Sorrel-Lime Cooler - May 9, 2013

I made this delightful concoction from a recipe included in the newsletter from our CSA farm.   It's interesting ingredient list caught my attention.  A soda made from sorrel leaves?  I'm in.



The recipe instructs to blend together sorrel leaves, lime juice, water and maple syrup in a blender and puree until smooth.  I opted not to strain it, but you could if you wanted.  To make up your cooler, simply add a bit of sorrel-lime juice to a glass and top with soda water. 

This was really fresh and bright.  I enjoyed mine straight-up, but it would also be lovely as a mixer for a summery cocktail (have you figured out my coping mechanism over these last few frozen weeks here in Minneapolis?).  Gin would be my first choice, but it would be fun to try other combinations as well.

Homemade Irish Cream - March 17, 2013

For St. Patrick's Day this year, in addition to our home-cured corned beef, I made some Irish cream.  My mom has made this recipe for years, although oddly, usually at Christmas, instead of St. Patrick's Day.  My Irish heritage that I proudly claim every March 17th (and every other day of the year), comes from mom.  She even has a suitably Irish name, Colleen.  Because of this, in my family we refer to this as Colleen's Irish Cream.




This is a full two weeks late, I realize, but you've come to expect that from me by now.  In fact, I'm jumping ahead here, as I still have my Christmas baking to post.  Oh well, this doesn't have to be a one day per year indulgence, although after you see the ingredients, you may want to limit it to that.  Nick's parents and Aunt Judy were visiting us over the St. Patrick's Day weekend this year, so we all enjoyed a glass of this after our dinner.

Here's the recipe straight from Colleen, with a few Jess tweaks:

Irish Cream

4 eggs*
1 15oz  can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/3 C Irish whiskey
1 1/2 C half and half
1/4 C brewed espresso
3 Tbsp chocolate syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp coconut extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

Place all ingredients in blender (warning, this didn't all fit in my blender, so I omitted the whiskey and mixed it in later) and blend to combine.  Place in a bottle and keep chilled.  Shake before serving.

*yes, raw eggs, so use at your own risk.  These help to emulsify all the ingredients and make it thicker and richer, like ice cream.  If you are squeamish about this ingredient, you can omit it and still have a delicious, if slightly thinner, Irish cream. 

Labor Day Weekend - Sept 1-3, 2012

Labor Day weekend always brings with it the warm glow of nostalgia for a summer almost past.  I always have an increased urgency to enjoy each sunny moment, knowing that it will all end soon.  Little twinges of regret sink in when I realize how many summer plans, made during the hopeful days of early spring, didn't happen. Sadly, I think this is my first Pimm's Cup of the season.  I made it count, though, and enjoyed it on our porch, which was glowing with late summer sunlight.



Despite, or perhaps because of, these feelings, Nick and I enjoyed a particularly socially packed weekend, at least for us.  We had a mini, non-quorum Dinner Club reunion, getting to see Anna (in town for a few hours on her way home to Wisconsin) on Thursday, and Matt and Nikki (in town for a friend's wedding) on Friday.  Saturday brought us to our first Minnesota State Fair.  That's right, Nick and I are now "experienced" in the great Minnesota get together.  Sunday we met up with local friends for brunch.



That left us with Monday to relax and reflect on the summer of 2012.  We grilled out and I made this melon and cucumber salad with mint-coconut dressing.  It seemed an appropriate way to say good bye to the season.

Mint Coconut Dressing

2 T apple cider vinegar or lime juice
1 T coconut oil
1 T olive oil
1 T sugar
2 T chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper to taste 

Here's looking forward to fall!

Spiced Rhubarb-Ginger Nectar - May 20, 2012

Usually, the rhubarb Nick and I get in our CSA share gets used for beverages.  While I like rhubarb's taste, I don't care for it's texture and it's tendency to make baked goods really soggy.  I find infusing it into assorted liquids is the best way for me to enjoy the tart flavor and fleeting season.  In the past, I've infused vodka and gin, custard for making rhubarb ice cream, and simple syrup for homemade sodas.  Of this list, I've found the simple syrup gets the most use due to it's versatility.  I briefly considered making rhubarb iced tea and rhubarb-ade (via A to Z), but in the end, the syrup won out. 

This go around, I wanted to make the syrup more complex, inspired by my favorite Thyme-Pink Peppercorn Soda that Jaime just posted about, and decided to use a combination of rhubarb, fresh ginger, and lemon juice.  I seasoned this with an assortment of toasted spices.  Here's my recipe:

Spiced Rhubarb-Ginger Nectar

1 lb fresh rhubarb, chopped in 1/2 in pieces
2-3 inch piece fresh ginger, chopped finely
Juice of two lemons
2 1/2 C sugar
3-4 C water
1 T coriander seeds
1 T pink peppercorns
3 whole white cardamom pods
1 whole star anise

Lightly toast the last four ingredients in a pan over med-high heat, until just fragrant (60-90 sec).  Transfer to a mortar and pestle and tap the spices firmly three to four times to lightly crush, and release more flavor.  Secure the spices in cheese cloth.  Put cheese cloth-wrapped spices in a large pot with all other ingredients and heat to a gentle simmer.  Simmer 5-10 minutes and remove from heat.  Cover pot and let steep for 30 minutes to an hour (mine actually steeped a bit longer since I got wrapped up in watching Star Wars Episode III on TV...oops).  Strain through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheese cloth.  Transfer to a storage container and chill.



It turned out just how I wanted it, spicy and complex.  I feel like all of the flavors are nicely balanced, with no one being overly assertive.  The rhubarb hits the palate first, followed closely by ginger, and then the lovely, mysterious flavor of the spice blend finishes the sip. 

I've used this syrup to make Spicy Rhubarb-Ginger Sodas by adding a quarter cup of syrup to a glass and topping it with soda water.  Nick and I also made cocktails last night using equal parts rhubarb syrup and liquor (Nick used Tito's Vodka and I used Old Sugar Factory's Honey Liqueur), crushed ice, and soda water to fill the glass.

Pink Peppercorn Thyme Soda - May 11, 2012

One of the fabulous toys I received for Christmas this year was a SodaStream machine. Jess gave me some yummy recipes to try, my favorite of which is for ginger ale. She told me she almost always has a jar of the syrup in her fridge and now I do too!

With the growing season now in full spring, my herbs are going great guns and I thought it was finally time (hah! no pun intended!) to try the intriguing recipe she also shared for pink peppercorn and thyme soda. Isn't it pretty? The taste is equally lovely and very refreshing on a warm day. Thanks Jess!

Hot Chai Latte - Oct 4, 2011

I found a recipe for a homemade chai tea concentrate online and decided to give it a whirl. It sounded so warm and cozy. I'm starting to embrace all those comfort foods and beverages that are so good in the fall. And, if you happen to be experiencing a bit of an autumnal heat wave, as we are here in Minnesota, you can also serve this up over ice.

Those of you that know me might be aware of the ridiculous amount of assorted teas that I have collected. It's not all my fault. Some of them have been gifts. But really, it's over the top. We have way too much tea on hand. That being said, I had a hell of a time finding plain black tea to use for this recipe. I ended up dipping into a precious little container that a good friend brought to us from China. I'm not sure that it is black tea since it is labeled in Chinese characters, but I decided it was close enough. I also added two random bags of decaf chai that I found hanging out in a box all by themselves (that cleared out a little room in the tea cupboard) as well as two bags of Earl Grey (which is the name of my cat-nephew), that I threw in for the bergamot oil since I didn't have any orange zest on hand.

Other than that, I followed the recipe as written. I now have a large bottle of chai concentrate in the fridge in which to indulge as I please. My first taste was the little latte I made using equal parts chai concentrate and 2% milk, plus a little frothy goodness on top. It was delicious.

Labor Day Sangria - Sept 5, 2011

Nick and I celebrated Labor Day this year at a cookout at our good friends'. We were on board to bring a potato salad and some sangria. This is the sangria:

1 bottle dry white wine
1 bottle sweet white wine (we used a local Minnesota plum honey wine)
1/2 cup blackberry brandy
1/4 cup amaretto
1 cup fresh raspberries
2 sprigs Thai basil
2 dashes of cherry bark vanilla bitters
1 liter club soda for serving

I let everything but the soda macerate overnight to give the flavors all sorts of time to mingle and get to know one another. Right before serving, I mixed in a one liter bottle of club soda. This was a delicious patio pounder served over ice. Our only problem was a malfunctioning Coleman thermos spigot (which we later discovered was due to the lid being on too tightly...had we just unscrewed it the balance would have been restored and the sangria free-flowing). Oh well, that meant lots of leftover sangria for Nick and I to consume at home, which we did.

Labor Day Weekend Brunch - Sept 4, 2011

Long weekends are fabulous for a number of reasons, but especially because they allow for an extra morning to enjoy brunch. Anna's mom made a delicious quiche for us all a few weekends ago when Anna was in town and it was my muse for the quiche pictured above. I made up some pie crust and let it chill while I prepped the remainder of the ingredients. I used vitamin greens, which were in our last CSA delivery, onions, eggs, half and half, and Pecorino-Romano cheese. I looked up a general quiche recipe in one of our cookbooks and roughly based my ratios on it. I must have done something wrong though, because, although delicious, mine lacked the fluffiness of Gloria's. Fluffiness is quite integral to a quiche, in my opinion. Note to self: get Gloria's recipe.



This was our brunch beverage, and it was not lacking in any of the integral categories, which I deem to be fruitiness, tartness, sweetness, and effervescence. I dug out some grapefruit juice that had been in the fridge for awhile and combined it with our omnipresent ginger simple syrup and some charged water. The lime garnish was the perfect finishing touch. In the glass above, I used 1 shot of ginger syrup, 2 shots grapefruit juice, 2-3 ice cubes, and I topped it off with bubble water, although this could just as easily been sparkling wine had we needed a little hair of the dog. It was very reminiscent of this, but a good substitute when fresh grapefruits are not in season.

Happy Weekend - July 22, 2011

Nothing new here, Dinner Clubbers. Just another Pimm's Number One Cup, this time garnished with my very first borage flower. I planted borage specifically because I read that it is used to flavor Pimm's cups. Nick and I like to joke that we have a 'cocktail garden.'

The heat has broken (kind of) here in Minneapolis and I am looking forward to a weekend at home, utilizing my newly functioning oven and getting to some long overdue household tasks. In between this, I will of course be enjoying some deliciously cool and herbaceous beverages on the porch. I hope you all will be doing something you similarly enjoy.

A special greeting to all my loved ones that celebrate birthdays this week. There are quite a few of you and rest assured, Nick and I will raise a toast to each of you!

Strawberries - July 9, 2011

My Hand-Picked Flat of Berries

I managed to lolly-gag my way through Minnesota's strawberry season and ended up needing to go on an emergency run to pick this year's supply on Saturday morning. Despite waiting until the penultimate day of 2011's season, I was able to get a nice looking flat full of the delicious berries. The majority of these are already quite snug in the freezer. Some will be devoted to making jam, although that will have to wait until our stove is up and operational again in what I anticipate to be ten days from now (ugh! that's another story Dinner Clubbers).


Strawberry Ginger Soda

It is always very luxurious, however, to have mountains of fresh strawberries at one's disposal, and so some must be enjoyed fresh. In addition to just grabbing a handful whenever I please, I've also made up this glass of strawberry ginger soda by muddling fresh berries in the bottom, adding 2 oz of my ginger syrup, ice and filling with charged water. As I'm sure you can tell, it was very refreshing and could easily be doctored up to become an 'adult' beverage, if one was so inclined.


Fresh Strawberries with Almond Pastry Cream, Coconut, and Sliced Almonds

We've also made up some fancy-schmancy desserts with our fresh berries. This one involves a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything for Vanilla Pastry Cream, which I of course changed to Almond Pastry Cream. I couldn't quite tell what to expect from the recipe, but I had all the ingredients on hand and it only took 20 minutes to make, so make it I did. It turned out not so much like 'cream' and very much like pudding, which was delicious, especially layered with the berries, coconut flakes and slivered almonds.

Strawberry season stretched quite long this year for us due to the cool spring and so I lucked out.  Now raspberry season is upon us, followed very closely by blueberries. Also, we've picked our first round of cherries from the tree in front, but that's for another post. Do not waste your days, Dinner Clubbers, make sure you are taking full advantage of this years bountiful berry season.

A True Wisconsin Old Fashioned - July 9th, 2011

 
Homemade Old Fashioneds

What have Nick and I done with all that booze we brought back from Madison, you ask?  Well, over the weekend I tried my hand at mixing an Old Fashioned the way they do at The Old Fashioned.  I should clarify that I like to have my Old Fashioned made to order for me off the 'Build your Own' menu.  I take mine with Old Sugar Honey Liqueur, Bittercube Cherry-Bark Vanilla bitters, fruit garnish, and finished with a 'press,' which I understand to be half soda water and half soda pop, but I'm not exactly sure.  I personally call it the 'Jess.'  Here at home, with the supplies I had on hand, the best I could do was this:

2 oz Old Sugar Cane & Abe rum
3 dashes Bittercube Cherry-Bark Vanilla bitters
2 tsp turbinado sugar
1 maraschino cherry, 1 sour cherry, and a wedge of blood orange
soda water
1 tbsp simple syrup

I muddled the fruit with the sugar and bitters in the bottom of the glass; poured in the rum; added crushed ice, simple syrup, and soda water to fill the glass.

These were very tasty, but they were no 'Jess.'  Oh well, another reason to go back and visit Madison.

Pimm's Cup - June 26, 2011

The Pimm's Cup is the official potable of Wimbledon, much like the Mint Julep is to the Kentucky Derby. We are well into the second week of this year's Wimbledon tournament and if you haven't enjoyed one of these yet, now's the time. I sucked back a couple of these babies over the weekend while taking in some tennis matches. Here's my recipe, which is in no way the official recipe. I do believe there are as many ways to make a Pimm's Cup as there are seats at Centre Court.

Pimm's Cup (makes 1)

1/4 cup Pimm's No. 1
2 cucumber slices
1 - 2 lemon slices
small bunch of mint

Put these ingredients in a tall glass and add ice. Fill the remainder with ginger ale (I use homemade ginger soda).

Fresh Coconut, Banana and Mint Smoothie - June 11, 2011

So, just for giggles, I bought a whole coconut last week at the co-op. Nick and I had eaten dinner at a favorite neighborhood Thai restaurant recently and ordered coconut water for dessert (we were a little too full for mangoes and sticky rice). It was so good that when I saw the pile of fresh Mexican coconuts in the store I thought it would be fun to try it at home. We looked up how to open a coconut and had excellent success using a corkscrew through one of the 'eyes.' This allowed us to drain out the coconut water and sample it. It had an interesting nutty, salty flavor, very different from the slightly sweet version we were served at the restaurant. Apparently, coconut water can be used as a plasma substitute in a pinch because it has the same electrolyte balance as human blood, and is naturally sterile sealed inside the shell. A handy bit of information to keep in mind if you find yourself in need of a transfusion while in a remote tropical area, although you might want to double check the validity of that story just in case, as my source, the restaurant menu, could be questionable.

Once we had the coconut drained, Nick cracked it open by tapping around the circumference several times using a knife handle. It split open without much fight to reveal the pure white meat, which we proceeded to scrape out with spoons. It also had a nutty quality, not unlike an almond. We decided we would make our own coconut milk, which we did by heating up two cups of water to boiling and pouring it over our cup or so of coconut meat. I let this sit for 10 minutes and then poured everything into the food processor, pulsed five times and then ran straight for about 30 seconds. If you have a blender, use it as food processors (at least ours) leak. Then I strained the solids from the liquid and voila, homemade coconut milk. You do not need fresh coconut meat to do this by the way. The instructions we found actually called for unsweetened dried coconut. Anyway, we saved the coconut solids to use at a later date and I made up some coconut-banana-mint smoothies using our homemade coconut milk, coconut water, bananas, fresh mint, ice and a little almond milk to top things off. I added a bit of simple syrup along with a drop or two of molasses to sweeten everything and bring out the tropical flavors. The whole thing was an interesting and tasty adventure.

Rhubarb Infusions - May 27, 2011

No surprises here, right Dinner Clubbers? I used our first batch of rhubarb to make infused simple syrup and vodka, left and right respectively. I've done both before. This year I changed up the vodka recipe a bit and used a combination of rhubarb and strawberries. I did this for a number of reasons. First, rhubarb and strawberries taste great together. Second, I wanted to make sure the vodka turned a really lovely pink color, and my rhubarb was a little green. Third, I have a freezer full of strawberries that I picked last summer and have yet to work my way through. Since berry season is fast approaching here in Minnesota, I needed to clear out some space. And, lastly, I wanted to share something that was at least slightly new with you, Dinner Clubbers.



My plan is to use these to make up some tasty Memorial weekend cocktails, which perhaps I will share with you all in collage format next week. In case you all need some ideas for your holiday picnics and cookouts, I'll share what I've been doing so far.

My current favorite is a Rhubarb Julep:

One part rhubarb simple syrup
One part bourbon
Charged water, optional

Fill glass with crushed ice and add your syrup and bourbon. Top with charged water (soda water) if desired.

Rhubarb simple syrup:

2 cups sugar
2-3 cups water
One bunch of chopped rhubarb (3-4 stems)

Combine all ingredients in a pot and place over med-high heat on the stove. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 min to an hour, covered. Strain out rhubarb and chill.  (This is a great idea if you want to add rhubarb flavor to any beverage, alcoholic and non, and you don't have the 4 or 5 days needed to let your spirits infuse).

Here are a few other ideas:

The Wiscosmopolitan
The Rhuby-Q

or, if you prefer gin:

The Rhubarb-Sage Gin and Tonic

Have a very delicious Holiday weekend Friends!  Be safe and eat well.

Dandelion and Burdock Root Soda - May 24, 2011

Has anyone else seen this soda flavor at the store?  I found it by the fancy soda/drink mixers at my co-op and made a mental note to attempt a home-made version the next time dandelions were in season, which is pretty much anytime we don't have snow here at our house.  Since we got burdock root in our last CSA delivery, I thought I'd give it a try.  I did a quick internet search and found that this flavor originates from across the pond and is categorized with other 'root' beverages, such as root beer and sarsaparilla. 

I decided to use my standard simple syrup infusion method and I chopped up our three small burdock roots into thin coins.  Next I picked and thoroughly washed a good handful of dandelion flowers, removing as much of the stems, and as many ants as I could. I tossed both of these into my sugar and water mixture.  I boiled for five minutes and then let everything steep, covered and off the heat for about an hour.  Then, I strained out the roots and flowers.  Now, try not to be alarmed that the syrup looks like a jar full of urine.  I know it's a bit startling, but keep calm and carry on (this is a British soft drink, after all). 

To make the soda, I added a quarter cup of the flavored syrup to a glass and topped it off with charged water (that's my Dad's charmingly retro term for carbonated water that I'm trying to adopt because I love the sound of it).  The verdict?  Well, it's subtle and slightly vegetal, but certainly refreshing.  Reading the ingredients from the mass produced versions, I found that ginger and anise are sometimes mixed in, no doubt to increase the flavor profile, but this first time around I wanted to keep things unadulterated so that I could truly taste the burdock and dandelions.  I'm glad I tried it.  Maybe I'll have to purchase some from the co-op and see how mine compares.  Also, we may have to start experimenting for a new Homemade Happy Hour concoction.