Cooking Club -- Rootbeer Tasting Party

Cooking Club

We go back and forth on what to call ourselves--cooking club?  Supper club?

We are just people who like to make food, eat and talk.

In December, we didn't cook--we tasted!

We had pizza and a root-beer tasting party.

December (and I know I am extremely  late in posting) is usually so busy that planning a cooking party just doesn't seem to fit in any of our lifestyles, but getting together more informally does, so I threw together a little tasting party .

I had been planning and stock-piling root beer for a while as I knew I wanted to do this--I just wasn't sure of the logistics. 

I was thinking maybe a backyard BBQ with root beer floats? Root Beer is a summer thing, right?

But all of the sudden it was  December and I thought we just needed a little get together and some downtime. 

It worked. 

We ate pizza and we laughed a lot, telling our root beer memories.

We had  a very formal judging form..... 

A scale from 1 to 5.

 #1 being a mild root-beer flavor and #5 being HOLY SASPARILLA! 

Somewhere in the middle would be "man that's some good root beer".

While we understand that there are 100's of root-beer brands out there, both regional and national, the Handyman and I only chose five to go with.  Five brands that were familiar to us here in the west... and those were:

Dad's Root Beer was developed in the 1930s by partners Barney Berns and Ely Klapman in the basement of Klapman's Chicago-area home. The first trademark registration was filed on September 24, 1938, granted on February 14, 1939, to the Dad's Root Beer Company of Chicago, with the product name allegedly in use since February 1937. Dad's earned a loyal following. Dad's Root Beer brand was famous throughout the Midwest and by the late 1940s, was one of the most consumed brands of root beer throughout the United States. Jules Klapman, son of co-founder Ely, successfully took the Dad's brand international. The name Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer was selected in honor of Ely Klapman's father, and other fathers, who used to make root beer at home for their families

MUG Root Beer, A PepsiCo Subsidiary/Root Beer Corporation is a brand name of root beer made by the New Century Beverage Company of San Francisco, California, a subsidiary of PepsiCo.

It was originally produced by the Belfast Beverage Company in San Francisco, California, during the 1940s as Belfast Root Beer. An advertisement for Belfast Root Beer appears as early as 1947. The product name was later changed to Mug Old Fashioned Root Beer

Barq's is an American soft drink. Its brand of root beer is notable for having caffeine. Barq's, created by Edward Barq and bottled since the turn of the 20th century, is owned by the Barq family but bottled by the Coca-Cola Company. It was known as Barq's Famous Olde Tyme Root Beer until 2012.

A&W Root Beer is a root beer brand primarily available in the United States and Canada, started in 1919 by Roy W. Allen.^[1] In 1922, Allen partnered with Frank Wright. They combined their initials to create the brand "A&W" and inspired a restaurant chain, founded in 1922. Originally, A&W root beer drinks sold for five cents

On June 20, 1919, Roy W. Allen opened a roadside root beer stand in Lodi, California, using a formula he had purchased from a pharmacist.^[4] He soon opened stands in Stockton, California, and five stands in nearby Sacramento, home of the country's first drive-in featuring "tray-boys" for curbside service. In 1920, Allen became partners with Frank Wright and the two combined their initials and called their product A&W Root Beer.

Hires Root Beer is a root beer marketed by Dr Pepper Snapple Group. Introduced in 1876, it is considered the second longest continuously made soft drink in the United States. Only Vernors ginger ale , dating to 1866, is older.

Hires Root Beer was created by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires. The official story is that Hires first tasted root beer, a traditional American beverage dating back to the colonial era, while on his honeymoon in 1875.^[1] However, historical accounts vary and the actual time and place of the discovery may never be known.

There was some serious tasting going on!

And some serious judging!

The Handyman and I preferred Hires Root Beer  (and A & W is kind of a Western staple, so that one almost didn't count).

Hires Root Beer!  It's what we grew up with in the Pacific Northwest!

It's so good!  The best!

Wouldn't the rest of you agree...… 

WAIT!???

What's with all those thumbs down?

Okay, it ended up being half and half for Hires Root Beer.

But no one beat that record-- the rest were a couple votes each, so

HIRES WON!!

So what do we do now?

Dessert? Sure!

Shelly is not so sure about Root Beer flavored Pop Tarts!

But... CHEERS!!

I have known Debbie E longer than any my other Cooking Club Friends--29 years--but I didn't know this about her:  she hates root beer!

Who the heck hates root beer?

Whatever-- she was a good sport and tasted right along!

The Handyman didn't want a selfie!  He also didn't want a Root Beer Poptart!

Not sure if Mark tasted the pop tart or not, BUT, we did all agree that our next "tasting" party, we're going to do Pop Tarts!
We'll let you know how that goes.

And since it was Christmas time, we got presents!

Everyone got a mug with cookbook spines on it -- from the 

Ideal Book Shelf.

And homemade vanilla and orange extract.

And best of all -- we were all together!  It doesn't happen very often anymore.

Cooking Club #13 was the best one yet!

And these cooking club meals were all good too... just click on the link to see.

Cooking Club #1 -Meals your mom used to make

Cooking Club #2- Cajun Cooking

Cooking Club #3 - Let's all go to Hawaii

Cooking Club #4 - American Regional Cooking --Great Lakes Region, featuring: SUPPER CLUBS!

Cooking Club #5 - Famous Chefs  (long post with other stuff mixed in, but just trust me)

Cooking Club #6 -Meatball Madness -- or something round  (long post combined with Famous Chef's.  Scroll thru some stuff to get there)

Cooking Club #7 - Breakfast for dinner

Cooking Club #8 - Slow Cooking

Cooking Club #9 - Mexican Street Food

Cooking Club #10- Your Christmas Cookie Heritage

Cooking Club #11 - Cooking from labels/back of box, can, or carton

Cooking Club #12 - It's all Greek to Me!

Cooking Club #13 - A Root Beer Tasting Holiday

Coming Soon -- Thai Food

Happy Eating Everybody!

See you next time.

Friday Friend Recipe #195 -- Mexican Coffee

Come with me as I continue to countdown my Friday Friend Cookbook!

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 19 years ago, 50 of my closest friends and family, who had been on an e-mail forum with me, sent in recipes in different categories and we compiled a cookbook.
I decided to count those down!
Why?

Because  one night I was looking thru the cookbook and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog"
The Handyman--who thinks he knows me better than I know myself, said,  "you'll never EVER do that."
Well,  maybe I will!  Maybe I'll show him!

Which brings me to recipe #195

Cherrie Lou Who's Mexican Coffee

The Ingredients all set out

and the recipe....

And Cherrie Lou Who reads her directions because she says it's been a long time since she has made Mexican coffees.

Her big brother, the Handyman is anxious to help...anxious to taste.

First you light a bunch of stuff on fire...

Then you add a bunch of booze...

And  top it off with  ice-cream...

oh yeah, there is some coffee in there too!

Say Cheers!

Then you drink!

And when your sister-in-law says to your husband, "here, let me wipe your bottom" 

YOU KNOW you've got his old age care problem solved!

Thank goodness that's settled!

Now we can just enjoy this really, REALLY yummy coffee on the patio with family.

So, so very yummy!!

Everything was going fine.  A Good yummy coffee beverage, some good visiting with family, a nice day, a good yummy coffee beverage--oh, did I say that already?  I didn't think it too potent--that is until, I said 'everybody raise your glasses for a toast'.

And this is what the smart-alecs did:

Family!  Gotta love 'em.

I do---I married into this lot--on purpose!

And I give you Cherrie Lou Who's Mexican Coffee --

--a good yummy coffee beverage--

--recipe 195 in the countdown!

Friday Friend Recipe #194 -- Egg Cream

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #194

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Stella's Egg Cream

and you know all the whys and wherefores of this countdown, right? Homemade cookbook, friends contributed, Handyman said I couldn't/wouldn't do it, I'll show him, yadda yadda yadda....

...and the rest is cookbook history!

I'll just be honest--- Egg Cream(s)(?)  is/are not for me.

I think it must be a regional/nostalgia thing.  You just don't see them out here in the west much.

It's watery chocolate milk.

I am not trying to be a 'hater' because I truly love the idea of an egg cream--especially when I read about them in a book.

It gives me a sense of nostalgia and sense of place.

You should certainly give it a try and decide for yourself

Also, having one at a soda fountain is vastly different from a homemade one, where we tried to blend it enough to make a froth, but it didn't quite work.

Stella is not a cook but we went to New York together and cheesecake and bagels and egg creams are great memories!

This is Stella's first (and I think only) recipe in the Friday Friend Cookbook.

Stella and I met when working at an elementary school in California.  Below is a photo of Gerogann (Friday Friend and the school librarian) and Stella on the right....

Twenty-22 years ago I did not have a cell phone so I could not snap a photo during every moment of my life--I am trying to say that I have very few photos of Stella.

Stella then... when we worked at the school together...

and Stella now...

loving her life, living on the beach.

I don't think she's changed a bit!

Stella made me take care of myself.  She needed a walking/hiking partner and she claimed me as that. 

A partner...walking, talking, encouraging, supportive.

That's what Stella is.

This is one of my favorite memories of Stella:

I flew to New York city with her one November many  years ago and after she ran the New York City Marathon (while I shopped at Macy's original store and relaxed in Central Park with her daughter, Sarah, and after she ate a juicy hamburger and took a nap) we went up to the top of the Empire State Building.

It was the year after 9/11.  

I had moved away from Los Banos, California, so Stella and I were not walking/hiking partners anymore and we were certainly having a great time catching up on our little vacation clear across the  United States. 

 10:30pm on top of the Empire State Building...

It was cold and we were bundled up with wraps around our heads and jackets on (I thought we looked like Yugoslavian peasant women.  We were very bundled up)

There was only one other small group of about 4 people up there.

All of the sudden 2 young teenage-ish girls came up to us and asked,  "Mrs. McNish?"

AND YES!  They knew Stella!  One of their sisters had been on the swim team with her daughter Sarah and my kids!

That's my mother's definition of a small world.

It was certainly funny.

And that is my Stella memory and we give to you recipe #194!