What are you doing New Year's?

I was flipping through the James Beard Foundation's December events guide when I spotted a familiar face: Tony Coturri, the maker of organic wines in California who's been a favorite at farm-to-fork dinners around here for several years.

Then I spotted another familiar face on the same page: Joe Bonaparte, at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Charlotte.

It turns out Bonaparte is leading a lineup of AI instructors (Walter Leible of Phoenix, Larry Maston of Dallas and Michael Nenes of Texas) to cook dinner at the James Beard House for New Year's Eve.

It isn't cheap: $200 for foundation members, $250 for nonmembers. But the menu is luxe, including foie gras, rabbit, lobster, caviar, scallops, pork belly and duck breast. What really amused me was the toast at midnight: Shelton Vineyards Blanc de Blanc with a truffle from the Secret Chocolatier here in Charlotte. Nice to see attention for local food makers.

If you're planning to be in New York and that's your kind of price and experience, go to www.jamesbeard.org for details and tickets.

Weekend cooking project: The Christmas spirits

Here's a thought that will drive you to drink: You have 44 days until Christmas. Which is just enough time to start a batch of 44 Cordial, a tasty winter liqueur that's great for giving to consenting adults on your Christmas list.

And since I ran the 44 Cordial a couple of years ago, I have a second libation you can start this weekend, too. When I was in Charleston last month for the Association of Journalists conference, mixologist John Aquino of Coast Bar & Grill was serving a dandy twist on an old-fashioned, made from Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon.

He was kind enough to share the recipe, which I immediately put to good use. It only takes 5 days to make a batch, and it makes a tasty libation to have on hand for entertaining season. It's a little richer and spicier that a regular Old-Fashioned, making it a good winter cocktail.

Two tricks: Aquino uses Fee Brothers Orange Bitters, which I happened to have on hand. If you don't, good ol' Angostura works fine. And tart-cherry extract can be a bit tricky to find. I found cherry extract in the juice aisle at the Cotswold Harris Teeter. Unfortunately, it's $15 a bottle, but it is a concentrate, so you just need a drizzle. You might be able to find it cheaper at a health-focused supermarket such as Earth Fare, now that tart cherry juice is so popular as a treatment for joint pain.

OK, both recipes:

44 Cordial
Saveur magazine ran a short item on this West Indies liqueur in 2008. It's become a regular winter project at my house and a favorite with some of my friends. You need a jar with a tight lid and a mouth wide enough for the orange.

1 large orange, such as a navel
44 coffee beans
44 teaspoons sugar (1 scant cup)
1 liter white run (about 1 quart)
Poke 44 (1-inch) slits all over the orange with the tip of a paring knife. Stuff a coffee bean into each slit. (I usually work one row at a time so the slits don't close up or the orange doesn't lose too much juice.)
Put the orange, sugar and rum in a wide-mouthed jar with a tight lid. Place in a cool, dark spot, swirling the jar occasionally, for 44 days.
Remove the discard the orange. Strain the liqueur through a cheesecloth-lined strainer into a clean bottle. Refrigerate or freeze. Serve neat or over ice.

Bourbon Ice Tea Old Fashioned
From John Aquino, Coast Bar and Grill, Charleston.
1 (750ml) bottle Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon
Zest of 1 orange, peeled in strips
About 1/2 tablespoon tart cherry concentrate
Bitters (such as Angostura, or Fee Brothers Orange or Old-Fashioned Bitters)
Sparkling water

Place sweet tea bourbon in a jar with a tight lid. Add orange zest strips. Let stand 5 days, swirling bottle occasionally. Drain back into the bottle, then add tart cherry concentrate. (If you have tart cherries and want to use them, add them for the final two days.)

To use, place about 2 ounces in a rocks glass and add a dash of bitters. Add ice and top with sparkling water, such as plain seltzer or club soda.










Photo: Liquor Digest

Gifts from our readers

This is what I get for checking my email on a Saturday night. The subject line was "Haiku":

Let fish thaw on counter
Should have listened to Kathleen
Threw it all up.

Yes, the count is technically off (6/7/4 instead of 5/7/5). But given that I couldn't spell my own name in the same condition, much less make a food editor laugh that hard, the judges will accept it.

Farmers market season: It ain't over yet

A well-meaning person posted a comment on my story about the 7th Street Public Market project claiming the growing season here is over.

Sorry, but it triggered my inner Bluto Blutarski: Over? Over? Go to a local farmers market on a Saturday morning and it's far from over. Greens, winter squash, carrots, apples, eggs. If the growing season is over, why are my bags so full? And they stay full right on through January, February and March.

Between cold hoops, greenhouses and our own temperate climate, nothing is over until we say it is. Who's with me? Let's go!

This Saturday's market news roundup:

• The Davidson Farmers Market kicks off it's every-other-week winter market with the First Ever Winter Market Chef Challenge, from 9 a.m.-noon. Five local chefs -- Vera Samuels, Wes Choplin, Joe Kindred, Andres Arboleda and Adam Spears -- will compete using what's available at the market. And shoppers get to be the judges. Details on the market schedule and offerings: www.davidsonfarmersmarket.org.
• The Matthews Community Farmers Market no longer has winter market hours: It's open all year on Saturday mornings. Hours are 7:15 a.m.-noon through November, then 8-10 a.m. Saturdays from December through March. Starting this week: The Cookbook Swap, which continues through Nov. 19. Bring cookbooks you don't want and swap them for a cookbook you do, or buy a used cookbook for $2; money raised goes to fill The Harvest Donation coolers, which are used for local feeding programs. Details and vendor lists: www.matthewsfarmersmarket.com.
• Simply Local at the Atherton Market has added egg nog made from local milk. For details on the Atherton Market, go to their Facebook page here.
• The Charlotte Regional Farmers Market is still up and running, too, with lots of local farms and food makers. If you spot me there tomorrow, say hello. Just don't wear a toga. It's chilly out there.
  

Yes, Cincy fans, Graeter's ice cream is here

I sit next to three people with ties to Cincinnati, but that's not the only reason I know about Graeter's ice cream: Every publication from Saveur to Gourmet to Oprah includes it on the lists of the country's best ice creams.

Made by the French-pot method, it's known for being exceptionally creamy, and for having really rich flavors, particularly the popular black raspberry chocolate chip.

Still, I didn't expect to ever try it. It's pricey to mail-order it and I don't have many chances to visit Cincinnati.

So how great is this? Fresh Market and Kroger stores started carrying Graeter's ice cream in October.

It's not cheap, at $5.49 a pint, but that's actually in line with other premium ice creams. And Graeter's is definitely premium: After a taste-test at my desk, two Cincinnati co-workers, Tim Funk and Karen Garloch (she's not from Cincinnati, but she's married to a native), they declared it has all the richness and creaminess they expect.

We had black raspberry chip and peppermint, which is available for the holidays. Fresh Market at Strawberry Hill, at Providence and Fairview, also had mocha chip and vanilla chocolate chip.

Since frozen Skyline Chili has been the area for years, that means Cincinnati transplants at least are happy. All they need now are Montgomery Inn ribs.

Web Tricks: Did we open a wine bottle with a shoe?

Do those crazy food tricks floating around the Web work? I'll offer occasional reports on the ones I try.

But I can't say we're off to a flying start. Restaurant reviewer Helen Schwab and I tried Opening A Wine Bottle With a Shoe, which has been all over the Internet for a couple of years. It even turned up in an episode of "Modern Family."

There are a couple of dozen versions out there, ranging from people doing it while speaking French to 20somethings doing it while stumbling around a city street.

Basically, the trick involves: A) A shoe. Preferably a hard-soled men's shoe, although some videos shoe an athletic shoe. B) A bottle of wine, with the capsule removed. And C) A wall. One with paint you don't care about chipping.

We procured all of the above and went to work. We tried a couple of different shoes -- a woman's shoe with a wide, 2-inch heel, and a man's basic brown lace-up oxford. The man's shoe was slightly easier, because the heel area was wide enough to hold the bottle easily.

We tried a couple of angles, higher and lower. We tried different people beating the wall with the shoe and the bottle.

Result: Nada. Zippo. After a good 50 whacks, there were lots of bubbles visible in the bottle, but no movement at all from the cork.

So, if you get the wine-shoe trick to work and have proof - preferably time-elapsed video - send it to me at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com. I'll be glad to try again if it actually works.

Next up: Can you trust Mary Ann to peel a potato without a peeler?

"Top Chef": Is it time to pack their knives and go?

Two things about me and "Top Chef": I'm not a fan of reality TV (isn't part of the idea of TV-watching to escape reality?) and it seems a little weird to watch a TV show about cooking where you never get to taste the food and you don't learn anything useful about cooking.

Those prejudices aside, I have been a fan of "Top Chef." I got caught up in the whole Volt Bros drama, and spent way too much time quietly cheering for Carla. But as the saga and the spinoffs continue, I've found myself cooling on it, in the same way you love a food until that moment when you take one bite too much. I liked the first season of "Top Chef Masters" but erased the last season without watching more than an episode or two -- and I knew people competing. I watched one episode of "Top Chef Desserts" and wasn't interested enough to go on.

So, with the regular season of "Top Chef" starting Wednesday night on Bravo (they're in Texas this time, which is probably not a surprise anymore), I'm curious how you feel about it.

Do you love it and hang on Padma's costume change?
Are you bored enough to stick your head in a stockpot?
Does the whole thing just make you want to yank out Tom's soul patch?