Happy Biiiiirthdaaaay Dear AmieandBats...

Last weekend, Amie and Guy were kind enough to host a party celebrating the 40th birthdays of, well, A. and yours truly. Actually, my actual birthday isn't for a few days, but it was a good excuse to have a nice party

It was a neat mix of a party--in addition to the usual suspects, a few of my other friends made it--a coworker, a former coworker who I still keep in touch with (and their respective spouses), and Doug (a.k.a. Air Force Guy), his wife Stina, and their 2-year old, Brian. It was neat to let my worlds churn a little bit--some would call me Bats, others K.


Amie and Guy were fantastic hosts--Guy pulled out all the stops with food and drink, as he often does. They included breaking out the fryolator, and making wings, as well as killer fries. They were based on FoodLab's column on how to make McDonald's style fries--it involves an initial parboiling step:

So McDonald's does indeed use a double fry method, but it's far from the traditional one. Rather than a slow low temperature fry for the first round, the fries get dunked into very hot oil for only 50 seconds (the second fry is then carried out at the actual location). In addition to this, the potatoes get a pre-fry blanching step in hot water. What could the purpose of this be?

(Read the column, The Burger Lab: How to Make Perfect Thin and Crisp French Fries, to find out details).


Of course, this being a 40th, the gag gifts abounded. Including a card from my sweetie--Happy 100th Birthday!--yeah, thanks. As well as other winners, like a denture bath, large print crossword puzzles...


...and generic-brand hemorrhoid cream! Aw thanks... you shouldn't have!


And in case you were wondering, why yes, drinking was involved....


Single malts were the drink of choice that evening--one amusing idea came from a misheard name--Glenkinchie was misheard as "Glen Kimchee." Sounds like a concept for a whiskey-kimchee mixer. Ugh... that's up there with Sporkle Pork 'n' Apple Juice Drink.

What's funny is that the people looking the most zoned in that picture actually were not drinking. As for myself, I did not seriously tie one on... I just savored some single malts. Must be getting old or something...