The dark side of cantaloupe. Photo: oskay, Flickr

• A sure-fire list of tips for picking the perfect cantaloupe.
• Want baked potatoes but don't feel like dealing with the hassle? Think ahead, bake 'em once, and then discover the lure of the twice-baked tater.
  
• San Diego's selection of slushy drinks might be slim, but here are the recipes for some of the best adult versions in watering holes around town.
• Brandy and nutmeg or Cognac and espresso milkshake, anyone? Spirited renditions of the classic milkshake.
• When a diet restricts, here's how to indulge in a creamy linguine without the heavy cream.
• Three ways to delight in your tomato love: oven-roasted, in a vinaigrette or folded into sorbet.

Risotto, like polenta and grits, is one of those dishes to which the maxim "patience is a virtue" is frequently applied. And this photo, taken by Elise at Simply Recipes, beautifully illustrates why. A bowl of creamy, nutty grains of perfectly cooked rice, crowned with mushrooms that have been sautéed and cooked in cognac and cream, is glorious payoff for the constant care that risotto requires. While the idea adding cup after cup of stock to a pot of slowly cooking rice may not be everyone's idea of fun, results such as this one prove -- to borrow yet another maxim -- that good things do indeed come to those who wait.

[Via Simply Recipes]

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I was going to mention that today is National Eggnog Day, but we've already talked about it being National Eggnog Month and I didn't want to overnog readers. So I won't even mention that today is National Eggnog Day.

Here's a recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding Eggnog from Food & Wine. It's a little twist on the traditional egg nog recipe. As cook Eben Freeman explains, it's both a drink and a dessert, because it's rather thick (as was traditional eggnog back in the day). This might be good to make for tomorrow. Your family and friends might be surprised at the caramel taste mixed in with the Cognac, dark rum, and cream.

Punch and punch bowls have always bored me. All the ones that I've tried have been overly sweet and dull, and besides, punch bowls remind me of high school dances, and who wants to be reminded of high school?

But this Holiday Punch over at Esquire.com looks like something I could get into, even if it does have rum in it (not a big rum guy). It also includes Cognac and tea bags.

The Amateur Gourmet is one of my favorite food blogs. There's always something interesting there, and it's extremely well written. Where else can you find cool posts like How To Start A Food Blog, Janet Jackson Breast Cupcake, and Thursday Night Dinner Songs?

Today they have a nice step-by-step recipe for Easy Tiramisu. Like Adam, it's a dessert that I've only had in restaurants. But this makes me want to try it at home. Full recipe after the jump.

Despite what the bottle may look like, this isn't Duke Ellington aftershave, it's cognac. More specifically, it's a 25-year-old XO blend from the French cognac house Meukow, according to Nightclub & Bar Magazine. Bottle Watch says it's a 20-year-old XO, however. Either way, The Duke's 'gnac retails for $150 for a 750 ml. bottle. I wasn't able to come up with any tasting notes, perhaps because it's still in limited distribution. I guess this would be an item that swanky bars or jazz clubs would want to have on their shelves. I guess it's not enough to have Ellington in just your record cabinet. Bottle Watch and N & B have distributor info and pics of the packaging, which looks like it could be a CD box set.

The Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac has revamped its website. It is now available in seven differnet languages with a four-colour design to highlight different sections of interest.

So in the 'red section' there is a directory of producers and merchants and if you hope over to 'yellow' there are details on the rules producers have to complie with when making France's most famous spirit, plus dull stuff like export statistics and the like.

News and Events are in blue, where, in French only, you can read about the Fête du Cognac 2006 which takes place from 13 to 16 July. And for want of putting them elsewhere it is in the blue section where recipes using Cognac can be found. All in all a very nicely designed website.

 

Armagnac producer Tariquet is looking towards the more prosperous whisky market with a new range of Armagnacs.

I don't have the figures to hand but Armagnac sales and brandy in general are pretty stagnant when compared to the dynmasisum of the whisky market; so it makes sense for a producer to try and emulate the success. Even the packaging of the three armagnacs look like a malt whisky.

The range is labelled 8, 12 and 15 Years Old and will retail at around £20, £30 and £40. The range also comes in a presentation case, again inspired by malt whisky presentations. Sadly the website does not yet detail these newly launched products.

The Lanesborough Hotel in the heart of London has just purchased a bottle of cognac dating from 1790. You can have a 50ml serving in exchange for £1700 squire. That is about US$3000.

The cognac was produced at the same time as the French Revolution. Poor ol' Louis XVI had his head removed three years later. The same year some chap named Washington gave his first state of the union speach while the hammering began on the White House.

The bottle at the Lanesborough is the last known surviving bottle from that vintage and is beleived to be the oldest cognac in the UK.