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‘Funnel Vision,’ a novel about storm chasers by Chris Kridler

Just a quick note: I’ll be speaking at the Flagler County Public Library, 2500 Palm Coast Parkway NW in Palm Coast, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. I’ll show “Chasing Reality” and some cool storm slides, and I’ll talk about the realities of storm chasing – and what it took to make it realistic but fun in my fictional take on chasing, the novel “Funnel Vision.” I’ll also sell and sign books. Breeze on by!

On Friday, make sure you check out my friend Kam Miller’s blog, Glass Half-Full in Hollywood. Kam is an experienced TV and film writer and offers fabulous advice straight from Hollywood’s movers and shakers. And speaking of shakers, she also features Friday cocktails on the blog. I’m guest-blogging there Friday about Tales of the Cocktail, the convention in New Orleans from which I just returned (and from which I’m still recovering). While I was there, I helped The Times-Picayune cover the event with blogs, photos and videos.

Let me start by recommending “Holidays with Dino” at Melbourne Civic Theatre, starring the incomparable Alfie Silva, who absolutely channels Dean Martin in this breezy, fun Christmas show. It’s a tribute to Dino and the TV hilarity of that era.

Alfie and his co-star Henry Caraballo, who’s a scream as Sammy Davis Jr., were kind enough to co-star in my hubby’s entry into the Sinatra/Drinking Made Easy cocktail competition. I filmed the video, and here it is. The drink, Come Fly With Me Ring-a-Ding-Ding, is really good, too!

I posted a gallery from this year’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, featuring a smattering of photos from various events.

Cocktail at Bombay Sapphire gin-themed lunch at August during Tales of the Cocktail, July 22, 2011, New Orleans. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

For some of my cocktail photos from this trip, I used a little LED video light to add drama and translucence to the drink. It drastically changed the look of some cocktails, which might seem pale yellow or green in natural light, and then suddenly spooky and gemlike with the spotlight. This is an example from the Bombay Sapphire gin luncheon at restaurant August.

I love taking photos of cocktails with a macro lens – for many of those close-up food and drink pix, I’m using a 105mm Nikkor. It’s one of my favorite lenses; I love the sharpness, the low depth of field and the way it brings out details, like the coriander in this pretty cocktail (below) from the Pama Popstars and Bubbles Brunch.

People’s reaction to this drink, dubbed the Captain & Tennille, was interesting; two of my friends, both with sophisticated palates, were turned off by the herbs. This may have to do with the flavor debate centered around cilantro (which is the same as coriander, before it grows flowers and leaves). I once had a friend who hated cilantro so much, he wouldn’t get near parsley, either, because it reminded him of the former. Cilantro/coriander tastes soapy to some people, perhaps because of a genetically inherited palate.

"Captain & Tennille" cocktail at Pama Popstars and Bubbles Brunch, held at Calcasieu in New Orleans during Tales of the Cocktail on July 23, 2011. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

There’s always the possibility that a perfectly prepared drink or dish will turn off someone just because of the way her tongue is configured. But I loved this cocktail’s complexity, and apparently, I’m perfectly happy with coriander. The herbal flavor helped undercut the drink’s fruit-and-champagne sweetness.

Here’s the recipe for the cocktail, so you can taste for yourself:

CAPTAIN & TENNILLE

1 slice fresh ginger
10 coriander leaves
1 1/2 ounces Absolut Citron
1/2 ounce PAMA
1 ounce fresh pineapple juice
1 ounce fresh apple juice
champagne

Muddle ginger and coriander leaves in the base of a mixing glass. Add remaining ingredients and shake well over ice. Add champagne. Rock gently. Fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a coriander flower.

Mixologists make cocktails for the Bombay Sapphire-themed lunch at August on July 22, 2011. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

Red and Yellow Snapper cocktail at the lunch at August on July 22, 2011. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

Grilled quail was glazed with honey and accompanied by Sapphire gin-fermented red pepper and Louisiana popcorn rice. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

John Besh’s restaurant August played host to a Bombay Sapphire-themed lunch Friday entwining cocktails and cuisine as part of New Orleans’ Tales of the Cocktail. The gin was not just the basis for diverse cocktails, but was used in interesting ways in the food, as in the Bombay-cured lemonfish. The lunch was a marvel of delicate flavor combinations. The crispy softshell crab tempura was the perfect, tender consistency.

Meanwhile, the gin allowed the mixologists to play extensively with sweet and savory flavors, as in the gazapacho-like Red and Yellow Snapper that started the meal. Herbal flavors were abundant. And all of it was beautiful.

Softshell crab tempura at August. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

Hedgehog's Delight cocktail, featuring Ron de Jeremy rum, was served with Gulf shrimp at Rio Mar's Spirited Dinner as part of Tales of the Cocktail. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

A country ham and fig creation at Rio Mar for the Spirited Dinner. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

Tales of the Cocktail is a high-end liquor convention in New Orleans, but it’s a lot more. While it attracts top mixologists, bar owners, vendors, writers and foodies, it also offers an opportunity to pair amazing cocktails with sublime meals. So for me, it’s as much Tales of the Food as anything, though, of course, that doesn’t rhyme.

Simply prepared Gulf shrimp went well with rum creations at Rio Mar. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

These pairings culminate in Spirited Dinners; I went to the Rio Mar’s last night with friends, featuring food by chefs Adolfo Garcia and Frank Stitt and cocktails by historian Wayne Curtis and Martin Cate of Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco. The beautiful drinks and dishes tasted as good as they looked. The savory, slightly salty country ham wrapped around grilled figs with walnut and mint cream, for instance, contrasted wonderfully with the sweetness of a plantain daiquiri.

This plantain daiquiri was paired with grilled figs wrapped with country ham at the Rio Mar Spirited Dinner. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

The simple, fresh Gulf shrimp was enhanced by the Hedgehog’s Delight (rum, fresh lemon and lime juice, Darjeeling tea, Demerara sugar and spices), named in honor of rum sponsor and film legend (of a certain kind of film, anyway) Ron Jeremy. He was one of the dinner guests, and a sponsor, because he’s offering a very nice rum these days, Ron de Jeremy, which was used in the cocktail. We got to taste the rum naked (ugh, did I really write that?) in a flight along with Ron Abuelo 7-year rum, Trigo Reserve Anejo, and Zafra 21, which was wonderful all by its lonesome and decadent in the dessert cocktail with Benedictine and spiced cream, served with chocolate flan.

Tales is a flurry of tasting rooms, fabulous meals, seminars and other events, a party where you can actually learn something. If you want to.

Hubby just made a Puhi Split. This sounds more gymnastic than it is. It’s a wonderful cocktail with macadamia nut liqueur, dark rum, Kahlua and cream. Oh, and fresh banana, blended with ice. Amazing. He found the recipe on Tiki Central. That Trader Vic’s Macadamia Nut Liqueur is serious girl-drink goodness, but the guys like it, too.

Easter cocktails: Blue Egg, Green Egg, Pink Egg (courtesy Deussen Global)

It’s been a busy week for cocktail press releases in the mail. I know, these recipes are just designed to push certain kinds of liquor, but don’t they look good? Of course, I am somewhat suspicious of “elixir”-colored drinks, as the recipes designate, and I don’t generally consider Easter a big drinking holiday, but some would argue that every holiday is, especially those spent with large, dysfunctional families. I found at least one of these recipes, the Blue Egg, elsewhere online under a different name. The Blue Egg features vodka; Green Egg, absinthe; and Pink Egg, rum. What do you think of strangely colored drinks?  I love Beachbum Berry’s take on the Mai Tai: “A Mai Tai should not be red. A Mai Tai should not be blue.” But judge for yourself; here’s the Green Egg: Combine 2 ounces Lucid Absinthe; 0.5 ounce lime juice; 1 ounce Coco Lopez; and Teal Elixir #5 in a shaker with ice. Strain into a tall rocks glass with ice and top with Lucid Absinthe. Garnish with a lemon, lime, and maraschino cherry.

Bakon Vodka Bloody Mary

Also this week, I got a press release congratulating me, because at last, in Florida, Bakon Vodka is available. It tastes like – yeah, you guessed it. They recommend it for Bloody Marys.

Another press release offered the Bringing Home the Bacon: Rim a shot glass with maple syrup and cover rim with bacon bits. Fill the shot glass with Hornitos Anejo (or the tequila you prefer). Simple enough. Bacon. Not just for breakfast anymore. Or maybe tequila is for breakfast? You decide.

Champagne cocktails. Oh, the joy of tiny bubbles.

I’m in the process of doing our taxes, which means reviewing a year’s worth of expenses, and they can be kind of disturbing when grouped into categories. Especially “Restaurants.” One of our credit cards had enough restaurant expenses that they could be traded for a small used car. Granted, many of these were accrued as I reviewed restaurants for Florida Today, but given I had a limit even on those expenses, it still means we dine out a lot. I think as I become self-employed we will still enjoy dining out, but I hope we’ll also have time for more gourmet prep at home. And I still love shooting pictures of food and drink. This photo was from a holiday/champagne cocktail shoot in FT’s television studio.