (1 oz)

Special equipment: an adjustable-blade slicer; a 10-inch heavy skillet with a flameproof handle
Preparation

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
Peel potatoes and slice 1/8 inch thick, then toss with cream, garlic, salt, and pepper in skillet. Cover with foil and roast until potatoes are very tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and preheat broiler. Remove foil and sprinkle potatoes with cheese. Broil until top is browned, 2 to 3 minutes.

MercyMe Accident: Lead Singer Bart Millard Reports Accident on Twitter - Associated Content

MercyMe Accident: Lead Singer Bart Millard Reports Accident on Twitter - Associated Content

BEER FACTS AND TRIVIA

Anything popular develops a history of facts, trivia and folklore, and beer is no exception. Over the years beer has had many “firsts”, and has inspired an equal number of tall tales. So what is fact and what is fiction? Here’s a few nuggets from the vault on the history and trivia of beer:
*The first consumer protection law ever written was enacted over beer by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in 1516. It was a purity law limiting the ingredients of beer to barley, hops and water.

*Tegestology is what collecting beer mats is called.

Beer is the second most popular beverage in the world, coming in behind tea.

Pabst Beer is now called Pabst Blue Ribbon beer because it was the first beer to win a blue ribbon at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

To get rid of the foam at the top of beer (the head), stick your fingers in it.

Monks brewing beer in the Middle Ages were allowed to drink five quarts of beer a day.

Bavaria still defines beer as a staple food.

To keep your beer glass or mug from sticking to your bar napkin, sprinkle a little salt on the napkin before you set your glass down.

The oldest known written recipe is for beer.

The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because of beer. They had planned to sail further south to a warm climate, but had run out of beer on the journey.

Anheuser-Busch is the largest brewery in the US.

The longest bar in the world is the 684 foot long New Bulldog in Rock Island, IL.

The powers that be at Guinness say that a pint of beer is lifted about ten times, and each time about 0.56 ml is lost in a beer drinker’s facial hair. That’s a lot of wasted beer!

As of 2001, 62% of Americans reported using a designated driver at least once.
Molson, Inc. is the oldest brewery in North America.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was elected in 1932 because of his promise to end Prohibition.

The first United States Marine Recruiting Station was in a bar.

The first brewery in America was built in Hoboken, NJ in 1642.

In 1935 the canned beer industry was revolutionized by a vinyl plastic liner developed for cans made out of tin.

The movie The Shawshank Redemption got their period beer containers wrong. The prisoners on the roof drank beer out of bottles in the 1930s, when beer was canned until many years later.

Tossing salted peanuts in a glass of beer makes the peanuts dance.

Samuel Adams Triple Bock is the strongest beer in the world with 17% alcohol by volume. The strength is achieved by using champagne yeast.

In Japan, beer is sold in vending machines, by street vendors and in the train stations.

Bourbon is the official alcohol of the United States, by an act of Congress. Many people have attempted to have that overturned in favor of beer instead throughout the years.

Many actors started out as bartenders: Sandra Bullock, Bruce Willis, Tom Arnold, Chevy Chase,

Kris Kristofferson and Bill Cosby are a few of these.

American beer is made mostly by rice, unlike the beers of other countries. This was invented to give American beer a lighter taste and tap into the market of women buyers.

Michelob was invented during a brewer’s strike in the 1930s from a recipe tossed together by the untrained workers left behind to run the brewery. It was so bad local taverns tossed their delivered barrels in the gutter until the streets ran with beer. When the strike was over, the brewery didn’t want to lose all that beer, no matter how bad, so they repackaged it and sold it as Michelob.

Beer is a source of B- complex vitamins.

If you collect beer bottles your are a labeorphilist.

The portable beer cooler was invented in Australia in the 1950s.

The ‘33’ on a bottle of Rolling Rock was originally a printer’s error. It refers to the 33 words in the original slogan. It has generated enough mystery over the years that the company left it in the label.

SCOTCH EGGS FOR ULEN

yield: Makes 4 Scotch eggs, serving 4
Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds bulk country-style or herbed sausage
1 teaspoon crumbled dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
4 hard-boiled large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 raw large eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
vegetable oil for deep-frying the eggs

Preparation

In a large bowl combine well the sausage, the sage, the thyme, and the cayenne, divide the mixture into 4 equal portions, and flatten each portion into a thin round. Enclose each hard-boiled egg completely in 1 of the sausage rounds, patting the sausage into place. Dredge the sausage-coated eggs in the flour, shaking off the excess, dip them in the raw eggs, letting the excess drip off, and roll them gently in the bread crumbs, coating them well. In a deep fryer heat 2 1/2 inches of the oil to 350°F. and in it fry the Scotch eggs, 2 at a time, turning them and transferring them to paper towels to drain with a slotted spoon as they are done, for 10 minutes.

PASTEL DE TRES LECHES

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yield: Makes one 10x3-inch cake

Pastel de tres leches is a traditional Nicaraguan Celebration Cake usually reserved for the holiday season.

Ingredients

Sponge Cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milkRum Milk Syrup
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)
1 can heavy cream (use empty can from condensed milk - 1 1/4 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark spiced rum (Meyers or Captain Morgan will do), optionalMeringue
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup waterCranberry Compote
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup walnut halves (or pieces)
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup water
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon cornstarch (diluted in just enough cold water to make a slurry)

Preparation

For Sponge Cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour cake pan, and line with parchment paper. Sift flour with baking powder and cinnamon. Using a standing mixer with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites until frothy, then slowly add sugar to tighten whites to semi stiff peaks. Add yolks one at a time. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk.
Pour batter into pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until the middle springs back when touched and edges pull slightly away from pan. Cool thoroughly on a wire rack.

For Rum Milk Syrup:

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Whip thoroughly with a wire whisk and reserve. (If made in advance, refrigerate and stir before using.)

For Meringue:

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and water, and bring to boil. When water begins to boil, begin whipping egg whites using a standing mixer with the whisk attachment.
When sugar reaches the soft ball stage on a candy thermometer, keep the egg whites mixing on slow speed, and steadily pour sugar into the side of the bowl (keeping it away from the whisk). Increase the speed to high, and whip until cool (5 minutes or less). Meringue should be smooth and shiny. Reserve.

Cranberry Compote:

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients except cornstarch. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the fruits are tender.
While stirring rapidly, add the cornstarch slurry, and allow the mixture to boil rapidly for one minute. Remove from heat, and remove the spices. Cool thoroughly and reserve.

To Assemble:

Unmold cake while slightly warm, and slice off the hard top with a serrated knife. Place cake on serving platter and spoon rum syrup over cake a little at a time, until it is all absorbed, repeat until all the syrup is used. Ice the top of the cake with the meringue. Refrigerate until cool. Top with the compote or slice and serve it alongside the cake.

Ranch-style Eggs with Refried Beans For Jennifer and Jodi

Serve this filling dish for breakfast, and you won't have to be concerned about what to make for lunch.

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 25 mins
Cooking Time: 35 mins
Ingredients

FOR THE REFRIED BEANS

Two 15oz (420g) cans pinto beans
3 tbsp lard or vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled, or salt to taste

FOR THE SAUCE
4 small dried hot red pequin chiles
1/4 cup boiling water
1 1/2 lb (750 g) ripe tomatoes, peeled
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp sugar
4 corn tortillas
6 tbsp vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced
Directions
1. To make the beans, drain the beans, reserving some of the liquid from the can. Rinse the beans. Heat the lard in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook about 7 minutes, until the onion is golden. Increase the heat to medium high. In batches, add the beans and stir and mash them with a wooden spoon, adding some of the bean liquid, as needed, to make a coarse puree. Add the stock cube and reduce the heat to low. Cook, stirring often, until thick
2. To make the sauce, combine the chiles and boiling water in a small bowl and soak for 15 minutes. Drain, discarding the liquid. Purèe the tomatoes, chiles, onion, and garlic in a blender. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the tomato mixture and cook, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add the vinegar, tomato paste, cumin, oregano, and sugar and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
3. To assemble, heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a frying pan over high heat until shimmering. Fry each tortilla for approximately 30 seconds on each side, until hot but not crisp. Transfer to paper towels. Add the remaining 2 tbsp oil to the pan. Add the eggs and fry according to your taste.
4. To serve, place each tortilla on a dinner plate and top with an egg. Spoon some of the tomato sauce over each, and garnish with the avocado slices and cilantro. Add a spoonful of the beans to each tortilla, and serve hot.