McHuston Booksellers

Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: bookbinding (Page 43 of 99)

White Linen Night.

August 14, 2014 /

Signs went up this morning. Main Street will be closed to traffic Saturday evening so we can waltz through the Rose District looking over artwork, crafts, food offerings, and beverages. White Linen Night.

You are invited to attend, regardless of whether you don your white linen wardrobe.

Our neighbors Greg (at Southern Magnolia) and Alisa (at Your Design) are the driving forces behind the Rose District’s 1st annual ‘White Linen Night.’

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If you’ve lived in New Orleans or Houston you may have experienced the festival’s origins, a summertime fashion funfest that mixes arts, shops, vendors, and musicians. Ours won’t be a tuxedo-event, so you needn’t worry about the high-fashion aspect so much as the simply-fun venture Saturday evening.

Along the sidewalks you’ll find local artists and their latest original creations. Between the curbs, you’ll encounter food trucks offering tasty and unique creations. And, of course, there will be music. Local, live musicians. (All the dead, zombie musicians were previously engaged.)

In front of the bookshop you’ll have a chance to taste our Bangers & Mash – at least, the street festival version. Instead of mashed potatoes and stew gravy, we’ll be serving up the spicy link sausages on a bun, proving that old Irish adage, “A banger in hand is worth two in the bushes.” Particularly when available with draft-style Boulevard Wheat.

You can see this afternoon’s project in the image – a little flyer to describe to folks what our menu item is. I’ve discovered that not everyone is familiar with Bangers and Mash. Of course, mash is just short for mashed potatoes. Bangers are sausage links. Why are they called bangers? I’m glad you asked.

During the wartime shortages, Europeans mixed a little cereal with the sausage meat to make a small portion into something a little more. Unfortunately, those cereal-extended sausages didn’t fry up in the skillet quite the same as they had in the past. In fact, the popping and banging noises were almost enough to set off the air-raid sirens, and those sausages came to be called Bangers.

We’ve kept the name but left out the infused cereal content. Just delicious hot links over mashed potatoes and covered in brown gravy and stew vegetables. That’s our twist on an old favorite. You can try it Saturday with the banger nestled in a bun, ballpark style.

It ought to be some fun.

Look for us Saturday. Ought to be easy to spot us. We’ll be in white.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

Old dogs. New tricks.

August 11, 2014 /

There is so much to learn, and we only have one lifetime in which to master it all. At my stage of the game, I’m picking my lessons. Some are more entertaining than others. Today’s learning-project involved beer kegs.

Luckily, I have some life-experts that I can count on for advice. I’ve learned the hard way that I’d rather not learn things the hard way. Ronnie let me know that I could disconnect a full keg without it exploding. That’s important knowledge.

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When a keg ran out in the old days, someone would poke their head in the kitchen and call out that this keg or that keg had blown. I would dash into the walk-in refrigerator and start rocking kegs until I found an empty. Then, there is the little handle. Pop that up, then do the twist-on, twist-off thingy. Remove the valve from one and replace it on another with the same label.

And that was the extent of my knowledge. My partner kept track of that stuff. I had enough work to keep me busy in the kitchen.

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These days, when the handle is pulled and beer doesn’t come streaming out of the spout, I’m the one who has to figure it out. I’ve learned that the CO2 container is important. When the needle points to the red area on the gauge, that’s not good. When a newly-filled container is attached to the line and still the beer isn’t pouring, that’s even worse.

I’ve always thought that – where beer is concerned – the frostier, the better. When I saw the thermometer at 29-degrees, I could not have been happier, knowing that the refrigerator was doing its job so well. The machine believes it’s a freezer. Turns out, when it gets too cold, beer freezes.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

The beer was so cold that it froze inside the small line leading to the spout. (It’s still difficult to get mad at anyone or anything for doing a job so well…) It was easy enough to open the door long enough for the line to thaw and then turn the thermostat a notch.

From the internet I learned that beer served from a keg ought to be chilled to 38-degrees. That’s still pretty frosty. Just not freezing-up-frosty.

So, that’s the lesson for today. None of the Boulevard Wheat went out at lunchtime. The line was frozen solid. But tomorrow is another day, and beer & corned beef on rye is a pretty good combination.

Or so I’m told.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

Table-Topping and Bistro-Hopping.

August 2, 2014 /

Table for four?

Right this way. We’re hopping to it, reversing a trend. Adding tables and chairs instead of taking them away to be stored in the loft. For the past two years, I’ve been serving lunch guests as the waiter, cook, busboy, and dishwasher (and cashier), and it – unfortunately – caused some limitations. I learned early on that taking care of more than a dozen folks at a time was simply more than I could manage. Hey. I’m not as young as I used to be.

So, I took out some tables and that worked out fine – most days.

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Dustin and I have just wrapped up three weeks of working together at lunchtime. There are still some routines to be ironed out, but as a father/son team, we’re doing all right. He’s a quick-study in the kitchen (I think it must be some sort of culinary DNA thing that started with his great-grandfather at The Palace in Parsons, KS…). Dustin is already ordering in supplies, maintaining inventory levels, testing new recipes, and keeping up with the lunch orders.

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Oh – and he stays ahead on keeping the dishes sparkly clean.

Sweet.

The result? One of the decommissioned tables that had been stowed away was returned to the front of the house this past week. A test run, of sorts. We were able to keep up with the extra seats, and did it well enough that we were able to bring out another table, thanks to Greg – our Rose District neighbor at Southern Magnolia. He donated a three-foot tabletop that Dustin and I attached to an extra base we had upstairs.

I know seating has been a premium at times, but we now have additional accommodations for parties of three or four.

We’ve been running daily chalkboard specials that have proven popular, including some selections not on the regular menu. Dustin spent time in the kitchen Saturday testing new recipes, and I believe he has some tasty dishes planned for next week. He even managed a visit to the Rose District farmer’s market to pick up some fresh local produce.

It’s helped me enjoy my work a lot more. Don’t get me wrong. It’s always been a pleasure being at the shop, talking books and serving guests during the noon hour. But having someone at my side takes all the stress out of it. I’ve been preparing and running food out to guests on my own for two years – having help is such a novelty that it has injected a load of fun where all that stress had been.

I like that.

Hope you’ll let us serve you lunch one day next week. We’ll be peeling and chopping with the best of them and are planning some tasty meals and even more surprises!

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

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