Celebration of The Root: 2015 style…

The hits:

1. There is nae a better counterpoint to your brown sugar and cinnamon glazed spiral sliced Easter ham (Aldi special) than a large, cleansing, just ground that morning spoon of The Root.  Put that mustard away you fiend!
2. Peel and eat shrimp with cocktail sauce.  The freshly ground and prepared Root sends the workaday sauce into the stratosphere.  If you want to double down, splash in your favorite pepper sauce and dust the top with Old Bay prior to serving. Frugality, convenience and deliciousness tip 302.75: freeze your shrimp boil after it cools.  Why dump all of the good stuff down the drain eh?  A quick thaw, topped with a dose of fresh Old Bay, maybe a beer if there’s not quite enough boil left, et voila!  I’m also experimenting with freezing my corned beef boil.  Will advise…
3. Bloody Marys.  There is nothing plain or simple about a good Bloody.  It takes a good thirty minutes to assemble the ingredients (I refuse to buy a bottled Bloody mix of any sort, I mean really?) make the Bloodys and clean up the resultant mess.  I only wish Aldi had Clamato on the ever evolving shelves this morning  and not just plain old tomato juice.  I would have liked a Caesar in tribute to all of my Canadian friends.  Maybe next weekend…
4. Bloody Caesars.  Good news Canadian friends!  The local Stop and Rob had Clamato.  Over priced, but nothing in that store is under priced.  In all truth, I cannot walk in the place even with a short list of five items without walking out with two bags of groceries packed in ten plastic bags for $50 American.  I guess the extra bags are the issue.  O right…the Caesars?  Tasty!  And I believe I have converted another Gringo or two from Mary’s wiles to Caesar’s sublime charm.

The misses:

1. Adding a HUGE dollop of The Root to my homemade “clean the condiment shelf” BBQ sauce and testing out the resultant sauce on Sundays’ spare rib extravaganza.  Not so much a “miss” per se, but a, “So what’s the point?”  Cooking The Root, especially on the high heat of the grill clearly dissipates both its heat and flavor.  The Cheaters ribs were tasty enough, but I, nor more importantly Agnes (her buds are not nearly as fried as mine) could not discern any improvement through the addition of The Root.  Sadness reigned, for a minute or two because actually the ribs were good no matter the sauce.  But you’re a Cheater!  Yes, yes I know that,
2. Horseradish sauce.  Maybe it was that The Root was losing its life force.  Maybe it was the recipe.  Maybe it was just Monday and I was still broke down and ugly from our weekend soiree, but the sauce, served with broiled bone in NY strips lacked that certain JNP.  I will make another try next year.  I made a note!

And thus ends the Celebration of The Root for 2015 and what did we re-learn this year children? 

DO NOT heat The Root dumb ass! 

Ah, you were paying attention.  Nicely done!