 Meanwhile in Belfast deconstructs the Eggnog Winter Sherry Flip Got Nog? The wood-fired pizza restaurant Meanwhile In Belfast sure does. They’ve created a rum and sherry-infused homemade eggnog recipe for the holidays that will knock an elf of the shelf. Clementina Senatore, co-owner and chef, created a modified version of the cocktail, which she adapted from French chef Frederic Le Bordays’ famous recipe, calling it the Eggnog Winter Sherry Flip. “It’s an interpretation of his recipe. He does his with cognac, but I do mine with rum,” she said. “And we make the eggnog from scratch.” The sherry used in this drink is Luxardo, which Senatore said can be found in any liquor store. “This is our most popular brunch drink,” said Senatore. “Some people will just sip this over the course of a half hour.” The Eggnog Winter Sherry Flip is a fairly easy cocktail to layer together and when done, Senatore tops it with a dash of fresh ground coffee. Because the eggnog is made from scratch, the taste is slightly sweet and creamy, not thick, like store bought eggnog. The first sip is coolly fresh with the warm hints of rum and sherry below. And the bite of coffee grounds rounds it off. Why not start off your Christmas morning with this drink? To make this at home, watch our accompanying video. The recipe also follows below. The Eggnog Winter Sherry Flip
To see all of our past “What’s In That Cocktail” series (with video!), check out our “Iconic Cocktails” resource page: The best craft cocktails in the Midcoast
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 One day in 2009, while waiting for his partner to get ready so they could go to a holiday party, Joshua Bodwell, Maine Writer’s and Publisher’s Alliance executive director, was just idly thumbing through his bookcase, when he had the idea to come up with a “Baker’s Dozen” list of books that resonated with him in that past year.
“I read the year-end list that the major publishers put out, but I think they can be kind of anxiety-producing,” he said. “I didn’t want to put together something that parroted a New York Times Top 10 bestseller list, which can make you feel like ‘Oh My God, I haven’t read this, I haven’t read that...’ and those lists are made largely by people who read for a living. With my list, I wanted it to be more organic, a little more thoughtful looking back on what I read and why I cared about it.” Recalling a Stephen King quote he’d read in Entertainment Weekly, Bodwell said: “He had this great line about how there’s buzz and then there’s hype. Buzz is sort of like seeing your friend in the grocery store and you have to gush about a book or a movie. Hype is who’s got the most pop-up ads and billboards promoting the book. He was making a case for buzz.” Friends and family responded so well to Bodwell’s annual book list that he’s been doing it ever since. He just released his latest “Baker’s Dozen” recommendations and more than a few Maine writers have made the list. The interesting thing is that not every book he chooses has just been released. “For example, I just read John McPhee’s Oranges, which came out in 1967,” he said. “To me, this list is truer to what people’s reading lives are like.” We asked him to provide five that fit the following categories. His descriptions come from his blog. Funniest The State We’re In: Maine Stories by Ann Beattie From the mordant humor of “The Little Hutchinsons” to the sly warmth of “Yancey” in The State We’re In: Maine Stories, Beattie remains a master storyteller I so admire as she continues to stretch out and evolve. Most poignant Our Souls at Night by Ken Haruf (Knopf, 2015) I read Our Souls at Night with the sad knowledge it was the last novel Kent Haruf completed before his passing in late 2014. From the first page, Haruf’s already spare style is stripped to its very essence. Most representative of Maine Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols Closer All the Time traces the lives of damaged vets, good-hearted drunks, clam poachers, broken boxers, damaged young boys, prop plane pilots, husbands and wives, single women, and others. They are all, each in their own way, people like the rest of us who struggle profoundly to understand their place in the world. Newest voice Love the Stranger by Jay Deshpande Deshpande was a new discovery for me this year. The poetry in this debut collection reveals a rare combination of great intelligence and linguistic skill filtered through a big, generous heart. Breakout shining star After the Parade by Lori Ostlund Ostlund is a writer of great humanity and has a gift for infusing the novel’s sometimes nearly unbearable sorrow with laugh out loud humor. To see more of Bodwell’s book picks visit his blog Bodwell’s Baker’s Dozen or check out the winners of the 2015 Maine Literary Awards.  MECA graduate Lori Stebbins renders Alice as she falls into Wonderland. “Descending Into Madness” (Photo courtesy Scott Nash) PORTLAND—Stumble down to the ground floor of the Portland Public Library and you’re sure to feel how Alice did after sipping the “Drink Me” sizzurp. A contemporary art exhibition titled “Wake Up Alice!” began November 6 at the library, featuring the surreal, fantastical and cheeky works of 35 Maine artists depicting some element of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The exhibit celebrates the 150th anniversary of the book’s publication as well as the 10th anniversary of the Illustration Program at Maine College of Art (MECA). “I find that people are either in love with Alice In Wonderland or slightly freaked out by it,” said MECA’s Illustration Program Chair and Assistant Professor Scott Nash. “And it’s funny, I read the book when I was a kid in various forms, but there are certain of our artists that were sort of put off by the book and how unkind the characters were to one another. But that’s the nature of nonsense, moving from one curious situation to another. We, like Alice, travel through Wonderland, much in the way we observe things in dreams—dispassionately.”  I Had a Curious Feeling by Scott Nash. (Photo courtesy Scott Nash) Headed up by Nash, the exhibit took two years to prepare and curate. “All of the artists represented in the show have had some connection to our department, either as visiting faculty, current faculty, alumni and even current students,” Nash said, “I wanted to run the full gamut—from seasoned illustrators to new talent. As a result, we’ve gotten some remarkable pieces and some of the student illustrations are our most popular works.” The diversity of the show shows the range of artistic expression inspired by this story. One of the focal points of the exhibit is a section of wall with what seems like manic Sharpie scribbles. Artist Declan McCarthy put the book on tape and listened to it out loud as he scrawled the entire plot of the book in cartoon form on the wall. “He did this over the course of a few days while we were hanging the show,” said Nash. “He wrote out the whole story in real time. It was incredible to watch him as he worked.”  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Marker Illustration by Declan McCarthy (Photo by Kay Stephens) Another artist who brought out the visceral energy of The Mad Hatter, Alice falling down the rabbit hole and The Cheshire Cat was Lori Stebbins, a recent graduate of MECA. Her dream-within-a-cartoon depiction of these iconic characters washed in dark greens and blues, is another popular attraction to the exhibition.
“I’ll get different reactions on what people are focusing on in the show and this is one that’s getting noticed,” Nash said. “I adore Lori’s ‘Alice’ figure and and the dimensions of the illustration all akimbo.” Nash himself, has a few pieces in the show. A diminutive Alice stands in a wash of white looking up after realizing where she is and says something people won’t expect. “As I was getting work in for the show, I took the opportunity to do something a little understated, taking advantage of white space and the idea of Alice shrinking,” Nash said. That’s what I would have said, I’m afraid.” So far, 4,000 people have come through to view the exhibit, which is on par with MECA’s Illustration Department’s previous shows at the Portland Public Library on Edward Gorey, Maurice Sendak and The Art of The Pulps. Nash is proud of his Illustration Department. "There is such a wealth of illustrators in Maine. Coming from Boston 20 years ago, I'm just astounded at all of the talent here. It's the primary reason we're able to develop shows like this." The show will hang until December 31 at the Portland Public Library. For more information visit: Wake Up Alice |
 The Killer ConvoThis blog is a is a killer roundup of all arts, entertainment, brewery & distillery, food trucks, happy hour happenings in the Midcoast Maine. Feel free to email me anything about Midcoast arts, entertainment & the creative economy. Archives
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