Sunset Moonshine and Fillmore Fillie Bests Brit

In this day and age, when the TSA is practically performing cavity searches, it is a pretty gutsy move to stuff a jug of moonshine in your suitcase just because you have a friend in SF who you think might  like to cook up a batch of homemade flavored liqueur.  While back East over the summer, our Freaky Friday friends met "a guy with experience" who explained that distilled neutral spirits are far superior to other options for homemade liqueur but much harder to come by.  They decided they'd better buy some while they were in a place it was abundant -  even though it meant dragging it all the way home. Just the most thoughtful and unusual gift that to me says "I know you, really know you"!

Pluot season began shortly after the gift jug was presented and they are just about our favorite fruit, so I decided to make two pluot based flavors.  A quick troll of the "interweb" revealed a few enthusiasts offereing good advice - like be prepared to throw out a lot of failed batches, and find a copy of the out of print Homemade Liqueurs for some guidelines on timing and recipes.  After reading everything I decided to reduce the amount of sugar that most of the recipes use and also increase the steeping time try to get the most flavor from the fruit.  I made two flavors; simple pluot/vanilla bean, and spiced pluot.

Step one was carefully washing all the fruit and equipment, piercing the fruit and putting it in glass jars with the other ingredients to steep (5 weeks), the jars need a shake to stir the mix every few days.

Step two was to filter the solids, taste and adjust the sugar and bottle for aging another 4 weeks.  At this point the alcohol flavor is still too strong but I hope the aging process mellows it.  Surprisingly,  the spiced mix has a much more pronounced and brighter pluot flavor - Pluotini for Halloween anyone? If it turns out tasty I'll post the recipe.

Our beloved former next door neighbor is still trying to keep me current with music in the city, so we've been going to the Fillmore.  Pre-show dinner at SPQR was mind blowing straight through to the last crumb on the dessert plated while the meal at 1300 Fillmore a couple weeks later perfectly illuminated the reason for the empty dining room.  The shrimp and grits is still good as were the brussels sprout "chips",  but every other item we ordered was sadly over battered, heavy and tasteless. The bar is cozy, the music is great, and the barkeep cheerful as can be - but I'm not sure I'd go there to eat again.

 Fall at The Fillmore" is a great program - the line up including many of the "new bands to watch in 2013" that you'll find noted in music information sites.  The Wild Feathers who opened for ZZ Ward were appearing on Jimmy Kimmel the next week, but they were still hanging out at the bar signing cd's, taking photos with anyone who asked, and accepting 29th birthday drinks for one of the bandmates.  A truly great show in every aspect.

ZZ Ward was so good I bought a cd for my SoCal music/foodie friends thinking they would love her as much as I...

 

"She sounds like Adele"

No, she doesn't.
She is the opposite of grating. I can't stand Adele.

"You know what I think? I think she sounds like Adele"

Doesn't.

"How can you say you can't stand Adele if you love this?"

For a start ZZ hasn't been overplayed to the point of turning what started as admiration into a burning, murderous rage  - I'd like to set some fire to the rain to rain down a bucket of shut-your-pie-hole on her head.  I just want her to shutup. O.M.G. SHUT UP or please, please, please, take a break. Go on vacation. Find a lyricist who can write an other song. LORD now it's in my head - make it stop!

ZZ writes and sings about being young and hurt too, but it is fresher - she has a fun energetic band and great stage presence. Both bands were working it hard at the Fillmore on a weeknight to a sizable crowd, as did Noah and the Whale a few weeks later - highly recommend you check them out.  We met a nice guy taking photos at the first show - check out his awesome photos of the local music scene on his blog rocknrollcocktail.com!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was crazy yesterday - I had no idea how huge the crowd would be! This has to be one of the most important events for the genre in the country. Thanks to The Mr. dropping me off,  and because my chum had planned an exit strategy and gave me a ride it wasn't too hard to get in and out but moving between the stages was really slow and you'll get jostled a bunch - but it was way worth it.  Billy Bragg sounded incredible and also told great funny stories, The Clinch Mountain Boys were pure bluegrass power that until last weekend I had no idea about! Chris Issac sounded wonderful but the crowd was so overwhelming we just had to bail and move on to another stage to await Emmylou Harris.  Cant hardly strictly wait for next year!