Let the March Madness begin

Congratulations to the University of Washington Huskies men's basketball team, which captured the Pacific-10 Conference Championship and earned a seventh-seed in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) tournament!

The Huskies will take on the University of Georgia Bulldogs Friday evening during first-round, March Madness action in Charlotte, NC.

If you want to embrace the cuisine of the host city, you might want to cook up part of a pig for a Carolina pulled pork sandwich. Thought that Carolina barbecue was mustard-based, which seems to run common in South Carolina.

Pulled Pork

• 1½ to 2½ pound pork shoulder roast
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon celery salt
• Pinch of ground cinnamon (about 1/8-tsp)
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• ¼ cup ketchup
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ½ cup water
• Cider vinegar and Tabasco sauce to taste.

Brown roast in a small amount of fat, then place in large baking or roasting pan.

Add salts, cinnamon, vinegar, ketchup, chili powder, nutmeg, sugar and water in a saucepan, and bring to boil. Pour mixture over pork roast.

Cover pork with aluminum foil. Bake in preheated 325-degree oven at 40 minutes per pound. Occasionally baste with drippings.

Transfer pork roast to cutting board. Remove meat - which should be tender - from the bone. Chop or shred the meat into small pieces. Season pork to taste with cider vinegar, Tabasco sauce. Serve hot atop a bun.... brioche, whole-grain, potato, etc.

Woof, woof!

The gridiron in San Diego beats Shoreline in December

Congratulations to the University of Washington (UW) football team, which was selected to play in the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl in San Diego on December 30.

After enduring a God-awful spell of losing seasons from 2004 to 2009 (17-54, 24 percent winning percentage) -- including a winless 2008 campaign -- the Huskies became "bowl eligible" with a 6-6 record in an inconsistent season that three weeks ago seemed bleak. But the Huskies won three-straight contests and will spend December in Southern California -- albeit, San Diego. Credit UW Coach Steve "Sark" Sarkisian for keeping his eye on the prize -- the first Husky bowl game since the 2002 Sun Bowl.

While Former Heisman Trophy Candidate (FHC) Jake Locker saw his campaign for college football's top honor sink like a brick after a beat down by the University of Nebraska -- ironically, the same team that the Huskies will face in three weeks -- the Husky quarterback will enjoy a perk that predecessors Carl Bonnell, Johnny Durocher, Ronnie Fouch, Casey Paus, Isiah Stanback never experienced: the privilege of playing college football after Pearl Harbor Day. Seriously, it's nice to see Locker enjoy playing in a bowl game during his collegiate career.

What better way to celebrate a much-needed bright spot in the UW football program than with an appropriate cocktail? How about the Dog Sled, a crazy concoction of whiskey and citrus?

Dog Sled

• 1½ oz. Canadian whiskey
• 1½ oz. orange juice
• t tsp. Grenadine
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice

Mix all ingredients in a shaker. Pour into an old fashioned glass.

Chuck-a-wow, chuck-a-bow.

Here's one interesting note about Bridgepoint Education. A self-described "innovator in higher education," Bridgepoint is "dedicated to those seeking flexible, high-quality choices in higher education" by tackling issues of "affordability, transferability of credits and online convenience" by providing associate, bachelor, master and doctoral degrees at Ashford University and University of the Rockies. Yeah, we hadn't heard of them either until now.

Drop that "animal beer"! Toast the Huskies with a Purple Gang Martini...

The recent successes of the University of Washington basketball team take you back, and remind you were an impoverished student. You scrimped to pay your tuition, books, ramen and rent... but astonishingly still had money for alcoholic beverages. Back in the day, you weren't particularly fussy about what you consumed so long as the State of Washington required you to be 21 years to make a purchase. Think Monarch vodka, "animal beer" or -- God forbid -- Everclear. Sometimes you are amazed that your liver is an "original part."

Now you're a grown-up and you exhibit more care when picking your alcoholic beverage. You want to celebrate the University of Washington's appearance in the Sweet Sixteen (while hoping that the team will extend its participation in March Madness) with an appropriate-themed alcoholic drink. Sure, you can whip up grape Jell-O shooters... but you feel queasy at the idea of cleaning up purple vomit off your oak hardwood floors, and rightfully so.

The Internet offers the Purple Gang Martini, an appropriate hued cocktail that piques your curiosity. The beverage derives its name from the use of Purple health/fruit/health drink flavored with a syrup that hints of blueberry, blackcurrant, pomegranate, cranberry, purple plum and black cherry. The antioxidants from the berries will assuage your guilt about drinking on a "school night". Or so you hope.

Purple Gang Martini

• 2 oz vodka

• ¾ oz PURPLE juice drink

• ½ oz triple sec

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Enjoy. And go, Dawgs. go.

The last dogs standing in March Madness

The NCAA basketball's "March Madness" tournament has weeded out 48 of the 64 entrants. Only three teams with canine mascots progressed to the Sweet Sixteen: the University of Washington, University of Tennessee, and Butler University. Viewers will see only Dubs, the Husky mascot, and Smokey, the Bluetick Coonhound of Tennessee, and Butler University's Blue the Bulldog -- or their high-energy-drink-fueled, costumed frat-boy facsimiles -- will be on the sidelines this weekend.

By comparison, the Sweet Sixteen includes three feline representatives (University of Kentucky and Kansas State University Wildcats, University of Northern Iowa Panthers).

We U-Dub partisans say, "Go, Dawgs."

We canine fanciers say, "Go, dogs."